Mission Team update

The last month and half has flown by as God has brought so many new opportunities for ministry to us. The first major one was the mission team that we were able to receive from Sherwood, Oregon. We have been so blessed to finally be able to receive our first couple of mission teams from the States. This has been a dream of ours for years and it is finally bearing fruit!

We have adopted a small church in the village of Bambu in the Talamanca region of Costa Rica, which is located in the South Eastern corner of the country. The church is very small, maybe some 20 people and is headed up by Pastor Jorgeli and his wife Enye. All the members of the church live very simple lives, working in the banana plantation or on their farms and living in simple tin roof houses which in many areas off the main road dont even have electricity or indoor plumbing.

Our trip to Bambu started on Saturday morning, picking up the team from the airport and learning that our van transmission was gone. Not to be deterred we started the search for another vehicle and after several false starts and some 6 hours later we were on our way. Our adventures didnt stop there however, three quarters of the way to Bambu one of the brakes on the van fractured and so we finally limped our way into Talamanca arriving around 11:30 pm instead of 2:30.

The next few days were a blur. Our focus was two fold, first on children's ministry and second on Bible distribution. There are so many kids in Bambu and the surrounding area and we went out and invited them to come play and hear the good new of Jesus Christ. Bambu is know for it's alcohol and drug abuse as well as young unwed mothers so some of these kids come from very broken homes. We build relationship with them and showed them the love of God in every way we could. Who knows which of these young ones will grow up to be leaders of this church and community.

In the afternoon we hit the streets to pass out Bibles and pray for everyone who wanted prayer. This is part of a larger project that we have mentioned before to put a Bible in every home in Costa Rica. All told we were able to visit over 50 homes and gave bibles to 48 families. The Bible version we took with us was one that was very easy to read as many of the people in the community have only a 6^th grade education and many speak Spanish as a second language to their native Bribri.

Our last day in Talamanca we were able to cross the river and head out into the hills above Bambu to pass out Bibles. It was a unique, special experience of giving the word of God to people that have so little. We hope to return in the future and Lord willing do ministry on that side of the river.

The team headed back to the US the following Saturday morning. It was difficult to see them go as we had such wonderful time with them. Most of our ministry is here in San Jose doing discipleship on the YWAM base and we treasure out opportunities to break out of the mold. We will post again soon with more details about what God has been doing apart from the team but this blog post is long enough for now.

Thank you all for your love, support and prayers. We couldn't be here with out you all.

Many blessings,

Douglas, Karen, Gabriel and Zachariah.

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.  

The second half!

The second half of the Bible school is already here and the time is going by so fast. This last week the students were able to choose between Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians or Colossians and then do an inductive study of the book of their choice. After their study they had to develop a preaching, a teaching and this week a small group bible study.

Needless to say there was a lot of stress and nervousness at having to get up in front of the group and share what they had learned but everyone did wonderfully. Part of the purpose of our school is to help people learn how to clearly communicate what they have learned from the Bible to others. It was amazing to see how each student approached their book so differently and it was a very proud moment for me to see how my students have grown so much and are learning to overcome their fears.

We finished up the teachings on Thursday night and then Friday morning early we headed to the beach to relax and read the first 5 books of the Bible. During the school we read through the entire Bible and to help make it happen in such a short period of time we set aside this weekend just for reading.

So Friday in the van they started reading Genesis and read through Deuteronomy, finishing mid-afternoon on Saturday. Sunday was spent surfing and soaking up the sun of course!


The boys had a blast eating lots of fresh coconuts and learning how to stand up on a surfboard.Zachariah got it down right away the last time we were at the beach and so this time he started up right where he left off. Gabriel was able to stand up too and rode several great waves.

Summer is almost upon us here in Costa Rica after a long wet season the boys have finally been able to play in the backyard a bit although things will be drying out for a while.

We are now in week 8 out of 12 and I will be teaching Genesis this week. It has been a tremendous amount of work for us all but it is so worth it to see people changed by the word of God. The time has flown and it will be over before we know it.

Thank you all for your prayers and support during this school. It has been a great encouragement to us.

Many blessings!

Douglas, Karen and the boys

What happened to the Sun?

Hello again from Costa Rica! As Douglas mentioned in our last post, the rainy season is hitting us hard the last two weeks we have had tons of rain and grey skies with almost no sun which makes us feel like we are back in Oregon. But we are very use to the sun at this point and miss it very much.

The Bible school is in full swing with it's 8 students and only 2 staff.  Douglas' parents were here as his dad was teaching the week on Hebrews in the school. It was great to have them here but as always we felt very busy with not much time to just hang out and enjoy them. The school has been going well. We have a great group of students and they all seem to really be learning a lot. As always it is a ton of work for Douglas and his one other staff person. He has been getting to bed late most nights and he always looks forward to the weekend to catch up on much needed rest.  As for me I have been trying to keep on top of all of my responsibilities at the base and at home, some weeks I do better than others.  I still love the work I do but most days I feel like I do not have the time to do it as well as I would like.  I have been really encouraged recently though as God has given me the opportunity to sit and talk with some of my staff and help them think through some fairly big decisions.

