The Christmas celebrations are drawing to an end here in Costa Rica as the people look forward to a new year. The sounds of fireworks fill the air from dark until well after midnight every night. Sadly, many have no interest in the true reason for remembering and celebrating. This is why it is so important to reach the children now with the truth.
Our celebrations with the children and the church were hectic, but wonderfully blessed. With help from old friends and new friends we were privileged to make this Christmas a special time for 77 children. Saying thank you to all those who made this possible seems inadequate to express the gratitude and appreciation we feel! Making these young ones feel special and loved was possible because of all of you who cared and prayed and gave. Bless you!!!! Because not all 77 children are in the same location, we actually had 3 different parties. Thanks to you we were able to provide the children not only with a toy, but with some much needed clothing, shoes, and other personal items. We want to share a few photos with you of some happy, smiling faces as well as some shots of the gifts and food and the Christmas drama. Thank you so much for making this possible. We pray that God will greatly bless you in this coming year.
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Share the Blessings - Update
Christmas is just around the corner and we want to update you on the Christmas gift situation. As you know from reading our newsletter, we are providing a gift for 75 children. In my last post I shared with you that 50 of the children have been provided for, leaving only 25. God is so good and gracious. There are now only 12 children who are still without a gift. Please keep this need in your hearts and prayers, and share it with others. God, through His people, can make the difference for these precious little ones. If you feel lead to help with this, please contact me through the comment option at the end of this post or at our email address: nolascoincostarica@hotmail.com Blessings from Costa Rica.
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Share the Blessing
The time is rapidly approaching when we will remember the birth of God's Son, Jesus Christ. For many people that means the giving of gifts to friends and family, and to those who are less fortunate. It is time to give to others as God so unselfishly gave to us. Each year we, the Nolasco family, here in Costa Rica strive to share the meaning and the joy of this special time with the children we work with in the ministry. This year we have 75 children. To date we have been blessed by finding enough donations to provide a gift for 50 of the children. We still need help to provide for the other 25. As many of you know, we work with children who live in extreme poverty and many of them are in abusive situations as well. For these precious young ones a gift of love and kindness is something they have experienced far too rarely in their lives. We are truly in need of your help and your prayers as we seek to meet the needs of these remaining 25 children. We are hoping to have approzimately $20 per child. This will allow us to purchase them clothing or shoes or personal items such as toothpaste and shampoo or school supplies, and possibly a small toy like a doll or a car. If any of you would like to help meet this need we would be most grateful. you may contact us by leaving a comment on this post or by emailing us at nolascoincostarica@hotmail.com . The slideshow is photos of the 25 still to be provided for. Blessings to you and yours.
  |   |
Friday, September 28, 2007
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Friday, August 24, 2007
Recipes from around the World #2
IRISH SODA BREAD
Irish soda bread contains no baking powder. It will rise because of the acid/alkaline combination of buttermilk and baking soda. After baking, you are to wrap the bread in a slightly damp towel and let it rest for at least 8 hours. Of course, who can wait that long! You need to at least let it cool so it will slice well.
4 cups flour
1 ½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups buttermilk
Preheat oven to 375ºF. Grease baking sheet or a round cake pan. In a large mixing bowl, stir together all the dry ingredients. Add the buttermilk and stir the a fork until the dough holds together. Knead on a floured surface for 30 seconds. Then place into the cake pan, patting it out to about 1 ½ inches thick. Using a sharp knife dipped in flour, slash a large X across the top. This should be about ¼ inch deep. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until nicely brown and the X spreads open. Place on a rack to cool. Afterwards wrap in a slightly damp towel and allow the bread 8 hours to rest.
This is great with the Irish Coddle from the earlier recipe. Just slice off a slab of bread and spread on lots of butter. Remember, this bread is moist, tender, and rather heavy.
Irish soda bread contains no baking powder. It will rise because of the acid/alkaline combination of buttermilk and baking soda. After baking, you are to wrap the bread in a slightly damp towel and let it rest for at least 8 hours. Of course, who can wait that long! You need to at least let it cool so it will slice well.
