Visited the El Toledo Coffee Farm

We had some mutal friends that were visiting John Price and Gary Kah and they had the time and wanted to come up and visit with Tracye and I.

Over the weekend we showed them around Atenas and took them out to lunch at the Guanecaste Cafe.

While they were here, we mentioned the incredible coffee tour up at El Toledo. So they jumped on it and made plans to go visit and asked me to come along as well.

Teresa & Terry our wonderful friends from the states

It was a blast to go up to El Toledo again. See when we were doing our recon, our friends took us there and it was an incredible time. This is a place that everytime you go, you learn something new.

Gabriel is third generation coffee farmer on their families farm.

 

Gabriel really takes the time to educate the visitors about what it takes to grow organic coffee. The family are still learning daily little tips and tricks to grow a better healthier coffee bean. But not only that, to allow nature to really be part of the process.

 

Here Gabriel is talking about how they extract the bean with using less water and doing it in a more environmentaly friendly way. because they see their farm as an investment in the future, they are taking the time to care about the farm's health as well as their own health as well.

 

Gabriel's Wife is telling the visitors about the differnt roast types as well as educating us about the different flavors each roast will give. This was amazing to taste side by side the different roasts that the El Toledo Coffee Farm has. The lighter roast has more of a citrus flavor where the dark roast has a more earthy flavor. 

Here she is using a typical Costa Rican "Sock" to make coffee. They put coffee in the sock an pour hot water over the grounds and catch it in the pitcher.

 

Pedro The Rooster being photogenic.

I highly recomend coming to El Toledo. 

