Day9 - Iglesia Christiana China’s 29th anniversary

Today we came to ICC early as we celebrated ICC’s 29^th anniversary. There were presentations by children, youth and adults. Each attendee was very involved in the worship. When we sang together, I could feel that the atmosphere was full of thanksgiving.  We also praised the Lord that some of those who we visited earlier came to church and celebrated together. May the Lord continue to build them so that they can grow spiritually. After worship, we said goodbye to many brothers and sisters. Their warm welcome and greeting to us really impressed me. Although it is only 9 days and we only met them couple times, I can feel the closeness to them. It is like I have known them for a long time.

After lunch, we came back to church to join the youth group. Johnny was originally planned to share a topic on being a leader. However, the group would want to learn more about dating and marriage. Johnny had to prepare another sharing in a short time. Despite the short time, we praised the Lord that he was able to reuse some materials in the past. He presented very well.

Tonight we will have dinner in another restaurant. After 9 days of Costa Rica, our trip is about to end. We will pack tonight and fly back to Austin tomorrow.

Prayer Items

• Other than Roland who will stay a little longer to meet his friend, we will head back to Austin tomorrow. Please pray for our safety.
• Please pray that we can be healthy on the way back to Austin.

Pastor Stanley puzzle question #3

It is a trick question - which color pepper is the hottest among these three: the red, green or orange ones?

 

Day8 – Fellowships with ICC brothers and sisters

Today Pastor Sit took us to the nearby market. It is very close to our hotel so we just walked over there. We tried out Mozote, a kind of juice made by a local fruit, a local pancake-like snack made with corns and cheese, and the coconut juice. It is fascinating to see so a lot of local food with big sizes.

After lunch, we walked around downtown San Jose a little. We came back to hotel and rested afterwards. In the evening, we went to another couples small group. Roland led us sing couple beautiful songs, then he shared his personal testimony, and gave us a workshop on how to resolve conflicts between husband and wife. The meeting was held by Johnny and Alicia's house. Like many others, they are very warm and friendly.

At night, Shu-man (樹民) treated us dinner in a nearby Chinese restaurant. They are so generous to us.

Prayer Items

• Tomorrow we will join the Iglesia Christiana China’s 29^th anniversary. Pastor Chiang will give the sermon. Please pray for the celebration and the worship tomorrow that everything smooth and brothers and sisters able to count His grace to each of us over the time.
• Johnny will provide a sharing to youth fellowship on dating. Please pray for his sharing.
• Roland is fully recovered. He thanked for all the prayers. 

Day7 - The joy of saving lost souls

There are more visitations today. Roland, Johnny and I followed Shu-man (樹民) to visit some church friends. Yui Kei (銳淇), the first friend we visited, has been coming church for some time. He has a furniture store. When we talked to him initially, it was constantly interrupted by the customers. Roland and I were praying silently to the Lord to allow us to share the Gospel without interruption and God answered by having his wife coming out to help. Johnny had shared his personal experience and the 4 spiritual laws. Praise the Lord, Yui-Kei was willing to accept Christ. We encouraged him to continue to read the bible, come to church, and grow spiritually.

We visited couple more stores; and we prayed each time before entering. The Lord allows us to effectively share with them for each visit. The last restaurant we visited was owned by a single mom. Her husband left her and her daughter and son for 9 years. We can see the unfortunate impact to her kids: her daughter was currently pregnant, living with her boyfriend. And her son Alex, currently 14, was getting behind in school after his dad left. Johnny shared the Gospel with him in English. Praise the Lord once again: he was willing to believe in Christ. After prayer, Alex could tell us that Jesus is now in his heart.

I experience vividly the livings of the Chinese here are challenging in many different aspects: family, work, financial, social identity, culture, etc. People lose direction easily and really need the Lord.

In the evening, we had a Couple Fellowship. The topic was “parents’ advice on children’s dating”.  Pastor Stanley, Chow-Ling and Roland gave us a good sharing.

