Here is the latest… Since making the decision not to move to Costa Rica (on 12/30/2009), God has continued to open doors and provide as He always has. First off, He provides a sweet little 1940’s two bedroom house in a great little neighborhood, complete with a hardwood floors, coffered ceilings, a really cool screened-in […]
Americas Tour 2009
Not Moving to Costa Rica
Dear Supporters, After a solid 4 months of fundraising, Bonnie and I now have approximately 15% of our budget raised with an additional 20% pledged. At the beginning of this journey, we prayed that God would provide us with confirmation through our fundraising efforts. As such, we believe we have received a solid “no” to […]
Preparing vs. Planning
As my Mom always says: “If you want to make God laugh, just make plans”. As I child, I hated hearing my Mom say this. Especially if it were in the midst of sharing my dreams of going on a great vacation or of the things I would do / accomplish in the future! But […]
2 Weeks.
We’ve back in the U.S. for two weeks now and it feels like we’ve been back for two months… Things have been incredibly hectic! For the first week, B and I spent most all of our time reconnecting with our amazing friends and family that we have in St. Pete. This was so great as […]
Day 138 – Last Day
Today was our last full day in Costa Rica. We spent the morning hanging out with Spencer’s family and then headed to Juan Pablo to deliver some new shoes to a young guy as well as give Lalo one last haircut. As we went through the Juan Pablo barrio to say goodbye to all our […]
Day 137 – Community Soccer League
Church this morning was amazing! One of the guys on the team (Jason) gave his testimony to the whole congregation: Long story short – Grew up in a good home, got hooked on crack, went to prison, got out prison, cleaned up his act, started smoking crack again, went back to prison, gave his life […]
Day 136 – Costa Rica vs. Mexico
We split the team into two groups this morning. One of the groups went to build out a kitchen in the back of the church that will be used for the new Feeding Center for the homeless. The other group went to Juan Pablo to do children’s ministry… For the most part, I spent the […]
Day 135 – Obedience
A team of 8 men and 3 women arrived today from Celebration Church in Jacksonville… This is awesome because the last team from Celebration that came down was amazing, so I had really high expectations for these guys. We started off the same way we start every group off with: A prayer walk. As we […]
Day 133 – 5.3%
That’s right, folks!!! We are on the board!!! I just updated the fundraising thermometer… So far we’ve received $1,273.00 in pledges! God Always Provides. Special thanks goes to handful of supporters who got their donations in right away… It would have broken my heart if I would have opened up paypal and found a zero […]
Day 132 – Faith
Dealing with unknown shouldn’t really be that difficult, seeing as how we have no idea what tomorrow will bring. Even so, in the American Society we live in, we convince (fool) ourselves into thinking that we have complete control over everything. That is, until we surrender our lives to the will of God and accept […]
Day 130 – Tortuga Adventure
As we have a couple of days off before the next team comes, Spencer wanted to take his family on a little excursion, so we decided to tag along. The destination was the Tortuga (turtle) Beach to see the Giant Sea Turtles lay their eggs… After about 90 minutes in the van, we pulled into […]
Day 127 – Fundraising
I have spent the past two days organizing / putting together our budget for 2010… It looks like $2000 / month should cover all of our expenses. This is impressive that two grand will cover both Bonnie and I for a month considering that used to be my weekly budget a few years ago :) […]
Day 125 – Websites
Since sending the team from PA home yesterday morning, I haven’t stopped working! Not on mission work, but on websites. It never ceases to amaze me… God holds off all the web work so I can focus on the teams here, and the second the teams go home the emails start flowing like a river! […]
Day 123 – He DOES Exist…
The team headed to CCA for service this morning and we were surprised to find that the church had a special recognition ceremony for us during the morning service! The pastor called everyone who worked on the construction project up on stage along with the two families who received the houses… A few people were […]
Day 122 – House Dedications
The morning was spent putting the finishing touches on both houses… Installing windows, touching up paint, installing a couple of lights, (no running water though). By lunch, everything was done… An absolute miracle… Building two houses on the side of a mountain in six days with high school students. Just another testament to fact that […]
Day 121 – Drama with Thugs
The team spent the morning painting the outside of the first house and assembling the walls of the second house! I can’t believe that this team has built two houses in five days! We’re actually scheduled to finish one day ahead of schedule! That’s what I call a God-sized project with God-sized blessings… One of […]
Day 119 – Walls & CCA
