Important Update & Ministry Frustration!

Somedays it is just plain frustrating working with computers or actually not knowing how to work with my computer would be a more accurate statement! I have forever wanted to know how to put a video on here. Really, I would love to know how to make a video, first of all! Well, Katherine made one for her blog and our team of the two and a half weeks of ministry that we did at the Children's Home in Paraiso. She had Heather load it on her flash drive. We downloaded it to my laptop. I can play it on my computer and it is a really nice video. I just thought you would like to know that since I can't seem to get it loaded on here properly...frustrating! I have also been working on a newsletter in recent days. That has not come easy either. Ergh! The biggest frustration is that communication is "key" to missions work. I am a a communicator by nature. I don't like people to feel left in the dark. I certainly don't want my supporters to feel as though we take their support for granted! Please pray that I can get some things "figured out" this weekend on this computer so that I can better communicate with all of you who take the time to read our blog. Thank you for the really nice comments about the pictures, although, keep that in your prayers also. Our digital camera that we have had for three years broke. To replace it here will cost double the price since electronics are so costly here. Right now, as far as future ministry photos, we have to download them off Katherine's memory card.

For anyone reading the blog from the great state of North Carolina, in particular, the Charlotte area; your loved ones arrived here safely on Tuesday afternoon. They are all a hoot! Great senses of humor! Yesterday, they looked more like a demolition crew than construction workers, but they are progressing in their work. By this afternoon, I hope to be able to join them in painting since I was shooed off yesterday when we couldn't see each other due to "dust" and I am an asthmatic!

The Update: The main reason I wanted to post the video was to be able to show more pictures of the kids from the children's home. I thought it would be nice to hear the spanish music and see their pictures. Also the post would have been about the fact that when we left on Friday, Cynthia, the Educational Director told us that we "are welcome back to the children's home at any time and that the doors will always be open for us to serve there". I left with tears in my eyes. Like I have said so many, many times before, we step out in faith to serve and most of the time we return far more blessed! On Friday, not only did we serve the children, but before we left, we went to each individual home, and we laid hands on each mother and prayed for her, her home and the children that are placed in her care as a team. It was a special time! Please pray for a mother who really touched me. Her name is Carmen. We talked to her for just a few minutes after we prayed for her and before we went on to the next house. She has mainly preschoolers in her home that she cares for. She told us that it was such a blessing to be able to have some time apart from the kids when we came and took them from her home to minister to them in another area of the children's home. She is tired, but she is so gentle in her nature with the children and as I prayed for her, she lifted her hands to the Lord. Her deepest desire is to be a blessing to those little ones that the Lord has entrusted in her care!

How can you help minister to these 115 children and also the mothers? Begin to specifically pray for how you might take part in "Operation Orphan". We will be sending out a letter soon through Global Outreach Mission explaining a Christmas party that we will be hosting for the Children's Home at the camp. Our desire is to serve them through a day-long children's program, again pulling in the Youth Group from our church in order to lead them in serving their people!

Construction team preparations

We have been busy the last couple of days doing final preparations for a team that is coming down from none other than N.C. They are from the Charlotte area and will be doing some construction. Final preparations have included getting last minute items at the grocery store, (we did the bulk load of shopping on Saturday when we took the last summer missionary interim to the airport), construction supplies, a huge supply of clean, drinkable water and those kinds of things. I am a little tired tonight. They arrive at the airport around midday. Tomorrow we eat dinner with the team and then have an orientation meeting. They will be here for one week. They asked if there was anything that they could bring us. I can never think of anything when people ask and I never know what people might think is asking too much. It's kind of hard. So, what did I ask for? A bag of Bojangles biscuits! I can just about smell them! Course, Danielle had to tell us all the places she was going to "hit" when she got home after being down here for three weeks...Bojangles, Chick-fil-A, Cracker Barrel. Ken & I wouldn't give her the satisfaction. We just covered our ears and hummed and she went on and on. Hopefully tomorrow I can post some pictures of the children's home ministry that we did last Friday. I got to talk to my Mom & Dad tonight. I have only talked to them once since being here. Today is my Mom's birthday and I wanted to surprise her. I got to speak with my brother for just a few minutes too. They all sounded really good! Happy Birthday, Mom! I love you and Dad very much!

