Please Pray

We would really appreciate your prayers for our househelper, Isabel. Last week she had an episode very similar to a heart attack. At this point she doesn't believe it was a heart attack but is instead some sort of virus. The medical system here is socialized and she hasn't really had the quality of care that we feel she needs. The doctors that she has seen can't seem to pinpoint the problem and she has to wait ten days before she can get in to have any tests done. She has been extremely tired and has been feeling just awful. We've given her some time off to rest and recuperate. Please pray for Isabel that she would be healed and return to her normal energetic self!

What I long for...

I'd love to have an intelligent conversation in Spanish. Would you believe that all of a sudden I can't pronounce words that I never had trouble with before? Isn't it supposed to go the other way? Aren't I supposed to speak better with more time and practice? And I can't seem to say one sentance without getting either a gentle correction or a funny look. I really wouldn't mind so much if a few people would just smile and nod and act like I'm not sounding ridiculous.

On the upside, I'm learning humility. Like never before. They say that is the upside anyway...

I'm also learning how to keep my mouth shut or at least I'm learning that I need to keep my mouth shut...whether or not I have learned this lesson is still very questionable. I realized today that I am always arguing with one of my classmates just for the sake of arguing. (By the way, this classmate is not Sean, although we won't go into how much I argue with him just to hear myself talk.) I suddenly realized how bad it is today when this classmate was just innocently trying to do an oral description about contact lenses and I kept piping up with my two cents that he wasn't right. My mom and my husband know better than anyone that I can get very argumenative at times. I've been in class with these people far too long when I start picking a fight with them over gas-permeable contact lenses!!!

Long Time NO Write!

Phew…what a week. For those of you who regularly follow our blog, sorry for the gap of information and news left over the past week. I am sure you all had an intense longing for great and big news from our lives that we have left you without, sorry! This past week has been crazy. With my increased workload from moving into Rebecca’s class I had tons of homework and studying to do. In fact I still do, but it is a little more manageable now. We had a lot to cover in my tutoring sessions last week, which consisted of about an hour after lunch (a great time for a nap) with a tutor going over an amount of material that probably would have taken 1-2 months in the normal classroom setting. So needless to say I am still recovering from having my brain fried repeatedly last week. I can’t think of anytime in the past when my brain literally hurt like this and caused me headaches. Not even in all my flight training, maintenance training, college, high school, ect, had my brain hurt like this. There is nothing to compare learning a language with any of my past experiences. The greatest thing and perhaps the weirdest as well is that I am loving learning Spanish, we both are. It is a joy daily to learn more and more Spanish and the different ways to say things, and then try and use it in real life and make a complete fool of yourself. Oh well, you have to crawl before you can walk, and at times I feel like I am even far from crawling. Life outside of the USA is really getting easy for us as well. Not that is was ever extremely hard, but we are slowly becoming attached to the Latin culture and their language. An answer to our prayers indeed, and I am sure some of yours as well. This week has no great things happening out of the ordinary. I am parenting solo this coming Friday-Saturday while Becca goes to a women’s retreat. That should be fun for her. It will be Brooklyn’s and my first time “alone” without mommy, prayers are accepted…please. Next week is Spiritual Emphasis week. What this means is we have a special speaker for 2 services a day, every day. As the worship coordinator it means a high workload for me and my 4 teams, but it should be fun. I am in the beginning stages of gearing up for that. I should actually be studying right now, and even desire to, but there is a point in my brain that I have been reaching a lot lately, that the brain cannot handle any more information. It is kinda like when you are running a lot of programs on your computer and all of a sudden…nothing but a frozen screen and locked up processor. Well that is what would happen if I studied right now, nothing but brain freeze. Sometimes I wish I could get my processor updated for a newer, faster one, but there is nothing wrong, or for that matter unspiritual, with relaxing until my current one can catch up with all the new Spanish words and grammatical concepts. Therefore, I think a bowl of ice cream is needed. (By the way, it is better here that in the USA.)

