A difficult letter to write . . . .

Originally sent on May 20, 2009

Dear Supporting Family -- I am writing to share with you what is most difficult for Tia and me.

Once again I have come to the states to repair my prosthesis and I have found much needed help. Although I have had great improvement since the amputation a year ago, at the same time I have encountered more work that needs to be done. In the fall of 2008, I rushed back to my family, field and to our ministries, without taking time to fully adjust to my amputation, to take time for needed rehabilitation, get the exact prosthetic, learn to live as an amputee, and understand what it means to be an amputee and actually be fully recovered.

Not only do I need to catch up with these items dealing with the amputation, but I also need an operation on my remaining ankle (residual problems from before the amputation last year).

Our Mission ABWE has asked us to take a medical leave of absence until December 2009, and then reevaluate our situation and perhaps proceed with furlough (we were planning on that for the following year). At that point of time we will assess our ability to serve our Lord outside the USA.

With incredibly heavy, but peace-filled hearts, we have put down our ministries in Costa Rica—working as team coordinator and directing the Christian school.

Tia and the girls will be rejoining Kevin in Cedarville, where he currently has been undergoing continual medical appointments and treatments these last few weeks. Please pray for us as we wrap up a variety of details here in Costa Rica before this travel.

With our faith in Him,
Kevin M. and Tia Reilly
ABWE Costa Rica

April 2009 Ps&Ps

1)  Praise the Lord for a safe trip from Honduras for Katy and Tia.  Tia so enjoyed seeing a different type of ministry (hospital) and see where Katy has been working all these months (the Children's Center, the church fellowship, the homeschooling families).  What a blessing.  (If you are interested in photos of Katy and Tia's time in Honduras, click here.)

Please pray for Katy as she says “goodbye” to her friends here in Costa Rica and moves back to the states in late April. Pray for her adjustments and getting a job and moving on to college. 

2) This week—Semana Santa (Easter week)—blesses us with a team visit from Calvary Baptist, Holland, MI. A team of twelve juniors and seniors and Matt and Rachel accompanying them have been busy with helping at Sojourn Academy, ministering down town, ministering with the police teams that our coworkers the Roughts work with, and much more. We so appreciate their willingness to do anything and everything. They began with a Bible program for the mks and Costa Rican children at Sojourn.  The kids loved it, and we are so appreciative of the extra effort to reach out to them.  (For more photos, click here.)

3)  Pray, too, for Kevin as he will be returning to the states at the same time for around four weeks. He has appointments with the doctors at the Veteran’s hospital, and specifically he may have a new prosthetic created. His current one broke on him recently and although it has been repaired, the VA doctors want to see if he is ready for a more permanent prosthesis.

Think about it:  it's almost been a year since Kevin's amputation (April 26)--we cannot rejoice enough in the positive differences in his health.  He feels 200% better and has complete mobility with the prosthetic leg.

The kids loved it, and we are so grateful for the extra special effort to reach out to them.

For more pictures, click here.

4) We have a praise also for Tara’s success this past weekend. She had the opportunity to be in a play at Sojourn, run by one of the teachers. She did very well, and overall we are proud of all the kids involved in the production. We praise the Lord for the teachers that he brings to Sojourn who share their gifts—like drama, or basketball, or cheering, or music—and provide for the students another avenue to explore their gifts and praise the Lord.

5) Our condolences go out to the family of Helen Layton, who spent 92 years on this earth and now is with her heavenly father and many other loved ones. Tia will always remember her as a fantastic fifth grade Sunday School teacher, and oh how many memory verses she drilled!

With our faith in Him, Kevin and Tia Reilly

Sojourn Academy Selah

Three Prayer Requests ....no, Four

-- Please continue to pray for Luana Chan's family.  Her sister Iliana did lose her baby and now has returned to the states with her husband.  Needless to say, this family has gone through a lot of tragedy and are having to find their way around their lives again.  I cannot share all the details, but please pray for wisdom and direction as they face not only big decisions, but also the daily tasks without mother and wife, and now baby, too.  (Pictured here, Luana speaking at her mother's funeral.)

-- Also, this week at Sojourn, we are blessed to have with us Larry Czerniak, a friend and retired pastor/principal from Ohio.  Larry will be conducting teacher workshops and student chapels at Sojourn.  Pray for a fruitful time in every area.

-- Please pray, too, for Tia and Katy this week.  Tia will be traveling to Honduras to see where Katy has been ministering this year near La Ceiba.  Katy is finishing up there this month, and on the 30th of March both will travel together back to Costa Rica.

-- Pray for our students in transition.  Many transitions occur in life and in the lives of our students, but this week we are particularly burdened for those older students moving with their families to these foreign places in order to serve in ministry.  Imagine the difficulties that teenagers face when they leave the friendships and family and support groups and have to begin anew.   For sake of privacy, we cannot share particular cases, but please pray for these individuals that their hearts will be open to what God can do with them in this new opportunity.

Where we are...

  
This week, Kevin and I find ourselves in Cedarville, OH.   Cedarville University annually hosts a recruitment conference for Christian schools, and we just finished up there these last two days.  Praise the Lord for good contacts, and pray with us that He continues to provide the best teachers for our next school year.  

While he is here, Kevin will also visit with the Veteran's Administration doctors for followup visits and such.  Pray for the continual progress on his stump and prosthetic.  We are told that it takes about a year for the stump to get to the size it will ultimately be at.  This means continual refittings of the device, and all that continues to go well.  Praise the Lord.  It's really great to see him doing so much.

This trip also brings the blessings of seeing friends and family.  We have visited with Sean and his fiancee and several other great Cedarville friends (rather quickly, however).  Our regional administrator, Rich Davis and his wife, Joanne, were also in town this week, so we were able to touch base with them in a more personal way than usual.  That also was a blessing.

    

First week back to school . . .and so much more!

We had an exciting week here in Costa Rica--you may have even heard about some of it.

We praise the Lord that this first week back to school involved early dismissals each day:  on Thursday, at 1:21pm, Costa Rica shook under the impact of a 6.1 earthquake.  The epi-center was only about 20 miles northwest of here.

Our TicoTimes newspaper has English reporting of the event at http://ticotimes.net/ .   Numbers change daily, but some reports say that 19 or 20 have died and anywhere from 40-100 people are still reported missing (depends on what report you read).

Looking at the photos of towns so close by and having friends who have lost friends reminds us again of the frailty of life.  

Our ABWE team prays and has action planned to help some of those without shelter or who have lost so much in this sudden crisis.