April Update

Ron and Jeanie Burgin

Campus Crusade for Christ, Latin America and the Caribbean

http://burgin-costarica.blogspot.com/

Greetings from San Jose!

Jeanie and I are back home after a month of lots of travel. Our trips were challenging, joyous, and exciting. I’ll take them in order:

Challenging…

Jeanie has been suffering from ongoing back and hip pain for nearly six months following a bad fall here in Costa Rica. Having tried Chiropractic, PT, medication, etc., we decided that the time had come to seek medical advice back home in Portland. Jeanie received successful treatment for her back ailment, but with an MRI, it is pretty clear that she will need hip replacement surgery. We are working with the doctors at Providence St. Vincent’s in Portland to set an early June date for surgery. We are glad that there is a clear diagnosis, challenged at the prospect of surgery. This has been a very hard time for Jeanie as she experiences for the first time some incapacity, and the need to leave the field to do what needs to be done. Please pray for Jeanie’s mobility and comfort as we wait for surgery.

Joyous…

After a few days in Costa Rica, it was back to Washington, DC to meet Colton James Hanks, Sarah and Dustin’s new baby. Colton joins Wesley, 5, and Cooper, 3, in a joyous, rambunctious house full of little boys. Colton is our seventh grandchild and we couldn’t be prouder.

Exciting…

We went straight from DC to our National Leadership Conference for the Caribbean region. As Operations Director, I was there to help our leaders plan for the growth we will see as God brings in a harvest of new believers. Most of our ministries in the Caribbean are focused on University students and it was great to hear the stories of what God is doing on campuses.

We had a free afternoon together to go see alligators on an airboat. Unfortunately, when we arrived at the place, the most intense storm in more than a year blew in with winds upwards of 60 mph and horizontal, torrential rain. Funny thing about it, we had more “team-building” as we watched the storm together than we would have had out on a loud airboat. Isn’t God good? (Andrew is in the picture - he came as our translator)

 

Training…

One of the most exciting parts of my job is recruiting and training new staff to serve our 500+ staff family in Latin America. This week we are working with two new staff people.

Massiel Vergara is a great answer to prayer. She is the new financial manager for our ministry in Panama. We have struggled for years to find the right person for Panama. We’re praying she’ll be the one! She is spending the week with our Area Financial Team in Santa Cruz, Bolivia getting some hands-on training.

Here in Costa Rica, we have just added Sebastian Sequeira to our team. He is a committed believer who will be working with me in the area of measurements and leading with information. With as many staff as we have and ministries in 26 countries, we have a system for staff to enter their ministry results online so that their leaders can track what is happening: numbers of new believers, numbers of new small groups, etc. Sebastian will maintain the system and train our staff in how to use it. Sebastian is a graduate mechanical engineer and super-fast in picking up new software. He is also a real answer to prayer!

Please pray for Massiel and Sebastian!

In the coming weeks we’ll be keeping you posted on Jeanie’s progress. Meanwhile we sure appreciate your prayer and partnership with us!

Your missionaries in Latin America and the Caribbean,

Ron and Jeanie