Tag Archives: costa rica

by | 1 Jun 2025 · 4:10 pm

June 2025 Newsletter

ANSWERS TO TWO KEY QUESTIONS ABOUT THE SHOGRENS 


We find ourselves being asked two specific questions:
      * How is Karen doing?
      * Is the bathroom done?

First, how is Karen doing?
Karen is very well, thank you! After years of patient waiting, Karen had a knee replacement on March 18. She has had a steady recovery and she’s faithful at her physical therapy. At this point Karen is walking without a cane or walker and driving better than she did pre-surgery! Thank the Lord for this medical intervention.

Second, is the bathroom done?
Some details still need to be finished, but the headline is,
Yes, the bathroom is up and running!
If you haven’t been following the narrative:
Karen was having trouble getting in and out of the bathtub/shower. She’d been trying to find a local contractor to do the work, but without success. And so, in our February newsletter we put out a call for people to help remodel the bathroom as a ministry to us as missionaries. And suddenly a team of Christian men stood up to be counted. Some to do Demolition and others to do Construction! They all arrived on March 1 to tear the old floor and fixtures out.
As it turns out, the bathroom floor/kitchen ceiling was worse than we thought. Some of the joists were a mess. The watchword for the guys on the second floor was, “Watch your step or you’ll end up in the kitchen!”

Here is the BEFORE picture, on March 1:

Over the following weeks, the guys who did plumbing, electricity, and sheet rock came and went.

Here is the AFTER picture from the same angle!

Thanks so much Andy, Chris, Bill, Gary H., Dave, Buddy, and Paul. These men represented Woodlyn Baptist, the Bible Fellowship’s Board of Missions, Paradise Bible Fellowship, and Faith Bible Fellowship.

Plus – thanks so much to the people who sent us special donations for the project! Fortunately, we still have enough of your generous donations to cover the remainder of the project (bathroom details and kitchen ceiling).

Many thanks to the builders and to the donors!


PRAYER, Please!
PRAY for Gary as he returns to the Old Testament to give the finishing touches to the Symbolic Universal Notation (SUN) Bible for the deaf and deaf-and-blind non-reader.
PRAY for Gary as he pushes to publish three of his Spanish books in English versions.
PRAY for Karen as she teaches online, specifically to a group in India.
PRAY for Karen as she manages a team who are finishing the preparation of an important training program for the Child Safety and Protection Network.  This program teaches mission agency and International Christian School leaders how to set up and evaluate an effective child safety program.
PRAISE GOD for our new bathroom and for the brothers who did the work! Finally, we have hot showers on demand – one of the great modern inventions!

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by | 8 Dec 2024 · 3:24 am

Shogrens’ Christmas 2024 Newsletter

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by | 5 Apr 2024 · 5:08 pm

April 2024 Newsletter

KAREN AND LATIN AMERICA, SPAIN, INDIA, AND THE GOOD OLD USA!

Praise God for His provision and ministry direction in February and March!

As you know, in my ministry I train leaders to prevent, recognize, and respond appropriately to sexual abuse. I do this through 4 different organizations: the safety team of our mission board WorldVenture, ESEPA Seminary in Costa Rica, the Child Safety and Protection Network (CSPN), and my own Levanta La Voz.

Thank you to Paradise Bible Fellowship Church for the provision and opportunity to do a one-day workshop to train your staff and volunteers in February. It was a joy to spread the word for the first time in our sending denomination and with the community that has welcomed us so warmly!

Thank you to Woodlyn Baptist Church for their generous donation that made it possible for me to complete my March ministry trip to Spain with CSPN. CSPN provides child safety training for international Christian workers: missionaries and staff of Christian schools overseas. This unique demographic is more vulnerable and has unusually complicated response situations, so it is a challenge for us to invent appropriate methods and get the training done. I do various projects with CSPN, several of which necessitated my involvement in their annual conference in Spain last month. I took a training which I will be teaching in July in Indianapolis, began working with the team that will revise the same training over the next year, and attended the conference. These photos show 3 other projects I worked on there: I recorded videos for a project I co-wrote that will provide safety training for thousands of Christian workers overseas, did a presentation at the conference on a monthly training I manage, and met various times with teammates from WorldVenture.

 

 

PLEASE PRAY!

Karen’s upcoming ministry at the Woodlyn Baptist Church ladies’ retreat April 26-28.

* Pray for Gary’s Spanish-language evangelistic/discipleship group in Chester PA, they meet every other Tuesday night. So far three non-Christians have come out!

* Gary is finishing the SUN edition of Bible Stories. Click LINK to see them in English. They are open-source, so download and use them as you like!