4 cups flour
1 ½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups buttermilk
Preheat oven to 375ºF. Grease baking sheet or a round cake pan. In a large mixing bowl, stir together all the dry ingredients. Add the buttermilk and stir the a fork until the dough holds together. Knead on a floured surface for 30 seconds. Then place into the cake pan, patting it out to about 1 ½ inches thick. Using a sharp knife dipped in flour, slash a large X across the top. This should be about ¼ inch deep. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until nicely brown and the X spreads open. Place on a rack to cool. Afterwards wrap in a slightly damp towel and allow the bread 8 hours to rest.
This is great with the Irish Coddle from the earlier recipe. Just slice off a slab of bread and spread on lots of butter. Remember, this bread is moist, tender, and rather heavy.
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Recipes from around the World # 1
This is a favorite with my family. Hope you enjoy it.
CODDLE
Nationality: Irish
Preparation time: 40 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour
Serves: 4 (large portions)
8 sausages (pork or beef)
4 strips of bacon
2 large onions, chopped
2 large leeks, sliced
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
6 large potatoes, peeled and sliced
¼ teaspoon of sage
¼ of thyme
Black pepper
Salt
¾ cup of chicken broth (can use apple cinder)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Place sausages in a pan, cover with cold water, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and let cook uncovered for 7 minutes. Drain off water and set the sausages aside.
Slice the bacon strips into 1 inch pieces. Place in a skillet and cut for 1 minute.
Add the onions, leeks, garlic, sage and thyme to the bacon. Saute until the vegetables are transparent. Remove bacon and vegetables from the skillet.
Place the sausages in the skillet and fry them in the remaining bacon drippings.
Place the potato slices in a cassarole dish. Top with the bacon/onion mixture. Sprinkle with black pepper and add the chicken broth.
Lay the sausages on top.
Cover the dish with foil and place in the oven.
Bake for 1 hour.
****************************************************
This is great served with Irish Soda Bread. I will share that recipe with you next time.
Blessings from Costa Rica
CODDLE
Nationality: Irish
Preparation time: 40 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour
Serves: 4 (large portions)
8 sausages (pork or beef)
4 strips of bacon
2 large onions, chopped
2 large leeks, sliced
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
6 large potatoes, peeled and sliced
¼ teaspoon of sage
¼ of thyme
Black pepper
Salt
¾ cup of chicken broth (can use apple cinder)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Place sausages in a pan, cover with cold water, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and let cook uncovered for 7 minutes. Drain off water and set the sausages aside.
Slice the bacon strips into 1 inch pieces. Place in a skillet and cut for 1 minute.
Add the onions, leeks, garlic, sage and thyme to the bacon. Saute until the vegetables are transparent. Remove bacon and vegetables from the skillet.
Place the sausages in the skillet and fry them in the remaining bacon drippings.
Place the potato slices in a cassarole dish. Top with the bacon/onion mixture. Sprinkle with black pepper and add the chicken broth.
Lay the sausages on top.
Cover the dish with foil and place in the oven.
Bake for 1 hour.
****************************************************
This is great served with Irish Soda Bread. I will share that recipe with you next time.
Blessings from Costa Rica
Monday, August 6, 2007
July 2007 Newsletter
Wanted to share our latest newsletter with you all.
Nolasco News
Apdo. 129-2350
San Jose, Costa Rica, Central America
nolascoincostarica@hotmail.com
July 30, 2007
Dear Friends and Family in Christ,
What an awesome GOD we serve and how wonderful are His blessings.
