Posts Tagged ‘costa rica’
2011 was a great year of serving the Lord both in Costa Rica and the U.S. We have seen God’s hand at work in the spread of His love through transformed lives, families and communities and we look forward to what He has for our family as we continue to serve Him in Costa Rica.
WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT ! We can not return to serve in Costa Rica until we raise the funds for our ministry,thanks to many of you we are closer to reaching our goal. We will be doing weekly updates with the dollar amount needed as information is provided. For this matter we will appreciate a note from you when you make a pledge or donation so we can have accurate information.
We know that these are hard financial times for everyone but would you please consider making a one time tax deductible donation or partner with us in a monthly basis. Evey dollar counts!
Partner with us: https://give.fmcusa.org/leon
Or send checks to:
Free Methodist World Missions
770 N. High School Rd
Indianapolis, IN 46214 MEMO: LEON-MSA
You can make a pledge also for the year, that means even if you don’t have the money you can still help us now!
Just go to https://give.fmcusa.org/leon
Thank you so much, Leon Family & Pura Vida Church
This big lizard was caught by our boys on the beach right in front of our house. Some people have issues with gophers and squirrels we have to deal with vipers & salt water crocodiles.
Check out the video and come and see us we make sure that these guys won’t bother you!
Big Lizard (log in to facebook to watch the video)
Pura Vida, Dennis
Here we are with our trying to stay warm and making new friends in Denver. We are on the second leg of our partner building tour as we raise support to extend our time as missionaries serving in Costa Rica. It is so good to be part of the Father’s family; it crosses countries, cultures, ages, everything so that together we can be a shining light to all so that all may believe. We have experienced the love of this family in miraculous ways in the last month
We thank God for providing for all our needs as we prepared for this trip. We left Anthony, Esteban, our home, church and dogs in the best of hands with a whole team of loving people taking care of them while we are the US.
We began our journey two weeks ago in Florida where we experienced the best of southern hospitality! We were hosted by the Fisher family, where we were spoiled with southern cooking, great childcare and the best of tour guides Ormond Beach has to offer. To top it off we were able to meet wonderful people who wanted to hear about God’s work in Costa Rica and we are building a partnership with many of them to extend His love along the coast. We also got to visit Kyle’s cousin Joie and her family in Jacksonville, visiting the zoo and attending various sport events where her kids were the stars.
Now we are in Denver staying with 7 guys in their 20’s! They have a house where they are hosting nightly dinners where friends and family can come and share and hear about the ways God is displaying himself in Costa Rica. Many people here have been on short term mission trips to Esterillos so have a good idea of what is going on and it has been wonderful to connect with people we have not seen in a while and to meet new people. They have also been showing us the sights, the mountains are glorious!
Next we are on to California to catch up with friends and churches that partner with us there, as well as to spend some quality time with Kyle’s family. Elias is looking forward to dressing up as a red ninja on the 31st and to barbeque a turkey with his dad at the family Thanksgiving camping trip.
Love, Familia Leon, Following Jesus in Esterillos Oeste – Costa Rica
Selah misses her sink baths
If you would like to receive a hard copy of our prayer card with our info,
just send us and email with your physical address. Love Leon Family
On July 24th 2010, Surf Happens teams up with Pura Vida Church to present Playa Esterillos Surf Fiesta & Beach Cleanup! A group of Santa Barbara groms, and local tico kids and adults gathered for an all day beach cleanup and surf contest. Surf Happens provided cash and prizes to the finalists, pura vida!
BEING A BLESSING! by Kyle Leon….
You know you live in the tropics when your baby’s dirty diaper smells like mango! It is mango season in Costa Rica.There are about five different types of mangos that I have been able to identify and consume in the last 4 weeks.We have made mango pie, mango bread, mango smoothies, mango juice, mango popsicles, dried mango, fresh mango and mango lasi.After eating 3 courses of mango dishes yesterday Dennis brought home my favorite kind “mango Rosa” I ate two!Imagine a rose infused mango, that is what they taste like, and I hope they have them in heaven.Did I mention it is avocado season too!Our grocery bill has gone way down this month as you can imagine!