Serving Costa Rica as Missionary Kids

As we were preparing for some upcoming clinics with our summer missionary interims; on a couple of occasions the team would go out into the neighborhood to practice taking BP's, weights, temps and heights. You be amazed that by offering this "Free" service, it would open the doors for them to share their faith, pray for people, hand out tracts and cultivate relationships. They were also able to get the word out about the church meeting at the campground. This is Jordan with his backpack loaded down with tracts handing one to a young lady in the neighborhood and talking to her.

This is Kyle with Kat as his interpreter praying for a man in our neighborhood.

Heather...the "bead queen" taking a break from the triage area of a recent clinic to string some beads with the kids!

On one of the "walks" through the neighborhood Heather practiced taking blood pressures as Jordan looked on.

There are always "jobs" to be done at the camp. On this day, Heather helped us out with painting a cabin. She is proud of her new smile. Notice that she has had her teeth capped! Gone are the West Johnston High School Marching Band Color Guard trophies! This was done recently by a missionary dentist for free at one of the God Festivals. God is good!

Ephesians 2:10

"For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do".

Children's ministry, as many of you know, is my passion, a burden, a gift that God has given to me. Coming from very humble beginnings and being "dropped off" at social services for adoption has always been part of my personal testimony and my desire will always be to use those circumstances for His honor and His glory. Katherine, my teammate, is a preschool teacher and children's ministry runs in her veins too! I had been thinking and praying about what God would have us to do as far as children's ministry here in Costa Rica. While we have short-term teams come down and do children's ministry with us; I was praying for something that we could begin to do as a family and a team on a monthly basis, perhaps for a day or afternoon every two weeks. Katherine came up with the idea of trying to see if a children's home would consider opening their doors to us (Amy, our summer missionary interim is also a preschool teacher) so that we could minister to the children there. I knew of a youth home in Cartago, about a 45 minute drive from the camp that may be we could call. What Kat found out in her phone calling was that there was a children's home 20 minutes away from the camp in the town of Paraiso. Paraiso is where we receive our mail. It quite honestly seemed to be "too good to be true" to find out that there was a home so close to us! She made the phone call and for the last two weeks, Amy and Brittany (the other summer missionary interim who has now returned to the States) have been ministering in this children's home, sharing the gospel through Bible stories, doing crafts, singing, hugging and loving on these children. There are 115 young children at this home. There are several "houses" on the property which have a Mom and about nine kids living in them to make a "family". The Mom's are exhausted, some of the Mom's are young, but this is their "job".
Last Friday night, Danielle and Brad, Jeffrey (our church Youth Pastor) and 7 members of our Youth Group here at the church went to the children's home with our team (the boys and I had to stay home to provide enough seats in the van) and served a hot dog supper followed by a movie to the kids. This was Brittany's last time to serve with the children and it was a kind of party, an ending to the two weeks of ministry there. We provided microwave popcorn and it was interesting to hear how the kids would finish the popcorn and then rip open the bags and lick the butter on the inside wrapper of the bags. They enjoyed it so much!

Amy is leaving this Saturday to return to the States too. Tomorrow and Friday Kat, Amy and our entire family will be ministering in the children's home. We will work with the younger children in the mornings and the older children after lunch. This is a contact that we (Kat & I) have longed to have. This will enable us, when short-term children's ministry teams come down to Costa Rica from Canada and the States to take the team there to minister. It will also allow us to transport the kids to the camp for a team to minister there with the children. This is a beginning and right now we are in the "earn our trust" stages with this children's home, but the long-term implications of this partnership and the open doors it would provide for ongoing ministry are amazing!

We feel like this is, as the above verse says, something that God prepared in advance for us to do, since every phone call Kat made previously had a negative response. The Director knows that we are evangelical Christians and has given us permission to "share" our faith, as this is a privately owned children's home, not a government sponsored home, since their goal is to have each child make their own religious decisions!

Please continue to keep our team in your prayers as we pray about the direction that God would have us to continue in with this partnership. Pray for the youth of our church as we continue to pull them into joining us in reaching out to their people! Pray for us as we attempt to minister to the Mom's. The Director shut down our idea of having Danielle serve them by providing hair cuts last week, but we are praying about how we can directly minister to them. The hot dog dinner and movie was our Plan B and we thank the Lord for His provision to allow us to serve both the children and the Mom's in this way!