FINANCIAL PICTURE: Two new churches have picked us up for support! Thanks to Paradise Bible Fellowship Church (where we attend) and Stony Lane Baptist in Rhode Island. Will 20 individuals pray about supporting us at $50/month? JUST TAP HERE!

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by | 30 Nov 2023 · 3:07 pm

Christmas 2023 Newsletter

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by | 5 Aug 2023 · 7:26 pm

August 2023 Newsletter

Prayer requests

Health issues

· Karen’s full recovery from Covid without additional complications and that Gary doesn’t contract it

· Medical testing Karen has scheduled at the end of Aug

Karen’s ministry focus

· teaching her program at ESEPA Seminary through early October

· Zoom workshop with Spanish pastors in Costa Rica on Aug 28

Gary’s ministry focus:

· Finishing last book of SUN Old Testament consistency check

· ESEPA courses

Upcoming US speaking engagements

August 20—10:15am Gary will be preaching at Paradise Bible Fellowship Church (no ministry presentation)

August 27  – 10:30am at Christ E Free Church, Lehighton, PA

September 17—Calvary Baptist Church, Riverhead, NY

We still have Sept 10 and 24 available, so if you are interested in having us come give a ministry update, please let us know!

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by | 3 Dec 2022 · 8:12 pm

Shogrens’ Christmas 2022 Newsletter!

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by | 1 Oct 2022 · 8:24 pm

OCTOBER 2022 NEWSLETTER

FINANCIAL UPDATE

Since this is a short announcement, we’ll put it at the top: we are calculating our budget for the coming year. Due to inflation, etc., etc., we have a $1223/month shortfall in our pledged giving. We encourage our friends to be regular backers of our work. You can start at https://worldventure.com or call WorldVenture at (720) 283-2000 or write them at info@worldventure.com. We do not give away tote bags or mugs, but each new regular donor will get one of Gary’s books in the mail. Many thanks!

THIS MONTH, IT’S GARY’S TURN TO SHARE


Gary! You are a regular professor at ESEPA and just gave an online course on how to read ancient Greek manuscripts! And you are editing the Old Testament in SUN, for deaf non-readers! So, what do you do in your spare time?

GARY: Well, go to the gym. Read a lot, sometimes at the gym. Watch foreign movies while Karen teaches online. Do the New York Times crossword puzzle.

And importantly, I just finished a new book in Spanish:

MYTHS THAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE. AND CIRCULATE.

As a kid I was captivated by stories of pirate treasure, Bigfoot, UFOs. Years later, we visited Loch Ness. And one of my pet topics lately has been to either confirm or debunk those stories that get circulated among believers. So when my publisher in Spain asked, “What is the next book you want to publish with us?”, we hit upon that theme.
 
In the book I examine about 35 such stories. A few turned out to be true, but most were false rumors. Several have to do with Hebrew and Greek. Some have to do with the Bible. Some have to do with current events or the End Times.
 
Why is this book important just now?
 
First, because we are living in a crisis of truth, where we tend to accept a story if it agrees with what we already think. We then circulate them without determining if they are fact or fiction. Second, as Christians, we should be a model of telling the truth in love, of not bearing false witness. My book is not just to fact-check past or present myths, but to teach Christians how to value the truth, and how to be discerning when the next one lands in our In-Box.
 
Here are a few of my topics. Which do you think are True and which False?

  • The Soviets dug a well so deep that they broke through into hell and heard the screams of the damned.
  • “The Eye of the Needle” was a low gate in Jerusalem.
  • NASA proved Joshua’s account of how the sun stood still.
  • The Hubble spotted the New Jerusalem approaching the Earth.
  • There is a computer in Belgium called The Beast and it contains all your data (the picture that comes with that rumor is on the front cover of my book).
  • Archaeologists have found Egyptian chariots and horse skeletons under the Red Sea.
  • Christian pilots are always paired with non-Christian ones. “In case of Rapture.”

Each one is False, as I go to great lengths to demonstrate.
 
My publisher liked the book and said, “Why don’t we also publish it in English?” So possibly we will see that in a couple of years. In the meantime, go to my blog, openoureyeslord.com, and look up “myths” to see a few.

PRAYER:

  • Gary is planning to teach a course in Cuba in mid-October. Pray he gets his visa and travel plans settled
  • Pray that our support level comes up to 100%
  • Pray for Karen’s course from Levanta la Voz

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by | 30 Oct 2021 · 5:11 pm

EXTRA, EXTRA! SHOGRENS SPECIAL NEWSLETTER

Hello friends,We have some news for you that just can’t wait until our scheduled newsletter!

For some time, we have been asking for God’s guidance about when would be the right time to relocate back to the US and continue our missionary work from there. Now it’s obvious that God’s answer is NOW. We will permanently return to the Philadelphia area on November 15.

