Stephen Burgin, Ph.D.!

Ron and Jeanie Burgin
Campus Crusade for Christ, Latin America and the Caribbean
http://burgin-costarica.blogspot.com/

Dear Friend,

Greetings from Gainesville, Florida. We pray that God is blessing you abundantly this summer! We want to give you a brief update on our life, ministry and family.

Quick trip to the USA for graduation

We are in Gainesville, Florida this weekend for our son Stephen’s fourth graduation from the University of Florida. He has earned a Ph.D. in Science Education. Stephen with his wife, Rachael and daughter, Leah Rose, have already moved to Norfolk, Virginia where he has accepted a post as Assistant Professor in the Department of STEM Education (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) at Old Dominion University. I guess we’re pretty proud! We’ll be heading up to Norfolk tomorrow for a family reunion with all of our children and grandchildren, then back to Costa Rica next week. Please pray for Stephen, Rachael and Leah as they adapt to a new city and job.

Gathering Place

Getting adjusted to life in Costa Rica has been tougher than we expected. God is now opening doors that are cause for encouragement. We are part of the leadership team of the Gathering Place, an English Language church plant in San Jose, Costa Rica. Our target audience is Costa Rican young professionals and university students who are interested in English. The number of English speakers in Costa Rica has come as a real surprise to me. To give you an idea, there is an ATT call center near our home with more than 500 employees who take customer service calls in English from the US. Please pray for Marlon and Silvia, a young couple we are trying to get to know better and involve them in the church. Silvia works at the call center.

Spanish tutoring

Jeanie has been studying at the Spanish Language Institute three days a week to improve her Spanish conversational ability. After nine years in Bolivia, most of it teaching in an English language mission school, she is motivated to get up to speed. Some days she comes home encouraged, some days she comes home saying Spanish is impossible J . Please pray for Jeanie as she continues her study.

Travel

As Operations Director for CCC, Latin America, I continue to travel to the countries of our region to audit, train and encourage our staff. In the past month, I have been to Venezuela and to Barranquilla, Colombia where I worked with our staff following a national Congreso of more than 500 university students. They returned to their homes all over Colombia motivated to multiply the impact of the Gospel on their campuses. Pray for our national leaders as I work help coach and mentor them.

We are so thankful for our team of supporters who have upheld us in prayer through this year of transition to a new country. We sense God’s comfort and encouragement. We, in turn, pray that our gracious heavenly Father will continue to minister to you and your family as He builds us into the image of Christ.

Your missionaries in Latin America,

Ron and Jeanie