Please Pray!

Most of you reading this may already know. We left on Christmas Day afternoon for Atlanta and returned last night to our home in N.C. We helped my brother-in-law and sister-in-law put down a new ceramic tile kitchen floor. A couple of hours before we left, our daughter, Danielle, called us from N.C. My twin sister, Terri, had called her trying to track us down. Long story short, my 37-year-old, nephew, Karl, committed suicide at 1:40 a.m. yesterday morning. He is the son of my oldest brother, Dick. Please keep our entire family in your prayers.

I have little to say because all that I know to do during this time is to hold onto the truth that I know; that His ways are higher than our ways; that His grace is sufficient!

Right now, due to the nature of his death and what looks to be a bit of a delayed funeral, and the fact that we have airline tickets to return to Costa Rica this Sunday, and talking to family members, we are going to return as scheduled and take our flight. This Sunday, would have been Karl's birthday.

Thank you for lifting up our family during this difficult and painful time.

Ummm...WOW!

It's really been since November 5th that I last posted on the blog? Really? What? Where has the last month gone?

Things like "presentations" have kept us busy the last several weeks with our last church presentation coming up on Dec. 18th to our home. We now have flight confirmations to return to Costa Rica on January 1, 2012. About two weeks after we return to Costa Rica we will be hosting a 35-person team from the States and Canada who will have a three-fold, two-week ministry of construction at the camp finishing the new cabin; medical/dental clinics in rural, low-income areas with simultaneous children's ministry. We've been working diligently at home here in the States doing what logistical work we can to prepare for the team, but all good, fun things must come to an end! When we return we will plan the menu for the two weeks, finalize the driver's, interpreters and other volunteers that we will use with the team, order construction supplies and get those delivered to the camp for the construction team, and make beds for the team's arrival, just to name a few things on the "to do" list.

We appreciate your continued prayers as we finish our furlough here with our families before returning to Costa Rica, Christmas Eve with our kids in our home here in N.C.; Christmas Day with Ken's Mom in her home with an early afternoon departure on Christmas Day to Atlanta, Ga. to visit Ken's sister and put down her Christmas present from her husband - a new tile, kitchen floor. We return to N.C. on Dec. 28 if all goes well to pack up our things here for our return!

Hopefully, I'll get to post more before we leave! Thanks for reading and for praying!

So much to say, so little time!

Since Ken arrived home I feel like we've been caught in a cyclone that just keeps spinning us around and around; more on what we've been up to later.

It's 12:42 a.m. and we'd appreciate your prayers as tomorrow morning we will be doing a presentation at Garner Church of God during Kid's Church and speaking to children between the ages of 5 through 11 years. With talking to different age groups it usually means that you "mix up" the pictures some, and that's why I'm up so late tonight, just finishing working on the presentation. Also, on Wednesday evening of this next week, we will be speaking at Garner Church of God again, but to the adults, and wrapping up their revival services with our presentation. On the Sunday before Thanksgiving we will be presenting at Lighthouse Church for their morning service as well.

Please pray! You never know who the Lord may call to the Mission field!

Have you been checking back?

I'm sorry! I know I said I'd post pictures of the cabin, but I've not gotten around to it yet. It's 7:34 p.m. and I could go to bed for the night! I'm tired physically. I never sleep well in the bed by myself, though I don't mind stretching out and "hogging" the entire mattress :) I've been busy with the four kids; driving Heather back and forth to college, though because of the distance from the house and the need to conserve gas in our vehicle, that means I am on the college campus in the parking lot from 7:45 a.m. until 12:20 p.m. most days. Kyle is chipping away at homeschooling and when I return with Heather that beckons for my time as well. There's also administrative duties for our ministry that I have needed to get caught up on and got some mailing done this week which makes me happy to have it off my desk. I am ready for next Thursday when Ken comes home! Ready to have him home! Ready to be in a sleep-induced coma, at least for one good night!

I've been working on the "Furlough Bucket List" and this weekend with much cooler temperatures than we are used too, I will be inside and hopefully be able to get caught up on some thoughts and sharing on this blog!

Thanks for checking back in.

Did you know?

I'm not sure that I even mentioned this in the last post, but Ken is currently down in Costa Rica overseeing a construction team. The team has been there a week now and I understand from Ken that they have made great strides in working on the new cabin. I actually have my camera battery being charged up now as I type this, but I thought tomorrow, I would go back and post the pictures of the cabin as it has been built prior to us returning for furlough in May. When Ken gets back in two weeks, hopefully, I can post some of the pictures he has been taking as he and the team work, and that should pretty much bring everyone up-to-date on where we are cabin-wise.

In case you didn't know, the camp currently has the capacity to house 70, and when the new cabin is completed, it will boost us up to 96.

So, here's an invitation to check back in over the next couple of days to read up on our newest building at El Jardin Sagarado! Hope you'll return.

