November has been a month of great blessing! We have celebrated birthdays, new programs and the fact that God has answered our prayers in providing the land for the center! We give God all the glory and we are forever in awe of the provision He gives through supporters like you. We thank you and we pray this advent season brings you hope, joy, peace and love that only He can provide.
Two of our discipleship group teachers had birthdays this month. It gave us a great reason to gather together, fellowship and pray. Our team has become stronger and stronger in our efforts on the ground individually and in a unified way. Happy Birthday Jenna and Cristian. We love you and cherish you much!
Each of us have been dedicated to starting new fitness or sports initiatives and it has been delightful to speak about the connection between mind, body and spirit. Cristian recently became a licensed professional running coach. He has practiced some of his teaching skills on the boys in our group and reiterated to them the value of healthy and whole living. He is such an inspiration. Soon the boys will finish their series reading The Five Love Languages and will celebrate with a day at a nearby amusement park together.
Jenna and I recently became certified Revelation Wellness Instructors and have been teaching classes to women in the community, weaving in scripture and messages related to advent into our workouts. It’s been such a blessing to have Jenna learning and teaching alongside me this season. She is a gift to us and we value her so very much. This month she taught the older girls about the value of being thankful as we did some meditative coloring and shared from the heart. The older girls have now invited one new girl each and we have 9 coming to our end of year pool party. We know bigger things are on the horizon for our fitness and discipleship offerings. Revelation Wellness has been a neat, added component of our programming and we are thankful for this training. A yoga mat, a few weights, drumsticks and the living water of God’s word - it’s always a blessed hour with these items in our groups of women and moms. We’re excited to see what more the Lord will bring with fitness.
Brooke successfully launched her volleyball outreach ministry two Saturdays ago. With 16 students the first Saturday and over 20 the next, students were eager and happy to learn the skills and techniques related to improving their game. They are also learning about how to be a part of time, develop skills for living well in community and hear the gospel and prayers each Saturday. It’s so exciting to see! Many of Brooke’s younger girls come to her volleyball time as well, seeing her twice in one day. Her group too has doubled. We have prayed for the students to come, and they ARE!
We were so delighted to spend some time with Brooke’s fiance Cody. He has so graciously given her this year to follow her heart and calling to serve our students and joyfully tagged along for various service projects, one of which included loading food bags to be donated to flood victims. The rains have continued to come and we are praying for dry season harder than ever before. Families are walking in waist high water several times a day to get to their homes as many roads and bridges have washed out. Please pray for better infrastructure for our families so they can attend work and school and better provide for their families. Thank you to those of you who continue to help us feed the hungry, physically and spiritually! We all miss Cody but we are glad he will come back for another visit during Brooke’s intern year. May God bless their marriage and wedding planning. We are honored to witness such great love!
River and Windsor are continuing to thrive in their immersion child care center each day, participating in talent shows and cultural events. We are amazed at their ability to adjust to the demands of bilingual living and are so proud of their resilience and faith. They both share who Jesus is with their classmates often and we continue to partner with their little school when teams come and needs arise. This Christmas we are providing gifts for the lower income students in the school. What a joy it is to step in and be the hands and feet of Jesus for the little ones in their lives.
In Costa Rica the school year changes with the calendar year and our kids will shift a bit too. River will continue with 2nd grade home school but will transition into a home school co-op. Brooke will actually be his teacher along with eight other missionary kids who are River’s age. We are delighted to have Brooke’s energy and expertise teaching our little ones these next 6 months.
Windsor will continue at her nursery school doing one more full year of preschool there. She loves her classmates and her teachers. We are thankful for that place and will miss it when she graduates.
Please be in prayer for the Horizon Church Home School Co-op. Jordanna is leading the administrative efforts for the 20 children ages 7-17. We know God has unique things planned for these families.
We are very thankful to announce that we are now land owners. NOW Costa Rica and the Ailor family each own a portion of a ¼ acre lot. Here you can see Pepper meeting with the architect to plan our family home design. We are very blessed to have the willing heart and dedication of a friend who recently built his own home here named Julian. He has been an asset in a much needed time and is willing to volunteer as our project manager for all of our building projects on the property to include our family home, the mission house, educational center and rancho. God goes before all things and we are very blessed to have Julian’s support.
Prayers -
Please pray that our upcoming season hosting discipleship groups at the community center will go well (January to June). Pray for continued unity and vision for our teachers, team and translators.
Pray for our family’s continued health and well-being. We know seasons of new, big ministry launches can affect our family. We seek prayers of protection physically and spiritually for the Ailors, Brooke and our NOW Costa Rica staff.
Pray for NOW Costa Rica Mission Teams coming in January (Megan Yohe & Sean), February (Fishers, Dunns & Johnsons) and March (Dillinghams).
Pray for Peppers busy season work approach in the midst of planning for the Ailor family home build, that the Lord will continue to bring the right people to assist and that the enemy will steer clear of the process.
Please pray for our remaining debt needing to be met this season in order to break ground for our ministry buildings. Pray that our Land Campaign Video will find audiences who are generous in this season. Pray that our matching gift campaign from Omega Health Services will be matched and that we will be debt free in the early months of 2023.