These children are not easy to work with, but in God's eyes I can only assume that neither am I!

Serving in the "Red Zone"

On August 9th we partnered with Festival con Dios (God Festival) and entered the "Red Zone" of the capital city, San Jose. Global Outreach Mission has been partnering with this ministry for the past couple of years. The "Red Zone" is considered to be the most dangerous part of the inner city. Here reside the drug addicts, prostitutes, alcoholics and homeless. God Festival has a roster of 90 volunteers who once a month, usually the last Saturday of each month, literally go into a designated area (they even cross the borders of neighboring countries such as, but not limited to Nicaragua, to serve) and "saturate" it for the Lord! The volunteers consist of Christian lawyers who donate their counsel, hair stylists, dentists, children's ministry workers, Pastors, evangelism teams, medical personnel and cooks. The initial wave of God Festival volunteers arrive in the designated area at 4 a.m. and set up the tents, stage, food areas and equipment. The rest of the volunteers arrive at around 7 a.m., finish setting up their own personal equipment and begin serving the people by approximately 8 a.m.

This is Danielle at the hairstylists station. Heather is acting as Danielle's interpreter to find out how the people would like their hair cut and the young lady in the black T-shirt is a Tica volunteer. She is Danielle's security guard should someone get a little crazy. To the left of Heather, but out of view of the picture are another eight hairstylists who are set up to work and to the right of Danielle, also out of view of the picture are two armed security guards. Danielle began cutting hair at 8 a.m. Sadly, every person she worked on had head lice.

Brad and our interim missionary served in a number of positions this day. They started out in children's ministry when there was shortage of workers early in the day, were pulled into the pharmacy to count pills for prescriptions when things got busy, and ended up working in evangelism, handing out tracks and praying for people. The evangelistic volunteer team literally spans out into the surrounding neighborhood of where the festival is taking place, going door-to-door handing out tracks and witnessing to whoever will listen.

These are children's ministry worker volunteers. The lady to the left is dressed as a clown and she is pointing to a beaded bracelet explaining the plan of salvation as represented by different colored beads which both the volunteers have made with these two children. She also has made a balloon animal for the girl.

I am working in the pharmacy and the licensed pharmacist has asked me to count pills before the doctors even begin seeing patients based on what she knows will be the most commonly prescribed medications for this area. I am working on preparing and labeling Amoxicillin (an antibiotic).

This is the triage area where they are beginning to consult with patients, take their vitals and get them in to see physicians. I sometimes work at this station since I went to school to be a Medical Assistant. This is actually set up in a nearby church building, what appeared to be their Sunday School rooms, and everything else is going on outside, set up in the central park of the city.

What you don't see are the food service volunteers who feed every single person who comes to the festival this day a good, hot meal.

After we left the airport on Saturday we drove three hours away, nearly to Limon, to work in a medical clinic in a very remote part of the country that our Pastor had set up in a church for us. We spent the night Saturday night and Sunday we saw 125 patients. I saw another Pastor lead a young lady to the Lord!

Well, this is just one aspect of our ministry here. Please continue to pray for our medical clinics that people would be relieved from health conditions and from "heart conditions" too.

Blessed!

We've been a little "teary-eyed" around here the last two days, but we were so blessed to be able to have three weeks with Danielle & Brad! Saying good-bye was even more difficult than in March when we left, but we deeply appreciate those of you who have emailed us yesterday and today to check in and to just let us know that you are praying for us! It means so much and has been such an encouragement!

God's timing is always amazing to us and after five months, the internet connection was installed in our home today! It is so nice to be able to email Danielle (maybe four times in an hour is a little "much" for her), but I can't tell you how comforting it is just to have this connection, not to mention with family and friends! Ah, to be able to sit down at the laptop and write longer emails to people without feeling rushed and to be able to share! You never know how much you miss something until you are required to go without it!

I hope to be able to post some pictures on here of some of our recent ministry projects and share in more detail what we have been up to in recent weeks. With using someone else's internet in their home before, I felt like I was just posting in "survival" mode.

Here's a quote that has been speaking to me as we serve here in Costa Rica! I really thought it was worth sharing.

