2026: October

In just a few months, we will celebrate seven years of living in Costa Rica. While the “Seven-Year Itch” may have you wondering if we’re ready to shake things up a bit, we actually feel quite steady and excited as we look ahead to what the Lord has next for us.

This is the longest we have lived in one place since we were married—and for Jordanna, since childhood. The Lord has certainly kept us on our toes throughout these years leading up to 2027, and we know He will faithfully carry us through whatever this next season holds.

We still remember packing up our 1- and 4-year-old children just six weeks before the global pandemic of 2020 and moving them to a new land. We have experienced so much change, both locally and globally, but through it all, the Lord continues to draw us closer to Himself. We certainly miss our family in the U.S., and we enjoy our visits back to Virginia even more because of it. Now that the children are 8 and 11 and are such great travelers, we hope to make the trip back every Christmas and summer.

River and Windsor are doing very well in third and sixth grade, and we could not be prouder of the young people they are becoming.

In October, Costa Rica celebrates Culture Day, and the different grade levels at River and Windsor’s school were each assigned a country to study and present. River was very excited to be assigned to Norway, where he got to study about the Vikings. Windsor’s class studied Peru, and we enjoyed sampling foods from many different countries around the world.

Jordanna continues to serve on the school board for Horizon International School. In August, they will open the doors to their new facility, which will include 20 new large classrooms, a cafeteria, library, worship space, and more. It has been exciting to watch God bring expanded opportunities for Christian education to Jaco.

There are currently 80 students in the school, with room for that number to grow to four times as many in the future, Lord willing. We are eager to see Jaco turned upside down for Christ!

Swim lessons have become a consistent weekend event at a pool a few towns over, thanks to the kindness and generosity of Ann & Scotty Reimer of Horizon Church.

Seth, Kenneth, Vinicio, and Dany have become deeply invested in the lives of these boys, both on Saturdays in the pool and Sundays in the classroom. It has been so neat to watch the boys progress in their swimming ability while also growing in their ability to memorize Scripture.

What a beautiful parallel! We are equipping this next generation with survival skills for life in so many different ways. To God be the glory!

We are now halfway through our training of the NOW Costa Rica leaders through Ministry Safe and The Pillars Program. We are very excited to see what the Lord will do in the new year as these leaders take what they are learning and use this material to teach our students.

We are praying and planning for approximately 30–40 boys and 75 girls each weekend in the new year. Many of the first lessons focus on the foundational truths of our faith, and we are especially seeking prayer for students who may be ready to take the bold step of being baptized as a public profession of their faith in Jesus.

Won’t you pray for that with us?

The latter portions of the material focus on pillars of character—qualities that should begin to grow and bear fruit in our lives as we surrender ourselves to God’s ways. Please pray for softened hearts as we address cultural norms that have existed here for decades, particularly in areas such as modesty, purity, respect, and helping this generation understand that their bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit.

Please be in prayer for our leaders: Merary, Kenneth, Vinicio, Dany, Seth, Amanda, Channel, Rita, Jennifer, Doneira, and Alejandra.

Our girls’ classes have been on pause during our Saturday teacher training, but the Praise Dance team has been steadily learning new choreography. It is so neat to see the girls wanting to be on the property and worshiping together through movement, Scripture, and song.

Their presentations are always so full of joy, and we love watching them sing and proclaim the truths they have been learning through their weekly dance practices. Here is a picture of the girls with one of the teams who visited us last month.

We will have two teams visiting in November, and the girls are thrilled to have the opportunity to show them all they have been learning!

We hosted our first-ever Family Worship Night, led by one of our boys’ leaders, Vinicio, a graduate of Finca de Esperanza.

Vinicio had a vision to use the stage as a place for worship, and he has brought that vision to life on Sundays with the boys and now through Family Worship Nights for our families. It was such a joy to watch the boys lead their own parents with enthusiasm as they sang the words they have learned week after week with Vinicio during worship.

One boy, Brandon, even recited two Bible verses from memory on stage in front of all the families!

Afterward, two parents approached me and shared that as they watched their young sons singing praises to God, tears came to their eyes.

We are praying for generational change. What a beautiful thing it was to witness.

We are so very close to reaching our goal for the instructional pool, with just a few thousand dollars remaining before we can break ground!

We believe having this pool on our property will open so many opportunities. Not only will we be able to provide essential survival skills to students who live in flood zones, but we will also be able to hold baptisms and teach job-readiness skills such as lifeguarding and swift-water training for eco-tourism jobs.

We already love teaching this next generation English—the language of tourism here—and we see the pool as another bold step toward helping these young people build a different future for themselves and combat the lure of the sex trade and drug industries in Jaco.

As we close this month’s newsletter, I stand in awe of all the Lord has provided, and I cannot express how thankful I am for each of you who faithfully give to this mission month after month, read these newsletters to the end, pray for us, and show such genuine care for our family and this ministry.

It truly means the world to us.

Where would we be these last seven years without you?

God’s people are so mighty when we are united in His work! We see you, we appreciate you, and we are incredibly grateful for you.

And please, write back and let us know how we can be praying for you. We love hearing what is happening in your lives, too.

New Mission Team Approach

Jordanna has the wonderful support of a Board of Directors and an Advisory Council who have helped to create a framework for mission teams.  Her volunteer coordinator and financial director meet with team leaders and mission directors from church partners to evaluate options for mission teams coming to serve alongside NOW Costa Rica.  In the new year, NOW Costa Rica will announce specific weeks they are hoping to have mission teams come to provide a Rewards Day for students.  Boys and Girls in each discipleship course earn points for attendance, behavior, work ethic, timeliness.  They are rewarded about once a quarter, give or take, with a Rewards Day.  We are now inviting church partners to take on one reward day as a part of their mission to come in one of three months: June, September & December. For more information and to learn about what training requirements exist for mission teams, email jordanna at jordanna.ailor@nowcr.org 

Prayer Request

As inflation continues to affect us all and the value of the U.S. dollar continues to decrease here in Costa Rica, we are seeing an increasing need for additional monthly supporters.

If you know of anyone who might be interested in hearing more about our ministry and potentially joining our monthly support team, would you please let Jordanna know?

Our family will be in the Tappahannock and Waynesboro areas December 20–January 1 and again during the month of July. We would be delighted to share about all the good things the Lord is doing here and talk about how others can become partners with us in this work.

You never know what God might do through something as simple as helping us set up one Zoom call with someone who may be looking for a ministry to support.

We are praying for 12 more monthly partners in 2027 who can help us provide stipends for our teachers, resources, snacks, and transportation for our students, as well as maintain the facility the Lord has so graciously blessed us with.

Will you commit to praying for these 12 families to rise up?

And will you help us find just one family who would be willing to connect virtually with Jordanna to learn more about how God is changing lives in Herradura?

May God richly bless you this season. May words of gratitude fill your hearts and minds, no matter what troubles come your way.

God bless you,

Jordanna, fam & team