Good-bye to "La Candela"

After over three years of going to "La Candela" weekly, we are heartbroken to bring you the news that it is no more. Over the past three years we have held many meetings and many hearts have been forever touched and changed. We have been privileged to be apart of so many life changing events in La Candela. Medical clinic, women's meetings, feeding the kids weekly, distribution of Joyce Meyer books, loving on the kids and teaching them about Jesus, many teams from the States have come to bless the kids of La Candela and have been blessed themselves.

Wednesday, May 3rd which was to be our farewell feeding program to "La Candela" turned out to be sadder than we could have ever even imagined. The government came in on April 19th telling everyone that the time had come for them to vacate the area that they had called home, "the candle" for some 3 years. They were supposed to be given time to find another place to live and time to move their belongings and homes made of mostly old pallets and tin. Wednesday morning at 7:00 a.m. we received a call of desperation from Pastor Ricardo. The police had arrived to "La Candela" with a back hoe, 2 dump trucks, helmets, gas masks, pistols and bullet proof vests. They said that they were to evacuate immediately. There were families frantically looking for help and trucks to transport their things. Pastor Ricardo was one of them, he called us to ask for help. We made some calls and found a truck. By 9:00 a.m. we were there with sandwiches, drinks and the much awaited moving truck.

By 12 noon the back hoe had already began smashing houses. They started at the top and were making their way down. Only 5 houses from the church and there had only been one trip made so far. There were a total of 3 trips by the moving trucks and 3 pick-up truck loads made out of "La Candela". We only had time to move the church, Pastor Ricardo and his family and one other family from the church. There were still many more who needed help, but we could only do so much. Here in Costa Rica it is dark by 6 p.m. The government had cut all electricity and water, making it even harder to get things done.

The door of la Candela has closed, God has opened another door in another area. We are following Pastor Ricardo, some church leaders and some families to an area that he has been working with. La Carpio, has been on our hearts for some time too, is the new area that we will be holding our feeding program. There is a great need in this area as well. There is a lot of opportunities in La Carpio, we are basically starting over, and there is a lot of work to be done.