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Dear Family and Friends,
Thank you so much for your continued prayers and support. What a blessing it is to have you partnering with us and the ministry in Peru. We certainly know the power of the support of believers in Christ as you work together to lift us and others up in so many ways. We praise God for all of you who are so faithful in encouraging us!
As most of you know, we have been in Costa Rica learning Spanish for almost three months. We will be here for a year for this purpose. We have had a good start, but of course we feel like we have such a long way to go. We know we are improving because we usually donšt have to act out things in stores like we did at times the first month. It was quite humorous to say the least! Not knowing a language is definitely one of the many ways God humbles us! Thankfully, God has given us the ability to laugh and enjoy ourselves through our learning! We continue to have a greater respect for people who come to the US, cannot speak English and have few connections. It is a huge transition!!
We have found a church to attend in one of the lower income sections of town where one of the professors at our school is a pastor. It is a good place to be as it is similar to the people we will be working with in Peru. We also help out with a childrenšs ministry in the same neighborhood on Tuesday nights. It is going to be a good family ministry. Joshua and Micah do very well overall. They are even becoming used to everyone wanting to pick them up, rub their hair or pinch their cheeks. Being blonde haired Gringos adds to the attention.
Probably our biggest transition here has been the noise level. It is just a lot louder over all here. It is similar to noise levels more in the inner city areas of the US. The houses all are built wall to wall and where there are more people close together there is usually more noise. Overall though, our transition has been very smooth. The country is beautiful and the people have been very friendly and helpful. We are enjoying our time here and learning Spanish little by little.
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WHAT'S HAPPENING IN PERU
Well the VBS campaign is drawing to a close tomorrow. The San Pablo church put together a team of people to conduct VBS outreaches in 6 of its church plants over a three week period. Through contacts made in these VBS's, they hope to grow the church plants. As an MTW missions team, our team members have been helping as part of this evangelistic outreach to children.
I'd like to ask you to be praying for the follow-up to these VBS's. In each of the church plants we had anywhere from 60-110 kids a day during the VBS. Each child had to register with the permission (signature) of their parents. With the parents' consent to have their child in VBS comes a natural link to make contact with them to present Christ and the gospel. As people come to Christ, I'd like to organize them in home Bible study groups for several months to disciple them and orient them in the gospel, as a step in transitioning them into the church. People here coming from a Catholic background need time before they feel comfortable making the transition into an evangelical church, so spending time with them in their own home studying the Word is a necessary step in shepherding them into the church.
So following up on each of these contacts with a personal visit from the church is the work that lies ahead of us, and we'd appreciate your prayers. Please pray that God would enable us to organize this follow up effort well, that he would open doors, that he'd give us love and bold faith in our sharing of the gospel, and that people would be converted and brought into his church.
I'd like you to begin praying with us for 100 conversions in each church plant through this follow up effort, which will extend over the whole of this year. Please also pray that we would grow in our understanding of the lives and needs, spiritual and physical, of the people in these communities, so that we might know how the Lord wants us to develop appropriate diaconal ministries of mercy in response to their needs, as Jesus did in his ministry.
Pray that our pastors-in-training, Alcidez, Nicanor, Percy, Macedonio, and Carlos, will take an active part in this follow up effort, that they'd grow through it and that they would each be developing a pastor's heart for the church, with a passion to see people come to Christ, be shepherded and be fed the grace of the gospel.
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JOSHUA AND MICAH UPDATES
Joshua (on left) & Micah (on right) are doing great here in Costa Rica! They have a wonderful lady named, Gina, who is taking care of them while we are in school and teaching them lots of Spanish. They love cutting, pasting, drawing, singing, going to the local parks, climbing on everything, swimming, playing soccer and baseball. They also love lollipops, ice cream cones, corn on the cob, eggs, and olives. The boys love to pray before we eat and at night before they go to bed. They have also done a wonderful job memorizing many songs that they sing with us at night. They are speaking lots of English and Spanish at this point and many times they say things better than we do. Riding in taxis and on the bus are favorites as well as pointing out the motorcycle men. The local delivery businesses all use motorcycles so there are lots of motorcycles to see. The boys have also made friends with many of the men who run the little stores around our house. Rarely do we leave a store without the owner giving our boys a piece of candy. Joshua and Micah also love having people come visit (they do a great job entertaining), so if you get a chance come down and visit us (and beautiful Costa Rica) we would love to see you!
PRAYER
*For our time here at language school, that we can truly learn to speak Spanish well and share our hearts with Latin Americans
*Pray for the work in Peru that the truth of Jesus Christ will touch the hearts of many new people
*For Carlos and Zeidy - our neighbors and landlords. They do not know Christ. Please pray for their salvation.
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A Day in the life of this missionary family
As we traveled to many different churches last year to talk about the work in Peru, one of the questions we frequently were asked was to describe what our daily lives would look like. At the time we could not give a very good answer and still cannot for what it will look like in Peru, BUT this is a typical day in our lives here in Costa Rica as we study Spanish.
The day begins at 5 am as we arise and try to get ready for school before the boys wake up at 5:30. We head out to school at 7 am. We are in Spanish classes for 4 hours daily and have an hour at school to study some. We return around 1:30 for lunch and conversation in Spanish with Gina-she does not speak English. The afternoon and first hours of the evening are spent taking care of errands and of course playing with Joshua and Micah. They boys go to sleep around 7:30. After this we try to study and take care of other odds and ends.
We have been blessed to get involved with many Ticos (Costa Ricans). Frank is playing soccer with Ticos on Mondays, Suzanne helps with a Bible Study for maids on Tuesday afternoons, and the whole family ministers to the kids in Alajuelita on Tuesday nights. Suzanne also meets with a Tica friend for coffee once a week to talk with her and get to know her better.
This is not probably the life you had in your mind for a missionary, but this where God has us for now. Please continue to pray that we can learn to speak Spanish well. Most days are encouraging, and other days we wonder if we even know what Spanish is!
PRAISE
*Praise to God that we have adjusted well to living in Costa Rica and that we are learning Spanish
*Praise that God has given us Gina to love, teach, and take care of the boys while we are in school
*Praise that God is blessing the work He has begun in Peru
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