Our greetings come to you this time from a very soggy Talamanca. The rain has been relentless for the past two months or so. Not that it rains everyday, but the usual pattern is 2 or 3 days of intermittent to a hard steady rain and then a couple days of sun. What that means is, with all the grading we did back in May, the ground doesn’t dry out enough for us to get any equipment to the hanger site. So for the past two months, work at the site has for all practical purposes come to a standstill. Even with the rain though, I have continued to cut and weld steel. All of the structural components for the hanger have been built and are ready to be assembled. We are just waiting for the ground to get dry enough to transport the pieces to the site.

After several months with us, Matt and his family, as well as Darryl, left us at the end of June. Their help in many areas was invaluable and we miss them being here with us. We are hoping by God’s grace, they will return. Also missing from our ranks is Mike Slayman. He has been here in Bribri for a couple of years. Due to an illness his Dad suffered, Mike returned home early this year to help his parents during this difficult time. His father has improved considerably, from my understanding, and we look forward to what we hope will be Mike’s eventual return to Bribri.

At the end of June, Michael and Rachael Woosley, along with their daughter, Madalynn, brought a group from Fairview Church of God in Alabama. Due to the rainy conditions, they helped with some much needed work to the living space of our present facility. The team returned home after a week, but the Woosley family remained with us through the month of July. Several days before coming to Costa Rica, Michael accepted the Senior Pastor position with a church in Tempe, Arizona. His first official Sunday at the church was one week after his scheduled return from Costa Rica. We appreciate their willingness to stay and help us, when they probably should have been at home preparing to move from Alabama to Arizona. 

On the 26th of July, Dr. Dean Lohse brought a team from CrossRoad United Methodist in Jacksonville, Florida. While they were with us, we had a four day break in the rain cycle. That allowed us to pour cement footers between the column bases of the hanger. After three days of pouring cement in the hot sun, the rains returned and the team spent their final workday, like the team from Alabama, working on the expanded living quarters in our existing building.

I would now like to share with you a couple of events that I hope you will find as fascinating as I did. About a month ago, I met Steven Jones for the first time. Steven is the brother of David, Philip and Timothy Jones. David as you know lives here in Bribri. Philip and Timothy both live at the upper end of the Talamanca mountain range and minister to the Cabecar Indians, while they are working on the translation of the Bible into the Cabecar language.

Steven came here to our house in Bribri and said that he would like to tell me a story that he hoped would encourage me. At least he felt like that was the thing he should do. I am going to try to be as faithfully accurate as I can in regard to what he told me. This is the story he told.

In 1985, He and his new wife were in Upper Talamanca looking for a place to establish a base from which they could work. Steven’s father had been in Talamanca since the early 1950s. Because Steven and his brothers figured they were to assist in their parent’s work of evangelizing Talamanca, he and his wife needed a place to work from, a base from which they could move into the jungle. After looking for sometime, they flew back to the United States. They flew into New Orleans and spent their first night back in the States in a small run-down motel outside the airport. It was in that motel, in New Orleans, that God gave Steven instructions and a vision. God told Steven that his base would be in the United States, he was not to have a base in Talamanca. Then God showed him a vision. Here is where I have trouble with the description. Steven saw a helicopter over Talamanca. During the day, the light of the love of God was flowing from the helicopter. It was flowing in the form of all kinds of help for the Indians. Help and love in ways they had never received before. Then Steven saw a night scene. Because of the love of God that had been flowing from the helicopter during the day, at night, there was praise and worship and love flowing up to God from Talamanca.

At the time, Steven thought the vision was very strange. Mainly because, at the time, there was no helicopter working in Talamanca and the idea that there would ever be one dedicated to serving God was just to impossible to fathom. At the end of his testimony, he reiterated that he hoped it would be an encouragement for me.

Adding to God’s attempts to get our attention and keep us focused on the mission is the following event. I told you in the last newsletter of David Jones’ desire to expand his ministry into Panama to the Guaymi Indians. How the mountainous area where the Guaymi live is really an extension of the Talamanca range of Costa Rica into Panama. David spent several weeks during July in Panama investigating different jungle areas. While he was there, he felt lead to purchase a small piece of property which he thought would make a good base from which to begin to work. The property is actually a small hill. As he was walking around the hill thinking about the best place to put a house, there was an Indian down below chopping brush. David went down to have a talk with him. He asked the man what he was doing. The Indian replied that he was clearing the land. David asked him why he was clearing it. The man replied that a helicopter was coming. David surprised, asked what helicopter. The Indian replied that he didn’t know, but one was coming and he had to get ready for it.

