May 2008 Ministry Update

Life has assumed a consistent pace of late. Let's hope that is not the first step toward being in a rut! Thankfully, we have not had much out of the ordinary excitement. No thieves, no assaults on the street, no central market hassles. But ordinary has its blessings too. We will divide our ministry interests so you can get a picture of what we are each doing.

What has Pam been up to?

I have been consistently working on improving my Spanish skills. I meet with a personal tutor twice weekly. Carmen is her name, and she is a retired school teacher. We share many interests at this stage of our lives, and we seem to never lack for something to talk about. (All in Spanish, of course!) She is truly helping me express myself more clearly and correctly. I do feel like I have taken a giant step (well, maybe a baby giant!) forward in my ability to use Spanish in normal conversation.

Last month, I was part of a women's Bible study sponsored by ESEPA Seminary (Mujeres serviendo mujeres = Women serving women). One of the women profs at the Seminary was the main speaker, and I worked as a small group leader during the break out sessions. It was great to have this ministry with many Costa Rican women from a variety of local churches.

The Spanish Language Institute (Instituto de Lengua Espanola = ILE, for short) starts classes three times a year, roughly coinciding with trimesters. I was asked to assist with the orientation week for the new class that just started in May. Having a ministry with future missionaries is an exciting prospect for me. From these contacts, some new friendships and counseling sessions have developed. Even missionaries have their struggles! I pray that God will use me at this time in their lives as they prepare for their future ministries using Spanish.

What has Floyd been up to?

The first term (we call them "cuatrimestres," meaning a 4-month term) has come and gone. I really enjoyed teaching The Use of the Old Testament in the New. With 9 master's-level students, we struggled with verse after verse, trying to distinguish between directly messianic prophecies, indirectly messianic prophecies, analogies, illustrations and typology. All of the students seemed to really work hard, and we truly developed into a "learning community." Their final classroom presentations were a joy to listen to and watch as each took turns leading the class through their thinking process to arrive at their conclusions. I was amazed at some of their creative PowerPoint presentations! Lively question and answer times after their lectures sometimes had to be cut off--Latins love to haggle and discuss!


The second cuatrimestre has begun. I teach Basic Biblical Hebrew for beginning M.A. students in Old Testament, and Readings in the Hebrew Bible for second-year students. So far so good. I will be working hard myself this term to refresh my own understanding of Hebrew grammar and syntax. They say such mental exercise delays the on-set of Altzheimer's disease. I cannot think of a better way to keep the brain functioning than to work it out with Biblical languages and meditate on Scripture portions ! Teaching Hebrew grammar in Spanish will have its own challenges during these next four months, for sure.

The Cuba Connection

Thanks for your prayers for the churches in Cuba and the pastors there who desire to continue their theological training. ESEPA Seminary still has a target date of November 2008 to begin offereing M.A. classes in Bible and Theology at the Las Palmas Seminary in Cuba. I (Floyd) will be travelling to Cuba in July to meet with seminary leaders, plan some more, and hopefully prepare the M.A. students to pass their entrance requirements in Biblical languages. Please keep me in your prayers as there seems to always be some unknown factor that pops up at the last minute to delay visa processing and travel arrangements.

Prayer Projects

We say "projects" because what we are presenting to you here could involve more than just prayer. Yes, some have asked about how they could be involved fianancially. Well, here is how. Always pray, and also put actions to your words. Remember 1 John 3:18.

1. ESEPA Seminary Library: I am ashamed to admit that my own personal library is stronger in many ways than the Seminary library. But since we seek Spanish books (and my library is primarily in English!), focusing on "core curriculum" holdings for each course, here is what we need. For $250 per course (and we offer about 70 different courses on the B.A. and M.A. levels), we could buy the needed volumes and really strength our library. This simple step could help us for years to come.

2. ESEPA Seminary Faculty: We send our faculty to Cuba to teach modules. A professor goes for one to two weeks, teaches a 3 or 4 hour course, takes all printed materials in, and gets the job done. To pay for the airfare, minimal salary (less than $200 per course taught!), and expenses for food, visa, and incidentals, it costs us about $1200. We need to offer three more B.A. classes to finish out the degree sequence for the present class. We have basically run out of funds for the B.A. courses. You could help us here. (The M.A. modules will cost us a little more, since the courses offered are four credit hours each, and the M.A. pay for the professor is a little more.)

3. ESEPA Seminary Scholarship Fund: Students receive scholarships of usually 50% to 60% of the actual costs of their education. Without this aid, they could not attend. So ESEPA also tries to raise scholarship money. For about $60 per course, per student, you could subsidize the cost of educating future church leaders. Seems like such a small amount, but each student comes on faith and trusts God to meet their needs through hard work and the generosity of concerned Christians. You can make a difference in the lives of students with this project!

4. ESEPA Seminary General Fund: It is not an "exciting" project by some standards, but if we do not pay our bills, we cannot continue--just like any other Christian ministry. At present, we are looking at about a $50,000 deficit for 2008. Any gift, great or small, would be a blessing at this time.

So please PRAY. . . and ask God how you should get involved financially as well!

Send any gifts to:
Messiah's Outreach
P.O. Box 230
Wheaton, IL 60189-0230

If you would like to correspond with Floyd or Pam directly, email us at felmore2@yahoo.com, or write us at Apdo. 782-2350, San Francisco de Dos Rios, San Jose, Costa Rica.

Thanks ahead of time for your gracious support!