Nazarenes from SC to Costa Rica--Friends from Home!

Inside of the meeting room/dining hall




Luke and Gabriel




Eddie Estep is the DS for SC with the Nazarene church




Trey and Tee with one of the mission team members




The whole family with a worn out Elijah on my shoulder


Dawn and I went to speak at the First Church of The Nazerene in Greenville, SC on July 13th this year. We had an absolutely wonderful time and experience. They have two different services. Instead of contemporary and tradional like many chuches do, they have an English and Hispanic service. We enjoyed speaking at both services.

We received an email about 3 weeks ago saying that the church was sending a team to San Jose, Costa Rica and the team would like to contact us while they were here. We asked if we could send some shoes for the kids with the team. You cannot get brand name croc's here and the off brand crocs had given the children blisters on their feet. The team was very gracious and said we could send up to 50 pounds worth of luggage. So our family and friends put together a trunk of stuff for us. The mission team called us this week and arranged to send a van to pick us up and take us to the Nazarene seminary in Guadelupe. It is about a 30 minute drive from our house to the seminary.

We had good old fashion American hamburgers and hotdogs to eat. Our older boys thought they were great(dad did too) and would not have wanted anything else to eat. We then had a time of worship with songs, a devotion, and 2 other missionaries gave their testimonies as did Dawn and myself. The other talks were exciting and interesting. The people were very warm and welcoming and friendly. How satisfying it is when brothers and sisters in Christ can come together, fellowship with each other, and worship the King--Jesus Christ! We received our package that included some much needed clothes, shoes, and edible goodies (including peanut butter since a 10 ounce jar is a little over 6 dollars in Costa Rica). The children were very excited to get the things. God in His mercy also held off the rain until about 10 seconds after we were all safe inside back at our house that night.

Many thanks and blessings to the First Church of the Nazarene of Greenville, SC, and to the other team members from Nazarene churches all over South Carolina. It was a night we will fondly remember!

submitted by Tully Stoudemayer