Check out their facebook at 

https://www.facebook.com/toledocoffeetour 

Day 16 - 10 Questions To Ask Yourself First Before Moving To Another Country

Last week Michael Snyder wrote a great article titled " Should You Move To Another Country To Escape The Collapse Of America? 10 Questions To Ask Yourself First" Funny thing is that I keep an eye on Micheal's pages and posted this to my Unpacking Costa Rica blog. That same day I must have had 15 or so people forward me the article. So I included it in the next PZ News Watch for everyone to read. I want to thank everyone who sent this article to me, I know that they did that looking out for Tracye and I. Since many have sent this to me, I thought that I would take the time to answer these in light of relocating to Costa Rica. 10 Questions To Ask Yourself First Before Moving To Another Country 1 - Do You Speak The Language?  If Not, How Will You Function? I am not fluent in Spanish and neither is Tracye. One thing going for me is that God has blessed me with the ability to pick up languages. When I was young someone spoke a form of Souix. I am part Cree Indian and they come from the northern Canada area. The Cree speak a Souix dialect of sorts, at least that is what it sounds like to me. I remember a movie called " A Man Called Horse" and in the movie an Indian language was spoken. Funny thing is that a lot of what was said, I could understand. I also remember a song someone taught me when I was young. I think it was a corn growing song, but I still remember it today. When I was a young child my parents spent some missionary time in Haiti, we could not go due to the problems that were taking place there. My parents had to learn the language and because of that, I picked it up as well. In Haiti they speak a "pig-french" or french mixed with African. I understand that it is close to the Creole that is spoken by the Cajuns in Louisiana. When I was with the 82nd, we were "encouraged" to learn a second language. So I chose Japanese. Not that we would be jumping into Japan any time soon, I loved sushi and wanted to learn the language. I learned it well enough that I could go into a nice sushi restaurant and speak to the chef behind the counter and carry on a pretty good conversation. Today, I can still understand a little bit when I see films like Shogun, or the "B" Japanese monster movies. After the 82nd, I was stationed in Germany where I picked up German and became pretty fluent. Not 100%, but again enough to talk to the Germans and carry on a day to day conversation. Living here in Texas, one just picks up pieces of Spanish. While we were down in Costa Rica we already found ourselves picking up the language pretty quickly. The Costa Ricans are very patient and if you try to speak Spanish, they will bend over backwards to try to help. 2 - How Will You Make A Living? Since Prophezine is on the internet, it really does not matter where we live as long as we have solid internet capability. This is one reason why Belize was not a great fit with us. Belize does not have very fast internet nor is it stable. As long as we have the internet, we should be able to continue our mission that the Lord has given us. 3 - Will You Be Okay Without Your Family And Friends? This is a great question and one that I point out to people who are thinking of moving. Having people that you know in a foreign land is important. This is one of those things that if you do not have friends or the ability to make friends, it will be pretty difficult and is one of those things that will cause a person to return to their country of origin. Tracye and I are fortunate because I have some High School friends who live in Costa Rica as well as my old friend Gary Kah and his wife. John Price and his wife also moved to Costa Rica and I learned that Daniel Daves author of "Warning America" was also living in Costa Rica. Now the hard thing will be leaving our grand kids here in the US, but we are already working on getting them their Passports so that they can come down and visit Waa-waa and Nana. 4 - Have You Factored In Weather Patterns And Geological Instability? This is another excellent question and one that rated high on our list. See living here in Texas things have become pretty dry due to a 5+ year drought. Temps have also gotten a lot hotter during the summer and one becomes a prisoner in one's own home. We wanted nice spring like weather and where we are relocating, the weather is literally spring like 365 days a year. It is 80-85 during the day and low 60's high 50's at night. 5- What Will You Do For Medical Care? Here in America we have not had a regular check up in probably 5-6 years. Why? Plain and simple, we can't afford it. In Costa Rica the medical is on par if not better than here in the US. That is because Costa Rica got rid of their military and are a neutral country just like Switzerland. All that money they saved, they put into education and medicine. Today Costa Rica has some of the best medical available in the world. We checked into what it is going to cost us to get insured and for private full coverage and the ability to walk in anytime it will cost us $60.00 a month. I can't even pull into a doctor's parking lot for that. 6 - Are You Moving Into A High Crime Area? The crime rate in Costa Rica is pretty low. Yes they have crime, but not the violent crime they have here in the US. The crime that they have is more crime of opportunity. Leave a cell phone on a bench, it will be gone. Your Laptop is sitting on the front seat of your car and the passenger window is open, it is gone. The same thing happens here. The Costa Rican people are very non confrontational. They have a 97% literacy rate and absolutely no welfare at all. They truly believe in "you don't work, you don't eat." Put all these together and you come up with a very content peaceful people who do not use drugs and alcohol to escape. Poverty levels are very low as well as wealthy levels. Costa Rica has a very large middle class with a strong work ethic. 7 - Are You Prepared For "Culture Shock"? We know that this will happen. The honeymoon phase will end and the long term marriage begin. What helps with this is having friends you can visit, things you can do, places to go. What also helps is a willingness to adapt to your new culture and integrate yourself. The failure to integrate is one of the main things that causes a person to return back to the US. In fact here are the main things that will cause someone to move back.... A - Failure To Integrate - "I am an American and if you do not like it, to bad. Gimmie my Oreo cookies and Kraft Mac & Cheese. Oh Spanish... I don't need no stinking Spanish." Get the idea? Unless you have a lot of money, you will not last long being an "ugly American." B - Lack of Community - Being an expat it's easy to make friends. Being a "gringo" the locals are curious about you and ask you all sorts of questions. Being from Texas is also a big plus. Everywhere I have been globally, people love Texans. You will hear "Hola Ya'll." Would-be political foes back home become fast friends overseas. Same for those of different age groups or economic status. In an expat community, you're all in the same boat. You learn from each other, depend on one another and, more than anything, you tolerate uniqueness and respect one another for the decision you made to try out expat life. Todo está tranquilo == Everything is Tranquil, another famous line that one hears a lot in Costa Rica. Failure to fit in is something that will do you in quickly and you will be packing your bags pretty fast. C - Missing The Grand Kids - This is one that we are going to have to deal with. The solution? SKYPE.. it is a wonderful thing being able to video phone your kids and grand kids. It is the next best thing to being there with them. We are going to also help our daughter get the grand kids passports so that if things get "weird" they can jump on the next flight out and come on down. 8-What Freedoms and Liberties Will You Lose By Moving? Look at what freedoms and liberties we have lost already here in the US. Our constitution is pretty much gone, the powers that be has the American people over a barrel and life today is basically legalized slavery when 54% of your weekly earnings go to some form of taxes, fees, or other required bill one must pay. Religion, Free speech? Gone. Look at how many people speak in a whisper today and churches are over the 501c3 barrel. Talk about real sin and the IRS comes knocking at your door. Drones flying over the US. The ability to detain Americans indefinitely, forced Obamacare or pay massive fines, and the list goes on. 9-Is There A Possibility That The Country You Plan To Escape To Could Be Involved In A War At Some Point? Again, like Switzerland, Costa Rica is a neutral country. She is a country that marches to the beat of her own drum. There is no need to invade Costa Rica nor any desire. This is mainly due to the fact that she does not have what the world craves...that being oil. Costa Rica is happy growing some of the world's best coffee, bananas, mango and other produce. 10-When The Global Economy Collapses, Will You And Your Family Be Okay For Food? You can not walk 20 yards without running into some coconut, banana, plantain, mango, guava, passion fruit, papaya, etc etc etc. You would have a hard time starving in Costa Rica. Same goes for Belize, the tropics has a lot of food growing wild. Over the years Tracye and I have been looking for a place to relocate. We knew that God would open the doors once we found the right place. We have tried looking into many areas in the US and God never opened the doors. We looked into Mexico, Belize, Jamaica, Grand Cayman, and other areas in the Caribbean. No doors opened up. That is till we visited Costa Rica on the invite of an old friend. From that first open door, the doors kept opening and we have been faithful in trusting God in walking through those doors. Living a life with the Lord is exciting and Tracye and I truly live Proverbs 3:5-6. Proverbs 3:5-6  Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. 6  In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. When you trust and put your life in God's Hands, life is an adventure. There are ups and there are downs. Valleys and mountain tops. But no matter what, He is with us and His grace is sufficient for us. That is His promise to us. If you have any questions about living abroad or you would like to learn more about Costa Rica, feel free to contact us. If you would like to come down for a visit, let us know and we would be more than happy to show you around. Pura Vida!