Hickory Grove Children's Ministry - Part II

This past Wednesday was the culmination of our working with the Hickory Grove Children's Ministry. The four weeks before we talked about what a missionary is, what the "message" is of a missionary. We talked specifically about the ministry that we do in Costa Rica with the campground and then we talked about the outreach ministries that we also do: the Orphan Home ministry, the two Children's homes, the Homeless Shelter, the Women's Ministry. We showed slides of all of the above, enjoyed some Costa Rican snacks, discussed the Wordless Book and finally finished our Wordless Book bracelets! Last Sunday, this group of kids stood up and sang in Spanish a four verse worship song we taught them over the four weeks. Okay, if ever there is a time that the Lord allows us to be "proud" - I was so proud of each of them! They sang that song like Spanish was their first language and we taught them what each verse meant in English. So, we finished our four weeks up sadly, but then found out that this past Wednesday night, the kids were planning on coming to our house to do a little service project for our family. A dear supporter and friend had been working on tidying up the landscape around the front of our house. Not having much a green thumb myself, he spent a week with me and the boys (Kyle & Jordan) educating us on the care of our shrubbery, trimming things back, killing weeds, and preparing the beds for winter. He brought fiberglass mesh, soil conditioner and he delivered three loads of mulch to the house the days prior to the kids arrival. Below are some pictures of the kids service project.

The first picture is looking down my porch stairs at one big pile of mulch!


With the fiberglass paper laid down and just a few landscape nails securing it, the kids finished placing and pushing in the nails, and then started to load up plastic beach buckets with the soil conditioner.

They were excited and ready to go from the time they got off the church van with their teachers in tow!

It was so hot that early evening and the kids only had about 20 minutes to work since they were being treated to McDonald's ice-cream cones just down the road from our house and on the way back to the church. The next day, Jordan helped place and cut the fiberglass mesh around the trees in our front yard.

I got to working on the mulch piles!


But, before the kids left they wanted us to know how much they loved us and they told us so as a united group. Holding back tears, I reminded them how much our family loved each one of them. No service at this age is complete without a cookie (or at least I thought so), and even though they were going down the road to get an ice-cream cone, I baked up some M&M cookies and put some juice boxes on ice just in case the heat might overtake anyone ;)

Thank You Hickory Grove Wednesday Night Children's Ministry for the gift of a beautifully tidied up front yard. Most of all, thank you for the gift of your smiles, laughter, love and encouragement. We love you all!

Busy Bees!

It's been a few weeks since I've been able to get to this blog, but not because we have been sitting around. Tomorrow, hopefully I can post some pictures and write an update! Ya'll come back now, hear?

Rest In Peace

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

Children's Ministry at Hickory Grove

Last week was our first Wednesday night of sharing to the children of our home church over the next four weeks. Our evening began with me speaking in Spanish and Heather interpreting my Spanish into English for the kids to understand. It was heart-warming to have some of the kids so eagerly share how they could count to 10 in Spanish. In preparing for our first meeting, the Lord made it clear to me not to show slides or talk about Costa Rica at all, but rather to focus on talking about what a Missionary is and what Message they share with people. I also shared the shell of the Wordless Book presentation, adding in some other verses and thoughts as well. I shared about the elements of growth in our relationship with God and about telling others that we have a relationship with him! Three kids raised their hands at the end of the salvation prayer that they had accepted Jesus, though at least two of them I was pretty sure already had. I found out later that one of those kids raised their hand because they had accepted Jesus before, but learned that he was supposed to tell someone else, and previous to that night, never had. Praise the Lord!

We began learning the first verse and chorus of a Spanish worship song and when asked after we sang how many kids in the room could speak Spanish, they all had big smiles when I informed them that they all could (because they all sang)! While we had a craft prepared, we ran short of time with it being the first night, so we'll plan on beginning our Wordless Book bracelets next week. And of course, we had to have a snack...so Ken & Kyle cooked the kids some tortilla chips and made salsa rosada (a mayonnaise and ketchup dip) for the kids. ALL of the older kids enjoyed that and some of the younger kids too.

Below are some pictures; us being introduced, speaking to the kids, sharing a snack and answering some questions.

The "Furlough Bucket List"

Yep, the "Furlough Bucket List" is a no-brainer. This past week I drew a line through one of my "Wanna-do's" on my list and while it was very time consuming, it was for me, rewarding. I present to you my photo's of my pork butt that was dry rubbed, smoked and cooked on our daughter's grill for 7-8 hours. I forgot to take a picture of the slathering sauce that was made homemade and poured over pulled pork sandwiches (we are native NY'ers and this is how we eat our barbecue up there, but we mostly consume and heartily enjoy NC barbecue)!