After two hard days of hauling rocks and building panels separately, the team was reunited on the side of a mountain to put up the walls of the first house! It’s so cool to see the walls go up so fast (especially since they were pre-assembled)! After a late lunch, the rain came and we […]
Day 118 – Hauling Rocks up a Mountain
We broke ground on our house builds yesterday morning and the past two days have been spent as follows… With such a big group, we split into two groups: guys / girls. While the girls stayed and put together the panels (walls) of the house in the church parking lot, the guys headed up to […]
Day 116 – Sacrifice vs Giving
This morning, I heard a great message at Iglesia Celebracion (Jorge’s Church) on “Generosity”… First off, generosity is not limited to money, but it also includes time, talents, love, patience, etc. (Keep in mind that this is a very poor congregation.) Next, Christ is the perfect example of generosity (to the extent that He gave […]
Day 115 – Planning
The past few days have been spent recovering from the last team and planning for the team that arrives tomorrow. More than anything, I have been doing administrative planning for my new role… As the ministry grows, what started out as a one man organization has blossomed into a two-country, multi-family, operation with owned property […]
Day 111 – Gun Shots & Hot Dogs
First thing today, the team split up: Half of us went to deliver food (rice, beans, salt, sugar, spaghetti, etc) to a family in Jasmine the rest of us went to deliver food to two families in Juan Pablo. After that, we headed down to Aurora to visit Jose Antonio (the little boy with mental […]
Day 110 – Cement Work
This morning, we continued our work on the Grandma’s house in Juan Pablo… We painted the new walls we put up on Friday and poured some cement to repair the foundation. After lunch, we took food to a few families up to Jasmine (the village on the hill). While we were up there, we visited […]
Day 107 – Remodeling
We spent the morning working on a grandma’s house in the Juan Pablo barrio. The team put up a new bedroom wall, bought here a new kitchen sink, repaired an exterior wall, replaced one of the tin sheets on the roof with a transparent sheet (can you say skylight?) in the bathroom, and we bought […]
Day 106 – Testimonies
I am emotionally worn out. And my throat is a bit soar… We spent the morning at the CCA Men’s Center (a rehabilitation center for drug addicts and alcoholics) giving and listening to testimonies. Literally, our team of 14 sat down with 10 or so men and went around the circle, each giving our testimonies. […]
Day 105 – A New Start
For the past two days, the team has been cleaning and painting the inside of Binda’s house… Talk about a big job. On top of the mold and the crampped living condictions, it would seem that the family had not dusted nor swept for at least a few years. Nonetheless, we moved all the furniture, […]
Day 104 – Tuesday Service
This evening, the group attended the Tuesday night service at Iglesia Celebracion (also known as the old recycling center). Wow, has this place changed!!! I’ll post pictures in the gallery… Anyhow, the Tuesday night service is aimed at the Youth of the community, but pretty much everyone comes, including a handful of homeless / alcoholic […]
Day 103 – Part of Something Bigger
Today was our first full day back in Costa Rica… Talk about starting things off with a bang! First thing this morning we went to check out a potential project for the team that arrived this afternoon: We heard about a lady named Binda who has a mentally retarded son and her family is in […]
Day 100 – Youth Camp
Today was our last day of Youth Camp… Overall, this trip was an absolute blast! Though I don’t really relate very well with the middle school kids (they’re just too young), I have found that I am able to really connect with the high school students. That said, as the “Dean of the Boys Cabin” […]
Day 89 – Goodbye Alaska
Today was our last day aboard the Island Princess Cruise Ship… What a voyage!!! Four weeks, 16 port stops, and the most beautiful landscapes I have ever seen. Alaska really is “the last frontier” (as it reads on the license plates). As part of our compensation (in addition to the room / board), we were […]
Day 58 – Board Interview
We drove up to Jacksonville last night and stayed with Rita (one of the 6:8 Board Members). She was so nice! I stayed up until about 3:30am working on a website though, so my lack of sleep continues. The interview with the Board of Directors went well. They asked me questions and I answered them. […]
Day 56 – Florida Home
We’ve been here in Florida for the past week now, but it seems like we’ve been back for several months! That’s not in a negative tone, it’s just that we have been so busy, we’re completely exhausted… I’ve been working quite a bit and we’ve been catching up with everyone of our friends (who are […]
Day 48 – Home Coming
After seven weeks in CR, we headed back to St. Petersburg today. So far, being home has been wonderful… Air Conditioning, traffic laws, and no crazy smells. It was a long day of travel, but we made it home safe (thanks for the prayers!). Just watched the Lakers lose to the Magic! Whoohoo!
