Cruce Update

Barrett and Amy Cruce left Tequesta, Florida, a couple of years ago when they sensed the Lord leading them to Costa Rica. Their home church, Calvary Chapel Jupter sent the Cruces, including their two daughters to Puerto Viejo on Costa Rica's Carribean coast to serve with Alternatve Missions to oversee projects including youth outreach through a cafe and skate park and setting up house churches.

Below are a few excerpts from a recent newsletter.

Hi everyone, First of all, we want all of you to know how happy we were to see so many of you while we were home.

Before we left, I had spent some time with Mike Wuhrman, our neighbor and part of our house church, training him on how to study, prepare and lead the house church in our absence. He and his wife are both Christians but have not had any type of church to attend for many years. They have been very excited about the opportunity to study the bible and fellowship with other Christians and Mike stepped up to the plate to lead while we were gone even though he had never done anything like that in his life. He did a great job and we were able to continue with church for the entire time we were gone.

Right now, the house church is about half older youth and the other half un-churched N. Americans. We had an awesome time the first week as we studied about divorce and God's original intent for marriage. We got into some pretty heavy discussion about sex and the consequences of sex outside of marriage.

This is a huge issue in the lives of the youth here as they are faced with it in one form or another every day. It was awesome for them to get a biblical perspective on it and it was one of the most animated discussions we have had to date.

Ronnie McGlocklin [who ministers with the Cruces], leads the Spanish speaking church, married a couple that has been living together for the past 15 years. Ronnie began a small bible study for adults that took place while the kids were meeting. One week when my parents were visiting, my dad sat in with us on the bible study. In the middle of Ronnie's bible study, my dad stopped him and asked him if the two ladies that were sitting in with us had ever prayed to receive Christ. Ronnie stopped, asked them and was told no. He then changed course, explained the gospel and asked them if they would like to follow Jesus. They both said yes and prayed to receive Him right then and there. Well, the older of the two, Adriana, began volunteering to help with the children soon after. A few months later, when the Spanish house church began, she began attending with her husband Rodolfo who was not a Christian. As he has continued to come each week, it has been incredible to see the changes in his life as he is now out telling people that they need to change their lives and follow Jesus. During all of this, we assumed that they were married because they had been together for so long and had three children. One day, they came forward to Ronnie and told him that they believed that they needed to get married not only in order to do what was right but to set the right example for their children. Two weeks ago, Ronnie performed the ceremony and made it official.

We have really enjoyed seeing God work as he has used the kid's program to bring families into relatioinship with Him, getting them plugged into the house churches and actually serving in our ministries.

After all was said and done, we are going to be baptizing five people from the English speaking house church and two or three from the Spanish house church on Sunday, April 1st, followed by a celebration party. As we talk about what it means to follow Jesus in word and deed, it is so exciting to see people getting it and wanting to follow him in such a way that marks their decision and makes it public.

Please be praying for the following:
1. Two weeks ago we implemented the AWANA's program (OANSA in Spanish) as the core curriculum for the children's program at the local elementary school on Sundays. We now have a total of five locals in leadership roles (mostly a result of the House Church program). We are really looking at the possibility of turning over the entire children's program to local control sometime between the end of this year or the middle of next year.
2. Last weekend, I spent five days traveling with four of the older youth from the skate-park and our house church (Downer, William, Dexter and Jordan). I took them across the country (about 10 hours) to the Pacific side so that they could compete in the national surfing circuit contest. Please pray that God will give me wisdom in everything that I do and in every decision and relationship. It is such a fine line between actually helping and feeding into the dependency cycle that a lot of these kids are hooked on.
3. Davis is one of the older youth (19) that has been involved with the skate-park from the beginning. He is very nice, polite, helpful and has faithfully attended all of the Friday night activities (movies, bible studies, etc&). Davis comes from a family that is Jehovah's Witnesses. Davis was also attending the house church up until about two months ago. He was told that he either needed to stop having anything to do with us, the skatepark and the house church or he would be disowned from his family and kicked out of his house.
4. I've written about my friend Lance in the past. His mother recently died of cancer and he is having trouble dealing with the grief. He's not a Christian, but I can't remember the last time I saw someone so close to making a decision without being able to cross the line. We have had many good talks and I while I believe that it's only a matter of time, he is still looking. Lance is taking off for the next 3-4 months to Indonesia and other places in the far east. Please pray for his safety both physically and spiritually. He will be assisting a team of doctors in relief work in addition to surfing some pretty heavy reef waves. Please pray that God will bring other committed Christians into his life and that Lance will finally take that leap into the waiting arms of Jesus.

Please continue to pray for God's favor on us and our work. Please pray that he will provide the people we need to continue on.