January 2022 Prayer Letter

 Dear Friends and Family

We hope that each of you had a wonderful Christmas and a great start to the new year! We celebrated Christmas throughout the month of December. Jeremy preached several Christmas themed messages from Matthew 1 and Luke 1-2. We also enjoyed singing our favorite Christmas hymns and even introducing some new ones to the church here in Costa Rica. As we knocked on doors sharing the Gospel throughout the community, it became apparent that there was a special love for the holiday of Christmas... but sadly, most do not trust in Christ alone for salvation by grace through faith. Our in home meetings have been going well with a good core group. One night, we had a special Christmas dinner for the church family with ham and all of the classic sides. I believe this was our first year on the mission field when we had a "real" ham! We also had a special Christmas activity for the kids at an artificial ice-skating rink. The idea was great... but the artificial ice was not so great. We were sliding around everywhere... but it was a good time with many laughs. We have also continued to make progress with our religious association. Many do not know this, but Costa Rica does not allow missionaries to legally come here without being sponsored by an existing ministry with a high level of credentials. Although these processes are very slow and time consuming, we are laying the groundwork not only for our own ministry, but also for other missionaries who seek to serve in Costa Rica.

As for our family, we had a special time this Christmas. Between school, church, and family activities, we stayed very busy! The kids had a nice break from school for a few weeks. We all had more than our share of hot chocolate and Christmas goodies! Although we love the Christmas season, we always remember the true meaning of Christmas and why Christ came to live among us and save us from our sins. As we start the new year, we are seeking the Lord for His direction and guidance as for 2022.

Last month, we requested prayer for the permits we were seeking for a building we were seeking to rent for our church. Unfortunately, the permits were declined. Here in Costa Rica, it is much harder for churches to obtain permits than it is for businesses, making it very difficult for new churches. However, we know that the Lord is in control. We will keep seeking a way to move forward. Also, we send special thanks to those who sent special Christmas offerings. This month, please pray...

1. That God will continue to use us to witness to the lost and see more souls saved.

2. That Christ will continue to build His Church in San Pablo.

3. That God will lead us and guide us as we seek a way forward for the church plant.

In Christ,

Jeremy, Michelle, Lila, Ellowyn, and Elijah Blanz

December 2021 Prayer Letter

 

Dear Friends and Family,

It is hard to believe that we are already at the end of another year. As expected, this year was full of challenges... but in many ways we are now "seeing the light" of the end of the pandemic. We continue to focus on evangelism and bringing the Gospel to the lost. We have met many who have stopped attending church or their churches have closed completely. We know that God has kept us here to keep pushing forward in these difficult times. Jeremy was invited to preach in a missions conference here in Costa Rica, which was a first. It was exciting to encourage the Costa Ricans to carry the Gospel unto the uttermost parts of the earth! We are also doing discipleship with a family from our church plant. We have found a new lawyer to help us navigate the remaining legal hurdles that we are dealing with. We are also working with the owner of a new meeting location to obtain the permits that are needed to hold services. Another big change was that we replaced our online meetings with in-person gatherings in our home. We have seen an increase in attendance as well as much more meaningful time spent together.

As for our family, we have been adjusting to the changes of hosting others in our home every week. We have been super busy between school, ministry, and planning for the holidays. This last month, it seems like Elijah has really begun to speak a lot of Spanish. It's not always correct, but it is encouraging to see how far he has come. For Thanksgiving, we had one dinner at the school on Monday, another one with our church plant family on a Tuesday, and another one with some other friends on Thursday. I think this was the first year in Central America when we have made a Turkey! It was a blessing to share with the church people the story of the origin of Thanksgiving. We all took time to thank God for his numerous blessings in our lives. We are now working on our plans for Christmas.

We are thankful for all who have faithfully prayed for us and supported our ministry. Thank you to those who sent special Christmas offerings. We pray that God will bless you above and beyond. This month, please pray...

1. That God will help us to obtain all of the permits necessary for the new meeting location.

2. That God will open hearts for others to hear the Gospel, believe upon Christ, and be saved!

3. That God will continue to grow His church here in San Pablo, Heredia, Costa Rica!

In Christ,

Jeremy, Michelle, Lila, Ellowyn, and Elijah Blanz

November 2021 Prayer letter

Dear Friends and Family,

Last month, we were able to put a stronger emphasis on evangelism. One woman named Emilia received Christ as her Savior. We will continue to encourage her and help her understand the importance of believer's baptism and church membership. We are continuing to seek new ways to get the Gospel to the Costa Rican people. Over the years, there is a great number of people who have asked us if we could teach them English. We are now praying about the possibility of beginning an English ministry. We are also looking at a new meeting location. We will look at a few other options before making a decision. We have also made a little more progress with the establishment of our religious association here and now have our legal books. We hope to soon be able to move forward with other steps like opening a church bank account. Also, beyond the normal church services each week, Jeremy was able to preach in a supporting church of ours by way of a prerecorded video.

