May, 2019—STCH Ministries International expanded into Costa Rica!  Amanda Longoria, associate director for International, led the BSM college group from Texas State on this faith adventure.  STCH Ministries therapist, Leslee O’Neal  and her husband, Johnny, also accompanied the group.  Excitement, blunted by apprehension, gripped their hearts as the trip began.  “Would their skills and resources be enough for the needs they would encounter?

After the short flight to San Jose, they began their first assignment at Excelencia Familiar children’s home. Asked to paint the girls bedrooms a hot pink color, the team went to work.  On the last bedroom…Oh no! Big brown eyes reflected disappointment with the announcement, “We have run out of the pink color.” Hesitating momentarily, Amanda responded, “If Jesus made water into wine, we can make more pink paint!” They hurriedly mixed the remaining pink paint with leftover beige and red, and Presto! A unique Pepto Bismol paint job resulted.  The girls expressed delight.

The team next moved into the rain forest to work with Nicaraguan refugees.  During VBS, Leslee was “volun-told” to take charge of making chicken soup for the large group of children and moms.  Panic set in as she viewed three WHOLE chickens.  Her US-grocery- store chicken was pre-cut!  Bravely, she picked up the helpless chicken, grabbed a knife, and set to work.  After sabotaging one chicken, she noticed the Costa Rican ladies patiently watching, and cried, “Help!”  Immediately one stepped forward. Whack, whack, whack!  The chicken was ready for the soup pot.

While the soup cooked, Leslee presented on depression and grief to grateful moms. Then it was time to serve the soup to 120 children and moms.  Anxiety increased, as the amount of soup dwindled.  Would there be enough?  Like the Biblical widow’s oil, they had just enough!

Repeatedly, God proved his faithfulness.  The men mixed concrete for a cement floor in the community worship center.  The supply was just enough for the floor, and a sidewalk. Later, the community gathered on the new cement floor for popcorn and the movie, Left Behind.  Johnny spontaneously was asked to speak to the crowd. Exhausted from the unaccustomed concrete work, the life-long dread of public speaking threatened to overwhelm him.  Then he thought, “I don’t want any of these people to be left behind.” God’s peace replaced fear as Johnny shared the Good News of salvation through faith in Christ.

After the event, they planned to distribute groceries to the first 50 families.  Too late they realized the supplies filled only 41 bags. Miraculously, only 41 families stayed to receive the food.

Reflecting back on their experiences, Amanda reported, “The greatest lesson we learned was to trust God with everything because, He IS able. Every day we learned to lean on him for strength and energy, and all of our needs.”

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A mission trip requires each person to step out of the ordinary, leave the known for the unknown. “Does God really want me to do this? Will God be enough for the unknown,” we wonder?  When we step out in obedience and faith, we open ourselves to God-sized surprises.

The Yorktown Baptist medical team had a mission–sharing the love of Christ through medical clinics, and ministries with children.  The team included several nurses, but no doctors.  How could they assess in a different language, and how would they prescribe medications accurately without a doctor?  Dr. Francisco Paredes was up to the challenge.  He recruited 4 additional Dominican doctors who spoke English.  He divided the group into 5 teams of nurses, doctors and translators.  What could be more perfect?  With 5 teams there was time to assess and treat medical issues, and also to share Christ and to pray with each patient.

The children’s team had shared the love of Christ with children in many venues.  Their concern was, “How can we effectively communicate Jesus’ love for each child when we can’t speak the language?” They prepared colorful cards with their pictures to give each child that stated, “Hemos venido a compartir el amor de Jesus.”  (We have come to share the love of Jesus).  The team was paired with Valentina, a translator whose passion to share Jesus’ love with children, rivaled their own. Word for word, gesture for gesture, her tone of voice mirrored the presenter. To their surprise, the communication obstacle vanished in the unity of spirit they experienced.

God’s surprises varied from overcoming financial barriers through generous donors to helping a team member find peace in her personal relationship with Christ. Others exclaimed, “I expected to serve others, instead I was the one served. Love was so freely given, it was infectious!” And God surprised during home visits. “The home was so small we sat outside, the only source of light a small candle at the table. We ate and shared our testimonies. The presence of God was so apparent in those moments. I couldn’t believe I was sitting in a different country having an experience like this one.”

When we follow God by faith, He will surprise us by giving more than we hoped for, abundantly more than we could ask or imagine.

Mission Trips 2019 began in January with the First Baptist mission team from Allen, Texas.  Their main focus was evangelism. Villa Altagracia is a village where STCHM mission teams have built a two-story school building. Rodney and Nilsia lead the school, but recently the IBQ church under the leadership of Pastor Rudy have commissioned this couple to begin a church in the school facilities.  They have also pledged some monthly support to help them plant this church.

The Allen group partnered with the ministry in Villa Altagracia for a significant part of their activities.  They traveled to Villa Altagracia for children’s meetings in the afternoon.  After that activity they divided into groups of 4-5 and walked the streets of Villa Altagracia sharing their testimonies and the Gospel.  They also invited the community to attend evangelistic services on two nights at the school.  Rented chairs, and a make-shift canvas tent hoped to shield a few people from the expected rain.  But God held back the rain!

God also performed another miracle that first night.  Directly outside of the school a crew of men and a huge rented machine were digging a well.  Boom!  Boom! Boom!  All through the children’s Bible classes the noise was deafening.  Surely, we asked, they would stop when night came?  Wrong!  The machine was rented per day at a very high cost, and they planned to dig through the night until the job was done.  Now what to do?  It was one thing to tolerate that noise over 100 noisy children, but an evening church service and a message to adults?  We asked Russell, “What do we do now?”  O ye of little faith.  Russell’s answer?  “Don’t worry.  All Satan has is a machine.  We have God on our side!”  At exactly 7 pm, the men paused their machine for one hour and we held our evangelistic service!!  An even greater miracle was the 3 adults who accepted Christ as a result of these efforts.

As an integral part of evangelism, the Bible was highlighted through Bible memory competitions, the purchase and gifting of Bibles in the Spanish language, and a training for leaders of Bible classes for children.  How can you motivate children (and adults) to memorize Scriptures?  The Allen group demonstrated some unique methods through drills, competitions and games.  Even the boys at the Betesda Home joined in the competition to find books of the Bible with the new Bible that the team had given them.

Through the efforts of this mission team, God’s Spirit pushed back the darkness in the Villa Altagracia village, and especially in the lives of the many individuals who heard the Gospel, those that accepted Christ, and many more who received Bibles. As the Allen trip ended, they knew that the Word of God that they left behind would continue to be alive and active, sharper than a two-edged sword, and penetrating to the soul and spirit.  (From Hebrews 4:12)