Dear family and friends,
We believe God has been prompting us about getting the ministry farm, our long-term reparenting phase (the Restored Heritage), to produce in agriculture, not just farm kids... Therefore we called a four day working bee of all of our staff at the farm during the Easter holiday. It was a very productive and bonding time as a team, and we got a lot of much needed maintenance done. Some pasture was cleared from scrub, the driveway cleaned up and lots of other things. Some of the guys spent the whole four days digging a trench to put electrical wires underground. A couple of days before a branch had fallen on wires, which pulled a pole that was in the roof of a house (the Kiwi house) and in turn pulled a pile of tiles off the roof. Thankfully no one was hurt!
Our plan with the farm is to start by fatting calves and planting a vegetable garden. God has been prompting us to use what we have in our hands to meet the daily needs that we face - one of those needs is the daily food for the kids, so we are starting in obedience knowing that the land is not the type to produce a lot but we will plant and see God do His stuff.
Also we received 4 students from the YWAM School of Children at Risk in Costa Rica, who are going to spend 3 months with us. They come from El Salvador, Canada, Costa Rica and Germany. We have been organizing their time here. This is a way that we are able to multiply what God has taught us over the years as many students like them go on to work with children at risk around the world.
I accepted to join the board of YWAM in Bogota. There are 6 different ministries of YWAM here and the board oversees them all, as well as the contacts with the local church. Please pray for wisdom and discernment as I enter this role. Katrina and I were both asked to join our children's school board as well but do not feel that it is the right timing for that.
Now a Kiwi joke...
A man decided to write a book about famous churches around the world. So he bought a plane ticket and took a trip to Orlando, thinking that he would start by working his way across USA from South to North, then into Canada and on to the rest of the world.
On his first day he was inside a church taking photographs when he noticed a golden telephone mounted on the wall with a sign that read '$10,000 per call'. The man, being intrigued, asked a priest who was strolling by what the telephone was used for. The priest replied that it was a direct line to heaven and that for $10,000 you could talk to God. The man thanked the priest and went along his way.
Next stop was in Atlanta. There, at a very large cathedral, he saw the same golden telephone with the same sign under it. He wondered if this was the same kind of telephone he saw in Orlando and he asked a nearby nun what its purpose was. She told him that it was a direct line to heaven and that for $10,000 he could talk to God. 'O.K., thank you,' said the man.
He then travelled all across America, Europe, Japan, Australia. In every church he saw the same golden telephone with the same 'US$10,000 per call' sign under it.
The man, decided to travel to New Zealand to see if Kiwis had the same phone. He arrived at Sunny Nelson in N.Z., and again, in the first church he entered, there was the same golden telephone, but this time the sign under it read '40 cents per call.' The man was surprised so he asked the priest about the sign. 'Father, I've travelled all over the world and I've seen this same golden telephone in many churches. I'm told that it is a direct line to Heaven, but in all of them the price was $10,000 per call. Why is it so cheap here?'
The priest smiled and answered, 'You're in New Zealand now son - it's a local call'. :)
A thank you to each one of you for praying for us and partnering with us in this minsitry. We greatly appreciate your friendship.
With love,
Carlos for all
