Semana Santa

We were recently blessed to have a week off of school for "Semana Santa".  Semana Santa is Holy week and it is celebrated here in Costa Rica.  There are processionals or parades and Thursday and Friday were national holidays, so many stores were closed and very few buses were running.

 

We spent the first part of our time off at La Cumbre, a Christian activity camp.   Chris has been leading a discipleship group of new believers on Saturday evenings (in English) and was asked to come to this camp to lead a small group.  We were more than excited to tag along as a family.  The camp is 8,000 feet in elevation, so it was good practice for us since Cusco is an even higher elevation.  We had a great time and enjoyed getting to know the youth better.  There were around 120 students that attended.  We started off early Saturday morning and came home Tuesday evening.

 

  The buses lined up Saturday morning.  It took 5 to get everyone there.

 Ready to go!

 

 We saw some windmills on the way up the mountains.

 

 The sound of the water was music to my ears.  We didn't miss the noise of the city :)

 

 Fun family time!

 

 Hannah found some time for adventure!

 

 It was a bit chilly at night.........okay, we were cold!

 

 The Chalet we stayed in, we were so happy it had a fireplace.

 

 

We thoroughly enjoyed our time away from the city and felt very at home in the mountains. 

 

*Praises & Prayer Requests*

 

*When we returned home from the camp, we found out our close friend had been robbed at gunpoint on our street, not far from our apartment.  He and his 9 year old daughter are fine, but it was an eye opener for us.  Please continue to pray for our family and the other students here, for the Lord's continued protecting hand over us. 

 

*Praise the Lord we are almost done with our second trimester.  Please pray that we can continue to learn and stay motivated in our studies.

 

*Please continue to pray for the girls and their transitions in school and life here in Costa Rica.  Hannah has been more home sick in the past few months, we have been praying with her and for her to feel God's presence in her life and know that she is secure in Him.  Katie continues to thrive in school and is growing in her Spanish learning as well.  Danica continues to have struggles with potty training, but we are taking it one day at a time.  Praise God for his patience with us!

 

Philipians 4:6-7

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.  And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 

 

 

 



March Madness

Ok, so there are not so many basketball fans here in Costa Rica who truly understand March Madness due to fútbol or soccer being much more popular here.  We have been blessed to continue the madness here of studying Spanish and learning more each day.  We say we are learning  "poco a poco" which means little by little.

 

Toward the end of February we were blessed to have Spiritual Emphasis Week with Dr. Ernie Baker and his wife Rose.  They started their time here by going with a group of ILE students and ourselves to see the Poas Volcano and tour the Doka Coffee Plantation.
 

The Poas Volcano

 Hannah and Danica looking over the lagoon.

 It was interesting to hear that Starbucks gets about 80% of their coffee beans from this coffee plantation. Danica has been thanking God for the volcano and butterflies since this trip.

Hannah helped with the coffee bean drying process.

Danica was worn out after the big day, but she fell asleep while holding onto her lemon.
 

Spiritual Emphasis Week was a wonderful time of learning how to deal with conflict God's way.  Dr. Baker gave us handouts and pamphlets to help us in this process because as he said many times, we are living with a Genesis 3 hangover and we are all going to face conflicts in our lives.  However, with God's help, we can face it with the assurance that we can come out of it with a closer relationship with those we had the conflict with and with our heavenly Father as well.

We learned about the seven A's of confession, the four promises of forgiveness and the PAUSE principle of negotiating, (prepare, affirm relationships, understand interests, search for creative solutions, evaluate options).  If you are interested in more information about Peacemaking Principles go to the website:  www.peacemaker.net

  Our classes for the week were a little shorter and we had a session in the morning and one in the afternoon.  Here is a picture from an afternoon session.

The group of "Marie's".  We were pleased to find that all of our middle names are Marie. From L-R is Gemma, Sheri, Ernie's wife Rose, and of course me :)

 

More recently in March Chris and Hannah had a Daddy/daughter day in which they went white-water rafting and zip-lining.  They enjoyed the day of adventure and came home with many tales from the river and different animals they saw while rafting. 

 I am so glad that they were wearing head gear protection for their adventures.

Praises & Prayer Requests:

*We are thankful for teachers who truly care about our lives and how we are doing not only grade-wise in the class, but also how we are doing emotionally.

* Please continue to pray that the language would click with us.  Danica seems to be doing the best with this.  It is amazing to think how far we have come in the past 6 months, but we still have much to learn.  Please pray for us to stay motivated in our studies.

* We are thankful that Chris' dental work is done and he is feeling much better.

* Please pray for the teachers and childcare workers at Sojourn and Rayitos where the girls go, that they would stay healthy and have energy and joy daily as they care for our children.

We are so thankful for your love and support.  We appreciate your continued prayer support.  May God bless you as you abide in Him. 

Psalm 32:8    I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eyes upon you.

