Saying "Yes" to Jesus!

We arrived at the children's home at about 1:30 p.m. today. Once inside, we locked ourselves in to have the necessary time to set up our projector and movie screen. Word got out quickly that we had arrived and that the kids would soon be able to see, "The Chronicles of Narnia". What started out as an easy set up, soon began to take a downward spin and we realized that our showing of the movie was facing opposition. Just as we got the movie underway, power cords began to malfunction. We would get things started again, and breakers would blow. Finally, we lost power altogether and with great frustration, had to send the kids back to their perspective homes. We found out that the day before the power had been out for two hours. Not willing to give up easily and go home, we spent close to an hour praying and trying to entertain the kids outside for we believed that the power would come back on!

Word spread quickly as power all over the compound began to come back on; and within just a few minutes some 48 kids returned to see the movie! Here they are with bags of popcorn in their laps and juice bags in their hands. The power remained on throughout the almost three hour movie. Following the movie Amy shared a little bit about C.S. Lewis and the spiritual significance of the movie. When she was done, Ken & I shared the plan of salvation using the Bible and interpretive chalk art. Katherine, of course, was our interpreter.

With heads bowed and eyes closed, my eyes filled with tears when I saw that 20 of the 48 children raised their hands to show us that they wanted to accept Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior! Thank you, to all of you, who have been following our blog and who specifically prayed for this ministry today. I believe that there were people who were standing in the gap for us!

On Friday...earthquake victims.

Please pray for us this Friday as we take the three interns to the hardest hit area from the recent earthquake. The government is finally letting church organizations and missionaries into the areas to help with re-building homes, feeding families, distributing clothing, etc. after declaring that the search and rescue for bodies was over; not that they had found everyone, as there are many people, in the hundreds, still missing. Please pray for us for wisdom as we try and discern what is most needed and how we, as a small team, might be able to help this devastated area and how often we should return to work in this location. Pray for the people that we might speak with and meet, that we would be a blessing. (From there, we will take Amy to the airport to return home after her one-week extended stay).

This week...How you can pray.

Last night Ken took the three interns plus Amy who was on the last team, but decided to stay a week longer to work alongside us, to the homeless shelter. Heather went along with her Dad, but Kyle and Jordan and I stayed home to work on getting our house back in order. When we have a team here, we basically run into our house, drop things and are on the run a lot, so things needed to be put away! On Thursday, we will return to the orphanage to show the movie, "The Chronicles of Narnia" in Spanish and Ruth (one of our interns) will explain the meaning of the movie from a Christian perspective. I am praying about doing an invitation with the children utilizing chalk art. On Saturday, we have a group rental at the camp for the weekend, but the interns with David & Katherine & Heather will be doing a one-day medical clinic at the homeless shelter. If you think of us on these days, please pray for us.

New Bathrooms!

Here are pictures of the new bathrooms that are being built at the camp. Global Outreach Mission has hired a contractor and with his crew they did the foundation work for Team #2 to be able to come in and start the block walls. As you can see, the contractor is still working and preparing for Team #3 to come in and help his crew do the roof.

To the left of the new walls, you can see the "old" outdoor bathrooms (the white doors lead into small stalls with just toilets and there is an outdoor sink). This new building will house "guys" and "girls" bathrooms complete with 4 new stalls, 4 new showers and sinks on each side! One of the biggest complaints of the rental groups or teams that we host is that "there are not enough showers" in the cabins! Just like camping in the "States", you'll have to walk across the campground to the bathrooms, but here's hoping this will help bigger groups get their showers in a more timely manner!

A day off!

Yesterday, after church, the North Americans banded together and loaded in our van to go to Tara Mall! Once there, with trays of American food in hand from the Food Court; Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, KFC, CinnaBon we politely took over one of the televisions in the Food Court and watched the Super Bowl. Ken, of course, was decked out in his Pittsburgh jersey and baseball cap! We were anticipating a quiet ride home toward the end when the Cardinals were up by 3; but Pittsburgh pulled it off in the end! We all ate together, some of us walked the mall, and we even just sat around. We had a lot of fun together!

Team #2...recovery...

The team left this morning at 4 a.m. to head up to the airport for a morning of departures. Thank you, Lord, for Victor, our bus driver! We spent most of the day today at the camp, even though Isa and Gloria clean the cabins, do the laundry and clean their kitchen; the Celebration Center looked like a bomb went off in it. We also needed to "reclaim" the desk in the office and put things back together in the ministry closets! Lots of garbage was gathered. I am currently staring at a "mound" of laundry in my home, but do not have the energy to care to do anything about it! Tonight, we have to get some groceries as the refrigerator is bare from eating every meal with the team over the last weeks. Tomorrow is another day!

We saw some 963 patients in medical clinics, half of which accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior! Praise the Lord! 250 kids participated in Children's Ministry. 60 Children's Ministry workers received formal training! It's been a very busy past two weeks, but we are filled and blessed! For now, we just need a couple of days of rest, before the preparations begin for Team #3!

Clinic #2 - Pictures of Children's Ministry

Our schedule for the clinics and children's ministry team is that we start ministering at 9 a.m. At noon we take a one hour lunch break because some of the smaller, remote churches have to feed us in "shifts". We always have to lock everything up when we go for our break. Today, when I returned from lunch and the front doors of the church were still locked where the children's ministry team was ministering, I found these two boys peering under the door and trying to get in.

These are two of my newest friends, a little girl named Aslan on the left and her brother, Justin on the right. Next to the church where we are ministering is a "precario". A precario is a squatter village with homes made of scrape pieces of metal, wood and so on. The families are very poor. This brother and sister are from the precario. You might notice Justin's very dirty shirt. This is the only shirt he owns he said. Aslan's hair is pulled up into a pony tail, but it is all matted and her "long" pants are actually very "short". Their older sister came in wearing a pair of rubber boots that were two sizes too small. She showed me blisters all over her feet. After I washed her feet and rubbed her blisters with antibiotic ointment, I sent our bus driver out to buy her some new flip flops. I had found out that their Mom & Dad were both drug addicts. Buying sneakers or fancy shoes that could possibly be sold to obtain more drugs was out of the question, but you can't get anything for flip flops!

