Pictures, pictures, pictures....

And just when I typed on the last post that I "wanted" to post pictures, the camera was lost, not found from returning home. Alas, I have found it and am editing pictures, I have absolutely no editing skills actually, so just resizing so they can be uploaded to the blog!

Please return so you can see a really amazing gift we received before we left Costa Rica and read some probably very random thoughts about how it feels to be home.

Back in the U.S.A.

We've been back a week and one day! So many amazing things have happened that I want to share here, but today I've only got time to post a couple of lines. It might have someone to do with having a brand new grandson sitting in my livingroom :O)

Today is Kyle's birthday and our family is getting together over at Brad & Danielle's house with them and Ken's Mom is coming there also. We are bringing everything over there for dinner. We are all excited to be celebrating together as a family; first time in four years!

I have pictures I want to share, pictures before we left, pictures since we've arrived home! It's all GOD news and about how He works without us even asking! Please come back and read more over the weekend! You'll be blessed at seeing how His hand has moved in our behalf!

Until later...

Says it all...

I'd invite you to read this link to another missionary blogger. She says what I haven't been able to put into words. Continue to pray for your missionaries! I now better understand what they are going through and hope to make encouraging missionaries an active part of my life at home in the States.

This is all I have time to share today. I have a stomach bug...bleh. Ken has a sinus infection, head congestion and we are in the midst of packing. We were able to clean ourselves up and make ourselves presentable enough to attend a potluck good-bye lunch today sponsored by our English-speaking Bible Study in Orosi. Now, to lie down for just a little bit and hopefully feel a tiny bit better.

You'll have to highlight the link below yourselves, hit control C, and then control V to copy and paste it to be able to read it. Probably because of her blogger settings.

http://www.lauraleighparker.com/2012/03/stress-missionary/#.T1ZJKNhArIF.facebook

Tying up loose ends!

Since the team left, we've been trying desperately to tie up loose ends and leave things in good order for the Mission. These are some pictures of what we've been working on this month!

In just about three and a half hours the camp will be opened up to the surrounding communities of Orosi, Palomo, La Alegria and Cachi for the free showing of the movie, "Courageous". After watching this movie ourselves at home on furlough in the States, I felt an urgency and a burden to show this as an Outreach at the camp. A lot of the issues in the movie are issues that we see lived out here. I mentioned it to Ken and he agreed! Ken in turn mentioned it to Len & Carol Lane from the GOM, Canadian office! We want to say a special thanks to the Lane's for making this Outreach possible for us by supplying the movie for the camp's use. We have spent the last week walking, riding, delivering other flyers and speaking to people about this movie. Church Youth Groups are coming to the movie as well. And another special thanks to Scipio Community Church who provided the industrial popcorn popper that we will again be using for Outreach tonight! Who knew that a popcorn popper would get so much use? What a blessing!

Please pray that God would use this movie in a mighty way!

No joke, "manana" can mean tomorrow, or the next day, or a week or so later, but four weeks after the team left...really? Ken had ordered special board to place in the soffits of the new cabin before the team arrived so that they could close in the structure to the roof. Well, that never arrived in the entire two weeks the team was here even with Ken making various phone calls, nearly begging, and then almost demanding our delivery! We went back to the place where we ordered it to buy what they had in-stock of a different type. They looked at us confused and said, "but what about the stuff you ordered back in January, you don't want that anymore"? So, we bought what they had which was enough to get the job done before any bats or critters could make a new home in the new cabin!

After spending the week after the team left sanding sheet rock mud, painting, cleaning and hiring someone to do the tiling, the first group got to use the new cabin. The Missionary group from Central America with Campus Crusade for Christ were thrilled to be the first occupants. Oddly, as we've been working at the camp over the last four weeks, some neighborhood people have stopped in to ask us, "who is the V.I.P. cabin for", and that makes us chuckle. Well, we found out from the first occupants that we had sprung a leak behind the bathroom tiling in the wall when they showed us the water all over the bathroom floors. So, Ken worked on that a couple of days to get that repaired.

The camp has been booked up every weekend for the month of February with rental groups which is normal since it is dry season. One Saturday morning our phone rang and the leader of the group confirmed that they had arrived outside the camp gate. This was the site as you rounded the corner from our house to the camp! Since we've been on furlough back in the States, we've had to have someone else handling our rental dates for us. He wasn't "quite sure" how big the group for this weekend was going to be. Turns out it was 100 people overnight! God has been so faithful over the last four years to keep everyone on Jardin Sagrado's property safe!

Another Saturday morning as I was doing some house chores in the morning, I happened to step outside and snap this picture of our camp gardener and neighbor, Coqui, witnessing to some of the neighborhood Youth. I stopped and prayed for Coqui! You can't see his Bible in his hand, but I watched as he showed them and had them read verse after verse. He usually spends a good portion of his days off, Saturday and Sunday, sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ in the surrounding area.

