Ministering the Gospel of Jesus Christ in Costa Rica with Praying Pelican Missions, networking with local churches,  serving in our community,  and connecting mission teams to  life- changing ministry opportunities.
Police and an Optometrist Team
It is mission trip season in all of our Praying Pelican Missions countries right now.  This is the season that we have been preparing for since we arrived in Costa Rica last June.  Our staff are trained, organized, and we are already seeing the fruit of all of our hard work.  

My first trip three weeks ago was a team of 42 optometrist students and doctors offering free eye care.   You can read the Trip Journal here.  This trip was difficult to set up due to the fact that the first community that we were hoping to minister in had different laws about medical teams coming in.  There were a lot of hoops to jump through and unfortunately it did not work out.  Eye care in Costa Rica is not cheap, and many people cannot afford it, so we knew this trip was worth fighting for!

Plan B (which was God's Plan A all along) was a smaller community farther away that did not have any restrictions for medical teams.  Although there were no restrictions, I still had some worries that the police would show up and demand paperwork that we did not know about. 

Within three days the team was  able to see over 500 people, including officers from numerous police departments.  If you know me at all, you know when the first police officer showed up I freaked out, but they just wanted their eyes checked.  God is so faithful!
This is a Genuine Partnership
Last October I was able to take four men from Carolina Forest Community Church (CFCC) around Costa Rica to visit eight different pastors.  The goal was to find one church that they would pour all of their missions efforts into.  This church was so serious about partnering with one church in Costa Rica that they stopped all of their previous mission trips to focus on making a huge impact here.  

Last week CFCC took their first trip with 10 people to an amazing church in La Cruz partnering with Pastor Gerardo.   You can read the Trip Journal here.  This church is about a 10 minute drive from the Nicaraguan border.  The goal of this first trip was to build genuine relationships with the people and begin reaching out to the community.

This goal was definitely achieved!  We spent time ministering to Pastor Gerardo and his family, helped finish a building holding two classrooms, and ministered at an elementary school.

We also were able to minister by taking bags of groceries to about 20 families.  This is becoming a huge ministry that we are incorporating into many of our summer trips.  As we go, we split into two teams with each team having a translator and church members as well.  

One of our groups went into a home with a mother and four children.  Get this... they had NO FOOD and prayed that morning that God would provide!  God goes to extreme measures to love on His children, bringing a team from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina to feed a family!  

Our week was all building up to an "Epic Feeding Night" as the team called it. About 250 people showed up!  It truly was "Epic" because the Pastor told us only 10% of those in attendance were from the church.  Did you catch that? The community was drawn into the local church by loving on them all week and many people put their faith in Jesus that night!

Carolina Forest Community Church returns in November to continue their long term partnership!
We NEED Your Prayer Support!
We thank you so much for your faithful financial and prayer support!  We desperately need your prayers!  

Isaiah, the king of the jungle!
1.  Our #1 prayer request is for Malachi! A lot of issues have been rising up relating to his adoption and being uprooted so many times. Pray that his heart would be healed and for strength and wisdom for us as we parent him.

2.  Nate will be leading two mission trips this month starting  June 4th  and June 22nd.

3.  Darrell will be graduating from YWAM June 10th and will be spending the summer with us.  Pray for direction and guidance for what's next for him!

4.  Summer Trips are in full swing and now running weekly (although Nate is not leading them all).  Pray for amazing ministry opportunities and for the local churches impact to greatly expand as Jesus is lifted higher.
Love,
Nathan, Laura, Darrell, Reagan, Abigail,  Malachi  & Isaiah Norman