While we've seen a lot of this in Honduras, this is the first time we had seen this here in Costa Rica. Today, when looking at the building across from the church I noticed a retaining wall with this at the top, broken pieces of bottles to keep anyone even thinking about jumping the wall to steal - away!

Here's the "happy bunch" of kids that greeted us when we returned from our lunch break ready to get down to some serious business. The crowd grew bigger in a rather short of time!

I never did get any last counts from the second and third days of our first clinic. I'll have to get those. This was the second day of our second clinic. Yesterday we had 81 people attend, 24 of which accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and 30% indicated that they would like a Pastoral visit! (While we provide free medical clinics, we expect that the churches that host us will place a high priority on following up those people that we serve). Today, we had 135 people, so I can't wait to hear how many of those might have made a decision to follow Jesus too. Tomorrow is our last day at this location and we have three more clinics to go before the team leaves! Please continue to keep us in your prayers!

Up and running!

Today, a technician came to the house late in the afternoon and was able to repair our internet service. It went down early Saturday morning. Today was the second day of medical clinics with simultaneous children's ministry being run at the same church. The construction team is progressing on the block walls of the bathroom addition to the Celebration Center. Needless to say, I have forgotten to take my camera to the past two days of clinics, but hopefully tomorrow night can get some pictures posted via team members memory cards. Our ministry day begins with breakfast at 6:30 a.m. and we leave the camp by 7:30 a.m. We have been returning back to the camp for dinner at 6:30 p.m. Following dinner we have team devotionals and "restock"; the medical team pulls additional medications for the next day and the children's ministry team reviews the next day's programming. We certainly sleep well! Tomorrow, I will be in a different church location than the rest of the children's ministry team joining the Vice President of Global Outreach Mission's wife in teacher training. Three different churches have combined their children's ministry teams and extended an invitation to us to train them in children's ministry programming. I will speak on the element of music and it's importance in children's ministry. A new cross cultural experience for me! I am really excited about it, but I hope that I can remember to "slow down" for my interpreter!

More exciting than this are the 25 people who made first-time commitments and received Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior yesterday during our time of ministry at the church. It is the reason that we are here in this country; so that others might come to know Him. That God would even allow us to join in His purposes...it's beyond amazing to us and so humbling and rewarding!

Preparations, Coffee and cinnamon rolls (YES!!!!)

Phew! It's been a week of logistics and planning, shopping, emailing and phone calling back to the office. Yesterday, we went to PriceSmart. It took the four of us and three "packed to the max" grocery carts to finish the shopping. Today, Ken is off to Central Market to get the meat. On the way home, we investigated two coffee plantations and mills. We have decided on which one we will go with for this team's free-day. It is located on top of a hill and as far as you can see down the ravines and hillside are coffee plants. I think the group will enjoy watching as the coffee beans are processed. We were able to get a tour time during the day when the employees will actually be doing the "processing" instead of just walking in and explaining what each machine does. I think they will enjoy that! The team arrives in two groups tomorrow, one group in the morning and one in the late evening. On Sunday, we will have orientation for the camp, then break down into the three ministries, construction, children's and medical and do orientations separately for those teams. It will be a day of "organizing" medicine, children's and teacher training supplies, construction supplies. Of course, in between all of this we will be eating and attending church too. This group is bringing down a special baker who has sent me a grocery list of supplies to buy for homemade cinnamon rolls and bread! Richard has used his gift of baking to raise funds for this team; from pies to breads and of course, the cinnamon rolls. Do you not think when I opened that email that the family was excited? I can't remember when we last ate a cinnamon roll and of course, you can't buy Pillsbury tube cinnamon rolls here, either. Kyle informed me that he will be in the kitchen for two weeks stuck to this guy! So pray for Richard! From what I've heard, he's quite the baker. We'll try and "calmly" welcome him into the camp kitchen, but you know, us gringo's can get a little crazy over food from home. I wonder if the poor guy will ever see light or the outside walls of the kitchen?

Team #2...preparations & Prayer Requests

Palm Beach Atlantic left yesterday. Their cabins are clean, their bedding is washed and the beds have been remade for Team #2 which arrives this Saturday. Today, Ken will pick up a friend of ours from the airport who has also agreed to help with interpreting for this team and bring him back down to Orosi. Tomorrow, we have a final staff meeting in preparation for the team's arrival on Saturday, planning the two week menu, and working on the schedule which in itself will be complicated. This team will be doing three simultaneous ministries. Ken will stay back at the camp and coordinate the construction projects. Katherine & David will coordinate the medical clinics which will be in three different churches over a two week period. I will help to coordinate the children's ministry/teacher training that will take place at the same locations as the medical clinics in different buildings. The medical teams and children's ministry teams will be moved by bus to those locations throughout the week and return to the camp to join the construction team for dinner. Mid-week, the medical and children's teams will have a day back at the camp to "reload" supplies before going on to the next location. Once we've laid out the menu, the menu goes to Isa for her to make a grocery list and is returned to Ken & I to do the grocery shopping on Friday. On Saturday, because this team comes from different areas of Canada, they will be arriving at four different times. One trip will be made up to San Jose to pick up three members and then return to camp, then later in the evening another trip will be made to wait for three different arrivals (though pretty close together) to get the rest of the team. Also with this team of 20 comes 3 missionary interns, two are nurses and one is a construction person who will stay with us here at the camp for three months. Once they recover from getting off the plane and being thrown into two weeks of long days, we will let them rest and then do targeted ministry with them; the homeless shelter, the orphanage, taking vitals in neighborhoods near the camp and evangelizing, working alongside Team #3, etc. We will also help them to experience as much of Costa Rican missionary life as we can.

Pray for: Safety for the construction, medical and children's ministry teams as they are here ministering. Pray for individuals coming to the free medical clinics for treatment of medical conditions as well as "soul" conditions. Pray for the children who will be ministered to, some from broken, very poor families that we can clearly communicate their "significance" to God. Pray for the teacher's coming from these churches for Teacher Training and for us, as we instruct them on how to effectively teach and train children in the Word. Pray for our families, The Dundon's and the Huitz's as we work together, as we work apart, that God would be mirrored and that our households would be protected.

