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1 Corinthians 3:4-9

"For when one says, "I follow Paul," and another, "I follow Apollos," are you not mere men?

What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building."

1 Corinthians 3:4-9


Monday, December 29, 2008

Update (just quick one...)

Well, as you can see, still no Christmas pictures...I took a bit of a break from the computer- just trying to focus on family during the time we have "off." (which translates to 4 days off the computer 105 emails in the inbox! YIKES!) And, I've been reading! YEAH! How I LOVE being caught up in a good story and I have so little time to do it now (other than what I read with the kids...) it has been quite enjoyable :) But I am excited to start the Narnia series with the kids soon :)

Anyway, just wanted everyone to know we had a great Christmas. We spent the day with good friends and have enjoyed some down time last week and this week. We took the kids to see Madagascar 2 one evening and have even made it to the park a couple times :) (We're on a little break from school, by the way...)

One exciting note: we have an addition to our family- for Christmas, Isabelle got a hamster (thanks to our friends the Blackstock's, who left for El Salvador and couldn't take him with them...). His name is Wally and he fits in well with our family. He is quite fun to watch and Isabelle has been wanting one for months. She is excited and ready for the responsibility and eager to have her Daddy help her with the cleaning of the cage :)

Thank you so much to all who sent Christmas cards, pictures, emails, special offerings or packages :) We are still receiving them, which is really fun! We so appreciate those fo you who remember us during the holidays :) We cannot tell you how much we enjoy receiving mail, emails and phone calls! Thank you!

We are looking forward to starting a new year and really stepping into our roles and forging ahead in the ministry. We've had a few months of "feeling" things out and getting used to everything and now we are ready to find our place. We look forward to a great start with a week long VBS the seconds week of January. (The first three weeks of January will be filled with VBS- Los Guido the first week, then Tejarcillos and the final week- La Carpio.) PLease pray for God to go before us in both the areas of the Pines and Jazmin, as they are the areas we will be having the VBS in. More to come later...

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Merry Christmas

Just a quick note to say Merry Christmas!

Right now, I am not able to get the pictures uploaded, I will keep trying today.

May you be blessed today with the richness of knowing Christ, the newborn King as your Savior!

Friday, December 19, 2008

Ten years ago today...



Ten years ago today, Matt and I promised each other our lives would be lived together forever as husband and wife...We were so young and naive, brand new followers of Jesus, with absolutely no idea of the wonderful things God had planned for us.

Today I rejoice in the years we've had together, the good times and the not-so-good. It has never been easy, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. I love him more today than then and am blessed to be living life with him by my side.

I want to say thank you to all who have had played a part in our lives together, in one way or another. God has blessed us with so many who love us and have encouraged us and our walk with Christ.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Saturday, December 6, 2008

Asthma

I write this as a plea for prayer...

Isabelle has suffered from a fierce cough for going on two weeks now. Her only symptom was this really strong cough- no fever, no cold. However, she has become very tired and hardly has any energy. She will get bursts of energy after resting for awhile and then will become very weepy and tired. Her appetite has also decreased dramatically over the past week. I had been giving her a prescription cough medicine for about a week and it had done virtually nothing to decrease the severity of the cough. Nothing was helping and finally, I knew I had to take her to the doctor. We ended up taking her to the Emergency part of the Clínica Bíblica, a hospital in downtown San Jose that really from all we've seen has excellent staff and care.

You can go to the emergeny room and be seen of course for emergencies, but also as if you were in an Urgent Care type situation. They have a pediatric doctor on call there as well, who sees walk-ins in his own private office.

So, while Matt and Ethan and Audrey waited for us, Iz and I went in to see what was going on...

The doctor was very thorough, which I appreciated. He asked me to come to the side of the table and handed me the stethescope and told me to listen to her lungs. Before this, I did not think she was weezing at all, mind you. But when I listened with the stethescope, I could hear in every breath a small whiney sort of noise. (This is where mom starts to get worried...)

We walk back over to the desk area and he proceeds to tell me she has the beginning stages of asthma. He says it is not full blown asthma- it actually is not yet considered asthma, but if left untreated, it will definetly turn into that. He also told me that she must get better, and if she does not, I will need to bring her back to him to re-evaluate and re-assess her situation. (Yeah...fightin back the tears here...)

So, for the next 10 days, she is on two different inhalers, one to reduce the inflammation and the other to take away whatever is causing the asthma like symptoms-cough and wheezing. Then, for another 10 days, she will continue treatment of the asthma with the inhaler. She also needs to get plenty of rest. Even the every day normal things are wearing her out right now. He also said that it is good for her to play when she feels like it- I just need to be careful and not let her get herself worn out. So I really have to watch her.

