Missions Heart Costa Rica

Merry Christmas to all!

2010-12-16T12:35:00.003-08:00

Merry Christmas to all!

We hope you are enjoying a great Holiday season and are we wish you joyful times of worship this Christmas. We pray the blessings of God upon your lives and that you will enjoy fruitfulness in every way this coming year!

Missions trip update Aug/Sep 2010:

Our last missions trip to Costa Rica this past Aug/Sep was a huge success.

We were invited to minister 2 Sunday's at the Vineyard church in Heredia, Costa Rica. the Spanish name is "Casa de Alabanza" which translates "House of Worship".

The 3 things we were hoping would happen from this trip were accomplished.

1. A Renewed vision and calling that God has given us for Costa Rica.
Our vision to work with the church was renewed. We are looking forward to the time when we can move down and work with them full time.

2. A Reconnection with our "Tico" home church in Heredia, Costa Rica.
We were able to reconnect with the church and it's members. There was such a sweet time of ministry after both services as we prayed for the congregation and their needs. We were able to spend time with the pastors, and some families in the church, and really enjoyed being with them.

3. A time to Revive us and encourage us that God has a plan and in His timing He will bring it to pass.

Our hope of moving our family full time to the mission field was revived as we experienced the love and generosity of the Costa Rican people again.

We were also able to attend a 5 day marriage encounter seminar with Globe International that was very good. We enjoyed our time spent with other missionary couples going through this intense marriage workshop.

If you feel the Lord speaking to you to help in any way please contact us, we would love to hear from you!

SEND US YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS TO RECEIVE UPDATES AT:

MissionsHeartCostaRica@gmail.com

GIVE ONLINE TODAY WITH A CREDIT CARD AT:

https://www.gme.org/donate/?d=Robinson

List our names in the designation/memo box.

To make donations by mail send a check to:

Globe International

P.O. Box 3040

Pensacola, FL 32516

Renew, Reconnect, Revive

2010-08-11T22:47:00.000-07:00

Renew, Reconnect, Revive

That is what this upcoming missions trip is about.

Bill and I are going to Costa Rica for 9 days at the end of August/beginning of September. We are so excited and looking foreward to what god has for us there.

We believe this trip will help us do 3 things:

1. Renew our vision and calling that God has given us for Costa Rica.

2. Allow us to Reconnect with our "Tico" home church in Heredia, Costa Rica.

3. Revive us and encourage us that God has a plan and in His timing He will bring it to pass.

Since our return from Costa Rica last year, we have been working hard, learning hard, and woshipping and praying hard while here in the states, focussing on God and His plan for our lives and our family. We feel God shifting our focus, once again we feel the urgency of going to live on the mission field to tell the world about the saving grace of Jesus Christ and the fullness of a life lived in Him.

This calling is a strong driving force in our lives, we cannot deny it, we must shift our focus to what God is speaking to us now. Therefore we are going this month on this short trip to help us reach our ultimate goal of moving permanently to the mission field next spring to obey the call God has on our lives, and fulfill His plan for us to serve Him in every way.

If you feel the Lord speaking to you to help in some way please contact us, we would love to hear from you!

SEND US YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS TO RECEIVE UPDATES AT MissionsHeartCostaRica@gmail.com

GIVE ONLINE TODAY WITH A CREDIT CARD AT:

https://www.gme.org/donate/?d=Robinson

List our names in the designation/memo box.

To make donations by mail send a check to:

Globe International

P.O. Box 3040

Pensacola, FL 32516

The Robinson Family Heartbeat - June 2010

2010-08-11T01:19:00.000-07:00

What we have been doing:

We have been remodeling our house in Florida to ready it for sale. We have refinished all of the floors with beautiful wood laminate and tile, as well as the kitchen counters. We are painting the inside and out and working on the finishing touches. This has been a lot of work, and has kept us very busy.

Chris has been continuing her training for ministry by taking some lay counseling and inner healing classes that can be taught in Spanish in Costa Rica, and she is ministering on the prophetic ministry team at My Father’s Vineyard Church in Pensacola.

Bill is teaching classes at a local bible college, Covenant Bible College, while continuing his theological studies.

The children have been continuing their musical training. They have been learning to play the drums as well as the guitar (acoustic, electric, and bass), keyboard and singing. Danielle, Stephen and Michael play on the youth worship band at Harvest Church and God is continuing to grow their hearts toward worship. With 5 teenagers, (2 in college, and 2 in high school, 1 in middle,) and the youngest child in elementary it has been an interesting and challenging homeschooling year. We are working hard to finish out the school year and we are all looking forward to the summer break.

