March / April update

Dear Friends,

It is hard to believe another month has passed (I wonder how many times I have started a letter that way over the past 20 years?). This has been a month full of travel, preaching, and new challenges. Our years always seem to start slow because of summer vacations in January and February in Latin America. The jolt of activity in March always comes as a surprise!
This month I made my very first visit to our ministry in Trinidad and Tobago. Very often my visits are determined by need: leadership change, administrative/financial crises, etc. Trinidad has always been the small, but effective ministry that doesn’t cry out for help. Nonetheless, we had made a calendar for regular audits, and Trinidad was on the list. Just as I suspected, their systems and accounting look just great. But much more important, their ministry in the lives of students is flourishing.

Many years ago we began the youth ministry called Crossroads in Trinidad and Tobago. The government of Tobago was so impressed with the biblical values presented in the curriculum, that they have partnered with us for the past several years to reach all of the high school students. When I say partner, I mean they actually fund a great deal of the curriculum. It is wonderful to see secular officials value the outcome of our work in the lives of students.
I got to speak at the University of the West Indies one afternoon. I spoke on God’s faithfulness to a thousand generations, and our personal responsibility before God to leave a Godly heritage, starting with our own life. It was great to see the response of the students and hear them think of applications in their lives. Please pray for our ministry in Trinidad and Tobago as they reach each incoming generation of high school and university students with the Good News of the Gospel!
I have written about our new church plant, the Guadalupe Gathering Place. This month we said goodbye to our founding pastor, John Lovell, and are moving forward in faith with the leadership God has raised up. We are teaching through Colossians, and a couple of weeks ago I preached from Chapter 3 on the role of husbands. With our very youthful congregation, the concept of becoming a Godly and responsible husband is vital, but often not really on the radar screen of the average university student. Please pray for me as part of our elder team and for the church as God brings growth.
Last week I was in Guatemala with part of our Latin America leadership team to coach our national leadership team. Some teams need more direct help than others, and this is a season for Campus Crusade in Guatemala when they are facing many direct challenges both from within and without. Please pray for our leaders there that they would seek God and love people as they take the ministry in new directions.
This week we have 30 leaders from all over Latin America and the Caribbean converging on San Jose for a week to step back together and review our progress over the last three years and refine and sharpen our vision toward 2020. They will all be arriving later today and our meetings begin tomorrow morning. Please pray for clear thinking and openness to the leading of God’s Holy Spirit. The decisions we make will impact our 500 staff around the continent, and through them thousands of others.
Thank you for praying for the situation in Venezuela. We decided to remove all of our North American staff from that troubled country. Please continue to pray for our national staff who remain in Venezuela: God’s provision for them, safety, peace.
Well, that’s the update! We appreciate your faithful prayer and steady support as we trust God to reach people.
Your missionaries in Latin America,

Ron and Jeanie

A New School Year

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A new school year…

Dear Friends,

The school year begins again in Costa Rica in February, and just like September in USA, February is a month of beginnings and re-launches in church and mission life. More on that in a minute!
Jeanie and I are back from a quick visit to the USA where we got to … meet a new granddaughter!!! Eleanor Grace Tolbert (daughter of Patty and Luke) is our eighth grandchild, but the excitement for us is just as great as it was when Wesley was born six years ago. They are each such a precious treasure!! It becomes increasingly difficult to pry Jeanie away to return to Costa Rica:) Here is a photo of Jeanie with little Eleanor Grace:

Last week we barely escaped the snow and ice that paralyzed the Carolinas for a few days, and aside from a a brief detour for our luggage (with Tillamook cheese inside) we made it home intact to our beautiful 75-80 degree weather. We are thankful to be home.

What a privilege to serve with our Latino brothers and sisters. I have shared a lot over the last year or so about our involvement in a new church plant, Guadalupe Gathering Place. Our young, dynamic lead pastor, John Lovell, is returning to Georgia in a month. On the one hand it will be a great loss for us - what a great preacher he is! On the other hand, he has been preparing us for his departure. I have served for two years as an elder/pastor in the church so I would appreciate your prayers during this transition.

