October 2010

See the October figures at:   http://carlosulatecostarica.blogspot.com/p/statistics.html

The church in Heredia is a healthy congregation. It is a church with a great potential for growth. There are two limiting factors though —the inadequate facilities and the lack of shepherds. The inadequate facilities affect the quality of the services. If the facilities were larger and more comfortable, people would profit a lot more from the worship and the teaching, which in turn would provide numerical growth. The lack of shepherds affect in the sense that many people don’t get the counseling and the encouraging they need to grow spiritually.

The first problem is being addressed by a group of members who are organizing themselves to provide leadership. A decision was made in order to reactivate the Facilities Committee. This Committee did a great job in the past, however, when the pressure for larger facilities was relieved because a temporary solution was found in having two services, the committee ceased acting. The good thing is that the local leadership is doing something about this. Once the committee is back in place, it will present plans for enlarging the auditorium, and improving the conditions of other rooms (the new laws require that we build bathrooms for the handicapped population). Once the budget for this project is known, it will be presented to the church. The financing with a local bank is being considered. The local members themselves are undertaking this task. They understand it is their responsibility to see to it that the church has adequate facilities. In other words, I am not the one doing it for them, which is consistent with my philosophy of missions.

The second problem is of a long-term nature. It takes time to have men and women who are mature enough to feel responsible for the spiritual well being of other members. Most of my teaching and preaching is geared towards this goal. Other members are getting the opportunity to preach and teach. There are four men who can do this. Also, among the women, there are four women who are actively engaged in the teaching of other women. This is the difficult part of mission work. We are talking about the spiritual building. As a missionary, I have to make sure that the people I teach will in turn be able to teach others (2 Timothy 2.2).
Heredia has a brand new public hospital. It is only two blocks away from the church building. The hospital is great. The equipment is modern. I can not say the same about the services. It is difficult to change public corporate culture. The new hospital has changed the landscape around the church building. It has made the church property more expensive. The church could get a better price if they wanted to sell it. The conditions of the streets are great. There is more traffic. Parking space has been reduced to a bare minimum. The property across street continues to look bad though. Thankfully there is a private project underway to develop this property.

We continue to have people who are studying with us. Three husbands of sisters are attending faithfully. Two of them have been doing it for the last two years. One started attending three months ago. This tells a lot about the great witness these sisters are to their husbands.

A group of ladies being taught by Damaris García

The family is doing well. Roxana continues to provide leadership to the ladies, along with Noris, Damaris, and Milady. There are new ladies rising to leadership. They are Frida and Cecilia. Roxana continues to organize the Sunday School efforts, and other ladies activities. Roxana is always busy with handcrafts at home. She keeps making oil paints. She also attends a handcrafts class every Tuesday morning. Raquel, 25, our oldest girl, married Michael Chacón three months ago. They rent an apartment in town. She and her husband Michael are faithful members of this congregation. Raquel still needs to finish college. She hopes to go back to school next year. Meanwhile she is helping her husband to make ends meet. Ester, 24, presented her thesis dissertation and was given an A+ at Universidad Nacional. God willing, on December 1st she will be given her Licentiate Degree wich will allow her to be incorporated as a licensed psychologist. Meanwhile she is already half through with course work for a Master’s Degree in Clinical Psychology, so she is going to classes at night and doing internship work at a public hospital. We may use her in Heredia for much needed counseling. Ester continues to be a faithful member at the church in Heredia. She helps with the babies, especially during the Sunday evening services, along with Roxana. I have to commend Roxana and Ester for their support during the Sunday evening services. Rebeca, 22, is half through with course work to get a bachelor’s degree in Pre-school education at Universidad Hispanoamericana. Rebeca and her fiancé David are faithful members at the Heredia church too. Rebeca and David are actively involved in the leading of the Youth Group, along with Andrés Hernández and Mindy Solano.