Well done, good and faithful servant

Yesterday, we received very sad news.  Jim Hall, the CEO of our ministry organization passed away yesterday.  He was diagnosed with melanoma cancer in 2010, but after surgery, he seemed completely free of cancer.  He remained active, visiting the international offices of EMI and leading the overall ministry of EMI with excellence, patience, and wisdom.  We just saw him in August, and he was fine.  In late October, he began to feel unwell, and the doctors found that his cancer had come back very aggressively and that it was so widespread that it was inoperable.  In spite of this news, no one expected such a rapid decline. 

Please pray for his dear wife, Nancy, their children and grandchildren, and for the families of EMI.  While we know and rejoice with confidence that he is now in the presence of Jesus in his glorious, eternal home, we are grieving because he will be greatly missed.  He has led the ministry of EMI for as long as we have been on staff.  He provided us with great encouragement and wisdom as we struggled through the adjustment of our new life in Costa Rica.  We loved having him in our home and learning so much from him just by listening to the experiences he had throughout his years with EMI and serving in Central Asia.  He was someone who displayed a quiet hope and joy in his faith.  He lived his life in wholehearted service to God.  I am sure that as he was ushered into heaven that he heard the wonderful words, "Well done, good and faithful servant."

Jim visiting us in Atenas earlier this year

To read more about Jim, visit http://www.emiworld.org/staffbio_jhall.php.

they're here!

4 guest beds set up

air mattresses inflated

every pillow in the house in use

6 folders on our table filled with Bible studies, observation activities, and cultural tips

little lessons on "don't flush the toilet paper" and "how to use the widow-maker"

waffles, eggs, tropical fruit, and strawberry syrup ready for breakfast

three tables and many chairs set up on our front porch

What's going on at our house?  Intern orientation! 

This is always a busy week for us since Dan coordinates the intern program for our office.  But, this week is truly the busiest of all.  With only one other staff member here this week, we couldn't really delegate out many of the responsibilities of this week.  It always is a jam-packed, full week, and there is even more to do this week than usual.  Throughout this week, in our home, we will be having a total of 7 overnight guests, we'll be hosting about 5-6 meals for varying sizes of groups, and we'll be having various meetings and Bible studies here every day.  Whew!  Good thing we love this intern program coordinating thing! 

Our new interns, along with the EMI intern director and his wife, arrived here in Costa Rica last night.  All four interns stayed with us, and, as crazy as it was, I loved having them all here!  We were up late talking with them, and it was fun to just see them feeling comfortable in our home.  This morning, our other team member, Josh, and then the intern director and his wife, joined us all for a big "welcome to Costa Rica" breakfast, followed up by Bible study on our front porch. 

Please pray for us this week.  Even though it's good and we love the interns, it's going to be tiring and trying on us and our kids.  Pray for wisdom and favor on Dan as he leads meetings and Bible studies.  Pray for me as I act the hostess, which isn't my best gifting.  Please pray for health for us and the other staff and interns.  Please pray for our other staff member, Josh, who will be hosting people on his own this week.  Pray for us to trust the Lord for all the things that we need to get done for our upcoming trip to the States (more on that later), but that we simply don't have any time to work on this week.  Pray that God would be honored this week in our home and in the EMI office!  Thank you!

¡Feliz día de las madres!

August 15th is Mother's Day here in Costa Rica, and this year I had a special surprise for this day: my very first serenata!  We woke up at midnight to sweet voices singing at our gate.  We went out on our front porch and listened to a dozen members of our church's youth group, along with Pastor Yeremy, sing some beautiful songs about the love of a mother.  With some calls of "Feliz día, Sarita!", they piled into the back of a truck and were off.  We had just gotten back from EMI's world staff conference in Colorado, USA late Saturday night, so the serenade doubled as a wonderful, sweet welcome home.

 

It took me a long time to fall asleep afterwards.  I just lay there feeling so loved and blessed.  Blessed to be a mother of these two precious children.  Blessed to be the wife of my husband who knew what the youth group had planned and was ready with treats for them.  Blessed to be at home in a foreign country.  Blessed to be sharing life with the jovenes ticos (Costa Rican youth) here in Atenas. 