The boys are both doing very well. They loved having there grandparents here for a visit and enjoyed receiving the fishing poles that they brought as belated birthday gifts.  We went on a little adventure to try and find a fishing spot but due to rain and not being able to find any beach at the lake we went to, we ended up at a little fish farm kind of place were you catch fish from a little pond and they cook it for you right there. It was great fun and the boys loved that they each got to catch two fish and then we took the hooks off and they practiced casting. They both are pretty great fishermen and got the hang of it very quickly.

Gabriel also celebrated his 7th Birthday back on Sept.24 which was the first day of the BCC and Douglas and I celebrated our 8th anniversary 10 days earlier.  We took a little trip to Jaco, which is a town on the coast, to visit friends and celebrate Gabriel's B-day right before the school started.  The boys both got to try surfing and did very well especially Zachariah he stood up and road  the board like a pro. Gabriel also did great. He just has a little harder time standing still. : )

We wanted to ask you to be praying for us as we are feeling it may be time to look for a different house here in CR. As many of you know we were able to purchase the house that we now live in due to an inheritance we received.  We love our little house and our neighborhood but it is a good distance from the YWAM base. We are wanting to look for some place closer mainly so we can be more available for disciplining our staff and students. The problem with this is that the cost of housing is about double from where we are now to most places near the base. I also personally feel like God has said he would put us in a place we could stay until we leave some day and a place that has a little more space for having people over and for ministry.  We have no idea at this point how we would come up with the extra money we need but we trust God has a way if it is truly his desire. We are sharing this because we covet your prayers specifically on the timing of when to try and sell our house and making a wise decision about buying another.  

We also want to thank all of you that gave to us over the last few months we had a lot of extra expenses and were able to meet them all.  We feel very blessed to have so many people behind us and our ministries.

Blessings,
The Johnston family

The challenge of readjusting

A seven inch moth in the bedroom. So cool

Things have been pretty interesting here in Costa Rica since we have been back. The rainy season is in full swing and it is dumping rain as i write. Meanwhile, Zachariah is sitting next to me playing a computer game using a crab to throw coconuts and break stuff. Over all we are finally starting to get resettled about our return from the States. August was pretty emotional as we readjusted to being in Central America. Not that we are fully adjusted yet.

Zachariah showing off his muscles!

Karen has been working like crazy getting ready for the next quarter which starts in three weeks. We have a number of staff members that are going to be getting some more training and will not be available for the daily operation of the base. As well we are still going through the growing pains of moving from being a small base to a medium size one. This means lots of headaches as we figure out why we do the things we do and how we can do them better.

The leadership team of the base has been meeting weekly as we have been facing a lot of changes stemming from the rapid growth of YWAM San Jose. There are so many people coming and going, wanting to serve and come and study with us and it has been a real challenge to give order to the potential chaos. We want to use what God has given us to the greatest of our ability.

The boys are doing well although we have two scares with Gabriel this last month. He injured a muscle in his leg while paying at school and was in a lot of pain. We decided to take him in to the doctor to see if any permanent damage was done and so far he seems to be fine. A few days after the leg incident Gabriel started complaining of severe stomach cramps. After consulting my dad, who is an RN, we decided to take him back into the hospital thinking that the pain could be his appendix. We thank God it wasn't, but only a bad infection in his throat that had spread to the lymph nodes. After a good round of antibiotics he is feeling much better.

All our doctors visits, in addition to our resent car repairs, has meant a lot of extra expenses for the month. (almost $1000) So if anyone would like to make a special donation we would really appreciate it!

Our next major event is the upcoming Bible Core Course which for those of you who are new to our blog is a 12 week intensive bible study course that we started at YWAM San Jose last year. Our second school of this year is set to begin in exactly three weeks. At this point we have 8 students enrolled, from the USA, Canada, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Germany. We actually had several more that want to take the school but since have only 2 staff members (myself and one other) we had to turn them down. I hate telling people no but with only two staff we will have a difficult time keeping up with all the homework that the students will produce.

As we get back into life here is Costa Rica we are excited about this next phase but at the same time we know what a strain it is on the family and we covet your prayers. If you get a chance check out the pray requests section at the top of the page.

Many blessings in Christ,

Douglas, Karen, Gabriel and Zachariah

Home at last

  Sorry it has been so long since we updated. After 5 weeks in the States and now two weeks back in Costa Rica we are finally getting resettled. Our trip to the States was such an incredible blessing and we wanted to thank each of you that we were able to spend time with. Our only regret was that we couldn't stay longer and see everyone.   Here are a few photos from our trip.

Our first two weeks back have been very challenging. We had a bad leak in the roof before we left and when we got back we came home to a nice big mold spot in the boys bedroom. The smell was terrible and Gabriel immediately started sneezing and it made everyone's nose hurt. So for the first several nights the boys had to sleep in the guest bedroom.