After attending Eli´s graduation in the U.S., Kathie and I returned to Costa Rica on May 18th. We began to make final preparations for the June 30th arrival of the puppet team from Pennsylvania: finalizing the presentation schedule, determining by who and where meals would be provided, preparing sleeping quarters for the eight-member team, planning out their free-day of sightseeing, running 3600 copies of activity sheets, and posting promotional flyers about the presentations. During those weeks before the team´s arrival, the enemy was very busy trying to shut down the church in Nazaret. Three attempts were made. The Catholic church provides funds for food to some of the families who were allowing their children to attend Sunday School. The priest visited them and threatened to stop the help if the children continued to attend the “evangelical meetings”. Of course, several children stopped attending. Another incident happened when there was a ritual of some sort at the Catholic church for the entire neighborhood. Many did not attend because they were in Sunday School with us. Because of their absence at the ritual, a woman visited every home trying to get up a petition to have us thrown out of the community center, but was not able to get enough names. The same woman went house to house threatening and insulting people, warning them not to allow their children to attend the VBS presentations. Two women from the community came to our church service just to listen and report about what we were teaching, whether or not we were speaking against the idol they worship. Kathie had asked to rent the community center for her ladies outreach ministry in Nazaret (these meetings were previously held at the home of Maria Elena, but since the recent birth of her grand-daughter who she cares for during the day while her daughter works, the meeting cannot be held there). Kathie was denied the use of the center because her devotions might encourage the ladies attending to be unfaithful to the worship of the “negrita”, the idol enshrined in the Catholic church in Cartago. We are still allowed to use the community center on Sunday mornings for church. We would appreciate your prayers about this situation. We have the opportunity to rent a house in Nazaret that has a large auditorium area, two rooms for Sunday School classes, and restrooms. However, it is $250/month that we don´t have available at this time. Having such a place would allow us to separate the children and have classes for their age groups, and to have a place to hold the Nazaret ladies meetings. Most importantly, we would not be in the community center where the community council can bring petition against us.
We need your help, the help of God´s people, to reach out and touch lives here in Costa Rica for Christ. The children of Costa Rica need Jesus because they so often have no one else to really care about them. But God cares and so do we. These children are the future of the gospel of Christ in Costa Rica. These children, many of whom are abused and neglected, need to know that someone loves and cares about them. We need you to help us help them, and unfortunately that requires money. As I have mentioned above in this letter, we need a place where we can meet with and work with these children. A permanent place, and for that we will need the help of God´s people. Land here is expensive and so is the cost of building. We have been teaching the children to give their offering and they understand about tithing. However, they are children. They have no income to tithe and very little to give in the way of offerings. Just to give you an idea, we have been working in Nazaret for 18 months and the total offering in that time has been less than $25. From whatever the Lord gives us through you, our supporters, we provide for the rent, the transportation for the children, the materials for Sunday School, and we feed the children a meal every Sunday. For many of them, this is the only decent meal they have all week. We need to be able to purchase a piece of property and build a place to house the church, or purchase property with a building(s) already on it. We need $80,000 to cover the cost of land and construction, or the cost of property with a building already in place. Our God is strong and mighty. He can provide for this need through His people if His people are willing to be used by Him. We humbly ask your prayers in this matter, and ask that you would allow Him through you, whether you are a church or an individual, to do great and wonderous things here in Costa Rica. We invite you to come and see the ministry; to come and see the needs so you might better understand our plea for your help.
The VBS puppet presentations were excellent and God greatly blessed. The presentations consist of a four-day program in each location. There are songs, memory verses, Bible stories, games, and activities. Presentations were done in six different locations: Nazaret, Pitahaya, Ochomogo, San Ramon de Alejuela, Santa Lucia de Paraiso, and Cervantes. During the 24 presentations the gospel was presented to 1,764 people and 221 came forward during the invitation for salvation. What a tremendous blessing! Having the puppet team here to work with us was a special privilege and words are not enough to express our gratitude or appreciation for their commitment, love, and sacrifice. During the time they were here (June 30th - July 14th) the bonds of fellowship grew strong and they all are very precious to us. We will miss them greatly.
Kathie´s ladies meetings are going very well, except fot the lack of a place in Nazaret where we are praying about a new location as mentioned earlier in this letter. A new group has been started in San Ramon de Alejuela bringing the groups to a total of six. Funding continues to be a problem. We are, however, most grateful to those who help meet the needs of the ladies ministry each month and encourage you to continue doing so. Please pray that others will feel lead to help as well.
Kathie has constructed a blog where you can see photos and read about the VBS puppet team as well as other aspects of the ministry. We hope you will visit the blog and please leave comments. Your thoughts are always much appreciated. We look forward to your visit. The blog address is: http://ministeringincr.blogspot.com.
As always we are blessed by your love, prayers, and support. May God keep you in His love.
