My most recent ministry trip occurred in San Jose, Costa Rica in early April. Working together with DAI Costa Rica ministry director Arthur Denyer (the seminar coordinator, my translator and co-facilitator) as well as three other leaders from Central America, we held a seminar on Fund-Raising, with the goal being to equip Costa Rican leaders to raise needed funds from with the ministry context. The 19 participants included people representing a mission agency, a Christian camp, a Costa Rican seminary, a suicide-prevention ministry, a foster-child-adoption agency, a newly appointed missionary preparing for service in the Caucasus region of Eurasia, and seven pastors. Four of the pastors serve in some pretty tough situations. The term they used is “marginalized communities” – communities often marked by violence, gangs, poverty, and people who have come to Costa Rica to escape the violence in other Central American countries.
To encourage the participants to remember that Jesus can multiply our meager or inadequate resources, I sensed the Lord leading me to start Day #2 of our seminar with a reflective look at John 6: the miracle of Jesus multiplying the five loaves and two fishes. Arthur and I arrived early to set up the room, prepare the coffee, etc. Pastor Roy and his youth pastor Jose also arrived early. Roy is a former gang leader and drug dealer, but after being dramatically transformed through a relationship with Jesus, he became a pastor and now leads a church in one of these marginalized communities. Roy then told us his own “Jesus multiples the food” miracle story. It fit perfectly with the ‘loaves and fishes’ devotional – so we asked him to share it to encourage the participants to know that miracles still happen!
Arthur followed up the seminar with a visit to Roy, Jose and his community. Here’s his story with pictures.
“REPORT ON FOOD MULTIPLICATION MIRACLE”
During a seminar on fundraising, held by DAI Costa Rica from April 04 to 06, 2022, Pastor Roy Soto, from the La Viña Purral church, gave testimony of a food multiplication miracle that occurred during an evangelistic event that his church held for their immediate community.
Purral is a marginal community, located on the outskirts of the city of San José. Many people in Purral suffer from poverty and unemployment. Violent crime and drugs are everyday business. Pastor Roy Soto is originally from that same community, where before giving his life to Christ he was a gang leader in drug trafficking activities. Today he is a good standing member of the community, respected even by local criminals, who recognize and admire the radical change in his life.
The evangelistic event was held on march 19, 2022, on a community sports court and was publicized door-to-door in the community. Optimistic estimates anticipated a maximum attendance of 150 people, including church members.
Women from the church prepared two large pots of the traditional “arroz con pollo” (seasoned yellow rice, with chicken and finely chopped vegetables) to be served to the attendees along with potato chips and natural juice. For better control of the food that was been given away, and to facilitate the follow-up of the attendees, a list with names and telephone numbers was drawn up, and the people registered were given a ticket to collect their food plate.
The attendance to the event massively exceeded all expectations. Given the servers concern about the food not going to be enough, they were simply told to continue serving normally as long as there was food and there were people. On several occasions it was necessary for some church leader to make more food tickets, while others ran to buy more disposable plates, since the available ones were not enough.
At the end of the event, with food planned for about 150 people, an estimated 800 dishes (“arroz con pollo”, potato chips and natural juice) were served, and there was also food left over for about 20 church leaders to take home after the event. Several elements prove that 800+ dishes were served: the testimony of those who served the food, the list of 800+ names and telephone numbers, and the 800+ tickets given and then collected.
The event, which began at 6:00 pm and was planned to end at 8:00 pm, went on until 10:00 pm due to the large crowd (although not everyone was there for the entire event). The crowd grew to be so large that the local police ended up providing security for the attendees.
During the event, some 300 people made a profession of faith for Christ: they have now been assigned to church leaders for follow-up. In addition, during the event there were several miracles of healing, witnessed by those present: stands out the case of a retired blind Mormon priest who was brought by his relatives and who recovered his sight right there. Several families have already joined the church, and others are asking about what happened that night.
On April 20, 2022, Arthur Denyer, from the DAI Ministry Center in Costa Rica, spoke again with a total of five witnesses to what happened: Pastor Roy Soto; youth pastor José Rodríguez; the women’s group leader, who that day oversaw food service; and two more women who were serving food during the event. The versions of the five witnesses are totally consistent as to what happened, and report on the profound impact that these events have had on the church and its immediate community.
