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

Prayer Requests

WE,

1. Have family visiting until the end of December and had a wonderful Thanksgiving with them and some guests that we invited in an effort to bless them.
2. With having extra bodies here (family) who are willing to help out, we have been able to spend some time "sprucing up" our mission home. The livingroom and diningroom have new paint and curtains. The diningroom now has chair covers which match the curtains. Our bedroom has a new coat of paint, new sound and light blocking curtains as well. Things are looking mighty spiffy around here! What a blessing to our family!
3. Have three teams coming back-to-back in December and January, and are busy doing logistics and having meetings with churches that will be hosting our medical clinics for those teams. Please begin praying for these teams and their ministry that they will be doing in Costa Rica!
4. Are working on obtaining building permits for a new cabin to be started at the camp in 2011. Please pray for this process, it is often frustrating and is always time consuming!
5. Just finished our Christmas letter that will be sent out through Global Outreach Mission to our prayer and financial supporters. We were happy to report that 255 people (children and adults) came to the know the Lord through this ministry in 2010 and are being followed up in local churches...Praise the Lord!
6. Are having heavy rains for the last two days and are having internet connection problems, thus, the short sentences, but some communication is better than none...right?
7. Appreciate all of you who pray for us, who think about us, who leave comments of encouragement, who financially support us, who love us, who care about us. We could not be here without EACH of you!
8. Often times don't understand why we have been allowed to be here. We are reminded that God does not need us to do His work and so, we are grateful!

Hopefully, another day when the connection will last longer I can post more, but until then, thanks for reading!

Sporadic Internet

Due to having sporadic internet in our home due to the storm, and being very behind in work as well and trying to play catch-up; I realized that I am also behind in updating my blog.

We arrived home Sunday evening around 5:30 p.m. from our hotel hold up with the team of architects in the camp and working along. We left Palmar Norte before noon when we got a tip from the Transit Police that they would be opening one of the highways at 2 p.m. We decided that we would wait in line for the road to open up as many of the truckers were loading up and heading out. We drove about 35 km. and sat for very long periods of time watching dump trucks and back hoes in the distance up ahead in one lane continue to clear debris and large mounds of dirt. When I just about thought I couldn't handle the heat anymore and sweat was pouring off Ken's brow, a policeman came and shouted to us, "pase pequenos vehiculos" meaning that small vehicles were allowed to pull around the 18-wheelers and pass through. What we found up ahead that was holding up traffic was easily a two-story pile of dirt in the oncoming lane with the back hoe driven up the side of it removing dirt and loading it into the dump trucks. We saw roads, power lines and bridges (which were now somewhat repaired for usage) washed out into rivers. Travel was slow at 10 m.p.h. We had to drive through one of the hardest hit areas, Parrita, and as I looked from side to side of house-lined roads I began to tear up. It seemed as though everything that anyone owned was up at the road for the trash men to pick up; clothing, furniture, refrigerators, baby equipment. There were several water trucks and people lined up with any kind of clean container that they could find to fill. There were TV crews interviewing and photographing the devastation. The people looked dazed, tired and frustrated. As we entered the center of town where there was an obvious business district, store owners were sweeping water and mud from their buildings and we heard the sound of cans shaking from the middle and sides of the street before us begging for monetary donations.

Traveling home was emotional. We were saddened, but happy. Before us was an obvious reminder; He is coming again. Lord, let it be soon!

It stopped raining and a window into how people pass time.

We are still in the same hotel, but thankful to be safe and have this room. Our room is near the office and repeatedly throughout the day we have heard the office personnel tell people they have no rooms left available, and each time I feel a lump in my throat. There are wall to wall trucks parked alongside the road and people in this hotel are walking in the parking lot to keep from going stir crazy! While Ken and the boys were out walking to the grocery store this morning to buy milk and cereal, they witnessed a landslide across the river and watched as trees and a part of a mountain came down into the river. This is the first time they have ever seen something live like this, not someone else's video or something you would see on the news here. The grocery stores are running low on supplies, such as milk, since no one can get to us at this point and we cannot get out. We have about a three mile radius that we can drive and from those points are totally cut off in both directions with the roads being blocked. The update this morning was that we will have to wait until Tuesday to leave from the transit police; the road conditions are not just landslides at this point, but also repair work where there are sink holes and large parts of the road washed away. The hotel manager said this afternoon that they have begun the "work" on the roads and "maybe we can leave tomorrow", but with every person you ask you get a different story. There are only two restaurants that we can get to, one Chinese, and one pizza. We are only eating out once a day and eating cereal for breakfast, crackers and chips, apples and bananas in the hotel between meals or peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. People are starting to wash their clothes and hang them outside their hotel rooms. We may have to start doing that tomorrow if we cannot leave as well since we only brought enough for three days and we've been gone from home six days now! It's taken all day to be able to get online to write this post with the internet not working.

All this to say, God is good! No rain and for a few minutes sun and then about an hour of baby blue sky before the cloud cover. This all taken in from a very comfortable front seat of our van!

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

Lo siento mucho OR sorry!

We've been really busy. More on all of that later!

The reason for this post is to ask you to remember the ministry at the campground this weekend with the homeless shelter in your prayers. We have just a couple of hours behind us and already the walls are being broken down and God is moving. Several street weapons have already been turned in (a picture later). God is moving!

Thank you so much for praying!

Housecleaning...in more ways than one!

I enjoy cleaning at the camp for the most part. Of course, there are always the not-so-fun cleaning jobs that need to get done. Mostly, I enjoy the times that I get to work by myself without interruption; I take in the sights and the sounds of the camp, the small animals, hummingbirds and birds or just enjoy spying different flowers and trees in full bloom as I walk the paths between cabins and buildings. Today, I wished our camera wasn't broken. I caught a glimpse of a flowering bush that for some reason hit me in a comical way; the plumes of bright yellow flowers reminded me of the hair on some of Dr. Seuss' characters! I noticed an orange tree that I couldn't ever remember so many oranges on at one single time!

I also like to spend my cleaning times talking to God. These are often "self-evaluation" times for me. Times when I feel God is revealing changes that need to be made in my life, and then there are times when I recognize I need to change, but I need to ask for His help!

Today, as I saw the oranges and the guava falling to the ground and onto a walking path I was reminded of "The Fruit of the Spirit". Galatians 5:22 & 23 says, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control". As I looked at the display of God's handiwork in the campground today, I questioned myself about what my personal, every day life display looks like to the community in which we live. Am I displaying something that is attractive and what others might want? Is God able to appeal to people in this community through me?

Housecleaning, not always fun, but necessary!