Foreign Ministry:

We have been keeping in touch with our "Tico" church in Costa Rica - "Casa de Alabanza" - "House of Worship". They are moving forward in discipleship and ministry training. They have participated in their first missions trip to Nicaragua with the PVM - Pura Vida Missions. We have heard such great reports from this trip; it was life changing for many.

Focus:

Our goal is to sell our house to free us up from our responsibilities in the States so we can move permanently to Costa Rica. We are focusing on continuing to learn Spanish, and participating in ministry outreaches. We will be leading a missions trip to Costa Rica with Harvest Church and PVM later in the year.

Finances:

We thank all of you who have been supporting us through your prayers and giving financially on a monthly basis. You are an invaluable member of our missions team. However, we need many more people to give financially in order to be able to work fulltime in Costa Rica. The cost of living in Central America has gone up drastically in recent years. The people there are so open and hungry for God to move in their lives; many are lost, they need Jesus.

Prayer Requests:



Health - For all of the children, especially for Danielle, Michael, Benjamin, and Deborah. It has been a hard year for us.



Finances – For our house to sell quickly, and for a good price, and for enough financial monthly support to meet our expenses for our return to the field to work full time discipling those who want to know Jesus in Central America.



Ministry – Casa De Alabanza Church, PVM ministry, Costa Rican nationals, for God to use the gifts He has given our family to bring in the harvest this year, and for souls to come to know Him in a deeper and more meaningful way. We are awed by His love, provision, and blessings. Thank you for being our friends, we love and appreciate you!

The Robinson Family

WE ARE GOING GREEN, OUR NEXT NEWSLETTER WILL BE BY EMAIL! SNAIL MAIL BY REQUEST ONLY
SEND US YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS TODAY TO RECEIVE UPDATES AT MissionsHeartCostaRica@gmail.com
GO TO WWW.GME.ORG/donate/ TO GIVE ONLINE

The Robinson Family Summer in Costa Rica 2009

2009-07-17T07:52:00.000-07:00

We actually moved to Costa Rica on May 25th. We had a time getting here as obstacles kept getting in our way, like cars breaking down, and being flagged for a random security check at the airport in Orlando. It was an adventure just getting to the country! But we made it here, safe and sound! Praise God!

Our first week here was about finding a house to rent, and then moving in and getting needed household supplies.

Our second week was PVM Staff orientation and training. We are working with Pura Vida Missions here, an organization that coordinates short term mission trips for groups from the states.

Our third week we received 68 people from 4 different churches and did ministry and drama training here at the PVM base camp. Our fourth week we sent those teams out around the country to do work projects and children’s ministry.

Our fifth week we received 119 people from 4 different churches and did ministry and drama training here at the PVM base camp. Our sixth week we sent those teams out around the country to do work projects and children’s ministry.

Our seventh week we received 74 people from 6 different churches and did an abbreviated version of training and sent them out to do work projects and children’s ministry.

The eighth week we received 96 people from 6 different churches and we are doing ministry and drama training here at the PVM base camp. The ninth week, (starting this week) we will send those teams out around the country to do work projects and children’s ministry.

The tenth week we will receive another 80 people from several different churches and we will be doing ministry and drama training here at the PVM base camp. The eleventh week we will send those teams out around the country to do work projects and children’s ministry.

Thus by the middle of August our summer facilitating large groups through PVM will end. Then we as a family will hit the books hard to learn to speak and understand Spanish. Our hope and desire is to stay in the country, and live amongst the beautiful people here as we learn to communicate in Spanish. Please pray with us that this will happen, we need to have more monthly financial support coming in through Globe International in order to make this possible. – Thank you for partnering with us in prayer!

Our time here has been awesome so far, we have completely fallen in love with the beautiful people, the mountainous countryside, and yes, even the extremely busy city. The churches we have worked with here have been welcoming with open arms, and very encouraging towards us. We have begun to make friends, and as we are visiting different churches with the different teams we are getting to know the Christian community here. We are starting to learn their hearts desires through offering prayers and fellowship. The Costa Rican Christians are a loving people who are ready to dive into wanting to know Jesus better, they long for the power and presence of God to reside in their land. I believe it already does, and it will as we seek God together. He is faithful to pour out His presence on His children who seek Him. Prayers are for family members for work and salvation. We pray to strengthen marriages, and for children of single parents. 1 out of 4 pregnancies here are to young single mothers. We pray for young and older men alike to rise up to the occasion, and become strong disciples of Christ. Please join us in our prayers for Costa Rica. Bless You!