Quick Update

• Friday - Yes, last Friday was my birthday. It was a very nice day. I have the most wonderful, thoughtful husband in all the world. He bought me roses, had our neighbor make a cake for me (she has her own catering/bakery business) and then surprised me by getting a babysitter and sweeping me away (with the help of a mini-bus and driver) to a favorite restaurant of ours that overlooks the city. It was a great evening. The waiters really enjoyed talking with us. They kept coming back to our table asking for help with their English... Waiter: "Que es esleeeepeeeng?" (Accompanied by funny motions of falling) We answer: "Slipping!" He walks away saying: "Esleeepeeng. Esleeepeeeeng. Esleepeeeng." Then he comes back with a little piece of paper that he must have copied from the English side of a milk carton that says: "Partially skimmed.....breast milk is best for ....nursing" Why he chose those words of all the words on that milk carton I don't know but we did our best to explain it and pretty soon he was blushing realizing what he had asked us!
• Saturday - I like to stretch my birthdays out. A fellow MAF wife and I went out together. We ate at Outback Steakhouse (yes, free refills, American style hamburgers and french fries so good you don't even need ketchup) and then headed to a scrapbooking store so I could buy some things to start a scrapbook. I'm just getting into this whole scrapbooking thing but the other two MAF wives here at language school are both really into scrapbooking and making handmade cards so I have them to point me in the right direction. I don't consider myself artistic or creative but I'm ready to give it a try! I think this will be something fun to do with all that spare time I have...when Brooklyn is sleeping. So, in other words, between Midnight and 4 am...
• Sunday - Another attempt at going to church. Brooklyn hasn't been too excited about going to Sunday School for some reason...actually she's terrified and that just isn't like her at all. We're guessing she might have had a bad day with one of the other kids a few weeks ago. The teachers are great and she's always loved going until recently.... Anyway, it is next to impossible to keep her still and quiet in church so we ended up leaving after worship. Looks like we might have to go to church in shifts (one of us first service, the other for second service) until Brooklyn warms back up to the Sunday School idea. At this point we don't feel we need to push the whole church thing. We really hate to see her have such a terrified reaction to church when she should be looking forward to it. We'll wait a few weeks for whatever it is to blow over and try again. We spent the rest of the day "re-confirming" boundaries with our precious two-year old. Some days (and usually on the weekends) she likes to test us to see what she can get away with. Days like these make us very happy with just the one child!

The Rest of the Story...

Rebecca did clarify clearly that I am being moved into her class, beginning tomorrow (today is a national holiday, no school). What she failed to tell you is this. I have to jump up about 6 levels. She has been in the class where only the gods come to learn, there is no higher class. They are up there in the clouds. On the other hand, I was in a class with more normal people, commoners. So to be elevated to this level is quite an honor, no doubt. Rebecca also failed to mention that I can make some mean pancakes as well.

It's happening

Well, a while ago I expressed my worry that Sean would pass me up in Spanish. It's happening. He's just been bumped up to my grammar class. The Academic Director made the decision to move up Sean and one other classmate who were ready for a bit more of a challenge. They will take a crash course to catch up to where our class is in the book (they will have a tutor for an hour everyday till they are caught up).

This is a sad day for me... when we used to have arguments I would turn things in my favor by saying "you just wouldn't understand, you aren't as advanced as I am. I'd explain it to you but I don't want to confuse you." What now?! Okay, I'm a bit competitive and, although my Spanish was only .000012% better than Sean's to begin with, it was one thing I could actually beat him at. Those days are gone. *Sniff*

Not only do I have to share my classroom (okay, glory) with my husband but I also have to learn to keep my mouth shut. This is the conversation we had when I found out he was coming to my class:

Becca: "Wow, honey, congratulations! They're really moving you up?" To MY class?!?!

Sean: "Yeah, I can't believe it. I just hope I'll be able to catch up and stay on top of everything." Just please don't try to -

Becca: "I'll help you!" Hmmm, this could be fun. On second thought, maybe that wouldn't be so great for our relationship.... "Or maybe you'd rather -"

Sean: "I'll let you know if I need your help." Too advanced for me, are you? We shall see. We shall see.

That's about how it went. The best advice we ever received about language learning and marriage was to never, not ever, correct each other. Sean is great at keeping his "help" to himself but I, on the other hand... well, we'll need your prayers!

This is a great thing. Sean has been needing more of a challenge for some time now. And, believe it or not, I think its awesome that I get to have my husband in class with me. We're going to have so much fun! He belongs in this class. I have no doubt that he'll do great. He has that "language gift" - he's improved SO FAST in the four and a half months that we've been here. And considering that his life could depend on his Spanish skills someday I'm especially happy to see him in a class where he'll learn more...even if he will pass me up. I should have known it wouldn't last for long. Hey, at least I can still cook better than he can...although he can make a mean macaroni and cheese...