Dan took some great photos of us on our front porch in honor of el día de las madres.  I can't believe how old they both look in these photos!  Seriously, Timmy looks about 12!  And, I know they're my kids so I'm biased, but they're pretty cute, aren't they? 

Nine month old Tabitha

Three year old Timothy

tears and hope

Dan and I are seeing more and more that when we're involved in ministry, and in people's lives, we become more and more part of the emotions of what they're experiencing.  We've invested a lot into building relationships with our church family here, and now after a couple of years of growing friendships, we feel very deeply the joys and sorrows of these dear brothers and sisters.  And, so, I find myself in tears, crying over the hurt and sadness and sin and pain and sickness that come as we live life in this fallen world. 

I cry over broken marriages,
over unforgiveness,
over young people straying from the truth,
over a young boy from a very poor family being diagnosed with leukemia,
over that boy's grandmother being diagnosed with the same several months later,
over situations of poverty in which I feel helpless to know how to counsel,
over the fear and pain of a woman trying to support her children after her marido (unofficial husband) left her,
over my own fears and sin and weaknesses...

As the tears fall down my face, I praise God for the promise that there is a Place where there will be no more tears.  I'm so thankful for the Hope that we have in Jesus!  Please join us in praying for our brothers and sisters here.  Pray for us, too!

While it's still July...

... I should post about our celebration of the USA's Independence Day here in Costa Rica...

I really love the 4th of July.  I love the patriotism of celebrating our country's freedom, I love the fireworks and picnics, and the time together with family.  It's funny, though,  that I've spent a lot of 4th's of July in other countries: 2 in Ukraine, 1 in Russia and 4 here in Costa Rica.  This year, Dan worked like it was a normal day, but we did get to do a few things to celebrate.  Here are some photos of our day:

our little family all in red, white and blue

our little dual citizen sporting her American side on Independence Day 

having fun together before our celebration

grilling out at the EMI office (interns Tripp, Andrew and Wes, and our teammate Micah)

 
We did get to have a little celebration at the EMI office for lunch.  All the staff families and interns got together to grill hamburgers and hot dogs (real American style burgers - such a treat!).  Here in our basement office in a small Costa Rican town, we sang America the Beautiful, shared things we love and miss about our birth country, and prayed for the USA.  We finished off our celebration with some good apple pie (again, another special treat here).

That night, I happened to have tamales, seasoned beans, and Tico-style rice on our meal plan.  After our lunch of burgers, hot dogs and apple pie, I laughed at how bicultural we're becoming... even on the 4th of July!

Brother and Sister

Timmy and Tabitha are having more and more fun together every day, it seems.  Our parent hearts swell with joy when we see their love for each other; it is so sweet.  Tabitha adores Timmy, and when she is awake, all of Timmy's energy is expended on getting her to smile and giggle (which always starts out cute, but often ends in more hyperness than Mommy can handle!).  Timmy likes to make sure Tabitha is never alone, and Tabitha has a cute little razzing sound that she makes only when she is looking directly at Timmy or when he's running away from her, as if she's trying to call him back!  Here are some photos of our two cuties (taken last month; I'm really slow on blogging, mainly because of these two!):

Three Years!

June 3rd marked the three year anniversary of our family living here in Costa Rica.  Last year, I was very nostalgic and pensive on this blog about the changes our move here brought to our life (in this post and this).  This year, my thoughts were more along the lines, "Wow, it's been three years... we've had a baby here, we're established here, we love our church family, we see God using us in His work here... this is home." 

We didn't have any plans to celebrate the three year milestone, but, in view of the dramatic flair our life has here, we ended up having it be fittingly memorable.  The power meter for our house, which is located down by our front gate, caught on fire!  Dan and I heard really loud, cracking noises and looked outside to see big electric flames shooting across our driveway repeatedly. A small fire was ablaze on top of the box, very close to some branches of our neighbor's mango tree.  The next few moments were a little crazy as we were running around turning off all the breakers in the house and calling 911.  We heard the sirens of the firetruck a few minutes later... just as the afternoon rain started and did its part in putting out the fire. 

Timmy was thrilled to see the firetruck at our house and to shake the fireman's hand.  He's been pretending to be a Spanish speaking fireman ever since!

