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"!

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.

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!

A busy week

This week has been very busy. I spent most of the week painting in the other mission house preparing for Amy and Alex to arrive. Amy is an LPN and will be working with us for a year; hopefully longer if her funds can continue to come in. On Monday, Ken joined me at the house and spent the entire day doing odd jobs at the house, repairing locks, working on plumbing issues, doors, clothing storage units, etc. On Thursday in the evening we went to the airport to pick up Amy. Yesterday, we spent the entire day shopping with her; grocery shopping and then outfitting the house kind of shopping. It was a long day of stopping at multiple places, but she got new furniture and mattresses, dishes, etc. We accomplished a lot and now have her list down to next to nothing. Today, she is still unpacking and getting things put away in her house. This weekend is a weekend "off" in that there is no rental group. This morning I am off to meet with one of the other members of the Women's Ministry Steering Committee. She helps me as I plan our Women's Outreach to keep within the cultural boundaries and out of trouble since she is a Tica! This Friday night we will launch the ongoing Women's Ministry after the first meeting three months ago was such a big hit, and the local women are asking for it to continue. It will continue on an every three month basis with an outreach especially for women at the camp. The name of the Women's Ministry will be "Noche de Chica" (Chick Night), and Amy will be sharing a devotional this Friday night!

Well, look for more posts over the weekend and pictures from our visit back in the States. Thanks for reading!

God is So Good!

Just a little history. Global Outreach Mission sent their first team to the Camp back in January of 2005. They had just a few weeks before that team came down, officially obtained the property in the end of 2004. We were appointed by Global Outreach Mission to serve as full-time missionaries in Costa Rica in November of 2004, and because Costa Rica was a brand new opening field for Global, having no other missionaries here in the country, Global invited Ken and I to be on the first team that went down in January 2005. Ken's focus for the two weeks that we were here was to begin construction on what would be called the Celebration Center building. My focus was to work at the camp, but also put together our family budget to be able to begin the fundraising process since Global was not quite sure how much to set our missionary budget at. It took us three years to raise our funds, another trip by Ken to come down and work on the building, and at the end of March 2008 we reported to the field of Costa Rica as licensed missionaries under Global Outreach Mission. For the last two years that we have been here, construction has still continued on the Celebration Center and some of the projects that we have worked on with teams/interns have included putting up the insulation into the ceiling, parging the interior and some of the exterior walls, adding new adjoining bathrooms, new windows and doors; and as you can see in the pictures below, we now have a brand new ceiling, ceiling fans and lights! For us, being on that first team that dug with shovels the holes for the beams and now five years later actually being here and seeing a ceiling going in is a five-year reminder to us of God's faithfulness to Global Outreach Mission! Below are pictures, before and after, over only a two-week period...To God be the Glory!

This is the old ceiling with the placement of new tracking for the ceiling panels.

This the brand new ceiling completed with the ceiling fans and new lights! Stunning!

This is the part of the construction team that did the work! Truly, with a "let's get it done" attitude!!!

New Bathrooms!

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

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

Extreme Make-Over in Costa Rica!

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

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

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

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