04-02-2008

just found this little picture here, one of eileen and me a few years back on a date. we used to go on dates, of course that´s not what we called them; that´s what i called them when i talked to myself.

this week we had alan bobbett down here along with doug melton. alan is director of the hebron program and doug works with the colts. both are serving in the addiction ministry now; doug runs an overcomers meeting in the sheridan county jail. he is also fluent in spanish. here is a picture of alan (left) and doug (right) in front of the cemetery. this is the cemetery next to the center where the addicts live.




here are the police looking for someone in the cemetery. i still have yet to see any sort of arrest made.




here´s a picture of carlos and me. what i don´t want to tell you is that he caught both these snapper. carlos was in the program back when i was here in december. he still lives there and acts as a leader in the house. he fishes everyday. he sells his catch or gives it to the program men. he´s doing very well, and it´s encouraging to see carlos come so far.




this is oscar. he is also a leader in the house. he speaks very good english and i teach him advanced english one hour a day, four or five days a week. he is the translater at our church. i have just begun taking him through operation timothy (this is a discipleship course). i will begin two others on operation timothy, with the help of oscar. these two other men, fer and david, want to learn english so i will be leading them through the operation timothy in english. we have it in spanish, but they have opted for english. john chorba and i are teaching these two english. we teach them twice a week.




it was john´s birthday this week, so we had a little party for him, cake at kim and laura´s house. he had the next day off and we all went four-wheeling and had a great time. john is left, doug is right, and goobie is kim and laura´s youngest, nice face goob cakes, nice hair cut too (one of his own creation).



first we went to the national park...

there are three beach coves in small manuel antonio national park. i forget what it´s called but there was an island that became attached to the mainland due to sediment, so there are two cove beaches on opposite sides of this land bridge that you can walk from one to the other in about 30 seconds, very cool.



here, alan takes a picture.



i see more of these things than i can count; here´s one for you to look at.


yes, these are different coves...opposite sides of the ismus.



pretty neat to have so many beaches so close together. also to have the rainforest border the ocean is unique. monkeys come all the way down to the shore. just off the sand is jungle.

...then we went four-wheeling...

these next pictures are sights that we saw while four-wheeling. notice, there are no action shots; believe me, we were going way too fast to attept to take any. all these pictures, before and after, are in chronological order.

alan and me...



doug and our very knowledgable guide, franklin. turns out, he lives a few doors down and is jeremiah´s boss at the mangrove tours. jeremiah is kim´s oldest son. quepos is a very small town.


a raptor hawk, i think...


and a man fishing in a remote river.


doug, john, franklin, and piña.



this was a great waterfall, i can´t wait to see it during the rainy season. right now, it is very dry, if you could imagine...



doug and i swimming to get the dirt off of us at a stop during our four-wheeling adventure. this was a little hole that was about 20 feet deep. notice the beard, it´s growing.


just me.




that was the end of our free day together. we had a good time. the other time that we had was spent in fellowship, reflection, and planning for the future down here.

we visited the other sites/donated property/and possible properties that will be expansion locations, prayed over them and dedicated them to the Lord.

i am excited in the way that the program has been progressing since i have been down here. it is very awesome to be allowed to see God work like He has been. it´s good to know that Christ is the solution to our problem called sin, and the the Bible gives us direction to live and overcome the power of sin, and what a blessing it is to have a fulfilling life in Christ. a fulfillment that i tried for so long to fill with so many other things. please pray for oscar as he is really digging in here and is taking more of a leadership role. he is interested in staying around and giving back to those coming out of addiction. we are working on putting together some sort of ministry training program. please pray for this.

i am very excited; my wife will be here with me in four days. this is great, what an exciting time. i can´t wait to share this ministry down here with her. i love you all, thank you for reading. thank you for your prayers most of all.

-jaredpc