Fire at OM Costa Rica officeOM InternationalTwo team members receivewd minor burns in a fire that completely destroyed OM Costa Rica's office building and an ajoining house on Friday 26 May. Marta and Carolyn were able to flee the upstairs dormitory when the blaze broke out at 9.30pm local time. The flames destroyed personal belongings, office equipment and files covering many years of work. Team member George Weins lived in the house next door and has lost most of his belongings.Investigations revealed that the fire was partly caused by human error and the team now faces severe finacial repercussions. Rebuilding could cost up to 30,000 US dollars and the owners (local Christians) had no insurance. The search is now on for provisional offices and plans for June have to be completely re-evaluated. OM Costa Rica representative, Darrel Grasman wrote, "Personally I am struggling with discouragement and others on the team are as well. Many of us have been through trial and sacrifice to build the office team and ministry and then to have so much destroyed in less than an hour which will take time to rebuild. Pray for the Lord's encouragement and wisdom on how He would want us to build this ministry for the future."
Credit: OM International
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Recent Stories from Costa RicaFestival of Smiles 28 Oct, 2008OM Costa Rica is making preparations to bring gifts to the indigenous children living in the Talamanca region again this December. OM Costa Rica Informs  30 Jul, 2008On Saturday June 28th at 3:00 in the morning a group of 50 people started loading up the bus for a five day medical outreach in the Talamaca indigenous region of Costa Rica. Amongst the 50 participants we had a group of 17 from the US that included doctors, nurse practitioners and medical students. Additionally we had our OM Costa Rica staff as well as 20 Costa Rican volunteers. All of us came together for one purpose, to serve the BriBri Indians in Talamanca. After a six hour bus ride, we arrived at a river bank where we unloaded and loaded all the medicine, food and suitcases into several wooden carved boats for a 30 minute boat ride. This process was repeated on the other side of the river, this time into another bus which took us to our camp. AIDSLink takes root 5 May, 2008 Alex and Julie Paniagua, from OM Costa Rica, are now heading up AIDSLink in Central America. Holy Week Harvest 22 May, 2007 Over 300 volunteers from across Latin America and the USA gathered in Costa Rica for a special outreach during Holy Week. After two days of training and preparation, teams headed out to serve local communities in partnership with local churches. OM CENTRAL AMERICA EASTER CAMPAIGN 3 May, 2007 The following are highlights of our recent outreach in the Atlantic zone of Costa Rica, March 31 – April 6. The entire event was a dream and vision for more than a year that took numerous trips, prayer meetings and planning sessions and in reality was five campaigns in one, which included all the planning and blessing of a mega outreach with over 315 international and national volunteers. |