Yes, I know marriage isn't about competition....
I'll bet he'll never take up scrapbooking, so I might have him beat there!

Just an ordinary average day...

Today was a great day for us. Nothing out of the ordinary happened, we just enjoyed our classes and the day overall. I began to ask, as part of my homework, some of the community members some questions for my weekly report. This week it is over the independence of Costa Rica, which is celebrated this Thursday. Because of the importance of this national holiday we do not have school this Thursday, which is bittersweet, because we can’t do much as far as fun in a day. But it will still be nice. Friday is Rebecca’s b-day. That should prove to fun, we shall see. I had to prepare a report also tonite on a famous person that is dead, I chose Abe Lincoln. I also began to prepare a Bible study that is due this Wednesday, is has to be only about 20 minutes. So like I said, not much to report. Life is pretty ordinary. That is good, because we have enough to worry about trying to learn Spanish.

Brooklyn Gets a BIG Star!

Today when we picked up Brooklyn from the kinder we got word of something monumentous. I described yesterday a little of the classroom format for Rebecca and me. Well Brooklyn has high expectations as well. She started this week in the pottie training class. And on only her third day she went without 1 accident and even communicated in Spanish and English when she had to go. What a smart little stinker. Mommie and Dada were, are, so proud of our little girl, on her way to diaper freedom. Granted there will be many mistakes and miscommunications with Brooklyn in this process, but that is what her parents are perfecting as well. We love to do things like mess up and miscommunicate as a family, for us it happens when we speak Spanish.

On a lighter note, the butterfly picture below I took today when we got home from school. This photo is totally staged, so no huge acolades for this photagrapher. Brooklyn and I found this butterfly on the street, alive, on the way home from school, yet is was unable to fly. So I let it crawl on my hand and brought him to my house and found a better backdrop and took some pictures. I don't know what it is called other than pretty. There are sure a lot of neat butterflys here. I tried once to get a picture of a moth that was bigger than my hand, like a big bat, but he flew off to quickly. I did get stung one day at school though by a caterpillar. It hurt like a bee sting but not for as long. It was about 2 inches long with lots of green spikes on its back. The pain thankfully was short lived, about 20 minutes or so.

Back at the grinding wheel...

Today was the second day back for us at school. We truly love learning Spanish. Nothing worth doing is easy, and this definitely holds true here. Here are a few of the things that will be expected of us throughout this trimester, which ends in December. For me, Sean, in my conversation class, I have to create a “route” of about 5 or more people outside of the school in the community to go and ask pre-specified questions every week. From their responses I have to make a report and turn it in to my teacher and also discuss it with my classmates. This happens every week. I will also be responsible for a weekly Bible study of just around 20 minutes. Twice this semester I will have to prepare a Bible study for a full hour. And even today we started to discuss things such as the Big Bang Theory, kids of missionaries, some humorous things that happened to me in the past, and what I think of violent sports like boxing. This is just part of the format for my conversation class. At times it is hard to get your point across in English let alone Spanish with topics like these. I will also have to give a “trade” type presentation. Since I am a pilot and mechanic I will be expected to teach my classmates all the parts of an airplane, what they do, and then explain how it all comes together for the miracle of flight. Again, this is no easy matter in English, but I will need this anyway, so the course is very practical for us to not only obtain Spanish, but know it as it relates to our respective trades, pilot, pastor, doctor, ect. Rebecca’s conversation class is very similar to mine. Supposedly next trimester, our last, we will have to give around a 2-hour presentation on the country of our expected service, for us, Ecuador. They really challenge us, but one of the quickest ways to grow is by being stretched (how do you say Gumby in Spanish). We also have grammar class, which we are learning is getting deep quickly. It is hard sometimes to file some of this information for use when there is nothing remotely close in English to compare it to. Yet, we are learning this language and still having fun. On top of all of that we are involved in other things at the school. I am the worship coordinator, which means not only do I have a worship team of my own to lead, but I am also responsible for all the other teams that I need to manage and make sure they are scheduled for the appropriate chapel service, which we have twice a week. This is fun though, and I really enjoy it. Rebecca on the other hand is the treasurer for student council. What this really boils down to is I now have to opportunity to get us a new sound system at the school as well as take Becca out on a few more dates. Wait, this is beginning to sound something like Enron. I wonder how that translates to Spanish. Maybe sleeping with the treasurer isn’t full of all the perks I thought. Needless to say we are really busy, which is a vast difference from our recent break. I believe I experienced a level of boredom unprecedented in my life before. It was awful. Now we are at the other extreme, barely getting our homework done, making dinner, cleaning the dishes (we are the dishwasher here), putting Brooklyn to bed, ect, ect, ect. And then we go to bed around 9-10 at night. Yes I know this sounds early. But I am up at 4:30 a.m. to get the day going on the right foot, and overall this culture just rises earlier than we did back home. It took a little adjustment at first, but it is pretty easy now. Costa Rica being close to the equator experiences close to 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness every day, regardless of the time of year. So this schedule suits us fine since the sun is up around 5 a.m. and goes down around 5:30-6 p.m. And when you don’t have T.V. and are finally done with homework, there isn’t much to do, so you read a book, or something along those lines and go to bed. It is already amazing to us how fast our time is going here, and all the Spanish we still need to acquire. We have been told that this year will lay the foundation for our Spanish, and afterwards in Ecuador we will actually build upon it. We are beginning to believe this. Although we are getting pretty good at understanding conversations and overall what is happening around us, we are far from fluent. Anyway, if our little girl Brooklyn has taught us anything, language isn’t something you can order at a drive up window or in a nicely packed box. It happens little by little every day.

