A Surprise Harvest and New Horizons Church

Our first trip to the farm in December gave us a big surprise. Fifty of the abandoned coffee plants that usually have a life span of a few years, were covered in dark coffee berries!

I had wondered what the rush was to get to Costa Rica before January. Now, I knew that God hadn’t wanted us to miss this great harvest. It turned into a family project. We want to be as self-sustaining as possible as a family. It was definitely exciting for the teenagers to realize that their work would give the family coffee for 6 months.

Of course it was pretty obvious that our Heavenly Father was also telling us something about the reason for our return.

Marlon and I couldn’t imagine or plan the things that have taken place within the first few weeks of being in Costa Rica. Truly there is nothing, nothing impossible with God. After our first cell church meeting, Marlon and I were in tears. We had no idea that our first house church would start back at the beginning, only this time with Marlon’s sister and her family.

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NEW HORIZONS CHURCH/IGLESIA NUEVOS HORIZONTES

In December ‘24 Marlon’s sister, Hellen, and Pablo ended up moving to another province to get away from bad memories and receive marriage counseling at a family member’s church. Fast forward to December 2025: they still hadn’t found jobs, the church turned out to be incredibly religious, and they never got the counseling. Because they need the income from the house they rented out here, they didn’t have a place to come home to. Hellen asked Marlon in November if they could move into the mission house in La Suiza. We were happy to say yes. I think no house should ever be empty, especially that house. They arrived to La Suiza a week before we did. On Christmas Eve my mother in law confessed that she had been praying all year for all her children to live close to her.

When they heard our renewed ministry vision they were excited and wanted to start a cell church in the mission house. The most amazing thing is that I looked around at the family in the room and there were no words. There was a time where we couldn't all be in the same place together. The love and the ability to forget all the words, betrayal, anger and bitterness is something only possible in the kingdom of God.

Every consecutive meeting since that first night we are in awe about the people who come. Aside from visitors, people who left or fell away from our ministry 6 years ago are starting to trickle back. They have been hurt by family, religion, church, or bad choices. It is important to us that this group be full of people who want a second chance for themselves and are merciful to others. That is why before we even arrived here, Marlon named this new endeavor New Horizons Church/Iglesia Nuevos Horizontes. Every day with Jesus is a new day. There is hope on the horizon and as Marlon’s nephew Lendder expressed last Sunday. “Once you get to where you thought was the horizon there is more. There is so much more to know and explore with God.”

From the moment Marlon left for Costa Rica on October 27^th, we began a fast and intense process of moving. It seemed like an impossible task to empty out our house in Corpus Christi, tie up loose ends, say goodbyes, and repatriate Tricky Wu (Felicity’s dog). We know that the rush was necessary.

There is a special harvest of souls and lost sheep that has been ripening. And the first part of this harvest was most definitely Hellen, Pablo, Alex, Lendder, Brittany, the baby, and Mom.