Happy New Year and many blessings to you. Thank you for your support, encouragement and prayers throughout the past year. Our family has been blessed by your participation in our lives. One of the marvelous things about being called to Talamanca is all the wonderful people God has brought into our lives as a result of surrendering to that call. It is amazing how difficult it sometimes is to surrender to God’s will for our lives and yet, without fail, surrender always brings blessings.

During our four months stay here in the States, we have driven almost 10,000 miles. This resulted in our being able to visit with a lot of our friends and supporters. We are grateful to everyone who took us into their homes and showed such warm hospitality toward us. Also the pleasure of being able to worship with many of you was certainly a highlight for us. One of the things we miss the most when we are in Talamanca is the opportunity to worship in the fellowship of our friends and family.

 In 2008 and 2009, we spent most of our jungle time along the Telire River working on the bridges at Bajo Blei and Bisjula. The construction of those bridges allowed us to spend time in the Cabecar area of Talamanca. This past year, 2010, we began the initial stages for construction of a bridge on the Coen River. This bridge will be in the Bribri area of Talamanca. Clearing away jungle affords us lots of time for fellowship with the locals who live near the bridge site. We held a medical clinic in Bajo Coen in conjunction with the bridge work and we were glad to have Dr. Al Adams back with us to help man the clinic. It was a couple years ago that he suffered a nasty fall and broke his wrist while hiking back from Alto Coen with me. Ironically, the mishap occurred at the very site where we are now building the bridge. I am happy to report that we finally finished pouring all the cement for the helicopter hangar and landing pad. The total concrete mixed, without the benefit of a truck I might add, was approximately 211 cubic yards. Also, we invested a good deal of time working on our living quarters in the town of Bribri.

2010 was the first year since 1992 that our donations were less than the year before. In fact in 2010, we had a 57% decrease from 2009. It did not however come unexpectedly nor has it provoked any sense of panic. Adversity and abundance are blessings from the same source.  This year we have had both individuals and churches to inform us they would no longer be participating in our effort. We believe whole-heartedly in people investing where they are being led. And I would think it not unusual for God to redirect one’s direction. We remain very grateful to everyone who has helped us, both in the past, now and in the future. Every donor, whether they donated only once or they have been supporters for the entire 18 years of our existence, has moved us down the road, closer to the goal of seeing Talamanca evangelized. I believe that Agua Viva is of minimal importance in God’s grand plan, we are simply a small part of a process in which hopefully thousands of Bribri and Cabecar will come to Christ.

Lately I have been intrigued by and spent a lot of time contemplating an idea that is repeated over and over in Scripture. The idea of “ in the fullness of time.” As Christians, we sometimes work, worry, fuss, fume, argue, plan and scheme; but it is all for naught, if not done in conjunction with the fullness of God’s time. Think about the rise and fall of the world empires throughout history. They have run their course exactly as God prescribed to Daniel. Nothing any Emperor tried to do, could have altered the course of history.  Consider Nehemiah, he was sent to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem in the fullness of God’s time. Ezra was sent to Jerusalem in the fullness of God’s time. Christ was born in the fullness of God’s time. Nothing can hasten, retard or postpone God’s plan from its appointed time. A great tragedy is to be present for the culmination of some plan of God and not recognize it, a case in point, the Pharisees when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.

Allow me to explain what has precipitated this contemplation. I know that God loves the inhabitants of Talamanca. His desire is to see them come into a relationship with Himself. In the early 1950’s, God called a couple to go to Costa Rica and invest their life in the evangelization of Talamanca. Their life became centered around taking Christ to the Indians of that isolated place. They had 8 kids. Five of their children were called to serve God in other parts of the world, to carry the Gospel to other peoples. Three of their sons, along with their families, were called to remain in Talamanca. They have dedicated their lives to seeing Talamanca evangelized.

In 1991, God led me into Talamanca. It is a long and unlikely story how it happened. But it was definitely in the fullness of God’s time. I have spent a good deal of time actually, wondering why God chose to send me to Talamanca. It certainly was not because I knew what I was doing and had the perfect plan for evangelizing an isolated jungle tribe. After much reflection, I have come to the conclusion that God merely wanted to demonstrate what He could do with an ill-equipped, but willing lump of clay. Since the very beginning I have marveled at the things God has done and at how the fullness of time is often express and demonstrated..

