May and June 2011

 As usual, see assembly figures at:
http://carlosulatecostarica.blogspot.com/p/statistics.html

Sorry for the lack of data in some of the weeks.

Enlargement and remodeling of the auditorium were completed. The church has enough room for Sunday morning services. It really makes a difference in comfort. Two new Sunday School classrooms were set up and finished in the area where the resident family used to live (This family moved back to Nicaragua). I will be posting pictures of the auditorium very soon.

Rebeca Ulate in the Babies Class

Here I am sharing a picture of Rebeca Ulate in the Babies Sunday School room.


Responsibilities are being fulfilled by the different people in charge —Roberto Ulate coordinates the worship services, Norberto Ross coordinates the song leaders, Daniel Delgado is the treasurer, Luis Montero is in charge of facilities, Andrés Delgado leads the Youth Group, Damaris García leads the Ladies on Thursday morning, Roxana Ulate is the Sunday School director. I am still in charge of coordinating the preaching, and the Support Group for Men.  Andrés Hernández is now the chairman of the Business Meetings (technically I am now under their direction).

Jéssica and Fátima

Now, I am sharing a cute picture of Jéssica and Fátima, when they where showered by the ladies. In the picture they are pointing at the name of the baby they are expecting. Those are boy's names. Hopefully no surprise with them being girls.

By the way, Fátima's husband is Ismael Álvarez, a 34 year old Nicaraguan immigrant. He has developed to become someone who can do the preaching on Sunday morning. God has blessed him with public speaking talents. He is also very faithful and attends all activities. He is part of the group of men the church can count on for leadership and teaching.

God has used the Support Group for Men to provide us with men that we can count on.  There are 6 men who have become loyal to the group. They are truly growing spiritually, and they are learning to help other men. When they go to other men, to try to restore them, they have the Scriptures and a powerful testimony of their own, about how much the Lord has turned them around.

We have learned to appreciate the fact that many men are hurting because they are losing or have lost their families. The reason for this loss is common —somewhere they lost their leadership or never developed leadership as a result of not having been faithful to the Lord. Somehow, they hadn't learned to see God as the Father He truly is. If one is not convinced deep in his heart that he is truly a child of God, he needs to find ways to keep his self-esteem high. Usually these ways of keeping his self-esteem high end up hurting others, especially his wife and children, by neglecting them and not learning to love them in a way that meet their needs, or by becoming abusive and difficult to bear with. The wife and the children get tired of such a husband or father, and then he doesn't know what to do to recover their love and respect. This reaction from the family usually worsen his behaviour and attitudes, and then they are bound to become a broken home. In some of the cases we have worked with, the man is already starting a new home with another woman with children, and the pattern is about to be repeated. This is where the Lord is using us to be His instruments to bring hope and healing to men who then can be used to help other men. The Lord has led us to experience the blessings of growing in our sonship, and appreciating His Fatherhood. This is what the Gospel is supposed to produce. This is what salvation is supposed to be. We usually tell men that the Lord wants to save us from ourselves.

What about the women? Well, most of the women in the Thursday morning group have lost their husbands or live with husbands who are not members of the church. So they help one another with prayer and Bible study to be able to cope with their circumstances. They have been doing this longer than the men, so they are ahead of us in their growth and have healed from their wounds. Little by little they have brought other women around. Eunice, Griselda, and Lucy are names I can remember.

May the Lord continue to help us with this ministry. The people at Bammel who are supporting this work can rest assured that the Lord is using them to bring blessings to the lives of many people in Costa Rica.

March and April 2011

Assembly measures for these months are available at:

http://carlosulatecostarica.blogspot.com/p/statistics.html

There is a video on Youtube you might want to watch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b45VNSpbVDs

Two people were added through baptism —a young lady, and a single mother. They are attending faithfully. Many people continue to visit.
The church is little by little becoming autonomous, in other words, they already carry out activities and make decisions in which I don't have to be involved anymore. Hopefully, there will be a time when they will be able to function as an indigenous church —self-governing, self-supporting, and self-propagating. "Indigenous" means that it has elders, it supports its own preacher, and it is able to plant other churches.