Prayer items:                                                   

• Tomorrow we will have a sharing on resolving conflicts in another Couple Fellowship. Please pray the sharing to be effective.
• Continue to pray for Roland’s recovery.

Thank you so much for your prayer support. We can really feel the power of prayer and the Holy Spirit.

Day6 – Sightseeing day

Today we had a chance to have a sightseeing trip. We went to Volcano Poas in the morning. It was very foggy and we could not see it clearly. After lunch, we went to Lapaz Waterfall Gardens. It is a tropical rain forest garden. We get to see many native animals and plants, as well as a beautiful waterfall. His creation is really beautiful.

Volcano Poas

Lapaz Waterfall Gardens

Inside the car, we were listening to hymn CDs and sister Chan Ging (陳荊) was singing hymns throughout the driving. Her passion to Christ is really encouraging.

Prayer items:

• We praised the Lord for the warmth serving of ICC brothers: they sacrificed their time and drove us around. We also praised for the Lord to give us a relaxing day to see His wonderful creation.
• Tomorrow we will visit some families and Pastor Stanley will lead a sharing in Couples Fellowship. Please pray for us to be used by the Lord.
• Continue to pray for Roland’s recovery.

Pastor Stanley's puzzle question #2

One of our STM team members treated us some home grown vegetables. Who do you think he is?

Day 5 – another day of faithful serving

Today we split into 2 teams to have more visiting. This time I was partnered with Pastor Stanley and Pastor Chiang. We spent about three and a half hours to visit three families. Pastor Stanley had visited some of them last year. This time we continued to encourage them to come to church and grow spiritually.

After lunch in a couple’s restaurant, we joined the three-out fellowship (三出戒賭團契). Pastor Chiang shared a message on the importance of devotion.

We had dinner with the fellowship and then came back to hotel for some rest. At 10pm, we attended the brother group at church. Pastor Stanley shared a message about balance between God, family and work.

Prayer Items:

• Praise the Lord for having health and energy to serve Him so far. Pray that we continue to serve Him faithfully for the remaining time.
• Continue to pray for Roland’s recovery.

Day 4 – Visiting Alajuela

We attended ICC’s weekly prayer meeting in the morning at 8am. Including us, there were 33 bros and sis joined. I talked to a brother: he had to leave home before 7am to join the prayer meeting; and then take another hour to drive to get back to his restaurant by 11am. Despite their busy schedule, they’re willing to take a lot of extra time and miles to come, kneel down and pray together. It really inspired me.

Setup for one of the prayer groups. Do you know why chairs are facing opposite to each other? 

The answer is: we knelt down when we prayed to humble ourselves in front of the Lord.

After prayer meeting, we had a short fellowship time with some refreshment made by a couple. We then joined brothers and sisters to visit Alajuela, a nearby town. We were split into groups of three of four people. Like yesterday, we stopped by their stores or restaurants, chatted with them a little, passed them the CCM magazines (中信月刊), and invited them to our church. We also subscribed the magazines for them, if they shared their addresses.  

Getting ready to visit!

Shu-man sharing the Gospel with poh-poh

I had a chance to share with a grocery store owner: making money has no end; and we need to know God for a joyful and blessed life. The U.S. was founded with Christian-based values, which brought a lot of correct moral influence on to the people. I also showed him on each U.S. dollar note it printed ‘In God we trust’. I encouraged him to come to church once and hopefully he can make the correct decision one day.

Sharing the good news to the grocery store owner

Keeping records

My lunch called Casados (means married) - a local Costa Rica dish. It is a mixture of meat, veggies, rice and beans. 

Visiting. 

Group photo before leaving Alajuela

Group photo before dinner

Prayer items:

• Please pray that our sowing of the Gospel to their hearts can be harvested one day. May the Holy Spirit work in their hearts.
• Pray that the Lord will give us strength, health and power to continue for his work tomorrow. We will have more visiting and 2 sharing tomorrow.
• Pray that we can learn from them to have even more faithful hearts for serving Him; and our passion to be contagious to other bros and sisters.
• Continue to pray for Roland’s recovery.

