What’s Up Dyck?  

Costa Rica
This past month I spent 2 weeks in Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica hosting a short term outreach team from California. Although this team was an amazing highlight for me personally, I came away from the outreach with a very heavy heart for our ministry in PV. The best way for me to express what I experienced is this…

We know that our battle is not against flesh and blood. We wage a battle that exists in the heavenlies. At times, we can all seem to be more in touch with the battles as they wage all around us. During my time in Puerto Viejo…I could really feel it. The ministry staff were tired and beat down; the people I met throughout town were fighting various battles with health, family, business and more. Things just seemed heavy everywhere I went. I had a chance to sit down with our area director, Barrett Cruce, and we talked about what we both were feeling.

Currently, our staff numbers are down in Puerto Viejo. We have 4 full time staff and 2 interns. The interns will be returning to the states in another month from now. The 4 full time staff members that are there have been fighting the good fight for several years. In the past few years they have experienced great victories, but right now it seems they are reeling from a defeat or two.

In every one of our ministry locations we go through seasons of intense growth and see lives changed. However, many times those changes are met with these same people turning back to old patterns they had in their lives prior to making the decision to follow Jesus. These times can be very difficult and very discouraging. We press in, pray and encourage and many times are able to see these people turn back to Jesus and pursue righteousness. However, when you have invested so much time, energy and prayer into developing a relationship that you think is headed in one direction and then those relationships seemingly drop off because of poor choices…it can be very hard.

AM’s ministry in Puerto Viejo is our youngest locations and thus has suffered less of these discouragements. However, we are now going through a season where many of the people we have invested our lives into have made the choice to return to their former lives. In addition, we have lost a few of our long time workers on the field. The combined result in the spiritual feels as if we’ve been dealt a heavy blow and we’ve been forced to retreat, rebuild our army and prepare for a second wave.

And that is exactly what is happening. Right now we are rebuilding our army. We are training new troops and preparing to go into battle yet again. We are preparing to return and take back what the enemy has stolen from us and reclaim this territory for our King.

Please continue to lift up our staff, our ministry and the many lives of those we work with in Puerto Viejo in prayer. This is a place of intense spiritual confusion. We know that God has plans for the community of Puerto Viejo and we are committed to working for His glory in this small Caribbean town.

Busy Summer
This morning I will be jumping on a plane along with Melissa and the boys. We are all headed to Washington State for a week of get together with friends, family and our support team. This is the final trip in what has been an extremely busy summer of travel.

At the first of June I brought a team from Phoenix, AZ to Tepic, Mexico to work with our ministry, the Movement, for 10 days. Our time there was very successful and we are excited as a ministry as to what the future has in store for us in Tepic. Upon returning home, our family took a quick trip to Ridgway, CO in order to meet with A.M.’s director and one of its board members to talk about several new ministry ideas. I returned home just in time to jump on a plane headed back to Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica. I was able to host a team from Ocean Hills Church in San Juan Capistrano, CA. This team did an incredible job during their outreach and blessed the community, our staff and our ministry in innumerable ways. That brings us to today and our families travels to the Pacific Northwest.

Thank you so much for your prayers during this busy travel season. I have remained healthy and safe. God has been very active during every trip and I have seen His hand at work in so many lives and ministries. Please continue to pray as we make decisions pertaining to 2009 and beyond.

Our Economy…
Touchy subject…I know. House prices continue to drop and gas prices continue to rise. The world seems topsy-turvy and the bottom line is it is affecting every person’s wallet. So far this year we have lost several support partners due to the flocculating economy. This has been a hard hit to take, but we’re all in this together.

During this time of questionable financial security it seems strange to send out a request for financial donations, but it’s your donations that make this ministry possible. We want to thank you for your ongoing financial contributions! For those of you who have always considered supporting our family, we would love to see you make that jump.

Please continue to pray for our family. We need committed prayer partners as we work with Alternative Missions here in Phoenix and around the globe. Please pray for health, safety, new long-term staff in each of our locations, wisdom here at the home office and Gods miraculous providence with our finances. Thank you so much for your continued support and prayers. We love having each of you as a part of our home team. Be blessed and I look forward to talking with you soon.

In Him,

Jeremy Dyck
Alternative Missions