Luke and Joey

Well, it's probably not the "best" pictures to compare too, but pretty much a similar pose. The top picture is of Luke, our Pastor's son, posted with his permission. The bottom of Joey, short-term missionary to Costa Rica twice now and dear friend. Joey returned home today and Jordan took it hard, again. It's part of your life as a missionary, I suppose, always having to say good-byes. Maybe, just maybe, I can get a photo of Angie, the church secretary and post her Tico look-a-like from church here!

We miss you BOTH, Luke and Joey!

Airplanes, earthquakes, saying good-bye and finding a Savior!

We got Danielle off to the airport today and when we were almost home people here started calling Ken's cell phone asking if we were okay. A 6.8 earthquake hit up past San Jose at 1:21 p.m. and Danielle was scheduled to take off at 1:45. The town where it originated is near the airport. We didn't feel it as we were driving back towards San Jose or home, but we had no idea if Danielle got off to Houston safely. We checked the T.V. and saw the damage to office buildings, glass blown out, in stores things off shelves. We checked with Continental Airlines as soon as we got in and found that she left a little over an hour later than she was scheduled too, so I am not sure she will make her flight in Houston, but we know she is safe and did leave the country!

On a happy-sad note, Ken's Great-Aunt died and his parents have been in Texas with his sister for the funeral. We hadn't been able to reach his parents on Monday to tell them the good news about the biopsies and started to get concerned. They called us on Tuesday, while they were on the road, but having arrived in Texas safely and told us of her passing. Aunt Joanne was a believer, so it makes the news easier, though we wish we could be home with her family. Selfishly, we will miss her tremendously! She was a great spiritual influence on Ken and his siblings. Aunt Joanne has been an unrelenting prayer warrior for us on this missionary journey! We are happy that she is no longer suffering!

Today, was a sad day. It's hard to not have Danielle here on a day-to-day basis with our family. When she leaves, it feels like your heart is being pulled out of your chest and her personality leaves an obvious gap in our family. We are so thankful for this time that we had with her! God is good, He is gracious and this time of letting her go was a little easier than last time, though everyone is a little more subdued and quiet this afternoon. So, hug her BIG for us when she gets back home!

With the team here, Ken & I are like two ships passing at port being pulled in different directions. Today, I just found out that Ken had the privilege of leading a man to the Lord on Tuesday night at the homeless shelter! Praise the Lord!!!

Homeless Shelter

After a day of work at the camp yesterday, part of the team cleaned up and drove up to the city to partner again with God Festival. They have recently opened a homeless shelter mainly serving drug and alcohol addicts, and the group worked from 5 p.m. until 9 p.m. there last night. The second half of the group, mainly the men, are about to return from there this evening. Pictured here next to and behind Ken in the the right hand corner are some of the ladies, and a couple of the guys who went last night. The rest of the people in the picture are homeless men and women. They come to this shelter and receive clean clothing, a meal and the option of going to a rehabilitation center for help.

Not only did they fold and hand out clothing, but they also helped serve a meal. God continues to open amazing doors, the children's home and now this shelter for us to take teams or even our individual families to work beyond the confines of the campground, our small town, and boldly proclaim Him to the most needy.

Here you have it folks...BLACK MAIL!!!!

This is day one of work for the team at the camp. Oddly, this is the day when the Camp Director needed to be away to take his wife to the doctor! Notice from the picture above, that there are bunk beds in the room. If one was not "sneaking" a "necessary" purchase, why then would they not be out in plain sight, like at the picnic tables in the common eating area? We have heard various "excuses" and finger-pointing stories related to this event when we actually "ran into team members" making this purchase on our way back from the doctor, "Amir made us go" (team leader, found here "holding the bag") or "I am addicted to this". From what I see, every member of the team is eating chicken! Yes, even "ailing" members of the team...that's Joey propped up against the door holding up a chicken leg!

All joking aside, they got a lot done yesterday before it rained here. As for me, I stay away from them as much as possible. They are all crazy and they make me laugh which hurts my incision, but why I love each one of them so very much!

It's Shoutin' Time

I keep looking over my shoulder for the "men in white suits"! Actually, I am not sure where the nearest mental institution is in the country, but probably most of my neighborhood by now thinks I need to be "admitted" to one, but then again, I am not alone because surely at least half of Bonnie L's neighborhood thinks she needs to be too! That's because I received my lymph node biopsy reports yesterday and there is no further cancer in my body! I do not need chemotherapy or radiation therapy! Let me tell you...it was Sum Shoutin' Time on the telephone between the lines connecting the L's household and the Dundon's in Costa Rica!!!

I was not scheduled to see the doctor until Thursday, but he worked me in yesterday because he did say that my nausea and dry heaves needed to be addressed with only being 15 days out of having major abdominal surgery. He's worried I could herniate the incision from the "heaving". What I also haven't written about on the blog is that I have been having excruciating (I am not using that word lightly) back and bone pain for the last week and a half. Some days it feels like my individual ribs in my back are on fire and it is extremely painful to breath! I wasn't sure what that was all about, and didn't want to scare anyone! I had been feeling really well when I got out of the hospital for the beginning to middle of last week, but the doctor was able to explain to me yesterday, that at the end of the week is when my estrogen level probably bottomed out which was to be expected considering the surgery I had, and the bone pain and nausea is from the drop of the estrogen to probably no readable amount of hormone left in my body! This is completely normal! So, here's a little excerpt of a conversation between me and my doctor yesterday.

Dr. P: "Just a minor detail I forgot to tell you with regard to the bone pain and the nausea...sorry! I was more focused on you being aware that you may become depressed, cry easily or become suicidal".
Sherri: "Suicidal? How about homicidal for you not telling me about this"? (We both busted out laughing in his office)!

So, I need to follow up with him in three months, have some repeat tests done looking for cancer and then from there I follow up with him every six months for the next two years, but at this time he feels that my prognosis is very good.