Our move to Costa Rica

2009-05-10T15:27:00.000-07:00

I have just read an incredibly inspiring book called “Daring to Live on the Edge” by Loren Cunningham (the founder of YWAM). It has challenged me to believe God for what He has told us He will do in Costa Rica. Loren says the key to living by faith is Hearing God’s voice and obeying what He tells you to do, then trusting Him to do what you cannot do yourself. God wants us to have aggressive faith by being obedient to the will of God!

God has spoken to us to move our family to Costa Rica and reach out to a specific group of people - single moms, and underprivileged children. We are in the position of having to believe God for the means to do so as we do not have the provision ourselves. We believe that if we step out in faith to act on what God has told us to do, then He will bring in the necessary provisions. So here we are, aggressively believing what God has spoken to us, and being obedient to His call for our family by stepping out and moving to Costa Rica this Memorial Day weekend.

We are asking you to consider becoming a part of this awesome vision for ministry that the Lord has revealed to us. Your family may not be able to move to a foreign country to do missions work at this time, but you will be able to take part in the blessings of the work that the Lord is doing by praying for us, contributing financially on a monthly basis, or a by giving a onetime gift. You will be part of a valuable team working to spread the gospel throughout the world. By contributing to the Robinson family through Globe International you will be putting 8 workers in the field in Costa Rica to bring the Harvest into the Kingdom of God. Each member of our family has a place to serve in Costa Rica; each of us is needed to fill a place of ministry at Pura Vida Missions (PVM).

We cannot do this alone, we need your help. Will you consider supporting the work of the Lord by giving a monthly financial donation? Will you pray about supporting us on a monthly basis in whatever way the Lord leads you to do so? We thank you in advance for being obedient to the Lord in this matter - whatever He tells you to do. We look forward to including you as a member of our support team. Please feel free to let us know what you have decided. Whether you are able to give at this time, or are just able to pray for us, we value your friendship and prayer support as we walk through this challenging time of stepping out in faith and are being obedient to what the Lord has asked of our family.

Thank you, and much love,
Bill and Chris Robinson,

and Family

To make donations or correspond:
Mail a check to Globe International,
P.O. Box 3040 Pensacola, FL 32516.
Or give with a credit card at www.gme.org
List our names in the designation/memo box.

Preparation mode!

2009-01-24T20:48:00.000-08:00

Preparations being made for the big move -

We have been busy preparing, cleaning, going through, and getting rid of lots and lots of "stuff" in working towards our big family move to Costa Rica this spring. You never think that moving is going to be so hard, or take so long, but when you have a family of 8, things really accumulate. I don't know where half of all of this stuff came from, or when it decided to take up residence in my house, but it is time now for it all to go. I have found borrowed books that I need to return to their rightful owners, and books that I have not looked at for a long while and forgotten that we had, among other long forgotten about items. Let me tell you, it is very tedious work for me, but very rewarding. I have been trying to lighten my load now for a long time, and I just never spent the hours needed to get it done. Now I have to do it, as we are only taking 2 trunks per family member with us to Costa Rica.

We are very excited about our up and coming move, the kids finally joined in the anticipation when they heard that candy and pizza is widely available (practically on every corner) of the city. We will be living near the capital city of San Jose, in a city called Heredia. It is about 30-40 minutes by car, but 1 hour by bus. The buses in Costa Rica go everywhere, through all of the cities, towns, and on all of the mountain roads. It is really amazing! The bus system is widely used, so there are people walking everywhere all of the time to get to a bus stop.

There are stray dogs everywhere as well. It is really amazing. Most of them are friendly, not that I petted any, but they seemed to be so. The dogs in Costa Rica actually look both ways before they cross the street! It is true, we saw it happen! I am trying to find a good home for my 2 dogs here in the states, because they would probably get hit by a car if they got out of the small yard that we will have in Costa Rica. We are also going to be living in much more of a city environment, and we will not be home very much as we will be very busy working at the ministry base.

