Rest In Peace

We received an email informing us that a friend had passed away in a car accident last week down in Costa Rica. Willy the Clown, and his father-in-law passed away. Willy's mother-in-law is in critical condition. His wife and his 4-year-old daughter are hospitalized. Please pray for this family! Willy partnered with us on more than one occasion at the campground with the homeless shelter ministry as well as with the orphan home ministry. The words in the picture say, "A great friend. A great blessing. You will be remembered always". A flame for evangelical ministry in Costa Rica has been blown out this past week.

Cabin Spoiler!!

I've been trying to get caught up on my posts of recent teams, but we've also been working on other ministry business in between teams as well. Since November, literally as a family; sometimes Ken and I would go together, sometimes we'd pull in Heather figuring she was better-looking and spoke better Spanish; and when it came to having to get past the ladies, of course, we'd drag along the blonde-haired, blue-eyed macho, Kyle! Yesterday, ladies and gentlemen, we obtained the building permit for the new cabin to be built in 2011. All I can say to that is, Praise the Lord, because it literally seemed like an act of our God! Figuring they had pretty much just about gotten to the bottom of the barrel with excuses as to why NOT to issue it to us, yesterday morning the Municipality came up with Excuse #...(I've lost track of which number it is now) that they "didn't like the quality of the copy of Ken's passport". Poor Kyle, woken from a slumber to take his Dad's original passport by bus to the Municipality and meet his Dad there. Just when they were about to hand over the 8 x 11" piece of paper, they asked Ken to sign the last legal document. Then they pulled his signature up on a computer screen and told him "it didn't match his other one and he needed to sign again, like this one".

And what have we learned from this four and a half month process? Painfully, more patience, and that the government is right on in not letting people like us who are non-residents bear arms!

Stranded, but Safe in Costa Rica!

We left Orosi on Monday morning and drove to Panama; our 90 days were up and we needed to renew our VISA's. We noticed that halfway through the trip it was very cool and raining which is unlike our previous trips to Panama. Usually, the AC in the van is running wide open as Panama is usually uncomfortably humid! We didn't know that a tropical storm had begun, but noticed that the travel was slower and it took 8 hours to get to the border rather than the usual 6. On Wednesday morning, we received our re-entry stamp to head back into Costa Rica. We got to the two-hour marker into the trip and the Pan American highway which we were traveling on was closed down ahead and we found ourselves at a "Y" in the road; meaning the only other way home was to the left, but that road too was barracaded off. Initially, we thought perhaps there was a bad accident ahead, but upon further questioning of the truck drivers around us, we found out that the roads had been closed since the day before, Tuesday, due to landslides and sink holes. 16" of rain had fallen in this area on Wednesday alone! At about 5 p.m. we decided to begin looking for a room and Ken came back to the van having received the LAST two rooms in a nearby hotel. We didn't have AC, hot water or a TV, but were thankful for the beds and ceiling fans! It is now Friday and it is still raining with only short breaks to lighter rains. We have since moved within the same hotel to a family room which is much larger and we are all together. For $5 more we now have TV and AC, but we have freed up the previous two rooms for others as well. We can now see landslides on the mountains surrounding this town as well.

It would be easy to complain, I reckon. The kids are tired of each other and we are tired of the kids....LOL!!! We could have been on a road or a bridge driving back home that suddenly washed out as so many continue to do each day. We could be at the side of the road sleeping in our van with our three kids with no bathroom, running water, AC or TV; not that we "need" those things, but it sure feels more comfortable, and there's a grocery store behind the hotel!

Three homes have washed into the river in Orosi, where we are from in Costa Rica, the driving bridge is impassable in our town.

We have had sporadic internet service, power and cell phone service here at the hotel, but His timing is perfect in that we have a team arriving in Costa Rica tomorrow to spend a week at the camp and every time we have needed to "connect" with someone regarding finishing the logistics for this team, He has provided a way, a connection!

We don't know when we will get to go home. We have the transit police office not far from the hotel we are stranded in and they give us updates. It is still raining and they tell us they will not begin clearing the roads of the mudslides until it stops raining due to the instability in the mountains and the danger to the workers. We planned on two days away, but it's been five so far. We know the team will and can go on without us because we know whose team it is as the Lord continues to provide for Global Outreach Mission and the campground expansion projects!