I was finally able to tear down the moldy sheet rock but we have not been able to get the new one up because the roof is still leaking a bit. I just made one last repair and we are really hoping that takes care of it. The funny part of all this is that we have a bat that lives up there some where that we see flying around the boys room from time to time.

As well as the repair in the roof we also had to put our car in the shop the week we got back it cost us just over $600 to have it fixed. We are thankful for our car but at times it feels like a money pit. I am sure many of you can relate.


In other news, we are getting back into the swing of things at the YWAM base. Karen was very happy to tell me that she had finally read every new email in her in box and was finally starting to catch up. The base is running a bit more smoothly now, most of our summer missions teams have come and gone and everyone is getting ready for the next trimester that starts in 6 weeks.

The base just completed 7 years this July which feels pretty significant. So as a leadership team we are praying about the next 7 and seeking the Lord's vision for us as a missions community. We are feeling a renewed urgency to raise up the next generation of Costa Rican missionaries and will beginning to focus more of our energy within Costa Rica itself working to mobilize the local church for missions. There are exciting times we live in!

The next Bible school starts on the 23rd of September and we are getting excited for what God will do in the lives of the students. At this point we have 8 students enrolled which will be a big challenge for myself and the one other staff member. But we know that we simply have to be faithful with what we have been given and God will take care of the rest.

We as a family would like to send out a big thank you to all of you that blessed us so much during our time in the States. It was such an incredible time and there are way too many of you to thank personally. Also a huge thank you to all of you that supported us with gifts and donations while we were home. You blessed us more that you can know. Our next year is going to be an exciting one and we were so glad to be able to spend some of this summer with you all. May God bless you richly!

Douglas, Karen, Gabriel and Zachariah

Weekend trip to Bambú Talamanca

Just a quick update here. We were able to travel out to Talamanca this last weekend. For those who have no idea what im talking about, Talamanca is a region on the southeast coast of Costa Rica. We have been ministering in a small village called Bambú which is right on the border with Panama. We were able to take a team from Countryside Community Church done a couple of months ago to distribute Bible, minister to the children and bless a local pastor and his wife with a new coat of paint and chicken wire for their yard.

We would love to be able to continue building the relationship and since we are heading back to the US for a visit in a couple of weeks we decided it would be great to visit Talamanca one more time. We are trying to develop a larger vision for what we want to do in the community to give our trip and teams a specific direction and vision.

The chicken wire is still up and the chickens are safely behind it and starting to get fat! They were finally able to put up a gate. We never got to that part.

As well the church is planning its first ever evangelistic campaign and Jorgeli, the pastor, is very excited. There are still trying to buy a pig to roast for the community. Wish we could be there. Here is the beginnings of the tent they are putting up. One really cool part in this is that Jorgeli has been instrumental in gathering together all the pastors from the neighboring communities to gather together once a month for fellowship and to start to work together. This is a first in the history of this community and we hope and pray it is a sign of the new work that God is starting there.

The boys of course love to have fun running around and generally causing mayhem. They did great in the heat even though Riah was pretty sick the first day. All the kids from the neighborhood love them.

And of course what better way to end than with a giant bug. This grass hopper was about 2 1/2 inches long. very cool. The boys loved it.

We will be arriving in the US on the 24th of this month, for those of you who would like to know and we will be staying in Corbett with Karens parents. See  you soon!

D&K

Our lives in Costa Rica

We've had a bunch of informational blogs lately and so we wanted to do something a little more fun and show a little bit about our lives here in Costa Rica.

First one on our list is our banana plant. Our story begins in 2005 during our Discipleship Training School with YWAM....

Our bedroom, which Gabriel, Karen and I all shared, is the little window that you can see behind the banana plants on the right side. We loved to listen to the sound of the wind making the leaves rattle. So when we finally moved in to our own house in 2008 we really wanted to get a banana plant of our very own.

We were able get one from a nice fellow who made our dinning table and we planted it right out in front of the house. 2 years later.... December 2010, our beloved banana plant finally puts out bananas. Who Hoo!

Five months later we are finally enjoying bananas from our own tree. Our very first harvest! And now our kitchen is overflowing with more bananas that we can eat. Several bunches have gone to the neighbors already and today we have to take more. 

The banana to the right is easily the largest banana we have ever seen and was over two inches in diameter. Cool. We have a couple more banana plants growing but it will be a good year before we have more bananas.

In other strange happenings! The month of May is the start of the wet season here in Costa Rica and with the rain come the bugs. Lots of bugs. Big bugs. Here are a couple that we have found in the house.

The one on the right was the boys pet for a day or two until it died but the one on the left looked like it had a mean bite so i had to put it outside.

The last story that we wanted to share with you is about the torrential rains that we have been having. Everyone in the neighborhood has been up on their roofs repairing the leaks and we have had several of our own as well to patch. This picture was take a week or two ago during the worst downpour we have had so far. The rain gutter in the backyard needs to be replaced and it couldn't handle the volume of rain and well... you can see the result.That's me trying to keep it from flooding the septic tank. Fun stuff.

Well thats it for now. Hope you enjoyed the pictures.

Many blessings from the Johnstons!