Total attendance to the Sunday PM service is actually higher because we count only those who didn’t come in the morning.
Due to recent additions of Christians moving their membership to the Heredia church, the total number now includes 102 adults, 17 teenagers, and 23 children (142 members). The difference between the average attendance and the total in the list is due to the irregular attendance of some (142-107=35). Some of them haven’t come for quite a while, and others skip a lot. Sometimes we are tempted to strike their names out, but then we hesitate, because eventually they would show up. We are working on a database to be able to distribute names and phone numbers to those members who would be interested in restoring this difficult sector of the membership.
Combined contribution (AM + PM) for the month was $1943,24. Expenses went up to $1104,61.
II. Study Measures
Visitors in the Northwest Bible study include three men who have become regular. Only one of them attends church though. Work with these men includes long hours of counseling and dealing with marriage and family problems. Other visitors include the non-baptized children of the host family. Roxana and I are presently working with one of the daughters in this family, helping her struggle with personal issues (she is a child from a previous marriage). On top of this she had to quit college and take a job. Then she was fired after the three months trial period, and just recently another company hired her. We are having special sessions with her to help her feel loved and appreciated. We also encourage her to accept responsibility for her own life and help her understand that life doesn’t have to be easy.
Visitors in the Northeast Bible study include two men who have become regular attendants to the Sunday pm service. Their wives are members of the church. The fact that their husbands are attending tells a lot about their testimony. There are about three families involved in this Bible Study group.
III. Miscellaneous Narrative
We continued to have meetings on Wednesdays from 6:00 am to 7:00 am. There were between 5 and 7 men. During this month we were able to get two more men involved. We decided to call this group Men with Problems. We are praying for one another and helping one another with personal, marriage, and family problems. I am excited about being able to help these men; we need them to be doing really well spiritually, if we are ever going to have leaders in the church.
Part of December and the whole of January is when students have their “Summer School Break.” This congregation devotes one day to celebrate with the children. So Roxana and two of the girls gave of themselves to prepare a party for the children. 22 children and 22 adults attended. It was the day for their “piñata.” It was quite a bit of work. I am sure the children appreciated it.
Bob and Marion Marlow, and Geoff Casella were here four days and three nights. It was a great opportunity for the local church, my family, and I to renew our friendship with our sponsoring congregation. Without their support and oversight we would be seriously limited to continue with this work. It was encouraging to have them come and see for themselves the work they are sponsoring. We had the opportunity to exchange our points of view about mission work. Bob taught the Northwest Bible Study. Geoff was able to teach eight of the men who meet on Saturday evening. Thank you Bob, Marion and Geoff for coming to Costa Rica to see how we were doing. Your visit was very important for us here. Support without oversight would not be as meaningful.
