The Richeys
You may be thinking, “That is not Chris & Hannah!” And you are exactly right. Part of this blog post is highlighting people who have been a blessing to our life.
Brian and Melissa have been in Costa Rica since the fall of 2024 to serve as missionaries. We met them through ILE, the institute where I (Christopher) am serving as the Campus Pastor. We became friends and now we get to minister alongside them! In the past few months, the Richeys have joined the ILE staff as part of the Student Life and Support team. They have aided Hannah and I in missionary care, organizing chapels, providing meals, and have blessed the students through other ways of their own initiative! While we are sad to leave Costa Rica and say goodbye to many friends (including them), we can rest a little easier knowing that they will continue to care for ILE and its missionary students as a Campus Pastor is sought out.
ILE Students
In addition to blessing ILE with Brian and Melissa, the new group of students that have come in the fall have been a source of refreshment and blessing for us. Not all the students are pictured above, but most of them are. While most are from the USA, we do have other countries represented, such as Canada, Ukraine, and South Korea! The shared wealth of experience and wisdom in the group is incredible, and more amazing than that is the humility by which all of them walk. We are grateful to be able to minister to and build a relationship with this group before our exit in December.
Spiritual Emphasis Week
Every trimester ILE hosts what is called Spiritual Emphasis Week for the missionary students. It is comparable to a week-long conference where we have prolonged chapel services Monday-Friday. One of the pastors of our local church, Alonso Aguilar, led it and his wife, Vivian, translated for the Spanish teachers. (They are featured all the way to the left hand side). We have known them since arriving in 2022, and they have been voices of wisdom, mentors, and friends to us for quite some time. We are grateful to have had them in our lives during our mission.
Our 4 Year Anniversary
September 21st marked our 4 year anniversary! We celebrated by traveling to La Fortuna for a few nights and thoroughly enjoyed one last family trip together in the country.
October 3rd, 2022 - Our Initial Arrival to Costa Rica
October 3rd also marked an important 4 year mark: our arrival to Costa Rica in 2022! We took this photo on our flight to San Jose on October 3rd, 2022.
Homeless Street Ministry
On the last Wednesday of October, I along with my disciples from La Carpio served in a homeless ministry in downtown San Jose. I told them back in August that I wanted us to serve in some type of outreach ministry focused on the impoverished and the marginalized. Three of the four are thinking or have served as ministerial leaders in some capacity or another, and I utilized this as an opportunity to invest in their discipleship formation.
I shared Mark 10 and Philippians 2 with them for our devotional time, focusing on Jesus’ example He left for us of servant leadership. Just as He humbled Himself through obedience and seeking to serve rather than serve, we must also humble ourselves through obedience, serve, and lay down our lives for others. It was another special time with my disciples as they continue to grow as men of Christ.
Contracorriente Youth Conference
Our local church, Iglesia El Lugar, just hosted their first Youth Conference, Contracorriente (Counter-current, with the idea of living for God implies being counter-cultural). It was a blessed time as we got to participate in the sessions and support our friends who hosted and led it.
Preaching in Limón
This past Sunday, I (Christopher) had the opportunity to preach at a local church in Limón, which is the more Caribbean-influenced province of Costa Rica. I went along with some friends of ours from our local church, Leo, Anyo, and Henry. I am grateful for the day we spent together as it gave me more time to get to know them and have one (possible) final outing with them.
Chosen Vessels Retreat
This past week we embarked on a retreat with our local church that was led by a USA-based ministry called Chosen Vessels (CV). The objective of CV is to provide missionary and pastoral care around the world, and one of the ways they do that is through retreats! It was such a lovely time as for 3+ days, we got to eat meals, play, sing worship songs, pray, and be poured into alongside other ministerial leaders of our local church. Just about every meal we got to know more of someone’s life or story from our church. It was a challenging, refreshing, and an enjoyable time.
If you are interested in checking out Chosen Vessels’ ministry work, we would highly encourage you to do so! We have posted their website link below.
Click Here to View CV’s website
Praise Reports:
- We sold our car to another young, single missionary who is starting his ministry here in Costa Rica!
- Another missionary family from ILE will move into our house and receive our belongings! That makes the transition process for both us and them so much easier and smoother!
Prayer Requests
- The former Campus Pastor, Jon, and his wife, Tammie, advised us to build a RAFT as we leave Costa Rica. In short, that stands for the following: reconciliation, affirmation, farewell, & thinking destination. (If you would like to read more about it, click here to read the short 6 minute article that Jon and Tammie sent us). Currently, we are in the process of “building our RAFT” to leave well. We ask you to pray for us and our transition out, that we would leave well, wisely, and have intentional good-byes.
- We ask you to pray for our hearts as this has been a bittersweet time. Pray we would continue to wisely handle both our sadness and joy simultaneously!
- We ask you to pray for our future housing situation as we look for a place to live in Lakeland, Florida (or a nearby town) and a vehicle to own!