Day 47 – Jaco Beach
The RCC Team had their free day today so Bonnie and I chaperoned them to Jaco Beach. What a relaxing day… All we did was chill out on the beach while they ran around doing the Zip Lines and touring on the strip. It was wonderful and much needed. Especially since we are both recovering […]
Day 46 – Church BBQ
This morning, there were over 85 Ticos at the morning service!!! Including Gringos, there were over 110 people worshiping in the old Recycling Plant we now call Iglesia Celebracion!!! After service, we fired up the grill and provided the entire congregation with hamburgers. It was an absolute riot :) This afternoon, the team headed into […]
Day 45 – Painting
The team started the day off by going to the Saturday Morning Market and passing out free juice and invitations to the new Celebration Church! They really handed out a ton of invites! Hopefully we’ll have standing room only tomorrow… After the market, we headed to the church where the team finished up most of […]
Day 44 – Prayer Walk
19 members of the River City Church Youth Group arrived today! Right after they arrived, we had a quick lunch and then headed out on a prayer walk. Now, if you have never been on a prayer walk, thay are really cool. The idea is to walk around a neighborhood, stop at a couple of […]
Day 43 – Calm
Today was our last day before the next team arrives. Bonnie wasn’t feeling very well, so she spent most of the day in bed. I worked on the computer all day and then Dave and Leisa had everyone over for dinner (which was wonderful). All in, a relaxing day. But really, it was probably just […]
Day 42 – Ticos vs. Gringos
This morning, Jorge and I returned to elementary school to drop off the invitations for the soccer camp. We didn’t see the Principle, but we saw the Vice Principle and he said the Principle would give us a call later in the day to confirm. The VP said it wouldn’t be a problem. After that, […]
Day 41 – Crack
Jorge, his wife Marisol, and I took the bus down to San Jose this morning to pick up some Gold, Silver, & Bronze Medals for the Children’s Soccer Tournament that the team will be putting on next week. While walking around downtown San Jose, we passed by a young man huddled against a city building, […]
Day 40 – New Plan
This morning, Bonnie went to the Feeding Center with Candy where they taught the women how to crochet and I went over the the church plant and helped Jorge and Victor put on a new tin roof over what will soon be the children’s room! I also finished a five foot cinder block wall! I’m […]
Day 39 – Iglesia Celebracion
This morning, it was the 2nd Official Service at Jorge’s new church and there were over 50 people there! I can’t believe it! 10 days ago, the place was a recycling center!!! And now it’s a legit church! Only God could have accomplished this… As a parting gift, the Wade Baptist team bought 50 new […]
Day 38 – Hagase Relax
We sent the Wade Baptist team home this morning and then had the rest of the day to relax. As it was our first day off in a week and a half, we took the time to catch up on the essentials. First, we headed to the Saturday Morning Market and loaded up: Lettuce, tomatoes, […]
Day 37 – Little Yellow House
This was our last day on the build site (half way up the mountain). Today, the house had to be finished! As a matter of fact, the dedication ceremony was scheduled for 1pm… Pizza, Prayer, and Praise. And though the floor and foundation were all that were done, the team came through. The walls went […]
Day 36 – Everything for a Reason
Today was relatively mellow in comparison to most days. Since I was out late yesterday with bus breakdown, I got the morning off and did some web design stuff. (For those of you think I’m on vacation, I got the morning off from shoveling cement and spent my free time working on websites.) After that, […]
Day 35 – Jungle Breakdown
Today was the free day for the Wade Baptist team, so Bonnie and I took them to the Jaco Beach and on the Canopy Tour Zip lines. All in, the day was very nice and relaxing (much needed), except for the end… On our return trip, the bus broke down. As we had just left […]
Day 34 – Wade Baptist
This was my first full day with the team from Wade Baptist (Mississippi). Their project for the week is to build a “Little Yellow House” in Jasmine (a shanti town half way up the mountain – about 4000 ft above sea level). As they assembled all of the panels yesterday, the men spent the day […]
Day 33 – Patricia
Today was our last day with the Celebration Team… Talk about going out with a bang! Our plan was to hike to the first Cross on the mountain this morning as our time was limited and the rain last night made going to the third Cross to dangerous. On our way up, we passed by […]
Day 32 – Church
The team spent all morning cleaning up the warehouse in order to get ready for the first ever service at the new building. What an amazing service!!! There were about 50 attendees and most all of them were from Juan Pablo. As Jorge ran the service, I actually served as the translator which was a […]
Day 31 – Amazing Day.
