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?