You might be asking why I went to all the trouble? Pork is expensive in Costa Rica and considered a very high end piece of meat, usually only bought and eaten at Christmas. We don't eat pork in Costa Rica, can't afford it! Another reason is, a childhood memory of my Dad taking our family to a small town near our home in NY to support the Volunteer Firemen's annual barbecue dinner. There, they cooked the meat underground which has always fascinated me, in fact, on my recent visit with my Dad, I asked him tons of questions on this process, which probably drove him nuts like I did when I was a kid! It's always been a "dream" of mine to cook a beef brisket underground, but even though Dad answered all the questions, bless his heart, I'm still a chicken to try it. I haven't been able to find a beef brisket on sale big enough to feed our family while on furlough, but I did find this pork butt, and so following the recipes (for the rub, slathering sauce, and cooking instructions) from my "Dinosaur Barbecue" cookbook, a well known restaurant in our home town up North made famous for their barbecue and now Food Network Famous as featured on the hit show, "Diner's, Drive-In's and Dives"; I dare say, it was delicious!

I may or may not be looking for that brisket on sale. Maybe I'll cook one for the family when we visit up North in October, but mostly I'm happy that I got to finally try it!

Back in N.C. and preparing for ministry, how you can pray!

We arrived home safely to North Carolina yesterday morning at 4 a.m. after spending two weeks in New York visiting our family and friends. This visit was especially enjoyable and it seemed as though God multiplied our time there as the two weeks felt more like four. We got to see everyone we wanted too and didn't feel rushed in our visitations. The last two times that we have been up to New York have been because of one of our parent's funerals. This time, there were more smiles, jokes and laughing. I had a wonderful time at a long anticipated family reunion getting to see my Aunt's and Uncle's, and cousins. When we moved to North Carolina in 1997 the family always happened to schedule the reunion in August when school was starting for our kids in N.C., and we were never able to make the trip up North. I saw family members that I hadn't seen in 14 years! We also had reunions on Ken's side of the family in that Aunt's and Uncle's came to meet us for meals on the road as we traveled through States; so much fun! ALL six of us kids got to be together in NY again as well. I did get to win one Parchessi game, but of course, with no mercy being shown, I lost more than I won! Perhaps, I will have a better round of games in October when we return!


We have been invited to minister to children over the next four weeks at Hickory Grove Church during their Wednesday night program. We will be discussing Missions and it's Message, teaching the kids a Worship Song in Spanish, doing crafts, discussing and showing pictures of our ministries in Costa Rica, and introducing them to Costa Rican foods and snacks! Your prayers are much appreciated and needed...Thank You!

Happy 4th of July

Our family is so excited to be home for the 4th of July! Tonight, we will go to a park and watch fireworks and celebrate our homeland's Independence Day! Yesterday, was an emotional day in church as some of us sang through the traditional Independence Day hymns and watched a video honoring our servicemen with the song "Proud to be an American" playing in the background; I wrote "some of us" because I cried through the patriotic songs and was not able to sing, neither was Ken as he fought back tears.

One thing we have learned through this missionary experience is a deeper understanding of freedom while we've been gone and what that truly means. We have much in this country! May we not take it for granted and certainly not the people who fought for us to have it!

God, may this country turn back to you!

Jump Start

I was reading a post by one of my good friends here in N.C. on her Facebook; actually I am just going to copy it right here, yes, without her permission because I know it would be okay with her anyways and I am not identifying who she is.

She wrote,
"is praying and believing that if this is His will, where He wants me to be, that He will open doors that no man can shut! Praying that my heart is where His is."

My response to her was something along the lines that she doesn't need to worry about making a "mistake", and that she should just continue doing what she is doing and that is being obedient, and He will make it known to her. Then I sent her a p.s. which just said 2 Corinthians 5:7 "We live by faith, not by sight".

As I thought about it more, obedience really is the key to God being able to use us. It is true that God can open and close doors that no man can touch! He can stop her dead in her tracks or He can push her forward in record speed!

God's biggest problem today is getting us started.

God bless you, E.B.L., as you chase after Him!

So what is "furlough"?

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines furlough as a "(noun), a leave of absence from duty granted especially to a soldier; a document authorizing such a leave of absence". Let me just say, that this might be the exact reason some see missionary furloughs as "a personal vacation escaping one's duties and responsibilities". Someone recently told us, "but I don't get an extended leave from my work"! And you, my friend, have not chosen to minister in two separate, yet very different cultures, and whether I am in Costa Rica or even now home during this furlough, I am actually doing double-duty because of those two cultures. 'Nuff said! Most missionary agencies today don't even use the word "furlough" because of it's misconceptions. Rather, they have resorted to "home assignment or service" and quite honestly, it has helped people to better understand what it is we do when we have time away from our cross-cultural ministry and are back in our first culture!

So, just so we are all on the same page, our family does have some objectives for this time of "home assignment".

