2025: April

Greetings and Happy Spring!

What a wonderful season we have had here on the property and in ministry!  We hope and pray you are also seeing the fruits of your labor in your lives, churches and community as the Lord guides you to His mighty will and work.  The school year in Costa Rica begins in February so our girls and boys groups have been busy attending weekend classes here for over two months!

We’ve been able to do many neighborhood visits as well, growing closer and closer to various village matriarchs who help make our connections to families even stronger.  Here is Marcela, she is an auntie figure to many girls in the neighborhood and has great organizational skills.  Marcela walked the girls to and from the property for over a dozen weekends to ensure even the littlest ones arrived safely.

In Mid April, we were blessed to receive our first vision team to stay in the Casita on the NOW Costa Rica property.  These four lovely Christian people were a Godsend to us this season.  Pastor Bo, his mentor Jim Savage and two wonderful educators Leah & Tamara, blessed us with so much support and love, both for our family personally and to our students.  Here is Leah posing with our beloved village matriarch, Marielos, as they gifted us a taste of “Miel de Chiverre” a jam made with squash, pineapple, mango, dates and much more typically served during holy week.

This team’s leader, Jim Savage, was a former Wyclife bible translator working in the South Pacific, so naturally he and Jordanna connected right away with stories of languages spoken during her Peace Corps days.  The mindset of Cedar Street Baptist Church was a huge fit for NOW Costa Rica programming.  Jim and his team are praying about a returned trip or two in December to help construct the stage portion of the Mulituso project.  We are very thankful for God’s connection to this body of Christ and eager to see what will unfold.

Jim and Pastor Bo were able to work alongside our boys group with the help of our local pastor’s son as a translator.  Jacob has stepped in to help every Sunday with these boys now.  We are very thankful for continued support for our boys.

Marielos seen below in the red apron, shared her testimony with the team, as she does often with many teams about the difficulties of raising children and now grandchildren in the Parcellas community.  “The Parcellas” community is a 14 block neighborhood of migrant workers who are often unable to find work permits, titles for land they have purchased or opportunities for a better life.  We are thankful for Marielos’ ongoing partnership to help the next generation in the parcellas know about God’s love and God’s design for family despite the challenges they face daily.

Many girls were able to come spend an afternoon learning about Tamara’s life story growing up in Georgia.  She also shared with the younger children the true meaning of Easter.  The girls were all very eager to learn and walked away with salvation bracelets and full tummies as we enjoyed a meal together.

Leah is a middle school Art teacher.  She taught the girls how to draw one of the national birds here.  She discussed how the Lord even provides for the sparrows while also sharing her testimony.  So many girls were very proud of their drawings.  

This team also brought $1000 worth of bibles.  We have been giving out half a dozen each weekend and see the gospel reaching more and more weekly as students show up for classes.

Merary, Sofia and Doneira continue to be excellent leaders both with the mission teams and on the weekends when girls are here for classes.  While Jordanna is still expectantly waiting for the stem cells to work (it could take 3-6 months), it’s been amazing to see the Lord’s provision in having our local college aged girls carry on with the mission.

We will miss Pastor Bo and his crew but know they will be back this year!  

What would an April update be without mention of Resurrection Sunday?!  River and Windsor were delighted to host a few friends to our home for a back yard easter egg hunt.  We were also able to snap this family photo that Sunday morning.  Praise God, He is Risen!

We ended the month with a wonderful visit from our sweet Nana.  She leaves May 1st so please be in prayer for her solo journey back to the States.  We’re so thankful she makes this trip twice a year to ensure our children get quality time.  We’re thankful that in just 6 weeks we’ll be stateside so our goodbye won’t be as difficult.  

We have enjoyed beach walks with nana and visiting the local rehab farm our church has established.  Here you will see Nana helping with an English lesson and showering joy and blessings among the men who are working towards a better, sober life with Christ.

Last weekend, a dozen of our girls were able to have a sleepover after having earned all their discipleship points over the last quarter.  We were so thankful to load them up in the bus and have them enjoy the space the Casita now offers for slumber parties!

Kerly and Marielos made the leaders and Nana a wonderful meal as we prepared to receive the girls.

Nana taught the girls the significance of each portion of the Lord’s Prayer and then helped them make a beautiful bracelet to remember the message

We loaded the girls and leaders and family into the vehicles and attended church together the following Sunday.  Each girl got a new bible and several asked for Bilingual bibles so as to train to be a translator in the future.  It’s exciting to see the desire so strong in their hearts!

Working with the girls has been a true pleasure and would not be possible without your support.  We covet your prayers as they sustain us.  Many of you reach out to specifically say you are praying for dates and logistics within these newsletters.  We believe the power of prayer is a mighty way to help here on the ground.  Thank you!

Please pray for

• Safe journey home for Nana May 1st.

• Arrival and mighty impact of “The Porch Church” team May 31st for 5 days

• Arrival and mighty impact of “The Fix & Mother’s Heart Team” June 7th for 1 week

• Travel for Jordanna and kids June 16th to Virginia

• Rose Union Baptist Church Fundraiser June 28

• Women’s Connect Ministry Fundraise at Beale Aug 9

• Pledged funds from large New England company to arrive for Multiuso Construction 

• Continued patience for Jordanna’s renewed health

• The gospel to pierce deeply the hearts of all we minister to here