YWAM Nicoya
Outreach Ministries
We exist to know God and to make him known to the individuals and families of the rural villages of Guanacaste, Costa Rica. Get to know our regular ministries and
join us by volunteering, praying and supporting financially!
Childrens
Ministry
Many of the children in the villages come from broken families where they often experience abuse, lack of love and respect. The traditional family values have been lost and it is difficult for them to have positive role models. They usually don’t learn about God and the Bible in their homes and families.
We run a weekly Kids' Club to offer a safe and fun place for the children of our community to share the Gospel, disciple and love on them. We have around 30 children in our Kids' Club program.
Yearly we host a few children’s camp days and host special activities such as kids’ rodeos.
We also run Vacation Bible School type programs in different villages of the province and work with local elementary schools. In schools we have opportunities for thematic workshops, for projects to bless them by painting or fixing the facilities, and for supporting the students with donations of school and sports uniforms as well as school supplies.
We are working to give a Bible to every home in Guanacaste. There are 120 000 homes and so far we have given Bibles to 65 000 homes. The people of Guanacaste have very little access to the Bible. Most homes don’t have one or if they do, they usually have never read it or it is a version too difficult to understand. Even Christians don’t often have a Bible of their own.
We distribute soft cover full Bibles to every home - village by village, road by road, house by house. We work together with local churches and get a lot of help for the project from visiting teams. The funds for buying and distributing the Bibles come from individual donors. You too, can give Bibles to homes in Guanacaste by donating and coming to help us go to each home. The price for each Bible is $ 3 USD.
Bibles
for Guanacaste
Street Ministry
Since 2014, every Tuesday morning we prepare and pack a and drive to Nicoya park. We meet the homeless for a short message and to share a meal with them. Weekly we feed approximately 20 people that we know God loves very much.
In this ministry, we’ve seen many faces come and go, seen some of them lose their lives to addiction and we have been able to help a few to find a rehabilitation program and with God’s help be able to leave the streets.
Would you like to share God’s love to the homeless people of Nicoya? You can feed 20 people in the streets with a gift of $40 USD.
YouthMinistry
YouthMinistry
Since the very first days of YWAM Nicoya, we have seen the pain, brokenness and lack of hope in the youth. We organise weekly youth nights, camps and activities for youth from the surrounding villages. Our program offers an opportunity for the local youth to meet Christian young people, to hear testimonies, to get to know God and also to have some healthy fun.
It fills us with joy to see some of these young people give their lives to Jesus, being renewed, starting to walk with purpose and direction. At the same time, the process is very challenging and requires a lot of patience, because to become a Christian often means being ridiculed and rejected by the family and the community. The influences pulling you back are very strong.
One of our strongest youth ministry programs is the Mini DTS (Discipleship Training School). It is an 18-day camp for 13 to 15 year old teens. The first week is a lecture phase, including teachings, small groups, games and fun, practical work duties, personal times with God, bonfires, music, etc. After the week the whole group goes together on a mission trip to serve a Costa Rican community and local church for a week. The participants learn to directly apply what they are learning. The program finishes off with two more days of debrief and closure at the YWAM base. Our staff lead the program together with international YWAMers and are supported by 16-17 yr old youth leaders who have done the Mini DTS before.
Community Development
We are surrounded by hundreds of rural communities. To see biblical transformation in these villages, we use a model called "the Gospel of two hands", meaning that while we preach the Gospel, we also support the communities and their inhabitants with their physical needs and challenges.
We are involved in everyday lives of the communities where we live. The broken roads are our problems as well. The broken down schools, lack of opportunities for the youth, families in extreme poverty, the needs of local clinics, police stations and community buildings are important to us, because they are important to God.
Through donations, groups and individuals we respond to these needs as much as possible. We don't just do and donate projects for the communities, but work together with a resource based mindset, supporting their initiatives for the benefit of their own towns.
We welcome teams and individuals skilled in carpentry, construction, painting, plumbing, crafts, etc. to come and serve in these projects to make a difference for God!
We work to transform the lives of children and families in the rural villages of Guancaste through education.
VALO
Education Program
Our team of trained teachers and volunteers run an after school program called Mini VALO. We strengthen the educational and formational foundations of elementary school children through tutoring especially in reading, mathematics, arts, English and music.
Our big dream is to start a Christian school for the underprivileged children of the rural villages. Come and build this dream with us! More information on VALO through this link.
Homes of Hope
Bringing hope to needy families in Guanacaste.
Costa Rican government provides funding to low-income families that own land, but cannot afford to build a house. This way most families get a small concrete house. However, there are some families in special situations who fall out of the requirements and don’t qualify for the government housing fund. Our Homes of Hope program targets specifically these families.
Homes are built in 2-5 days by teams that raise the funds for a house and come to build it. Our team does the preparations on the property and facilitates the building process, tools, materials and the logistics of the stay for the team.
Our staff is committed to giving long-term follow-up to the families who receive a Home of Hope. We do a resource-based assessment in different areas of their life and support them towards a better quality of life spiritually, emotionally, relationally, educationally, economically and health-wise.
Join us in transforming the life of one family at a time! Bring a team and build a house for a family in need in Guanacaste.
Sports Ministry
Soccer is the sport of Costa Rica! Even the smallest remote villages in our area have a soccer field and that is where the kids get together in the afternoons to play informal games, ‘mejengas’. In the weekends the village teams play against each other and whole communities gather together to watch soccer, to see each other and to enjoy local foods. Everyone follows the national league teams and games on TV. Soccer is definitely a big part of the local culture!
We use soccer to connect with local kids and youth by playing with them.
We support schools, Christian soccer programs and Christian coaches by uniform, equipment and cleat donations.
We organise soccer outreaches, going to communities to run clinics and to play games, with the purpose of sharing the Gospel and giving a Christian witness in this sphere.
Evangelism & Discipleship
We look for opportunities to share the Gospel with and to disciple the people of Guanacaste. On a weekly basis, we organise different groups for different target groups.
Women’s Group meets every two weeks at the YWAM base. The women appreciate a space just for them, where they can share with other women, learn more about God and receive encouragement. They usually bake or do a craft together while they study the Word, pray for each other and spend quality time together.
Men’s Book Club meets for breakfast every Wednesday at a coffee shop in Nicoya. This group brings together businessmen, YWAM staff guys and other men of different generations wanting to grow in their understanding of God’s truth and principles. They study a book together and discuss a chapter each week.
Young Adults Bible Study reaches youth that grow out of our youth program and need to continue growing in their relationship with God and understanding of the Bible. The young adult years is a time when you have to make many important decisions that define the course of your life. We seek to be a godly influence and support to young adults in our communities as they enter adulthood.
Family Night is a YWAM Nicoya tradition. Every Monday evening we open the base for a community evening for everyone at the base and for anyone from the surrounding communities who wants to come for worship, word and fellowship. Monday nights are beautiful times of connection and sharing with people from different backgrounds, ages and nations.
Guanacaste is the cowboy land of Costa Rica! We are surrounded by farmlands, cattle and the Costa Rican cowboy and rodeo culture, los sabaneros and las montas de toros.
The cowboy culture is a global subculture. For several years we have been working with Cowboys With A Mission, from Wyoming, sharing the Gospel and building connections with people who identify with ranching, rodeo, farming and other livestock and agricultural ways of life. We do this through rodeo and cowboy ministry, horse clinics, relationships, and practical hands on community service.
We are building a permanent team of cowboy missionaries to develop this area further as a part of YWAM Nicoya. Our goal is to run yearly Rodeo Bible Camps, Cowboy outreaches and to build long term relationships with ranchers in the area.