We were thankful that the rain began just then, that the power box is down by our gate and not on our house (!), that our Spanish speaking empleada and friend was here to help call 911, and that it wasn't just me at home by myself... because, to tell the truth, living on the mission field for three years still hasn't given me the clear head you'd think I'd have in these circumstances.  I'm still more the type that runs around in circles screaming before figuring out what to do... I've definitely gotten a lot more tranquila (calm) about such things in the past three years, but I wonder how many more years I'll need before I'll be that Tough Missionary Wife that knows just what to do calmly, bravely, and, of course, fluently in Spanish in the face of any crisis?  I'm thinking it's going to take quite a while longer...

home again

We're home in Costa Rica!  And, if feels GREAT to be back!

We've actually been home for a week now.  Dan and I often joke that our life tends to be rather dramatic, especially since moving to Costa Rica.  You know, with the robberies, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions (ok, haven't fully experienced that yet), ant invasions, flooding houses, exploding water heaters, preterm labor in a developing country, having our baby the day the country is in a state of national emergency (have I not written about that yet?  I should.)... we have a lot of drama...

... and, our homecoming was rather dramatic...

First, due to cancelled and delayed flights, we actually got home to our house in Atenas at almost 1am very early Friday morning.  We had originally checked in in Kansas City at 11am on Wednesday. 

Then, on Friday afternoon, while Dan was meeting with some interns, the real drama of our homecoming shook us up.  Literally.  Tabitha was playing sweetly in her pack and play; Timmy had just woken up from too short of a nap and was dancing around me as I unpacked.  Everything started shaking.  I grabbed Tabitha to keep her falling over, while glancing at our bottled water.  (That's my earthquake test; if the water is really sloshing back and forth, I'm not just dizzy AND it's a little bit bigger than just a little tremor.  Oh yes, I'm much more experienced with earthquakes than my first experience 3 years ago). 

The water was really sloshing.

Just as I grabbed Timmy's hand, I heard a terrible, thunderous, roaring sound and the shaking became really violent, the most violent I've ever felt.  I heard neighbors screaming.  We ran outside into our garden and I saw all our neighbors run out at the same time. 

My first thought was...  welcome back to Costa Rica!

All of the neighbors stood outside talking for a while.  Who knew that an earthquake could be a great ministry tool?  I got to meet a neighbor I've been wanting to meet for awhile, another mom with a 6 month old baby.  We found out later that the earthquake was magnitude 6.0 and that the epicenter was really close to us here in Atenas, which is why it felt stronger than others we've had.

No one was hurt; nothing was damaged.  I heard others say later their coffee tipped over or that books had slid out of place.  The only thing I noticed in our house was that all the pictures on the walls were crooked.  Every time we have an earthquake here, I think of Haiti and, now, Japan, and am reminded to pray for those places that have been so devastated, realizing that we could have such devastation any of these countless times we feel the earth shake.  It's sobering.  I think of the many lives that were lost in those two places, so many lives of people who did not know the love, forgiveness, redemption and hope that we have in Jesus. 

It's a good reminder of why we're here.  Dan, a structural engineer, is designing strong buildings in earthquake zones.   These professional designs will potentially save people's lives when earthquakes strike.  We're serving ministries that make Christ known to those who are lost.  We ourselves are seeking to be a light among our community here, to bring eternal hope to our friends and neighbors.  As dramatic as it was, I was thankful for this reminder as we returned to our home and work here!

You know you're a missionary...

... that's been living in the tropics for almost 3 years when...

- you feel like you're leaving home when you come back to your parents' house,

- you realize you don't have any socks or closed toed shoes to pack,

- you only have two long sleeved shirts to pack,

- you know all the clothes you are packing are worn out and out of style and suddenly (sadly) that matters to you when it usually doesn't,

- you're in the airport in Dallas and are happy that the cashier at McDonald's can talk to you in Spanish,

- you're freezing when you arrive in Kansas' spring weather (and you are shocked to see everyone walking around in short sleeves!),

- you have reverse culture shock as you walk three blocks through town (Where are all the people!?  Why is it so quiet!?  Is this other pedestrian seriously waiting for the crosswalk light to change before crossing the street when there are NO cars coming?  Wait - do I HAVE to cross at a crosswalk?  Oh my, HUNDREDS of Costa Ricans would have crossed the street in the time we've been waiting for that walking figure to light up!!!),

- you keep forgetting that you can flush the toilet paper and that you can actually get hot water out of the tap,

- your 3 year old keeps whispering to you when you're out in public, "Why are you speaking English to them?" and talks to you in Spanish when you are home alone with him,

- your 5 month old usually cries when a light-haired, blue-eyed person speaks to her in English, but lights up when someone speaks to her in Spanish,

- even though it's wonderful to be back "home", you think about your other home in Costa Rica every day...