Too much laziness...

Tomorrow we will start back to classes!!! We had a nice vacation but we are (all 3 of us) ready to get back to school. The past week has been a bit too boring and quiet. There was a time when I could lay around and do nothing for months on end. Not anymore. Would you believe that I actually got tired of reading?! You know it's bad when I don't even want to look a book in the face anymore.

Sean is at the school right now practicing with his worship team for this week's chapels. He is the music director at the school this trimester, so that will keep him awfully busy. I'm the Student Council treasurer...they're going to trust me with money!! Anyway, I say all that to say that starting tomorrow our lives will suddenly get very, very busy. Just pray that we will be able to keep up after two and a half weeks of progressively sleeping in later, staying up late, taking long naps just to waste time, and lounging around wondering what to do with ourselves!

Sean and I have had headaches for two days now. We've finally decided it must be atrophy of the brain. Seriously, we haven't done anything to stimulate our brains cells. They must be dying off by the millions. Boy are we in for a shock tomorrow!

God's Blessing to us in Costa Rica

When we arrived here in Costa Rica we were advised to hire house help. This wasn’t an easy decision to make but after much prayer, we felt the Lord was telling us to go ahead. We ended up hiring Isabel, a mother of 5 with two still at home, to come to our house 2 days a week. We expected that having someone to help with housework would be beneficial but what we did not know was what an incredible blessing Isabel would be in our lives. We couldn’t have realized how much we really needed Isabel – not just for help keeping this house livable (it is a bigger job here than we ever imagined) but we also needed Isabel for her spiritual wisdom, patient help as we learn Spanish, and advice in everything from how to store our food to where to pay our bills! There have been many occasions when Isabel has quietly and lovingly encouraged us with the simple Truth of the Bible and God’s faithfulness. Other times she says things just as my own mother would – loving, helpful advice that we so often need!

Isabel is a great woman of faith. She loves the Lord and this is obvious in all she does. She works harder than anyone I have ever met. She provides for herself and her children by working for two families (ourselves and another family) that are studying Spanish. But that is not all. She is also currently leading two discipleship/Bible study groups through her church, working through her church to start new churches and working to unite the Body of Christ, taking weekend mission trips with her son, Andres, helping her daughter, Deborah, study for high school exams, attending prayer meetings and conferences and preparing to become a missionary herself!

God has called Isabel to Monterrey, Mexico. There she will work with impoverished families, teaching them about Jesus and discipling them in the Word. She is studying and “practicing” both evangelism and discipleship, applying for visas, and raising her support in order to go to Mexico as God has called her. Her task is not easy but Isabel has a smile on her face and a faith in God – after all, He has provided in miraculous ways before, He will do it again. I wish I had the space to share some of the awesome testimonies of God’s work in Isabel’s life – her stories of God’s faithfulness and miracles in her life could fill books. We have seen what God has done in her life in just the past four months that we have known her! And even when things have looked very badly for her she was still saying “Dios tiene control” (God has control). And she is right, God has complete control!

