TeamDuggan

4,500 feet elevation, the same as where we live in Costa Rica, but my, what a difference! Instead of lush cloud-forest, we were surrounded by the rugged beauty of an Arizona high desert plateau. This is the first time Cathi and I have had a chance to travel together -just the two of us – for a very long time. With just a five hour window to get all our American shopping done, we must have set a record. Thank goodness for GPS that got us to every place we needed before we had to join our group for a week-long conference!

Meanwhile, back home in Costa Rica, the kids did a great job taking care of things. One morning Cathi checks Facebook and sees on our daughter’s status says, “Happy that there was minimal damage from the flood yesterday”. Well so are we, but what flood? Turns out they handled a water line break like pros. And she was right, no damage to speak of. But they chose an interesting way to let us know about it.

Brian and I have been privileged to attend a working conference on Healthy Teams with some Reachglobal leaders from around the globe. Since it has been a very busy January, we were able to spend awesome time as a couple traveling to the conference, in addition to spending time with others during meals and brainstorming sessions, and playing games as a group in the evenings. Join us in praying that by being true-faced and loving well, ministry teams, marriages and families will be healthy and will be the aroma of Christ to the unsaved world.

For more info on this, visit efcacrisisresponse.blogspot.com

Although we couldn’t get past the damaged roads we were able to visit a number of shelters and view condemned houses.  Many were built on an unknown faultline and have cracks going end to end.  It was amazing to see open cracks in the ground that ran right up through the foundation of the houses and continuing on to the other side.  Many of these affected are working during the day and returning to their families at night in the shelters.  The government is going through and condemning not only the houses, but also the ground that is no longer suitable for building.  Many are fearful that they will not receive any insurance payment, will lose their homes and properties, and will still be liable for their mortgages.

Stay tuned as we seek how we might work with local churches in the region to build hope in the context of the Gospel.