Working With Pastor Alvaro
Noguera in Costa Rica
presented by Charles H. Clever
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The La Union church is about to double its membership.
Through
a video presentation by Orlando Bullon projected from a nView projector,
and followed by 45 minutes of intense Bible study, many people in this
farming community have made an important commitment for Jesus. The video
projector seems to be a unique tool because these people have never seen
pictures as large as a wall, and the material is well done, which glorifies
God, and holds their interest.
How
fitting that the La Union River, which means "uniting" is the scene for
this joyous uniting with Jesus. One can almost visualize John the Baptist
baptizing on this special Sabbath which represents 21 people committing
their lives to Jesus. About one half of these baptisms are the work of
Victor, one of Alvaro's dedicated elders.
How is this accomplished? First you must be where
the Holy Spirit is working--Latin America seems to fit the bill. After
much prayer, you then must advertise your meetings.
Pastor
Alvaro Noguera and his wife, Vanessa, inspect my loud speakers on top of
a Chevy LUV. I drove it from Arizona in 1995. An oscillating yellow
light attracts attention to the vehicle as music is played between announcements
on the p.a. system. This is done as we drive throughout the small community
for the first three nights of the meetings. In addition, the Bible truths
presented appeal to our guests, and they invite friends. On the first
night, we had eight guests, the next night, 25; and then the church was
full with 60 people.
While
working in the Quepos area, we took a break and spent one day visiting
Miguel Antonio National Park. It has three sandy beaches separated by beautiful
peninsulas. You may view many types of natural wildlife, like several species
of monkeys. They subsist on the fruits and berries that grow there. Guests
are prohibited from feeding the animals so they will not loose their natural
feeding habits and abandon the jungle. The picture shows a large stone
ball that the Indians quarried. No one knows exactly why they did this.
In the background, colorful beach towels are hung from lines for visitors
to purchase. I'm on the left, then the Noguera's: Ariana, Ariel, Vanessa,
and Alvaro.
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For 100 Colones (29 cents), a boat ride will ferry you.
Or you can wade or hike through the jungle to get to
the beach. |
Can you see the iguana sunning on the log? His
coloring has adapted to that of the limbs. They are
mostly vegetarians, and eat foliage and fruit. |
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I followed a jungle trail and arrived at another beach
just in time to see Ariel and Alvaro taking the short cut. |
Adriana and Ariel enjoyed watching the hermit crabs
scamper around the beach, I tried to stay in the
shade--my happiness was watching the children play. |
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Working in a Quepos Suburb
Called Lorona
Lorona
is a small community with company furnished houses. The peons (workers)
there must work six days a week. Their pay is so low that they either
walk or ride bicycles. These large oxen are used to pull a cart loaded
with clusters of bright orange fruits inter spaced with protective spines.
These clusters come from the palm trees (Some young trees are visible in
the background). After using the oxen (buey) to load the
wagons, tractors will haul a column of six or seven of these wagons full
of fruit to a nearby mill for processing. The fruits are fibrous, tasty,
and very oily--they find their value in the marketplace where the palm
oil is extracted for applications such as butter, cosmetics, and floor
waxes.
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This is some visitors from San Isidro
and Tiera Morenos as well as Bible students outside the Lorona Community
Center where the meetings were held. August 28, 1999
will be a memorable Sabbath for many of these people.
After announcing our meetings with the
LUV's p.a. system, we had 25 guests in attendance. The next night the number
doubled, then it increased to 90 people, about 20 per-cent were children.
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Cattle trucks were utilized
to transport the company of believers to the baptism in the Savaghe
River
Most of these people only have an elementary school
education, but displayed intense interest in the video presentations. They
also filled in the worksheets and read the Bible as well as you would expect
the highest educated person to.
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After baptizing nine people, including
Antonio Cordero's family, a nine-year old boy named Roddy
steps forward at the pastor's appeal: "Is there one
more who will make that decision for Jesus?"
The meetings were held in the Community
Center, which is also used for dances. It has a partition that lifts to
allow drinks to be served from an adjacent bar--it was closed for our meetings.
Next to that is their only country store where a few vegetables and canned
goods are available. The store has the only telephone in town. They allowed
me to hook my notebook computer to their phone, and for a fee of 20 Colones
(seven cents), I was able to send and check my e-mail every day.
This was the second series of meetings
for August, and represents a monthly total of 31 decisions for Christ as
His work progresses in Central America.
MORE TO FOLLOW, FOLKS--STAY TUNED AS GOD'S WORK CONTINUES
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