Blessings,
Samuel Nolasco
If any of you are interested in helping meet the needs of the ministry here, please feel free to contact us for information on how you can help.
Blessings from Costa Rica
Nolasco News
Apdo. 129-2350
San Jose, Costa Rica, Central America
nolascoincostarica@hotmail.com
July 30, 2007
Dear Friends and Family in Christ,
What an awesome GOD we serve and how wonderful are His blessings.
After attending Eli´s graduation in the U.S., Kathie and I returned to Costa Rica on May 18th. We began to make final preparations for the June 30th arrival of the puppet team from Pennsylvania: finalizing the presentation schedule, determining by who and where meals would be provided, preparing sleeping quarters for the eight-member team, planning out their free-day of sightseeing, running 3600 copies of activity sheets, and posting promotional flyers about the presentations. During those weeks before the team´s arrival, the enemy was very busy trying to shut down the church in Nazaret. Three attempts were made. The Catholic church provides funds for food to some of the families who were allowing their children to attend Sunday School. The priest visited them and threatened to stop the help if the children continued to attend the “evangelical meetings”. Of course, several children stopped attending. Another incident happened when there was a ritual of some sort at the Catholic church for the entire neighborhood. Many did not attend because they were in Sunday School with us. Because of their absence at the ritual, a woman visited every home trying to get up a petition to have us thrown out of the community center, but was not able to get enough names. The same woman went house to house threatening and insulting people, warning them not to allow their children to attend the VBS presentations. Two women from the community came to our church service just to listen and report about what we were teaching, whether or not we were speaking against the idol they worship. Kathie had asked to rent the community center for her ladies outreach ministry in Nazaret (these meetings were previously held at the home of Maria Elena, but since the recent birth of her grand-daughter who she cares for during the day while her daughter works, the meeting cannot be held there). Kathie was denied the use of the center because her devotions might encourage the ladies attending to be unfaithful to the worship of the “negrita”, the idol enshrined in the Catholic church in Cartago. We are still allowed to use the community center on Sunday mornings for church. We would appreciate your prayers about this situation. We have the opportunity to rent a house in Nazaret that has a large auditorium area, two rooms for Sunday School classes, and restrooms. However, it is $250/month that we don´t have available at this time. Having such a place would allow us to separate the children and have classes for their age groups, and to have a place to hold the Nazaret ladies meetings. Most importantly, we would not be in the community center where the community council can bring petition against us.
We need your help, the help of God´s people, to reach out and touch lives here in Costa Rica for Christ. The children of Costa Rica need Jesus because they so often have no one else to really care about them. But God cares and so do we. These children are the future of the gospel of Christ in Costa Rica. These children, many of whom are abused and neglected, need to know that someone loves and cares about them. We need you to help us help them, and unfortunately that requires money. As I have mentioned above in this letter, we need a place where we can meet with and work with these children. A permanent place, and for that we will need the help of God´s people. Land here is expensive and so is the cost of building. We have been teaching the children to give their offering and they understand about tithing. However, they are children. They have no income to tithe and very little to give in the way of offerings. Just to give you an idea, we have been working in Nazaret for 18 months and the total offering in that time has been less than $25. From whatever the Lord gives us through you, our supporters, we provide for the rent, the transportation for the children, the materials for Sunday School, and we feed the children a meal every Sunday. For many of them, this is the only decent meal they have all week. We need to be able to purchase a piece of property and build a place to house the church, or purchase property with a building(s) already on it. We need $80,000 to cover the cost of land and construction, or the cost of property with a building already in place. Our God is strong and mighty. He can provide for this need through His people if His people are willing to be used by Him. We humbly ask your prayers in this matter, and ask that you would allow Him through you, whether you are a church or an individual, to do great and wonderous things here in Costa Rica. We invite you to come and see the ministry; to come and see the needs so you might better understand our plea for your help.