It would be so easy to gripe, but when I look at this picture all I can say is "Thank You, Lord" for having us in your protective Hands!

http://www.ticotimes.net/News/Daily-News/Escazu-Landslide-Leaves-at-Least-20-Dead-10-Missing-Costa-Rica-on-Red-Alert_Thursday-November-04-2010

Lo siento mucho OR sorry!

We've been really busy. More on all of that later!

The reason for this post is to ask you to remember the ministry at the campground this weekend with the homeless shelter in your prayers. We have just a couple of hours behind us and already the walls are being broken down and God is moving. Several street weapons have already been turned in (a picture later). God is moving!

Thank you so much for praying!

Housecleaning...in more ways than one!

I enjoy cleaning at the camp for the most part. Of course, there are always the not-so-fun cleaning jobs that need to get done. Mostly, I enjoy the times that I get to work by myself without interruption; I take in the sights and the sounds of the camp, the small animals, hummingbirds and birds or just enjoy spying different flowers and trees in full bloom as I walk the paths between cabins and buildings. Today, I wished our camera wasn't broken. I caught a glimpse of a flowering bush that for some reason hit me in a comical way; the plumes of bright yellow flowers reminded me of the hair on some of Dr. Seuss' characters! I noticed an orange tree that I couldn't ever remember so many oranges on at one single time!

I also like to spend my cleaning times talking to God. These are often "self-evaluation" times for me. Times when I feel God is revealing changes that need to be made in my life, and then there are times when I recognize I need to change, but I need to ask for His help!

Today, as I saw the oranges and the guava falling to the ground and onto a walking path I was reminded of "The Fruit of the Spirit". Galatians 5:22 & 23 says, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control". As I looked at the display of God's handiwork in the campground today, I questioned myself about what my personal, every day life display looks like to the community in which we live. Am I displaying something that is attractive and what others might want? Is God able to appeal to people in this community through me?

Housecleaning, not always fun, but necessary!

Five months and still praying!

Heather had a dentist appointment today in San Jose. Today, her and Ken opted to take the bus rather than drive the van, but doing this will take the better part of a day which means a late return home this afternoon. The van is scheduled to go in for more repairs again tomorrow. Last week, we were still having problems with the oil leak, but it seems as though that might have been fixed, but when one thing is corrected, it has meant that we have difficulties with something else. Now we have a new problem of leaking gas; from what location, I don't know, only that Ken told me that it is. The van has not been operating correctly since we got the new motor put in, and none of the repairs that anyone has done on them seems to last very long. It is stressful for Ken because he needs to make sure he is getting back to the mechanic before the work warranty runs out. Personally, we are ready to just begin taking the bus everywhere since the repairs are costing us so much money! They weren't kidding when we came here and we were told that it is costly to maintain a vehicle.

Today, I cleaned the green cabin that the Messick Family stayed in over the weekend, folded a large amount of laundry, and did more camp laundry.

This week will be a week of preparation for a large group rental the entire weekend. They plan on arriving Friday morning between 8 and 9 a.m. and leaving late Sunday afternoon. It is the homeless shelter that will be returning, one of our partnerships through Promundo Fundacion, and they always would request your prayers for their work during the weekend. Please pray for the participants who are continuing to work through a restoration program both spiritually and from the addiction of drugs or alcohol.

Well, time for me to prepare for my two-hour English class this afternoon. Megayle is 18 years old and is a Christian, and she is an outstanding student, doing her homework and scoring a 101 on her "other" teacher's exam last week. She sure was excited and returned to my home at 9:15 p.m. last Thursday night to show me the results. Continue to pray for me as a strive to help her learn.

From Kristy

Below is a comment that Kristy left on our blog after returning home from the camp. I just wanted to share it with everyone and to thank you so very much for praying for her, Matt, and the kids as they enjoyed the camp this weekend. They too, were a blessing to us as we attended church together and spent some time just getting to know each other, and encouraging each other! May the Lord continue to bless them, their ministry and their family!