Day3 – Stores visiting in San Jose

This morning we spent some time in the hotel to review what we observed and learned from yesterday. It was followed by prayers, then we went to church for a combined gathering. Elder Chow Ling gave a sharing on serving the Lord. We split into 10 groups to share our experience on following the Lord and serving Him, as well as serving challenges. Brothers and sisters were very involved in discussion. From their answers we can tell their strong desires to love and serve the Lord.

Chow-Ling leading a workshop

After the sharing, we set off to downtown San Jose for visiting. We split into 2 teams: Pastor Chiang, Pastor Stanley, Johnny and sister Mo-oi (武愛)  was team 1 to visit stores with more Mandarin spoken people; Chow-Ling, Roland, brother Shu-man (樹文) and myself became team 2 to visit other areas.

Many Chinese here run restaurants or grocery stores business. We stopped by their stores or restaurants, chatted with them a little, and invited them to our church. We also left them some CCM magazines (中信月刊). Within the team, we further split our responsibilities on initiating the conversation, inviting them, taking notes, taking photos and praying.

I have been learning relying on Him for the results, and focusing on my responsibilities of inviting them to church.

Prayer items:

• Please pray that our sowing of the Gospel to their hearts can be harvested one day. May the Holy Spirit work in their hearts. Here are some people we visited: 岑海濤（炸雞餐館）, 吳榮偉（雜貨店）, 徐潔雲（岑太）（雜貨店）, 岑單紅（餐館）, 馮生（雜貨店）, 梁生（炸雞餐館）, 吳生（酒吧、餐館）, 陳生、陳太（雜貨店）.
• Pray that we have wisdom to share and loving hearts to losing souls, and the Lord strengthen our works. We will continue to visit more stores tomorrow in Alajuela, a town very close San Jose.
• Continue to pray for Roland’s recovery.

Thank you for supporting us with prayers!

. 

Pastor Stanley’s puzzle question

To increase the interest for reading this blog, Pastor Stanley would like to bring up a puzzle for readers. Here is a picture taken when we were about the leave Austin. Could you observe and find out anything special, or specific about us? Each of you may reply once, and the first one who answers correctly will receive a prize from our pastor. 

Day2 - Sunday worship and youth sharing

We all had good sleep yesterday. This morning most of us woke up on time. After breakfast and prayer meeting, faithful bros Chan Hung and Shu-man came to take us to the church. We were greeted by the early servers including Shu-wa 樹華 and Mrs. Kam 甘姊妹.

Prayer meeting in the morning

Greeted by early servers

The worship hall on the second floor is now ready for Cantonese worship. They even installed an elevator for those who need it. Sunday school and worship started at 8:30am and 9:30am respectively. The sermon was presented by Pastor Stanley. The title was 全民皆兵and the reference Scripture were the first three judges in the book of Judges. When brothers and sisters greeted each other before and after worship, I can feel the warmth and the close bonding between them.

During worship

Singspiration time

Sermon by Pastor Stanley

After worship and lunch with Hiu-fung 曉峰 and Stella 方怡, I had a sharing with youth fellowship (age: around 15-30) at church. We shared with them about the reasons of coming to church, the importance of relationship with the Lord, as well as always putting God in our first priority for everything we encounter. Many of them were grown up in church and they have built up relationship with Him. I praised the Lord for His wonderful work on them, as they will soon be a generation to impact the society. We also got chances to hear some of their stories:

One brother came to Costa Rica from China couple years ago and now he worked for his uncle here. His parents are instead staying in Venezuela. He has been working 6 days a week for the past couple years. Please pray for his adaptation and challenging life here.

Another sister was getting emotional during the hymn singing. We later found out that her mom was beat in the past and became disabled. That sister had to carry a lot of burdens for the family at her very young age. She could not have gone through the difficult time without the Lord being with her, and she always had a thankful heart for Him. We were touched by His love and power to her.

