Off and running!

Welcome to the new year! Things here in Costa Rica have been interesting as always. To start things off our Discipleship Training School (DTS) that the base runs every Jan, April, July and September is the biggest group we have ever had in YWAM San Jose history. 35 people from 10 different nations gathered together for 5 months to be discipled and to reach the nations for Christ. Add to that the School of Worship (SOW) that started at the same time and we have almost 50 students here in the base.

Our staff has been growing too, with a half dozen or so new faces since last year. Our staff in total number around 45. So between the staff and students we are a missionary community of around 100 people.

It is a huge blessing from God that he has chosen to grow us so much so quickly but is not always easy or orderly and we appreciate your prayers. Since I (Douglas) joined the leadership of the base back in May it has been slow but steady process of learning how things work and figuring out how I can best help. This January I started out a new aspect of leadership/ministry here at the base working with the 2 schools (the DTS and SOW). My job is to help to train the leaders and staff to ensure that our schools are as excellent as they can be.

Karen's job has been as complicate as ever, organizing the staff and helping out in most of the logistics

on the base, it can be a little overwhelming at times. But as the quarter gets underway most things smooth out and she can get back to what she loves, sitting and talking with people, helping them to move forward in their lives and ministry.

Another bit of big news for this new year is that YWAM San Jose Bible Project is finally underway. We have not mentioned it a lot since it is something we will not be directly involved in much. But it is a very exciting project that our YWAM base is spearheading along with the rest of YWAM Costa Rica. This is our very first installment of Bibles. The first 2000 out of our first batch of 50,000. The goal is to put a Bible in every home in Costa Rica, some 1.3 million. Lord willing we will be the first nation on earth to accomplish it. This last weekend the first YWAM San Jose team went out to a small town on the south western coast called Gulfito. Some 8 different local church were involved and some 300 Bible were passed out in the first 2 days. We will see what God does next.

The last thing we will leave you with is that we have our Countryside Community Church missions team arriving this Saturday morning and we are very excited to be able to get off base for a bit and head for the jungle. We will be in the Talamanca area on the south east coast doing Bible distribution, children's ministry and whatever else we can do to bless the local church and community. We will give a full update when we get back.

Blessings,

Douglas, Karen and the boys.