Thank you, first and foremost, to my Heavenly Father, who by Job wrote, "are you not willing to accept only the good things from the Lord and not the bad"? Again, You could have authored a different outcome. But, You chose not too. I want You to know, that anything that brings honor and glory to Your Name is worth going through knowing that your desire is to walk beside me in it! I thank you, even for this cancer, and the things that it has taught me about You, your characteristics and the areas in my life that do not mirror You. Thank you for loving me with a love that I cannot even comprehend!

To my family, my church family and friends, Thank you for being on your knees for our family daily! Thank you for the sacrifices that you make weekly for us to be able to serve here in Costa Rica in these economic times! Without Him, and without you, we could not possibly do what we do!

An evening of rest....again.

Joey is feeling better tonight, up out of his cabin after nearly 48 hours of sleep. He is running a fever, but is sitting at the picnic table outside his cabin. A physician here has been called and is counseling David on his care.

I am going to lie down. Again, another bout of the dry heaves. I eat and have nausea come over me and then develop the dry heaves which hurts really bad considering while my stitches are out, I am not completely healed on the inside! The other day it was midday. Tonight, it follows dinner.

So, please keep Joey and I in your prayers this evening! I will try and post an update tomorrow!

Orientation, planning and a prayer request

Last night we had dinner prepared for us at Isa's (the camp cook) home since the rental group was exiting the camp at around 6 p.m. Some of the group walked over to town, Orosi, to have ice-cream with Katherine & David and some stayed back with Ken to start building a fire in the fire pit. When the group from town returned David & Jason led the group with their guitars in worship around the campfire.

This morning we had breakfast with the team at 7 a.m. Funny, none of them seemed to overly excited to see us that early...hahahaha! From there, we moved chairs down to the river bank for Jason's devotional which was really encouraging and timely. Ken then did a short orientation about the campground and laid out the construction projects for the week ahead. Right now, the team has left to do a little shopping before church at 2:30 p.m.

Katherine & David, Ken & I and the kids were given gifts this morning by the team. There is something so humbling to be thought of in this very special way; from body sprays, to toy cars, to American CANDY (which of course is expensive here since it is imported). Thank you Dean Ferrell and Dean Brown for thinking of ALL of us! I know we were supposed to send you a Christmas list, but with the surgery, we just got behind and I apologize. Please know, we so appreciate your kindness and love extended to us and our family!

To Sandra Reep (Katie's Mom), Just know that when Katie presented me with the prayer shawl that you hand-knit for me that I was overcome with emotion! Thank you for the prayer for healing, but especially for your handwritten note in the side bar! I will never understand fully God's love this side of heaven. Can any of us really? That a person who has never met me would invest their time in this precious handmade gift. Thank you so much!! Thank you for sharing your amazing daughter with us here in Costa Rica. She is a blessing!

I have yet to see Joey! Please pray for him! He has been in bed since he arrived yesterday afternoon, not feeling well with an upper respiratory infection! He has been sleeping a lot which is good and I'm sure will benefit him. I don't know whose worse, Jordan hanging outside his cabin door waiting for a "Joey sighting", or me asking if he is up yet? Amir (the team leader) is probably ready to kill us both!

"De plane Boss, de plane"...Fantasy Island

The plane has landed safely. Our team from Palm Beach is reportedly on their way from San Jose to the camp, although we have been informed that they will be "delayed" in arriving as they have a "required" stop ! You guessed it Dean Ferrell and Dr. Brown - Pollos Crispy in Paraiso! How odd! Everyone sends us food from home, yet the Americans come and can't wait to eat chicken...here, in Costa Rica! I tell ya', these kids ain't right!

6 weeks, 3 teams...the marathon begins!

Today, Ken, Danielle and I are headed out to do the grocery shopping for the team from Palm Beach Atlantic that arrives tomorrow for a week-long, short-term construction team here at the camp. We were headed out the door, until David stopped by and told us that the rental group that is at the camp had broken off the shower handle in one of the cabin bathrooms, so Ken is trying to fix that now before we leave. This is pretty much how things go around here...hahaha! We've learned a lot about f-l-e-x-i-b-i-l-i-t-y since we've been here, that's for sure. This group will be working on extending a roof, the breezeway roof, between the camp kitchen and and the Celebration Center over a few feet, since whenever it rains it floods out the breezeway where we have picnic tables set up to feed the teams. They will also help us with some fencing projects. The campground is fenced in, but with the last robbery, we had a bit of damage done to the fence near the front gate, wires cut, fencing trampled, etc. This group is bringing back several people who came last year in May to do medical missions with us, so we are looking forward to seeing "friends" this week and spending time with them! Also, the boys are excited because "THE JOEY" is coming back! If he will let me, I will try and get a picture of Joey while he is here and post it to the blog. Not only does he resemble "THE LUKE COPELAND" in a lot of ways, his style of clothes, his facial features; but also his testimony. We wished that Brad could have stayed a couple more days to meet him! Anyways, Joey is the guy that last year when he left, Jordan went to a picnic table, put his head on his arms and bawled for about 15 minutes. It was heartbreaking! Well, Ken just came back in the door. So, off to PriceSmart to do some heavy duty grocery shopping for this team!

Feliz Ano Nuevo...HAPPY NEW YEAR!

We spent time in prayer tonight as a family, thanking the Lord for all that He has done for us over the past year, the things that we have learned and the experiences He allowed for our family to have. Our prayer is that He will continue to bless you in 2009...Happy New Year!

Snorkeling!

Well, since Brad arrived two days before my surgery and things have been really busy since then with a short-term team arriving this Saturday, Ken decided to take the day off today from work at the camp, and also keep a promise to Brad that he made last time he was here. Brad has seen the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica, but had one day wanted to see the Carribean Coast. So, Ken woke all the kids up at 3:30 this morning and off to the Carribean Coast they went after a couple of days of making "plans" through a tour guide friend of ours of the best place to go snorkeling! It is about a four hour drive. I hope to be able to post some pictures from their excursion tomorrow.

Tired...please pray.

