Weekly Prayer Requests/Praises

Please join us in praising our God who provides!!!

Dear friends and family,
We write you this week to ask you to join us in praising God who provides, always and abundantly more than we could ever dream or imagine!

Praise God with us that we have been given the use of a large home during our stay in Frankfort. Praise God with us for this wonderful blessing for our family! Praise God for the way He plans and uses His people! Praise the God that provides!

Praise God with us for the ways in which He is providing for our financial needs. We are now able to purchase our return tickets to Costa Rica because of the generosity of God's people. Because of the willing obedience of God's people, we have received generous donations and formed new monthly partnerships that will help to ensure our ability to continue serving and ministering in Costa Rica. Praise the God that provides!

Praise God for several baptisms on Easter Sunday during the sunrise service for Calvary Chapel! Two women, a young teenager and our Isabelle were baptized during the service held on Tamarindo Beach. A husband and wife (Jorge and Marcella) met good friends of ours through a tragic event that took place right outside the hotel were they work. After several minutes of talking with our friends, Jorge and Marcella said they needed to be in church again and the next Sunday and each one since, they have been in church. Marcella's daughter accepted the Lord Palm Sunday and they were both baptized Easter Sunday. A woman named Maria was also baptized. She found her way to Calvary Chapel, where she found Pastor Phil. Maria wanted to end her life- she felt there was nothing to live for anymore. It was during her time talking with Pastor Phil and his wife Rebecca that Maria found the WAY, the TRUTH, and the LIFE found only in Jesus Christ. She was baptized a few days later on Easter. We had had several conversations with our Isabelle about baptism and what it meant. She has told us several times she was ready to be baptized. The night before Easter Isabelle told Brooke she was ready and did not want to wait any more. She walked forward and Matt and Pastor Phil baptized her on Easter Sunday in the Pacific Ocean! Praise God for these public professions of faith and obedience. Praise God that both Maria and Marcella are beginning dicipleship. Please pray for God to provide someone to continue with Marcella, as Brooke will start with her this week, but will not be able to continue until we return from the states.

Praise God for providing our neighbors who will care for our home and our pets while we are gone. Please pray for our animals- we are really going to miss them and pray that they will be fine while we are gone. Please pray for Lucy as she continues to deal with skin irritations. Please pray for protection for the animals as well as for our home.

Please pray for our disciples while we are gone. Pray that they will continue in God's way and will not stray from His word.

Praise God with us for Helga, from Filadelfia. On March 10, a mission team was serving with First Baptist church and Pastor Nelson under the leadership of fellow CLF missionary, Ron Droke. The team walked the streets of Filadelfia sharing the gospel door-to-door. Members of this mission team knocked on Helga's door, in hopes of sharing the gospel with her. Helga came to the door and listened to the North Americans and then began to share her story. She had accepted the Lord only days before, alone in her home. But despair had overcome her in the days that followed and that very day, just before the knock came at her door, she had been standing in her kitchen holding a knife, ready to kill herself. She had learned that she had cancer and the pain and effects of the disease were physically and emotionally wearing her down. She wanted to end it all. Then the knock came at her door. God provides! Since that day, Pastor Nelson and Matt have followed up with Helga each week during their weekly discipleship groups in Filadelfia. When First Evangelical Presbyterian church came and served with us, the entire team visited with Helga and her family and prayed over her. Helga is fully aware of those of you who are praying for her in the United States. Last Friday, Helga reported that she no longer feels any pain from the cancer, she no longer feels the lump that was once in her chest and she feels like a new person! Helga truly believes she has been healed by the Lord. Even though she is still waiting for the results of the biopsy that was done over a month ago, she believes God has taken away her cancer. Please join us in praying for Helga!

Praise God that Ronny has committed to beginning discipleship with Matt. We shared a special time with them in their home last week, simply showing them Christ's love through a simple way we could help them. It was the first time they had invited us into their home and we sat and shared with them. Ronny opened up about his struggle and we shared that God is working in his life. Ronny said he understood this and could see it. This past Sunday, Ronny came to Calvary church, along with Dinora, and their two boys, and Elvita. Please pray with us for this family. Please continue to pray for Ronny's salvation, because he has not yet accepted the Lord. Please pray for this family while we are away. We know fully well that everything that has happened with this family has nothing to do with us- but everything to do with the Lord and His glory. But even so, we find it very hard to be leaving them in such a crucial time in their lives. Please pray for these friends that we dearly love.

Please continue to pray for our marriage. We've been going through a series of DVD's called Love and Respect together for some time now. These DVD's have helped us see what is actually happening when little things suddenly become big things between the two of us. We are beginning to understand how our words and actions are interpreted by the opposite spouse and therefore can build the other up or tear them down. Praise God for these DVD's that were lent to us. Please continue to pray for us as we continue to grow in our relationship with the Lord and as a couple.

Please pray for a vehicle for our family to use while in the Frankfort area the dates of May 9-June 15. God in his majesty, being the ultimate provider, already knows this need and has sent the response as we have asked him to provide.