USA

Hello Friends and Loved Ones,

We’ve officially been back in Costa Rica for almost a month now after an extremely busy, yet over-flowingly rich time in the US.

I can’t possibly communicate how wonderful if was for our hearts to see the faces of our loved ones in the US.  Our hearts had ached for so long to be with those precious people. We wish we could have had more time… family and friends are so very dear to us.

Too many people and faces to mention… but when we think of our friends and loved ones,

We consider ourselves the most blessed people in the world.

Time with them was so precious.  A true gift!

I continue to learn how important “together” is… it’s how we were meant to live.

I will be very honest… the transition back to CR life was quite hard for a couple reasons.  One, there are quite a few luxuries that we just don’t have here that we enjoyed in the US.

Two, we knew it would be awhile before we could be face to face again…

With those whom our hearts have been knitted together.

We LOVED the pause from our regular activities…

And treasured reconnecting…

It felt really special to fulfill some long-awaited dreams…
And play a bit as well.  So good for our hearts.

But now that we’re back…
There is no shortage of opportunities here.  We have many plans for the coming year to continue offering both relief and development… and hopefully rehabilitation.
Last weekend we had to joy of having Kelly’s stepmom here… she led an amazing sewing workshop!

We’re always grateful when our loved ones come down to teach skills here that could possibly create employment.

It went far better than we could have imagined, and there are many plans in motion on how to continue to develop and use these skills!

I continue to remain so grateful to the Lord that my family gets to serve together.  My children’s hearts amaze me.  My big girls pour out such love on these beautiful children.  They serve for hours on end with the greatest joy.

Currently, we are in the process of finding a way to put plumbing in a dear woman’s home.  She not only lacks indoor plumbing, she doesn’t even have an outhouse.  I won’t go into details of her situation.  All I can say is that she is such an honorable woman… she can’t stop talking about how good the Lord is.  Needless to say, we are learning so much especially about true joy and gratitude.

Another family within the church had everything they owned destroyed by a massive mudslide while we were in the USA.  Three generations were living in this home.  We were grateful to witness how the church has served them, and we will do all we can to help them rebuild their lives.

My heart is to both serve those with needs, as well as to continue to offer friendship, encouragement and ministry tools to the pastors here.  I am grateful to have the privilege of continuing to do these things here as well.  I love seeing people being equipped and empowered.

Also, we will be offering an event in December to provide backpacks and school supplies in some local villages.  This is a huge blessing to these children and will most likely be the only gifts some receive.  Just last year I was made aware that sometimes children in these villages don’t go to the public school simply because they can’t afford the uniforms and school supplies!  (As a side note, if you, your church or community is looking for a Christmas project… this would be a great one!)

The precious little dude below is a little boy we were able to help last year.

He wouldn’t have been able to go to school if we hadn’t helped, because he couldn’t even afford the uniform and school supplies.

Let me share one very important thing before I close.  We want to make sure that we are showing honor to our friends here.  I would NEVER want any of our friends to feel like they are our project.  They are nothing like that.  They are our treasured, loved ones.  Even if they do not have wifi in their homes, they usually have some access to the internet somewhere (it’s usually in the form of cell phones with rechargeable data plans).  This means that they have access to our blog because they are a significant part of our lives.  Although we want to accurately show you what we’re doing, we will not do this at the expense of our friends’ hearts.  That means that I will not show images of certain things or people because I would never want to take the risk that they might feel shamed.  I hope that makes sense.

On a positive side, my heart is so encouraged at the moment.  As you know, those who live in impoverished conditions usually walk in great shame.  We desire to break this off by exposing their true identity in Christ.  In addition, we desire to give them skills to help them break their own cycles.  Watching shame being chipped away recently has been such a treasure.
Thank you for loving us and remembering us and supporting us,
Adam, Kelly and the rest of the Backwards Missionaries

By the way, if you haven’t already checked them out, our dear friend EJ has already created 3 awesome videos of what we’re doing here.  You can watch these on The Backwards Missionaries Facebook page.