I am not a good patient. At least, it's hard for me to adapt the "patient" mindset. I am frustrated with feeling literally exhausted. I get up, walk around the house, and lie back down because I am so tired. Though, I am thankful that I did not need to have blood transfusions during my operation which my physician quite honestly was surprised by and had ordered before my preadmission testing came back before surgery. Next Saturday begins our three short-term teams in six weeks marathon. This week starts the preparations! Please pray for Ken, David & Katherine and our kids as they prepare for and work alongside the teams. Pray for me. I am tired of being tired.

Christmas in Costa Rica

We've survived our "first" Christmas in Costa Rica. If perhaps we "thought" these people were crazy before, I can assure you that we now "know" that to be true, for sure. What we learned is that Christmas Eve is the BIG holiday that is celebrated particularly between the hours of 12 and 2 a.m. In Costa Rican tradition you have a big dinner with your family, usually pork as it is a bit more pricey cut of meat and not eaten every day. We ate pork roast around 6 p.m. courtesy of Katherine's cooking, and the entire family with the exception of myself, went to the neighbor's and had pork ribs, fried pork and other various pork dishes around 8:30 p.m. Some time between 10 and midnight the Catholic families usually attend church together and the entire country opens their presents at midnight and lights off fireworks in celebration. It lasted here in our neighborhood until around 2 a.m. We couldn't stay awake until midnight, especially me since having surgery, so our kids wanted to break free from our American tradition of opening presents on Christmas morning. We honored their wishes and in Tico style, they opened their gifts at about 10:30 p.m. and we "heard" they went to bed around 3 a.m. Today, we have spent the day at home reflecting on Christ's birth, not eating a lot, making phone calls to loved ones back home and enjoying being together and centered around the birth of Christ Jesus. We hope you had a blessed holiday.

Happy Birthday, Jesus

Matt. 2:11, "After coming into the house they saw the Child with Mary, His mother; and they fell to the ground and worshiped Him. Then, opening their treasures, they presented to Him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh".

Merry Christmas!

Recovering

I am at home recovering from my surgery. I've had so many emails that I thought I would post something on here to keep everyone up to date. I got home last night. The physician said that the surgery went well. He was unable to palpate any other cancerous lesions on any of my other organs. He did take out all of the pelvic lymph nodes for biopsy and we will know those results in the beginning of January, about 15 days from now. I had a little damage to my trachea from the tube and developed an upper respiratory tract infection during the hospitalization. I am on an antibiotic for that, but the most painful part is when I have to cough from that. I do have my voice back now, having lost that and at one point, could actually have probably sung a raspy bass. I am not in too much pain and the medication that he gave me to control it is working well! A special thank you to everyone who prayed for me and us during this time and who are continuing to pray for me throughout my recovery! Thank you to my heavenly Father for seeing me through!

OVERWHELMED!

I don't know how else to state it, but we just feel truly overwhelmed with the outpouring of love that was shown to us by our home church in N.C., Hickory Grove! From Christmas cards with personal messages, to children's church drawings with sweet words of love and encouragement, to wall-to-wall sour patch kids, gummy bears, Jell-o pudding for my recovery from surgery, Christmas presents (not yet opened, of course). We don't know how to say thank-you, but please know that we are so appreciative and we feel so LOVED!

Well, right now I am surrounded at my laptop by bacon and egg eating scoundrels while I sit here and chew gum....hahahaha! I think they should have ALL joined me on my clear liquid diet!

Tonight, we will be making cookies, but not before we go out and buy a few more ingredients. The neighbors are beginning the process of making tamales that they will give out on Dec. 23rd. Christmas cookies are not a tradition here, so our family will make cookies tonight for our family to give away next week to our camp employees and those who help us and join us in ministry here. There's a lot of baking to do tonight! FUN!!!

Today is THE DAY!

We've been counting down the number of "sleeps" with Jordie, listening to Danielle and Jordie pass each other in the house and say, "how many more days"...and today is THE DAY! In a few hours we will depart for the airport to pick up Bradley (our future son-in-law). When asked by the doctor yesterday if I wanted him to work hard at getting my lymph node biopsy results BEFORE Christmas so that I could have a nice Christmas, I calmly told him "no". I want to wait until my follow up appointment in January for those results. I told him I had peace about whatever he will find or won't find at my surgery and besides I was prepared to wait the 15 days that he originally told me I would have too. Tomorrow, I begin my clear liquid diet.

When asked by my family what I wanted for Christmas, my response, to keep to our family tradition of making cookies together. That's all I want! And so, Danielle got a hold of Brad for him to bring down some necessary elements to our baking, Christmas sprinkles, pretzels, Rolo's, Hershey's kisses, etc. and so tomorrow night we have plans to carry out "our tradition" in the camp kitchen with our extended family, the Huitz's, our next door neighbor, Milena and bake cookies, watch the Polar Express and though I can't eat any cookies, I will thoroughly enjoy our time being together!

Surgery Clearance

I had a follow up visit with the Cardiologist today after not being cleared for surgery last week due to having high blood pressure. My blood pressure last week was normal the day before at the doctor's office. That day at the Cardiologist I had been in the hospital for hours doing preadmission testing and his office visit was the last one on the schedule. Today, it was good and I received written clearance to have the surgery this Saturday. The procedure is scheduled for 3 p.m. Thank you to all of you who received word about this follow up visit and spent time praying for me!

Prayers answered before spoken!

One of the issues with this surgery that has silently concerned me is that the hospital is about an hour and a half away from our home making it obviously difficult for visitation. When we discussed the upcoming surgery with some missionary friends of ours who reside in the capital city, they informed us of another missionary organization who operates a guest house not even ten minutes from the hospital. If that was not enough to Praise God for, they offered to call the Directors and let them know of our circumstances and also told us that they only lived ten minutes from the guest house themselves and that they wanted to provide meals for our family as they stayed there. My doctor has written into my admission papers permission for Heather, who is more fluent in Spanish, to spend the night with me after my surgery.

It amazes me how God intercedes for us before we even get a chance to speak to Him of our needs.

Thank you to those who are expressing their care and concern for our family by email, through Bonnie L. who has called us down here, through Global Outreach Mission. We are so thankful for ALL OF YOU who are supporting us through your love and your prayers during this time. We want you to know that God is good...ALL THE TIME!!!!

