Saturday, October 2nd

Yolanda and I are back in Costa Rica after a brief visit to Florida and Alabama.  We're really excited about a few new projects that are in the works. It looks like CRMP will be planning three mission trips for Costa Ricans next fall (like the the trip to Missouri and Florida this summer).  Right now it looks like we will be taking a team to Birmingham, a team to Cuba and a team to El Salvador.  I think its awesome and that those who for so many years have been on the receiving end of mission teams are now getting the opportunity to "go"!  And I'm thrilled that God is using CRMP to make this happen.  I think that this model is going to get a lot of attention and hopefully open a lot of eyes to the fact that we are ALL called to be in mission, we were ALL commanded by Jesus to go to Jerusalem (home), Judea and Samaria (our neighbors) and to the ends of the earth (the ends of the earth)!  We have been praying about the growth of this ministry for a while now and I feel like what we are seeing happen now is a result of that.

Yolanda and I head back to the US again at the end of this month, first to Orlando and then on to NC for a few weeks.  Lots of church visits, time with family and hopefully I get a chocolate chess pie from my mom for my birthday!  

We currently have 25 teams signed up to work with us next year in Cortez and Alajuela.  Please be in prayer for them as they prepare for their time here and as always thank you for supporting Yolanda's and my work here,

Peace on Earth 

Friday, September 10th

WHEW!...that's about all I've got right now...whew!  In 2006 we started rebuilding the camp facilities at Kilometer 37.   After 5 years and over 100 volunteer teams, we're done.  The last team to work there left before our mission trip to the US, but Hugo, myself and the CRMP crew have been working there by ourselves for the last three weeks to get everything wrapped up.  There was still lots of welding, roofing and some electrical to do.  There are a couple of toilets and sinks left to install and I've left money with Chako (the DS) for the lighting in the gym, but we, CRMP, are officially done.  While Hugo and the guys spent this week installing the electrical system in the new locker rooms by the gym, I drove back and forth from the camp to San Isidro with loads of mattresses and tools that we had accumulated.  I'm pretty sure I speak for everyone on our team when I say we are thrilled to see this project complete.  The really good news is that Chako has a waiting  list of people wanting to rent it.  Please pray along with us that everyone who comes to activities there will experience God's presence in a new and special way.  CRMP is forever grateful for everyone who participated with us on this project over the past 5 years.  I hope you are as excited about how it turned out as we are.

Yolanda and I will be in the states at the end of the month in meetings in Florida and Alabama, discussing possible mission trip options for our church here in San Isidro.  One option would involve taking another team to the US next fall, the other option would be a trip to Cuba (Costa Ricans don't have the same limitations on travel to Cuba as North Americans do.)  Please pray the God opens the doors to make these mission trips a reality.  I've been named the Director of International Missions at our church in San Isidro and our hope is to send out three different foreign mission teams next year.   The third team would go help our good friend Brian Dubberly who works with the Methodist Church in El Salvador.  It's very exciting to part of such a mission minded congregation and to see them coming to the realization that, "we can do this too!"

In October and November Yolanda and I will be in the states again for a round of church visits, preaching and presentations.  Sorry we can't get to all of you, but we're looking forward to the visits that we do have planned.  We'll get to spend my birthday with family in North Carolina and then we'll be back in CR through Christmas.  Our first team next year will be here on January 2nd, so we'll try to rest sometime between now and then as well!  This will probably be my last blog for a while since out life is pretty boring with no teams around.  Thank you all for your love and faithful support.  Peace,

Wil and Yolanda Bailey

Friday, August 6th

I'm posting this from the very middle from the United States.  Our team of 16 from Costa Rica arrived safely yesterday afternoon in Blue Springs, Missouri.  Everyone is very excited to be here.  Don Felix, the 92 year old we brought with us (and the founder of the church in San Isidro) had his face stuck to the window from take off to landing on both flights!  We are looking forward to a week full of different service opportunities and time to strengthen the relationships we have with our church family here.  We'll be in Blue Springs until Thursday and then we're off to Fort Lauderdale to spend three days with Christ Church, another congregation that has supported CRMP since day one.