The VBS puppet presentations were excellent and God greatly blessed. The presentations consist of a four-day program in each location. There are songs, memory verses, Bible stories, games, and activities. Presentations were done in six different locations: Nazaret, Pitahaya, Ochomogo, San Ramon de Alejuela, Santa Lucia de Paraiso, and Cervantes. During the 24 presentations the gospel was presented to 1,764 people and 221 came forward during the invitation for salvation. What a tremendous blessing! Having the puppet team here to work with us was a special privilege and words are not enough to express our gratitude or appreciation for their commitment, love, and sacrifice. During the time they were here (June 30th - July 14th) the bonds of fellowship grew strong and they all are very precious to us. We will miss them greatly.
Kathie´s ladies meetings are going very well, except fot the lack of a place in Nazaret where we are praying about a new location as mentioned earlier in this letter. A new group has been started in San Ramon de Alejuela bringing the groups to a total of six. Funding continues to be a problem. We are, however, most grateful to those who help meet the needs of the ladies ministry each month and encourage you to continue doing so. Please pray that others will feel lead to help as well.
Kathie has constructed a blog where you can see photos and read about the VBS puppet team as well as other aspects of the ministry. We hope you will visit the blog and please leave comments. Your thoughts are always much appreciated. We look forward to your visit. The blog address is: http://ministeringincr.blogspot.com.
As always we are blessed by your love, prayers, and support. May God keep you in His love.
Blessings,
Samuel Nolasco
If any of you are interested in helping meet the needs of the ministry here, please feel free to contact us for information on how you can help.
Blessings from Costa Rica
Thursday, July 26, 2007
For the Smile of a Child
The little child was, and still is, so important to Jesus. He always had time for children and He rebuked those who didn't. He told us we must come to Him like a little child. That's why children are such a major part of our ministry here in Costa Rica. They are the forgotten of many denominations and religions. They have no monetary wealth to give, no political powers, and no skills. They are simply little children. Yet how precious they are to our loving God and how beautiful when a smile of joy lights their faces! It is all worthwhile for the smile of a child.
The slide show in the post above is our way of sharing the joy of those heartwarming smiles with you. Watch the slide show and meet the 2007 VBS team. The team consisted of 8 members from Pennsylvania; our daughter Becca; Ronnie, a Costa Rican who drove the second van; and Sam and I for a total of 12.
In a period of 11 workdays, 2 church services and 24 VBS presentations were done in 6 different locations. The presentations consisted of Bible stories, songs, memory verses, games, and activities. Using gospel colors bracelets (made during the activity times) each and every person in attendance was given God´s plan of salvation. A total of 1,764 people heard the Good News of God´s love, and 221 people came forward during the altar calls to pray for salvation! What a tremendous blessing! And what a privilege to serve the King of kings and Lord of lords with the team from Pennsylvania!
It was a hectic time of hard work, long hours, and many miles of travel, but it was a precious time of being used of God to touch the hearts of little children. The fellowship was sweet. The time of sharing and praying together was uplifting. The time of parting was tearful, but filled with a blessed hope that the lost and dying world doesn't understand but desperately needs.
Our prayer is that your heart might be touched by these precious children and their joyous smiles.
Blessings,
Sam and Kathie
The slide show in the post above is our way of sharing the joy of those heartwarming smiles with you. Watch the slide show and meet the 2007 VBS team. The team consisted of 8 members from Pennsylvania; our daughter Becca; Ronnie, a Costa Rican who drove the second van; and Sam and I for a total of 12.
In a period of 11 workdays, 2 church services and 24 VBS presentations were done in 6 different locations. The presentations consisted of Bible stories, songs, memory verses, games, and activities. Using gospel colors bracelets (made during the activity times) each and every person in attendance was given God´s plan of salvation. A total of 1,764 people heard the Good News of God´s love, and 221 people came forward during the altar calls to pray for salvation! What a tremendous blessing! And what a privilege to serve the King of kings and Lord of lords with the team from Pennsylvania!
It was a hectic time of hard work, long hours, and many miles of travel, but it was a precious time of being used of God to touch the hearts of little children. The fellowship was sweet. The time of sharing and praying together was uplifting. The time of parting was tearful, but filled with a blessed hope that the lost and dying world doesn't understand but desperately needs.
Our prayer is that your heart might be touched by these precious children and their joyous smiles.
Blessings,
Sam and Kathie
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)