"Do not expect God to do apart from prayer, what He has said He would do only if we pray"...Arnold Geswein

Surf's Up Dudes and Dudettes!!!

Here's a picture of Jordan on his 8th birthday on Wednesday! Ken decided that we should rent Jordie a surf board for the day. This picture is taken at Jaco Beach on the Pacific Ocean where they take beginner's to learn to surf. Needless to say, well, Jordie didn't get up on his feet, but he seemed to have a good time! Danielle, Brad, Kyle and even Ken all gave it a try. We are still waiting for "The Jordie" as in Foister to come and teach us all how to surf properly and quit paddling around! Happy Birthday, Jordan Taylor!

Volcan Arenal!

I'm so excited, nobody else is, but that's okay! I have finally seen the number one tourist attraction here in Costa Rica. I "off the cuff" made the comment on Saturday evening that we should leave "now", however, I forgot how adventurous and spontaneous Danielle can be and sure enough, two hours later, at around midnight when we had planned on leaving at around 7 am ish on Sunday morning, we were on our way to the Volcano. Okay, the keyboard is in Spanish and I can't remember how to decode it for the "icons" like space, the paragraph sign, so you will just have to bear with me...sorry! Needless to say, we arrived here at 4:30 a.m. on Sunday morning, couldn't check into the hotel, had a hard time finding a restaurant open for breakfast and well, it's been fun. We got a glimmer of the volcano without any clouds around it when we arrived, but it has been shrouded since. They say it has been blowing some lava, but again, last night there were too many clouds to see it. I'm glad we had the few minutes to take it in because it was certainly worth it! This morning we are leaving for the other hot destination, the Pacific Ocean side of the country which is the only thing Brad really wanted to see while he was here, but I have to say, Ken is just as excited! He woke up this morning and said he wanted to leave. I said the word, "beach" to Danielle and in ten minutes she was packed and ready to go. I felt bad for poor Brad! No shower, no time for teeth brushing, just get to the hotel free breakfast table. I gave him a big hug as stumbled around his room. Danielle has been busy doing free haircuts and needs a break. So, I just thought I'd let eveyone know, we're on our way out of here and driving four to five hours to spend two days at the beach. Okay, the natives are ready as they stand around me! Until later....Sherri

Stay tuned....

Some people just don't know when to quit! I was held hostage at my diningroom table last night until well after 12 a.m. and subject to beating Brad at Phase-10. While the game isn't over yet, Ken is on Phase-8, I am in 2nd place and Brad...he's nearly last as far as point standings! I let him beat me in Turkey Foot since it is really his "family" game and I wanted him to have a warm welcome! He's in back of me snickering and saying, "right". Yesterday, we had a last minute group decide to come in and Danielle & Brad frantically helped us make beds. We had just sent a construction team home on Saturday evening. We're a little tired, but having family here keeps us going and laughing too! We are making plans to take them to the Pacific Ocean side of the country and along the way we will see Volcan Arenal which is smoking at this time. We haven't had the opportunity to go there yet, so this will be a first for all of us as an entire family. Got to speak with Robin on the phone for just a few minutes. I cried, but I miss our church family and our friends here so badly. It's a process and a daily re-commitment to the Lord just to get through some days. Keep us in your prayers!

"One more sleep"....

That's how Jordan keeps on track with "big" events in his life. He counts down the days by how many more times he has to go to sleep. Tonight is only "one more sleep" and Danielle & Brad are going to be arriving before noon. Problem is, I don't think any of us here on this end will be sleeping since we are too excited! Brad has already made a checklist via telephone as to whether the Parchessi board game and Phase 10 are in our home here in Costa Rica. We are fully armed and ready for battle which also includes Turkey Foot, the Towle family game! It's gonna be a long three weeks! (snicker)

Congratulations!!!!