Yes, we are back in Kansas for a few weeks while I deal with and recover from some health issues.  The kids and I came up here first (and can I just say international travel with a baby and a 3 year old is quite the adventure?!), and Dan joined us a few days before Easter.  Tomorrow, I will have a surgery to repair a couple of hernias.  We are praying for a successful surgery and a smooth, easy recovery.  We have been told to expect a two week recovery and, God willing, we will be heading back to Costa Rica as soon as that two week time is up!

orange races

When you have more oranges ready to eat or make juice from in your front yard than you or your friends can use, racing them down the driveway is a very fun activity for a Saturday family day at home.

Each person chooses in orange, rolls it down our steep driveway, and the orange that hits the gate first, wins!  It's always especially amusing when someone's orange is disqualified because it goes through the gate and rolls down the street. 

Good, simple fun here in Costa Rica!



Photo Friday: precious Tabitha

Here's our precious almost 5 month old Tica in her Kansan sunflower dress!

(Tica = Costa Rican... Tabitha is officially a Costa Rican citizen since she was born here... She's never even been to the Sunflower State!)

from Gimma with love

Gimma (my mom) sent Timmy a very special gift, a Cars apron made by her for him.  He loves it!  It's time to start baking (now that the cooking books that have been packed for, ahem, two months are finally back on the shelf).  When Timmy first got this new apron, he had to wear it even outside, gathering oranges from our orange tree.  Yes, our new front yard hosts an orange tree... and has palm trees... and flowering bushes  We are blessed!   

My mom is by far the main follower of this blog, so here's a note just for you, Gimma:  we love you and we miss you.  We wish we could be with you this week but we know God has a good purpose in this change of plans.  Hopefully, God willing, we'll see you soon!  Timmy wants to make cookies and Tabitha wants some snuggles... and I want some good mom/daughter talks!  Love you, Mom!!

What is happening to my brain!?

Spanish.

It's such a huge part of our life here.

And, after living here for almost 3 years, I feel that my brain is filled more and more with Spanish thoughts, Spanish words, Spanish conversation, Spanish worship...

The other day, I was in a restaurant and the music changed.  I stood there for way too long wondering, "What language is this song in?"  I couldn't understand it at all; I felt frustrated that I couldn't understand the words in Spanish.  Then, I realized... it was in English!!  And, I had to concentrate really, really hard to understand it!  The next song was in Spanish and I completely understood it.  What!?

A week ago, our pastor invited me along with eight other women from our church to attend a women's leadership conference that was being put on for women from all over Costa Rica by a team from a church in New York.  There were over four hundred Tica women there; I was one of three gringa missionaries among them.  The short-term team from New York spoke only English, so my Tica friends were excited for me to have an opportunity to speak English.  But it was so hard, when I was sitting there laughing and talking with my Tica friends, to switch over to English whenever an American woman passed by our table.  I tried to play the role of translator and kept accidentally talking to the Americans in Spanish.  Why!?  It's HARD for me to speak Spanish, but switching back and forth was even harder.  My friends were laughing at my confusion.  One of the gringa missionaries and I just talked to each other in Spanish because it was easier in that context.  So strange. 

And, then, the other day, Dan and I were talking to his parents over skype.  Neither of us could remember a certain word in English; we could only remember the word in Spanish.  We both just stopped dead in the conversation and stared at each other.  How do you say aguantar in English??  We finally came up with "tolerate"... Tabitha doesn't tolerate her swing.  Is that even how you would say that in English?  (I just looked it up on google translate; it's more like "Tabitha doesn't put up with her swing".  Why am I needing to look up translations of words in my own language?!).  Well, aguantar just communicates the idea better, we think, so that's the word we always use for that concept, so much so that we had completely forgotten how to say it in English.  This happens often, either with vocabulary or with grammar...