In Acts 14:27, 28 "On arriving there, they gathered the church together and reported all that God had done through them and how he opened the door of faith to the Gentiles. And they stayed there a long time with the disciples".

This Biblical principle was put into motion by the first missionary journey! I like to call it the "Three R's" method...dorky, I know! They a) Reported back, b) Renewed relationships, c) Sought out revival.

Our family is supported sacrificially and generously by a group of churches, and individuals, and we feel obligated to keep our donors informed of what is going on in our ministry. We do send out quarterly letters with photo's and maintain this blog (somewhat, cough, okay, I'm outright choking here, so maybe we are behind more often than not on the posting?), but I think everyone would admit that there's something about that personal contact that a missionary has with their supporters, churches and individuals, that allows you to know more about who we are and what we are doing. I know that we, personally, struggle to keep long-distance relationships going while on the field (my older sister is reading this and saying, "You think"?). Scripturally, we've been called in Mark 10:29-30 to forsake even our family and friends for His cause (some it's easier than others...just kidding, hahahaha!). We are very excited to be on furlough because it gives us a concentrated amount of time to reconnect (whether they want to or not) with our loved ones, our home church and dear friends! We have already taken the opportunity to focus upon personal spiritual revival. Rest assured, WE KNOW WE NEED IT! We are worn out by the spiritual battles that come out of living cross-culturally. We are exhausted by the overwhelming needs that are brought to us on a near daily basis while living in Costa Rica. Sitting in our home church, under preaching in our first language, delving into the Word of God and praying, uninterrupted, has allowed the Lord to show us clearly the spiritual needs that we have in our own lives.

So, pray for us. Pray for us as we prepare to report back to supporters, as we renew relationships with family and friends, and as we continue to seek after Him, to be revived in Spirit and in Truth!

Just for fun #2

You probably don't know this about me, maybe you don't even care to know, but too bad, I'm going to share. I have "issues" with cake! I actually take a lot after my Daddy! I love pie! I like fruit pies, custard pies, anything but, sorry, shoe-fly; I've just never acquired a taste for it, but in the cheerleading section for Lancaster, County, P.A. would sit my husband, Ken, because he LOVES shoe-fly pies! Let me just say, that I will eat cake, but not with the ice-cream on it! Do not put the ice-cream near it! If you can serve the ice-cream in a bowl or plate separate from the cake, that's the bomb! I really dislike when ice-cream melts on or near cake. I know! I'm so weird! On the other hand, long before cupcakes even became popular and little cupcakeries started popping up all over the country, and TV shows like "Cupcake Wars", yes, I've been watching a little digital television since we got back in the States (Food Network specifically. I love that channel, always have) I have enjoyed baking cupcakes. It all started for me when my kids got into public school and no one would ever sign up for cupcakes for class parties. I worked from home typing medical records for a local hospital (someone had to do the job, so I figured why not me) and I would sign up to bring in cupcakes. I began to love making them. After all, they are kinda cute, little, two bite (that would be by my big mouth measurements) morsels of cake and no one ever offers you ice-cream with them! I make cupcakes in Costa Rica, but it's a little frustrating. Cake mixes are pricey, and I would much rather bake them from scratch, but the kinds that I would like to bake are often difficult to find the ingredients for since I like them "classy". So, I do the best I can with what I have which isn't very much selection-wise for the Women's Ministry. But, it's always been my "dream" to do something like the pictures below in Costa Rica. For a year, I've had something like this floating around in my mind to do for Women's Ministry, but again, it's too pricey to be a reality.

Imagine coming home and getting the opportunity through a local church near my house to minister to women, I mean, intentionally turning it up a notch to make them feel special just because, and it's a gift I'd like to feel God has given to me to use, and He opened a door! (Please insert a large "squeal" of excitement here)!

On Monday night 49 women came out to Johnson Memorial Church for a lesson on saving money in these economic times by learning effective Couponing methods from a young Mom in their church. I learned so much myself and I believe we all need to be good stewards of what we are given!

The cupcake is a Ghiardelli dark chocolate cupcake with peanut butter frosting! The other cupcake in the pictures was "Ken-inspired" because he loves raspberries. It's a French vanilla cupcake with a vanilla raspberry creme frosting! In the glassware are Mint Oreo bon-bon's, vanilla chocolate-coated pretzel rods. For some candy, I bought Skittles and some white mints. Ice-cold lemonade was to drink on this warm evening.

In looking for some cupcake wrappers, I was actually dumb-founded by how pricey they are..outrageous actually! So, one night, I sat down and cut away at a paper cupcake liner and made my own template for the wrappers you see here which are then cut at the top with decorative scissors. The paper I used was left-over scrapbook paper from Brad & Danielle's wedding!

I truly hope someone left feeling "special" and "cared for" that evening. Thank you, Lord, for caring for my "dreams"!

If you care to see the photo's up close, just click on them for a closer view!

