June 2023 Prayer Letter

 Dear Friends and Family,

We hope that every one of you are doing well. Last month was a pretty good month. Early in the month, the building owner confirmed that we could rent a larger location in the same building for the same price. We began making plans to change locations at the time of our next rent payment. We had to do a little work to repair the walls and paint them, among a few other things. We had to rent some scaffolding for a day to repair the high ceiling and paint it afterwards. We then had to move everything over as quickly as possible to turn over the keys to the old location. We then settled things into place for our first service. Our first Sunday we had a good turnout, but unfortunately it was a bit hotter with less air flow. We then installed 2 out of the 3 wall fans that we purchased. Last week, we had several new visitors and had a new high attendance of about 52 people! Michelle said that the kids class areas were just about full. We are still getting settled in and will work out how to better use the new area. This month, we are preparing to hold our first English church service as a trial. Apart from Belize, whose official language is English, Costa Rica has the highest English proficiency in Central America. There is a high demand to learn and practice English as well as a significant population of foreign residents who speak English and do not have a place to attend church. We hope to be able to minister to them as well as reach out to Costa Ricans who are learning the language. Many have expressed interest and we are praying for a good turnout. Our goal is to glorify God buy using our talents to proclaim the Gospel and ministry to as many people as possible.

Our family has been doing well, although we have been super busy. The kids are doing well in school and are near the end of their school year. The girls were able to opt-out of some of their final exams because of their high grades. Elijah was chosen to speak a portion in Spanish at his kindergarten graduation. Once school gets out, we are looking forward to taking a short trip to see our family. We have been working to prepare the church to continue on in our absence.

Last month, we requested prayer for Mrs. Liliam. Thankfully, she has been making progress towards recovery and is feeling a lot better than she has in several months. However, she is still not yet 100% and we continue to lift her up in prayer. In addition to praying for her, please pray:

1. For the Holy Spirit to work in hearts, to convict of sin, and to lead others to faith in Christ.

2. For Jesus to continue to build up His church here in San Pablo, Costa Rica.

3. For God to guide and protect the church during our brief absence.

In Christ,

Jeremy, Michelle, Lila, Ellowyn, and Elijah Blanz