Friends, the fact is, to get a helicopter here and to keep it operating in an evangelistic effort is going to require a lot of money. In that effort is where we need supporters. The simple truth is, if we did not need money, you would not have to be involved. I believe that our need is God giving opportunity for others to have a part in the work and thereby share in the blessing and reward. The Jones brothers have invested their entire lives in Talamanca. But Talamanca will not be evangelized by the sole effort of the Jones family. It will not be evangelized by the addition of other missionaries simply joining the effort here. This place needs a helicopter. I believe that God intends to use a helicopter in the evangelization of the Indians that live scattered throughout the entire Talamanca range. I believe that the use of a helicopter has always been a part of his plan. It is from a helicopter that God will shower the mountains of Talamanca with demonstrations of His love through His people, in a way the Indians have never imagined. What that really means is, because of the great cost, God is allowing lots of people to have part in this evangelization effort.

I do not want you to misunderstand what I am trying to say. Getting a helicopter here is not the important thing, even though I speak a great deal of having one here, it is not the goal we are focused on. A helicopter, in and of itself, just to say we have one here is not worth the expense, the headaches and the frustrations. The goal, in case I haven’t mentioned it, is to keep as many Indians as possible out of hell. The majority of them are on the road that will lead them there and the road is marked by darkness and bondage. Some will enter through the gates of hell between the time I finish writing this letter and you read it. Jesus died to keep as many as possible out of hell. He commissioned us, His body, to make the priority of our life keeping as many as possible out of hell. We are to be building the Kingdom and that doesn’t mean bricks and mortar, it doesn’t mean stained-glass windows and organs, it doesn’t mean steeples with crosses. It means adding souls snatched from the grip of Satan. But, how often are we side-tracked? How often do we let trivial matters consume our time and resources? Or worse, we exhibit tendencies of the man Jesus tells about in Luke 12, we receive a blessing and our first thought is “I’ve got to build a bigger barn so I can store away what I have received.”

Am I anxious to get a helicopter here? No doubt. We could put it to work today. We could have put it to work 10 years ago. If we had put one to work 10 years ago, where would we be now. How many people who now suffer the horror of eternal torment might otherwise be enjoying the bliss of God’s presence? It’s a question I ask myself. How easily we value our own existence above that of others. If we or someone in our family are sick, we spare no expense to find a cure. We will sell everything we have if necessary. If the doctors tell us there is no hope, no cure, we’ll still keep searching, spending all we have against the hope that something, some miracle will be found. Yet when it comes to pulling someone from the pit of hell, and we don’t even like to think about it in those terms, we find all kinds of reasons and excuses not to try. Whether it is embarrassment, fear or simple complacency, we often stand with muted tongue. When it comes to our possessions, how often we fall in with those to whom Isaiah referred when he wrote, ”they honor me with their lips, but there heart is far from me.”

I have found myself thinking about figure skaters. Have you ever watched the Olympic competition? One after another the skaters perform. You can see on their faces, as they go through their routines, how they think they’re doing. If they miss a jump or make an exceptional landing, you can read their personal analysis in their expressions. The applause of the crowd reflects how the spectators are viewing the skater’s individual interpretation of the required routines. Then as the skater finishes and takes her bows, once again the approval of the crowd is revealed. Flowers are tossed onto the ice. The skater moves around the ring to retrieve those accolades lavished by the spectators awed from watching what they believe they themselves could never perform. Some skaters receive more flowers than others. This often times is indicative of who is the crowd favorite rather than who is the best skater. Then comes the moment I find most interesting. Regardless of how the skater is ranked, regardless of how well they think they did, regardless of the applause, regardless of how many flowers they received from the crowd, each one in turn takes a seat on the same bench, stares at the same scoreboard and exhibits the same anxiety waiting for the decision of the judges. Each one knowing the judgment is final, no appeal, no second chance. The question on each one’s mind, “What will be my score? How was my routine received by the judge? What will be my reward?”

We will all sit on that bench, one at a time. And the bench is in front of the Bema Seat. And the judge who will score our effort will be Jesus. Not Jesus the meek and mild babe in the cradle, but Jesus the Christ, holy and righteous God. We will not only be judged on what we did and how we did it, but also on our motivation for doing it. The judgment will be final, no appeal, no second chance, no excuses, an eternal judgment.

I have one picture for you. It pretty much sums up my frustration with all the rain and it underlines the inescapable need to invest what is necessary to prevent further damage from the river.
 
All our work in May pouring the drainage is headed for river. The river is undercutting the bank and huge chunks of land are sliding into the river. There is a solution, but it is neither cheap or easy. Because of this and several other frustrations, I believe God has been gracious in His encouragement that all is well and His plan will not be thwarted. I will emphasize that it is God’s plan. 

Please continue to pray for us. There are sources of darkness that desire that we fail, that we become discouraged and quit. They desire that Talamanca remains immersed in the darkness that has covered it for ages. But the Light is on the way and carried to ever corner of Talamanca like never before possible.

Thank you for your help. We pray blessings on you all.