About a week and a half ago a huge truck pulled in front of our house. Our neighbor, Norberto, is out of work and has been picking coffee. I snapped this picture knowing that this would be the last of the harvest. I was right because now as I am writing this, the coffee plants already have next harvest's flower blooms on them. I just asked if I could hop up on the truck as they were weighing what Norberto had picked in beans to take this picture. The colors of the coffee beans, the greens (not ripe) and different shades of reds (the darkest being ripe) will always fascinate me. I had to get one more picture!

Off to finish getting the camp ready for "Courageous"!

A time and a season for everything!

Ecc. 3:1-8 "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.

vs. l1b-12 "He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live"

Two weeks from tomorrow, our family will be leaving Costa Rica permanently and returning to the United States. We have tried our best to inform everyone that we know, but we are aware that we might have missed some people. Please accept our sincere apologies. We are doing our best to leave things in the best order for our missionary agency; it's not easy to "just leave" a 7-acre property and we have never been people to leave things "undone". We haven't even found the time to put a letter out through the agency with a two-week team of 34 people here at the end of January, and then every weekend at the camp being booked; let alone the little "repairs" we in good conscience cannot leave unattended!

There are so many issues that went into making this decision, and the decision was not an easy one. Many, many months of prayer went into it on our part, and with the prayer support of some close family members because our decision is not based on lack of financial support which often sends many missionaries home. Our decision is based on exhaustion even after having been home for a six-month furlough.

There are so many challenges to living on the mission field! So many are difficult to even put into words or unless you have actually lived the life of a missionary yourself, for people to grasp. There are some issues that go without saying because they are obvious; establishing close relationships is difficult with language barriers and the obvious cultural barriers, and this is painful if you are a "people person" like me (Sherri). Growing up kids on the mission field has it's own set of unique needs with our kids struggling to identify which country is called "home". Now that Heather is "home", we find that we were ill-prepared for the transition struggles that she would endure when we returned to the field as a Missionary Kid in the States; her friends have moved on in the four years that she has been in that "foreign land", she feels isolated and alone as few understand in her peer group her experiences of living abroad and serving the Lord. She recently wrote on her Facebook, "my Grandma has more of a social life than me". The reality of this culture is that even Christian value systems are at opposite poles to each other. On any given day just "doing" the administration of the camp (building permits, taxes, legal issues and banking) can be logistically exhausting and time consuming, often driving an hour and a half away for documents, standing in long lines for hours only to be told that we were told wrong, are in the wrong place, that more steps need to be done and to come back another day altogether, let alone just trying to maintain our families needs! This has been our reality the last four years, and some of it we have been able to adapt too. Most all of it, we have grown weary of and after four years on the field have decided we are not cut out for this in the longer term.

Does it mean that we would change any of it over the last four years? No! We are so extremely thankful to God for these experiences, for the things He has had to painfully change in us to serve here this long! On the contrary, we feel better equipped to serve Him. But God also calls us to serve our family before others.

How can you pray for us? We return to the U.S. on March 8. We have no jobs and our last support check will be for the month of March. God has placed eternity deep in our hearts and we don't know what He wants us to do, but we know we want to serve Him at home after some period of rest. Pray that we will hear His voice clearly. We are staying on with Global Outreach Mission as Representatives, going on short-term teams as God allows; Kyle already signed up for the January 2013 short-term team to Costa Rica and Heather may return in May 2012 to help with a medical team!

Thank you to all those who have prayed for our family and financially supported us. Thank you for serving alongside of us here in Costa Rica because without each of you, we would have never been able to be here!

There will be more posts once we arrive home! To God be the Glory for ALL THAT HE HAS DONE!!

It all started with...

THIS! In nine days of clinics a total of 1,043 people were seen; 815 in the medical clinics and 228 in the dental clinics running simultaneously with children's ministry. The flyer above was prepared for the first 3-day site in the town of Cachi at the High School. From there more flyers were prepared for another set of 3-day clinics at a church in Tuccirrique. With the first six straight days of clinics behind us, on Sunday we stayed at the camp and worshipped as well as prepared for the orphan home/mother's ministry on Monday and a free day on Tuesday. We finished the last three days in a church in Cartago.

Saturday, the team took medicine inventory, the children's ministry team cleaned the closet and placed things back in their rightful places. The team left at 2:30 a.m. on Sunday morning. We cleaned the Celebration Center on Sunday morning for an evening church service with Puente de Esperanza welcoming back their Youth from a Youth Retreat! Today, we grocery shopped for our family as well as took a couple with us who are staying on for four more weeks to do odd jobs around the camp. This afternoon Ken worked on the new cabin "mudding" one of the bathrooms and we hope to paint in the next day or two to finish the cabin for the weekend rentals!

Pictures and more details of the last two week team from the U.S. and Canada to follow as soon as I get some rest!