And, then, the weirdest of all, a couple of months ago, I turned to my friend Iveth in the middle of a cooking lesson... and spoke to her not in Spanish, not in English, but in.... Ukrainian.  Where did that come from!? 

What is happening to my brain!?

I'd like to think that what's happening is that I'm getting fluent in Spanish.  But, I'm not!  Oh, it's embarrassing how much I still stumble over my words, use the wrong verb tense, mismatch my adjectives and nouns!  I really have so very far to go before I could ever consider myself fluent.  No, instead of gaining fluency in Spanish, I think I'm losing fluency in English, my native language!  My brain has become an official confused jumble of English and Spanish, with a little bit of Russian and Ukrainian thrown in there.  I'm hoping some good language progress will come out of this jumble.  For now, though, I'm thinking it's a good thing that the majority of my daily conversation is currently with a 3 year old and a 4 month old; that's a good language level for me right now... in any language! 

He's 3!

Our Timothy turned three years old on March 3rd.  Three!  Sometimes it really is hard for me to believe that he's such a big boy now.  Timmy is such a joy - so vibrant, so talkative, so affectionate, so sweet, and really so, so, so much fun!  We are so blessed to see how he has grown and developed over the past 3 years, and I am very excited to see him continue to become the person God has made him to be in the coming years.  Thank you, Lord, for our precious boy!

Timmy has been excited for his birthday for months, so I felt really bad that when his actual birthday day became a day filled with doctors' appointments in San José.  On the morning of his birthday, he asked for his grandparents to be at his party... and I went in another room and cried.  But, he still felt very special when we surprised him with a lunch at Applebee's between appointments  (yes, there is an Applebee's here, in a suburb of San José, and going there is a very special occasion).  He especially enjoyed his hot fudge sundae after the staff sang happy birthday to him.



On Saturday, we were able to invite a few friends over for a small birthday party.  Timmy was very excited to have his two best Tico friends, Henry and Eimy, here to celebrate with him.

It was a very simple party... we just ate cake, ice cream and fruit, the adults talked, and the kids played.  And, I love that here it's totally ok to use the same theme and decorations you have left over, so, since Timmy still loves things Cars, we reused everything from his big party from last year!  Tabitha got into the party spirit:

Timmy was excited about his "red baby vroom vroom cake" (which was his specific request).

Timmy boy, we love you more than we can ever express.  We pray that you will continue to know and delight in our love for you, and that you will learn to know and believe that God's love for you is infinitely greater.  Happy 3rd birthday, sweetie!

a cafecito blessing

Living here as a missionary is truly a blessing, but it also (often) has its difficult, trying times - times of feeling lonely, discouraged, out of place or just plain tired.  I'm realizing that not much encourages me more during these times than good time with friends here, especially local friends.  A good conversation in Spanish... a time of laughter with las hermanas ("the sisters") of our church... a meeting in which my heart can truly worship and pray in Spanish... a Tica friend opening up her life to me in a way that shows me that I'm truly a friend she trusts, not just the gringa missionary... these are the things that fill me with joy about living here, that remind me WHY we live here, and that make me so thankful to have made this our home. 

A couple of weeks ago, my Tica friends blessed me with a special surprise.  At about the normal cafecito hour on Saturday, several taxis showed up at our front gate carrying some of my closest friends from our church.  (Cafecito is the Costa Rican version of a tea party... but with coffee, of course).  They walked in with drinks, bread and cake, and gifts.  They oohed and ahhed over Tabitha, and she rewarded them with all sorts of smiles, giggles and coos that she never bestows so freely on gringos.  They told me they were here to celebrate and welcome Tabitha.

 We talked for hours, laughed, and enjoyed the cafecito spread they carried with them.

I was surprised with homemade gifts for Tabitha - a beautiful, quilted and embroidered pillow, a blanket and pillowcase, and several outfits. 

