Dennis goes to Indo!!!!

Hi friends,
Here we are in Costa Rica, the land of vacations, surfing and fun.  But we are hard at work, ministry is happening and God is moving.
In November of 2009, eight months after moving here I became the National Director of Christian Surfers Costa Rica.  With five thriving chapters and three more in the works it has kept me busy traveling and visiting to keep up with all of the action.  Being a national director is very different from being the leader of a local chapter, as I was in Santa Barbara, CA  but I am learning the ropes and love building relationships and being able to support local leaders as they minister to their surf communities.

I have two upcoming opportunities to receive training and support from Christian Surfers International.  The first being a three day training time in Orlando, Florida, and the second, the annual Christian Surfers International conference in Bali.  I know, I know, Bali!!!  They always pick the worst place for these conferences.  September sessions anyone??!! This will be my first time going to a CSI conference and there is A BIG chance that this will be the only trip to Indonesia in my life time.

As an emerging nation Christian Surfers Costa Rica can not pay for this trip, nor can I, so I am asking for your help.  I have already had half of my airline ticket to Bali paid for, but I still need about $2,000 (see budget below) to cover costs.  If you can help me with these expenses please send your tax deductible donation to:

Christian Surfers Costa Rica

1210 Riverbreeze Blvd,

Ormond Beach, Fl 32176

Memo: Leon CSI Conference.

If you can’t wait to send in your donation, donate through PayPal in the home page of this site.

Any excess will go to the Christian Surfers Costa Rica ministry account.

Please pray as well, for travel safety and for Kyle and the kids as they hold down the fort in Costa Rica.  I look forward to bringing back the stoke and information from these conferences to share with the other chapters here in Costa Rica at our National Leadership conference in November.

Airfare Orlando $300 (for the training on “How to Plan for a National Movement”)
Airfare Orlando (connection to Bali) $300
1/2 Bali ticket $900
ground travel, food, lodging etc. $500
–
Dennis Leon
www.puravidachurch.com
www.christiansurferscostarica.com

“Out of complexity find simplicity” - A. Einstein

Toilets, friends and iguanas = Leon Family - Costa Rica

You know you live in the tropics when…. 5 foot iguanas fall through your roof.

Be and Make Disciples of Christ

After many attempts at finding a good day and time for the Parrita church we have finally settled on Wednesday nights. This is a new church plant so getting it going is taking time, but the fruit is starting to look good! As a nice group of skateboarders is starting to frequent our studies.

Kyle starts a girl’s bible study next week. The boys that attend Pura Vida receive most of their discipeling time on the road to the surf contests or just spending time with Dennis after school, but the girls miss out on that time so Kyle has set up a special time just for them. As she works on building trust and confidence in these relationships she hopes to be a healthy example of womanliness as well.

Relationships

We are so excited to tell you about our two new friends Melissa and Carolina. A friend had recommended Dennis for some surf lessons and after the first lesson they were hooked. They came back the next weekend and the next. They went from lessons to permanent weekend residents at our house with the rest of our friends from San Jose who spend the weekends camping in our living room, surfing all day and coming to church Sunday night. Now they consider us their church.

Being a blessing

Blessing is a cycle, and when you can bless others using the gifts God has given you it is amazing to see the results. One of our gifts is hospitality. It comes naturally, it is easy, and it surprises people so it must be from God. The result of this gift is that our house turns hostel on the weekend as it fills up with friends and friends of friends who come down from the city to enjoy the beach. Over holy week the house was overflowing and one of our guests noticed that our guest/church bathroom toilet was in bad shape as well as the faucet in the kitchen which “sung” and leaked whenever the water pressure was not high enough. Well, he happened to be the distributor of American Standard products in Costa Rica so the next week we had a new toilet and faucet!!! Oh the ways God fills the longings of our hearts and provides for every need!

Dependence on the Holy Spirit

We have a long list of prayer requests this month which includes many upcoming activities that we need prayer for.

• Health as the rain starts so do the plagues of staph infections and dengue.
• discipelship: Parrita, girls, Pura Vida, Christian Surfers,
• U.S. citizenship for Dennis
• We are starting the process of becoming long term missionaries with Free Methodist World Misssions: funds to come in for that process
• Adding the required classes for missionaries to an already busy schedule
• Dennis travels to Orlando in June for a Christian Surfers training and then to Bali in August to the Christian Surfers International Conference (CSI is sponsoring most of his travel expenses).
• Christian Surfers Costa Rica camp in June
• Christian Surf movie that features Dennis, Anthony and our friend Alejandro premiers in Limon in June and in Parrita in July. These are evangelistic events, pray for the power of the gospel to be heard and to touch lives. www.bornofwater.org
• Complete (physical, spiritual, psychological, relational) healing for Kyle’s brother Charlie in the U.S. as he goes through rehab.
• Kyle’s family and others that will be coming to visit this summer

Again and again….. THANK YOU for all your love and support to our family & Ministry…

Pura Vida, Familia Leon.

Elias and cousins at Kinder.

Feliz Navidad…. Merry Christmas

Dear Friends and family,

Merry Christmas! We wanted to take advantage of the tradition of the Christmas card to send you all an updated photo of our family! As our family grows so does our ministry as God has blessed us not only with our own beautiful baby girl but also with two teenage boys whom we are able to model Jesus’ love too! The new additions to our family are Selah Marlise Leon and Anthony Segura, not in the photo but now also a part of our family is Josue Rodriguez. Selah of course is our second child born in July. We debuted Anthony in our last newsletter and Josue moved in with us a day after this photo was taken.

Josue is 14 years old and like Anthony is an excellent surfer. We saw him in Jaco one day and he asked for a ride to Esterillos to pick up a surfboard he had left there at a friend’s house. He came home with us that day and never left. He has a sad story and has been struggling at school. Please pray that we can provide him with a stable and safe environment to grow up and finish school in.

As our family grows so does our grocery bill so please continue to support us both in prayer and financially. If you would like to make a tax deductible donation to our ministry please send checks to the Santa Barbara Free Methodist Church 1435 Cliff Dr. Santa Barbara, CA 93109 and don’t forget to designate: VISA-Leon. Or you can give online by going to www.puravidachurch.com and clicking on “make a donation”(not tax deductiable).

Pura Vida, Leon Family