The young Costa Rican who works with me in the Campus Crusade office here, Sebastian, has been preaching more at the church and is a great communicator to the young Tico audience. This past Sunday night he preached on Colossians 3:1-17 and did a great job. We have side by side translation into English so that everyone will understand. I was the translator for Sebas. In a couple of weeks I will be preaching on a later passage in Colossians and Sebas will translate for me!

Here is a photo of the two of us from Sunday night. Please pray for our growing congregation. We have many people with deep spiritual and physical needs.

Jeanie is back into the swing of ministry. We are just beginning the school year here and women’s bible studies and ESL class are beginning again. Today there were 22 women in the study that Jeanie teaches. Tonight she will be back together with the GAP girls small group. Tomorrow evening we will be back to teaching our English as a second language classes. And then on Thursday I will be leading the small group study here in our office. The people who come to that study are workers here in our building. Please pray for us as we minister.
I will be traveling to Trinidad in three weeks to meet with their leaders. While I’m there I will be doing an audit of their accounting system. I am looking forward to being with them. (From their perspective, I am not sure anyone looks forward to an audit, however!)

Thank you so much for your faithfulness with us as we continue to ministry in Costa Rica and help lead Campus Crusade throughout Latin America.
We appreciate you!!
Your missionaries,

Ron and Jeanie

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A Week in the Life . . .

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

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A week in the life…

Dear Friends,

We had a great two weeks in the USA over Christmas and New Year's with all of our children and grandchildren. The greatness was tempered by the serial discomfort of the norovirus moving through nearly all of us in the few days before and after Christmas. Nonetheless, what a blessing to be together!

Back home again
This first week back has been full of the kind of mundane legal activities that any missionary lives through, and that I rarely write about. In fact, I remember thinking no one back home would want to read about that stuff - not very spiritual. But the work was so all-encompassing this week and God was so faithful, that I just have to share about it.
Social Security
One of the requirements we have for residency here in Costa Rica is to join the Social Security system here. The SS System is partly for retirement, but mainly it is the single-payer health system. Once in the system you have access to the doctors and hospitals (not quite as nice as the private system, and longer lines, but a good service for the average Tico). When we registered the woman made us register as individuals, and would not accept that we are a married couple. As a result, we have paid double premiums for a year.
The solution was to request a new, official marriage license from Oregon. Send it to the Secretary of State in Salem for Apostille (authentication). Get it to Costa Rica. Pay $65 to have it officially translated and then present it at Social Security. A little nervous, we went to the right office, presented our documents, answered a lot more questions, and were finally approved as a married couple. The next step was to take our approval document to the local clinic in our neighborhood and get Jeanie a new registration card that shows her as my dependent. All of the new documents had to be scanned and sent on to our attorney to be presented in the national Social Security office where they should make the adjustment to our account that should save us $70 per month for as long as we are in Costa Rica.
New Corporate Bank account.
Over the past six months I have been working with our attorney to incorporate our Campus Crusade continental office here in Costa Rica. We presented our papers and the government approved our “Asociacion” in October. Our next step is to open a bank account to receive our regular funds from the US and pay local bills here in San Jose.
I went to the Banco de Costa Rica with our Corporate paperwork to open the account. Not so quick, bub. I needed a Personeria Juridica, another legal document that listed our tax number (they didn’t tell me I could get that right there at the bank for $6). In addition, I would need a certification from a CPA ($100) certifying our expected income and expenses. I tried to explain that I didn’t know what to project until we had a few months’ experience, but to no avail. Many phone calls and details later, I got the certification and the personeria, and now I’m ready to go open the account. This may not sound like a victory, but having all of the paperwork ready is a great relief!
US Passport
I have the fattest passport that most immigration officials have ever seen, and it invites lots of comments when I enter the US - and extra questions. The funniest incident was when I told the agent that I worked with Campus Crusade and he made me quote the Four Spiritual Laws. (I passed the test :)  Anyhow… My passport expires in September and for most purposes you can’t travel with less than six months before it expires. In the past, to get a new passport, I have had to send in the old one, an application form and the $110 fee. I went to the U.S. Embassy on Thursday morning with only two weeks before my next trip. To my surprise, they let me keep my passport in case of emergency travel, and told me that I would have to present it to pick up the new one. That was a great relief. No one living overseas likes to be without their passport.
Car license plates