The day started off with a quick walk through the Saturday Morning Market to get some fresh squeezed orange juice, fresh tomatoes, fresh mangos, and fresh bananas on our way to the team house. After that, it was right to work at the recycling center (that is now the new church plant)… First, we dismantled […]
Day 30 – Prayer Warriors!
Today was absolutely wonderful… We started off with a staff meeting first thing in the morning. Now, I’ve been to a lot of staff meetings through my career, but none like this. The purpose of the meeting was to go over the schedule of the next two teams that are arriving, but it was also […]
Day 29 – Recycling Center
Today was a big day for Jorge… In case you don’t remember, Jorge (the crazy Tico who led worship on the last night of the Crossroads trip) has be commissioned by a Florida church to plant a church here in Alajuelita. The original space that was rented and renovated just isn’t big enough as the […]
Day 28 – Websites
The past few days have been great! I’ve been able to finish up another website and I’m currently working on two more. In addition to that, Bonnie and I have had a chance to relax and simply enjoy each other’s company (this is, after all, our honeymoon). Today, Duke and Candy (President of Board of […]
Day 25 – Sign Us Up!
Spencer, Bonnie, and I flew back to Alajuelita early this morning. Fortunately, the trip was completely uneventful. We did, however, get a chance to talk to Spencer candidly about our future with 6:8 Ministries… After much prayer and discussion, Bonnie and I feel that we have definitely been called to serve here in Costa Rica […]
Day 24 – Tired
Early this morning we said goodbye to our new friends from Marble City, Mississippi… They really were a great team! Right after they left we had a staff meeting and debrief… And the rest of our day was left at leisure. This afternoon, we headed to the park as Brock and Luis had a basketball […]
Day 23 – Digging Trenches
This morning we had the opportunity to work on one of the Deep Stream houses! The house they are building this month is for the family of a local Pastor who has been living in a Sunday School classroom with his wife and four children for the past four years. His name is David and […]
Day 22 – Chicken Coop #3
The men built the third chicken coop on site at Bryon’s house this morning while the woman went with Rosa (another recipient of a Deep Stream house) to learn how to make torillas… Bryon is a 10 year old boy whose mother and two sisters live in some pretty poor conditions. Essentially, there home was […]
Day 21 – Ruins
Today was the team’s “free day” so we all headed up to some nearby Mayan ruins in the city of Tecpan. Though these ruins aren’t especially spectacular, they are only about 90 minutes away and the team seemed to enjoy them. For lunch, we went to this amazing restaurant that puts all of those Brazilian […]
Day 20 – Chicken Coop #2
Another session of VBS at Buena Vista Elementary this morning. Unlike yesterday, we had 115 K-3rd graders! Once again, they were extremely well behaved and we all had a great time. After lunch, we headed back to Buena Vista to deliver the second chicken coop. This one went to Conchita (the same family who just […]
Day 19 – VBS Activities
This morning we headed up to Buena Vista again, but this time we went to the Elementary School to play games and do VBS activities with the students! What a blast… I honestly can’t believe how well behaved these children are. What amazed me even more was the fact that 4th, 5th, & 6th graders […]
Day 18 – Chicken Coops
We headed over to a small village just outside of town this morning to build to build the first chicken coop. Dirty floors, tin roofs, outhouses, stick walls, and no running water. The ladies cooked tortillas over a campfire… And yet the children were still able to smile without much hesitation. While a few of […]
Day 17 – Marble City Baptist
The new team arrived today from Mississippi and all is well. Right after we unloaded all of their stuff from the bus, the skies opened up! Not with just the typical rain though, we also got a good amount of hail! After the storm passed, the team went on a prayer walk and met the […]
Day 16 – Deep Stream