I want to ask you to pray for Isabel. She is working hard and certainly needs God’s strength and grace as she continues to work toward the goal that He has called her to. Her current plan is to head to Mexico in the next 4-6 months with her daughter Deborah. This all depends, of course, on the necessary funds being raised* as well as the visa process going smoothly. Pray for Isabel’s daughter Deborah, 15, who will leave friends to join her mom in Mexico. Isabel's son, Andres, will stay home to continue his studies as a seminary student. Her three older, married children will also remain behind in Costa Rica with their own families. This family will go through a big transition and will need an extra measure of God’s grace to go through the upcoming changes. And we’ll need your prayers as well as we will be saying “good-bye” to a new friend and will be without her help for our last few months here!

*If you think you’d like to help Isabel financially or would like to know more about her, her family, her ministry or her specific prayer needs, please contact us at holy_man77@msn.com (this is not our MAF email account but is set up for this type of use) and we will get you the necessary information.

Hot Water and New (English) Words

We've been without hot water since Saturday. We've been "real" missionaries for a few days - boiling water to wash dishes, using a "widow maker" to take showers. (this is a tiny electric hot water heater attached to the showerhead, I guess I don't need to explain why they are called widow makers!) Blessedly, our landlady's brother came by and fixed the problem. It was a matter of simply reconnecting a switch with a little peice of wire. We were without hot water for 3 days and all we had to do was reconnect the switch?!?! Sean could have fixed it himself, except that he's never seen this kind of switch before in his life! We're pretty sure that the landlady was trying to tell him how to fix it on the phone but, well, that was in Spanish and even in English it would have been confusing! Oh well, at least now we can take normal, "safe" showers and wash our dishes! And next time it happens, we'll know what to do. Funny how much you take for granted even knowing how to flip a switch!

We have been helping a family from the UK settle in. They are here for language school and will be going to Ecuador to work with HCJB. Martin is a water engineer and will be working all over Ecuador but will be based in Quito. Sean will probably be flying Martin around in Ecuador! They are a great family. We've been learning yet another new language - British English! Here are a few new terms we've learned:

• Plaster (bandaid)
• Crisps (chips)
• Chips (fries)
• Bin lorrie (garbage truck)
• Cooker (oven)
• Tea (evening meal)
• Trolley (shopping cart)
• Buggy (stroller)
• Mince (ground meat)
• Nappy (diaper)
• Cheeky. . . . we have no idea!

We've been having a splendid time learning all these new words! We feel so much more civilized now! Of course, we've completely forgotten our Spanish and we speak with British accents but it has been a fun diversion. It is great to meet people who will be partnering with us to reach the people of Ecuador. Please pray for the Harrisons as they adjust to life in Costa Rica, start language study, and settle in to their new house.

Misadventures of Rebecca Cannon

What is so funny about watching me fall?! Is it because it happens so often? Or is it the funny sounds I make as I am hitting the ground? Or is it the look of sheer terror on my face as I (yet again) hit the ground? It’s probably the moment just after I fall when I’m sputtering, crying, laughing, screaming, scrambling to regain my composure and hollering at my husband that it isn’t funny. Okay, maybe it’s all of that. Whatever it is, I’ve given my dear, oh-so-sympathetic (NOT!) husband lots to laugh over lately. If you haven’t figured it out by now I fall down often and it seems to have gotten worse with time in Costa Rica. I personally blame it on the fact that none of the surfaces here are level or predictable and the fact that my mind is so full of new words and sayings that I just can’t concentrate.

Just today, don’t ask me how, I fell stepping off the curb in front of our house. I let out some kind of death cry as I hit the street – at least something made a noise, maybe it wasn’t me because it did sound sort of “beastly.” I managed to land only on my left knee, which is now very purple and swollen and hurts to bend. I was actually pushing Brooklyn’s stroller at the moment and so the stroller (with Brooklyn in it) went flying across the street. (Don’t panic, we live on a very quiet dead-end street so there wasn’t traffic) Sean, while doubling over with laughter was trying to figure out if he should run for the stroller or help me up. He chose the stroller (major daddy points but lacking in the caring husband department) and left me to roll in misery in the gutter. The man working outside of his house down the street stopped to stare at the pathetic Gringa wallowing in the wet gutter. Somehow I even managed to scrape the top of my toes. How did I scrape the top of my toes?!