Just for fun - #I

Packed away in a crawl space of the house, back in a corner were four plastic bins. Before I "became a missionary", like I haven't even arrived there yet, I'm still working on it with the Lord's help; I was a Stampin' Up demonstrator. I have not had a rubber stamp or an ink pad in my hand in three years. For me, it's been difficult. I used to love to make homemade cards and I would travel down to Wilmington, N.C. a few times a year on a Saturday with a friend, and do scrapbooking all day long in a scrapbooking store down there. I guess I would reference it to feeling like you'd taken a rolling pin away from Julia Childs! So, within the first couple of days that I got home; okay, don't tell Ken this, even before I got all my clothes unpacked and organized out of the suitcase, I set myself up a little stamping work station in my bedroom (trust me, it wouldn't surprise Ken). This is the second card I've made. The first one has already been given away to my neighbor! I know I'm no Picasso with my artistic skillz; my siblings got all those talents! But for me, this is so relaxing and I'm so excited to be able to do some of it again...I can't even tell you how excited! It's so much fun!

"Welcome Home, Mrs. Dundon"!

There really isn't much of anything that exciting about the actual event of "traveling" between the two countries. On one side you are painfully saying good-bye for six months to what has now become your surrogate family, and you try so very hard to hold back excitement in your voice and actions because you really are so excited to go home and see loved ones, you almost feel guilty. In flight, your thoughts race (at least mine do) about changes you might experience. How much bigger is my grandson? Is he walking? Does he say any words? What size clothes does he wear now? What's the yard look like; the trees we planted before we left, the shrubs? Since we don't have one in Costa Rica it's always exciting to see ours!

One thing that I never remember, but it gets me every time I get to come home, are the Immigration Officers who stamp my passport in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. We get the usual questions; "What were you doing out of the country"? And we get the same responses..."A missionary?!? Really? How do you like that"?

And then the moment happens.

The stamp is placed on the passports which are then passed back to us and we hear, "Welcome Home, Mrs. Dundon"! And my eyes produce crocodile tears! Why? It sounds so comforting to hear those words. It feels welcoming. You feel wanted. For a moment, you feel care-free and like you have a "place" to call home because quite honestly, it's true what most missionaries say, you never feel like you have a "home" anymore once you start serving in another country. Neither country feels quite "right".

And my mind shifts quickly to thoughts of our military. I wonder, who didn't hear those words this past year? I wonder if they feel the same way when they do hear them. And I say a prayer as I walk to baggage claim for those who are actively serving and their families.

The military fights in some ways the same battle the missionary fights. They fight physically with their bodies, but like us, they fight psychologically, spiritually and emotionally.

Please don't forget our military! And don't forget your missionaries! It's a battle out there! We need to keep fighting on!

Adjusting & Training

Well, we've been home (that is myself, Heather & Jordan) in the United States for two weeks now. Ken & Kyle will be coming home by the end of June so that we can begin our six-month furlough as a family. For those of you who do not know, I came home earlier with Heather because she has been accepted into the Community College here (Johnston County Community College)Nursing Program, and there was a meeting that I needed to attend on June 2nd. Today, and two more days this week, Heather will be attending Orientation, Advising Meetings and doing testing (entry level college stuff) in preparation for school to begin in August. Jordan is not along for the ride. He is homeschooled and is scheduled to finish up this school year on July 26. I brought him home with me because I am the primary teacher in our homeschool and with him being so close to being done for this year comes year-end reports which are very detailed and just plain mean to expect Ken to try and figure out. It is much easier for Ken to start someone on homeschooling curriculum, like he is doing now with Kyle down in Costa Rica as he begins another year, than to have it dropped in your lap one month before it is to be finished up. So, this kind of explains why are family at this particular time is in two different locations. So, I'll just put it right out there now, Ken and I miss each other and the days seem like they are dragging. Coming home and staying in our home alone without the other half of your family is hard. So, we are all looking forward to the end of the month!

