Terminar el año. (The end of the year)

    Our life has changed so much in the last year with two of our children getting married, one of our children getting engaged for a summer 2012 wedding. Five of us emptied out our house and committed to serve three years in Republica Dominica, moved to Costa Rica for Language school and raised financial and prayer support for our time away. There were also many small things that came up, that every family would need to adjust too. We, as a family here, and in the states, are continually amazed at how God surprises us each day with his blessings in some way or another. When our home sending church was asking it members to think of ways that they had been blessed this fall, I also started to make a list of my own and it went on and on. He is a great God, and so often I find myself not taking the time to acknowledge the way he works in our lives.

      I have been trying to read one chapter in Proverbs every day for the last number of years. It works out to reading though the book each month. When I read 22:9 in December “Generous hands are blessed hands because they give bread to the poor”, I had to think of all the people that have committed to support us financially and how those hands are blessed by God for doing so. The “bread” in the passage covers so much more than actually edible food. Thank you for allowing God to use your gifts in this manner.

      We have had a good time relaxing during the school break in December. Our Daughter Rachel visited us for a week along with her boyfriend Elliot Rowe and then on Dec 23 Rachel and her fiancé Elliot, headed back to Indiana. It was so good to have them join us here for that week. We tried to have balance of just sitting and visiting along with showing them some of the beautiful areas that we had discovered so far during our time here. We are so glad to have Elliot joining our family this coming summer. During their time here, we went to the Children’s museum here in San Jose. We went to the amusement park here. We went to a LaPaz Waterfall Park and toured the downtown area of San Jose.

      The week between Christmas and New Years is a big deal here in San Jose area. Many of the stores are closed or open for reduced hours. There is a big Carnival type deal in Zapote, about 2 miles from our apartment that has a bull fighting ring that they only use for this one week out of the year. I, of course, took advantage of being here for that one week and went to the bullfights   with some of the other students. Here is a short video of what it was like.      The week between Christmas and New Years is a big deal here in San Jose area. Many of the stores are closed or open for reduced hours. There is a big Carnival type deal in Zapote, about 2 miles from our apartment that has a bull fighting ring that they only use for this one week out of the year. I, of course, took advantage of being here for that one week and went to the bullfights.         
I have several others posted on YouTube if you want to see more of this activity.

       I have been getting more bike riding in on the break, Karen has been getting some craft items made and mending done on the girls’ clothes, Janae and Nina have been spending time with friends and other students and Marcy has gotten quite good at kite flying.            Nina, Janae, and Marcy will go back to class again on Jan 9 and Karen and I will be going back on the 10th. Karen and I have meetings to attend for Students International (our sending agency) in Visalia CA from Jan 3 to 5 and returning to Costa Rica on Jan 6. One of the generous students here will be staying in our apartment with the girls while we are gone. (Thank you Lisa Marie)

      Many of you sent gifts and cards during our time here, and especially during the Christmas season. Thank you all for that and we are humbled by the gracious outpouring of many kinds of support that we have seen in the last number of months.