Kristy said...
What a gift it was to be able to come and RUN, PLAY, SING, and collect fruit in such a beautiful garden! We had a fabulous time as a family taking a break from Spanish and just being a family! Thank you for letting Christ's love shine thru you guys and gifting us with exactly what we needed! So thankful to be in His hands! Culture shock isn't fun, but remembering it won't last for ever, and remembering that we all go thru it to some degree makes it a little easier! Thank you for being willing to walk with us thru a bit of ours!

"It's Finally Friday" & Culture Shock

My kids loved that song on Q*DR when we lived in N.C. We would sing it altogether while waiting in carpool line and crank it up! Buncha' rednecks!

It is Friday, but it has been a productive week here at the camp with getting a lot of spring cleaning done. Yesterday, Ken and I spent six hours cleaning out the two main bodegas (storage rooms) in the Celebration Center. One of them is the tool room for construction, and the other houses our medications and medical supplies in a secured storage locker. The other half of that room is divided off by a wall and doorway and has another large storage area with shelving and stores household items for the cabins and the mission homes, and sports equipment. Yesterday, Ken & I literally pulled everything out of the large storage area and into the Celebration Center, cleaned the shelving and reorganized. The "plan" is to move all of the Children's Ministry supplies out of the cabinets in the office of the white house and into the storage area with the shelving.

Last week, I had been reading a blog on missionary blogs.com (a web site comprised of blogs written by missionaries serving all over the world which our blog is a member of) written by a missionary family located near San Francisco, Costa Rica. Their post literally made me tear up in that I felt helpless to help them as they deal with the issue of culture shock. Culture shock is something that all missionaries know they will at some time have to deal with, but it is not something that you can predict the timing of, nor in what manner it will effect you, therefore, you cannot fully explain it to another missionary and tell them exactly how they will experience it. Culture shock by definition is the trauma you experience when you move into a culture different from your home culture. Simple enough, right? Not really...It is a helpless feeling when you go through it, a feeling of literally hitting a wall. You feel as though you have lost what little "control" you might have in living in a foreign country, where you do not always understand the language, where the culture is new and you are walking on eggshells trying not to intentionally offend anyone, and on a daily basis struggling just to achieve simple tasks. I think that about sums it up! There are five stages to culture shock: the first is the stage of excitement and fascination with the new culture in which you live. The second is the crisis period where you begin to feel disappointed where you are, overwhelmed and easily irritated. The third is the adjustment phase when you begin to accept the culture and you begin to have a more positive attitude toward it. I can laugh now, but it took me a full year to get to this phase! The fourth stage is acceptance and adaptation; you have accepted where you live, and you begin to make connections with the people, and are involving yourself in outside activities. The fifth stage is the re-entry shock. When you go back to your homeland and at first you are in a euphoric state, happy to see everyone and be connected again. There is also a crisis state associated with this phase in which you realize that you are not really "home", things have changed, people are not the same, you in some ways feel disconnected because you have been gone and you feel disenchanted. This happens to us every time we go home. We "thought" we were going home, yet, it feels less and less like "home" is there. It initially feels wonderful to have so much available to us when we go back, yet we often shortly upon our return feel angry or frustrated with how much the States has available to them. (Trust me, you really don't want to know all the details of my melt-down in Food Lion in August just trying to satisfy a craving for some American store-bought cookies. End result: Tears of frustration, no cookies, and the inability to literally make a choice because there was SO MUCH to choose from after standing and staring in the cookie aisle for twenty minutes)! When we leave, it's a confusing feeling.

To make a long story short, as I was reading the blog post by the other missionary, the Lord compelled me to leave a comment inviting them to come and stay at the camp.

Please pray for Matt & Kristy and their four children as they come to the camp tonight and spend the weekend. They are here in Costa Rica staying about a year for language study. They are going to be ministering in another country once they have completed their language studies, and will have to make new adjustments to that culture. The Lord has required them to give up much; they have no vehicle while here in Costa Rica. I could not do that with four kids in the States, let alone another country! Matt & Kristy have "hit the wall"! They are frustrated and tired with language study. We can relate to that! They are desperately trying to adjust to the culture. I'm not sure at times I even totally understand this culture and I've already lived here two and a half years. Pray, that the Lord would flood their souls with peace and understanding as they go through this period of culture shock, and that they would hear His voice this weekend as they seek rest in the campground. Pray that the language would "click" in their minds and that they would progress in it! I know that they will deeply appreciate you praying for them! May the Lord work this weekend for His honor and His glory as we offer them respite care!