We (Heather, Jordan and myself) are actually just beginning to kind of "get out and about". We've laid kind of low the past couple of weeks during an "adjustment" period. I went to our home church, Hickory Grove, yesterday by myself. It was wonderful to be back surrounded by the familiar and yet, it was also overwhelming at the same time being swarmed by people. Hopefully, Heather & Jordan will feel more up to it next Sunday. I drove for the first time in two weeks just a couple of days ago, and at first it was difficult remembering to look at the m.p.h. rather than the k.p.h.! It seems like every road here is like driving in a Nascar race because of the differences in speed limits between the two countries we call home. Lastly, we have been sick since we have been home. Jordan actually threw up on the plane as it was descending into Myrtle Beach. He had been complaining about his stomach aching before we left Costa Rica, but I figured it was just nerves as he was excited about coming home, but expressing feelings that he was going to miss his Daddy. I'm sure he felt torn! The next day he spiked a temperature of 102.9 and that went on for two days. He's better from that mess, but then I got sick with a sinus infection and upper respiratory cough, head cold-type of thing. Danielle had it first, then myself and Heather has been fighting it right along with the both of us! We thought we might keep our cooties to ourselves the first week we were home and I imagine that was appreciated by many! There's the food adjustments and the just plain lack of self-control. For example, we pay (actually we don't pay because we don't feel as though we can afford to, so we go without); Lay's potato chips in Costa Rica are $7 to $8 per bag. We used to enjoy that brand so much when we lived in the States; the barbecue flavor, Sour Cream and Onion, Sour Cream and Cheddar Cheese. On our very first trip to Wal-Mart since returning here, what do we spy? Lay's for $2.48 a bag! Any normal person would buy one bag and be happy to have them! Not the Dundon's because they live in Costa Rica and don't have much selection as it is, so when they see ALL the flavors, in their minds they think, "Oh my word, I may never get these again", not remembering that they will be here for six months, and they buy every type of potato chip that Lay's has on display in Wal-Mart! Do you think they were able to wait until they got home to open a bag? Of course not! Do you think they could "settle" on opening ONE bag in the car? Of course not! And yes, we are still eating from that Lay's potato chip purchase today! We are currently working on training our minds, reversing our psychology, so to speak, that we will be here longer than two weeks for the first time in over three years and that we do not need to indulge, inhale or whatever you want to call it, EVERYTHING we have missed in a two-week time span. I reserve the right, I think it's called, "pleading the 5th" in regard to a recent Bojangles biscuit binge! You might be thinking that all this sounds absurd to you! But, it is actually part of re-entry culture shock and just about every missionary experiences it with food in one way or another. I won't go into the details, but you can imagine the havoc this wreaks on one's digestive system and intestines. Then there's the sleeping adjustments to deal with, or rather, lack of sleep! The first night back home I slept 15-hours straight and it was, well, I cannot even think of the proper words to describe how good it felt (okay, probably because we flew through the night after being up all day doing the last day of medical clinics with the team). So, perhaps I was in a sleeping-induced coma. I wish I could have another night like that! We are still adjusting to time changes. Costa Rica is two hours behind N.C. and we don't have daylight savings to boot, so it's dark at 5:30 p.m. year-round. We've tried everything we know to turn ourselves around the last two weeks. Maybe this will be the week we turn the corner. Who knows!

We've arrived home safe, but we still need your prayers!

On the road again

Teams, busy, look for more updates soon, but this time, from the United States of America!

Matthew 11:28

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest"

One thing my mother taught me at a young age was that God was not some kind of distant being. She, in fact, used the illustration one time that it was almost like we could carry Him in our pocket, or in other words, He could see what we were doing, He could hear what we were saying and that He was available to us just like any other normal "friend" we had in our lives. I would have to say that this is probably the springboard for the lack of eloquence that I have in my prayer life. I wish, sometimes, that like the scripture above, words were spoken eloquently to my Heavenly Father in prayer, but rather, I do pray like I am having a conversation with a friend in the room beside me probably because I've always sensed that He's not that far away. Sometimes I pray in broken sentences interjecting not spiritual "words", but modern day jargon like, for example, this week was a particularly trying week for our family here in Costa Rica and I murmured the words during a time when I was praying, "you know, Lord, I am really sick of this crap and I cannot possibly take any more"!

You see, Ken's mother was having a lung biopsy yesterday for what was thought to possibly be cancer on PET scans. Losing Ken's Dad just this past July, and my mother a year ago also in July; the thought of my mother-in-law even "possibly" having cancer made my stomach churn and I found myself unable to deal with the emotions of that. Thankfully, the biopsy of the lung as well as all her lymph nodes came back cancer-free. They believe that she has some form of tuberculosis, though they are culturing the biopsies to identify a type.

All this to say, I am so glad He doesn't turn His back on my raw speech when I pray. Sometimes I almost imagine Him rolling his eyes when my mouth opens! Thank you, Lord, for letting me continually "Come...." and "Just As I Am"!

Cabin Spoiler!!

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

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

The day after....Christmas!

Our next team arrived! They were here at the camp for a week and a half. They came as a children's ministry team with two "handymen husbands". I think that you will see from the pictures below that we strive not to be your "cookie cutter" ministry; always seeking to do things in ministry that will stretch those who God has sent to serve alongside us as well as our family!

The children's ministry team wanted to do something with the orphan home kids, but we have found that having them at the camp and working with them there is much easier on us as far as transporting the team and supplies to and from the orphan home, and we usually have much better behavior from the kids when they are at the camp because they realize that it is a privilege to be down at the camp.

The theme that the team had decided upon using was two-fold; CEF's Wordless Book and it's colors, and an overall theme that "I'm Special to God"!

