Filling Sails in Costa Rica by Bryan Craig

Three years ago, Henry Gutierrez, Ken Lander and Ron Froehlich gathered together at Ken’s coffee farm for a few days of prayer, dreaming, contemplation about forming a ministry in Costa Rica that would bring together multiple ministries, all with the same heart to make disciples and support the Costa Rican people.  Henry was a bi-lingual pastor with a church in Coco Beach.  He had a heart for his church, and for other pastors, most of whom needed friendship, support and mentoring.  He also had a heart for discipleship and loved The Journey.  Ken was a businessman from the U.S. and a local coffee farmer who was all about being a marketplace minister, using business influence to grow God’s Kingdom and to be about His initiatives, particularly in Costa Rica and other parts of Latin America.  Ken and Henry went through The Journey together virtually and became bonded as brothers.  Ken loved The Journey process and he also loved a retreat ministry, called Souly Business.  He could see both of these ministries being used greatly in Costa Rica.  Ron was from Bakersfield, but he was also part of Henry’s church in Costa Rica.  He was the one who first planted the seed for The Journey with Henry.  He was also very involved with Souly Business and Influencers. Unfortunately, we lost our dear brother Ron last year after a battle with cancer, but his legacy is truly living on.

By the end of this sacred gathering, these three men knew this was not just a good idea, but it was a God idea.  Plans were in motion for a new ministry that would be called “A Toda Vela”, which means “Full Sail”.  This was inspired by the illustration in The Journey of a sailboat with its sail full of the Holy Spirit, guiding it wherever the Lord desired.  Like the invisible wind in the sail, they wanted A Toda Vela to be an invisible force of ministry, permeating Costa Rica and beyond and bringing revival to the country.  They would leverage the Kingdom tools of The Journey, Souly Business retreats and Pastoral Support (which was Henry’s ministry to pastors) to carry out God’s plans. 

Henry resigned from his pastor position, a non-profit was officially formed along with a Board, Henry’s wife Eugenia joined him, and this mission was set into motion.  Last week, the Full Sail Ministries Board meet at the very same farm where the vision was conceived to assess the first three years and look toward the future.

I have had the privilege of serving on this board from the beginning, to help support The Journey discipleship efforts and to continue pouring into my close brother, Henry and sister, Eugenia.  It is utterly amazing to see what God has done in such a short amount of time, which affirms that this was God’s plan all along.  Henry and Eugenia have been working feverishly to connect with pastors and their wives all over the country.  Like “Influencer” in Journey to the Inner Chamber, who met refugees with love and concern and met their basic needs first, they have helped pastors with their needs, physical, emotional and spiritual.  Once they have built a relationship, then they start helping them understand how to make disciples and share with them The Journey and other tools.  Most of these pastors did not know how to take Henry and Eugenia and thought there must be a catch.  They could not believe someone just wanted to love them and help them for no charge.

And now, three years later, we see that hundreds of Costa Rican men and women have gone through The Journey, through these church connections and just like we’ve seen in the U.S., it is transforming lives, healing marriages, changing churches, bringing revival!  And it’s actually spread also to Nicaragua and Guatemala.

Henry and Ken surprised the Board by inviting all of the Pastors they support to a gathering, where we could meet each of them and hear the stories.  It’s one thing to hear the stories, but another to see the gratefulness in their eyes and to receive lots of thank you hugs.  Some of these pastors were at our recent men’s summit, so we already felt like old friends, despite the language barrier.

As we heard many of the pastors sharing stories, I was so proud of Henry and Eugenia and Daniela (the Administrative assistant).  One of my favorite came from a man, Hansel, who was a youth pastor when he first met Henry.  He lived in the far south region of Costa Rica, a six hour drive from Henry.  Hansel and his pastor, Gerardo, did not understand why this crazy pastor from Coco Beach would drive 12 hours round trip just to check on their souls.  When Henry was asked if he wanted payment for his time, he quoted Gabe from Journey to the Inner Chamber, saying his services were already well paid for in advance by Jesus.  After going through The Journey, Hansel ended up going to another church to help them get a Journey Group started.  He modeled what Henry did for him.  This church asked Hansel if he expected money for his time and guess what his response was?  He, too, gave them the Gabe response.  Oh, and Hansel’s wife, Esmarelda was sitting there, so I asked her what The Journey meant to her.  She got emotional as she told me that she learned how to love her husband more the way Jesus loves her.   So beautiful!  Believe it or not, Hansel has been to Northwest Arkansas before, for there is a Costa Rican population here.  And we have been praying how to get our Spanish curriculum to more U.S. Spanish-speaking people.  The work Henry is doing in Costa Rica may come full circle back to Arkansas.  Only God could do that!

So, I am happy to report that Influencers is thriving in Costa Rica and into all of Latin America.  It’s so great because we continue to have more and more people mention that they are going to Latin America on mission trips with their churches, and we now have a man on the ground and we can easily connect them to the work God’s already been doing.  A church in Tulsa, in conjunction with Frank Khalil, has sent several teams to Costa Rica.  And our champion in Michigan, Mike Malak, goes with a team to Guatemala this next week.

Please join us in praying for Influencers in Latin America and if you know of any teams going there, let us know so we can connect them to Henry and A Toda Vela.  Also, if you would like to support Influencers Costa Rica, we have a special donation button set up on our Giving page.  www.influencers.org/give