My Costa Rica license plates for our Corolla were old and faded, and I was afraid that the transit police would stop me because of it. Friday afternoon I went to the TICO equivalent of the DMV. I now know how to get new license plates and only had to wait an hour or so in a couple of lines. I was thrilled, but on the way home my “check engine” light came home – Oh well, that could wait until the next week!
As a missionary, I don’t like to spend time on this kind of stuff, and I bet in your life, you don’t either! What encouraged me was that even in the sometimes-intimidating trivia of life, God is there. For us to minister effectively here, we can’t ignore or postpone the requirements of life. Procrastination in Costa Rica is as bad as procrastination in the USA.
What a great privilege to serve our fellow staff in Latin America! We are so excited for what God has in store for us in the next 12 months!!
We pray that our Heavenly Father will bless you abundantly in 2014!
Your missionaries,
Ron and Jeanie

November News!

 

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

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Guadalupe Gathering Place

Dear Friends,

Greetings and Happy Thanksgiving from San Jose, Costa Rica. Among the many things we are thankful for is the Guadalupe Gathering Place. (NOT pictured above behind Jeanie and me!). This new church is really a great source of joy for us. I am one of the leaders of the church and we have seen it grow from 15 to 180 on Sunday nights. God is using the church to reach an amazing variety of young people who really need His love. I was helping with the ESL class before the service this week, and I was paired up with a young man named Bryan. Bryan is not a Christ-follower (yet), but is very open. He lives alone with his mom and is going to night school to finish high school. He says he wants to be a cardiologist. I asked him what he does for fun and he said “Circus”. Ok, what do you mean? Well, he practices unicycle, fire-breathing and aerial silk climbing.

Another young man I have been talking to just came to Costa Rica from Brazil where he had been a monk for 8 years. He finished his degree in economics and was the financial manager for the order. Through a series of difficult circumstances including abuse by older priests and the deaths of his mother and father, he decided to start from scratch in Costa Rica. One of our young people invited him to come to church. Please pray for him as he seeks to give God “another chance”.

With my Brazilian friends in Ecuador: Joana, Octavio, Marcos, and Sonia

Great time in Guayaquil, Ecuador

Last week I was in Guayaquil with 20 Campus Crusade staff from all over Latin America and 38 Ecuadoran church leaders. We gathered to go through phase 1 of MC2, a training for church and small group planters. MC2 means Multiplying Churches and Communities. Phase 1 had 20 hours of training in the basics of Great Commission vision, communication skills, small-group dynamics (using only the Bible).
I spent most of the three day training at the table with the Brazilians. I love Brazil, and I love the opportunity to practice my halting Portuguese.
MC2 training prepares new leaders to start new small groups and churches. I was really impressed with the simple group Bible study method they taught. I have used it twice since I have come home and it is very effective. We want to be careful as we teach the Word of God, but at the same time help people understand that it is accessible and understandable even to new believers. As I was going through the training  I was thinking about our growing church here in San Jose and how we could apply the training to multiply our impact in the Eastern part of the city.

Thanks for praying for my trip and your continued prayers for our ministry!!

Jeanie's small group out for ice cream.

Jeanie's Progress

Slowly but surely, Jeanie is recovering from her surgery and later her fall.  She still has some pain, but has returned to a full schedule: teaching Women’s Bible study, leading a girl’s study, and teaching an ESL class. She likes to be busy!
Please keep praying for a full recovery!

But while he (the prodigal son) was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. 21 And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. 23 And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. 24 For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.

Luke 15:20-24

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One step forward . . .

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

One step forward . . .