I mentioned in a previous blog that I was nearly swept out to sea at the beach. I suppose I should be more honest. Actually, I was knocked over by an unexpected wave, tossed around a bit and came up sputtering with a rather unsavory mixture of sand and salt water in my mouth and nose. All this while Sean looked on in amusement. He was kneeling, watching me flail around in about 2 feet of water as though I was drowning -and I thought that I was drowning, how was I to know that if I just stood up I’d be fine? Okay, this actually happened three times in the hour or so that we were at the beach. Have I mentioned that I'm actually very afraid of the ocean and that I was concerned that Brooklyn really would get hurt? Yeah, that probably isn't much of a defense on my part, is it? So, I suppose I'll admit it. I'm a klutz. That's about it. Just pray that Brooklyn doesn't inherit my grace.

A great Vacation for the Cannon's

We made it home! Oh, but we didn’t want to come home at all. A few more days at Manuel Antonio National Park would have been so nice but * sigh * we had to come back to the real world. If you ever come to Costa Rica, the place to go is Manuel Antonio. It is just simply beautiful – awesome beaches, lots of wildlife, and great rainforest hikes. We stayed at the Costa Verde Hotel from Saturday to Tuesday and were not disappointed in the least bit. The park is closed on Mondays so we actually spent all of Monday at the hotel and had a great time just hanging out there and swimming in the pool. Actually, other than visiting the park, we didn’t leave the hotel at all. There is a great restaurant there and we saw lots of monkeys while eating and enjoying a breathtaking ocean view. Brooklyn was pretty crazy about the monkeys. By the third day, they had gotten pretty brave and were actually sitting at the tables and even peeking in at the chef as he cooked! We were able to see lots of wildlife – squirrel monkeys, howler monkeys, white-faced capuchin monkeys, large iguanas and lizards (who said dinosaurs are extinct?), an armadillo, a three-toed sloth, a raccoon, red-headed woodpecker, a white ibis (bird), a snake (a tiny one, praise the Lord), a crazy-looking spider (not so tiny) and a coati (related to raccoons). That was the wildlife we saw…something tells me there was a lot more out there watching us than what we saw!

We arrived on Saturday after an uneventful ride on the bus from San Jose. We checked into the hotel and after relaxing for a while, we went to the beach. Brooklyn and I nearly got washed out to sea (that will be another blog soon since I know you all enjoy reading about the Misadventures of Rebecca Cannon and this is a good one) and we got sand in every crevice of our bodies. Sean and I pretty much decided that the beach isn’t much fun with a toddler. Don’t get me wrong, Brooklyn loves the beach….especially the sand. Clean-up afterwards and the screaming that goes with it really outweighs the fun hour we had at the beach.

On Sunday we went into Manuel Antonio Park. It was so awesome. We walked along white sand beaches and then hiked through the dense jungle to a great overlook. This is where we saw a lot of the wildlife. Sean got some great pictures and we had a great time. Brooklyn was very good about hiking along with us or riding on Dad’s shoulders. She was pretty tired by noon or so and we went back to the hotel to rest, take a nap, and swim in the pool.

Monday we just sat in our nice air-conditioned room and played at the pool. The park was closed. We could have gone into the town of Quepos to do some shopping or looking around but it was really nice to sit and do nothing. Our room had a TV (we don’t have one at home) so we watched a lot of the Discovery Channel (in English)!

Tuesday we came home. We were able to get very cheap tickets to fly home. This was probably Sean’s favorite part! We flew in a Cessna Caravan, for those of you are interested in that kind of thing. Basically all Sean said the entire time was “This is awesome!” Nobody could ever accuse my husband of lacking the passion to fly! Anyway, the trip that took us 3 hours in a bus took just 20 minutes on the plane. I must admit flying really is the way to go!

Well, in a nutshell, there is our trip! I’ve posted some pictures from the trip as well. Stay tuned for more…I know you are all waiting on pins and needles for the next edition of “The Misadventures of Rebecca Cannon”. At the moment, I am still healing both physically and emotionally from my most recent adventures. I’m just not ready to talk about it,so it will have to wait for another day!
(CHECK BELOW FOR PICTURES)

Manuel Antonio Pictures

An Iguana at the beach.



Brooklyn loving the sand!



Squirrel Monkey at the restaurant.



White faced capuchin monkey.



Brooklyn and Papa.



Sean and his favorite little girl at the beach.



Brooklyn at the entrance to our hotel.




Mommy and baby girl at the beach.



The view from our hotel, it was ok.



What's a good trip w/o an airplane? AWESOME!

Model students...