We ran out of coffee, and it wasn't a problem.  I had wrinkled curtains that were too long for our windows hanging up, and didn't feel embarrassed about it at all.  Everyone was excited about Timmy waking up early from his nap and joining the party.  I made lots of Spanish mistakes and no one cared. They insisted on washing the dishes and making the new mama (me!) rest.  I felt truly among friends.

Did I mention that we laughed?  These ladies are so fun!  I love these photos of us just enjoying being together:

Before they left, they shared how I have been a blessing to them, and I tried to share the same about them (talking in a second language while fighting tears, even tears of joy, is a challenge!).  They prayed for me and for Tabitha. I looked at them and knew that even though I'm far from home and family, my Timmy and little Tabitha have some sweet aunts and abuelitas (grandmas) among these precious friends.

I was blessed.

Valentine's Day 2011

On Valentine's Day this year, Timmy and I had a little craft time and made valentines for the family and for some friends, and Tabitha really enjoyed posing with them.  Here is our sweet little valentine:

Both Timmy and Tabitha are getting so big!  Tabitha is definitely completely out of the newborn phase and is constantly smiling as if she is overflowing with joy, which of course makes the rest of us smile, too.  Timmy is full of energy and fun, and seems to have gone overnight from being a toddler to a little boy; there is definitely no baby left in him anymore.  Really, why does being almost 3 make him suddenly look like he's ready to go off to school!?

Dan and I were excited to able to go on a quick dinner date while a friend (who is also our teammate and now neighbor) watched the kids for us for a couple of hours.  After walking the kids across the street to their house, Dan and I walked out of our neighborhood and down the main highway through town to our favorite Italian restaurant.  It was closed (and to make it even more laughable, not only was it closed, but a big backhoe was ripping up the entrance)!  So, we enjoyed a longer walk into town to eat out and get ice cream cones for our walk back.  Being able to walk just the two of us into town was a very special Valentine's Day treat!

one month

In the past month, we have...

packed up all our belongings,
moved to a new house,
barely unpacked,
loved living across the street from some good friends,
been adjusting to living in a more tico-style house,
immediately felt at home in our new place,
had our running water go out every day,
enjoyed great visits from Dan's parents and my dad,
set up host families for our five new interns,
welcomed our new interns to Atenas and to EMI,
dedicated Tabitha at Iglesia Bautista Vida Nueva (our church here)
hosted a couple of interns overnight,
had a pancake breakfast and several team dinners in our new home,
not been feeling well,
gone to a lot of doctor's appointments,
had intern orientation week,
followed by office staff week,
followed by member care week,
brainstormed with our pastor about our church's upcoming missions conference,
been surprised by a sweet celebration of Tabitha by my tica friends,
had meetings in our home every day last week, 
dreamed about new ministry opportunities in Atenas,
prayed for Tabitha's reflux to get better,
been told about some upcoming major changes for our team,
had some rich times of prayer and learning from God's Word,
laughed every day with our very energetic almost 3-year old Timmy,
rejoiced constantly in the smiles and sweet giggles of 3-month old Tabitha...

Busy?  Yes. 
Tiring?  Yes. 
Good?  Yes!
No time to blog?  Exactly.

Christmas Day 2010

All four of us shared one stocking this year; Timmy was very excited to find it full on Christmas morning.

our sweet Christmas presents!

skyping with far away family

grilling out for Christmas lunch!

decorating the cookies we made the day before

plenty for us and for friends!

Dan found a precious little homemade dress for Tabitha to wear for her first Christmas.

    

7 weeks old (cute picture of the babe, not so much of me!)

We were thankful for a beautiful, quiet Christmas at home... in Costa Rica. 

Christmas Eve 2010

We started the day mixing up some sugar cookie dough.

We had planned on a picnic lunch in a park, but it was cold and rainy, so we had a "picnic" in Timmy's room under a fun tent Dan made.

What could be cuter than our kids smiling at each other?

Tabitha joined the cookie making fun after lunch.

We had another picnic (this time in front of our tree) before leaving for church.

We worshipped with our church family; we enjoyed singing familiar Christmas hymns in Spanish... and eating tamales, a Christmas tradition here. 

I visited with my good friend Felicia.  Look at what a mama tica I've become, wearing a sweater and keeping Tabitha completely bundled when it was probably about 70 degrees! 

So thankful for a fun Christmas Eve with our little family!