Dear Friends,

Greetings from San Jose, Costa Rica! When I wrote to you last month, I shared our plans for the fall and some of our travel schedule. We moved through September pretty much as expected: Ministry is growing here. We went together to Jamaica and had a great time ministering to our staff there. I went to Orlando for a meeting of our Global Operations Team. Jeanie continued her recovery from hip surgery, and was walking better every day with less pain.
Two weeks ago, things changed considerably. We were both at the office with our colleague Sebastian. Around 9 am Jeanie stepped out of the office to go down the hall use the rest room. Unbeknownst to her, the cleaning lady had just wet-mopped the porcelain tile floor outside our office. She took just a couple of steps and then took a very hard fall onto the floor.  We could hear Jeanie’s scream. The security guard was there in the hallway and saw her fall and ran to get us. He also fell on the way.
After a trip to the emergency room, we are happy to report that she only suffered a severe pulled hamstring and no damage to the hip implant. God was definitely with her as she slipped down the hallway!! She had a LOT of pain, but she is improving day by day. We are so THANKFUL to God for His care for Jeanie, that she has suffered no long term injury.
By the way, last week she insisted on returning to the Bible Study she is leading, and this week she is back to the full schedule (just a little slower :)
- Please join with us in praying for Jeanie's complete recovery

At our Global Operation Team meeting. I'm not sure what I was so happy about :)

Global Operations Team

I had a great time in Orlando with the Campus Crusade Operations leaders from the 13 geographic areas around the world.  I, of course, represented Latin America and the Caribbean with 28 countries.
Our new Operations Vice President, Erik Butz, worked for a dozen years as a missionary in East Asia. He has a heart to see effective operations to support our missionaries in all areas and countries. Here are the three goals he laid out before us:

1. Powerful Teams – All areas have powerful Area Operations Teams fulfilling a common purpose.
2. Core Systems:  The right accounting, database and measurement systems are in place and operating effectively in all national and area offices.
3. Leading with Information – All of our national ministries are using financial reports and ministry statistics to set goals and measure results.

I don’t mean to give you too much of the nuts and bolts, but rest assured, to the degree we reach these goals, our missionaries will be powerfully equipped to connect more lost people to Jesus.

Thanks for praying for my trip and your continued prayers for our ministry!!

Our daughter Patty, son-in-law Luke, with Caroline and Anna Kate.

A visit from family
We have been here for nearly two years, and our only visit from family has been our son Andrew (who we are always thrilled to receive). This month our daughter Patty, son-in-law Luke, Anna Kate and Caroline Tolbert came for a long visit! It has been great to show them around Costa Rica!
We spent five days in Cahuita on the Caribbean coast - our favorite place! The national park there is like an open air zoo with monkeys and sloths and, well, the list is too long. The girls loved every minute, and we loved every minute with them! We're hoping to see more grandchildren (and their parents) here next year!
Here is a link to some photos from our time in Cahuita with the kids

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
“For who has known the mind of the Lord,
or who has been his counselor?”
“Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?”
For from him and through him and to him are all things.
To him be glory forever. Amen.

Romans 11:33-36

News from The Burgins

 

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

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Fall in Costa Ric​a

Dear Friends,

Greetings from San Jose! Andrew, our fourth child, came along seven years after our third, so we have had a lot of time living together as a family of three. Andrew is now a junior at the University of Florida, and our times together are becoming shorter and less frequent. This summer he worked on a mission team in Bolivia dedicated to digging water wells for indigenous people in the campo (far removed countryside). He came back stronger physically and spiritually after his summer.
We had nearly three weeks together in Costa Rica. He spent many days coming to work with us in our Campus Crusade office. We worked while he scouted the Internet for motorcycles and jobs in Gainesville. Now that he is back in Florida, he has made progress on both fronts. He has his new (to him) motorcycle, one definite job and a couple of better looking prospective positions. We are thankful for God’s provision for him!
While he was here in Costa Rica, we spent a few days together at the Arenal Observatory Hotel, snuggled up against the side of an active volcano. The views were spectacular and Andrew and I did some hiking. The trails were steep and it is the rainy season, so we were pretty muddy.
The toughest part of serving overseas is saying goodbye to the children.

Dirk and Carrol, Campus Crusade directors in Jamaica

JAMAICA

As part of our role on the Leadership Team for Latin America and the Caribbean, Jeanie and I are working closely with Dirk and Carrol, our country leaders in Jamaica. We are travelling to Jamaica this week to help with Operations and Finance, as well as women’s ministries. Jeanie has a special relationship of mutual encouragement with Carrol, so she is really looking forward to our time there. We just got a great report of ministry there with athletes. Our ministry is involved with several key teams, and is reaching many young people who otherwise may not hear the Good News of Jesus.