Congratulations Danielle on completing your Cosmetology education and scoring the highest in your class on the four-part clinical exams. I cannot even begin to express to you how deeply proud Dad and I are of you! We know that it has not been easy, especially this last semester without your family at home, but you pressed on and focused on your goals. We do want to see "ALL" your paperwork!!! :) We love you and we cannot wait to see you...only two more sleeps! All our love,
Dad & Momma

Serving Costa Rica

Hi everyone! I am so sorry that we have not posted a new update sooner! We have been really busy the past six weeks. Today, we took an interim missionary couple, the Metzler's, to the airport waking up at 3:30 a.m. They have been serving here alongside of us for the past five weeks. We also have a young lady living in our home by the name of Brittany Hoffman. She is also an interim missionary and has been here since very early in June and will return to the States in August after hopefully surviving two and a half months in the Dundon household! Last week, we picked up Amy Reidy at the airport who is staying in a cabin at the campground and has a passion for children's ministry and she will stay here for five weeks! Please continue to pray for each of these people as they prayerfully consider missionary service in their futures and as we expose them to missionary service.

This Saturday we have a construction team arriving from the States. They will be here for a week working on finishing the kitchen at the camp and doing some work on the Celebration Center. We have been busy preparing for this team by pricing out building supplies, making purchases and having deliveries of construction materials here at the campground. Today, after getting the Metzler's to the airport we did all of the grocery shopping for the camp cook in preparation for the arrival of this team.

Last Saturday, we traveled to Isla de Chira, a remote island about 4-1/2 hours away. We traveled by bus, boat and truck to get to the people there. We ministered to 177 people through a free medical clinic, prayed for people and shared the gospel through children's ministry. We brought in fruits and vegetables since it is so difficult for them to get on the island to minister to the people there that opened up their church for us to set up in. I served in the pharmacy. One of the doctor's that volunteered with us, though we had three attending physicians this day, had to leave by boat with a man who had hip surgery the week before. He was in his home, slipped and fell in his bathroom and his stitches ripped open. His hip was actually outside of his body as he laid on his bathroom floor for two days when someone finally checked on him. Our doctor mobilized the patient and traveled by boat with him for an hour to admit him to a hospital. Sadly, we saw teenagers with sexually trasmitted diseases and incest was rampant on the island. Some days, you go out to serve and you return feeling like you could never possibly do enough! The other night our team laid hands on the patient sheets that we brought back from the island and each of us prayed over the 177 patients. I hope that we can make it back to the island one day and serve there again. Until then, please pray for the 3,000 people that live there. Many blessed us with their smiles and appreciative hugs! Our prayer is that seeds were planted and that God was glorified and honored in our service.

HUGE blessing!

This is our used, but gratefully new to us van that we use here in Costa Rica. We went a full month without a vehicle and I have to say, this is the only vehicle that I have been able to ride in here and not get car sick in. (It was a tad bit embarrassing to get to your destination and look for a place to barf.) It seats 11 people. One of the reasons we went so long was because we were spending our time shopping around trying to get the best deal. This van has low mileage and well, I didn't actually see this van before Ken bought it, but he knew I would like it! It's hunter green...one of my favorite colors!

Thanks to all of you who helped us purchase this van by giving funds directly toward our outgoing expenses. We want you to know that we deeply appreciate your sacrificial giving on our behalf! We are absolutely blessed beyond what we deserve! Thank you so much!!!

Storms

Well, we have had a "wild" last week here with the storms that have passed over Central America. Here is a picture of the road washed out about a mile from our home that leads to our town. There is another way out going the opposite direction, but the route is longer. With the wash out of the road came loss of water for the weekend. It was wonderful to take a shower on Sunday evening finally, but then last night, the new water pipe burst and we had no water today. All that we can do is laugh and enjoy it while we have it!

The Palm Beach Atlantic team saw a total of 303 patients while in Los Chilies. We did not receive a total on the final number of people who made first time commitments from the evangelistic team. Ken had the opportunity to do door-to-door evangelism with the team and was asked at the third house that he visited if he had anything he wanted to add to the gospel presentation. He felt like the Holy Spirit would have him to say something and as he says, "took a gigantic leap of faith" and did. Three people in a family received the Lord in that home. When he returned to work in children's ministry while the team was doing the medical clinic, he had a young girl ask him if he would pray with her to receive Jesus into her heart.

Before the team left they also did a clinic in the campground and saw 103 patients, 30 of which made first time commitments. I also had the opportunity to share with five people who accepted the Lord. I cried with each one (no big surprise there). I was overwhelmed. God doesn't need us, yet He allows us to be used for His purposes and it is very humbling! We are truly amazed!