Raquel, Rebeca and waiters

Example of an activity in which I was not involved: Daniel Delgado, Raquel Urquilla, Milady Masís, and Noris Milanés formed a committee to carry out what they called a Romantic Dinner. 24 married couples attended. The youth group helped as waiters. They even dressed as waiters. Luis Montero (the young man wearing a bow tie) not only wore the most complete waiter's attire, he also did a great job at serving. A lesson on marriage was taught by Herman Chandler, the preacher in Cañas, province of Guanacaste. Roxana and I wered invited and were delighted to be there as guests. 

Example of a decision in which I was not involved: A wall was torn down in order to enlarge the auditorium. Roofing of that section has been completed, and finishing is underway. We are finally having Sunday morning services where nobody has to sit outside. The atmosphere is cooler (actually not as hot), and there is room for up to 120 people sitting comfortably (actually less uncomfortably). The money spent was little more than one third of what the remodeling committee had originally thought. The budget went down from 8.000 to 3.000 because the Facilities Committee postponed the remodeling of the restrooms, and found another contractor. The 3.000 dollars being spent this time had already been collected in a period of three months. The two children classes, whose rooms were taken for this enlargement of the auditorium, are now meeting in the rooms left by the Nicaraguan family that was living there as guardians of the building (this family just moved back to Nicaragua). Everyone was invited by the Facilities Committee to participate in the tearing down of the wall. So, I was there, one Saturday mornig under the Committee's orders.

Wednesday nights are something these days. Attendance has slowly risen to 50 (The last report was between 30 and 40 in January). The only explanation for this is that people are hungrier for the Word of God. What we have is just a normal Bible class, with participation, of course, from those who want to make comments.

February 2011

February was a key month. We tried the two service arrangement. The church was told to choose between two services, one at 9:00, and a second one, at 11:30, with Sunday School in between, from 10:30 to 11:15. Well, we didn't pass the test. The second service ended up being attended by 5 or 10 people.  Besides, there was no significant increase in the attendance.  The low critical mass factor during the second service scared us, so we decided to go back to the previous arrangement.

The church is still making a special collection for the expansion of the auditorium, and some needed remodeling. This remodeling is enforced by the new law. There is a need for a new bathroom for the handicapped. The treasurer tells me, there is already an amount of 2000 dollars. We need 8,000 dollars, so we have 6,000 dollars to go. God willing, we will reach the goal in two or three months.

I have been devoting many nights to personal Bible Study and counseling with men. During these nights, I have had Roberto Ulate, Norberto Ross, Guillermo Arroyo, and Carlos Brenes assisting me at different times. The Lord blessed us in February with two additions that resulted from this work. The first addition is a 42 year old man who was baptized on the first Sunday of the month. He is Supervisor of small contracts for ICE, our public Telecom and Power company. We have continued to study and counsel with him, for three more weeks after his baptism. A second addition is a physician, whose wife has been a member. He grew up in an evangelical church, was baptized as a young man, so we received him as a convert who has needed restoration, which continues to this date. We have found out that the best time for this work is between 9 and 12 pm. There are no traffic jams, and all of us are off from work.

Roxana has been doing her part, with assistance from Noris Ulate. The wife of one of the men was added to the membership. She is also someone who had been converted as an evangelical. So, we had three additions during the month of February. Damaris Astorga continues to reach out to the ladies on Thursdays, in the morning. Milady Masís continues to lead the prayer meeting on Monday evening. Another woman who has grown a lot is Cecilia. She has been teaching the ladies, along with Damaris.


We are very excited about this growth. We believe it is the result of the relational approach we are using. We evangelize trying to meet people's personal needs. We go to two by two. We try to develop a strong bond of friendship with the one being evangelized. Going two by two means that another member learns from the more mature worker (2 Timothy 2:2). Also, there is moral support given to one another, and the workers end up being encouraged and reinforced in their faith. We emphasize developing a personal relationship with God. This relationship must be real, a true source of love, joy, and peace for the worker. When people see this in our lives, they will want to have it too.

January 2011

Click on the link below to see the January 2011 figures:
http://carlosulatecostarica.blogspot.com/p/statistics.html

Our treasurer is a very busy man. So it is very difficult to get hold of the financial data. I guess I will publish these in combined form at the end of the first quarter of 2011.

