Planting Seeds

1 Cor 3:7 NLT It’s not important who does the planting, or who does the watering. What’s important is that God makes the seed grow.

We are back from our trip to Costa Rica and this trip was different than all of our other trips. The first thing that was different about the trip is that we traveled all over the country instead of staying in one place. This allowed doors to be open for new ministry opportunities along with old ministry opportunities.

Our trip started out In Guanacaste where we were able to spend some time with the children that we used to work with along with seeing their moms. This part of the trip was especially hard for us because we saw the moms had returned to the same lifestyle as they had before they went to jail. Some of the children were going to school, but others were not. The grandmother was struggling with the fact that her daughters didn’t want to change ( or change very little) and she would of loved to have all the children in her house, but of course that is not possible. We were grateful for this time with everyone there, but it really did break our hearts to see what was going on there. God reminded us that He makes the seed grow when the timing is right.

From Guanacaste we went to La Fortuna and here we were able to spend some time with the two sisters that we have know since 2013. Spending time with them is always a delight, but this time was much more special because they really shared their life stories with us and how God was healing them from things that happened when they were growing up.

Our next stop was to Grecia. Here we signed over our car to another missionary who works with the children's home that we helped out in the past. We also did a marriage counseling session, fixed the main door at the children’s home and were able to share with a teenage girl how you hear from the Holy Spirit. We also visited with the family that we help out regularly with food and we’re able to meet the children that were rescued from Nicaragua. We are happy to say that the children our doing better and they are enjoying being in school for the first time. They wanted us to tell everyone that has helped them out with the money to buy food, clothes, school supplies etc., that they are very grateful. We also got to spend time with some of our other friends while in Grecia.

After Grecia we went to Tres Rios to spend time with our dear friend Aracely. Here we just planned on visiting with her for a few days, but unfortunately her 97 year old mom took a turn for the worse so we ended up taking her to see her mom. The doctors made it sound like she would die the night that we took Aracely to see her, but her mom is still hanging in there. We would appreciate your prayers for our friend and her mom.

From here we worked our way back to Guanacaste. This time we were able to see a few more of our friends. However, one of the really special things about this visit was we got to see Mario. Mario is one of the children that we worked with and he is doing really well. He is actually going to Highschool about 2 1/2 hours away and he is playing soccer. He loves the Lord and he came back to Coco for one night just so he could see us. We took him and his mom out to lunch and Mario shared with us that he would like to come to The United States and study to be a doctor. We asked his mom what she thought about this and she said as long as he is with us, she is ok with that.

As you can see our trip to Costa Rica was filled with a lot of different things, plus a lot of traveling. We are very thankful to everyone that helped out with our car rental. We really would not of been able to do all of this if we had to take public transportation.

What"s next

While in Costa Rica, God continued to show us that for now He wants us to be missionaries in the United States, but also continue to take trips to Costa Rica. One of the new things we will be doing is helping the president of the children’s home in Costa Rica. We are going to be taking on a lot of her administrative duties so she can spend more time with the staff, children etc. All of the jobs that we will be taken on can be done from anywhere as long as we have an internet connection. We are also continuing with marriage counseling with the couple in Costa Rica. We will continue traveling in the states to help out with other churches and will continue with the ministry to the elderly and the disabled. Finally, We want to respond to people in need that have been affected by hurricanes ( hurricane season is June 1-November 30) , tornadoes and other disasters.

Because we feel like we will be traveling a lot in the states, we feel that it would be good for us to get a travel trailer. This way we will have our own place to stay and will avoid the cost of hotel rooms. If anyone knows of a good deal on a lightweight travel trailer please let us know. We have started looking at travel trailers and are finding that a new trailer that will fit our needs is about $40,000. That price includes everything. We are really hoping that we can find a good used trailer, but are finding that trailers that are only a few years old are not much cheaper. If you would like to donate to the purchase of a travel trailer please click here.

Psalms 118:24(NKJV)This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. 

Matthew 19:26(AMP) With God ALL things are possible.

Jeremiah 17:7-8(NIV) But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes, its leaves are always green, it has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.

Lots of Love and Blessings,
John & Cindy Thalheimer
Missionaries to Costa Rica

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Beach time with some of the kids

Giving thanks to God at his futbol (soccer) game

Special time with Mario and his mom

Some of the kids we used to work with