Children's Ministry Supplies

With the summer over, fall begun and an influx of short-term missions coming December through February; it was time for me to get to work on the task of reorganizing our children's ministry supplies. What I already knew was that "there's some slim pickin's"! Right now I am updating our inventory list and my wish list for a team coming in January.

Heather snapped this picture of me going through the odds-n-ends of it all. Hopefully, I will have everything reorganized and put back in it's place tomorrow since we have a rental group coming in on Friday...yikes!

Celebration Center wall sealing

Many of you who have been reading the blog know of our partnership with God Festival. Tomorrow, God Festival was bringing its 100+ volunteers to the camp for a day of ministry...to each other. The gate to the camp was going to be closed and locked and all of the physicians, dentists, hair stylists, pharmacists and the many volunteers who help them were going to serve each other. The camp was going to be made available for them to set up in, to swim, play a fun game of soccer, fellowship and we were going to be providing their meal to them. Unfortunately, in other areas of Costa Rica, there has been a massive amount of flooding caused by the rainy season as of late, and God Festival had to cancel with us. God Festival has been on the TV for the last three days begging for donations of clothing and food to allow them to meet the needs of those people devastated by the flooding.

Since God Festival cancelled early in the week with us, it meant that the rest of the week and the weekend were free and open at the camp. Ken decided to begin working on the walls of the Celebration Center in preparation for the construction teams that will be coming down from the U.S. and Canada in January & February '09. Our architect here in Costa Rica recommended that the gaps in the concrete walls be filled in and sealed with epoxy. It's a bit of a messy, and smelly job. While the team here was disappointed that we would not be able to serve our friends with God Festival this weekend, we are thankful for the oppotunity that this has afforded us to get to work on the walls!

Please do keep God Festival and it's volunteers who are working hard and long hours throughout this weekend in your prayers as they minister to the flooded, remote areas of Costa Rica proclaiming His Name in deed and in truth!

Luna (en espanol "Moon")

This is an "old" addition to our family back in June. Her name is Luna, but because she looked like a black bear when we got her, we commonly call her "Luna Bear". She was given to us when friends of ours found out that we had picked out a puppy at an animal shelter here in Costa Rica for the kids. When we went to pick up that puppy from the shelter, she was no where to be found. Our hearts were broken because we had picked out a name for her, paid for her initial shots, and even bought her a collar. We are not exactly sure what "really" happened to her. Luna was living in our friends housing development with her mother and her brother. Unfortunately, her brother has since been killed by a car. Luna has a strong personality and it is hard to break her of her "old" habits of living on the street, like she still loves to "pick the trash" and if she gets loose you can pretty much bet your in for a long walk to try and get her back, like to the next town! Like with all "puppies" she views me more for play and Ken as her disciplinarian. Thus, when Ken leaves the house, she goes crazy jumping on the furniture and when I try to get her off, she barks at me and thinks I am playing! We often tell her that she doesn't need her BIG EARS since she doesn't listen anyways! Most of the time, Luna is just sweet and fun. In fact, the friends who gave her to us say her biggest problem is that she is "rotten"...from being loved! That's not a bad thing, right?

Singing in Espanol!

Well...I wasn't kidding when I said that Heather was "moving right along" in Spanish lessons! Here she is on the newly formed Youth Praise Team singing worship songs in total Spanish. It's hard enough for Ken & I to make conversation, but to keep up with some of the faster paced worship songs in only six and a half months is a real accomplishment! Ah, to have a mind that can catch on so quickly!!

Youth Group Fundraiser - Costa Rican Style!

Here's a picture of Jordan adding the last tamale to the pot of steaming water.

After stoking the fire, Ken lifts the full pot of water on to the fire.

Here, Jordan is poking slices of carrots and sweet red peppers in to the tamale.

Here's just a couple of members of the Youth Group who are making the tamales by hand preparing them to be sent down to the fire for cooking.

