Jared preached on Sunday and did a great job. I think it was probably one of the better services we have had. I was pretty excited because there was a guy named Clay from South Carolina that showed up to the service. I met him the prior Wednesday and we talked for awhile as I was waiting on the guys to come and clean the beach. I asked Clay what he was doing here and he told me that he was trying to figure life out. His girlfriend of four years had just broke up with him and he also just graduated school. He was a baseball player as well and he was promised a shot at the proçs, but it never happened. We had a lot in common. I did not get a chance to talk with him after, but I am glad that he was able to come, being in the position he is in.

Our small group just started a bible study this past Monday. I do not remember the name of it off hand, but it is on prayer. We watched a video and answered some questions. At the end we all got on our knees and prayed for one another. It went extremely well.

We had a staff meeting on Monday following the bible study. The most current news is that we are most likely going to be given an office in Quepos where we can have our meetings,make food for the homeless, have studies, organize events, ect.....it will be awesome to have. Especially since we live outside of Quepos right now. We are looking for a new location for the program. Our hope is to be back in Quepos.

Here are our prayer needs:
New program location
Transportation
Salvation for my friend David
More money for the program
For people who said they were going to help the program to be as good as their word
Love

I am about to head back to Quepos after a couple week stay here in Indianapolis. I had a pretty good time being back. I tried to see as many people as possible:( It was a busy time. I had to do a lot of shopping for others as well as myself. I wanted to not be too busy, but it just seems to not work out that way. I was blessed on my visit here, so really I have no complaints. Time just seems to fly by. I am excited to return and see all the guys from the program and our church. I also am pumped to see my dog. He needs to be trained from what I hear. No kidding, he is like 9 weeks old! It is going to be a heck of a task for me. I am up to it though. Before I left I was thinking that it may have not been such a good idea to get a dog at this point in my life, but I am going to ride it out. It will be worth it in the long run.

I have been reading Luke 16, the parable of the unrighteous steward the past couple of days. Stewardship has been on my heart lately. I need a lot of work with managing/budgeting my finances. At times I think I am doing really good, then at the end of the month I see how much I have spent.....No doubt God has His finger on this. Jesus says,"He who is faithful with a very little thing is faithful also with much and he who is unrighteous with a very little thing will be unfaithful with much. If you have been unfaithful with worldy wealth, who will entrust true riches to you?" This may be my version, but it is pretty close to what Jesus was saying. He goes on to say that you cannot serve two masters either...you will either hate the one and love the other or be devoted to one and despise the other, you cannot serve God and mammon. I found it interesting that Jesus says that if you are faithful with that which is very small, you will be faithful with that which is much. Is Jesus as concerned with the little things as the big? I'd say so. I think I tend to not have a little thing filter. I look around at the big things...most likely stemming from how our culture shoves bigger and better at us all the time. Mother Theresa said,"We can do no great thing, only small things with great love." What a brilliant statement, especially applicable to this day in age. Small things done with love can have great impacts. Even when applied to stewardship....prayerfully spending and giving. I listened to Tony Campolo talk about spending. He said that in the old testament you were supposed to tithe 10% and prayerfully spend the 90. Now he says that all of our money is the Lord's....we tend to tithe our 10%(most of us anyways) and do what we want with the rest. If we are a disciple of Christ all of our money is His. Something like that! He said it much better. I know I can have the mindset that when it is in my hand it is mine or when it is in my possession it is my possession. I am glad God is showing me truth in this area. God wants all of us and all that we have is His.

Stateside

I flew back to Indianapolis on the 20th of April to stay for a few weeks. Since I have been home I have been hanging out with my parents, brother, and I have seen a few friends. I have golfed twice with my dad. There is no golf where I am living in CR. Come to think of it, I don't think there is anywhere they could build a golf course. It is way to mountainous.

This is my second trip home over the past 6 months. One thing I notice since I have been home is my rush to get things I cannot get in CR or that I don't spend money on because they charge twice as much. Simple things you buy at the grocery down there are twice as expensive. Like a small thing of Peter Pan creamy peanut butter costs like 6 bucks down there. Anything that is name brand from the states is twice as expensive down there. Quepos makes money off tourists and they know that tourists are going to pay to have what is familiar...at least I think that is their thinking, along with importing it. My friends have given me lists of things to bring back to Quepos for them as well. Simple things like nuts, t-shirts, peanut butter, things for baking, hair products.......I think we all have things we miss from the states that we cannot get down there, so when someone comes here it is nice to be able to get the things we like. You can get a lot of the things down there, but I have found that often times it is just like throwing your money away. I would estimate that 80-90% of the things you buy down there with a name brand is a knock off or what you might call boot leg. I bought a pair of "Sony" headphones and they busted the next day. I called them phonies. lol. Maybe you get what I am saying.......maybe not.