A new friend

We have been really busy since arriving back home in Costa Rica. We have a team of 34 coming in on Saturday, January 14th, and have been having meetings with Pastors who will be hosting medical clinics and children's ministry in their churches with this team. With being gone for six months, our insurance on our vehicle had to be reinstated. Nothing in this country is easy or fast and it took the entire day to get the insurance again. We've had to go to the Municipality and wait in line to pay the camp's taxes. Today, we went up to San Jose and picked up the dental chair and equipment that one of our partnerships borrowed to prepare for the dentist coming on the team.

I was glad when I had a few minutes to get this "shot" of Cindy and Jordan enjoying one of our neighbors new baby parrots. She has an older parrot who is nasty in her personality, but this baby is sweet, loves to be stroked and just hang out.

Even with all the stress of running around this week trying to get things done in preparation for the team, God provided this moment of enjoyment and obvious BIG smiles!

I better get back to schedule planning and menu writing.

She's Here!

This photo was taken in May after one of our Medical Clinics with a team. In this picture is a young lady named, Cindy. Cindy is 24 years old. She has grown up from the age of 4 in a children's home. She has suffered abuse at the hand of her biological family. She has a developmental delay and her mind will never progress past the age of 12 years old. Many of you may know, my twin sister has a developmental delay and has a 7th grade education. She also has an autistic child. My brother has a Down's syndrome child.

The woman who runs the children's home is an American Missionary having lived in Costa Rica for well over 25 years now. She has poured her heart, along with her American husband, who is blind, into these 24 children teaching them all English. The children's home is supported by Baptist churches all over Costa Rica and the United States. Due to overcrowding at the children's home and the government regulation that once they turn 18 they should move out of the home, Sally, the American Missionary mother has been receiving a lot of pressure by the government to rid the home of some of the older children. The government considers her home "overcrowded" and unable to take in younger children that the government would like to send her way. But where can a young lady such as Cindy go? She will never be allowed to receive a driver's license in Costa Rica due to her developmental delay. She will never receive a job. In effect, she is considered "worthless" to the government here. If she cannot get a job, she cannot pay taxes.

Through other wonderful American Missionary friends, we met Cindy last spring when they brought her down to the camp to visit with us. We listened as Cindy played the keyboard for us in the camp. Amazingly, she doesn't read a note of music, but she has a huge repertoire of Gaither music, and movie theme songs that she plays all by ear. She has helped us with our May team as an interpreter and in children's ministry.

After working with Cindy and getting to know her and in speaking with Sally, we made a committment that when we returned to Costa Rica, Cindy would move into our home and for the first time leave behind the familiar children's home. This would allow Sally to report back to the government that she had an opening in the home, and perhaps be relieved of some of that stress. The children's home has not always been a "safe haven" for Cindy with the younger children picking at her, and in the last month before we returned to Costa Rica we received word that the treatment from the other kids towards Cindy has heightened to them being at times outright "cruel". Cindy needs to be in a "safe" home where she is loved and protected. One time, Sally sent her to the corner store to get something and when Cindy didn't immediately return, she went looking for her. She found Cindy kissing an older man. Cindy has the mind of a child! She is eager to please, she is not promiscuous or sexually driven in her mindset. We have never seen her act inappropriately toward men, and what Sally thinks happened is she was talked into "trying" the kiss. Sally is scared for Cindy. There is much sexual abuse in this culture. Cindy could very easily be taken advantage of if not looked after.

She moved into our home yesterday morning, just two days after we returned to Costa Rica. She is already eager to help and has been working alongside us preparing for our next team in two weeks! Cindy is a Christian, a really strong believer who wants to have a sense of purpose for her life and wants to use it for God's glory. That is why we brought her into our home so that she could do ministry with us and experience that. Today, she is going to a meeting with us at an orphan home where she will have the opportunity to love on some kids who do not have the Hope that she has found in Jesus Christ.

Pray for us and Cindy during this transition time. Yesterday was a great day! At night she is sad and misses her children's home, but as I read scripture with her last night and as Ken and I prayed over her the Lord lifted her spirits. We do not have to adopt Cindy to have her living with us because she is an "adult". We adopted her into our hearts a last spring!

From Costa Rica

Thank you for those of you who prayed for us during our travels yesterday. We returned to Costa Rica arriving around 1:10 p.m. in the afternoon. It was a difficult departure as we left our daughter, Heather, behind to continue her studies in the community college. I can't say as I've ever seen two siblings cry as much as Kyle and Heather did at the airport. This missionary service over the last four years has always had Heather in the midst of it all. Of course, it was a teary day for all of us as well. It feels strange to walk past her room here in the house in Costa Rica and not have her here. We are sad because of it. Yesterday would have also been my nephew's 38th birthday!

Please continue to pray for our family, for Heather as she continues to adjust in the States and studies, for Kyle as he clearly misses Heather (they are very close and apart from the age difference one might think they were twins, always together down here), pray for this Mama who misses both "her girls" (Danielle & Heather) and please continue to pray for healing over Karl's untimely death.

But, we are here, and we are here because of His strength and His promises that we can count on during these days!

Revelation 21:3-4 "And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away".

AMEN!!!!