As we approach Thanksgiving, we have much to be thankful for. We are reminded of what the Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Timothy 1:12 - "And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry..." What a blessing it is to serve our Lord! We are also quite thankful to be fully recovered from covid. The kids are now back in school and we are once again operating at 100%. The kids are making excellent progress in their Spanish. The funny thing is that Elijah sometimes uses the Spanish word for things when he doesn't know the English word. He gets things a little mixed up, but is definitely coming along! Lila and Ellowyn help Jeremy on Saturday evangelism. It is important for them to see the hard work that goes into establishing new churches, as well as understand not to take their faith for granted! As they get older, they will be able to help out more and more!

Thank you to everyone who prayed for us as we were recovering from covid. We really appreciate that. This month, please pray for the following:

1. That God will help Emilia and her son Michael to begin attending church and follow the Lord in believer's baptism.

2. That God will lead us as we pray about the possibility of an English ministry.

3. That God will lead us as we seek a better meeting location.

4. That Jesus will continue to save souls and build His church here in Costa Rica!

In Christ,

Jeremy, Michelle, Lila, Ellowyn, and Elijah Blanz

October 2021 Prayer Letter

 Dear Friends and Family,

We hope that you are doing well and staying healthy! September was a very difficult month for us. It started out well with all of our normal ministry activity. We continued our focus on evangelism, discipleship, and normal church services. We held a special "children's day" service. We had plans for a special independence day service. We were going to have a special Costa Rican soup called "olla de carne" after one of our services. However, that week Elijah was the first to come down sick... then Lila... then Jeremy... then Michelle. We moved our services online out of precaution. When Jeremy lost his sense of smell and taste, we knew something was wrong... we were likely dealing with covid.

At this point, we had to put our ministry plans on pause and get tested. Michelle was tested for covid and the results came back positive. Around the time that it seemed like we were getting better, things took a turn for the worse and we had to put ministry on a minimal "survival mode" of shorter online services. Ours girls were able to continue their schooling online, and we have done our best to keep pushing forward each day and take care of the family. We were given isolation orders from the government and were unable to leave the house for any reason. Many from the church have offered to help, pray for us, etc. Some have brought us food and medicine. Our isolation orders are now done, but we are far from healthy and are still very weak and sick feeling. The kids have recovered well, but Michelle and I (Jeremy) are not able to eat well or do much of anything. On the bright side, there are some who we have not seen at church very much this year who have begun attending faithfully again. Surprisingly, our online services have been attended pretty well.

We are both young and healthy and it has been surprising how hard that covid has hit us. It's also been surprising how long and slow the recovery seems to be. It is also hard for us to not be able to do the ministry as much as we would like. This month, please pray...

1. For our health... that we can make a full recovery quickly and get back to operating at 100%.

2. For our church plant... that God will strengthen the church during this time when we are weak.

3. For God to guide and lead the church as we seek a better meeting location.

* Thank you for all of your prayers and support during this time. It means a lot to us.

In Christ,

Jeremy, Michelle, Lila, Ellowyn, and Elijah Blanz

September 2021

Dear Friends and Family,

Greetings from Costa Rica! We hope that this letter finds you doing well. This last month was a little bit slower. We have continued all of our regular church activity and visitation evangelism. We have had some days of higher attendance and some days of lower attendance. One lady who has visited told me how much she appreciated the Biblical preaching and that she will be attending regularly. One night as we went to church there were very dark clouds and we knew it was going to rain hard. Jeremy prayed that instead of it affecting the attendance negatively that the Lord would send some who needed to be saved. As we began the service, it began to rain. Two men entered the church. They live about 3 hours away, but had been working on a house nearby. They heard the music and decided to come attend. After the service, Jeremy counseled them and they called upon Christ as their Savior. We have also seen a few other visitors. Jeremy has continued doing the discipleship studies with one family from our church. We hope that in the long term, we will see the number of disciples multiply.

Last month was a bit unusual. Lila and Ellowyn had a short break before beginning the next school year early as it operates on a different schedule. We were able to spend a little extra time at home before going back to school. Michelle's parents also came to visit us. It was good to see them. Jeremy's sister came to Costa Rica and it was good to meet up with her. Near the end of the month, we celebrated Elijah's 4th birthday. It's hard to believe how fast time flies! He will be beginning a pre-kindergarten class this year and will surely make a lot of progress in learning Spanish. Next month, we will be celebrating Lila and Jeremy's birthdays. We will also have Costa Rican independence day and another holiday here called "Children's Day."

