Monday, December 15, 2008

Shall We Gather at the River

Yesterday, December 14, 2008, we had the honor and privilege to baptize five new believers. This is a very important, and for many, a very difficult step of obedience in a new believer´s life of faith.

The journey to the river is always a joyous ocassion. We left the church in Ochomogo at 7 a.m. and made the hour and a half-long trip by bus to the river above the town of Cachi. It is a beautiful place in the clouds above the Orosi Valley. A few hundred feet from the pool we use is a rustic cabin that we rent for the services. It is tranquil and pleasant there. We want to share some photos of the day with you.



On reaching the cabin, Samuel opened the service with a greeting to all that had come to join the celebration of this special time.



The Scripture reading followed and was taken from Matthew 3:1-17. This passage speaks of the baptism of Jesus Christ. Bro. William, the head deacon of the church, brought a wonderful message about baptism and what it symbolizes in the life of a Christian.


After the message, those who were to be baptized came forward and Samuel spoke to them briefly about what following Christ in baptism meant to each of them personally. Afterwards, we all gathered around them to pray for them and their obedient walk with Christ.



Together we walked upstream to the pool where we baptize. The pool was clear and the water was brisk.



Doña Oliva wept with joy as she was baptized. She is a cancer survivor and has no doubt of the miracle God performed in her life.



Xiomara was the youngest of those baptized. She is 13. Her mother and older sister were also baptized.



Doña Maria Elena is a very special friend to us. Almost from the beginning of our ministry here in Costa Rica, she opened her home to us for Bible study, for the ladies outreach, for the July puppet-VBS ministry. She has listened to the gospel of Jesus Christ for over 6 years, and a few months ago she came forward for salvation. This was a joyous day for us and for her as well. Both of her daughters , Xiomara and Catalina, were baptized as well.



Catalina, Xiomara´s older sister and Doña Maria Elena´s daughter, was also baptized. Samuel had the privilege of conducting her wedding just a few weeks ago. We are praying that her husband will soon be making a decision for Christ.



Don Maximillan (Max) was baptized as well. He is Doña Oliva´s fiance and they hope to be married soon. They wanted Jesus in their lives before saying their wedding vows to one another.

We ask that you would keep these five in your prayers as they begin their new lives in obedience to Christ.

We want to share a few more photos with you.


Clouds rolling over the mountaintops and into the valley.
The waterfall at the head of the valley as seen from the cabin.
This couple are very special people, Don Fernando Chinchilla and his wife, Doña Mayela. They own the cabin where we have the services before walking up to the pool, and where we have lunch and fellowship after the baptism. Doña Mayela had a huge pot of hot coffee waiting for us when we returned from the pool. They both accepted Christ 4 years ago and are faithful witnesses of how He can change lives. Pray for them. Doña Mayela has been battling cancer and Don Fernando has lost a leg. Despite the hardships they are and have suffered, they joyously proclaim that it is all to God´s glory.
Blessings to you all.

Friday, October 24, 2008

Share the Blessings 2008

This year of 2008 is passing quickly and once again that special season when we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ draws near. What a beautiful and blessed time it is as we remember God's gift to mankind! For many of us it is not only a time to remember what has been done for us, but it is also a time to remember what we can do for others.

Last year, because of donations, we were able to provide a Christmas gift for over 70 children. How folks responded was such a blessing and now the time has come again.

This year we need help to provide a gift for 28 children. We know each of these children personally and we know the situations of poverty in which they are living. We are praying that we will be able to raise $20 per child. The funds will be used to purchase such gifts as clothing, shoes, and school supplies as well as personal items like toothbrushes and shampoo. If you feel lead to sponsor one of these children (or more than one) it would be a tremendous blessing in the young life of one who has known so little love and kindness. If you wish to help you can contact us either at our email address valledelcid2@gmail.com or by leaving a comment on this post or you can send donations to us through our home church: Maranatha Baptist Church; 1111 Outer W. Broadway; Madisonville, KY 42431. Be sure to designate that the donation is for Share the Blessings 2008. We would be most grateful for your help and your prayers.

Here are pictures of the children we will be giving a gift to this year.

Blessings to you and yours!






































Monday, October 20, 2008

More Pews

When is a problem actually a tremendous blessing? When church attendance has grown to the point that you have to start considering the need to build/buy more pews! What a blessings!!!!!