One of the coolest things that happened so far (besides one of the most amazing sunsets I've ever seen! see picture below) happened as we were leaving San Isidro for San Jose on Wednesday afternoon.  There is a team from South Carolina and North Carolina that has been working with us in San Isidro this week and they all gathered together to see us off.  I think it's an awesome testimony to what the church's call to mission is really about, that there was a team of brothers and sisters from the United States working on our church, as our team was departing to come to the United States to work here.  It's not about WHO does WHAT and WHERE, it's about ALL of us doing SOMETHING and SOMEWHERE!

Thanks to all of you who prayed with us about this trip.  From the visa interviews to raising money to safe travel yesterday.  Please continue to be in prayer for us as we continue to serve in whatever ways God has planned for us this week.

Peace,

Wil

Monday, August 2nd

The Past few weeks down at K37 have been really good and really productive. We have gotten about 95% of the sidewalk covered, which is really good and will help with it being wet all the time. Glad to say that all of the metal work on all of the cabins has been sanded and painted. That was one of the main projects that we needed to get finished, so when that was done we were pretty happy. Also a fresh coat of paint has been added to the cabins so they look really good. The camp is pretty much done, at least all the work that teams can do.

It’s really cool when three or four churches come as one team, and bond like they do. New friendships are made, and they are sharing communion, which is awesome to watch.

At the sanctuary in Piedras Blancas we have finished about 98% of it. The whole sanctuary is painted, and the bathrooms have been plastered and painted. We got all the windows painted and installed. The last thing to do was to put the doors on, and we finished that last week. So its good to say that the sanctuary is pretty much done. There are just a few little things that need to be finished and it will be done.

As Wil said I am volunteering for the summer with CRMP. On Wednesday I will be heading back to San Jose, then off to the States on Thursday. My time here has been amazing and I’m really glad I have had the opportunity to experience what I have experienced. God has blessed me with new life-long friendships with some amazing people. This will not be my last time in Costa Rica, I plan on coming with my church until I find were God want me to be.

Please continue to be in prayer for Yolanda and Wil as well as the rest of the CRMP team.

God Bless

Colby



Thursday, July 8th

Back home in San Isidro after two weeks of overlapping teams, as many as 60 missioners at once!  Marysville UMC from Washington state (our first west coast team ever) was here the last week of June.  Salem in Ladue UMC from outside of St. Louis was here from last Tuesday until this Tuesday, and A 48 person team from Christ Church UMC and Discovery UMC in Birmingham, Alabama arrived last Saturday and head home this weekend.  As you can imagine its been a very productive 15 days!  We've gotten most of the metal work on all three cabins sanded and primed and a portion of one of the cabins has its first of two final coats.  We've poured the concrete front porch on the Bathroom building next to the gym.  We've framed up and back filled the 50 foot long wheel chair ramp that connects the cabin with the gymnasium.  The walls of the bathroom have been plastered and sanded and are ready for sealant and paint.  The exterior walls of the cabins have been scrubbed and washed with bleach.  I was afraid they were going to need to be repainted, but the team has them looking like new!  To top it all off, this weeks team dug the 6 foot deep hole for the septic tanks and the 50 foot long drainage field, bailed water out of said hole and drainage field, and today installed the tanks, assembled the cinder block drainage and shoveled the same dirt/mud that they dug out two days ago, back into the hole.

At the sanctuary in Piedras Blancas we've finished 90% of the electrical installation (enough for a well lit worship service there last night), plastered and sanded the walls and all of the bars for the windows have been welded and are ready to be installed next week.  Like I said, it's been a pretty productive 15 days.  

The Birmingham team, in addition to helping out on the work site all week long, also sent out teams to evangelize and do home visitations in Piedras Blancas.  They visited around 200 homes in 3 days.  By the second day they had close to a hundred kids following them from house to house!  At each house they visited they invited the families to a worship service at the church in Piedras Blancas on Wednesday night.  It was a full house and their hard work paid off as 6 of the people they had met this week accepted Jesus during worship!  Another very humbling and very proud moment for Costa Rica Mission Projects.

We head back to the camp on SUnday with FUMC Rocky Mount (my home church) and a new team from Hominy Valley in Western North Carolina.  Please continue to be in prayer for Yolanda and I as well as the  rest of the CRMP team.

Peace.