Well, I hate to brag...but I'm going to brag. Sean and I both received straight A's in all of our classes for our first trimester. Sigh...too bad that doesn't also mean that we are expert Spanish speakers! Really, though, we (especially Sean) have improved a great deal over the last four months. I just don't think that Costa Ricans would believe us if we told them that we got straight A's in Spanish! Oh well...poco a poco. (little by little)

Our night out at the National Theater was fantastic. The theater was built in 1897 and it is truly magnificent. They just don't make buildings like that any more. The string quartet and pianist were so talented. It sounded like a cd - I was sure they weren't really playing but they were! It was actually an American group that performed. We had great seats, even though they were the cheapest at $10 each. It was a benefit event to raise money for an orphanage here in Costa Rica. So, we rubbed shoulders with some pretty well-to-do people. And there I was with my flip-flops drinking my diet Coke while all those sophisticated ladies in high heels drank their Merlot! Funny, I guess, when you think about it! You think they could tell we were missionaries?!

We went to the graduation today. A lovely ceremony. In 8 months that will be us. Is that possible?! It was a little sad to say goodbye to new friends...something tells me this isn't the last time we will have to part ways with friends. It seems to be part of the missionary life.

Well, I'd better get off to bed. Tomorrow we will catch a bus to Quepos at 6 am. We're going to stay at a hotel on the beach for a few nights and visit Manuel Antonio - a well-known national park here in Costa Rica. We've heard wonderful things about this place. We're looking forward to a few days to catch our breath after a busy, humbling, fast, jam-packed, over-stimulating, too-much-to-learn first four months in Costa Rica!

Mid-week

Well, here it is Wednesday already. This is the last week of our first trimester in language school. Yippee! Tomorrow we will receive our grades in our classes and then on Friday there is a graduation for the students that have completed their time in language school. Then we get nearly 3 weeks off. I think we'll have a good break, although we're scratching our heads wondering what we'll do with all that free time. It will be a good opportunity to do a little bit of "catch up" on various little things we've been meaning to do since we got here. We are helping out with the orientation of the new students during the break. We have "adopted" a couple coming in from England for language school and so we will be helping them get settled into their house and showing them around. We are planning a short trip to the beach this weekend as well - it's time to put this Spanish to good use on a public bus!

We are really looking forward to tonight. We are going to a benifit concert at the National Theater in downtown San Jose. We bought the tickets last week and then realized we didn't have a babysitter so we had decided we couldn't go. We offered the tickets to another couple here and rather than take our tickets, they offered to watch Brooklyn so that we could go! Wow. What a huge blessing. We haven't had a night out like this (other than our anniversary) in ages! Anyway, we are looking forward to our big night out. Stay posted - we'll let you know how it goes. We even get to dress up...even though the only dress shoes I own are flip-flops! (To my sister: Yes, I know, what's new?!)

Living in a Glass House

Sometimes it can be very discouraging to be so limited in our language ability. We are ready to minister and share Christ with people! But we realized recently that we just don't have the vocabulary to do such a thing in Spanish. It is our natural tendency to measure our "value" as missionaries by how many Bible Studies we lead or how many of our neighbors we have led to the Lord. Our current language ability, however, isn't exactly conducive to such a thing. The Lord has been very clear in telling us that our current work is to learn the Spanish language well. Why must we learn this language so well? "And when they heard that he spoke to them in the Hebrew language, they kept all the more silent." Acts 22:2 We must be able to speak the heart language of the people or they simply will not want to listen! But we are very aware that, although we can't share Christ yet through our words, we are every day being lights for Him by our actions. We are very aware of the fact that we live in a glass house. Most everybody knows that we are missionaries here to learn Spanish. We are the only Gringos on our street. More than we realize, we are being watched!! Although we can't communicate all that well yet, our lives, our behaviour, our actions - all of these things have the power to show the love of Christ to others. Yikes! I'd almost rather lead a Bible Study! Please pray for us - that our lives would shine for Jesus that others may be drawn to Him. Here are some specific prayer requests:

