Every year in August YWAM Costa Rica staff get together for a week of training, worship and fellowship. This happens at our location in San José!
This year it was taking place a few days after having moved from or old location! It was a bit crazy but what joy to fill our rental home with over 90 people eating and gathering together!
We had a wonderful week together that ended with all our 5 locations taking communion and praying for the full release of new things both in the physical as well as the spiritual.
New things are about to brake loose. Our team in Liberia will be officially released this year to be their very own YWAM base and they are growing in size and impact daily!
The work in Puerto Viejo in the province of Limon who we sent out last year October are about to start their very first Discipleship Training School this September.
Exciting new things to come…
We are so excited for what is to come and we want to invite you to be an ongoing part of what the Lord is doing here in Costa Rica.
Pray for the ministry
Pray for our family
Become a part by coming here for a few weeks or with one of the ministries
Become a financial partner for our family by giving a tac deductive donation monthly, quarterly or yearly. (Click here fill out account #A9005)
Become a regular prayer partner by receiving our prayer points on a more regular basis (send us an email)
Stay tuned for more updates and exciting news to come in the weeks to come…
It has been a whirlwind of events…..between June 25th and July 31st we worked really hard to move all the things that we had gathered for the past 9 years. It was quite the work and getting the place in order to leave it in good condition for the owner to re-take it was also quite the challenge, but we did it.
It took a lot of additional hours and manpower to get it all done, but we have officially been living on the new land for about a month and we are getting slowly settled in. After moving we hosted several teams as well as hosting all of the YWAM Costa Rica staff from every corner of the nation.
What a blessed week we had and the Lord provided us with beautiful weather and all the while a team was working hard on providing our housing containers with a new roof. Things are beginning to take shape…all we have to do now is wait on permits and continue doing what God has called us to do…..Make God known and disciple, raise up and equip a new generation of leaders to expand God’s Kingdom on earth!!!
The “ywam San José” sign is officially up in the new place…
It has been 14 years since we first started praying for our own land, the place to call our ‘forever’ home (on this earth at least)!
The month of July has started and that means we celebrate the start of YWAM San Jose. It was 14 years ago this month that we set foot on Costa Rican soil to establish this work of Youth With A Mission in the capital of Costa Rica. God has spoken to us back in 1999 and in July 2004 it became a reality.
Now 14 years later we have started our first week in the place. We have set up two operations centers in two rental homes.
This is the big house where we eat, have class and have our meetingsThis is the ‘smaller’ house where we have offices, meeting space and hospitality rooms
Yes, God has blessed us with two homes literally meters away from our new land with a view ON and OVER the land. So every time I get to come to work I get to look out over the promised land and pray His purposes to be fulfilled as I look out over it! Isn’t that amazing! Want to come do the same? Email us today at info@ywamsj.org!
Adjustment Week
This first week there is a lot of adjustments, while also building a home with a visiting team, getting ready to receive our first DTS in the new place (yes we keep going) and also still moving things from the other property for which we have the month of July.
DTS Classroom getting prepared – can’t forget the map
So much to adjust! From eating in a nicely set up dining area, to eating in a tent on a dirty floor. It is all part of the adventure of moving and pioneering in the new land and we are not even on the land with our dining area, but this gives us a pretty good idea of what it means to be re-pioneering!! The weather is a little cooler also so we will have to wear jackets and sweaters a bit more often.
Our new dining area – come and join us for a meal!!
So here we are adjusting to our new surroundings while also moving forward with permits, moving containers onto the new land! Our brave guys will be moving into the containers and will be housed officially on the new land. Pray we get permits quickly to build because we will need more suitable housing for them!!
We are ready to keep moving forward. Will you continue to pray for us as we close this month and hand in the keys of the ‘old’ place so we can fully focus on what the ‘new’ will bring us?
Giacomo & Edgar standing by the containers on the new land
It is a day of new beginnings for YWAM San Jose. For the past 14 years God has done so much through so many amazing people. Students have come to be trained, people started new ministries reaching out to the poor and needy of Costa Rica, the Word of God has been distributed and now we are ready to take it to another level….training more students, reaching more people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ….will you be a part?
The year started out with anticipation for what the Lord was going going to do. As we follow God with all our hearts there is always an anticipation on what He would lead us to next. For fourteen years we have been praying for the Lord to release to us our own land and every year we start out praying and asking the Lord to continue to lead us and provide us with what is necessary to do what He has called us to.
This year started out a bit different than we anticipated. As a community we experienced the deep pain of loosing one of our very close friends and co-leaders and co-founder of YWAM San Jose, Zulma Hernandez, wife to Braunier and mother to Josias and Gianluca. We had walked together for close to 20 years and in March of this year she suffered from a brain aneurysm that put her in the ICU for one month and she lost the battle and the Lord took her home on April 12th of this year. It was a very deep moment of sadness of our whole family, our children who loved her so very much and did not get to see her the last month in the hospital. The YWAM Community was deeply moved and profoundly saddened and her husband and children were experiencing deep pain and loss. Together we honored her life, we celebrated who she was on this earth and expressed our gratitude for having founded with us the ministry of YWAM San Jose and the foundation she put in place in the area of hospitality and the strong passion she had for discipleship and loving people into the ways of God. She was our friend, who will be missed and has gone before us into the eternal presence of our Savior. She will be remembered.
It was a week later that the Lord did a miracle. While still trying to process the loss of our friend the Lord decided that now was the time to release our promised land to us. For 20 years this piece of land measuring 13 hectares had been sitting untouched about 15 minutes from our current location. Who knew? God knew!! It was time and through a serious of miracles and release of funds a document was signed on April 26th 2018 for the pre-purchase of this land. We are now moving forward with processing building permits and once those are in we will sign the official purchase agreement in full.
We still can’t believe it, but we are in full moving mode. Boxes everywhere. All that we have gathered over the past 14 years needs to be packed up and taken to two rental homes (smaller) and in containers on the empty piece of land, but our hearts are filled and excited about what the Lord is doing. We are following His lead….
If you want to know more, stay tuned! Want to help us in the future build what the Lord is leading us to build…come and help and write to us at info@ywamsj.org!!!
Thank you for your ongoing support and prayers for our family and ministry!!! Exciting times ahead in the midst of a seed falling into the ground…it will bear fruit, much fruit!!
Jesus did starting with 12 men teaching them principles and values by which to live…
These past fee days over 100 peoplecame together to build 6 homes for 6 families in need of a more suitable home..
Not only were they given a home they were given hope, principles and values by which to live to make their communities a place of hope instead of desperation…
Homes of Hope in YWAM San Jose Costa Rica is a ministry that serves those need but exists to build the Kingdom of God based on His principles, values and truth…
What a privilege to be a part of building His Kingdom on earth..
Equipping and Sending 