While the tamales are being put together, Ken, pictured here with Mario, an elder from the church have cut (with a machete) banana leaves from the banana trees at the camp. They have a very small fire built. Ken is placing the whole banana leaves over the top of the small flame for two reasons: first, to kill any insects and second to take out any moisture from the leaves. Once he finishes drying this side, he will flip the leaf over and do the same to the other side and then allow it to cool. The leaves are then taken by wheel barrow up to the kitchen where the whole banana leaf is cut down into smaller, squares (you can see those in the above pictures). The base of the tamale is a cornmeal paste which goes on top of the banana leaf squares, followed by a tablespoon of rice, a slice of carrot, three or four peas, two slices of red sweet pepper and then a tablespoon of cooked meat (we used chicken), but the Tico's use all different combinations of vegetables and meats to make tamales. The tamales are then wrapped very neatly in the banana leaves and tied with string into a neat package. Two packages are stacked up on top of each other and then string is tied around the entire bundle (which you can see in Jordan's hand adding the last one to the pot). Once they hit the hot water in the pot, the cornmeal begins to expand inside of the bundle as it cooks. How do you know they are done? When the once green banana leaf has turned black!

Tamales are usually cooked for special occasions and not eaten as regular food. A couple of months ago the camp cook, Isa, made over 100 when a distant relative in her family died. They were taken to the church to be shared with everyone who attended the funeral. Tico tradition is that you make your "best" tamales at Christmas and they are given to your family and close friends much like our tradition is to give Christmas cookies. We have been told to expect a lot of tamales at Christmas!

For this fundraiser, we made and sold 180 tamales! They sold for 500 colones or $1 a bundle. This will help send the Youth Group on a weekend retreat at a different campground, since they regularly meet on Saturday nights at our campground and they like to feel like they are "really getting away". All of the food items were donated for the tamale-making by various families of the Youth and church members.

Short-Term Team Preparations beginning in Costa Rica

Just to give you an idea, this is "some" of the food that Ken & I bought for a "small" team over the summer. Missing from the picture is a huge box of fresh vegetables and fruits and other miscellaneous items like toilet paper which has already been stored away in a cabinet, and fresh bread and meat which we buy just the day before the team arrives. We need you to be in prayer beginning NOW for the teams that will be coming from the beginning of December through the middle of February; that's four teams in eights weeks and we will also have various rental groups at the camp during this time as well. Right now, there is not a free-day during the month of January on the camp schedule! The teams will be doing children's ministry, construction at the camp and medical missions. The preparations for us here have already begun on all of these teams. Soon, we will be bringing bigger shopping loads than this back to the camp kitchen!

Extreme Make-Over: POOL edition!

What Ken honestly thought was going to be a two-day "breeze" job beginning on Monday, has turned into a week-long struggle against the rains. I have spared you all the gorey pictures of the molds, slim and started with the ending of the cleaning of the pool for your viewing pleasure!

This is the other end of the pool, clean, dry and ready to begin painting!

This was this morning as Ken was painstakingly painting the stairs by hand before the sudden rains came and washed his paint away. Tomorrow's rental group had to be called and informed that the pool would not be functioning this weekend. Thankfully, they were more than gracious about our dilemma. And so tomorrow, the painting begins again!

The "bail out"!!!

The bail out of water down here in Costa Rica, that is! This month, October, is supposed to be the rainest month of the rainy season; that's what we've been told anyways. Things got a little scary around here this afternoon when Kyle and I stepped out our front door and realized that the good-sized ditch across the road from our driveway was up over the embankment and flooding our neighbor's house. We quickly began moving things to higher ground off our front porch (our shoes) and in our front room, the livingroom. I ran down the road and got Ken at the camp and we started helping our neighbor, Norberto. It was pretty messy, but we had fun working away with the family to clean the home. His sister, Isa, is our camp cook and Isa's husband, Koki, is the camp groundskeeper, who came with Ken when I found him at the camp. We also got an urgent phone call from Marjorie, our Spanish teacher, asking us to drive to town, Orosi, and help her remove water from her home as well. This week the team is working around the rains trying to paint the camp swimming pool that we drained over the weekend. We've got a rental group coming in this weekend and we hope to have it back up and running by then. Yikes! I've got cabins to clean tomorrow!

There's no place like HOME!

After a long day of traveling due to bus and roadway delays, we sat at the bus station for 5-1/2 hours before our bus came, we finally arrived home. We enjoyed ourselves in San Juan Del Sur, but it sure is different than what we are used too. We got through the border on Saturday, only to find out from another couple on Monday who were staying in our same hotel, that someone had been murdered there at the border crossing on Sunday. When asked what to do with the body they were told to put it in the trash and it would be burned later. Thank you to anyone who prayed for us as we traveled. As you can see, your prayers are very important to our family and God allowed us more importantly than "delays" to travel with safety!