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.  

Christmas Break.

       Therefore, we have made it half way through our time here at the language institute now and that is a good/bad feeling all at the same time. As we are ready to be done and move on to the Republica Dominicana, we also are wanting so bad to be further ahead in our language learning. Looking back to where we started 4 months ago, we have come a long way. At the same time, we have a long way to go. God has been so good to us in so many ways and is continually surprising us in how he shows up in our activities.

       So what has happened since our last post? Like I said, school was over on Dec 8^th and then on the 10^th Janae and I had the opportunity to go to Nicaragua for 5 days to spend some time with Ray Hedstrom and Jane Kauffman representing the LaGrange United Methodist Church at the NRN base in Managua. Janae and I had both been on previous trips with Ray and Jane before on a number of occasions so it was good to spend a few days with them and reconnecting with the friends that we have made in Nueva Vida.   

The church in LaGrange has done great things there and it was good to be back. Some other things that we have planned for the break are, our daughter Rachel and her boyfriend Elliot are coming down to visit us from Dec 18-23. That will be the highlight of our time off. Karen and I will also be going to California for some meetings with Students International from Jan 3-6. Then on Jan 9^th class resumes for our last half of Language learning.

    Karen and I celebrated our 28^th wedding anniversary the day after Thanksgiving, we are truly thankful for those years together, and where God has taken us during that time. I guess you could say that we celebrated an evening at home with nothing planned, having Rice and Chicken for supper. Oh, wait a minute, that actually describes EACH night since we have been here. HA! gotta love it.

     As I had mentioned in a previous post, there is a mountain here called La Crux and at the top is a cross. Someone talked me into climbing it a second time a couple of weeks ago and at the top was the Christmas tree pictured below. It was a large branch off a pine tree that someone had taken and stuck it in the fire pit on top and decorated it with the trash that was left behind. HA! What better use of the trash than to decorate the Christmas tree. I guess that is just one of the ways that God had surprised me in the last number of weeks.

 It may sound like I have said this before (which I have several times) but the longer we are here, the more we are sure that we are right where we are suppose to be at this time.  Our prayer is that each of you are also where you are suppose to be, and continue to seeks Gods will for your life, as we do. Trusting that you will all have a great time celebrating Christ's Birth. Thanks for your prayers and continued support that you have shown to us.