We are thankful for all of your prayers. Last month, two other churches sent special offerings towards our land and building fund. We are thankful that God has been working in hearts and providing towards this need. This month, please pray for the following...

1. For God to continue to save souls and add them to the church!

2. That the believers will grow spiritually and that the church will be strengthened.

3. For God to guide as we seek a more suitable meeting location.

4. For God to continue to provide as we seek to buy land and build or buy a church meeting location.

In Christ,

Jeremy, Michelle, Lila, Ellowyn, and Elijah Blanz

August 2021 Prayer Letter

Dear Friends and Family,

This last month was an exciting month! We began with an evangelistic children's outreach in one of the communities of San Pablo. Thankfully, the man who threatened to make sure that it didn't happen was unsuccessful in his efforts to hinder the Gospel. We had a great turnout from our small church plant and had 5 volunteers from another church. We began the event with only a few people, but more and more showed up. By the time we finished, it was mostly full. Jeremy shared the Gospel and there was one child that received Christ. The rest of the month was a little bit slower, mostly with our normal church services and evangelism. We forgot to mention that last month there was one teenager named Joshua who received Christ as Savior by faith. This month, one lady named Anabel trusted in Jesus as Savior. We hope and pray that they will take the next step to attend church and be baptized. One of the things that we are learning about Costa Rica is that there is a big gap between one's profession of faith and them taking the next steps (baptism, church attendance, growth). This is not only with new believers but also with many who have professed faith in Christ for a very long time. This month, we are beginning a one on one discipleship course with a few faithful members. Our desire is that upon completion, they will be able to disciple others. In this way, we hope that this will help to promote healthy relationships, spiritual growth, and multiply our capacity to disciple others.

As for our family, we are now getting into a new routine. Michelle and the kids will all now go to the same school where she is helping out. Jeremy is able to focus more on the ministry during this time. As of late July, Michelle should be losing her driving privileges for the last time before getting her Costa Rican license. Lord willing, that will be one more obstacle out of the way! This month, Michelle's parents will be able to visit us for a little while. That should be a blessing. Near the end of the month, we will be celebrating Elijah's 4th birthday! Where does the time go?

During the month of July, we received an additional donation towards our land and building fund. Thank you to all who have contributed! We are continuing to trust in the Lord to provide. This month, please pray:

1. That God will continue to save souls and build His church in San Pablo, Costa Rica.

2. That God will guide us as we seek a new meeting location.

3. That God will bless our new discipleship program and use it to strengthen His church!

In Christ,

Jeremy, Michelle, Lila, Ellowyn, and Elijah Blanz

July 2021 Prayer Letter

Dear Friends and Family,

June was a big month for us and despite heavy government restrictions, we have seen God's hand in many things. First of all, the covid cases are now lowering from the massive second wave (or is it third?). Early in the month, while getting a haircut, Jeremy was able to speak with the barber about the Lord. He is a Christian and from Nicaragua. He has been attending pretty faithfully. Jeremy also held another men's meeting, and we were nearly maxed out on space. We also did our first baby dedication and had several visitors. We have been planning to do an evangelistic children's outreach. Several who attend our church plant have volunteered to help. We have been praying for two things: 1 - To meet some Christians in the area of the evangelistic outreach beforehand and 2 - To be able to secure a location where we can hold the event. The Lord has answered both prayer requests. The barber, named Donald, actually just moved to that exact area on June 15th! So not only have we met a Christian in the area... but one who attends with us! Jeremy was also able to hunt down information and get ahold of someone in charge of a community center and was able to reserve it for the event. Given the opposition and restrictions we face, this is a huge breakthrough!

After requesting prayer last month for some of the red tape to be cleared, we have made significant progress on several things. After four trips to the bank and providing tons of paperwork, we now have a Costa Rican bank account which should save a lot of time on paying bills and such. Jeremy also was able to finally get a Costa Rican driver's license, which is also much harder than it should be. And lastly, after a year and a half of waiting, our religious association is now registered with the government, which means that once we receive the final document, we will be able to take several steps forward as a church as well as be able to help sponsor missionaries to get into the country in the future.

As for our family, we have been adjusting to every change and rolling with the punches! Our girls are working very hard in their virtual classes. They will have a two week break before returning to school. Currently, many public parks are still closed and we are still only able to drive every other day. We have had to be creative to find things to do as a family, but the Lord has given us some special times together.

Last month, we received another unexpected offering towards our building fund. Praise the Lord! This month, please pray:

1. For the Lord to bless abundantly in the evangelistic children's event on July 3rd and to save many souls.

2. For the Lord to continue to provide towards our church land/building fund.

3. For the Lord to save many souls and strengthen His church here in Costa Rica!

In Christ,

Jeremy, Michelle, Lila, Ellowyn, and Elijah Blanz