Visitor

I know many of you think of jungles when you think of Costa Rica, but we do not live in the jungle. We live in the capital city of San Jose, a major metropolitan area. So you can imagine Cailah's shock when she looked over from the couch today and saw this creature staring at her through the window!



YIKES!

La Guardaria

If you've had a chance to read through the newsletter, you'll know a little bit about the guardaria (daycare) where I've been working for the last month or so. The kids there are so dear to my heart. The guardaria itself, will not be my permanent work site, but hopefully I will continue to be able to spend lots of time with these special kids. I will be working on an education site in Los Guidos, very near the guardaria. All of the kids who come to the guardaria need lots of extra help with their school work. Today, Tracey was working with Charlene, who is in 2nd grade, and she couldn't even write out her alphabet on her own. It is my pray that we can create a space where these kids can come and get help through one-on-one attention with their school work. Tomorrow we have a meeting with Fundacion para el Hambriento (FHI) **See Dec 2nd Post to read more about FHI** who I will be working with to help establish a tutoring center as well as other programs for the children of Los Guidos. Please be praying that God would clearly direct us to the needs he wants us to focus on, and that he would open the space for us to be able to do it. We have lots of kids who want tutoring, but we need a quite place to do it.

Here are a few of my new friends... Unfortunately the one day I remembered to bring my camera, the power was out (so some kids didn't come) and the big kids were all at school in the morning. So you'll have to wait to meet the rest of them :-)



Axel and Gabby. Gabby runs the guardaria by herself. Right now there are only 25 kids, but soon they will be licensed to have up to 80 kids!!!

Tracey and Charlene working on letters.


Aiyla and Ian. Charlene, Axel, and Ian are all siblings. They come from a really tough family. But even in this last month, I have seen what a difference having someone show them love has made in their attitude and actions. I have a real heart for this family.


Daniel and Dixon


Genesis, Tiffany, Dixon, Aiyla, and Ian. Genesis, is the most responsible 4 year old I've ever met. She takes great care of her little sister Tiffany, even puts her to bed during nap time!

A Few Pictures

I haven't been doing the best job of keeping visual documentation of life here in Costa Rica. I am to try to take more pictures to share with all of you. Here is a start.....

Traditions are a big thing in my family, especially one's that revolve around food. It just wouldn't be Easter without cardamon bread or the lamb cake.


Cailah was kind enough to come to my aid when I realized I had some how forgot to pack my lamb cake mold. She slaved for many hours in the kitchen to make the perfect lamb cake with nothing more than a picture from the internet as inspiration. Great job Cailah!!!



Unfortunately I have no pictures of all of us hanging out enjoying all the delicious food. :-(


Yesterday we had our first amphibian visitor in our new house, Señor Gecko. We were quite glad to welcome him, as he feeds on all the bugs we DON'T want in our house.




Tonight, we had my dear friend Josh over for some Mexican food. Josh is one of my best friends from Cal Poly. He's always planned on doing Peace Corps in Latin America, and happened to be lucky enough to be sent to Costa Rica for the next two years. During these first few months of training he lives about a 30 minutes bus ride away from me. It's such a blessing to have someone who's been my friend for so long living here, too. It makes it feel more like home.




We're excited to eat!


Can you guess which is mine? Cailah likes having the support of another carnivore.

Semana Santa

This past week was Semana Santa- Holy Week. In Latin America, Easter is a week long affair. In many ways, I really appreciate the extra time, because it provides the opportunity to really reflect on how great a sacrifice Christ made for us. Often, in the States, Easter sneaks up us. We are left with no time to prepare our hearts and meditate on God's great gift of love and grace to us through His son, Jesus. Here in Costa Rica, thanks mostly to the catholic church, there is a greater emphasis on Good Friday and Christ suffering on the cross for us. On Friday we observed a reenactment of Jesus's trial and procession to cross. Granted there were a few aspects of the procession I didn't quite understand, like who were the ladies with star halos, but overall, it was a powerful reminder of how much God loves us. He would send His son to die in our place. And if He does love us that much, He certainly is not going to abandon us in this world. He wouldn't send His son to die for us, just to leave us all alone here on earth. He wants to be a part of every aspect of our life; He deserves to be a part of every aspect.

I'm currently reading a book by Max Lucado called He Chose the Nails: What God Did to Win Your Heart. I highly recommend it. He looks at each detail of the cross and what God is promising us through it. On Good Friday I read the chapter "I Have Redeemed You and I Will Keep You: God's Promise in the Blood and Water". Lucado explains how Jesus's blood is what saves us once and for all; we can never be 'more' saved than the day we accept Christ. The water represents God's work in us through the Holy Spirit. It is the work He continues to do in us each day to make us more like Him. It is the work He has created for us to walk in. These works aren't what save us, but they draw us closer to God as we experience more of Him. I want to experience more of Him; I hope you do too.

The Wait is Over!

For all of you who have been patiently waiting for pictures of our new house, wait no more. Cailah has put together a wonderful video tour sharing all the blessings and quirks of our new place. We've been in this part of the city for almost 2 months now, and I can finally say I'm starting to feel settled in. I'm comfortable with the buses, know my way around the farmers' market, and have even found a new favorite park. All these little things help to make it feel little more like home.

Hope you enjoy the tour! We'd love for you to come see it in person!!!

Driving

Yesterday I officially drove for my first time, in Costa Rica. And let me tell you it was no small drive around the block. It was the 30 minute drive to the airport, through 3 rotundas, and to the complete opposite side of the valley. Granted it was Sunday, so there was less traffic, but still it was a great feat. Now that it's behind me, I really want to have my own mode of transportation. I realized, while driving, how much easier many facets of my life would be if we had a car. Going to the grocery store and not having to take buses and taxis. Being able to run more than one errand a day. Not having to spend almost 2 hours on the bus, for an hour long Spanish class. Being free to leave my own house after 6pm. I think this is the biggest factor, feeling free to live my life a little more like how I would if I were at home in the States. While a car certainly is not a necessity for life here, it would simplify a lot of daily task, especially once we have teams coming.

It just so happens, that one of my teammates, has a friend who is selling an old car for $1,000. Split between Cailah and I, that's not too bad. We're hoping to check it out this week. Used cars always make me a little nervous since I don't really know the first things about cars. But you can't beat the price, and my teammates know a few things about automobiles. I'm praying if it's not a good car for us, that it will be gone by the time we are able to check it out.

Our First Group

This last week Cailah, Aiyla and I hosted our first group here in Costa Rica! We led 22 college students from James Madison University on a week long outreach in the jungle region of Talamanca, Costa Rica. We were working alongside the full-time missionaries down there, Curtis and Kathy Sharp. This is the same town and ministry that I have been a part of over the last several summers, so it was quite a treat for me to get to go back there. Also, the group of students we had were amazing! Each one came down with a heart to serve, looking for God to work in and through them during the week. It was a joy to watch them serve the community, the Sharps, and each other as serving unto the Lord (Ephesians 6:5-7)


A few of the highlights:

Watching the students love on the community. Even though we weren't doing a VBS after the days' manuel labor, the students still really wanted to hangout with the kids from the community. They would tirelessly play with them till we had to call them back for dinner.





Great times of worship and sharing. We all blessed by how amazing God is and the work he is doing in each one of us.


Being able to bless the Sharps and the community through the many projects we were able to complete




Seeing friendship developed and strengthened among the team members and knowing that each one is going home with a great support system.