God has so blessed us with such a great group of people here in Guatemala… Spencer (6:8 Executive Director), Brock and Kerri (a couple who is starting a ministry here called Deep Stream and Spencer’s best friends from Jacksonville – they have three kids), Amy (a 24 year old, single, white, female from Minnasota who […]
Day 15 – Guatemala
Today was our first full day in Guatemala and boy is this place different than Costa Rica! First off, Guatemala City (the capital) is huge (14 million people) and there is a lot more organized crime (kidnappings, cartels, etc) than Costa Rica. Fortunately, we’re about 10 miles outside of the city in a small town […]
Day 14 – The Crash
Today was spent packing and traveling to Guatemala. Because of rain delays, what should have been a quick trip turned into an all day affair. Either way, we made here safe. The day of travel enabled me to finish a book called The Barbarian Way by Erwin McManus… Here is his explanation for the rhinos […]
Day 13 – Roofing
This morning, the fellas re-roofed the shanti of a family down in Juan Pablo. Though the mother was at work, her two boys helped paint and worked the entire morning with the rest of the team. Lalo, who was a bit of a hellian has really started to come around. It appears that all he […]
Day 12 – God the Potter
We headed to Aurora today… Talk about an impactful trip. I’ve been around the world and have driven past barrios and shanti towns, but I have never gone into these places simply to love on the people there. Though today wasn’t my first time going to Aurora, it really wasn’t any easier to see the […]
Day 11 – Doctor Visits
This morning, the while the team headed to CCA for the regular service, Bonnie and I went to Juan Pablo to participate in Jorge’s children’s ministry. What a blast… Jorge has such passion and energy when it comes to those kids. We sang all kinds of children’s worship songs, complete with choreographed dancing and hand […]
Day 10 – Lalo’s Haircut
We headed to the Saturday Morning Market with the team right after breakfast… Bonnie loves the fresh tomatoes and mangos, plus the cheese is so much cheaper than at the MegaSuper (local super market). After the market, we headed down to Juan Pablo where half the team helped clean and setup the room for the […]
Day 9 – Pottery Wheel
We headed out with Spencer and Victor (local handy-man) this morning to San Jose in search of a pottery wheel. After striking out downtown, we were directed to a nearby art district where we found an 80 year old blind man with a kick wheel (manual) who said the only way to get a wheel […]
Day 6 – Honeymoon
The past two days have been great… Bonnie and I have just been enjoying each other’s company, just like a real honeymoon. In the evenings, we’ve been playing cards with Alexis and Molly (Spencer’s daughter and wife). Spencer comes back tomorrow and Dave (Director of Operations) and his wife Lisa come in on Thursday, so […]
Day 4 – Faith Must Grow
Bonnie and I walked up to CCA this morning for the 10am Service… Talk about a great sermon: The pastor talked about what it means to have the “Faith of a Mustard Seed” as it is in the parable. (Matthew 13:31-32, 17:20). Though many people interpret this parable to say that you only need a […]
Day 3 – R&R
The team from Michigan left this morning. Spencer also left for a short trip to Jacksonville. Thus, Bonnie and I have been instructed to relax, recharge, and get ready for the next team. This break is very much needed as Bonnie and I haven’t taken any sort of break for the past few months… Between […]
Day 2 – A Long Hike
This morning, we made the hike up to the Cross on the top of the mountain (from 3700 ft to 7700 ft). Rather than come down via the same route we went up, Jorge decided to take us down the back side of the mountain which made for a fun yet challenging trek, lengthening our […]
Day 1 – Painting
Today was our first full day in Alajuelita (suburb of San Jose). So far, so good. We are currently hanging out with a 4 person team from Michigan and having a blast! We spent the majority of the afternoon doing demolition in a newly rented room that Jorge (the crazy Tico who led worship for […]
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