Thank you to everyone who remembered my birthday! It was so exciting to receive birthday cards in the mail here in Costa Rica! Thank you to all of you who sent e-mails too!

We love and miss you!

Torn hearts

Well, one thing that no one can prepare you for is the attachment that you have when a team comes down to serve with you. I guess you end up giving a little bit of yourself away each time and it hurts when they have to leave. When their bus passed by the entrance of the campground upon their leaving Jordan and I waved as they drove off to the airport. When they were out of sight Jordan walked back to a picnic table on the white house patio, placed his arm on the table and his head down on his arm and bawled. I tried to explain to him that there will be many more people that we have to say good-bye too over the next couple of months.

This is the hardest thing about being a missionary! To everyone who came down from Palm Beach, we love you and we truly do miss you!

Prayers Answered!

The teams arrived safely at the airport...Always an answer to prayer! Team A made their way on to the other places that they are ministering to before they meet up with Team B, which has been staying at the camp, in Los Chilies. When they combine at Los Chilies they are a team of 38; I think I should have clarified that better in my last post. Team B is comprised of 23 Palm Beach University students. They are a great bunch and we have thoroughly enjoyed the past couple of days with them. To the Mom's & Dad's of those kids who might be reading this; as I told them all last night, "Ya' done good"! They left this morning for Los Chilies. Team B returns to us on Sunday night with a day of sightseeing scheduled for Monday and then an all-day clinic at the campground scheduled for Tuesday. They leave for the airport on Wednesday at 1 p.m. There is a young lady on this team who went to Campbell University and their Director is from Henderson, N.C. We've had a fun time talking to them about "home" in N.C. I tried to keep off the subject of food; like Bojangles! What I wouldn't give for a biscuit and a chicken leg! :)

God answered another huge prayer on behalf of David & Katherine and Ken on Tuesday. The team was held up in customs over medication and after explaining why so much medication was coming into the country the woman said, "it's all well and good what you are trying to do, but today you won't be taking the medications through" and she walked back into the office, and left David & Katherine and Ken at the counter. The three of them began to pray over the medicine and for the people who needed it. The woman came back a few minutes later, looked at them and said, "I never saw you here, now go"! They turned, motioned to the team to get the bags and passed through customs with the medicine! I cannot wait for them to get back. I believe that God has big things planned for this outreach and for this specific team! I believe that they will be meeting physical, but also spiritual needs these next two days. I also know that Satan is against what they are trying to do. Please continue to pray for both teams!

I'd never make it as a super hero, Nathan (hanging head). Today, I unplugged the phone and took a nap! (Well, for that matter, so did Kyle & Jordan)!

Los Chilies

Ken, Katherine & David are at the airport this afternoon. They are picking up the short-term missions team, 38 members strong coming in today. Please continue to keep this team in your prayers over this next week. They will be leaving the camp on Thursday morning after breakfast for a 7 to 8 hour vehicle ride to Los Chilies. Los Chilies is located at the northern border of Costa Rica and Nicaragua. There, they will be ministering through three days of medical clinics. They say it can be 110 degrees there and the conditions are deplorable as the people group is mostly Nicaraguan refugees. Ken and Heather will be making this trip together and they will return on Sunday evening. I will stay at home down the road from the camp with the boys since while this group is gone we will have a Costa Rican church renting the campground for the day on Saturday. We have had the campground rented out the last three weekends for Saturday rentals and when this team leaves next week, we will have a group of 70 renting the campground for the weekend! We have spent this past weekend also preparing for this large group by actually having to disassemble bunk beds and then set them up in other cabins, doing laundry (towels, washcloths, etc.) We are all kind of a bit tired, but we are really enjoying working together!

Please pray for safety for the team as they travel, for the boys and I as we stay home and manage the campground, and especially for the people that they will be ministering too. Pray now as the team prepares to bring medicine and the gospel to those who are hurting physically and spiritually.

To Hickory Grove: We miss you, more than words can express!

