The Birds, the Bees & Jesus Saturday Group: 9 girls and 3 moms finished out “The 5 Love
Languages” by Gary Chapman in early October. Each of the 7 weeks of the series girls memorized one scripture verse related to identity, family and marriage. The three older girls were mentors to the 4 younger girls while 2 new girls read “Every Young Girls Battle”. Mentor time became a special time for the girls to connect. We had a special guest Tracey Craig from Valley Point Church in Pennsylvania for our last session of the series. Tracey brought framed photos for the girls to decorate and NOW Costa Rica T-shirts. It was a fun Saturday and we are looking forward to more partnerships in 2022 with Valley Point and several other churches.
Wonder Woman Weekend: Five of the nine girls earned a spot in the Horizon Church Girls Youth group camp retreat for teens located in Esterillos, a town just 30 min north of Jaco. We focused on the Armor of God and how important it is to use scripture as a tool to face times when we are down. We did two shame busting exercises, shared meals together and enjoyed an entire weekend away. God did powerful things and it was a joy to worship all weekend long with 30 other teens and women.
Grupos Pequenos: Two of our older girls, Lucia and Sofia, launched a Grupo
Pequeno or Small Group now held on Tuesdays for a few new teen girls in our area. Ariana and Doneira joined in on this study called “True Beauty” and now we have added Celeste, Thelma, Nayrobi & Suri to our list of NOW Costa Rica girls. It is amazing to see Lucia and Sofia spread their wings in teaching others about God’s love. Please pray for these girls as they work to earn points for a camp during Christmas.
First Boys Group: Four brothers/cousins/neighbors of a few of the girls have been eagerly waiting their time to be discipled. One recently was baptized as he has been able to attend church services with us every Sunday, and the other three are expressing interest in putting their faith in Christ. So, we launched our first ever boys NOW Costa Rica group taught by two young adult males in the church. Dani, Carlos, Marcos and Winston are earning points by attending small group every Tuesday and youth group every Thursday in hopes of attending an outdoor camp in December. Will you pray for them by name as we hope to encourage them to be a light in their community?
We have an upcoming Family Mission Team preparing to do an outdoor boy’s camp overnight and a girl’s slumber party for both the two small groups mentioned above. Please pray for John, Greta, Brooke and Jesse Dunn as they make plans to come serve alongside us with these teens the week of Dec 24th. We are delighted to have close friends spend the holiday season with us.
2022 is already filling fast with potential mission teams. We have several folks from Mt. Zion and Beale Memorial Baptist Church interested in coming to serve this summer. Check out this photo of Nancy Baughan’s grandson Paxton in Carolyn (Jordanna’s mom)’s lap during their meeting at the fitness center. Paxton is such a sweet boy and a testimony to the power of prayer as he has already had open-heart surgery and come out so strong. What a joy it is to have his mama Kelsey praying about coming to serve here in 2022. God is so good.
Family Prayers – Continued prayers for Spanish Language development for all four Ailors. Jordanna is continuing in online advanced studies. River is still in his immersion Kindergarten class. Some days are harder than others for him, please pray that he doesn’t feel so frustrated with the worksheets in Spanish, as he is the only non-native Spanish speaker in his class. Pepper has just started online Spanish classes which has proven to be most helpful as he often drives the teens on Tuesdays and Thursdays to small group and youth group. It’s been amazing for the young boys to see Pepper as a role model. We are delighted to see the fruit of YOUR work in us as a family. Thanks for believing in us and helping us to empower this next generation here in Jaco.