My job was to take their "ideas" for programming and help them make it into a program that would work best with these kids. Much like VBS programs are run at home, I decided on a rotation of stations after an opening with songs, and the Bible story message. At this station, the ladies are coloring fingernails in the colors of the Wordless Book to reiterate that message.

With every team before you can even begin working on ironing out the team's ministry while they are here; you have to do sorting of the supplies which they bring with them. In an email I was asked what I felt that this group could focus on bringing down. I asked them to concentrate on getting donations to make hygiene kits for the ongoing homeless shelter ministry that we have, and if they felt that they could, small gifts that could be used in gift bags to minister to the Mom's at the orphanage. Here is one of the completed hygiene kits for the homeless shelter.

One of the ministries that is near and dear to my heart is the homeless shelter ministry and in our initial conversations, I asked the team leader if she thought that her group might be interested in preparing a meal at the camp to take with us to a homeless shelter and feed the men there. She was more than sure that the group would want to do that! Having our partnership with Promundo Fundacion means that we call them when we are setting up the logistics for a team with a date of when we would like to serve a homeless shelter. They then call around in their network of homeless shelters and find out which homeless shelter needs a meal on that date (the homeless shelters survive solely on donations and many shelters frequently go without the ability to feed those being housed there) and they call us back and tell us which one to go to and how many we can expect to cook for. When the team commits to doing this, we do the grocery shopping of all the supplies that they will need to carry this out; drink, plastic cups, plates, silverware, napkins, spaghetti, sauce, bread and butter. Here's two of the ladies beginning to prepare the sauce. In addition to serving the men, someone shares a testimony and other teams have done dramas.


Because this team was smaller in number, we asked a friend of ours who also ministers through Promundo Fundacion to come and help us with this group. Roberto and his wife, Patricia are Costa Rican missionaries in their own right. They live on the support of others and the focus of their ministry is children, but they also work with homeless shelters like us. Ken and I have heard Roberto's testimony and he was as a child an orphan. Who better than to lead the games and music with the orphan home children than Roberto & Patricia? Being given up by my biological mother for adoption at 2-1/2 yrs. old I understand that there is a need to have "trust" restored in the minds and hearts of these children. Here, Roberto's activity is building trust within the orphan home, by having the girls do this activity girl-to-girl as well as the boys doing it boy-to-boy. Some of the other activities that we did with the children divided them off by each individual home and we all were witnesses to God moving them toward restoration. By the end of week of VBS, 66 children from the orphan home made first-time commitments to the Lord!

After church one morning, a Costa Rican friend came to me and said, "do you know why I keep asking you if I can buy one of the bunkbeds at the camp from you"? (Of course, we need all the beds at the camp to house teams and rental groups) My reply was "no". She then told me that she had a neighbor who had five children and that they had mattresses, but not all of the children had beds, in fact, two of them had to sleep on their mattresses on the floor. I told her I could not promise her anything, but I knew with the January team that there would be construction workers coming and maybe we could help out in some way. She was happy enough that I would try to help out her neighbor-friends. At the time of this conversation with her, I didn't know that two of the husbands accompanying their wives were handymen on the team! When they got here, I told them the story, and they were more than thrilled to be asked to make them. Other jobs that they did included replacing roofs on the two cabins and the other missionary house. The family that needed the bunkbeds lives in Palomo where the church that was meeting in the camp has moved too. Below is their picture. We invited Pastor Mario to meet us there at their home to pray for them when we surprised them with the bunkbed delivery.

When the beds were complete I called my friend and found out that the day we were delivering them was the little girl's birthday! It's amazing to us how God opens doors for His work to get done!

Graduation - a testimony

Just a couple of weeks before Christmas, two of the school teachers from the elementary school around the corner from our house stopped by and introduced themselves. They were wondering if the camp would host their graduation ceremony this year. We have never in the three years we've been asked to host that ceremony, but always wanted too. They've had a principal who has always wanted to have the ceremony right in the school building. Someday, I should walk down to the school and just post pictures of the building from the outside. It is a very poor school. This year the intern principal wanted the ceremony to be "special" and so we of course said that we would be more than happy to host them at the camp. We sat with them at a picnic table in front of our home and discussed their plans for the ceremony and before they left we asked if we could pray for them. As the graduation ceremony got closer we thought it might be fun to offer the kids a hot dog each and some popcorn and drink, but we weren't sure if this would be okay with the school and the teachers. We realized we didn't have any contact phone numbers for the two teachers and couldn't call them, so we walked down to the school. For four days we walked to the school and each time, it was locked up. Not having kids in the school system here, we know "about" when school breaks are, but we never know the "exact" dates. We were kind of sad because we wanted to help out the school however we could, but it seemed as though things were closed down until the actual day of the ceremony and we had a team here at the camp that we were working with. Just a few days before the ceremony and while the team from Threshold was cleaning up their supplies, the two teachers came by the house and asked if they could talk to us. They wanted to go over the "final" preparations for the ceremony. We were so glad to see them. When they had finished talking with us, we explained to them that we had a group at the camp who was just about ready to leave and return to the States, but that they had some drink mix left over and on behalf of that team, we wanted to know if we could offer it to the school children. Tears began to well up in one of the teacher's eyes. She explained to us that this last week before graduation she and the other teachers felt like they were walking in the road and trying to climb over boulders. At every turn, it seemed to them as if their graduation ceremony was falling apart. We asked what was happening. They said the person who had committed to have hamburgers prepared for the kids called just that morning and was not going to be able to donate those for their class party. The school didn't have any money to put towards those and they didn't know what they were going to do. We smiled and explained that for the past four previous days we had been walking to the school looking for someone to talk too about the possibility of donating the juice to the kids and also, Ken and I wanted to donate hot dogs and free popcorn. The teacher began to cry! And we asked if we could join hands with both of them and pray for them!

