Below is the email we just recently sent out... for those of you who didn't get it, or were just dying to read all this news all over again :) If you aren't on our email list and want to be, let us know. We don't email out that often, don't worry!
Dear friends and family –
Many of you have been following our blog (www.tresriosproject.org) and have
read stories and seen pictures of our life here in Costa Rica. (If you like hearing what’s going on
with us more often, consider subscribing to the blog so you get it in your
email inbox. Just enter your email
at the top where it says Follow By Email). It’s been a while however since we’ve sent out a ministry update. Here are a few highlights:
Analysis of the
Abraham Project
·
Even though our primary focus this first year in
Costa Rica has been adjusting to the culture and learning the language, we’ve
also been getting to know the Abraham Project (AP) better in order to help it
move into Phase II (If you don’t remember, Phase II is the plan to build four
more children’s homes on the new property adjacent to the current Project. It currently operates two homes). Our main purpose in moving here was to
do exactly this: to help the AP grow, to raise funds for the new homes, and to
strengthen the AP’s long-term sustainability. But before being able to even
start on these goals, we needed to really know and understand how the AP currently
operates.
·
After several months of taking part in various
meetings and many discussions with the current leaders and missionaries here on
the ground, we did a deeper analysis and evaluation of the AP. Specifically, we looked at the current
organizational and leadership structure of the Project and whether it is
prepared to move into Phase II and handle a 200% growth. Our assessment included some potential
weaknesses in the current organization and some suggestions to address these
issues so that the AP can be successful for many years to come. We presented this analysis to the
leadership in late June.
·
The leadership reviewed our suggestions in July
and we have a meeting on August 11th where several people invested
in the Project will discuss how we successfully move forward into Phase II and
how we become a stronger organization as a whole.
·
You can pray that this meeting goes well and
that the leadership understands and is receptive to the necessary changes that
we think need to happen in order to make the Project more sustainable into the
future. Change is always hard so
we are praying for everyone involved, including ourselves, to be humble, open,
and willing to hold things loosely.
Teams
·
In other news we hosted our second ‘team’ in
July. Really the team was Joe’s
parents and one friend they brought from their church. For a week, they worked on remounting
all the windows on one of the houses at the Project, as well as replacing the
rotten casings and painting the trim.
·
In mid-August, a big team of high school kids
comes from First Presbyterian Church of Bellevue, the church Joe used to work
for, to work at the AP. It will be
great to see several people we know and get to serve alongside of them.
Family News
·
Again, most of this is on the blog, but for
those of you who haven’t seen it lately or at all, lots of family has visited
us lately and we’ve been able to travel around beautiful Costa Rica with them. Most recently we took Joe’s parents to
see Volcán Arenal
where we all really enjoyed the natural hot springs. Joe and I celebrated our 11th anniversary at hot
spring ‘spa’ while Kate hung out with her grandparents. It was wonderful.
·
We are continuing to pray about our future plans
in regards to fertility. It has
been quite a journey of waiting, learning to be patient, trusting in God’s
timing and plan in this process.
At this point, however, we don’t feel comfortable receiving any
fertility treatment down here, so we are prayerfully considering going to the
States for a time to receive treatment there. You can pray for wisdom and discernment as we make some
decisions in the next few months.
We’ll keep you posted!
Thank you to each one of you for your friendship, love, and
support. We could not be here
without you.
Joe, Jennie, and Kate (and Fernando, our Latino cat)
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