After the Christmas break between school cycles, attendance has returned to normal levels. There was one baptism during this month —a 16 year old girl. Her family is also attending as visitors. Ten people placed membership over the last six months—a family of five, a family of three, and two adults. There are also two newborns. We had some losses too –three who moved out of town, and six whom we haven't seen in quite a while.

Crowding continues to be a problem. A fund for expansion is being collected. The idea of having two services on Sunday morning is being considered. There was no more Sunday evening service after the fourth Sunday of this month.

Attendance to Wednesday to Bible Study was between 30 and 40. The Youth Group has had attendance levels between 30 and 45.  The ladies have two prayer sessions during the week, one on Monday evening, and another one on Thursday morning. They pray for one another and many answers to these prayers are now visible in the spiritual growth that some of the ladies exhibit.

December 2010

See December 2010 figures at:

http://carlosulatecostarica.blogspot.com/p/statistics.html
There is no school during most of December and January. Many families and individuals spend this time in their hometown of home country. Many Nicaraguans are in their country these days. This explains the low attendance figures in the last two weeks of the month.

November 2010

See the November 2010 figures at:   http://carlosulatecostarica.blogspot.com/p/statistics.html

Now I quote Psalms 127:1: “Unless the LORD builds the house, they labor in vain who build it; unless the LORD guards the city, the watchman keeps awake in vain.”

The Lord continues to build the house here in Heredia. The support coming from the Bammel church for this missionary has been helpful. Your involvement with this work allows me to experience the beautiful experience of serving Him through serving others. God’s healing grace is being shared with members and visitors. Many members are learning to grow spiritually. They want to be able to bear the fruit that will convince others of their authenticity and will also draw them to Christ.

The changes I have observed in the lives of some members here has motivated them to serve as leaders of the church. I am not alone in this work. They are truly sharing my vision of a self-sufficient church. The Facilities Committee presented a budget and a decision was made about enlarging the auditorium so that more people can be accommodated. There is a possibility of making it big enough for 130 people sitting comfortably. This will cost us $8,000. The monthly contribution will have to be doubled to be able to reach this goal in the next four months. Remodeling will begin as soon as half the amount has been raised. God willing, it will start in two months.

Why not make it big enough for 200, or 300? Well, they need to go one step at a time. The present building has some design limitations that obligate them to go from the present capacity of 90 to that of 130.

The idea of having two services to be able to accommodate more people didn’t prove helpful enough for real growth. If you compare assembly figures for November 2010, with those of November 2009, there is no significant difference in growth that could be attributed to the idea of two services. The assembly figures for the PM services continue to be the same, in spite of having room for growth during this service. People seem to prefer to attend the AM service. There is a psychological impact in the morning that cannot be used for an increased attendance, due to space limitations.

The problem of irregular members that need to be restored continues to be an issue. A shepherding effort needs to be implemented. Thankfully, a few men have been meeting with me every Saturday at 5 pm for more than one year. I call this group Support for Men. In Spanish is “Hombres con Problemas” (Men with Problems). These are the ones I see as having potential for becoming elders in a not so far future. Hopefully the Lord is seeing the same. They are praying with me and growing spiritually. Little by little they are becoming aware of the need for shepherd’s work. They are learning to grow spiritually, so that they can help others do the same. They are praying for the members in the list that need to be restored. I still don’t see them doing active visitation. The Lord said, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.” We are in the praying stage of this process. I trust the Lord that He will be the One doing the sending. Attendance to this group went up to 12 during one of the weekends. The lowest number attending was 6.

Ester is already a Licensed Psychologist. She continues to do course work for a Master’s Degree in Clinical Psychology. She was asked to teach a group of 200 ladies from the churches around Costa Rica. She spoke about how to deal with depression. After the talk, many ladies were in line to be counseled by her.

 

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.

 

September 2010

The assembly measures have been updated up to October 10, 2010. Click on the following link
 http://carlosulatecostarica.blogspot.com/p/statistics.html

You may notice that attendance has increased significantly. Monthly average went up to 116 for the month of September. We are at full capacity in the AM service. We can not grow anymore due to limitations imposed by the current facilities. The pm service has relieved only a little bit the crowding on Sunday morning.