Rise and shine tomorrow morning for us is 4 a.m. as we travel to Pavas, a suburb of San Jose to join our ministry partners, Promundo Fundacion - "God Festival", who will be infiltrating this suburb for one day with the Good News of Jesus Christ where 90-plus volunteers will work in children's ministry, hair stylists, cooks, lawyers, medical doctors and nurses, pharmacists, and the evangelism team. We partner with them to reach the poor and oppressed in Costa Rica and be His hands and His feet.

R.I.P. - "Kooky"

We've been looking for Kooky for the past week and a half. A couple of times a week, she could be found here in the picture, on our front porch, and we would always give her a little something to eat. Whenever there was a group over at the camp, you could always count on her to find her way to camp, and indulge our guests with her "charm" which would then result in her receiving hand-outs of leftovers! This dog has even had photo albums on-line with her name used as the password by groups! One of Kooky's "addictions" was always chasing cars. She had been hit one time, but with every ounce of spunk that embodied her, she bounced back to good health in a relatively short amount of time, well, and of course, a little doctoring from our family :) Whenever we walked with her down the road from our house to the camp, she would know not to chase a car when she was with us; I guess because she would get scolded! With our family dog, Cassie, left back in the States, we quickly became attached to Miss Kooky, though she was never fully our dog, as her owner lives just down the road, but was willing to share! (Cassie has since passed on)

We recently found out from the owner, that Kooky was chasing a car and was hit and killed.

It is funny how animals make you feel like you have a sense of "home" when you are away from your home. We miss our porch friend and our campground companion! Thanks for being our buddy, "Kook-Kook-A-Choo"! You are missed!

Bananas, homeschooling, RA, rain...

I believe rainy season has arrived! It's been hot and sunny during the morning hours with the almost "like clock-work" 2 p.m. cloud cover and then cool breezes and rain! I love this time of year because it is so nice to sleep during the rainy season at night! Of course, by Oct. and Nov. I will be sick of the rains! It is a rather long season! Also, the last couple of days we have been having thunder which we rarely hear that often. So, that has been a nice addition to the rain showers! The camp is loaded with bananas and even the gardener is wondering what we are going to do with them all once they fully ripen from green to yellow! Today, a tree of bananas fell over in the camp before the Hand of bananas (as it is called) was even harvested! I did some calling around today to a friend in Orosi who is a Christian. She usually knows of families who are in "need" and bananas go a long way nutritionally as well as making belly's feel full! Today, I made four loaves of banana bread out of bananas we had left over from my in-laws visiting last week. I still have more to make tomorrow as I have a hard time throwing them out! Our schooling year is almost over, ending May 28th and the kids and I are working away; them on school work and me on year-end reporting. Ken has had a bout of his rheumatoid arthritis. The two and a half month remission was a welcome change, but due to pain, he returned to the doctor to find out that he is in a flare state again. This time the doctor did some joint injections with anti-inflammatory medicines because his knee was swelling up. The doctor changed his medicines and one of them costs $150 U.S. for a one month supply. This was a bit of a shock since we don't have prescription coverage! Seems the new medicine is helping, though, as today Ken is out of bed and feeling much better. His flair is in both wrists, and there is a lot of fatigue associated with this disease. Last night, I ACE bandaged his one wrist which was most painful, and thankfully today, he said he felt that it helped alot.

May through July is going to be quite busy around here! I will post more on that later. Right now, the campground is booked into September!

Please continue to pray for our family and for this ministry that God has entrusted to us!

Getting caught up!