Today's blessings...a visit back home

I was up for about a half hour today and had a similar episode to what I had about a week ago of the dry heaves. I decided to get back into bed and listen to our Ipod. For over an hour I enjoyed listening to the Hickory Grove Quartet and while my hand clapping wasn't anything like it is at home with the whole church involved, I was blessed during my church service in bed...ahahaha. Later, I was able to go to our church service which I had thought earlier would not be possible! Of course, God is a God of the impossible!

"I was made to Praise You" the song

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away a new Christian artist by the name of Rich Hodge, came to our home church in Syracuse, NY. He was accompanied by his young daughter, Sierra, and they were traveling together from church to church. Unfortunately, at the time of the concert Rich had cancer. He has since passed away. Back then his testimony and this song, "I was made to Praise You" had a significant impact on my life as a Christian and how I viewed myself in relation to God. I bought his LP (that's how long ago it was folks). It is a worship song that I have continued to hum while cleaning, sing while rocking my kids when they were babies and just ponder from time to time. As a tribute to his testimony and his family, our daughter, Heather, was given the middle name, Sierra, after his daughter. The words to this song are on my Facebook and Elizabeth L. left me a note about it. I draw a tremendous amount of strength from this song still today and I thank the Lord for the imprint that it has had on my heart. As I shared with the short-term children's ministry team from Threshold Church out of Charlotte, N.C. last night; my biggest prayer request through this is that it wouldn't be about me, and that it wouldn't be about the cancer. My prayer, is that it would be about Him.

Having cancer in Costa Rica

By now, some of you may have heard that I have been diagnosed with uterine cancer. We have been waiting the last two and a half weeks for the biopsy results and those were given to us yesterday. There are three stages to this cancer; I, II and III. I have been diagnosed with Stage I. We are thankful for this diagnosis because God could have allowed for it to be a Stage II or Stage III! This cancer is not a familial cancer, in other words, Danielle and Heather are not genetically predisposed to this same kind of cancer because I have it. Another reason to Praise God! In meeting with the physician yesterday, the rule of thumb as far as treatment of this cancer is surgery, that being a total hysterectomy. It is his recommendation that it be done sooner rather than later because of the confirmation of cancer. I cannot have this procedure done laparoscopically as was originally discussed with me because of the positive cancer biopsy results. More biopsies will be taken and if need be, pelvic lymph node biopsies will be done as well to see if it is any other place in my body, and this cannot be done laparoscopically. After much prayer and consideration into our options, Ken & I have decided that I will have the surgery here in Costa Rica. Remember, that I had my original biopsy two and a half weeks ago and our physician has been very frank with us from the beginning about further treatment. We know of other missionaries who have had surgery in the hospital that we will be going too and it is a very highly spoken of hospital here in the capital city. So, why am I up at 4:45 a.m. otherwise? Because I am lame...my stomach is growling and I am very hungry, but I have my preadmission testing tomorrow (well now, it's today already) and am fasting! Surgery is tentatively being scheduled for next Saturday, December 20th.

I know that this comes as a "shock" to some of you. I have often wondered to myself, "what does it feel like to be told you have cancer"? Of course, no one wants to ask that question! I can answer it for you though. From the human point of view, it is a shock. It is at first, scary. You sit in an office and feel like you are listening, but nodding your head like a puppet. It feels lonely because right now for this time in my life I am far removed from my earthly family and my church family.

How does it feel from the angle of being a Christian? I know that God is in control of this situation. He has allowed this because there is a purpose in it. Recognizing that, my desire is to bring honor and glory to Him through it. He is and remains an awesome God!

Catch up post...Nov. 21st

In Costa Rica, typically your 15th birthday is your "coming out" party. Heather's birthday is Dec. 3, but due to the camp being booked; we held Heather's 16th birthday party on Nov. 21, but we did it in Costa Rican "15th Fiesta" style. Here she is at the head table with some of, but not all of her attendants, from left to right: Heather, Francini, Leo & Yancy.

Dancing is a huge part of the Costa Rican culture! As a tribute to their American culture from the left, Kyle, behind him in the center, Heather & Danielle taught some of their daring Costa Rican friends "The Cotton-Eyed Joe" line dance. The lady behind Danielle in black pants and black shirt is Gabriella, our Pastor's wife!

Katherine & David planned some "surprise" guests for Heather. Here she is with a duo who serenaded her with typical Costa Rican guitar accompanied music.

The "coming out" party begins with a formal ceremony. Heather and her attendants were pronounced as they entered the building and her escort led her to her father in the center of the room. Once joined with her Dad, Ken and Heather did the first dance together, the waltz as her attendants looked on. Before they finished, her escort, our neighbor and Heather's best "buddy", Osvaldo, cut in and completed the waltz with her and the rest of the attendant party joined them on the dance floor. Heather and Ken, Danielle and Kyle practiced two nights for this dance since they didn't know it before under the direction of Katherine & David.

Following the dancing came a full course catered meal with waiters as our special present to honor Heather. Here, behind the waiter on the left, she is going from table to table thanking each person who came to help her celebrate!

For those who might have wondered....

Yes, we are still alive in Costa Rica. Let me just apologize! We have really been very busy the last couple of weeks and so, I've kind of let the posting to our blog get behind. We had a good Thanksgiving (I have pictures to share). Last weekend, we had the Pastor's retreat and 460 Pastor's and their wives were in attendance at the campground (I have pictures to share). Heather had a great 16th birthday Fiesta (and I have pictures to share)! It's just getting the time to sit down long enough to post the pictures that has been difficult. This week we have a team here from the great state of N.C., Charlotte to be exact, doing children's ministry at the camp and that has kept us out of trouble with the usual preparations of grocery shopping, cabin cleaning and bed-making. So, just in case you have been wondering. We are okay here, just really busy and truly I hope to share with you this week a bit more in detail of what we have been up to in recent weeks!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Thank you to all of you who have remembered us back home as the Thanksgiving holiday approaches. Thank you for your well wishes via cards and emails!

We will be celebrating by me cooking for 19 Ticos who we consider dear friends and our Tico family. They are our right hands, so to speak, and work with us and for us at the camp. Without their support, we would not be able to do what we do. This is our way of sharing our American tradition with them.