Monday, October 13, 2008

October Newsletter

Nolasco Newsletter
Apdo. 129-2350
San Jose, Costa Rica, Central America
http://ministeringincr.blogspot.com
nolascoincostarica@hotmail.com
Oct. 13, 2008

Dear Friends in Christ,

Greetings in the name of our wonderful Lord and King. We trust that this finds each of you well and enjoying God’s richest blessings.

God has certainly been blessing our labors since the last newsletter in July. The church in Ochomogo is doing well. We are seeing new faces every week in the services. We have seen five souls saved to the glory of God and three others who were seeking a church home have come forward for membership. There are also seven people awaiting baptism which is scheduled for the second Sunday in December. In Pitahaya, where the congregation has remained small, the church has been working on a building project for many months now. Quite some time ago we asked for funds so that the interior walls could be completed and one of our supporting churches generously sent funds. In order to make those funds be as useful as possible, they were spent only on the materials. The labor has been an act of love over these many months, but is now nearly complete. We hope to have photos of the finished project up on our blog soon. http://ministeringincr.blogspot.com.

The romaria (pilgrimage) in August drew over one million pilgrims who made the journey to Cartago to pay homage to a small black statue they call La Negrita. During that time we handed out over 4000 gospel tracts and gave away 52 Bibles to those in the crowds. As commanded, we have sown Precious Seed and know the labor will not be in vain.

During the month of September we celebrated the International Day of the Child. We had a special service on a Saturday for children in the church and community of Ochomogo. We fed some 60 children a nice lunch and presented an animated film about Daniel in the Lion’s Den. The following day, Sunday, a group of teens presented a drama about not laying up treasures in this life during the morning church service.

Christmas is rapidly approaching. This year we hope to be able to provide gifts for some 30 children whom we know personally and know the situations in which they are living. Within the next few days we will be posting photos of the children on our blog, http://ministeringincr.blogspot.com We are praying that we will be able to raise $20 per child. Gifts will consist of clothing, school supplies, and personal items such as shampoo, toothbrushes, etc. If you feel lead to sponsor one (or more) of these children it would be a great blessing in their lives. If you wish to help in this please contact us at our email address nolascoincostarica@hotmail.com for information, or you can send designated funds to our home church. (Maranatha Baptist Church; 1111 Outer West Broadway; Madisonville, KY 42431).

God has been gracious in providing for my medical procedures. To date I have received $15,600, and am so grateful to each and everyone of you that have help meet this need. However, I still need $8690 to complete paying for the procedures. The procedures have been completed and must be paid off in November. I humbly ask that you would continue to pray for this need and help as you feel lead to do so.

A brief update on our scattered family: Yeni continues to study and work in San Diego. Eden, husband Steve and daughter Lyvi are presently stationed at Goodfellow AFB in San Angelo, TX. In December they will head to Fort Gordon in Georgia. Lydia and husband Eric remain in Tampa where Eric is stationed at MacDill AFB. He may go on deployment next year. Becca is in San Diego where on September 6th she gave birth to our grandson, Kaiden Allen Osborne (8lbs.3 oz.;21 ½ in. long). She had to have a C-section, but is doing well. Her husband Mike (abroad the USS Peleliu) will be returning from deployment on November 4th. Eli is also in San Diego where he is studying Web Design and Computer Graphics as well as seeking a part time job. As always, we greatly appreciate your prayers for us and for our family.

I would like to close this newsletter with two special requests. The first is that you would pray about our upcoming furlough in 2009. We hope to come to the USA in late February. That, however, is depended on the Lord blessing us with someone to rent our house while we are gone. The second request concerns our ministry site on the internet. Please visit at http://ministeringincr.blogspot.com where you can see photos and more about the ministry here in Costa Rica.

Looking forward to seeing you in 2009.

In Christ,

Samuel Nolasco

Thursday, July 10, 2008

July 2008 Newsletter

NOLASCO NEWS
APDO. 129-2350
San Jose, Costa Rica, Central America
nolascoincostarica@hotmail.com

July 7, 2008

Dear Friends in Christ,

How wonderful is our God and His loving kindness is never ending! Greetings to each of you in His precious Name. Here in Costa Rica our days are full and blessed. In a recent letter updating you about my surgeries I shared the need of Bibles and gospel tracts with you, and God, through His precious people has already provided the Bibles, and the tracts will be along shortly. While picking up the three boxes of Bibles at the local post office, several of the postal workers expressed a desire for a Bible. I gave out 12 Bibles before getting out of the building. Praise the Lord! How wonderful to find people who have a hunger to know more about God and His Word.

