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"!

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!

Stranded, but Safe in Costa Rica!

We left Orosi on Monday morning and drove to Panama; our 90 days were up and we needed to renew our VISA's. We noticed that halfway through the trip it was very cool and raining which is unlike our previous trips to Panama. Usually, the AC in the van is running wide open as Panama is usually uncomfortably humid! We didn't know that a tropical storm had begun, but noticed that the travel was slower and it took 8 hours to get to the border rather than the usual 6. On Wednesday morning, we received our re-entry stamp to head back into Costa Rica. We got to the two-hour marker into the trip and the Pan American highway which we were traveling on was closed down ahead and we found ourselves at a "Y" in the road; meaning the only other way home was to the left, but that road too was barracaded off. Initially, we thought perhaps there was a bad accident ahead, but upon further questioning of the truck drivers around us, we found out that the roads had been closed since the day before, Tuesday, due to landslides and sink holes. 16" of rain had fallen in this area on Wednesday alone! At about 5 p.m. we decided to begin looking for a room and Ken came back to the van having received the LAST two rooms in a nearby hotel. We didn't have AC, hot water or a TV, but were thankful for the beds and ceiling fans! It is now Friday and it is still raining with only short breaks to lighter rains. We have since moved within the same hotel to a family room which is much larger and we are all together. For $5 more we now have TV and AC, but we have freed up the previous two rooms for others as well. We can now see landslides on the mountains surrounding this town as well.

It would be easy to complain, I reckon. The kids are tired of each other and we are tired of the kids....LOL!!! We could have been on a road or a bridge driving back home that suddenly washed out as so many continue to do each day. We could be at the side of the road sleeping in our van with our three kids with no bathroom, running water, AC or TV; not that we "need" those things, but it sure feels more comfortable, and there's a grocery store behind the hotel!

Three homes have washed into the river in Orosi, where we are from in Costa Rica, the driving bridge is impassable in our town.

We have had sporadic internet service, power and cell phone service here at the hotel, but His timing is perfect in that we have a team arriving in Costa Rica tomorrow to spend a week at the camp and every time we have needed to "connect" with someone regarding finishing the logistics for this team, He has provided a way, a connection!

We don't know when we will get to go home. We have the transit police office not far from the hotel we are stranded in and they give us updates. It is still raining and they tell us they will not begin clearing the roads of the mudslides until it stops raining due to the instability in the mountains and the danger to the workers. We planned on two days away, but it's been five so far. We know the team will and can go on without us because we know whose team it is as the Lord continues to provide for Global Outreach Mission and the campground expansion projects!

It would be so easy to gripe, but when I look at this picture all I can say is "Thank You, Lord" for having us in your protective Hands!

http://www.ticotimes.net/News/Daily-News/Escazu-Landslide-Leaves-at-Least-20-Dead-10-Missing-Costa-Rica-on-Red-Alert_Thursday-November-04-2010

Inside the "Crater"

I check the web cam located 600 km. on the east side of the crater of Volcan Turrialba at least once a day. Just a few minutes ago, while it is cloudy and overcast down here in the Valley, the sun is apparently still shining on the Volcan, though getting ready to set! Today is a quiet day from the crater as you can see just a bit of gray smoke rising on the left side. We have that once in a while. Cross your fingers, and maybe on a smoldering day I can get a clear picture off the web cam!

You pick apples, we pick...

Coffee! It's that time of year! While we read Facebook entries about you picking apples, here it is harvest time for the coffee beans! I had Kyle take this picture across the road from the entrance to the camp. The coffee beans are called "cherries" and the red ones are now ready to be picked. As you can see there are still many cherries which are green. Picking coffee beans will last through January and IF the weather cooperates in that the harvest is good, picking can last as late as February. Picking here in our area is still done by hand; almost exactly the same way apples were picked while I was growing up as a child. Right now there are many new people walking the streets in our area, immigrant workers who reside in the area only during harvesting time. The air here in Orosi often times smells of a pungent, bitter odor; okay to be totally honest, everyone in our family says, "it stinks like cow poop"! Thankfully, there is no coffee processing plant on this side of the river. The smell comes from the plants drying out the coffee beans. Honestly, I drink coffee and if I had to smell that in my neighborhood all day I wouldn't be drinking any longer! What does a person earn for picking coffee? 800 colones for what amounts to about a gallon container OR in American $1.50 for the container. That's a lot of picking and a lot of teeny-tiny coffee beans! In Costa Rica, every single coffee plantation grows the same exact plant or type of coffee bean. It is the law! Seems to make things pretty fair. Hope this post makes your cup of Joe today even more enjoyable :)