In the midst of all of this activity, the camp is hosting a Pastor's retreat beginning on Friday evening and lasting until Saturday evening. We expect a minimum of 300 Pastor's and up to as many as 500 to be in attendance. Also joining us for our Thanksgiving meal tomorrow, but coming in for the Pastor's retreat will be the Vice-President of Global Outreach Mission, Len Lane. He will be staying here for a week and we have several meetings to attend with him at the camp with architects, contractors etc. as we prepare for upcoming construction teams.

He leaves next Thursday and on Friday arrives the team from Threshold Church in Charlotte, N.C. as they minister at the camp doing a week-long VBS. Today, we will finish the shopping for the Threshold team, the staple foods since we have so much going on before their arrival. Danielle was a bit embarassed on Monday when we left PriceSmart (our Costa Rican Sam's Club) with four shopping carts full of food.

Needless to say, there may not be too many posts over the next week, but I will see what I can do. On that note, the following are our favorite Thanksgiving verses taken from I Chronicles 29:11-13.

"Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, indeed everything that is in the heavens and the earth; Yours is the dominion, O Lord, and You exalt Yourself as head over all. Both riches and honor come from You, and You rule over all, and in Your hand is power and might; and it lies in Your hand to make great and to strengthen everyone. Now therefore, our God, we thank You, and praise Your glorious name".

Happy Thanksgiving to each of you, our family, our church family, dear friends and supporters. We cannot express to you how much we miss you during this holiday season, how blessed we feel to have you as a part of our lives, but more importantly a part of this ministry with us! May God continue to bless you abundantly and beyond what you ask for.

With much love and gratitude,
Ken & Sherri, Danielle, Heather, Kyle & Jordie

One step forward, two steps back!

Ken went down to the camp pool early this morning to give it a cleaning since we had a school renting for the day to have a party. He returned to the house rather quickly to tell me that the camp had been robbed again (second time in one week) and that this time they stole the pool pump. (insert eyeball roll, here) Last Thursday in the middle of the night someone used tools to cut themselves into the camp through the fencing, stole the battery out of the camp truck, but before they did that, they shut the power off to the camp at the road! This disabled the sensor lights in the driveway. They also cut and removed the brake lines and stole tools that were in the truck. Last night, they used tools again to cut the lock off the pump house, removed the PVC piping hooked up to the pump, and then tore the electrical wires away from the pump itself. They also followed the conduit lines away from the pump; one is for water to the pump and the other is for the electricity and cut the conduit and pulled the wires out. Not too long ago we had drained, cleaned and painted the pool in preparation for the upcoming short-term teams and also rental groups. It was a lot of work for a week for the team! Without the pump and chemicals (I forgot to mention that they stole those also) it will be difficult to maintain the pool. Our initial phone calls to pool supply stores has the cost of a replacement pump at $1,000. Needless to say, while filing a police report, we were informed that several area businesses had been hit in the last week around the Orosi Valley. The police don't expect it to end any time soon with the holidays approaching and just the fact that there are a lot of people with drug problems in this area. Last week, the police strongly recommended that we not leave anyone at home by themselves, adult or teenager. Please pray for our safety here!

Today, Kyle and I thought something had hit our house when we were inside and we heard a loud, deadening noise. It startled both of us and we asked each other "what or who just hit something against the corner of the house". We found out on the news that we had another quake here with the epicenter only being about 25 minutes away in Cartago.

Tonight, we spent some time putting the finishing touches on Heather's birthday party preparations for tomorrow evening. She will be celebrating her 16th birthday on December 3. In Costa Rica, you have a "coming out" fiesta for your 15th birthday and a formal ceremony led by your Pastor or Priest complete with attendees (equal to a bridal party), a father-daughter dance and lighting of ceremonial candles. We have 60 guests expected for Heather's ceremony tomorrow night as she celebrates her 16th birthday, but in the 15th birthday Costa Rican tradition. I hope to be able to post some pictures over the weekend of this traditional Costa Rican milestone!

Wobbly!!!

Last night I experienced a first! At some time between midnight and 12:15 our dog, Luna, began to bark loud enough that she woke me up. I noticed that the front gate to our home was making a clanging sound. I got out of bed to see who might be trying to enter, but when my feet hit the floor, I had difficulty standing still. I felt unsteady and as though my body was swaying from side to side. I spent most of the day with a terrible migraine headache and knew that my blood pressure was up from the pain in my head. While the headache was gone, I figured I must have gotten out of bed too quickly and was dizzy. The barking of the dog and clanging of the gate had no impact on the rest of the family! Needless to say, in Spanish class this morning I mentioned to Marjorie that I hadn't felt very good last night and explained my apparent "dizzy spell" to which she broke out in laughter! She informed me that we had a 7.0 earthquake in the middle of the night and I wasn't dizzy at all; that's just what it feels like when you are in the middle of one! While it was not any "dish-breaking", "pictures falling from the walls" event, it was about a minute of a constant trembling, but strong enough that I needed to plant my feet apart from each other and lean into our bedroom wall for support! A lot of our neighbors slept through it much like my family, but then some were able to confirm to my family that I wasn't crazy, as they had experienced the same effects! Marjorie says that in December we will feel more frequent tremors and not only did we have Spanish class today, we also had a lesson in earthquake safety! Well, we've mastered the "hurricane" procedures, now it's on to earthquakes :)

