About three weeks ago we began praying about being part of a ministry here in Villareal. God clearly directed this path. To have the opportunity to be a part of this type of ministry was something Matt and I had once believed was 'in the plans' for us, but then God moved us here. We had somewhat laid that dream to rest and then God blew open a door that only He could have planned. MORE ON THAT COMING SOON!!! :)
So part of our purpose was to joyfully share this news with Mark and Meg and get a visit in with the Los Guido church. We were able to be a part of the Sunday afternoon service as well as a church talent show. It was so much fun and, per the prompting of Mark, our family even participated! :)
We were able to re-connect with the summer interns we had previously met in years past, as well as meet the new one. We also were pleasantly surprised that the current team was one we had worked with two years before. It was great to see their familiar faces!
And, of course, it was awesome to see our old buddies. I got caught up with several of the girls I've had connections with for years- it is always so good to see them. I was reflecting on how they've grown an changed over the four years we've been a part of this ministry (one year as a mission team member, then prayer partner; the rest on the field). I remember how when I first met some of them, they didn't really know what they wanted to be when they grew up. One girl, Fabi, is in her final semester of high school, has been preparing to go to the University and is going to go to school to be a doctor. When I first met her, she lived in a small tin shack on the side of the road on the main bus route through Los Guido. She graduates high school in December. Praise God for His work in this girl's life!
It was such a blessing to be on the Finca and see all that God has done. We had to take a detour from the normal route and came up on a parallel side street. As we came through, we could see the building. It is an awesome site!
We stayed with our good friends, Bob and B, in San Francisco, whom we met in language school. It was fun catching up with them late into the night and sharing stories and laughs. :)
Monday brought a full day of errands around the city. We started out with ordering Bibles with the generous offering we received while in the States. Thank you Hickory Grove!!) Then we headed to the Costa Rican Sam's Club to purchase family supplies (ie: peanut butter and Blue Bonnet sticks of margarine and other things like that! Two sticks of butter here are about the same cost as a box of 8 Blue Bonnet sticks at that store!)
We then went on to Clinica Biblica for Izzy's yearly asthma check. She checks out great1 Audrey had developed a fever Sunday night and had been coughing for several days and by this point in our trip was asking to go to the doctor herself, so we had Dr. Martinez check her out to. I'm sure glad we did because she has a throat infection and he prescribed Zithromax for her.
We then headed out of town to meet the man from whom we buy discipleship material. We were able to stock up because of the generous donations of the FEPC Vacation Bible School kids who raised money for the discipleship ministry here. THANK YOU Bible School kids!!
We met at a mall to pick up the books and while I was feeding the kids lunch, we realized there was a movie theatre in the mall. Audrey's birthday is tomorrow (She turns 6!!!). So, we decided to see if Toy Story 3 was playing and take the kids if it was as a special activity for Audrey's birthday. I ran in and found out that it was starting in about 45 minutes, so we finished up and went in to buy tickets. We haven't seen a movie in over a year so this was a real treat! It is just not something we do anymore. As we walked into the mall, all three of them were trying to guess what the surprise was. Then, Isabelle saw the theatre sign and with a huge gasp she screamed "Toy Story 3! Do we get to see Toy Story 3?" It was a priceless moment! The movie, by the way, is really good and we were pleasantly surprised! It made us all laugh. Audrey was a little impatient with all of the previews beforehand and kept saying "Is there ever gonna be the movie, Mom? I don't think there is gonna be a movie!" When I asked her if she was excited to see Toy Story 3 for her birthday, she kept saying that it wasn't her birthday yet so this wasn't for her birthday because her birthday was Wednesday!
Seeing the movie pushed our arrival home time way back, but it was worth it. The whole movie plush popcorn and drinks for all of us only cost $25!
After a slightly scary drive and lots of rain, we arrived home around 11 PM, laid down three sleepy kids and got most of the car unloaded, then went to bed ourselves.
Today, we've been catching up on laundry and cleaning around the house and tomorrow we will return back to normal. Costa Rican kids have been on their winter vacation for the last two weeks. We hosted the East Hill team two weeks ago and had the VBS in Santa Rosa. The rest of that week was spent in serious, focused prayer about this new ministry opportunity. We also began the follow-up from Janene's team. As posted before, we have three new discipleship group's there, with many more kids to follow-up with and several moms. We spent one day last week in getting to know a couple towns about an hour away from us. We had planned to meet some friends from language school that are serving in Nicaragua, but were leading a team here in Costa Rica. The team was ministering in a small village near Santa Cruz. We got a good feel of the layout of these to towns, finally had time to go and find the nearest major hospital (about time after living here for 8 months!) and also found a few places where we will be able to buy ministry supplies. It was wonderful to see these old friends, even if just for a couple hours. Then, Calvary Chapel held there annual VBS last week with a team from Reno, Nevada. Matt and I helped out with that and it was great fun. We look forward to working with Calvary Chapel in a greater capacity. The VBS ended Saturday and Sunday we left for San Jose. So, our kids had a little break form school, but now it is back to the grind.
A side note related to school: I met two people over the last two weeks that were extremely encouraging to me about homeschooling. One was on the team our language school friends lead in Santa Cruz. The other was a man serving on the St. John's mission team in San Jose. They both homeschooled (in the case of the man in San Jose, it was his wife who schooled) using very similar methods to that which I use and their "success" stories were very helpful in keeping me going. Sometimes I wonder if it will all be worth it one day...they helped me to remember that fruit begins to grow and it all matures in different time frames. I look forward to the day when my fruit has fully matured.
Here is a picture of our family participating in the Los Guido talent show. We sang a song the kids learned in VBS days before. :)
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