• Neighbors. We have slowly begun building relationships with our neighbors. Pray that we would always shine with the love of Christ, that we would be open and friendly (even when we don't feel like it) and that we could build friendships with them.
• Our Guard. Our street guard is quickly becoming a great friend. He adores Brooklyn who yells "hola" to him every time he passes our house. We occasionally take him a plate of food for dinner and Sean has been able to sit and talk with him often. He needs Jesus! Pray for openness - we aren't the first Gringo missionaries to live in this house and we know he's been approached often with the Gospel message before. He has probably heard the Gospel presented to him in broken Spanish more than he cares to! But, he still needs Jesus. Pray with us for Jose.
• Our family life. We do live in a glass house. Our neighbors hear everything, see everything and know more than we think they do about our daily life! Pray that, as a family, we could be strong. Our neighbors will naturally form their ideas about Christ by the way that we, as a family, live. Without realizing it or seeking it, we have become a "City on a Hill" - it is VITAL that even in our personal life, we are Christ-centered, loving, respectful, kind, patient, hard-working, etc.
• Spanish. Keep praying for our language acquisition. Yes, we are progressing - praise the Lord! But, we still have so much to learn. We want to speak this language well. Let's face it, "Tarzan Spanish" would probably be pretty annoying to listen to! We need Supernatural help in learning this language and applying what we learn to our every day lives. Right now we are able to talk to our neighbors about the weather, our plans for the weekend, our likes and dislikes, our favorite food, etc. We pray that by the time we leave, we are able to talk on a deeper level, especially about spiritual matters.

Cultural lessons

Our situation here at language school is very different. We are like children all over again, trying to figure out not just the language but also the culture. It can be frustrating at times. Here are a few things we are still trying to figure out after almost four months here:

• Haircuts? (on Saturdays you need an appointment but every other day of the week you may walk in .... or so we think)
• Whether or not to tip? (don't tip your waiter but do tip the guard that watches your car outside of the restaurant)
• Why can't we pay our bills? (we go to pay them and, for some reason, they won't let us pay the bill. The only thing we do understand is that we still need to pay the bill...somehow)
• When shopping...why can't we start loading our things up on the counter while the person ahead of us is paying for their things? (Apparently this is very rude...but it is not rude to stand in front of somebody when they are trying to pass you in the aisle.)
• Why do the taxi drivers start yelling at us when we close their door? (Don't ever slam the door in a taxi, even if you have to re-open and shut the door a zillion times just to get it to latch)
• Why does everybody think we're German?! (Yes, we are white, blue-eyed, blonde and tall...we did just discover that there is a rather large German population in Southern Costa Rica - perhaps this is why we are immediately taken for Germans?!)
• Why is it so dog-gone hard to make a hotel reservation? (Call, call again, ask the right questions, call again, give the correct email address again, fill out first form, email form back, receive second form, fax this one back, call again, ask language school secretary to write a letter to prove we are students, fax that, call to confirm and bam you've got your hotel reservation!)
• When driving...why does everyone cut us off, walk in front of our car, or pull out in front of us? (HONK! A few short honks at every intersection will warn others not to get in your way. If someone is taking too long and is in your way, let them know they need to move. If you don't honk, then you don't care...In the U.S. honking is rude but here it is just another way of communicating, nobody will ever be mad at you for honking at them, they expect you to!)

So much to learn! But, as we learn little by little, we find ourselves actually seeing the logic behind many of these cultural practices. Many times we embarass ourselves without really knowing why. Sometimes we look very rude but we think we're being kind! We have learned that we must un-learn many things from our own culture and re-learn how to do things within this culture. Gratefully, we do stick out here and so the Costa Ricans are very understanding when we screw up...and once we open our mouths to try to say something intelligible, then we are just plain pitied!!!

Much to celebrate...

This past weekend we celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary and Brooklyn's 2nd birthday. Wow. Time "flies" (pun intended, of course)! It was a great weekend. We gave Brooklyn a kitchen set for her birthday and she loved it!! We spent most of the weekend making some delicious meals on her little red, blue, yellow, and green stove. We are stepping on little plastic salchichas (hot dogs) in every room of the house but it is worth it to see what a great time Brooklyn is having with this simple toy. She had a few more packages from Grandma and Grandpa C. to open as well (Thanks!) and we also took her to the park on her big day. We had considered doing a little birthday party but we just aren't brave enough to invite over four or five other toddlers. So, instead, we took cupcakes to school on Friday and Brooklyn shared her birthday at the school with her friends and teachers. (I'm sure her teachers loved us after that - we left behind a bunch of sticky toddlers on a sugar rush for them to deal with for the rest of the day...God bless those dear, patient ladies!) Here are a few pics of our baby girl's special day.
Two candles in a chocolate chip pancake for the big day!

Sunglasses compliments of Grandma and Grandpa C. Jammies compliments of Grandpa and Grandma E. Without grandparents she just wouldn't be so stylin'.

Playing at the new kitchen set.