ABOUT THE NEST

Called and Commissioned

an introduction from The Nest founder, Karina Beach

Christ has a profound love for people. In faith, I followed His transformational leading in my own healing, in my marriage, and into the great wide world. Overwhelmed with a divine love for others to know His love, I stepped from the comfort of Christian retreats onto the mean streets of skid row in the Tenderloin District of San Francisco, and into the deep jungles of the Philippines and the Costa Rican mountains.

Wherever I went, Jesus was showing me women and children clouded in the darkness of trauma, desperately seeking a refuge that I had found in Christ. He showed me through tears that these ones mattered to Him deeply. He said to simply open up my heart and arms and allow Him to love them through me.

This God awakening for service has been quickened in my soul through my visits to the Talamanca region of Costa Rica and an indigenous tribe of Indians called the BriBri. Wonderfully sensitive and kind to a fault, these people are a forgotten and marginalized group. Enslaved and nearly wiped out by past Spanish colonization today they are ignored in the quickly developing aspirations of modern Costa Rican culture.

Within their own community, women, although revered as the spiritual keepers of ancient traditions, are cast aside as the weaker gender and forced to endure great difficulties. There is an endemic culture of incestual sexual abuse from the ages of 5 and up, and an epidemic of teenage pregnancy grips young lives.

Children themselves are now raising their own children. Hurt and frightened girls who have no way to manage the PTSD from their own experiences are lost in a world of isolation and caring for fatherless families in primitive settings.

God wants to move in the hearts of these fragile people and has called me and the Nest team to step into the gap to be a voice and bridge to his wonderful promises of love, healing and abundant life. I thank you for taking a moment to open your heart and allowing me to share the passion of Christ that He has laid on my heart.

Statement of Faith

We believe the Bible to be the inspired, the only infallible, authoritative Word of God. We believe that there is one God, eternally existent in three persons: Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. ... We believe in the spiritual unity of believers in our Lord Jesus Christ who fulfilled the penalty of sin. He lived a perfect life, offering Himself unblemished as our sacrifice and rose from the dead to freedom and deliverance from our spiritual bondage.

Ministry Statement

To provide a safe, loving and Christ-centered place called The Nest where children are nurtured, taught about Jesus, and protected from sexual abuse.

To connect marginalized girls and women to the knowledge and riches of the Gospel by becoming a bridge between them and Christian women and churches in North America.

Vision

Our vision is to build a women’s shelter, where at-risk women and children can share in a sustainable community, be educated, protected and nurtured for their right to experience peace. We will develop a bilingual school where children can learn life skills in a vibrant Christ-centered community. A safe haven where they can find peace and purpose, and healing from past trauma.

Needs within the BriBri Community

Background of the current situation:

Culturally, women are devalued which fosters an environment of abuse
High rates of teenage pregnancy
Scarcity and the lure of money in the city leads most men away from the village life
Spiritual practices are steeped in the worship of demonic beings
Alcohol and Drug addiction among men
Increased rate of suicide in young men
Lay pastors have little to no training
Very little exposure to a supportive Christian community centered on church and the bible
Women and their young families live in isolated primitive settings in the mountains

Meet the Women and Children of Talamanca

Natalie

Natalie (not her real name to protect her identity), came to me (Karina) after hearing my testimony in January 2018. She expressed her pain with tears and anger. She shared with me her story. This young woman was sexually molested by her father at the age of 5 and has been sexually abused since the age of 7 by other members of her family.

When she found out she was pregnant. Natalie struggled with the news. She didn’t want to give birth because she knew exactly what would happen to the child. She told me “if the child is a girl she is going to be raped and if the baby is a boy he is going to be a rapist”.

This year this courageous girl gave her child up to her own mother to be cared for by her and left to the city to try to go back to school and better herself. She hopes to come back one day to take care of her son. Natalie received our Lord Jesus that day.

In February of 2020 Natalie is getting ready to go back to college to continue her career in administration, she is raising her son in the city as a single mom while attending school full time.

Jessica

We will call this little girl Jessica. She is the daughter of my friend whom we will call Eli. She was 16 years old when she gave birth to Jessica. I met Eli in 2017 when I first visited Talamanca. After hearing my story, she trusted me with hers and she shared with me her experience with sexual abuse by family members. She also spoke of her fear, loneliness, and frustrations. She couldn’t hide, she couldn’t tell anyone. When we met she told me that she believes God brought me to Talamanca so that she could hear my story so she would not feel alone anymore.

Today Jessica is 4 years old and she is getting ready to start kinder-garden. She has the protection of her mother and her grand-mom since what happened to her mom is not a secret anymore… Through counseling, Eli was able to share her story with her mom and together they are making sure that what happened to them won’t happen to this little one.

Get Involved!