June, 2015

Dear Friends,

After a short holiday, we began this year with our fourth Rodeo Bible Camp. First Christian Church from Trinidad, Colorado came down to help us. We had 26 kids sign up for the camp and many gave their lives to the Lord.

As soon as the RBC was over, we prepared for our School of Environment & Resource Stewardship. This year we had nine students from the US, Canada, Malawi and Costa Rica in the school. We also had five people sign up for our seminars, so it was a busy 3 months with classes and workshops. The school is currently in Columbia working in villages along the Amazon doing community development. They will return later this month for debriefing and then will graduate on July 3rd.

We shared in our last newsletter that we were given a portable sawmill. Our property is covered with large cypress and pine trees.   We still have almost 150 trees on the property.

Since the arrival of the sawmill, we have milled enough wood for a new bridge to the back of the property and for two cabins for staff housing.

 

 

We are planning to build four cabins by the end of the year. We are in dire need of family housing as our ministry grows. If you or your church would like to help us build a cabin, please let us know.

 

 

 

In February, we completed the work on our Ropes Course, with the help of a team from Ropes International.  Now we are in the process of getting it certified and insured so we can begin to have teams come and use it.  This project will bring needed funds into our mission base also. Please pray that God will give us grace with the officials that approve the course.

Last month, (March), the first of our summer teams began to arrive. In the next 3 months, we will be hosting 11 short-term teams. We are excited about this opportunity to serve these churches. For many of the participants, this will be a life changing experience. One church in Canada told us that six of their young people who came down to serve on short-term teams had gone into full time ministry. What a blessing to have had a small part in these young people finding their life’s calling.

As you know from our previous posts, Donna had her hip replacement surgery in March. She is making good progress and slowly getting back to being able to do some of the things she used to do. She finished physical therapy awhile back and now she is doing pool-therapy to continue her strengthening and toning.

In January, we purchased a 1997 Toyota Land-cruiser from a missionary family who had gone back to the United States. We sold our Hyundai Jeep to help pay for Donnas’ surgery and to make a down payment on the Toyota. We still owe $2000 on it, so if you could help us pay this, it would be a wonderful blessing.

We mentioned before that the base needed a truck to pull the

sawmill and trailer.  Well, God has faithfully provided the money, so now the base owns a 2004 Chevrolet Silverado truck. After 6 months of using this truck, I do not know how we ever managed without it. It is a true blessing and answer to prayer!

In May, Donna and I, (as leaders), were expected to go to Mazatlan, Mexico for a YWAM Regional Conference. Over 200 YWAM’ers from all over Mexico and Central America were at the meetings. It was a great time for us to reconnect, but also very expensive. The base was able to cover our food and housing, but we had to cover our own tickets. We still owe $780 for that, so if anyone can help us get that covered, it would be a great relief to us.

Finally, we have been living in the same cabin for the past 10 years, which we rent from a widow. Two weeks ago, she came over to the house to tell us that she has given the cabin to one of her daughters, who is now 26 yrs old. Her daughter had a hard time telling us that she would like us to move out by January. We appreciate the fact that they gave us 7 months to look for a place, but this was still a shock to us. We only pay $400 a month here, and most places we have seen will be twice that much. We would really like to buy property and build a place of our own, since we are really tired of moving, and we don’t foresee leaving Costa Rica. We know God has our needs in mind, although in the natural, it is easy to be worried about this. Please pray with us that God would lead us to just the right place and provide the funds for us to buy it.

Yours for the Kingdom,

Terry & Donna Keith