News - November 2009 

 
September marked the 4th anniversary of our return to Costa Rica. We have been feeling so tired, but when we reflect back on how much has been accomplished, we can clearly see the reason “why!”

In the past 4 years we have run 9 Discipleship Training School’s, which have gone out to 14 nations. Two of those schools Donna and I had to lead ourselves because we didn’t have trained staff to lead them. Thank God we now have several good DTS leaders, which has really helped to lighten that load. Our fall school was small, but we have been kept busy with King’s Kids camps and hosting DTS outreach teams. We have had 4 DTS schools from other countries come to do their DTS outreaches here. Currently we have a DTS from Cowboys With A Mission, Wyoming. They will be helping us with our Kiddies’ Rodeo here at the base and a Rodeo Bible Camp, which will be held in January at a ranch in Guanacaste. I will tell more about this event in our next letter.

We have also run two Environment & Resource Stewardship Schools thanks to a great bunch of staff and teachers that have come from all over the world to help us. Several of our past students are now working in other countries in resource stewardship. Some are even setting up new schools in the countries where they are serving.

In September I was invited to teach in the DTS in Chaing Mai, Thailand. I left a week early so I could also attend an event put on by Echo Development, who were having their Asian Agricultural Conference in Chaing Mai. There were 155 people at the conference from 18 Southeast Asian countries. All of the missionaries work in agriculture or community development and most of them in closed countries. Thailand is unique in Southeast Asia because they have religious freedom. In most of the countries that surround Thailand, Christians are being persecuted. The last day of the conference several of us took a bus to Northern Thailand where the hill tribe peoples live. The Aka, Pulong, and Karen peoples have all fled into Thailand because of the oppressive military regime of Myanmar. They desperately need help in the area of clean water, sanitation and sustainable agriculture. The very things we teach in the environmental schools, so maybe our next school can go to help these people during their outreach.

In October, a Costa Rican pastor and I were invited to speak at a pastor’s conference in Nauta, Peru, which is in the Peruvian Amazon. As many of you know I grew up in this part of Peru where my parents served as missionaries for almost 30 years. There were 1500 pastors and leaders at the conference. Many of them traveled for days by boat to get to the conference. Their hunger for God was so encouraging to see. I wish my parents could have been there to see the fruit of the seed they sowed so many years ago. What a privilege to get to teach and encourage these great men and women of God.
nigEvery night we held evangelistic meetings outside on the street where we saw hundreds give their lives to Jesus. After the conference we traveled back to Lima, Peru, where we spent 3 days with one of my childhood friends from the jungle. We had a great time reconnecting with him and his family.

Well, back at the base in Costa Rica we are excited about some new ministries our personnel have launched. Every Tuesday, we have a team going to the city to feed and pray with some of the homeless people. Another one of our staff is starting a ministry to reach skateboarders and another staff has started a soccer club ministry to reach kids in our area. We are encouraged by our staff who taken the initiative to begin these ministries. They will need lots of prayer and financial support.

As you may remember a year ago January, we lost a big part of the roof of the main house in a windstorm. Thanks to some financial gifts and a work team from a local church, we now have a new roof, (so no more leaks). While we were at it, we thought we would rebuild the front steps and repair the septic tank, so things are much improved.

In our last letter we mentioned that our son Jason needed eye surgery to remove a cataract. Thanks to everyone who gave so generously towards this, he has had the surgery and is seeing normally again.

Another praise report is that after 4 years, we now have permanent residence in Costa Rica, which to date cost us $2500, (some of which we still owe to the lawyer). This means that we will no longer have to leave the country every 3 months to renew our visa. What a blessing! There are many benefits to having residence, such as; we will be able to get our own phone, pay national rates when we visit parks, we can get credit, and buy health insurance, (which we have not had in over 4 years), etc. It is socialized medicine here, but it’s better than nothing. The private doctors and hospitals are very expensive, so that will help us financially.

Something we would like you to pray with us about is our continuing vehicle problem. As you remember, both the base van and our personal Jeep were stolen. For the last 11 months we have struggled with our transportation using old cars and borrowed vehicles. In May one of our supporters gave us a 2004 Chevy Suburban. We shipped it down here, but we are not able to use it until we pay the import taxes, which are over $10,000. Every vehicle that comes into Costa Rica must pay import taxes whether new or used. We desperately need this vehicle since we are hauling teams around every day, so please pray about helping us get this vehicle released.
We appreciate your prayers and your support!

Serving our Lord,
Terry & Donna Keith

PLEASE CHECK OUR NEW PICTURES ALSO!

Optional online link to send support:
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You can send a tax-deductible gift to:
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P.O. Box 1311
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News - June 2009 
 
At the writing of this letter, we are visiting with our daughter Erin and her family in Colorado, and enjoyed getting to know our 8th grandchild, Leah Christel, who was born in February . . more

NEWS - February 2009 
 
Four years ago when God called us back to Costa Rica to reclaim our inheritance, we knew that it wouldn’t be easy. The enemy is not going to just give us the land without a fight. So - - just as the children of Israel . . . more

April 2008 News 
 

Dear Friends, We realized we are running behind again in getting our newsletter out, so we will try to catch you up on the most recent news. In January, Terry left for Kenya with two of the students from our (EARS) Environment & Resource Stewardship School. The place they went, (named Loita Hills), was 6 hours along a dirt track from the nearest city. The missionary they went to work...more

November 2008 
 
Whale watching, Wedding preparations, DNA Conference, and Fighting for our inheritance . . more

December News 2007 
 
EARS students took soil samples for testing on the base.

Dear Friends,

We are finally on our Christmas break, so we thought it would be a good idea to take advantage of the time off to write a newsletter. It’s hard to believe that 2007 . . more

August 07 News 
 

On June 15th, we had a wonderful graduation ceremony for our January DTS students, and then on the 18th our first Mission Adventure team arrived, so there wasn’t much time to catch our breath.   After five months of working with the DTS, - - (two months of that were on outreach), where we carried heavy bags, hiked,...more

Out of Africa - May 2007 
 

We arrived in Kenya on the 19th of April.   The next night we boarded a bus for a 14 hour bumpy ride to Mbita on Lake Victoria.   We were exhausted and a little beat up (having sat in the last available seats in the back of the bus), but we were safe and sound.  During our orientation the next day,...more

March 2007 News 
 

THIS IS OUR NEWLY COMPLETED OFFICE BUILDING!
 
What does God require from us?   In Micah 6:8 it says, “He has showed you O man what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? – To act justly and to love mercy...more

December 2006 News 
 
YWAM-Costa Rica at DNA Conference with Loren & Darlene Cunningham

Merry Christmas!

Dear Friends,
Our goal is to send you updates every couple months, but with everything we have going on, we ... more

September 2006 News 
 
A lot has happened since our last newsletter. Our Mission Adventures program ended around the middle of August. We hosted 110 people . . more

July 2006 News 
 
Doesn’t the time just go faster and faster? We’re nearing the end of July already and we’re still trying to catch our breath, it seems. We feel we have accomplished so much, and it’s hard to know just where to begin sharing it all with you. more