the call
In 2007, Manchester Vineyard’s dear friend, Dick Ray (Pastor of Vineyard Christian Fellowship Mechanic Falls, Maine) began engaging Manchester Vineyard and Arthur and Braunda Butt to come participate in Harvest Hands – a ministry to Los Anonos Costa Rica, but the time just wasn’t right.
Again in 2006, John and Shelly Manning, working on a Vineyard church plant on the New Hampshire Seacoast also took part in a mission trip to Costa Rica. The opportunity was there for MVCC to join them, but although there was interest, the time just wasn’t right.
In 2008 the church began to explore the possibility of doing a medical mission with Dr. Otto Hernandez in Costa Rica, and while this continues to be something Manchester Vineyard is pursuing, we have not yet been able to pull everything together to make this happen.
In 2009, MVCC Youth investigated joining a mission team with Harvest Hands, but due to a number of factors, realized this would need to wait 1 more year and so they participated in a different mission opportunity that year.
Which brings us to 2010, when MVCC sent a Youth mission team through Surge, in partnership with Vineyard Eastern Region and the fraternity of Vineyards of Costa Rica, run by DeLynn Hoover. This 9-day mission trip was a life changing experience for our teen participants, helping give them a global worldview. One of 2010’s mission team, Ema Mailhot, has applied to Pura Vida Missions, which Surge is a part of, to work for 12 weeks in 2011 as a member of the Surge staff.
A new young woman came to our church. She was part of an Au Pair program and she was in the US from Costa Rica. It didn’t take long for our son to determine that Ericka was everything he had been praying for. Ericka, who had no intention of staying in the US found herself drawn to Jon. That was in October of 2009. By Christmas, it was apparent to anyone who knew them that they were meant to be together and on a record breaking day of heat, July 10, 2010, they were married. Thus we were introduced to “Tico” culture. Through a series of conversations with our new daughter-in-law, much prayer and an openness to what God was putting on our hearts, we started to explore the possibility of going to Costa Rica.
We made a 2 week trip down there at the end of September 2010 and met with a number of key people, all with a heart to see God’s kingdom expand in Costa Rica, all tied in to the Vineyard. We had the privilege of staying with Rodney and Cindy LaFrance of Harvest Hands and had the wonderful opportunity of getting to know and work a little bit with their current interns Julie and Steve, as well as meeting a number of the people they are ministering to and 2 people from the Los Anonos community who are co-laboring with them, Eli and Luis. We also were able to spend a day with DeLynn Hoover and see and learn about what he was doing with short term missions and his new discipleship training school. Additionally, we enjoyed attending two Vineyard churches in San Jose – La Vina del Este and Vina Escazu. We were sure that God was calling us to Costa Rica with an as yet unfolding mission – a call to serve in Costa Rica. A call we are saying yes to.
the mission
2010 has truly been a year of nonstop change and challenge for the Morris family here in New Hampshire. God has been “meddling” in our lives, which is always a good thing (although sometimes hard!). Our son Jonathan got engaged and married Ericka, a wonderful young woman from Costa Rica (drawing us in to our new Tico family and the Tico culture). Meanwhile, Les and his partner of 15 years at Mass Mutual ended their partnership. This was on good terms, but much sooner than we had anticipated). It quickly became clear that God was “meddling” in our lives and plans and we were determined to let Him and see where He was leading. So, in July, we went to the Vineyard East Region Leadership Conference holding nothing back – putting everything on the table, so to speak. This is where God began to change our direction.
It started with an intense drive to learn Spanish, followed closely by God reawakening our hearts to plant a church – something we had set aside 35 years ago. From there, God has opened door after door for us as we pursued this direction. The well known “six degrees of separation” certainly has held true for us. We quickly found friends and friends of friends in both Costa Rica and the U.S. who are involved in Christian mission work in Costa Rica. It has truly been amazing to see.
Each time we are tempted to feel at all discouraged or start to question this unexpected call, God sends a new wave of support, encouragement and open doors. He has been and remains faithful all our days!
first steps
The door has opened wide for us to go to Instituto de Lengua Espanola, in San Jose, Costa Rica for a year of intensive training. This is a school specifically for Christian workers to learn Spanish.
We are also privileged that He has brought us into relationship with Rodney & Cindy LaFrance, who head up Harvest Hands ministry and are planting La Vina Los Anonos in Costa Rica, after ministering to this community for a number of years. We are looking to work with them over the next year as school allows and have Manchester Vineyard take on a mission project in Los Anonos, such as building a yellow house in 2011, or helping make functional the new building God has given Harvest Hands and La Vina Los Anonos. The “yellow houses” bring decent living conditions to people who are currently living in lean to tin shacks with dirt floors, significantly improving living conditions. The church building needs a lot of work to make it usable to the La Vina Los Anonos’ people. We look to learn about the culture and how best to serve the Tico people through them.
We also look forward to continuing a relationship with DeLynn and Gloria Hoover, Surge and the discipleship school they have started. DeLynn and Gloria live in Heredia and have a vision to plant a church there.
Since returning to the states there have been so many other confirmations for us. He has also continued to put us in relationship with people here and in Costa Rica, all of whom we know play some part in our story. We are looking forward to meeting with Carlos Chacon, the director of the Vineyards in Costa Rica when he visits New England in the next several weeks.
 La Vina Los Anonos |
 La Vina Los Anonos "meeting hall" |
 Rodney & Cindy LaFrance |
 DeLynn Gloria and Carmelinda Hoover |