Greetings to our family and friends!
We pray you have had a wonderful year. We also pray that your hearts have been filled with joy this Christmas season! What an incredible Lord and Savior we celebrate and serve! As we have been talking with our children about why we see the lights and decorations on houses this season, we have also been teaching them about Who it is we celebrate. They loved celebrating with Jesus at His Birthday Party on Christmas Day! (They also enjoyed the cake!)
This year has gone by so quickly and there have been so many changes for us as a family! As we reflect on the past 365 days, we realize that we have lived in 4 states and 2 countries this past year. What an incredible journey God has taken us on throughout our lives and especially through this time of becomming missionaries. During this year we also graduated from Covenant Seminary in May, celebrated the boys' 2nd birthday in October, and Frank was ordained as a pastor in November. Since mid-November we have been living in our final move of the year: San Jose, Costa Rica. It is so nice that we will be living here for a full year! It has been a busy, but a wonderful year of seeing how God has provided many special blessings to us through people and churches with whom we have had the opportunity to spend time.
Matthew 1:23
"The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son,
and they will call him immanuel" (which means) "god with us."
We have all adjusted well to the many moves we have made as well as all of the traveling that we have done this year while we were raising support. Both Joshua and Micah are enjoying living here, going to the parks, going to school, and playing in our back patio. They are quickly learning words and they understand many things we say in Spanish. We were using Spanish when talking about their Christmas presents, but we quickly learned they understood some of the words we were using. So much for code- I guess we will go back to spelling words in front of them!
School is going well here at El Instituto de Lengua Espanola (The Spanish Institute). It has been a lot of fun to get to know some Ticos (what Costa Ricans call themselves). We are looking forward to getting to know many people on a deeper level.
We have been blessed to be involved with a church here in San Jose. Even though we do not completely understand all that is being said, it is wonderful to worship with other believers. At our Christmas Eve celebration at the church, we realized how much it means to worship in our own language as there was one song that was sung in English. What an incredible gift that was to us!
We thank all of you who have been praying for us, sending us cards and supporting us in so many ways. What a blessing you are to us! It has been great to hear from so many of you through emails and cards we have received. We would love to hear from you if it has been awhile! We have missed many of the traditions we had in the states, but we have started some new ones here as well. It is amazing to look where God has brought us to and all He has taught us, and we look forward to seeing what God will teach us in the coming year. We love each of you dearly!
Servants of the Most High,
Frank, Suzanne, Joshua, and Micah