There were additions to the fellowship during this month. Olga, Guiselle, and Camila, placed membership.  They are grandmother, mother, and daughter.  Camila is in the children age group. They used to be members in Barva. Esteban, from the church in Guápiles moved to Heredia and placed membership with us too, and found a job at one of the stores of the Hernández-Brenes family. He is in the teenagers group. Also added to the fellowship was Alicia, a young woman from Nicaragua. Her younger brother Bismarck, and her baby were also added to the children list.  Jesús, Javier, and Daniela were also added to the children list.  They are part of a family from the South that just completed their move to Heredia.  So this is a total of ten additions.

The mid-week service continues to attract an average of 25 people.

The most mature members are organizing themselves to tackle the problem of the facilities. They had a meeting in which they decided to create a special account to save money for a project that will include a budget to be presented to the church.

June-July-August 2010

If you want to see the raw numbers, please click on the following link:
http://carlosulatecostarica.blogspot.com/p/statistics.html

Please put up with the configuration of the tables. It is difficult for me to create tables in HTML language. Also, you may notice the contribution figures are not posted yet.  The treasurer hasn't been able to give the file with the figures, because he was in El Salvador for more than two weeks in August. His name is Daniel Delgado. By the way, there are news regarding this dear brother. He had been dating a girl from a church in San Salvador, and he just married her. That was the reason for his trip to El Salvador. Daniel works for a local bank, and goes to college on the weekends.

The last three months have been a period of growth.  Some people were added to the fellowship. Two ladies were baptized: Lizeth and Ofelia. This is the result of the work of committed ladies who are evangelizing because it is just natural for them to do so. Two new men have become members. We have studied with them and decided that they were scripturally baptized. They consider it a blessing to have found a New Testament church. They are Claudio and Guillermo.  They are also the result of the natural outreach done by committed men.  One more lady immigrated from Nicaragua and she is a faithful member. We need to count Raquel, Daniel's new wife from el Salvador. Claudio is a stable family man.  He just retired from teaching in the Public School System at 52 years of age. We just hope that his wife and children will follow him, because this could help him become a leader in the church. Guillermo is a retired college professor, very committed and mature spiritually. He reaches out to me personally, and he has a lot of respect for what we are doing.

I have a list of 95 adults, 13 teens, and 27 children, a total of 135 members. To this we must add a steady attendance of at least 15 visitors.  However, there are about 25 adult members  who are very irregular in their attendance. Actually, some visitors are more committed than these adults. Also, some families struggle to be able to make it to services.  This is due to them living a little bit too far and not having a vehicle. So, we don't see them at the services all the time, but they are relatively faithful.  Some members have been falling in the habit of not worshipping at the AM service, because they think it is possible to do it at the PM service. However, when it is time for them to start leaving home to be at church at 5 pm, it is raining so heavily that they just miss services altogether (So they tell me).

The NE Bible Study Group merged with the Midweek service in the church building. So, attendance to the Midweek service rose from an average of 13 to an average of 22. The leaders of the NE Group explained that they did not have time to prepare the lessons due to personal situations with work and family.

The Support Group for men continues to attract an average of 6 men.  This group includes Roberto, Norberto, and Carlos Brenes.  These three men are being built up and they are really maturing spiritually.  This is the result of their involvenment in a group where the truth is spoken in love and growth is received from the Head through the joints as each part does its work (Ephesians 4:15, 16).

The Youth Group has an attendance of 18. Roxana and I have had to get involved, because it has been difficult for the young leaders to carry such a responsibility.  They are young adults who are working and going to college at the same time.  So, we are helping with the teaching, and it has been very rewardint to see some young ones turning around from the world to Jesus.

The Singing Lessons group did not continue to meet. Too much rain in the afternoons discouraged some.  For other it was too long to be there from 3 pm for the Youth Group, and then stay two more hours for the singing lessons. Norberto appreciates the relief because it was too heavy on him too.  He attends all Bible studies during the week, and is helping with the Youth Group, but he Sunday PM service.

Our oldest daughter, Raquel, got married to her highschool sweetheart, Michael, after 7 years of going steady and having graduated from higschool. Michael happens to be one of our song leaders. The nest in begining to get empty. You may see the pictures in our Facebook wall.

