Saturday, January 29th

Great things are being done in the country of Costa Rica and currently the city of Ciudad Cortes. My name is Allen Nunnally and I am currently working as a missionary with Wil and Costa Rica Mission Projects. I have been blessed to see the past two weeks unfold as the teams have been working on building the second story to a parsonage that often is flooded by the nearby river.

This past week was a great one. Tiring, hot, and full of lots of hard work, but it paid off to see the progress that was made. A seven-member team from Christ Church in Ft. Lauderdale made the trip to Cortes, Costa Rica to make a difference. That difference was surely accomplished. We spent many hours sanding rust off of tin roofing, painting and restoring steel beams, and preparing the bottom floor to be repainted. The second story’s foundation was also put into place. Giant steel bars were lifted up to the team to weld into place. After that, concrete boards were placed for the foundation of the upstairs. All that was set before this team to get done was accomplished quickly.

It was a special week forming relationships with members of the church and community and forming stronger bonds within the team. We even had a chance to worship Tuesday evening with the local church. Powerful is a word that comes to mind. Even past the language barrier, all understood the presence of God.  

Saturday, January 22nd

Week one is in the books.  The first team from FUMC in Rocky Mount always comes from a Thursday to a Saturday every year and it was a big help having a few extra days to getting a jump start on this new project.  We are building a second floor on the parsonage at the Methodist church in Ciudad Cortes.  It's a town that floods often and the pastoral family and the church needed somewhere to shelter themselves and their stuff when the rains come.  The team got all of the steel that will be used to hold the new structure up painted with rust proof paint, The columns and floor trusses have been welded together and placed on the concrete pads that we poured on the first and second day the team was there.  The old roof has been taken down, the old tin (which was a bit rusty but by no means at the end of its lifespan) was sanded and painted.  It was a VERY productive first week involving lots of heavy lifting, lots of heat and lots of laughter!

The team was from my home church in North Carolina, so it was nice to have "family" here.  FUMC Rocky Mount has been sending mission team to Costa Rica for at least 25 years and I'm proud of the fact that Costa Rica Mission Projects has grown out of our church's commitment to the Methodist Church in Costa Rica.  I can assure you that when the adults at my church dodged a hyper-active ten year old bouncing down the hallways of our church, none of them envisioned this in my future!  I am reminded by them every year when they come down to work with us that they are pleasantly surprised that I "turned out alright"!  I guess God's grace really does know no bounds...

We never know when we start a new project in a community where we've never worked before, what kind of a "work environment" we'll be stepping into.  The folks at the church in Cortes have been very helpful and involved in this project since day one.  They dug the HUGE holes we needed to pour the concrete bases to hold up the columns for the second floor, they fixed up the church bathrooms for our teams to use, they've been coming by the work site during the week to lend a hand and volunteering in the kitchen with Yolanda and Fanny.  Not to mention including us in wonderful, spirit filled worship (those of you who have been down here know exactly what I'm talking about!).  It's awesome to be swept into the current of the Body of Christ being the Body Christ like it should be.

There've been some changes in the Costa Rica Mission Projects crew this year and things are going as smoothly as one could hope.  Pedro, who worked with us from time to time last year has had no problem moving into full-time mode.  Yolanda's brother Harold has never been around so much English or so many gringos in his life! After being shell shocked for the first couple of days he has loosened up and is doing great.  Our friend Allen "War Eagle" Nunnally from Birmingham is fitting in great with our team and it's been really fun to see all of this through his eyes (it's his first time in Costa Rica).  I'm so glad he has taught Pedro and Harold to say "Wassup Dude?".... Check out Allen's blog at foundationonrock.blogspot.com.  It's better than mine.

The team from Christ Church in Ft. Lauderdale get in this afternoon and we're looking forward to another great week with them.  Please continue to pray for Yolanda and I, for our CRMP team and for the Cortes project.

Peace on Earth

Wil Bailey
CostaRicaMissionProject 

Tuesday, November 30th

It's been a bitter sweet week for Costa Rica Mission Projects.  Two members of our team, Kike and Felipe, who have been working with us for 5 and 6 years respectively, both informed me that they won't be working with us next year.  Bitter, because we'll really miss having them both around.  They've been such a important part of our family for so long and mean so much to the teams that have come to work with us, not to mention how hard they work week in and week out.  Sweet because actually, this is what Yolanda and I have praying for for a while now.  Kike is going to be studying full time and Felipe is going to dedicate his time to our church in San Isidro and to developing his love for music.  We are proud of both of them for taking this step in their personal lives and we hope that the time they have spent with us for the past few years has provided them with some of  the skills and talents that they will need in this new stage of their lives.  

Due to the generosity of the CRMP family after the floods a couple of weeks ago, we were able to make a $2,000 donation to the Rice and Beans ministry that our friend Fred Curry runs down here.  That's enough to get emergency food packs to 200 families.  His crew will be heading into the Quepos area (where very little assistance has made it so far) in the next few days.  The rest of the donations will be used to offer some more long term assistance to some of the families that were forced to seek refuge at our church in San Isidro.

I'll be heading to Alajuela on Thursday for the Evangelical Methodist Church of Costa Rica's Annual Conference.  I'm looking forward to spending a couple of days with the Methodist pastors and deligates from all over the country and to hear about what's going on in their ministries.  Yolanda and I will be spending the next few weeks resting, spending time with her family and getting ready for next year.  

Again, thanks for supporting our work here in Costa Rica.  God Bless.