Praise Report - God is Moving in a BIG Way

I wanted to let you know that we had a real blessing this weekend. Someone came and bought a lot of what we could not take to Costa Rica and all together we have met our goal for our shipping container.
 
This is a huge praise and something that was way out of our grasp.

Both Tracye and I have been praying that throughout this whole process, that God be glorified and allow people to see His hand working in our lives and directing us.

Everything that has come together for Tracye and me was not of our own doing.

It has been God and God alone who has opened doors and made things possible.

Our next goal is to purchase our tickets not only for us, but to also get our dogs down there with us. We are going to be taking our Yorkies with us along with our Jack Russell and our Black Lab. We will be taking some extra baggage with us, which in the olden days folks used to be able to take two pieces of luggage with them for free. Now they charge $40 for the second bag and $150.00+ for any bag after that.

So we are looking at about $2700.00 for everything.

God has been good and has been opening the doors in all of this and we know that He will continue to do so.

We have been doing our part also and trying to sell off some of the things we are not allowed to take with us as well as the DVDs that Prophecy in The News was so gracious in letting us have on consignment.

Freaking Out

What is interesting is that there are times that I kind of "freak out" when I allow myself to really think what we are doing. You know, when the enemy gets your ear and causes you to doubt.

I can see the same thing happening to Peter when he was walking on the water with Christ.

I imaging Peter looking down and "freaking out" thinking "OH NO…I am walking on water!!"

At that time doubt enters and he starts to sink until he puts his eyes back on the Lord and Christ lifts him out again.

Yesterday while we were in church I had one of those moments saying " OH NO… we are moving to Costa Rica" moments.

The butterflies started up in my tummy and I was wondering if what we were doing was the right thing.

Then right there a peace came over me that only the Lord can provide. I reflected on all the things that God has done, all the open doors, all the obstacles that He has helped us overcome in just a few months.

It has been God and God alone and all praise goes to Him.

Running Away?

On the flip side I am still getting emails from people that are not too nice.

A lot of this has to do with assumptions on their part because they think what we are doing is based out of fear and "running away."

Let me say this, that is the farthest thing from the truth.

I don't want to go into much detail right now, but I hope that I will be able to address this here soon.
What I can say is that God is doing some amazing things not only in our lives but in many people's lives.

One of the ways I describe it is that He is putting people in place not only here in the US, but all over the world.

We Are Not The Only Ones

I know of other ministries that are being called to Ecuador, Panama, Belize, Uruguay, even New Zealand where our friend Chuck Missler has been called.

