The Lord's guidance and protection

A couple of weeks ago we took our first weekend trip outside the city of San Jose, Costa Rica to a place called Tortuguero, where green sea turtles come to lay their eggs. We were all thrilled to watch the baby turtles dig out of the nest and make their way to the sea. Hannah and Samuel were especially privileged to walk alongside some of these babies as they headed toward the water. Those little turtles were so focused on getting to their destination that they never noticed our guide smooth the path for them out of the nest, nor the children at their side. However, the birds looming overhead did! They were quite angry at the protection Hannah and Samuel offered those little ones. The birds were missing out on a meal!

As I observed this taking place, I was thinking about our own lives. We're focused on adjusting to life in another country, to a new language, new foods, new school, new friends and we don't see the hand of the Lord smoothing our path nor the things we are protected from as we head to our destination. But He is there and faithful. And, He is indeed setting our way before us. What a blessed reminder that we are never left alone and though we sometimes feel small and vulnerable, the Lord is not and He is our ever-present help!

It is hard to believe, but half of our first trimester in language school is over. We still have a lot to learn, but we are amazed at how much Spanish we have picked up already. The Lord is smoothing our path!

He has blessed us with a wonderful Tico church plant that we will share about in the next blog post. Hopefully with pictures! Each week we're understanding more and more and are able to talk with our Tico brothers and sisters beyond, "Hello." "How are you?". What a blessing!

Thank you for your continued prayers! We know you are there, helping us to our destination...Mexico!

Here are some prayer requests:

1. Praise the Lord for His provision and protection.

2. Pray for our strength and health. This is cold and flu season and we've all gotten the flu in the past week.

3. Pray we will learn Spanish rapidly and will soon be able to speak well enough to share our faith.

4. Pray for Generacion de Campeones EC Church, our church here in Costa Rica. Pray for new believers to have boldness in sharing their faith and for many more to trust in Jesus.

5. The UNIFAM churches in Mexico have a bold vision: To start 2 MILLION house churches throughout Mexico by 2015, thus reaching 20% of Mexico for Christ. Please pray that nothing will hinder their efforts and many, many Mexicans will trust Jesus as their Savior!

First few days in Costa Rica

August has thus far been an amazing month!

We spent two weeks at One Mission Society headquarters receiving Church Planting Movements training along with people from 10-12 other countries. It was interesting hearing our sessions being translated into English, Spanish and Russian, which were the major language groups. We were blessed to be with three of the Mexican pastors most involved in church planting leadership with UNIFAM, the group of churches we will be working with in Mexico City next year. They have a tremendous vision to plant churches in each state of Mexico over the next 15 years!

The day after training ended we arrived in San Jose, Costa Rica around noon. We were greeted by Steve Cosslett, our language school "Big Brother" and a fellow OMS missionary to Mexico, and by Pastor William Araya, the Evangelical Congregational church leader in Costa Rica. Between the two men, we were able to divide up our luggage and ourselves and arrive safely at our new home.

We attended worship at a local church on Sunday where Samuel already made a friend who will be attending the same school, and Hannah was invited to attend a Saturday night youth group. It was also Costa Rican Mother's Day and the church's 7th anniversary. It was quite a day of celebration.

This month has been a time of wonder and adjustment! We are so blessed to know we are uplifted by your prayers!

1. Please continue to pray for our adjustment, safety and language learning. We are doing well but sometimes overwhelmed.

2. Please pray for the Mexican UNIFAM church leaders Alfredo, Alexis and Miguel. They are responsible for casting and implementing the large vision the Lord has given them. Pray for an increased faith and for the Lord's favor.

3. We met a wonderful pastor from Cuba at training named Magdiel. The Lord is doing amazing things in Cuba and many people are coming to know Jesus as Savior and Lord! Please pray for Magdiel's safety, strength, faith and perseverance in the midst of sometimes unimaginable obstacles.

4. Please pray for the Cossletts and the Reids, our dear friends and fellow missionaries who are leaving Costa Rica for Mexico City in the next two days. Pray especially for their children during this time of transition.