Busy Days and Perspective

The last couple of days Ken, Kyle & David have been working on building the above stage inside the Celebration Center of the camp. This morning this picture was taken of them putting down a second coat of paint. This stage is in preparation for an upcoming Pastor's Conference that is being held in Jardin Sagrado the last weekend of November. It is expected that 300 to 500 Pastor's will be attendance during the weekend, coming from all over the country. The church that is planted at the campground will also be able to use the stage as well as rental groups who have special services. While David & Katherine were visiting our house last night, it dawned on all of us that lately, a lot of our pictures on our blogs were just showing us working around the camp and not doing a whole lot of ministry. A lot of the work that we have been doing lately is for rental groups, upcoming short-term missionary teams that will be coming down from the U.S. and Canada, as well as the day-to-day maintenance and operation of the campground itself. It's a lot of hands and knees work! I am thankful that all of us at the camp are on the same page as far as reaching out into our community and that we have a strong drive to reach outside the gate of the camp! None of us ever wants to be so "caught up" in the administration of the camp, that we are too busy ourselves to serve outside of it. While cleaning the pool, building stages, cleaning cabins, bathrooms and all of the other things that we do to keep the camp "running" so that other ministries, whether it be Tico groups or short-term teams may carry out their ministries is ministry, we too, have a need to minister to others...it is why we are here! On November 27th we will be ministering to our camp employees and their families by serving them Thanksgiving dinner prepared by Katherine & myself. Costa Ricans do not celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday. What better way to share our tradition with them and what better time for them to hear from us how thankful we are for each of them and how they serve us! School gets out in mid-December so we are in the process of planning a family activity day at the camp. Our weekends are booked with rental groups from now until mid-March and between Dec. and mid-February we will be hosting four short-term teams. Please continue to keep all of us here at the camp in your prayers as we serve and as we reach out to proclaim the Good News of our Savior!

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!

6th months...

This weekend we have to leave Costa Rica, crossing the border into Nicaragua to get our passports stamped. We do this every 90 days. This weekend also marks a ministry milestone, in that we have now been here for six months. One thing hasn't changed in the time that I have been here. That is, the understanding that we ALL have natural and spiritual gifts that God has equipped each of us with. God won't use those who are unwilling and fight against Him. He cannot and He will not force us to serve Him. But, He did promise that He would empower us to do His work and He would prepare us for it. I think there is a misconception that missionaries are spiritual Super Hero's. I can promise you that we have been tested over the past six months in our faith. I can promise you that there have been days when we have really struggled with wanting to come home. There have been frustrating days because of language barriers. But, I can also tell you that on those particular days God was present with us! He has used many different ways to meet our spiritual needs and to encourage us in our ministry; emails, an opportunity to have some free time and check our mail and not ironically find that we had received something from home, specifically a letter from our parents, or from our church, phone calls that we "out of the blue" received from friends at home and the list can go on. I guess, what I am trying to say, is that we are ALL "called"! Faithfulness and availability is all that HE needs because He can, and is able, to fill in the gaps. And while I wish I was "Mrs. Incredible", I realize that these times of hardship and frustration are intended to continue to mold me; my attitude, my actions and my heart so that I might be more like Him.

Important: Prayer Request

This picture was taken in January when our house was placed on the market in N.C. (thus, no green grass, blooming trees, etc.) A couple of weeks ago we lowered the price of our home...again. I am still working my full-time N.C. job to pay for the mortgage on the home. It means that I have to cut back on my ministry plate (which is full) down here in order to do the work or sometimes "burn the candle at both ends" to help get what needs to be done here. At this time, we just want to bring this situation before you and ask you to join us in prayer over this matter. It is impacting our ability to minister in Costa Rica physically and financially.

Typical Costa Rican dress

With permission, this is a picture of Siday (the Youth Pastor's wife) holding Alianna (David & Katherine's daughter) after church yesterday. This is the typical dress that you would see children and women wear for celebrations such as Independence Day and at Christmas. Yesterday, Siday (who heads up Children's Ministry) at our church dedicated the entire service to the children. Last week, we celebrated "Children's Day" and this week was of course their national holiday, Independence Day. She did a small sermon on Samuel, but also incorporated children's day dancing and the typical dance that is done in celebration of Independence Day with the help of the Youth from the church. Of course, no children's celebration in Costa Rica is complete without a cake or a pinata! Jordan was chosen to whack at the pinata a few times which was special for him since he has never had a pinata at a party before. We had a lot of fun attending the parade today and together with David & Katherine we had a family picnic!

Happy Independence Day Costa Rica!

Today, is Independence Day in Costa Rica. Right now, there is a truck just a few feet from our house blocking our small road and blaring pre-recorded Marachi band music (it's good stuff). There are two ponies outside our gate chewing on grass and the neighbors are beginning to line the street on this Sunday morning. I expect that in a few minutes the neighborhood school will be having their parade and that is what everyone is waiting for. Tomorrow is the "BIG" festivities, parades all over the country. We hope to be able to attend one with David & Katherine for the cultural experience. Today in church most people will wear traditional clothing in the colors of red, white and blue. Not sure that my red "Carolina Hurricanes" pajama pants meets the standard. Well, I guess it's time to step outside and enjoy the celebration!

Extreme Make-Over in Costa Rica!

The Celebration Center got an upgrade to its roof...insulation! Back in July we had ordered all the supplies for insulating the roof due to changes in Costa Rican building codes, and this week a Costa Rican company arrived to do the installation. This picture is the men removing the sheeting. You wouldn't get away with this in the States! No harnesses, no safety lines, no OSHA!

Taken from inside of the building, you can see the layer of insulation.

Again, from inside the building, this picture is the roof now completely insulated.

Here's also a picture from the inside, the old, uninsulated roof. Just for kicks, Katherine and I went into the building last night and had a little shouting session, (not at each other, of course) to test it out! It is amazing; the improvement in sound in the building! And it looks really, really nice too!

What you don't know, won't kill you...

That's Ken. This was the white water rafting excursion. It was all just explained to me today that there are different levels of difficulty in white water rafting, the highest level being a 5. This river had 4's and 4+'s, and the 5's were just up river a little bit further! It was explained in the "oh, so familiar" Man-jibberish with grunts and groans of satifaction and delight, similar to when he sees new Craftsman tools with that infamous "glazed over look". This is crazy!

White Water Rafting and Packing Up

Well, today was the Threshold team's free-day. Ken accompanied them to Turrialba to do some white water rafting...um, better him than me! Tonight they will begin packing up since they need to leave the camp at around 11 a.m. so that we can get them to the airport on time! To their families I'd like to say thank you for the sacrifice that you have made this past week without them at home. We have truly enjoyed getting to know each of your loved ones while they were here. They are a GREAT bunch of guys! Thanks for loaning them to Costa Rica if only for one week. Our prayer is that in some way they were blessed as they served, and as we served them! Our prayers go with you as you travel..