Because of His love for the Bribri and Cabecar, in the fullness of time, God sent the Jones Family to Talamanca. In the fullness of time, in other words, when the time was correct, God sent me and eventually my family to Talamanca. God has sent a couple to northern Talamanca, Alekcey and Judith, who are two doctors. Our desire, above all else is to see the light of Christ shine among the people of Talamanca. We are still waiting for the fullness of time to bring us the piece of the puzzle that is missing. I have found that most Christian’s idea about being called to some place is that they must pack up and move there. I don’t necessarily believe that is correct. I believe that God can put a place or a people on someone’s heart and then never ask them to leave their home. But rather He calls them to invest their lives and their riches in that place or people. Think about it. Most Christians know or know of missionaries who gave up their culture, their potential standard of living, their security and/or their family ties to go serve a people on behalf of Christ. For that missionary, the people to whom they are called become the focus and motivation for all they do. But, how many people do you know, sitting in the pew with you, whose focus and motivation for all they do is the evangelization of some people or place. I am sure there are Christians whose lives are so motivated, you just don’t see them very often. Have you ever asked yourself, “What is the motivation in my life? What is it that I am living for? What is the end result I desire for all my efforts in life?” It has been said, the missionary call is not always to go, but also to send. In the end, our focus should never be on who goes or who sends, but rather on the one who is lost. Why, because the one who is lost is of supreme concern for Christ. After all, He came to seek and to save the lost.  

My point with this discussion is that we (Agua Viva) are waiting on the fullness of time. The Jones Family and then Agua Viva arrived in Talamanca in accordance with God’s timing. For the past 18 years, we have continually added donors and lost donors. I never really know why donors begin supporting us or why they stop. The why is really not important to my calling and never has been. The why is only important to the sender because it hopefully reflects their response to God’s leading. In order to incorporate aviation as a tool in the spreading of the Gospel, a great deal more funding than what we currently have is going to be necessary. We are waiting for the person, or church or group to step forward in the fullness of time and say “God has called me (or us) to be the source of funding that Talamanca needs”. Somewhere, God is preparing someone to say, “The focus of my life (or the focus of our purpose) is going to be providing the funding for the dissemination of the Gospel of Christ to the people of Talamanca.”

Consider the earthquake in Haiti. Missionary Aviation Fellowship has 4 aircraft in Haiti. Right after the quake, Christian aviation assets flocked to the little country. So much so, the airspace became crowded and congested. Why did they keep showing up in Haiti, because aviation makes things possible that were not possible any other way? Ask yourself a question. If all the missionary aviation assets in Africa, Russia, Haiti, the Philippines, Micronesia and Indonesia were withdrawn, what would be the effect on the spreading of the Gospel in those locations? Would evangelization come to a stand-still or would it be significantly curtailed? A great deal of people who support missionary aviation must think so, they must believe that it is very necessary in those regions. They must believe Christian advancement would be adversely affected if aviation was not available. The inverse situation is what we face in Talamanca. We have no dedicated missionary aviation, but the addition of such assets would exponentially increase the spreading of the Gospel message.

 Recently a retired airline pilot in Georgia donated a 4-place Cessna 180 to Agua Viva, a blessing indeed. We are very grateful for the donation and are in the process of designing a plan for incorporating the airplane into the work of our ministry. We have for a long time planned for a helicopter and we could put one to work tomorrow without any hesitation. It is not possible to substitute the airplane into the plans for a helicopter, they are after all different creatures with completely different capabilities. But there are some instances where the airplane will be more effective for us than a helicopter and we are confident that the airplane will open doors of opportunity we have not here-to-for considered.

Several weeks ago, a pilot friend of mine in Florida told me of a helicopter for sale. The price was $155,000. It was a very good deal for this model of helicopter and it would have fit well into the requirements we have established for work in Talamanca. It is worth noting that we have never received $150,000 in an entire year of donations. Purchase price for a helicopter, operational cost for helicopter and airplane, material cost for projects and general ministry operational expenses, all together add up to something over-whelming when viewed side-by-side with our current donations. Logic and simple math would tell you that annual donations in the amount of $75,000 are not going to do it. One would be tempted to throw one’s hands in the air and just accept the fact that it’s not going to happen. Those are the very reasons I am more convinced that it is going to happen. Honestly, unless what happens over-comes real impossibilities, how would you know that God is in the midst of the event. Thankfully during the last 18 years I have been blessed to see unmistakably God’s hand at work. Our Father is eager to give undeniable evidence of His power to inject Himself into our day-to-day lives as we give Him opportunity. Sadly, too often we limit our efforts to the bounds of our own ability. This of course does not give God room to do anything. I am happy that in regard to Talamanca, God has lots of room to work. I look forward to and find myself anxious to see how God will provide. The fullness of time is what I am eager to find myself in the midst of.

Daisy, John, James and I will soon be returning to Costa Rica. Please keep us in your prayers. Above all else, we want to be faithful in shining the light of Christ upon whoever comes cross our path. It is a blessing and an honor to have you as a part of our ministry. Our prayer for you is that God’s presence might be as real to your conscience thought as the ground is beneath your feet.

Thank you. Thank you for being a part of God’s provision in the evangelization of Talamanca.

“To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy----“   Jude 24

John, Daisy, John Paul & James Whited