You may remember the saga of my oven.I love to bake and an oven was one of the things that we had been on the lookout for since we moved here.Dennis bought me one for Mother’s Day last year and it was a bit of a disaster, it even caught on fire at one point leaving me oven less again.About 4 months after that a friend gave us their old electric oven from the 70’s and it was amazing!I became the official birthday cake baker for the neighborhood.A few ladies mentioned wanting to learn to bake so I had them over one day showed them how to do yeast bread, cookies and biscuits.I also gave each of them a sack of flour so they could try at home. Little did I know that this was to be our first step into being a blessing by establishing microenterprises.Over holy week a local boy came to my door selling homemade bread.Not only was it delicious, a rarity in Costa Rica, but it was made by one of the ladies who had come to my house that day!I saw her later that week and complimented her on her baking skills.She told me what a blessing her little business has been to her family, enabling her to buy her three children the books and pencils they needed for school.
Pura Vida, Leon Family
Costa Rica Dream: Pura Vida goes back to its roots!!!
Vision:
“Establish culturally relevant churches to the beach communities of Costa Rica & beyond”
Mission (Process):
“Bring Christ to people one authentic relationship at a time.
Be Disciples and make Disciples of Christ.
Be a blessing to our Community.
Depend on the Holy Spirit for everything.”
Purpose: Why Costa Rica?
Tourism, foreign influence and money have impacted these beach communities in a negative way, creating “sin cities” where prostitution, drugs and violence are the norm.
Legalistic church tradition and lack of resources have led to stagnated congregations who intentionally do not reach out to their neighbors who are unlike themselves.
The Gospel message will never change, but the ways to communicate it do. We will never compromise the message of salvation through faith in Jesus’ sacrifice and resurrection.
However, we want to meet people exactly where they are in their life and deliver a message of love and hope in Christ in a way that is real to them.
“Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel that I may share in its blessings” 1 Corinthians 9:19-23
Ways we want to serve:
- Weekly worship service in Esterillos & Jaco (English and Spanish) (This once we have enough home groups to have weekly celebrations)
- Weekly Homegroup seeker friendly (English and Spanish) Esterillos-Jaco-Hermosa and other coastal communities
- Coffee shop office hours in Jaco:
- approachable and informal way to encourage people to talk to a pastor
- Christian Surfer Esterillos and support of Christian Surfers Jaco by providing a save place for them to send the people they reached
- Kids Club Esterillos – a weekend kids outreach based on building relationships
- Leadership Training Development for mature Christians (English and Spanish)
- Counseling and restoration (walking alongside listening) for those coming out of prostitution and drug addiction or just having a bad day
- Being an asset to the community in any possible way– often the church seeks help from the community we want to be a church that gives to the community. We believe that the church must have a positive influence in the community to believers and nonbelievers alike
- Empowering and caring for the future servants (leaders)
- Bridging cultural gaps
- Beach Camp for underprivileged inner-city children (twice a year)
Note: We are using Cell Church Principles for this Project:
- Priesthood of all believers
- Leadership development
- Exponential growth
- Cell/ Celebration
- Emphasis on relational evangelism
- Multi-cultural model
- Better use of financial resources
Accountability:
We acknowledge that one day we will be before God to give an account of the souls he entrusted into our care.
Locally:
We will be accountable to the National Superintend for Free Methodist.
We will be accountable to our Fellow US missionary Patrick Barret.
We will be accountable to our fellow Leaders. We want to lead as a team not as solo Pastor.
Internationally
We will give an honest bi-monthly report our US supporters and praying partners.
We will be accountable to the Santa Barbara FMC.
We will be accountable to the FM Southern California Conference.
We are seeking the accountability of the Free Methodist World Missions.
Please Pray:
- For our family. That we can be living examples of Christ’s love.
- For the harvest that God has prepared.
- That our ears can be attuned to His voice.
- That the coastal communities are transformed.
- That God lifts up local leaders.
- That Jesus’ message of love and hope will spread like wildfire!
If you want to support this non-profit ministry and be a blessing to the people of Costa Rica, send your tax deductible donation to Pura Vida Church, 1435 Cliff Drive- Santa Barbara- CA 93109 (Memo: Costa Rica)