It is just kinda strange coming here after being in the town I am living in. You get to see how consumeristic we are here in America. There is nothing but stores to buy things here. So many stores. I am trying to not spend much, but it is hard cause I know there are things I need and want that I cannot get down there. AHHH!

I bought a return ticket for the 5th of May. I miss the guys at the center and the routine I was in. I have learned pretty well how to relax, but I miss home. I have quite a few people I would still like to see and I am hoping to gain a couple more financial supporters. LOVE=LOVE

We are back to 8 men in the program right now. We had our staff meeting this morning and it seems like this is a good number for us. Anytime we get more than 7-8 it does not seem to last for very long. I think it is tough for that many guys to live in small quarters for prolonged ammounts of time.

I recently purchased a male pitbull. I have wanted a dog for years and never felt like it was the righ time to get one. Well, I just went ahead and did it when the opportunity presented itself. I live alone and I know how great it is to have a dog around to keep you busy and laughing. It is a big responsibility as well, especially with a 7 week old puppy. I named him Gideon. He is golden, white face and legs...with baby blue eyes. Talk about a job man. I knew it was not going to be a cake walk, but this little thing is crazy. Just have to be patient, I guess.

I have been sick for the past 5 days with sinus pain and my body is aching as well. I had the same sort of stuff about a month ago. My friend Jimmy has it as well as many others in the area. I went and had blood drawn the other day because I thought I had dengue fever again. Hopefully I will start feeling better here in the next couple of days.

I taught at church last week and I am teaching again this week. I think it went pretty well and we all learned something. I hope to grow in this area as it continues to challenge me greatly. If you happen to read this, please pray.

Please pray for my friends Jared and Eileen Cantrell-their future, all of our finances as a team, and for our program and church. thanks!

Well, sometimes it seems as right after I tell how many guys are in the program we lose a couple. We are down to 9 men now. This is really just how it goes I guess. Since I have been involved back in Indy and here it has always been the same up and down with the numbers of program men. The guys had 4 days off this past Thursday-Sunday. It was Holy Week here and Costa Ricans typically take off the entire week, but we only gave them 4 days. I think it was probably kind of hard for them being away from family and wondering what everyone else was doing. Many of the families go to the beach during the week. I went last Thursday and it was jam packed. I got there early and I was ready to go around 2pm.

I just received an email from Jared and Eileen. They are stuck in Brazil...they will not let them leave because they do not have their yellow fever vaccine cards with them. They can either get another one...which that process will take about 10 days, in order to get new cards or someone can DHL the ones at their house. I am off to see what has happened. Peace

11 guys

We now have 11 guys in the program! I have heard from my friend Jimmy who is our program director that all of the programs across the country are full and so are we. This is going to work out good for us because we have a pretty big work load. We just recently obtained 2 contracts with the Marina. We are going to be doing some gardening and landscape work for them. These are the biggest contracts that the program has ever had. We are still waiting to hear back from the church in Colorado who is wanting to help us financially. They have told us that they started fun raising and are still coming in June with 60 people to do a childrens bible school and help us with building a shed for the woodmizer.

Jasmine and Michelle

My friend Jasmine came and visited with her friend Michelle this past week. It was great to see her and catch up. I needed a bit of a break from the action and daily responsibilities. I was able to relax, read a lot more than usual, eat a lot more than usual, and I really just got to laugh a lot. The girls were funny and refreshing for me to be around. I find that I tend to take things in life a bit to seriosly at times. I can also be pretty hard on myself and I was able to just laugh a lot and not worry about anything. We ate out quite a bit and also went on a canopy safari where you go zip lining through the jungle. It was a lot of fun and something different to do than just go to the beach. We fed the homeless on Friday morning the day before Jasmine left. There were about 20 or so men and women that were fed. I think this was our greatest turnout we have had. It was neat to sit back and watch it all unfolding(the feeding). At times I get selfish and say to myself,"ah man I have to go buy the stuff, prepare it," blah, blah, blah.......basically a bunch of complaining. Then I go do it and get blessed by doing so.