Wil Bailey
CostaRicaMissionProjects 

Tuesday, November 9th

For those of you who have been praying for Costa Rica, thanks. The rains have stopped and the recovery has begun. Thousands of families have been forced from their homes and are now faced with whether or not they will be able to return home. Many lost everything. We are in the process of determining how CRMP can help and whether or not it affect our plans for next year a friend of ours, Fred Curry, is coordinating the purchase and distribution of emergency food bags to the hardest hit areas. each bag contains about 5 pounds of rice, 5 pounds of beans, 2 and a half pounds of sugar, a bag of flour and a bag of salt. That's enough for a family of 4 or 5 for 4 or 5 days. The cost of a bag is $10. If you or your church would like to donate money for emergency bags, please let me know as soon as possible. Money can be deposited at Wachovia in the CRMP account (#2000037373180), or you can mail a check made out to Costa Rica Mission Projects to 4717 Gardenia CIrcle, Rocky Mount, NC 27804. Thanks in advance for your help.

CRMP - Year End Wrap Up

Costa Rica Mission Projects – Year End Wrap Up

2010 has been another year full of blessings, hard work and challenges. We were able to complete three projects, add new members to the CRMP family, witness new members joining the Body of Christ and take major steps in adding another facet to this ministry. Yolanda and I are well, resting and preparing for a month long trip to visit churches, promote our work here and spend some time with family in North Carolina.

From January through March we were back in La Bonita de Changuena for the second year in a row. We finished the church kitchen and the sanctuary that we started in 2009 and also built a Sunday school building, complete with bathrooms and a storage/supply room. Anyone who has worked with us in Changuena knows what a blessing it is to spend time with the special people there. This year was no different. It was so exciting to see that the day we put the roof on the new building (about half way through the construction process) they had their first church leaders meeting there. From that point on they had weekly youth meetings, usually with a group of 25 or more. The fact that the building wasn't even done yet wasn't even a minor inconvenience for them!

While we were in Changuena we realized that two church families lived in homes that were either incomplete or totally unfit to be lived in. So the last three weeks, in addition to the church projects, we also sent small teams to help them. Henry is still smiling from ear to ear he's so happy with his new little home. Sidney, the owner of the home where we helped finish putting up exterior walls and doors, came by the church as the last team was leaving and asked me if I would thank them for “spending this week with my family...” I think he really captured the spirit of what CRMP is about, it's not about construction work, it's about building relationships within the Body of Christ.

We plan to be back in La Bonita de Changuena in early 2012 to build a parsonage for Umberto and Lili. They consistently have 40 or more people coming for worship! Some walk for over an hour to get there. If the church continues to grow, then Humberto and Lili will move in 2012 to La Bonita to pastor that church full time. We started working with them in Santa Lucia 5 years ago and have been blessed to be a part of the growth of their ministry in Changuena.

From May through August we were back at Kilometer 37, with the exception of 4 weeks that we worked in San Isidro. We are finished with the camp at K37! The cabins have all been re-painted, the leaky faucets have been fixed, the bathroom building next to the gym is done and the secondary roof is up, around two sides of the gymnasium. We've left money with the Superintendent for the lighting system of in the gym and paint for one more coat on the dining hall/kitchen building. This project took four years to complete and it is one that we are all very, very proud of. The district is ready to start scheduling events there already and there has been a lot of interest from non-Methodist groups as well. It's looking like it will be as busy as we had hoped.

We also finished the sanctuary in Piedras Blancas. Pastor William had 80 people coming for worship in their old building, but only had room for 60. Now he has about 100 coming, but has room for 200! I don't think it will be long before the Lord fills that sanctuary too. One of our Summer teams this year focused on evangelism for the week they were there and saw the fruits of their labor at the worship service at the end of the week when two of the families they had visited accepted Christ and joined the church!

As I mentioned, we also spent a week in San Isidro building a new sunday school room, repairing the old parsonage and doing some routine repair and maintenance on the bunk rooms where our teams stay in route to other projects.

Perhaps the biggest news of the summer was our mission trip to Missouri and Florida. In August we took a group of 16 to work in the Kansas City area alongside our good friends from Blue Springs United Methodist Church. To me, this trip really exemplified what we are trying to accomplish through CRMP. All of us are called to the mission field. Jesus commanded his disciples to go to Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. I don't think that that command was meant only for the Christians in the US. We are ALL called to go and serve anywhere in the world that there is need. After Kansas City we spent 3 days in Ft. Lauderdale with our Christ Church family. We are so grateful to both of these congregations for opening the door to what may become a consistent part of our ministry in Costa Rica. We are currently planning three mission trips abroad from Costa Rica for next year. Please be in prayer for our mission opportunities in Alabama, Cuba and El Salvador. Our hope is that one third of our congregation in San Isidro will be able to participate in a foreign mission trip next year.

Yolanda and I are thrilled with what's been accomplished this year through CRMP with the Lord's help and the help of all of our partners. We are anxiously looking ahead to 2011. We will spend the first part of the year working on the parsonage in Ciudad Cortes and the Summer months working on several different projects in the Alajuela District. We want to thank you all once again for your commitment to this ministry. Thank you for holding us up in prayer, thank you for coming to be with us here or sending your loved ones to do so, and thank you for the financial support that makes it possible for Yolanda and I to be here and serve in this way.

Peace on Earth,

Wil and Yolanda Bailey

CostaRicaMissionProjects