5. Please pray for Pastor William Araya as he tries to communicate with us through the language barrier. We will be meeting with him and his wife on Saturday and discussing plans for attending one of his churches on Sunday. May the Lord bless his ministry in Costa Rica abundantly!

Thank you again for your prayers! We are in great need of them.

from 2 months...to 2 weeks...now it's 2 days!

We're in the final stages of packing, making arrangements and saying good-bye to our family and friends. The time has really flown by and we are becoming more and more excited each day to see what the Lord has planned.

Beginning August 2nd, we will be in 2 weeks of church planting training at One Mission Society headquarters and leaving for Costa Rica on August 14.

Please pray for our family, especially during these next few days and weeks as we are in the heart of transition:

1. Thank the Lord that He has brought us thus far and thank Him for our many partners in prayer and giving. Please pray for the Lord's blessing on each member of our team.

2. Saying good-bye is difficult. Please pray for our ability to grieve well, especially for our children. We are all learning what it means to be happy and sad, excited and feeling loss....all at the same time.

3. Pray that all of the "little details" will fall into place as we make our moves.

4. Pray that we will have rich times with the Lord as individuals and as a family. The Lord is our strength!

Thank you, again, for praying for us!

Two weeks to go!

Time is flying by with packing, paperwork, visiting friends, churches and saying good-bye! We will be leaving our home in a couple of weeks and heading to One Mission Society headquarters for two weeks of church planting training. The day after training, we will be arriving in Costa Rica around lunch time.

During this time of transition, we appreciate your prayers more than ever! Here are some of our specific requests:

1. Praise the Lord He has gotten us this far! Praise Him for sustaining our family and for all of those who have partnered with us along this journey.

2. Pray we will accomplish all that needs to be done in these last two weeks (more packing, paperwork and visits). Pray that we will receive all paperwork necessary to make our move to CR and to obtain our student visas.

3. Pray especially for our time with family and friends...that we will continue to build good memories and will have ample time with our loved ones.

4. Pray that Hannah and Samuel will transition well (so far they are doing great), and that they will be well prepared for what lies ahead.

5. Pray for quick language aquisition for all of us.

6. Whatever the Lord lays on your heart, we know we will be in need of those prayers!

Thank you so much!

Leaving in 2 months

It's hard to believe, but June is here and we will be arriving at One Mission Society headquarters just a short 2 months from today! Our days are starting to be filled with planning, packing and visiting (saying good-bye).

In the meantime, believe it or not, we're also working in our garden. It has been a good lesson in slowing down and reflecting on how the Lord cares for us. And we are using that time to talk about how the Lord will be transplanting our family from Pennsylvania to Costa Rica.

Thank your for being with us along the way! We would appreciate your prayers for the following:

1. Praise the Lord for His provision.

2. Pray for our family as we transition: that each of us would trust the Lord with our emotions and that we would be able to accomplish all that is necessary.

3. Pray for wisdom as we consider bringing our dog, Calvin, along with us. (The children are REALLY hoping this will work out.)

4. Pray for the Lord's abundance and His peace in our lives!

Making Plans

It is hard to believe, but yes, we're starting to pack up some of our things already! We are fully funded for 2 1/2 years of ministry and are working towards our goal of complete funding for a 5 year term. We are so thankful for everyone who has been a part of our ministry team and we are thinking of you while packing!

We are making plans to be at One Mission Society (OMS) headquarters for Church Planting training the first two weeks of August, and then we'll leave from there to Costa Rica for one year of language school before heading to Mexico City.

Thank you for praying for us along the way! Here are some prayer requests:

1. Praise the Lord for His provision!!

2. Ask that the rest of our funding (for the 5 year term) would come in before August.

3. Pray for opportunities to share how the Lord is at work in Mexico.

4. Pray for Hannah and Samuel as they adjust to the reality of moving away from family and friends in a few short months.