I just realized it has been a little while since I have posted on here. What have I been doing? Well, getting caught up on some things. We are supposed to send an update letter to our supporters every four months through Global Outreach Mission. I am a little behind (sarcastically). Like, a year behind! Our last letter went out last March when I wrote it from my Mom's hospital room and sent it into the Mission. As most of you know, my Mom then passed away in July. We also had the wedding last May, and I guess I just lost my "groove" much to the dismay of Global. Some of you may have already received our March 2010 update. Then, there's tax "season" back in the States and so, of course I had to prepare those in order to get them back in time. And, we are in the process of working on the logistics for a medical team coming for one week in May. Then, there's camp business to assist Ken with, homeschooling, Spanish lessons with homework, and the household "stuff" too. It all helps to keep us busy and more importantly, out of trouble!

Chile - Far Reaching

We had a rental group scheduled for this weekend. When we made a "confirmation" phone call this morning we found out that the group would not be coming after all and that the person who did call us from this group a couple of days ago was supposed to let us know that, though they had forgotten. Apparently, the group that was renting the camp for the entire weekend, while a Costa Rican church, had invited a group of Men from another church in the same denominition located in Chile to have a retreat at the camp here with them this weekend. At least that is what the Costa Rican church had planned for until the earthquake hit in Chile. While all of the Men from Chile who were supposed to come are safe; at this time, they cannot make the trip and the Men's Retreat is postponed until they can coordinate another date together in the future; we will just roll-over this weekend's deposit into their next date.

Please, don't forget to pray for Chile!

Global Outreach Mission - January 2010 Team/Part 2

For the first time in the almost two years that we have been here, we decided to also take the construction team, who normally stays at the camp and does projects there, mobile with the medical and children's ministry teams. This year, the construction team spent four days working in a very small, low income church in Cariari, just down the road from where the medical clinics were taking place. While the church had most of the supplies, they had very few bodies to help them build another wall around their existing church building to expand their church. Here's a picture of the wall taken on the second day of work.

Ken had to find our camera and take a picture of this! He couldn't believe how the Costa Ricans placed block! This was physically exhausting work, not to mention that this location is about 3 hours away from the camp, near the coast where it is very hot and humid.

While it took most of the children's ministry team to sort, inventory and prepare crafts for the upcoming ministry that would take place during the medical clinics; there were a few who put together 100 teacher's training manuals that was also going to be taking place on the first day of each clinic. These guys were bent over this table for a few hours putting the manuals into the binders, but we couldn't have done it without them!

Here's the entire team, missing just a few bodies to the left of the picture on the first night beginning to go through orientation.

Catching up...on sleep!

The team left on Saturday to return to the States and we slept in on Sunday morning; the first time in a very, very long time! Good thing our worship service here in Costa Rica isn't until 2:30 p.m. We finished up our Bible Study we were attending in Orosi on Sunday at noon. Tomorrow night is our last Orientation for the January team in Paraiso which is about a half hour from the camp. On Wednesday and Thursday I plan on making some Christmas cookies specifically for Friday night at our house when the Youth Group has their small group meeting here. Traditionally, the Costa Ricans exchange tamales at Christmas time. Most have never had Christmas cookies the way we make them in the States. So, this should be a fun cultural experience for them. Well, in the morning it's early to rise to do some much needed grocery shopping since we have been eating at the camp with the team most of all of last week! We are on the count-down for Danielle and Brad's arrival on Saturday night and funny as it is, even some of the Costa Ricans are counting the days down too to be able to see them again!

A week of VBS

The first day of VBS with the Threshold Team from Charlotte, N.C. brought in 120 kids, 40 team and Tico volunteers and a lot of energy to the campground! Tomorrow, it all wraps up with a graduation celebration for the parents, and the team returns to the U.S. on Saturday. This week we've been busy helping the team out, running out and picking up last minute needed items for them, working in the camp kitchen to keep up with their busy schedule, but not without at least one evening hockey game in the Celebration Center! I think by the weekend we will be thoroughly exhausted. This week, we've also been working on tying up the loose ends of logistics for a two-week January team coming down from Canada.

Next week, a clean up of the campground from this group being here, a rental group comes in on next Friday for two nights and on Saturday night, Danielle (our daughter) and her husband, Brad, arrive for a two-week Christmas visit!

10:52 p.m...just getting home!