Cops & Robbers, Fruit & Fun, and Prayer Requests

On Friday morning, David & Katherine with some help from Alianna, Ken & I picked fruit at the campground for a trip that we were taking today to do some logistical work. Pictured here are oranges, lemons, limes, guava and grapefruit loaded into the back of our van. We had a good time talking and laughing together! I wish I had my camera with me to snap a picture at the camp of Ken pushing Alianna around in the wheelbarrel full of fruit...so cute!

This morning we traveled about three hours away from the campground to the Caribbean, near Guapiles, to visit churches in more remote areas. This is the area that we will be bringing a short-term missions team to in January to minister through medical clinics, construction projects and children's ministry and training. In this picture is Pastor Jose, a Global Outreach missionary who introduced us to these churches and their Pastors; Ken and Katherine, who are discussing the logistics for this upcoming team.

Here's a picture of Ken & Katherine distributing the fruit that we had picked and brought with us on this trip to the Pastor's wives and families. We hope that this will bless them in some small way.

While it was much hotter and more humid than we are used too here on the Caribbean side of the country; it also seemed that everything grew bigger and prettier. I saw these hot pink flowers along the road and couldn't resist taking a picture. So vibrant and dainty.

On Friday evening, we had a rental group of ladies at the camp. After we finished picking fruit, we worked together to clean the kitchen, the bathrooms and cabins in preparation for this group. They arrived a bit later than we had expected them on Friday evening. Running behind schedule, they stored their baggage outside the Celebration Center and immediately began their evening service. Much to our frustration, three to four young men entered the campground and stole one of the ladies pieces of luggage. We are grateful for the quick response of the area police who were able to capture two of the men; one who was released (the laws are very lax here) and one who was taken into custody for possessing stolen items that were identified by one of the ladies as hers. Most of all, we are very grateful that no one was hurt!

How you can pray:

1. Pray for the upcoming teams coming to the campground to do ministry in December and January.

2. Continue to pray for our neighborhood which is experiencing more thefts and crime, and for the added police who have been called in to patrol our area.

Around our town on Independence Day

After it got too hot to do much more painting and despite sunscreen, we were beginning to get burned; we decided to pack some lunches at home and take the kids to a Mirador (look-out) on a mountain range about 20 minutes from our home. This is Volcan Turrialba. The white in the "v" is a cloud. The white that is slightly curved to the left is actually a smoke stack that is spewing from it. We rarely see this Volcano due to covering clouds, so we were excited to get an updated picture. Right now, the scientologists here in Costa Rica are not exactly sure what is going on with this volcano as far as a possible major eruption. We do know that they have asked residents below the volcano to live elsewhere due to sulfur.
While we zoomed in, this is the best picture that we could get. We are standing at the Mirador in the town called Ujarras, about twenty minutes from our home, but on another mountain range. Toward center-right in this picture you see in the distance a small town. That's our town - Orosi in the valley of the mountain, also known as "Orosi Valley".

Now we are home getting ready to go to Bible Study. Our good missionary friends from Michigan have their Pastor here for this week. He is also a counselor and serving their church here by offering Christian counseling courses. While he only speaks English, he does have someone interpreting into Spanish for him, so what an opportunity for us to attend a Bible Study in our native language! Also invited from our church was our Pastors and their wives, and a couple of the Youth. Tonight, we are the taxi for these people as well. I know it will be a real blessing from what we learned from his teaching the other night, and a good time of fellowship with those from our church!

Boo!

Mexico 3, Costa Rica NADA!!!

