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