Please pray for Dirk and Carrol as they lead the charge among university students in Jamaica
______________________________
Fall Ministry
Jeanie is gearing up to lead a Bible Study this fall called The Significant Woman: Pursuing God and His Unique Design for your Life. The initial course will be in English with many missionary ladies. We are praying that they will be able to multiply the course into Spanish speaking churches in which they have influence. She also has a brand new small group of 18-year-old young women that she will be mentoring. Together we are looking forward to helping with some ESL classes that we are continuing as an outreach of the church we are helping to help plant.
Travel
We are really hitting it hard in September!! As I mentioned, we are travelling together to Jamaica. The following week I will be in Puebla, Mexico helping to plan a Call2All missions event in November. Call2All brings Christians together to focus on unreached people groups around the world. Then I will be in Orlando for several days, followed by team training in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
What a blessing to serve!

Andrew in front of the Arenal Volcano

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12: 1-2

Prayer Requests

• Safe and fruitful travel to Jamaica, Mexico, Orlando, Argentina
• Ongoing healing and restoration for Jeanie
• Jeanie’s girls small group bible study
• The Significant Woman study beginning in late September
• Continued growth of Guadalupe Gathering Place, our new church plant. We have grown from 20 to 130 in 15 months.
• Continued improvement in the area of Operations in all of our 26 national ministries
• In October our younger daughter, Patty, and her husband, Luke, are planning a trip to Costa Rica with their two daughters. Please pray for a safe trip and great family time together.

Thank you!!

The past several months have been a challenge with Jeanie’s surgery and our months away from Costa Rica. We praise God that Jeanie is walking pain free. She still suffers from back pain, but we are praying that as she adjusts her posture and gait to the new hip, the back pain will also resolve itself. We can’t begin to thank you for your continued prayer and financial support!

THANK YOU for your part in our ministry!

Copyright © 2013 CCC Latin America, All rights reserved.

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Home in Costa Rica

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

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Home in Costa Rica!

Dear Friends,

We are home in Costa Rica after a longer than expected journey from Portland. Seven weeks have passed since Jeanie's hip surgery. The titanium implant is firmly in place and she is making good progress. She is walking a lot and getting stronger every day. Before the surgery, she could not walk more than a block, and that with a cane. She still has a lot of muscle soreness from the surgical incision, and that may last for several months. In spite of that ongoing pain, she is far better than she was in May. The doctor says she is good for 100,000 miles or 20 years, whichever comes first:) We are thankful for God's provision of a great doctor, hospital, and financial supporters who helped to cover our sizable deductible for the surgery. 

We were away from home for a total of nine weeks, and enjoyed my Mom and Dad's great hospitality in Portland. We aren't happy that Jeanie needed surgery, but we are eternally grateful for the special time we had with them. Some days were more painful than others for Jeanie, but every day was a blessing to be with my folks.

Pastor Rigoberto, Director Evangelical Alliance of Costa Rica

DVD partnership project

For the last several months I have been working with Pastor Rigoberto Vega, Executive Director of the Evangelical Alliance of Costa Rica on a plan for planting new churches throughout the country. There are approximately 2500 participating churches in the Alliance, from many different denominations. The plan is to distribute 3-4 copies of the JESUS Film on DVD to each of the churches with training to equip three member families from each church to open their homes to show the film and start new home fellowship groups. Just this week we have finished production of the DVD's! We will set a weekend for late August or September for a simultaneous national effort to plant new small groups. It is a huge endeavor, and I am thankful for our national partners who are doing the lion's share of the organizing! 

Please pray for the thousands of Costa Ricans who will hear the Gospel over those two days. I'll keep you posted on our progress.

10,000 copies of the JESUS DVD will be used to open thousands of new home groups in Costa Rica.

New office

This is our first full week in the new office. Jeanie has been busy buying all of the supplies and equipping our kitchen area to be a fully functional office. We have loaded down our little Corolla with a printer, a vacuum cleaner, cleaning supplies, dishes, paper towels, etc., etc. She has made us feel right at home!

Thank you!!

Over the past two months we have felt the support, prayer and love from our team as never before. We have been on the field for 19 years, and not a week passes without a reminder that God uses His people, working together, to accomplish His purposes. THANK YOU for your part in our ministry!

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