The rainy season is well underway and it has caused church attendance to be slightly lower. However, the faithful remain faithful. Within the Ochomogo church the youth class is the fastest growing group, not only in numbers but in their interest in knowing more about God. We have six saved and baptized young people who are memorizing large portions of Scripture. They just completed a course of Bible study entitled “The Life of Christ”, and are beginning another study entitled “A New Life in Christ”. On July 12th, I will be taking six of the youth on an excursion to Poás Volcano as a reward for learning the Scriptures and completing the course of study. These six are becoming a great help to the church. They are acting as ushers, collecting the offering, bringing the Scripture reading during services, and participating in the choir. It is a blessing to see them growing in the Lord and wanting to know more of His Word. These young people will be the future leaders of the church.

The Romaria (pilgrimage) to “honor” the Negrita will be coming up on August 2nd. This is a national holiday of worship for a tiny (3 centimeters tall) statue of black stone called the Negrita. It is housed in a shrine in the Basilica (The Virgin of the Angels) in the city of Cartago. Between one to two million Costa Ricans will make the pilgrimage (of foot) to worship this idol. Many will walk the last several hundred feet on their knees as an act of penitence in hopes of receiving healing and special blessings from the Negrita. We will be handing out gospel tracts during the “celebration” as a means of sharing the Truth with as many as possible. We ask that you would pray for the people here, many of whom are lost in spiritual darkness.

Recently with the help of one of the Ochomogo church members, Gerardo, I was able to replace some of the metal sheets on the church roof which has been leaking badly since the rainy season started. We were able to purchase 13 metal sheets with donations we had received from some of our supporters quite some time back. We were saving it until a need arose. One entire side of the church needs to be re-roofed and the portion we were able to repair is a good start. If you would like to see some photos of the roofing you can visit our ministry blog: http://www.ministeringincr.blogspot.com.

The economy here is not good. Everything is rapidly increasing in price. Many things, including food, have nearly doubled since the first of the year. The U.S. dollar fell tremendously and overnight earlier this year. It has come back up in value and has stabilized for now. Presently the price of fuel is hurting everyone. Our vehicle, a van, uses diesel and we are presently paying $4.51 a gallon. If a new bill is passed in the next week or so, diesel will increase to $5.11 a gallon at the dollar’s present rate of exchange. Gasoline prices are even higher than diesel.

In the way of family news…..Eden’s husband, Steve, will be finishing up his training in California within the next few weeks. Afterwards he will be heading for Goodfellow AFB for additional training before going on to their permanent duty station. Eden and the baby are in need of a place to stay in the San Angelo area for three months. If anyone has contacts there or has suggestions on how to meet this need, please email us at nolascoincostarica@hotmail.com. Becca’s baby is due on September 5th, and her husband, Mike, has completed half of his deployment and will be home in November. The rest of the family are doing well. Eli still has not been able to find a job and we would appreciate your prayers for him and for all our children.

Briefly, as a update on my surgeries and needed funds… To date I have received $14,465 of funds for the procedures. The original amount of $20,400. increased due to the added expense of a bone graft to rebuild part of my upper jaw. My total expenses will be $24,290. I am still in need of $9,825. to complete all the procedures. I cannot even begin to tell you how blessed I am by those of you who have sacrificed to help me meet these expenses. I praise God for your love and willingness, and ask that you would continue to pray that I will have the funds necessary to complete the procedures.

As mentioned in an earlier newsletter, we plan to head to the U.S. for furlough in late February 2009. Later this year I will be in touch with you about visiting with you and giving a report of what God has been doing through us here in Costa Rica.

Blessing to each of you.

Ever in Christ,

Samuel Nolasco

Monday, July 7, 2008

Roofing the Church

Recently, Samuel and one of the men from the church, Bro. Gerardo, did some repairs to the roof of the church. With donations received quite some time ago, we were able to purchase 13 sheets of metal roofing.




The mission van loaded with the metal roofing.

Samuel and Bro. Gerardo unloading the roofing.

Samuel getting the ladder set up.

Samuel and Bro. Gerardo working on the roof.

The old roofing is nearly rusted away.

Samuel inspecting the work done and counting how many more sheets are needed.

As you can see, there are still alot of roofing (rusted through) that needs replacing, but we are off to a good start. We still need some 75 sheets of roofing to complete the job. The sheets are approximately $20 each at the present rate of exchange. If anyone would like to donate a sheet of roofing just let us know at this email address: nolascoincostarica@hotmail.com

Blessings to you all.