Please click here to see a VIDEO (click the link) that explains our decision in more detail, and we are also including the script of the video below.

We want to emphasize that:

We are not retiring.

We are not changing jobs.

We are not changing what we do,

But we are changing where we do it.

We will still be missionaries, supported by you, the churches and individuals that have been behind us financially and spiritually all this time.

We will continue to work full-time: we’ll both still teach at ESEPA Seminary (virtually, still, because of COVID), Gary will continue to write and to work on the SUN Bible translation for Wycliffe Associates, and Karen will continue to develop her ministry Levanta La Voz.

We have a few requests:

From here on, send all mail to our new address: 49 Germantown Avenue, Christiana, PA, 17509.

Please consider giving a special donation towards our moving expenses. As you might imagine, this will be a very costly transition. If God puts it on your heart to do so, you can donate through WorldVenture in several ways:

  • Send a check payable to WorldVenture, 20 Inverness Place, Englewood CO 80112. If you send a check, please do NOT write our name on the subject line of the check, but instead include a small note indicating that your donation is intended for the work of Gary and Karen Shogren, number 4000-055, as well as your own contact information.
  • OR Make a donation online at www.WorldVenture.com. Click on the following buttons beginning on the first page: How to Give, under Support World Venture click Give Now, select an amount, click Next, click on Select a Worker or Project, scroll down the list to find and click on our account 4000-055 Gary and Karen Shogren, click Next, and fill out the remainder of the form and information.
  • If you have any questions, please contact WorldVenture directly at 720-283-2000 or Giving@WorldVenture.com


Please pray that God will continue to smooth our way as we continue working full-time. Many blessings, Gary and Karen

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:

When we first talked about moving to Costa Rica, we emphasized that we were not changing what we were doing (Gary was teaching in a seminary, and Karen was homeschooling the kids), but we were changing our location. Long before online education, there was more of a need for seminary professors outside the US, and God led us to work at ESEPA seminary in San José, Costa Rica.We have been serving there, face-to-face since 1998. During that time, Karen too joined the faculty and started an entirely new ministry training church leaders about the prevention and intervention of sexual abuse.

We have the same important message for you now, 23 years later: we are not changing what we do, but we are again changing the location from which we will do it. We are moving back to the United States, and will both continue teaching overseas, online, full-time.There are a variety of reasons why this is the smart decision:

Online education is becoming the norm worldwide – it reaches people far beyond what was possible in-person, it is cost-effective, and it is efficient

We now have been working exclusively online for a year and a half, and it has proven to be a game-changer for both of us, expanding our ministry scope and efficiency in ways we never could have imagined.

Gary is now doing all his teaching online, also conferences, as well as his writing and Bible translation work with Wycliffe AssociatesKaren’s work with her ministry Levanta La Voz has been exclusively online, and that allows people to be involved from all over the world

COVID is still a significant threat to in-person communication, and will continue to be so for quite some time, especially in underdeveloped countries

Costa Rica’s incidence of COVID is still very high and the new variant is now present. 1 in 10 Costa Ricans have had COVID.

We have been in quarantine for a year and a half. It does not look like that will change in the medium term.

Our living expenses will be cheaper for us back in the US, making it easier to maintain full missionary support during this time of economic uncertainty.

Our employers are convinced that allowing us to work from the US will be a benefit to everyone. WorldVenture (our mission agency) and ESEPA Seminary (the organization to whom we are seconded) have given us the go-ahead to move back to the US and continue working with them.

We will be in Costa Rica until Nov 15.

From then on, we will continue to work full-time from Pennsylvania, training Costa Rican church leaders and leaders in all other countries of the world, writing resources for them, and being involved in the Bible translation efforts of Wycliffe Associates. With both of us continuing to work full-time, we expect that God will use us to have an even greater impact on the world in the future!

To sum up:

We are not retiring! Just relocating.

We look to be financed by our donors for the long-term.

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by | 2 Aug 2021 · 12:56 am

August 2021 Newsletter

Gary’s turn this month.

We have seen many, many of you in the past few months! We popped up to Pennsylvania in April to get vaccinated and see the family, and decided we should make the rounds of some of our supporting churches. There were only so many Sundays, so we are sorry we didn’t see all of you: you will be at the top of the list for next time!

For those we did not see: all summer I have been preaching on the Two Great Commandments – to love God and to love our neighbor. My sense has been that while the church always pledges allegiance to those two priorities, we often get diverted into other crusades.

You can watch our missionary update and read my whole sermon HERE (https://openoureyeslord.com/2021/08/01/the-two-greatest-commandments-do-we-really-believe-that-the-bible-got-it-right-luke-1025-42/).