We would really appreciate, in fact, we would covet, your prayers right now. She is such a trooper having to take these medicines. She has to take them in the morning and also before bed. She actually likes to use the inhaler (How good is our God that He would allow her to actually enjoy this treatment...?)

We are nearing the end (hopefully...) of the rainy season, which means the increasing and ever-present mold will hopefully decrease (a little). However we live in a bustling city smack-dab in the middle of a tropical climate. Which translates to mucho (a lot of) pollution and yeah...mold...

We had no mold in our apartment to speak of. Here, in the house, we have considerable more. Outside on the back patio as well as in front on the side patio, it is pretty much like a jungle with all the mold that grows there. And, recently, we've found some in the girls' room. Because of normal city living, we have an enormous amount of dust around all the time, no matter how often we dust...

All of this combined, the doctor believes has attributed to this condition Isabelle now has. He is hopeful that the treatment will take care of it. However, this may be something she has to deal with at the least every year.

Please pray. We know our God is big enough to take this away from our precious little girl and get her well again!

Update: Jazmin

Today, Pastor Rogelio, Neris, Matt and Ariel spent most of the morning in Jazmin visiting and evangelizing.

They met some resisitance, found some very welcoming people, several accepted the Lord, and several new discipleship groups will begin within the next week or so.

Praise God for this time spent sharing His word and for our new brothers and sisters in Christ!

Please continue to pray as we continue to go into this area for the next several weeks with the purpose of sharing the gospel and discipling new believers.

Friday, December 5, 2008

Thanksgiving photos

Well, I'm finally going to post the Thanksgiving dinner photos...
As a recap: We celebrated Thanksgiving a week early with about 60 people from the ministry areas. It was a good day and a great way to remember the many things we are thankful for here in Costa Rica.

Here are a few pictures...

What Thanksgiving Day is complete without a little friendly competition...board games all around...

Valeria, Pamela, Mariana, Henry and Roger


Fabiana and Carlos playing checkers


Francisco and David playing Connect Four while Daniel watches intently


Pastor Rogelio and several members of Iglesia Nueva Vida Tejarcillos playing Trouble


A heated game of Blokus


Baby Adrian


What a great picture this is...our team with members from Los Guido, Tejarcillos and La Carpio


Our team


And last but not least, you are about to view something not yet seen by human eyes...


This Thanksgiving could not have been complete without this truly first-time ever experience...



Are you ready?



Mark with a mop...


"How do you use this thing, Melinda?"

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Rain, rain, go away...

Only Rogelio and Matt went into Jazmin today because of the constant rain. Although this was a change in our plans, God worked it out for His good. They met a man named Michael before they even entered Jazmin. Michael was friedly with them right away and struck up a conversation with both Rogelio and Matt. He then escorted them into Jazin and walked with them around the area, proceeding to tell them many things they otherwise might not have discovered.

There are about 150 tin shack homes in this area that is about 1/3 to a 1/2 the size of The Pines, for those who've been here before. For those who haven't- about the size of two, maybe three, city blocks. An estimate of at least three hundred people live there (this is only an rough estimate which we guess to be low and which we also think probably does not count children). Michael pointed out some areas to take caution in, but overall, claimed that Jazmin was pretty calm. There is one existing church which Michael said had about 25 adults in it. This is really the key we were looking for. In a area of at minimum 300 people, only a handful are attending the one and only church. The harvest is ripe...

Matt and Rogelio will be returning this Friday in the morning hopefully, find Michael once again, as well as begin sharing the gospel. It is our plan to return for the following three Fridays, sharing the gospel.

Please continue to pray for these days. Pray for God to use us, in all of our weaknesses, to share His Word and bring light to the darkness.

Thank you for praying today.

Monday, December 1, 2008

Jazmin

Tomorrow we will be spending the day together as a family. We will be heading to Tejarcillos in the morning for the Tuesday prayer time and then we will head to a part of Tejarcillos called Jazmin ("Haas-mean"). We will be going door to door meeting people and sharing the gospel.

Would you please pray for our family and our team in Tejarcillos, but most importantly for the people God has already hand-picked to be people of peace on that day. Please pray that God is working right now in their hearts for the purposes He has that only He knows. Please pray for those that will make the life-saving and life-changing decision for Christ tomorrow. Please pray for the discipleship group Matt and I plan to see start next week as a result of this day spent sharing God's Word.

Please pray in the respect of our health as a family. Isabelle has been sick with a nasty cough for about a week, although it seems to be getting better. Audrey, now however has been complaining of a headache all day today. Please pray that God would take these minor ailments away and help them feel well again.

Please pray for no rain tomorrow. Please pray for safety. This area appears to be rather safe, but we always ask this as a prayer request.