5. Pray we find a good home for our dog, Calvin.

Paradox

Last week was a wonderful missions conference at Lakeside EC Church. During the Wednesday brunch, Hannah and Samuel shared some of the things they learned at cross-cultural training. The one thing of great impact to them was gaining a new understanding of the word "paradox". As they put it, "Without any good-byes, you can't have any new hellos." As we approach those sad times of good-bye in Pennsylvania, as well as the happy hellos in Costa Rica, would you please pray for us? I (Lisa) recently read this excerpt from "The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions":

Let me learn by paradox

that the way down is the way up

that to be low is to be high

that the broken heart is the healed heart,

that the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit,

that the repenting soul is the victorious soul,

that to have nothing is to possess all,

that to bear the cross is to wear the crown,

that to give is to receive,

that the valley is the place of vision.

Please pray for us that we learn all He has for us as we learn by paradox. Thank you for your continued prayers on behalf of our family.

Happy news!

This has been a good day for us! We have confirmed that we are about 95% funded and we have a target date of August 1, 2010. Our home church, Lakeside EC Church, will be having their missions conference beginning March 7 and on that day we will be commissioned as missionaries by the Global Ministries director of the EC Church. We are looking forward to that long-awaited day!

Here are our prayer requests for this week:

1. Praise the Lord for His provision!

2. Pray that our remaining funding will come in quickly so we can begin making all the necessary arrangements for our August 1 departure.

3. Pray that our commissioning will be a great encouragement to the church, and that the Lord will bless us all with greater and greater opportunities for outreach.

4. Pray for our health...the cold season has finally caught up with our family.

Thank you for continually lifting us up before the Lord. You are always an encouragement!

New Prayer card

Our new prayer cards have been ordered, and we are amazed at how much Hannah and Samuel have grown since the last one was taken! Can you believe they are 12 and 9 years old? We can't! Where does time go?

It is exciting and hard to believe that they will, Lord willing, be celebrating their birthdays this year in Costa Rica! We are getting closer each day to meeting our funding goal and are overwhelmed with thankfulness for your partnership with us.

Here are our newest prayer requests:

1. Praise the Lord for His faithfulness and for His provision.

2. Pray for us, and for youself, that we would all carry out Christ's calling in our lives with total devotion.

3. Pray that our total funding will come in this spring. We need less than $1,000/mo. faith-promised (for our total term) before we can leave for language school.

4. Pray we can either work out the bugs in our computer or that we can get a new one soon!

5. Pray for Hannah's knee. She had an unfortunate meeting with a tree last month while sledding and sprained it. It is still sore when she is active.

6. Pray for the Mexico ministry team. There is much work to be done and need for more workers to accomplish the task.

OMS has a new name!

Dear Friend of OMS,

We have some exciting news to share:

OMS International becomes One Mission Society

One Lord. One Life. One Calling.

Today, we launch a new name, tagline, logo and mission statement. These changes were designed to help One Mission Society better communicate what we have stood for since our inception in 1901 as The Oriental Missionary Society.

But it is important to note, One Mission Society’s sole reason for existence as a mission organization remains steadfast―to see the Gospel of Jesus Christ spread throughout the world and to see God glorified in all that we say and do. This is the command of the Great Commission. This is our “One Mission.”

God has blessed OMS by using us as a tool in His hands for more than 100 years. Today, One Mission Society is seeing, on average, one person come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ every two minutes. In recent years, thousands of new churches have been planted and tens of thousands of people are actively participating in discipleship programs.

These are historic times to be involved in missions. As never before in the history of the Church, One Mission Society is poised to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth. Make no mistake: the task is huge. OMS recognizes that we are only a small part of the body of Christ and that we join with many other individuals, churches and like-minded Great Commission organizations called and equipped together for One Mission, God’s mission. This is the unity in mission to which all Christians are called in Ephesians 4 by our one God and Father of all.

One Mission Society currently works in 50 countries. We were founded on the principle that the most effective way to share Christ is by training a nation’s people to lead and multiply their churches. That principle still fully applies today and is the basis of our dynamic four-fold focus: intentional evangelism, church planting, training leaders and strategic partnerships.

OMS currently has six international offices from which missionaries are recruited and sent out: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the Untied States. Today, One Mission Society has 430 missionaries and is a member in good standing with the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability.

Here is One Mission Society’s new mission statement: By God’s grace, One Mission Society unites, inspires and equips Christians to make disciples of Jesus Christ, multiplying dynamic communities of believers around the world.

David Long

President, One Mission Society