Tamarindo Ministries- Taking Form

Hello Everyone,
We hope this letter finds you all doing well. Stacey and I are doing fine here in Tamarindo..... plenty busy with our little Olivia (7 months now) and doing our best to be a part of God’s plans for the Tamarindo community. Unfortunately we didn’t make it home for the Christmas holiday this year, but this did afford us the opportunity to celebrate with our community down here in Tamarindo. Anyway….there is so much to catch you up on, so let me dive right in.

Ministry Taking Form
After spending a year offering bible study and a local worship service in Tamarindo, Stacey and I have learned a lot about ministering in Tamarindo. It was around September-October of last year that we began questioning whether hosting a worship service each week was the best use of our time and energy. After lengthy conversations with God, with one another, and with a church-plant expert- as well as attending a church plant conference in N.Y.- we came to the conclusion that we needed to shift gears. Part of the gear shifting meant that we stop holding worship services in Tamarindo… and that we spend more of our time and energy just building relationships with people in the community. With that in mind we’ve made some changes….

Beach Community Church
Lately we’ve become more involved with Beach Community Church, just 20 minutes north of us. I presently lead worship there every Sunday, and I am currently on the board of elders. Beach Community Church has been very supportive of our ministry efforts in Tamarindo, and we are grateful for the fellowship and encouragement that we’ve found there. The church has also been open to the vision that we would be a sister church to them in the future.

Lyle
During the months of Nov.-Dec., I was hosting/leading the Tuesday night bible studies which are being held at the Cafe. We went through a bible study series based on the Bill Hybel’s book Too Busy Not To Pray, and now our men’s group is going through a small group study called “Beginning Life Together”, which is part of the Purpose Driven Life series. Aside from small groups and my involvement with Beach Community Church, much of my time and energy has been focused on getting the Cafe ministry rolling. I’ll fill you in more on this later….

Stacey
Once or twice each month, Stacy has been hosting what her group calls “Mommy Group”. She invites mothers who are pregnant or with young children to gather for a lesson on cooking/baby care/etc., and for forming new friendships. There have been about 15-20 women in attendance at the gatherings, about half of them non-Christians. Several of these women have been visiting church and bible studies. It is neat to see God work through this ministry. In addition to this gathering, Stacey has also joined a women’s bible study just south of us in Playa Avellanas which she led for six weeks in Dec.-Jan. Leading a women’s bible study has been a new frontier for Stacey… and it’s been a great experience for her. Her next endeavor be leading a discussion group on the book Captivating, which will start in a couple of weeks.

Cafe Cafe
Cafe Cafe- is the name of our recently opened Tamarindo Coffeehouse!! We’ve had a vision for starting a coffeehouse for some time now, and recently things have come together to make this a reality. So many individuals have helped us along the way including a professional welder, professional artists, and friends from the church….. who have all given of their time and talents to help us get the Cafe up and running. We are so grateful to them all.

Volunteers- We’ve also been blessed to have three young women each volunteering about 24 hours/week at the cafe. Alli and Jessica are missionaries with about three months of free time to serve until their next commitments, and Sarah is here with her husband on an extended Honeymoon in Tamarindo. In addition, we’ve had help from friends at the church who give several hours a week to help in the Cafe… including the pastor. How crazy is all of this? We have been so blessed with regard to getting the cafe going, and we anticipate that God touch people’s lives through this venture.

The Vision- In the end we hope that the cafe will be seen not only as another business in town… but more so as a group of people that love and serve God, and who love and serve the surrounding community. One of the ways we will do this is to have our volunteers serve not only in the Cafe, but areas of the community where they can be a witness to Christ’s love. In essence, we hope to “infiltrate” this community with the light of Christ. For example….Jessica has been helping out with Youth With A Mission which is just south of us in Nicoya. Alli has been volunteering a couple of days a week at CIFI… a local pre-school. And Sarah has had opportunities to serve with CEPIA… an organization that works with at risk children and teens. By doing these things, we are able to build genuine friendships with unchurched people.

Finally, we also hope to use our coffee house for programs such as tutoring in English and Spanish, or hosting bible studies for language school students traveling through Tamarindo. There are a number of possibilities for what we might do in the future…but as they say here in Costa Rica…. “Poco a poco”… little by little.

Our Family
In closing, we ask that you continue to pray for us…. for our marriage, for our ministry, and for our community. We are doing well, but ministry in Costa Rica has it’s challenges as it does anywhere else. In particular, a recent realization for Stacey and I is that we will need to resort to “tent-making” (working to support ourselves financially) in order for us to continue to do ministry here. We are totally comfortable with this, but it is also our hope is to have this burden lightened with support from abroad. If you can help in any amount, please see our website www.tamarindochurch.com, and click on the link “financial support”. See the bottom of this letter for further directions.
On and ending note, we’d like to share with you all that Stacy is about 8 weeks pregnant with our next baby!! Our baby is due to be born on August 28th, and we are super-excited.

Thank you all for your friendship, prayers, and support.

Grace and peace to you all,

Lyle, Stacey & Olivia

Donations/Financial Support:
We receive financial support through ACI International. To support us financially, go to…
1. Go to www.aciint.org
2. Click on “Giving”
3. If you scroll down to their mailing address, you will find how to donate via Paypal, and how to donate by mailing a check in.
4. Please be sure to designate that you are supporting Tamarindo Ministries. Thank you.