So much to write, so little time! We literally just walked in the door and are ending our day here in Costa Rica. Just in time to roll into bed and be on the road again tomorrow no later than 7 a.m. Here's an update of what has been going on in our corner of the world!

Ken has been sick and is now entering his third week of being in a state of constant dizziness. The first week we thought he had a virus since Jordan has had similar symptoms in the past, but for shorter lengths of time (only a 24-hour period). Last Monday, beginning the second week of feeling dizzy we visited our doctor. An IV was started in the office, we were given instructions on fasting blood tests that needed to be drawn the next day, and he was placed on complete bedrest and was asked not to drive. On Thursday, we received normal blood work results, and began another trial of different medications for dizziness, nauseousness and were told he still could not drive and should remain on complete bedrest through the weekend. This Monday, we returned to the doctor's for a return office visit and examination. We were referred to an ear specialist who we will see tomorrow at 9 a.m., undergo a full examination and hearing testing, and while Ken can be on his feet when he feels good, which isn't often, he still cannot drive and is still suffering from dizziness. So, YES, you could pray for Ken!

We have had back-to-back rental groups on the weekends at the camp and last week we had a week-long rental group for a unique Pastor's retreat with Pastor's attending from all over Central and Latin America.

Tonight, we did an orientation for the volunteers at one of the church's where we will take one of January's short-term missions teams to do medical clinics. Ken spoke about Global Outreach Mission, I did children's ministry orientation and Katherine & David did the medical clinic orientation. Tomorrow night, we will do the same orientation, different church location in preparation for the January team. Please pray for us as we talk to this church!

When we return home tomorrow from Ken's ear appointment, we will head over to the neighboring town of Palomo, just about 4 miles from the camp, and set up for a medical clinic that we will be hosting on Thursday Day (Thanksgiving Day) from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. This town is of low-income and has a lot of problems with alcohol, drugs, teenage prostitution, etc. We will also be taking volunteers from our church here that meets at the campground on Sunday mornings to help us with evangelism. Please pray for this outreach!

We have some good Christian friends, Gary & Debbie, who live in Orosi who have asked if they could minister to "us" by cooking Thanksgiving dinner and having us over on Thursday. They have really been wonderful to us; they take care of our dog when we have to leave the country for VISA renewals and drive us to the bus station in San Jose to get on the bus at 4:15 a.m. to travel. They just go above and beyond what would seem even reasonable to ask someone, and always with smiles on their faces! Gary leads our Sunday afternoon Bible Study that we take in English...whoot-whoot!

On Friday, another rental group will be coming into the camp to spend the weekend.

This Sunday, I have been asked to share a message by the Pastor. Could you please remember to pray for me as I finish preparing and then share on Sunday!

So, some of this might explain why there have not been recent updates from me, although as I read this over, I realize that in a little over one week we have a short-term team coming down from Charlotte, N.C. to do VBS, and I haven't even mentioned all the preparations that have already been made in advance of this team coming. All of this does keep us busy, and more importantly, out of trouble!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING and thanks for checking in on us!

Homeless ministry - Part II

We had an awesome, busy, transforming weekend here at the camp. Thank you so much for those who got emails; churches, family members and friends, who lifted up our ministry this weekend in your prayers! I know that some of the people who you will see in the pictures below made life-changing decisions toward continued rehabilitation from drugs and alcohol, and many more made decisions toward God!

72 people came to the camp from the homeless shelter, men and women both. We were asked to help as much as possible this weekend with the homeless in that while all are in rehabilitiation, some are working their programs better than others and might need continued encouragement to sit in on the meetings instead of choosing to not be a part. There were some who had only been clean for days to even a few weeks and were still going through the difficult task of detoxification. We were even told that some might be a bit of trouble and to watch carefully over particular people. God answered the prayers of many in that there were no difficult situations the entire weekend from Friday through Sunday with any individuals from this group! In fact, they all seemed very content to be at the camp, enjoy its surroundings and to be able to have meetings to sit in on! Our location here at the camp is a lot different than their lives on the streets of San Jose and at one point, I teared up as I saw many of them picking up the fruit that we have here at the camp right off the ground and enjoying the simplicity of oranges, limes, guava, and grapefruit. As I walked by one gentleman sitting at a picnic table peeling an orange I overheard him say in spanish repeatedly, "Gracias Dios", as he carefully peeled back the rind and observed the intricacies of the orange, and then began to savor the first bite!