Life between the AM and the PM service

Norberto Ross taking a break between the AM and PM services

Norberto Ross, music professor and church member, takes a break between the AM and the PM service, after lunch at the Ulates.  Norberto was expected to lead the singing for the first time at the evening service on July 18th, so we had him come home and spend the afternoon with us. We do have access to a common neighborhood area, where it is nice for a hammock and a well deserved "siesta" if the weather allows, of course, because it is raining too much these days. Norberto is a friend of Roberto, my brother. They have known each other for the last 12 years. We had asked Roberto to contact Norberto earlier this year because we needed a music professor to help us improve the singing. It was our intention to pay Norberto, and he had even figured out what his fees would be. When Norberto finally came and spent one Saturday afternoon with us, it was love at first sight between him and the church. So, forget charging us for the music lessons. He began attending immediately to most of the activities, and was baptized on February 21st. Roberto's changes in his life inspired Norberto to join us in our followship of Jesus. The fellowship with Norberto, and his participation in the Support Group for Men has proved effective in helping him become a faithful Christian. He led the singing at the evening service on July 18. It was the first time in many years we had a professional musician doing this in a church in Heredia. So, the picture doesn't represent Norberto's real life. He is the senior music professor at the Saint Jude School in Santa Ana, where they built a music classroom designed by him where he spends 42 hours a week teaching kids.

While pizza was being baked

There are special days in the life of a missionary. Yesterday was one of them. Norberto drove me to the Mitsubishi dealer to see if we could a find a part for my car.  It turned out that they didn't have it. The trip was to include a visit to his former mechanic who has his shop nearby, and a visit to meet María Elena, the mother of Norberto's daughter.  The visit to the mechanic was very helpful, as we were able to make a decission on the autopart (will have to look for it overseas). The visit to María Elena was the most exciting part of the trip. She turned out to be a wonderful woman, someone who had grown up in Cuba, listening to her Dad reading the Bible to her. Time was short, it was 5 pm and we were supposed to drive all the way across the valley to be in Heredia before 7:30 pm, for the Midweek service. She has a pizza shop next to her house. So she offered to prepare a large pizza for Norberto and I to take home. We had less than 30 minutes. While the pizza was being baked, we stroke up a spiritual conversation of a high caliber. It was evident that she understood key concepts of Christianity, which proves that God's Word doesn't return to Him empty as stated in Isaiah 55.11. When the pizza was ready, it was difficult for Norberto and I to part with María Elena. She had a profound Bible question: Why did the Lord put the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden? I had to promise her that we would get back very soon to help her with this and many more spiritual concerns. We made it back on time for the Midweek Bible Study in Heredia, where 24 people were waiting for us!  Guess what the Ulate family and Norberto had for supper?

Miriam Brenes, a member you can count on

Miriam Brenes is a charter member of this congregation. She owns a couple of small clothing stores for ladies, and helps her family run other businesses,so she is a very busy woman. She was one of the first converts when the church began in Barva, a small town North from Heredia. She was instrumental in moving the meeting location from this town to downtown Heredia, as she had a business here.  She lent the church a location on the second floor of a small building she rents for her business. In spite of being so busy, she finds time for her spiritual growth and it has paid off. The Lord used her to bring her three adult children to Him. Her husband has been attending faithfully for the last two years. Just recently, the Lord used her to restore a sister in law and a niece to fellowship. Two of the people her children and niece are dating have also been baptized and two more are already visiting and receiving Bible study. The Lord has truly made changes in her life, and He is using her to influence family members and friends. She and I agree on the importance of using our own lives as a testimony of what the Lord can do to change others. People need to see the results of the Lord's work in our lives for them to want to explore God's answers to their problems. It is very encouraging to count on Miriam as a faithful member whose life is an effective witness to family and friends.

Roxana and Ester Ulate in the Sunday School babies room

Roxana helps with organizing the Sunday School teachers.  Ester loves babies, she is special with them.  The babies are Lindsay, daughter of Fabián and member Vanessa, and Benjamin, son of members Jorge and María Eugenia.  They were born within the last 365 days.  Other babies born this year are Omar Gabriel and Sergio Andrés. They were already added to the list of members. The babies classroom just got painted and decorated. William Polio painted it, and the girls did the decoration.  The Sunday School hour goes from 9 to 9:45 am.