Youth sharing

In the evening, we were invited for another dinner at Yui-man and Lai-guen (銳民、麗娟)’s restaurant. The food was great and we had some casual sharing after dinner. This ends our second day.

Sharing after dinner

• Prayer items:
• Praise the Lord for Roland’s quick recovery. He has been getting much better with medicine. He thanked bros and sis’ prayers on it.
• Praise the Lord for the brothers and sisters’ warmth and love to us.
• Please pray for the brothers and the sisters in the youth group, especially those mentioned above. May the Lord lead them and grant them grace and power to overcome the difficult time; and become a faithful servant as salt and light to their communities.
• Pray for the sharing led by Chow-ling tomorrow (Monday) and our store visits tomorrow in San Jose area.

Day1 - We arrived!

Praised the Lord! We had a very pleasant flight and arrived to Costa Rica safely!

We first took a 7am flight to Houston for connection and another flight to San Jose, Costa Rica. We met Pastor Chiang from CCM at the Houston airport.

We arrived at 2pm local time. Brother Chan Hung 陳雄 and Shu-man 樹民picked us up. Their welcome was very warm and friendly. When I was in Shu-man 樹民’s car, he introduced to us about Costa Rica and the Chinese here.

In the evening, we had dinner with Pastor Sit and more bros and sis. It ends our day. Pastor Sit gave us an overview on the Costa Rica, local Chinese situations, and our itinerary in the coming 9 days.

Here are the prayer items:

• Praised the Lord for bring us safety.
• Tomorrow Pastor Stanley will provide the sermon and Martin will give a sharing in youth (age 15-19) fellowship. Please pray for the Lord to use us to talk directly to the audience’s hearts
• Continue to pray for Roland’s recovery. 

Photo sharing: 

Hotel lobby

Bathroom. It's clean. 

China plaza nearby.

Group photo after dinner. Left to right: Roland, Martin, Johnny, Pastor Chiang, Pastor Stanley, Chow-ling, Pastor Sit, Kit-Oi, Shu-man, Shu-man's wife, Chan Hung

Prayer request

Please pray for Roland's quick recovery:

Hi All,

I have a rash on my chest and went to see my doctor earlier today and he said it is shingles.

I started my anti-viral medication.  I am grateful to God for allowing me to be seen by my doctor and started the medication before leaving Austin. Thank you Lord!!!

Please pray for my quick and complete recovery.

God bless,
Roland

Prayer items

Dear brothers and sisters,

Please pray for us! Here are the specifics:

- Preparing of this mission trip, especially the workshop and sharing material, STM members's mind and heart
- Safety and smoothly in the travel
- Unity among STM members and local church for serving Lord
- Daily living in the families of the STM members
- Smoothly Schedule in the trip
- The heart of Costa Rica people who we will meet or sharing
- The weather will not affect any meeting or visiting
- Spiritual growth of each STM member
- More people pray for the mission trip
- The Lord can use us to share the Gospel and bring people to Christ.
- The Lord can use us to encourage local brothers and sisters.

祈禱項目：
- 短宣所有的準備，尤其是主題研討會和分享材料，STM成員的思維和心靈
- 在行程上的安全和順利
- 各STM成員與當地教會之間的團結和互助
- STM成員的家庭的日常生活
- 在哥斯達黎加的時間表順利地和有效地運用
- 我們會遇到或被分享的哥斯達黎加人的心靈準備
- 天氣將不會影響任何會議或探訪
- 每個STM成員的靈命成長
- 更多人為短宣祈禱
- 讓主使用我們去與人分享福音及帶人歸主。
- 讓主使用我們鼓勵當地的弟兄姊妹。

In Christ,
Costa Rica STM team

STM team

Our team will consists of 6 members: Pastor Chiang from CCM (not in the photo), Johnny Wong, Chow-Ling Chang, Pastor Stanley Chow, Martin Lau and Roland Pang (left to right).
We will set off to Costa Rica on Our schedule will be July 27th and we will be back on August 5th. We will visit the local church, share the Gospel with local people, share our experiences on personal growth and serving for the Lord. Please pray for us!