 

Dios es Amor! (God is love)

Happy belated Valentine's Day.  The girls had a very nice holiday thanks to some "sweet" packages sent by family and friends.  We enjoyed the time to talk about God's love for us and how we are so blessed to be his children.  God is love!

The girls enjoyed some Valentine's Day Fun!

 

We were blessed with some sweets and treats!

 

 

Hannah made valentine's for her classmates. 

 

 

 

 

*Praises & Prayer Requests*

  *Chris' teeth are much better and he is to have one more appt.  Praise the Lord!

*Hannah and Katie continue to improve in their Spanish speaking and understanding.  Please pray that they continue to learn and understand in school both in English and Spanish.

*Danica is still on the long road of potty-training, but we are seeing progress!  She will finally go for the teacher at school which is a huge praise.

*Please continue to pray for Chris & I as we study, that we would above all glorify God in everything, big or small.  Second trimester has proven to be more difficult, but also exciting to see how far we have come in the past six months.

*Lastly, please pray for Carlos, a new convert in our church here.  He came to Christ this past Sunday and we feel a need to pray especially for him and his family.

1 John 4:8  Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.



Guatemala

We were blessed to take our first short term mission trip as a family the last week of December by going to Guatemala and building a house for a family in need.  Chris and I have been to Guatemala on a Casas Por Cristo (Houses for Christ) trip, but this was the first time the girls have gone.  We met up with a group of 15 others from Providence Mennonite which was a huge blessing to our family as well.  It was so nice to catch up with everyone and get to know each other better.

 

Thank you all for your prayers, the girls did great.  Danica played hard and even had dirt in her mouth at one point.  I just kept praying that the Lord would protect her and keep her healthy.

  We built a house for a family of seven.  The oldest three were married and had children but it seemed that they all lived in very close proximity.  Chris and I were very eager to be able to use our little bit of spanish and communicate with the family.  The house was built in 3 days and "muy rapido" according to some of the people standing by.  The love the family had for one another was very evident and the love of Christ shone through them.

 

I forgot my camera so I am going to share pictures that Amber Jo Knepp took.  Muchas gracias Amber!  I had some issues loading the pictures, so if you have any questions please feel free to ask.

 



During the week Danica wouldn't let anyone hold her.   Well, this sweet lady asked in Spanish and Danica went right out of my arms into hers.  I love this picture! 

We were so blessed to be able to go on this trip.  We were especially excited to take the girls with us and for them to experience this.  Katie told me that she felt very at home in Guatemala and didn't want to come back to Costa Rica.  We give all the glory to God. 

 

We started back to school this past week, the girls started Monday and Chris & I on Wednesday.  Please keep us in your prayers as we get back into the groove of studying and being students again.  Thank you for all the Christmas cards and gifts.  We feel very loved and very blessed.

Four months and Feliz Navidad!

It is amazing to realize that on Christmas day we have been in Costa Rica for four months.  We have learned so much about ourselves and Spanish of course.  Chris and I were blessed to finish the trimester with all A's. We consider it answered prayer and we appreciate all of your encouragement to us along the way.  We know this is only the beginning and we feel we have a good foundation.

 

Here are some pictures to show you what we have been up to! 

 

  Our class went on a field trip the last week of classes to a Mexican Restaurant.  Here are two of our teachers.  Dixi taught Language (on the left) and Ana Sylvia taught Phonetics (on the right).

Here is Chris and his cronies in Grammar class with our teacher Lissette. 

 



 Here is a Christmas tree in downtown San Jose.

 

 Nativity Scene outside the National Theatre.

 

 Chris had some very special company to celebrate his birthday.

 

 We went downtown for "Festival de la Luz", it is the annual light parade.

 

 Fireworks started the show, they were amazing.

 

 Sunday School party for the children at church.

 

 It is traditional to give children grapes for Christmas.  It is a special treat since they are so expensive here due to being imported.

 

The finished Christmas tree.  We had alot of fun with it :)

We were so excited to take our first day trip to the beach with Chris' mom and uncle and aunt.  The weather was perfect and the breeze was even better.

 Chris grilling pork chops on his new grill. 

 

 

It rained off and on all Christmas day but we were blessed with a beautiful sunset.

 

****Praises and Prayer requests****

 

Praise the Lord for taking care of even the smallest details in our first trimester.  Please pray that we would trust Him to do the same in the coming trimesters with our teachers and classmates.

 

Praise the Lord for what we have learned in the Spanish Language thus far.  Please pray that as we build onto what we have learned this last trimester that we would be able to speak and understand the language more each day.

 

Praise the Lord for his provision for the girls and new friends that they have made.  Please pray that they would continue to learn Spanish and make new friends as we continue language school.

 

Praise the Lord for the opportunity to go to Guatemala for a short term mission trip.  Please pray that we would be a blessing to the family that we build for and that we would be safe and stay healthy.

 

Lastly, we praise the Lord for all of the love, support, and prayers you all have given us during this transition time.  We pray that you have a blessed New Year.