Picture

I thought you might enjoying seeing this picture! This was the little "visitor" to our laundry room during our second week here. Wow...that "zoom" button on our digital camera is an ingenious little feature since I was taking this from my neighbor's yard! I'm just kiddin'! You have to keep your sense of humor down here or else you will be miserable. Today, I have been looking through 82 emails. We finally got the telephone company to report to the house above the camp and restore the phone service and the internet line! I have not been able to check email for three days now! It's just part of that "learning to be flexible" thing! We are doing well, though Heather has been sick the last two days, throwing up all night the first night, but thankfully feeling better today, but continues to have stomach pain that is concerning us. She may have gotten some bad water, though we don't drink from the tap, and we may have to treat her for a parasite if the stomach pains continue over the next couple of days. I know she would appreciate you remembering her in prayer as she is a little bit uncomfortable. Thank you Chris for posting comments on here and Nathan. It's really nice to have something to read from home and from Nicaragua!

While the cat's away...

the mice will play! The interim missionaries, Bruce & Katie Kneigge have taken our children to see the ocean and should be home this afternoon. Ken and I were invited to go along also, but felt that we had too much to do here at the camp. We have a very busy month coming up in May with nationals renting the campground and also a medical short-term team. We have some cleaning that we would like to do and some organizing! They were nice enough to leave us the keys to their home so that we could use their internet line and also make phone calls home. Yesterday, we held a dinner after church in honor of the Kneigge's and the Lessley's (the Lessley's are retired and have been here for five-months overseeing and working on construction projects at the camp) and we presented them with handmade plaques by a Costa Rican artisian as a memorial to their service here. Pastor Jose knew how to get them and where.

We held another staff meeting over the weekend with David & Kathryn, our better halves, and they are missionary candidates now with Global trying to raise their support to be part of our team here at El Jardin Sagrado. They are bilingual and they handle all of the reservations for the camp. Kathryn helped us get around San Jose and get our driver's licenses last week! David & Kathryn will be moving down from San Jose to Orosi and will be living up the road from us. Kathryn is determined to teach me Spanish and called this morning rambling on and on in Spanish. I shocked her when I responded back en espanol! Right now, they come down on the weekends and I always cook Saturday dinner for them at our house. Kathryn always feels bad that they didn't bring anything, but I tell her, "you are our Tico family" and it blesses me particularly to be able to cook a big meal for them. I tell her it feels more like home when they are here and can eat a meal with us like a big family! They have a four-month-old daughter, Aliyana and Heather enjoys giving Kathryn a break and taking care of her. She's a cutie!

Heather & Kyle are enjoying their Youth Group here in Costa Rica. There are a couple of kids who speak English and so our phone, just like in the States, is now being taken over by Heather. That's a wonderful thing! We are happy that she and Kyle are making new friends!

Saturday night a bilingual group of 8 meets at the church. Lately, with some of the groups that are making reservations there has been a conflict with this group meeting in the church building. We found out from the Lessley's who have been helping this group, at least with the English side of things, that this is a very important class to have. Two of the attendees are Youth Group members because to continue their education they have to pass an English exam. The leader of the group is a Tico who is bilingual. Rather than have them not be able to meet, we offered to allow them to meet in front of our house as we have a large patio that is enclosed. We are sitting in on the class trying to pick up some Spanish, but we also help the leader, should he have questions regarding English meaning. More importantly, we are trying to build relationships and hope that this may allow us to share Jesus with someone from this group as not everyone who comes attends the church. Please continue to pray for this group and this ministry.

Dios te Bendiga!

Patience is a virtue...so is flexibility!

Alrighty then! God is still molding the Dundon Family...that's a good thing! We are slowly, and I do mean slowly, getting things done. Today, we made the heroing track up to San Jose to get our driver's license. I commented to Ken that I felt like I was in a James Bond movie with motorcycles driving in between vehicles and playing "chicken" in oncoming traffic. We now have our driver's licenses, not that I plan on using mine a whole lot, God willing! We have a phone line in our house for in-country calls only. So no one feels bad, we have spoken to Danielle once the last three weeks that we have been here! We have the internet ordered for the house, but that could take three months and we still have no P.O. Box to receive mail. This is really only frustrating us because we feel totally cut off from family and friends. While we are not homesick and do not miss our house in N.C. we miss communication! Well, my time is now up in the Internet Cafe. Ken is here to pick me up after getting gas and weed whacker line for Cokie, the camp's maintenance employee and he also wears the hat of "iguana remover, frog remover and some unidentified lizard remover" from the Dundon laundry room the past two days! We are being stretched and we are having a good time laughing at ourselves!!! :)