But I also know of ministries that have picked up from say Washington State and been called to Arkansas.

Others are expanding their work like a ministry I know in Tennessee and another in Florida. I have gotten emails from several people who have some acreage saying that God is telling them to prepare to take in Christians who need a place of refuge. I have also gotten emails from several seniors that have told me that they are going to be "safe places along the way."

This is why I say that God is moving in a big way.

Oskar Schindler's Great Niece

Recently I met a person that I had no idea that I was going to meet, Rosemary Schindler. She is the great niece of Oskar Schindler and she is also the founder of a ministry called "Schindler's Ark."

When we met I told her about some of the things we have been doing here at Prophezine and all of a sudden her eyes lit up. I spoke about the emails I have been getting, feeling God calling us out, etc etc.

Well, come to find out that the same thing has been happening to her as well. She is seeing things like this take place with her ministry too. 
We compared notes and it was like we were plugged into the same source.

Well, we are plugged into the same source, it is called the Holy Spirit.
During our conversation Rosemary said something that really rang true.

She said, "Ray, I have no idea why I am doing what I am doing. I try to figure it out and nothing makes sense to me. I am in touch with someone here, someone talks to me there, people I have never met contacting me about The Remnant and how God is going to bring it all together." 

WOW… someone else who knows about The Remnant and here I thought that I was alone on this.

She asked if I could figure out what was going on my side and I told her the same thing.

I have a piece here, I know of people there, Watchman ministries getting out of the US. But nothing that is forming a solid picture.

It was one of those moments of confirmation. We both agreed that we see God's hand moving, but we can't really say how it is to fit together. We have our ideas, but cant say for sure right now.

We both equated it to a giant puzzle. I have some pieces, she has some pieces, other people have pieces. But we are not at the point where all the pieces are coming together yet to form a giant picture that we can make sense out of.

God is moving in a big way, I feel it in my bones. I can't put my finger on it except that "I know that I know" if that makes any sense to you.

I hope to expand on this more in the coming days. I was actually going to do that in today's PZ Insider Report, but then God had me up pretty early and that is when I found out about the Pope and was inspired to write about that instead.

Tracye and I have a lot of "WHYs," but none are fear driven.

They are God driven, because only HE could have taken us this far in just a few short months.

See, if you would have asked us this back a few months ago about all this, we would have said no way, specially with all that is going on here in the US. I honestly thought that God had other plans for us here.

Well looking back, it makes sense now.

Called To Blaze The Trail

The one thing that both Tracye and I feel deep within our bones is that we are being called to "blaze the trail" per say.

We have helped some of our PZ Insiders make a way to Belize along with several ministries down there.

But we also know that we are being called to help people who are possibly being called to Costa Rica.

God opened the doors for us to come on a recon trip and we don't have that much. We want to be able to bless others the same way we were blessed.

But to do that, God had to open some doors. So both of us started to pray for a home big enough that we would be able to allow people to come stay with us.

We want to be able to pick folks up at the airport, help show them around, be a friendly face and introduce them around.

This way people can really fund a recon trip to see if God is calling them to Costa Rica or not.
And you know the good news?

Not only has God provided a good home that meets our needs, we already have people coming down that we can help show around in mid April. We have other PZ Insiders who have contacted us as well.

If you believe God is calling you, come on down and stay with us. If anything it will be a time of great fellowship, swapping notes and sharing insights into His Word.

Folks, God is building something big here. He is laying the groundwork here in the US as well as in many countries abroad.

I honestly believe that what we are witnessing is what took place in pre-WWII Germany as well as with our own Civil War.

I believe that God is building a network of people that will be part of and support The Remnant.

The one verse that keeps coming back to me is Isaiah 6:8

" Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me."

You want to see God work in your life? Make yourself available to Him and say "Here am I; send me."

I promise you, exciting things will happen because God is moving in a big way.

It is a great time to be in the service of our Lord.

Don't ignore the still small voice.

What is God calling you to do?

A MAJOR Answer To Our Prayer Requests

Tracye and I wanted to report that major prayer has been answered.

As many of you know, Tracye and I have been praying for direction for a long time.

It seems that for the last couple of years we have been in what I describe as a holding pattern.