We will be working with Pura Vida Missions this summer. We cannot wait to get there, (May 27th is moving day!). Leadership training starts June 1st. PVM organizes meaningful ministry opportunities and connects short term missions groups with local churches all over Costa Rica. Their trips combines training, ministry, and purpose. Any kind of group can book a trip with PVM, but the summer will be full of hundreds of youth age teens from all over the US. It will be very exciting to work with teens on missions trips! It is so awesome to see the light come on in their eyes, and feel the enthusiasm when they experience the Lord work through their own lives to reach others for Christ!

Thankfully we will be able to dive right in this summer with out speaking fluent Spanish, but come September we will be hitting the books hard to learn the language well. It is absolutely necessary for us to be able to communicate with the people to whom we are ministering to. It is going to be a high priority this fall for us to totally immerse ourselves in speaking Spanish. We have a decent understanding of the language from taking Spanish 1 and 2 at the local college last summer, but we realized how much we were lacking in vocabulary mastery during our trip! We do know enough to get around, but not enough to really share Christ with someone in Spanish. That is our goal, by next year!!! We have our work cut out for us!

Please pray for us, and the ministry in Costa Rica!

See Globe Internationals web site at http://www.gme.org/missionaries/view_missionary.php?mid=144 to find out more information about missions, or to make a donation towards lives being changed in Costa Rica.

See Pura Vida Missions web site at www.PVMonline.org for more information about the mission that we will be working with, or if you are interested in coming with a team to Costa Rica this summer.

2008-12-22T19:33:00.000-08:00

2008-12-22T18:11:00.000-08:00

The people are precious!

The people are hungry!
The people are beautiful!

This is just a little of my beautiful Costa Rica!

Mission accomplished in Costa Rica 2008!

2008-12-17T20:51:00.000-08:00

Wow! We lived through the whirlwind of spending most of 2 amazing weeks in Costa Rica!

I have to be honest with you, we went to Costa Rica looking for something. And God came through once again for us! He gave us the answers we needed from Him.

We have been confident since January of 2007 that the Lord had called us to move as a family to Costa Rica and do missions work. Through our IGM Missions class that we attended in 2008 the Lord narrowed our focus of ministry somewhat and gave us some idea of what kind of ministry we would like to become involved in.

We needed even more clarification from Him about where we were to live, and who we were to connect and work with in Costa Rica. This He did during our visit this month. We were able to spend time with 7 different groups of people from different missionary and humanitarian organizations, as well as connect with some very special Tico's (native Costa Ricans). Every connection was a divine connection. There were no wastes of time, or unfruitful visits. God showed up everywhere we went!

We were able to ask missionaries and Tico's alike questions about life in Costa Rica, and ministry needs. We wanted to confirm that our vision was in line with what is actually needed in Costa Rica. After all, there is no sense in us going to all of the trouble to move our family only to spin our wheels once we get there. We want to be the most effective for the Lord as we can be, and minister the gospel to those that are ready to hear it!

We cherish every connection that we made while in Costa Rica. As one of our new missionary friends said to us "We believe every connection is a God connection!" I believe it too! We were so blessed by the hospitality and generosity that we were shown while visiting. We left the country feeling so much richer, and fuller than when we arrived. We were full of God's purpose and plans, and rich from His many blessings.

We mainly stayed in the many different areas surrounding San Jose, which is quite large, and also ventured 3 hours south of the capital city to the smaller, but fastest growing city of San Isidro for a few days. Throughout our stay we were able to minister to children in groups through craft activities, Christmas parties, tutoring English, pray for families individually, take part in establishing a mission house in a drug infested neighborhood near a major trash dump, visit several different Spanish church services, and just have coffee and conversation with some Tico families and young adults.

We enjoyed the clouds touching the beautiful mountains every morning, the random waterfalls spraying right out of the side of the mountain along the many winding roads, the awesome variety of birds that came almost to the window sills to eat the bananas left out for them, the many, many dogs that roam the streets, and actually look both ways before crossing, and the many rainbows seen after the "Pelo de gato" rain that fell quite often.

We really enjoyed our short visit, and are very much looking forward to moving our entire family this May to the beautiful land of Costa Rica and it's beautiful people.

We praise God for our successful trip, and thank Him for it. He is our Father and Provider, He directs our steps and guides us along His path. It is for His glory and splendor, that His name may be exalted that we do good works.

Missions Trip Costa Rica 2008

2008-11-29T11:59:00.001-08:00

Well, we finally made it!!! We are in Costa Rica!