Simple and inexpensive things for Americans that we just don't think about; a hot dog in a bun, a small bag of popcorn and a cup of juice, but for some schools here, a real treasure!

We got to help with the decorating process and had a lot of fun interacting with the teachers and the kids and parents from our community. Reaching outside the gates of the camp to our community and then to the corners of Costa Rica. Thank God for the opportunities He affords us!

Thank You Scipio Center Community Church in New York State for the camp's popcorn popper!

Dundon Family Christmas 2010

This is our 2010 Christmas tree. Yep, trees that are used here for Christmas decorations are a little "different" than back home in N.C. This actually looks like and smells like a Leeland Cyprus tree that we have planted as a property border back home. It's a little difficult to get the ornaments to hang as pretty as you can on a Douglas Fir, but it's something. In the previous two years we've had a star at the top of our tree. This year, I decided that we had to have a traditional N.C. bow, but I wasn't quite sure how I was going to get one since no one uses bows here in that manner, really. Then, I got the idea of looking on You Tube for a video on how to make one myself. So, this is it folks. Where there's a will, there's a way and this is my double bow tree topper...not too bad, eh?

With Danielle and Grandma visiting for 7 weeks, they were always looking for something to do. Danielle and Grandma like to paint, so what better project than for them to help "spruce" up the house a little, I thought. Actually, our house that we live in had been empty for a couple of years and when we moved in the color of the livingroom and diningroom was a very off-white, but gray color. Kinda gloomy, to say the least. Now, thanks to Danielle's and Grandma's help, oops, and Jordan too, it is a really pretty soft cream color in both rooms with new matching curtains in burgundy, navy blue and cream that Grandma made. Just a blessing to our family to have things updated and fresh!

As in previous years, we received tamales from friends and neighbors for Christmas which are exchanged instead of cookies, though we carried on our American family tradition and had a family baking day. We made six different types of Christmas cookies and handed those out in baskets that we had purchased which were cloth-lined with burgundy-colored linen. Our neighbors and friends always get so excited to receive and actually like the American tradition of cookie exchanging! We have friends who know we are "chocoholics", in fact, they are too! They called us to tell us to go to a particular bakery and pick up this cake that they had ordered for us on the day of Brad's arrival (Danielle's husband) for our family Christmas. It was so beautiful, I had to take a picture!

Children's Ministry Team

The Team from Threshold Church based out of Charlotte, N.C. arrived in the beginning of December for three days of children's ministry (VBS) at the camp. We, of course, did the normal pre-team preparations of lining up their transportation, grocery shopping, snack shopping for the children, etc. This is a team that has come down every January for a week since we've been here and even actually before we were here. They are like stellic VBS pro's and really don't need too much of our help once they get here. Heather and Kyle usually help with some of the translation and program. This year, they served about 126 kids and this is the closing program. 23 children came to know the Lord in those three days...Praise the Lord!

"Oh where, oh where have the Dundon's gone....

Oh where, oh where could they be"?

We're still here in Costa Rica! We have wrapped up our Team Marathon of having three teams at the camp in six weeks and things are just beginning to get back to normal, that is, kinda, since nothing is ever really just "normal" 'round here! I've had some time to sort through some pictures, get some, but still working on obtaining the rest of the statistics for the teams, have a week of vacation, be really sick for a week with an upper respiratory tract infection, and today help Amy finish the medication inventory from the January team in preparation for the medical team coming in May! So, check back and we will take it from where we left off...back in December 2010...

oh, but wait, Miss Lily Olson whom we have never met, nor do we know where you live, but does attend weekly Awana meetings and is learning about missions...

"Thank You so much for your words of encouragement that you left in a comment attached to my last post! Thank You for having a spirit that is willing to listen to the Lord when He is speaking. You may never know or understand how important you taking the time to write your thoughts to us were. We deeply appreciate it! Keep being a Light"! Love, Mrs. Sherri