What a blessing and a privilege it is to be working here and see the fruits that the Holy Spirit has cultivated through the ministry of Pura Vida Missions. Between the short term trips over the past 7 years that I have interned for and these past 4 months of service with my wife, I have spent probably a little over a years worth of time here; and I have seen so much. We always tell our missionaries that it may "seem" insignificant what they do. I mean how is playing jump rope and painting Jesus' robe blue in a craft really going to prepare this child to pick up his cross and follow Christ? Well I can confidently tell you that in the 7 years that Pura Vida has ministered to San Ramon, these children are beginning to pick up their crosses and follow Jesus.
At Church last Sunday in Linda Vista, we had probably a total of 14 people; decent numbers for this small, poor, heavily Mormon ministered town. Half of these numbers were kids, 5 of which came without their parents! Pastor Carlos made a wonderful comment in Church as he noticed his demographics; "mira las frutas de nuestro hermanos Norte Americanos de Pura Vida Missions. Aquí están los niños que tienen a ministerd." Which means look at the fruit of our N. America brothers from PVM. Here are the kids they have minister to. "Wow", I thought. When I was these kids age, you could not have paid me to not only go to Church without my parents, but also sit through a loud, 2 hr service.
Then, Marjorie and Natalya were discipiling a family in our sponsorship program last week, and as they were talking about how Jesus is the way the truth and the life, the mother spoke up and said that she believed that all religions worshiped the same god and that all ways lead to heaven. Before the girls could step in, her teenage son respectfully corrected his mother with truth from scripture on how Jesus IS the ONLY way to the Father! What?!? That story blew me away when the girls came back and shared that with me. Disciples with a boldness are being created in this program!
Last, Pura Vida Missions has never experienced such interest from within Costa Rica to have volunteers. After this summer, all of our 'Tico' translators have expressed a desire to continue working with (either full-time or volunteer) Pura Vida Missions and we have had inquiries from people who only know about us! The point is, the presence of this ministry has settled its roots deeply here and the people of this land want a part of whatever the Holy Spirit is doing. Pura Vida Missions is now raising up leaders in this land to take San Ramon for the Lord!
Please continue to pray for us and this ministry; that the Lord will be gracious unto us and continue to allow us to grow and show us where the need is in this city.
¡Pura Vida!
Jamie Clemens
No comments:
Post a Comment