Personal opinion, I think there was some bad refereeing and some "dirty" plays! Of course, when Costa Rica plays Estados Unidos, I still cheer for "home"...Go U.S.A.! (Lo siento mucho, Pastor Mario and Jeffrey)!

The van...(insert eyeball roll here)

Ergh...Ken just called and is at the side of the highway as the van has broken down. Our insurance does, however, cover free towing. I am frustrated because we had to cancel our dinner plans for tonight. We had been looking forward to it all week long! Since our friends are also missionaries, they are church planters, it is hard in our ministry schedules to get together! We have a lot in common with them and enjoy any time that we get to be together. They also homeschool, love board and card games (very competitive). Sometimes, when we are together, we just sit around and laugh at our stories of adapting to this culture and how things are done! Oh, the stories!

Hopefully, the cost of the repairs won't be too much. That's why I put at the top, "insert eyeball roll here". Somedays, it just feels like you cannot get ahead!

Guess I best get in the kitchen and see what I can come up with for dinner ideas!

P.S. To my brother, your question about which team we will cheer for: We will be supporting Costa Rica because it would be scary to do anything else but that since soccer is taken very seriously here! We will wear red, white and blue since the flag here is the same colors as back home! No wigs!

Wednesday's ministry with the Orphan Home, kids accept the Lord!

As with a lot of the things that we do at the camp, there are always "behind the scenes" activities that no one hears about or realizes go on. Here's a picture of Ken, the Grill Master, cooking hot dogs for all of the kids and the entire team of workers! This was a repeat performance from Saturday's ministry at the camp with the orphans, but I forgot to get a picture of him. I wanted to give credit where credit is due! Thank you to my husband, Ken, who cooks the "perfect" hot dog and for making sure all of us got fed on time!

Here is "Willy" the clown, a friend from "God Festival" one of our partnerships! I realized that I have never seen "Willy" without make-up until he came to the camp on Wednesday and I walked right by him not knowing who he was! How embarassing! He is a wonderful Christian with an awesome testimony. He drove over two hours to come and donate his time and bring with him some other volunteers to help us make this day very special for the kids! He played Christian music for the kids, made popcorn and cotton candy, made balloon animals, had a team who did face painting and did some comedy tricks with the kids. They absolutely loved him and he had their full attention!

These are two of the orphan home Mom's who are enjoying their day off. They accompanied the kids to the camp, but once they arrived, we took over their care and treated the Mom's to coffee, special breads and a day to walk around the camp together, talk and just relax. Here they are enjoying some cotton candy!

With 28 kids in all, we had to break them down into smaller, manageable groups to oversee them in the pool. Here are a small group of the younger kids who have swam and are now taking a break to make some foam sun visors!

Here's Heather and one of our Christian neighbor's, Ivan, taking a much needed rest, legs up after helping with ALL of the day's activities. Without Heather and Kyle and some good Christian neighbor's, we would not have been able to watch all these kids ourselves. They too, enjoyed "Willy's" whimsical balloon creations!

Well, I had to have some fun too!!!! The face painting techniques that are used here are really different than at home. I took this picture for my brother, Peter, since I thought it might interest him, my favorite artist! Their face paint is much more of a powder make-up that is applied with sponges and then the actual painting is only done of the lines of detail. Up close when finished the face has a very soft, powder, more like make-up foundation look to it. Of course, here, you can't see the glitter that they have added. This sweet lady was my face painter!

At the close of Wednesday's activities, Lynae sang and shared her testimony with the kids. Ken wrapped it all up with an explanation of the plan of salvation and an invitation to accept the Lord. We had three Youth, (the kids who attended were from ages 4-18), accept the Lord today!

Please continue to pray for them and for us as we follow up with them through our continued ministry at the Orphan Home!

What you don't know, won't kill you...

That's Ken. This was the white water rafting excursion. It was all just explained to me today that there are different levels of difficulty in white water rafting, the highest level being a 5. This river had 4's and 4+'s, and the 5's were just up river a little bit further! It was explained in the "oh, so familiar" Man-jibberish with grunts and groans of satifaction and delight, similar to when he sees new Craftsman tools with that infamous "glazed over look". This is crazy!