This weekend we heard so many stories, each unique, all were difficult and heartbreaking. Some were of loss of family due to drugs, possessions like houses, eating from trash cans in the city, spending days in drug and alcohol "binges" on the streets of San Jose and then having no place to go.

Below is a picture of Jason during one of the services that the group held with their Pastor who came with them. He is praying for continued change in his life with the Lord's help. He has been drug-free for a couple of months, but it is not an easy road for him. There are many who are attempting to lure him back on to the streets so that they can buy drugs from him. Jason would ask that YOU would continue to pray for him!

This is a picture of some of the group during one of their services.

This is our church here on Sunday morning combined with the homeless shelter worshipping together. Ken and I were touched when at the end of the service, our church family reached out to each of the homeless shelter members with a small gift from the church. They did this, not at our suggestion, but on their own and then the shelter members reciprocated with a small gift back to the church! Very moving!

From left to right: Edwardo, one of the leaders at the homeless shelter, one of the members of the homeless shelter sharing his testimony with the church, Luis Diego, another leader at the homeless shelter and their Pastoral counsel and Jeffrey, the Youth Pastor of our church.

Please continue to pray for us as we continue to partner with this homeless shelter.

Our passion and a prayer request

We are so excited about this weekend's rental group we can hardly contain ourselves! We have been praying for a long time it seems like, that this day would come to fruition and it will begin on Friday morning! Over a year ago, our team on behalf of Global Outreach Mission was able to form a partnership with a homeless shelter here in the Red Zone of San Jose. I have previous posts about this partnership on this blog. The homeless shelter consists of residents who are in the rehabilitation process from drug and alcohol abuse. We have taken numerous teams, short-term mission teams, from the States as well as numerous interns along with us to serve in this homeless shelter. My older sister had the opportunity to share her testimony there when she was here with her short-term team. It's a special place with residents who are really no different than ourselves if you think about it. Haven't we all gone down a wrong path at one time in our lives? Haven't we all at one point sat down and asked, "how in the world did I get here"? And haven't we all been looking for someone who could pull us out of the pit? This weekend the homeless shelter will be here at the camp! The harvest field is ripe. Our passion is that they would find Jesus! Pray for the camp ministry this weekend. Pray for the men who are coming this weekend (the homeless shelter does house women, but this is a "men-only" retreat). Originally, we were told 40 would come and we are now up to 60, but we have heard more maybe coming...Praise the Lord! Pray for the church services on Sunday morning at the camp that the men will be sitting in on. Pray for the church congregation that they would be compassionate and welcoming! Please, just pray!

An update and a lot of administrative "stuff"

I think I have been enjoying our last couple of weekends off a little "too much" since my brother-in-law, Gary, let me know on Facebook that I had not been updating my blog as of late. We were supposed to have a baptism service at the camp on Sunday, a group was supposed to rent the camp for the day, but they ended up cancelling. So again, we had a full weekend off! On Friday we took the day off and went to the amusement park here in San Jose with our children for a belated Children's Day celebration. Last year, we took the kids to the Children's Museum. The weather on Friday at the amusement park was gorgeous and we also enjoyed having a picnic lunch there. We stayed until dark and took a train ride through the entire park to observe all the lights on the rides, etc. It was a lot of fun! I personally enjoyed the water rides on what was a rather humid day! Quite unexpectedly, we got to the park entrance and it was a buy one, get one free day, so that was neat!

There's always a mound of administrative paperwork to do on a personal and a camp level. First, I have been in a slump lately with regard to writing. It is time to write another update letter to our supporters through Global Outreach Mission and there is actually a lot to report, but writing never does come that easily for me. So, you could pray for me in the next days as I scribble, erase, reword and attempt to write, that the words would be clear and that people could sense what we are doing here. And with regard to the blog, that writing does not come easy either. I like to include pictures as often as I can. Not sure that pictures of me folding laundry, organizing and moving furniture would be that impressive, but I have been doing some of that around the house during this slower time when a lot of it gets left undone. I do not function in my home very well with a lot of clutter and when we have our busy times it seems that we accumulate a lot of that from people "dropping and going".

