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Hi Everyone,
I hope that you all began 2005 safe and happy. Yolanda and I are back in Costa Rica after 6 weeks in the US. We were blessed with mild temps for the first few weeks (which allowed for a great trip to Cape Lookout with my Dad) we, and 5 inches of snow the week before we left (so Yolanda got to sled down the back steps at my mom's house). It was so nice to finally have Yolanda meet and spend time with the rest of my family. We took time to visit several of the churches who have worked with us over the last year and a half, and were able to spend the last two Sundays at my home church in Rocky Mount, NC.
Now we're back home in San Isidro and are preparing for the 20 teams that have signed up to come and work with us in 2005. I hesitated as I wrote that number, but it is correct. I can't believe that when I moved down here we had commitments from 2 teams to come and work, and we wound up with 14 by the end of 2004...and now we have 20 committed for 2005...and a couple more waiting to pick out their dates! We couldn't be more excited. We should be able to finish the four building projects that we are working on at the moment (two Sunday school buildings and two parsonages) and start and complete a fifth project (another parsonage) as well. We're already looking ahead to '06 when we will be rebuilding a camp that the Methodist church has about an hour from the Panama border.
It's nice to have gotten our first full year of mission work under our belts, and we are feeling like we've found a nice "groove". We feel so blessed to be a part of what God is doing in Costa Rica. The construction work is great, and important, but the most important thing is getting to see the churches and local congregations "connecting" week after week, and experiencing what it means to part of a Universal church. There are too many wonderful stories to count, but it is obvious that there is something going on here to which people are responding. Nine to fourteen teams that came last year are coming back in '05.
We want to thank everyone who has supported this ministry in whatever way you might have done so. As much as we love what we are doing here, and want to be here doing it, were it not for the support we've gotten from churches and individuals in the US, it would not be possible. To everyone who has come during the past year and a half, to every Pastor who has said to a team leader "go for it!", to every member of any congregation who has participated in a fund raiser, to everyone who has prayed for us and the teams who have come, to every single person who has participated in this ministry and in so doing become a part of our lives, may God bless you all in 2005.
Peace, Wil and Yolanda Bailey Costa Rica Mission Projects
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