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Dear readers, many blessings!

It’s only October, but, may we ask for an early Christmas gift?

As our readers know, we lost a great deal of support in the latter months of 2012. So that we could survive on the field, WorldVenture kept paying our salary.

Now we need to raise some thousands of dollars in order to settle accounts with our mission agency, and we want to quickly clear it up.

Every year, churches give us Christmas gifts. Whether you are a supporting church or not, would you consider a special donation of $500 or $1000?

The simplest route is to send a check to WorldVenture, 1501 W. Mineral Ave., Littleton CO 80120, and state that it is for “Gary Shogren 1269 Receivable-2012 Under Support”.

General Fundraising Update

We need to raise $1080 more of monthly support before we can officially return to Costa Rica. There are several churches with which we are in contact, and some individuals, so that figure will probably go down over the next few weeks. Nevertheless we want to push hard to return to our field in 2013.

Please pray about how you can stand behind us and our ministries in Central America.

Interested donors can contact WorldVenture by clicking HERE

En Cristo, Gary and Karen Shogren

Gary continues some thoughts on what it means to thank the Lord in concrete terms. He wants it to be personal, not just a check. He wants to do something more grateful than just “Liking” God on Facebook. Click to read!

http://openoureyeslord.com/2013/05/14/how-do-you-pick-out-a-thank-you-gift-for-someone-who-has-everything/

And an earlier post on a similar topic:

http://openoureyeslord.com/2010/04/17/bring-him-the-sacrifice-of-paint/

Blessings this month!

As a native Rhode Islander, I would go with my father at low tide to dig clams and “quahogs”. The next day we’d have a clambake. Here is the version of chowder that my kids have voted as the best and doesn’t require you to wade into the tidal muck.

 Ingredients
6 slices bacon, minced
1/2 cup diced onion
3 cups chicken broth
3 cups clam juice (bottled) Continue reading →

Karen is putting together another short term team to run an English VBS program (ages 0-18) for missionary kids in Honduras Sept 25-29. We need experienced teachers and helpers for nursery, toddler, elementary and middle/high school age groups. The cost will be about $700 per person, if you’re coming from Philadelphia.

This will be a short, no-frills trip Continue reading →

This month, read about the Advent and Christmas season.

http://openoureyeslord.com/2012/11/29/2528/

We will also need to raise further funds, since we have lost some of our donors. Our mission is currently calculating how much we need to raise.

We have a special request: we need a car from Thanksgiving onward, until the end of February at least and perhaps for several months more. Can someone lend us a vehicle for that time, or even for a portion of that time? Travel is the greatest distraction we face in the US. Please respond to this blog if you can help. [UPDATE: we may have a car for the first part of our trip, so please make sure to contact us before making any decisions!]

Speaking of cars: thanks to all of you for contributing to our new Sentra. You cannot imagine the freedom it has given us: in the last four weeks I’ve spoken at four separate conferences outside of the city, and was able to simply drive there, rather than take several buses.

More excellent news! As of now, we are PERMANENT RESIDENTS of Costa Rica. This has been our goal now for over a decade. We are taking close care of our new id cards.

In a few weeks we’ll be sending out our year-end newsletter. Many blessings! Gary Shogren

Hope you visit my blog to read this story and to enjoy other essays on Bible prophecy, New Testament Greek, the Second Coming, the devotional life.

Just click HERE.

Many blessings!

Gary and Karen have been speaking at a variety of conferences – in August, we both spoke in Spain, then did a little traveling, going as far as the south of France.

Gary and Karen near the Spain-France border

Karen is now in Honduras to lead a conference for missionary kids, and will do the same in Colorado in a few weeks. Gary went on a week-long trip to teach a condensed course, and will also speak at several conferences in Costa Rica, and at the annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society in Milwaukee in November.

It looks like Karen will have at least one hip joint replaced, in December.

We cannot post our October newsletter online, but if you would like to receive our bi-monthly letter, please let us know in the Comment section.

So what’s new with the younger Shogrens? Plenty! Continue reading →

Paul had a precise idea of how to serve God. He worked day and night with his own hands; he risked his life and his health; he “served” the churches and did not exploit them. As a teacher he acted with patience and consideration: when people wanted answers he gave them careful, detailed explanations. He communicated the gospel in a way that anyone could understand (1 Cor 9:20-22).

From what we can glean in 1 and 2 Corinthians, that church wanted a different breed of apostle:

Church at Corinth, Achaia

Wanted: an apostle with style

The church in Corinth is seeking applicants for the position of apostle. We wish to avoid leaders who do not measure up to the highest standards of Christian ministry. Hence we insist that all candidates fulfill the following conditions:

Professional demeanor

• We want a man who holds his head high, not one with a slavish attitude of “service.” We want to show the appeal of the gospel for people with ambition.
• He should own a vehicle; travel by foot gives the impression that one is a loser.

For the rest of the story, go to http://justinofnablus.com/2011/11/01/dear-paul-we-are-sorry-but-you-are-unqualified-to-be-our-apostle%e2%80%a6-studies-in-1-corinthians/