We are staying with 6:8 Ministries in Alajuelita, just outside of San Jose. We have been meeting people, ministering to children through crafts and prayer. We visited a family who has a severely disabled little boy with gifts for him and his 2 sisters from their American sponsors. They were all very excited.

We have been walking through the poorest, most disconcerting makeshift 2 room houses to visit people and to pray for them. The people who live here are the sweetest, most friendliest people I have ever met. They seem to be happy and content despite their needs and tragic circumstances. They live in extremely low living standards compared to even the poorest in the States. Although most have some electricity and running water, several do not even have indoor toilets. It is really an eye opener to make me question what it really takes to make people happy, (including myself), and what the true needs of the people are.

We are looking forward to doing more ministry in the city of San Jose, as well as seeing the beautiful city tomorrow.

Blog Changes

2008-09-20T08:01:00.000-07:00

Changes - I am moving all Pondering Life entries to my new Pondering Life Blog.

Check it out at Ponderinglifebycr.blogspot.com.

This is blog is now going to be devoted to having a Missions Heart.

Pondering Life - Unanswered prayer

2008-09-14T13:59:00.000-07:00

Pondering life, what about unanswered prayer?
How does this fit in to the plan of following God and allowing Him to work in our lives? One more famous American "pat" answer is "God always answers prayer!" Does He? I have heard people say that He always answers, either with a yes or a no. I do not know about that. Is it His obligation to keep us happy by giving us what we pray for all the time?

When I was first saved 23 years ago I used to tell people that I witnessed to on the streets that if they come to Jesus their lives would work out for the better, and that their prayers would be answered. I was wrong! Yes our lives do work out for the better, but only after we submit our life and will to Jesus, and surrender to Him by giving Him complete control.

God always hears our prayers, He doesn't always answer them. Sometimes He is silent. If you are a young Christian and have never experienced this than just wait a little while, you will. God never ignores us or forgets about us, but sometimes He is just silent for a little while. We have to be patient, and continue to seek Him through the silence. After all, are we just serving Him because of what we are getting out of the relationship? Or because He is the almighty God who is worthy to be praised and served. This is when we come to the point where we serve the Lord because it is the right thing to do, not because we feel right doing it, although most of the time we do feel right doing it.

I believe God always hears our prayers. Proverbs 15:29 says "The LORD is far from the wicked but he hears the prayer of the righteous." Sometimes He does not answer us right away because He wants us to continue to seek Him about it. He wants us to be pro-active in our faith, and in our Christian walk so that it becomes our pleasure to spend time with Him in prayer rather than just our duty.

The more time we spend in prayer, talking with the Lord, the more we will get to know Him and what His will is for us rather than just what we want. 1 John 5:14, and 15 says "This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him."

God is faithful, and God is just; God is merciful, and God is good. He is good all of the time, even though we might experience some bad things some of the time. What are you reasons for serving the Lord?

Pondering Life - meaning and purpose

2008-09-07T15:27:00.000-07:00

Pondering life, the meaning and purpose of it.
I wonder, I have been thinking about how here in America we just say "God bless you", and "Just have faith, God will work it out". But how do you say these things to children whose parents are digging in someone elses trash bin just to give them a little food to eat? Or what about the Mom who just lost her baby, or just found out that her young child has cancer? It is easy for me to say these things to my friends here in America who may just be having a little financial trouble, but they still have a roof over their heads, and a car to drive. How do you impart taking a leap of faith and trusting in God completely to people who are having much larger hardships than you, yourself have ever had?

What do you say to people who are faced with circumstances that do not look like God's provision? How do you encourage them to keep trusting in God? Because He will work it out? Or because He is God.

These are the things with which I am being challenged. Here in America we are so used to giving each other pat answers, and usually in the end things tend to work out for us. But I am becoming aware of people who live in much worse conditions than I have ever lived in and I am wanting to convey to them that if they just trust in the Lord that things will work out for them.

What does that mean exactly? I believe that each of us has our own personal definition of what it means to have things work out for us. To one it might mean one more day alive, one more meal found to eat, to another it might mean a higher paying job, or going on a nicer vacation this year than we went on last year.

My challenge to you is to find out what your definition of "having things work out" is, and check it against reality. Do you have an inflated definition? One according to how you want your life to be? Or one based on God's provision. What does it really mean to say to someone "Don't worry, just put your trust in God, and things will work out!"