And the camp; well, our fiscal year ends here in September and all of our receipts and book work need to be turned over to our accountant for the camp in October. With the camp being booked up now until the end of the year, and already receiving phone calls for bookings into next year, last night we had our annual discussion about rental rates and possible increases. Needless to say, this year we lost a lot of kitchen supplies, bakeware, silverware, even dishes and have had to make decisions about how we will manage that in the next year. So, the administration of the day to day operations of the camp always keeps us thinking and on our toes trying to stay one or two steps ahead!

This Sunday we will be going out of town with Katherine & David to do the logistics for the medical clinics for a January 2010 medical team. This always helps to see an area and location ahead of time to keep us within budget for the team in transportation, meals, and necessary medical supplies, etc.

And one last thing, a dear friend of mine and faithful supporter back at our home church in N.C. recently told me about a game on Facebook called Bejeweled Blitz when I was home. I heard what she said, but haven't really had a lot of free time to check it out. This last week, I checked it out and found that it is a pretty fun game. While it is addicting, I sit down with a very specific time limit on how long I will play and then return to my "activities of daily living" (I've typed too many medical reports over the years). Since I live out of the U.S. I am not able to play in the Bejeweled Blitz Tournaments. Now depending on how well you know me, you might sense an underlying level of competitiveness in my spirit. That being said, I rallied Kyle, our son, to try the game. So, now we compete (I hate that word, sounds so wretched, bwahahahaha) against each other sending little "smack" messages to each other on Facebook! We have stooped so low as to play in different rooms of the house from each other and tease each other! It's fun and keeps us entertained down here and our life balanced as "sick"as that sounds.

On a physical note, I feel exhausted from lack of sleep. You know you are tired when you look forward to leaving the country to have your VISA stamped! We do that every three months (90 days) and while expensive to do, this is when we get optimal sleep in a hotel! Last night, not sure how it happened, but even with our front gate closed, we had two or three dogs in our garage growling at each other and carrying on and one of them was the beloved "Miss Kooky". She has taken up residence on our front porch at night and feels this is her territory to protect, I guess!
I'll end with a challenge! Try Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook, just one round and leave a comment here and let me know what you think!

Blessings!

Up for air...

So many things have been happening this past week since I last posted. We did have a one-day rental group on Saturday of 80 people for a marriage retreat. The preparations for this group began on Friday afternoon with an extensive scrub down of the camp kitchen and bathrooms. Before Heather and I got done with that some members of the group did come in on Friday evening to begin decorating, hauling in a large amount of fresh flowers. We did finish the swimming pool painting and now the pool is again filled up with water and will be used this weekend by a group for a baptism ceremony. Also, last week from Tuesday evening through Friday evening Ken and I finished attending Bible study. Other than that, we have had the van break down again and had another appointment today for it to be looked over by the same repairman. We have had various dentist's appointments as well.

The weather here has been extremely dry over the past couple of weeks compared with this time last year. "Rumor" has it that this is not good because it often coincides with earthquakes. While we have felt some minor trembles; it feels like someone is heavily walking across the floor of your house, I am happy to report that there has not been anything major. We are in winter season here and also that means rainy season as well. Finally, today we have had on and off heavy rains beginning this afternoon, although before the rain came without warning we lost power for a few hours. Since the rain has begun this afternoon we have had power restored, only to lose it again. For now, it has been on again for a couple of hours. Needless to say, not a whole lot got done around the house today like laundry, for instance, but it kind of comes with the territory!

Both Saturday and on Sunday following church we felt that the Lord would have us open the doors of our home for hospitality. We had a good time entertaining some Tico families this weekend and hope that it was a blessing for them as well.

Currently, the camp is pretty much booked up until the end of the year already and then in January we begin the onslaught of our "busy" season with short-term teams.

Well, hopefully tomorrow will be a more productive day...with being kind of busy as of late, we are running out of clean clothes! Hope you are having a blessed week.