A portion:

People who tell you or even imply by their tone of voice that before doing the First and the Second you need to, that before Loving God with all your being some other box must be checked, to create a political or family or cultural or social environment and THEN we can begin to do Commandment One and Two, is telling Jesus he got it wrong. He or she is like the man who is plowing the field and keeps looking back over his shoulder. It doesn’t matter if you zig left or zag right, you’ll be plowing a crooked row. And the apostles agree on this: look at Romans, 1 Peter, 1 John, and even Revelation: the church of Ephesus was perfect except for this: they had lost their first love; and Jesus said he would snuff out their candle for that one error.

The Good Samaritan

The Good Samaritan demonstrates his love for his neighbor

No, Commandment One, Commandment Two are correctly labeled and in the right  order: Love for God – by developing intimacy with God (which would require a whole series of sermons) – concrete steps to know him intimately, spend time with him, learn his ways; for the first commandment is to love Him with  all your being – can you begin to find and help your neighbor. Love your neighbor as yourself – spend  time with them, learn about them, put yourself in their shoes, and love them as God  does. Jesus did both commandments perfectly, and it sent him to the cross. And both these commandments we do in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and only through the power of the Holy Spirit who teaches us to love.

I realized that not everyone was up to date on my work with Wycliffe Associates. I am the final editor through the entire Old Testament in a new symbol-language Bible for the deaf-and-blind and the deaf illiterate. (My final exam was to translate Jonah 1 into SUN). The SUN Bible New Testament is already available, and the Old Testament will be out as soon as possible. HERE is a full description (https://www.mnnonline.org/news/symbolic-universal-notation-a-new-way-to-reach-the-deaf-and-blind/). And you can take a look here (https://bibleineverylanguage.org/processes/sun/) and you can download a book to see what it looks like (actually, for the deaf-blind, feels like – they read it with their fingers!).

Blessings this month! Gary and Karen

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by | 30 Mar 2021 · 12:45 am

April 2021 Newsletter

Thanks to all our supporters!

We are so grateful for you! Every day we are reminded that we could not do this on our own. Your faithful prayers and encouragement and financial support allow us to give our all to the work God has set before us. Missionaries we know have lost a lot of financial support over the past year, but ours has held firm.

This month, Karen shares: I am still amazed how much our ministries have exploded in the last year! Since many organizations are more comfortable with online communication our ability to spread the Gospel and train leaders worldwide is multiplied. For instance, tonight Gary is being interviewed by an organization in Australia, pertaining to his new commentary; his audience crossed 17 time zones. This morning I helped plan the roll-out of WorldVenture’s new child protection policy with coworkers in Spain, Montana, and North Carolina, then Gary and I met with our regional director who lives in Oregon. Tomorrow morning, I will be teaching people from Ecuador, Dominican Republic, Los Angeles (California), Bolivia, and Costa Rica. Next week we will start orienting all WorldVenture missionaries and I will be leading groups worldwide. Without having to travel, we can accomplish more with less effort.

I have just finished teaching the first 2 courses of our new certificate program at ESEPA, training church leaders how to prevent and respond to sexual abuse. It’s been a fascinating opportunity to create something new that is so badly needed in our world today.

Recently I was blessed when Marcela López offered to make me a logo for the ministry.  Our name, Levanta La Voz, means “Raise Your Voice”, taken from Proverbs 31:8-9, where we are instructed to raise our voice to help those who cannot speak for themselves. I believe that not only is it a good reminder every time we read the words, but also it is a great conversation-starter.  You’ll notice it has 3 leaves – one for each way Christians can confront sexual violence: make our churches and homes safe places, provide help and healing to those affected by sexual violence, and spread the word out into our communities.  Lastly, we have the universal broadcast symbol as one more reminder that staying quiet on this issue ALWAYS makes things worse.  I pray that you will help us by raising your voice against sexual violence.

If you work with children or teens, have them in your family, or know anyone in your church that does, I highly recommend a movie: Childhood 2.0. It came out a few months ago and is available free on YouTube and various streaming services. It would be instructive to get groups of parents and church leaders together to watch this prayerfully. Once you have seen it and are prepared, it would be a fascinating conversation-starter to watch with your tweens or teens. It is not a Christian movie, per se, but it is a clear portrayal of the challenges children and teens face today. If we do not understand what they are facing, it will be impossible for us to help them grow unto godliness.

_______

Gary in a conference! If you would like to see what it is like. Feel free to drop in! The action starts to pick up around 26:00 minutes.
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PRAYER:
* Praise! that our support level is healthy despite the pandemic. 
* Praise! Karen successfully launched her new program and taught two of the courses.

Blessings this month!

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