The one thing that we knew is that where we are now was going to change; in fact around April 2012 we felt a "releasing" of sorts. We are not ones to just move on a whim so we have waited on God to give us clear direction.

We have been checking out many areas here in the US from N Texas, Tennessee, North Carolina. 
We even took a trip to Belize.

Because Belize has been on our radar for so long, we had to rule it in or rule it out. Well God let us know that Belize was not for us personally. But that does not mean it is not right for others.

I have been working with a ministry down there that is helping Christians relocate, and I even know of a few PZ Insider families who have been called to Belize and are now setting up down there.  


A Phone Call

We have been asking all of you to please pray for us and that God give us direction. Things are taking place in this nation that are absolutely mind boggling.

I believe that things are going to get much worse before they get better.

It was about the beginning of August and I got a phone call from my good friend Gary Kah.

Gary Kah - Ray Gano - John Price

For those of you who do not know, Gary is the author of several books including the best seller "En Route To Global Occupation." We have known each other now for about 25 years and always looked forward to the fellowship at conferences and such.

Gary and his wife have been working pretty hard with speaking engagements all over the US and even in Europe. But something came up and Gary had to have an operation on his shoulder. That meant a lot of down time.

So they took advantage of this and saw it as the Lord telling them to take a much needed sabbatical. So they packed up their bags and headed south.

That is when I got the phone call.

"Hey Ray -- This is Gary, can you guess where we are… Costa Rica!! You have got to come down here, it is incredible, God is doing some incredible things."

So Tracye and I prayed about it and asked God to help us go visit.

As many of you may know who are linked into our Facebook, this past September we went down to Costa Rica and we were very pleased.

But what is interesting is that not only was Gary Kah there, we found out that John Price, author of "The End of America" just recently relocated down there.

The Big News? Prophezine is Moving To Costa Rica

We believe that God is calling us to Costa Rica and He has opened the doors for us.

With this relocation, Me and Tracye see our work here at Prophezine actually expanding.

Just so you know, nothing is going to change, PZ Insider Report, PZ News Watch, PZ Survival News will still go out like clockwork.

In fact because we are there, I believe that we will have a little more of a "free voice" to report on things that we observe.

One thing I would like to put back on the front burner is getting PZ Radio back up and running with a focus again on Preaching, Teaching and looking at what is going on Globally.

It is my desire to see Prophezine become a voice of encouragement to "The Remnant" not only in the US but an encouragement globally. Christians will need it in the coming days.

God Has Opened Up a Home and a Vehicle To Us

God has paved the way so that we can rent a 2 bedroom house, but that is not all. He has provided a car that we can purchase at a very good price.

We say that "He paved the way" because our new landlord loves the Lord and is a Christian also. She has been praying for a good family to move into her home, and she has been trying to rent it for over a year. She told us if we were not the ones, she would finally take it off the market and accept it is not in His will to rent.

So it is neat to see when we ourselves are an answer to someone else's prayers.

Again that is just half of it, He also provided a car so we can get around.

Our new landlord had a car and we just happen to ask her if it was for sale.

She told us that she brought it back from the US and really did not drive it much. She gave me the key and I started poking around.

The more I looked, the more I noticed that this car was hardly driven. I finally checked the mileage and I could not believe what I saw. Only 36,000.

So we asked her the price and she came back with $6500.00.

Tracye and I could not believe what we were hearing. See, in Costa Rica you cannot pick up a reliable, low mileage, never been in an accident , well taken care of car for under $10K.

This was a HUGE answer to prayer for us and the second big thing that we asked God to do if He wanted us down there.

More Details To Come

In the coming days and weeks we are going to be putting out more details like…

- The many reasons WHY we are relocating
- How we are getting down to Costa Rica
- Prophezine's role in supporting "The Remnant" both in the US and abroad
- Getting Residency in Costa Rica
- Cost of living in Costa Rica vs here in Texas
- What other ministries are doing and how we are getting involved
- What is going on in other countries
- Prophezine's role in reaching even more people for Christ globally.
- How PZ Insiders can benefit with us in Costa Rica

In His Service,

Ray & Tracye Gano
Prophezine



This is a picture of the hills outside of Grecia or Sarchi Costa Rica
photo by Tracye Gano