Greetings to you all from North Carolina. Yes, we have returned from Costa Rica. We arrived back in Mebane on September 3rd and are looking forward to the opportunity of visiting with many of you during the coming months.  

I will be returning to Costa Rica for several weeks in October, but Daisy and the boys will remain here in the States. David Jones and I have scheduled to begin construction of a bridge in another of the remote areas in upper Telire. This bridge will be across the Telire River once again, but is located near the village of Alto Bley. Below is a picture of the bridge site.

It is a particularly important bridge because it will connect Alto Bley and Bajo Bley which lie on opposite sides of the river. There is a school in Bajo Bley and the children from Alto Bley must be able to cross the Telire River in order to attend. Currently, they must walk through the river which is only possible, and then not entirely safe, when the river level is low. The bridge will also be on the major route out of the most remote regions of upper Telire.

The villages of Bajo Bley and Alto Bley hold great significance religiously for the Cabecar tribe. Because of the witchdoctors that live there, they are villages engulfed by tremendous spiritual darkness and demonic activity. The people there live under a terrible bondage. Please pray for us, as we build the bridge and relationships, that we might be able to shine the light of Christ into that darkness. We want to give them a bridge across the Telire River, but more importantly we want to offer them a bridge across the abyss that separates them from Almighty God.

As you remember from our newsletter in August, he had several months of what seemed like continuous rain. Every time it looked as if the rain would stop long enough for the ground to dry out, it would begin again. Our last week in Costa Rica however, was 6 days of hot sunshine. We were able to take good advantage of it and made significant progress on the hangar.

We were able to raise the columns by hand, but raising the trusses proved to be a challenge. There are no cranes in the area and even if there were, the ground was much to wet to get a crane to the hangar site. This trackhoe was being used to dig sand and rock from a river about an hour away from Bribri. Through nothing less than divine intervention, we were able to get it moved to the hangar site. As you can see from the picture, the arm was too short to raise the trusses to the desired height. To solve that problem, we trucked in 75 cubic yards of sand and rock. This allowed the operator to build a ramp upon which the trackhoe could climb to set the trusses on the columns. The trackhoe turned out to be the perfect machine for the job. It not only raised the trusses to the desired height, in addition, we used the bucket as a platform on which we could sit with our small wire-feed welder and weld the trusses in place.

Here is how the hangar looked when we left Bribri 2 weeks ago.

As you can see, we are almost ready to install the roofing which will consist of 12 foot by 3 foot sheets of aluminum. We have already purchased the aluminum at a cost of $6300. Once the roof is in place, we can begin to pour the cement floor whether we have rain or sunshine. It is going to require approximately 360 sacks of cement to pour the floor. The total material cost for the floor is about $7500.

Before the trackhoe left the site, the operator spread the rock and sand that was hauled in for the ramp evenly inside the hangar. He then used the 20 ton vehicle to compact the material and leave it ready for the cement. The final result can be seen in the next photo.

Please keep us in your prayers. We need your prayers as a family. We need your prayers as a ministry. We need your prayers for the financial support of all we are trying to accomplish in God’s name there in Talamanca. God knows all our needs. He knows what is required for the task He has set before us. And I am convinced that He will supply exactly what is required to accomplish the task.  “Being confident of this very thing, He who hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ..”

I know ultimately where the supply comes from, it is from God. But I never know what path it will take before it arrives. I never know through who’s hands it will pass before we can put it to work. Everything we are able to do in this ministry is a result of God putting resources into the hands of His followers and they in turn letting go of those same resources in order that we might use them for the building of the Kingdom. Praise and glory to God for His divine plan.

Thank you so very much for your part in this ministry. Your contribution to the work is invaluable. There is no insignificant part of the body. By our combined efforts, Talamanca will one day be ringing with praises for God and His salvation from the lips of many Indian believers.

Blessings upon you all!