Headed HOME

I would like to introduce you to Carmencita, a friend that I have been disciplining for over a year now. She is a mother of two and grandmother of two precious girls. This year we have been studying the names of God using a Precept study called, Lord I want to know You. It is a course that not only helps you learn God’s names but also apply the truth to your own life. It has been a struggle for Carmen to trust God in her son’s life.

After having studied several of the names of God Carmen told me this week that she was starting to trust God instead of worrying. When she wants to turn to worry she instead now calls on the names she has studied to find help and peace! It was so exciting for me to hear of her victory!

The side benefit for me is that she is a wonderful cook and I can never leave without having some of her delicious food and she always sends along something for Bob to enjoy!

I am also working with a new believer, Patricia. We meet in gym class and after a year of getting to know each other I started a small group study in my home with two other women. Sometimes the Spanish gets over my head but they have been wonderful to help me along, teaching me all the slang expressions! Patricia has been a joy to watch grow in the Lord. She openly declares that she used to call herself a Christian but it was only from the mouth outwards. Now God is changing her heart and she is reading the Word, doing her homework and memorizing scriptures! Every week we have a new memory verse and she always knows it better that I! I tell her it is because it is in Spanish! She has been going through some really tough family situations and it was through these events that God opened her heart up to run to Him! 

Bob’s health is starting to come around. Thank you again for all your prayers! He was sick about two months and his energy level was very low. I know he is getting better, though, because he went to basketball this week for the first time in more than a month. We are still not entirely sure all of what he had.

Headed home has a double meaning for me this month. We are excited to be going to Maine to visit family, church family and other team members. We can’t wait to catch up with everyone, so, please email or call to set up a time to connect. Our stateside number is now a Skype number and it is: 508-882-7525. We have dropped our Vonage number to save a little as the Skype number is a lot cheaper.

The second meaning of going home for me this month came when Sue, one of the women I work with in the prison, was extradited back to Germany. It was a bitter-sweet moment as I am so happy for her. It has been a rewarding time to see such growth in her and I pray that God will find a person to continue working with her. I have worked with her almost three years and at her going away party she told me it was our group that got her back on track with God again. She had given up on Him, having cast Him aside and now was seeing His hand in her healing process. She now even has a vision for her future to serve street children, having lived on the street herself since she was about 13.

 I would love to share more of her story with you and many more so let’s get together and chat while Bob and I are home in August. We will be there for the first three weeks in August. We are looking forward to seeing many of you! Thought you might enjoy a couple pictures of our grandson.

I’d like to share a great big thank you to you for your continued help in prayer and tangible support that makes our efforts here possible.  There have been great battles these last few months with my work at the school.  Some things are smoothing out and resolving themselves while others will need more time to resolve. 

I do want to share that through it all there has been a real peacefulness down deep in me.  My energy hasn’t flagged at all and about ten days ago I had a very welcome experience where something very weighty, oppressive and trying lifted, left or went on vacation.  The result was a refreshing and renewed excitement for the purposes of the school and my involvement there. It was hard to be aware of the load that was on me as it must have been adding itself very slowly over time.  It brought to mind, “Come to me all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls.  For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”  This is also interesting because the symbol of the language institute is the oxen yoke (a common sight in these parts) and the phrase that goes with it is “together to serve”. 

Also last week, Anthony (1^st grader) got his first perfect score on a spelling quiz!  We celebrated.  Also last week a 4½ year old spoke to someone other than the special education teacher for the first time!  (His first words to the special education teacher came after 5 months of work!) We celebrated. 


At the end of April we commissioned 26 students that were heading off to 9 different countries with their families.  We celebrated but with sad farewells.  This past week we were able to project an enrollment increase for August.  This is the first time in over a year.  We are celebrating.  

 As for me, next month marks one year at the helm of Sojourn.  The time has passed very quickly, but then again I’ve noticed that as you get older the years do hustle by much faster.  Seriously though, it is a great place to come along side and share my life with others that are also here to encourage, teach and support MK’s while mom and dad study Spanish at the institute.  For all of this we are thankful. 

Blessed Easter!

                                              A few of the Women from the Prison Ministry
Tomorrow our plan was to go the prison to have an Easter Service with the women we serve there. We had everything planned and Monday afternoon we got word that they would not let us in for lack of enough security! Needless to say it was very disappointing to us and even more so to the women! They so look forward to the special times we have together.
Even as I write this I realize that tomorrow "my" plan was to go to the prison, but not God's! I do not always understand His ways but am learning to trust Him more and more every day!

The Celebrate Recovery Program is going very well. Our team of three leaders is kept very busy with supporting the womwn's process of healing and we have seen God at work in their midst. Often the women enter the prison saying they are inocent but as we have worked with them over the last few months we have seen them become more honest with themselves and with us. There is a real desire to get healed and set free. They want to live a different life than before and know that is only possible with God.

Last month we had the blessing of being part of of an ongoing children's  program in Rio Frio, where a family that we served after the earthquake is now living. It is a program that brings the neighborhood children from this rural area together to have fun and learn about who God is and that He loves them.These children come from very poor homes, many of whom only have earthen floors. This can be quite a problem during the rainy season as there is no way to keep the rain out of the houses. Even in the midst of their poverty they often can be seen wearing beautiful smiles. It is a joy to see their faces as they hear the Gospel stories read and acted out.

We have been blessed by a friend of our son's with a visit to his condo later this week. He has a heart to serve God by serving us and we are looking forward to a  needed rest. Bob has been putting in long hours at the school and has been sick with a flu for the last two weeks. This will give us a chance to catch up on some reading and sleeping!

Thank you all for partnering with us to serve God as we serve the people here in Costa Rica and those students whom God will send out in all of Latin America. We treasure your prayers and look forward to seeing you all soon, either here in Costa Rica or when we come home for a visit this summer.

May you know the  blessing of His love this Easter! God bless you!

Looking Ahead in 2010

Hi all!  Firstly, I want to apologize to you for letting the time get by and not getting in touch with everyone.  The Christmas Holiday came and went quickly and we did get to see our son Ryan and spend Christmas with him.  Back at school my position as interim head of school changed to head of school.  That has been a big boost as now my planning for the future year(s) is not with one eye wondering that I might not be here, someone else may be instead.  So with that vote of confidence and with a great team of teachers I’m busy working on a summer program and hiring a few teachers for the fall.  By the way do any of  you know a couple of good elementary teachers that would like a cross-cultural experience for a couple of years?   

Just ship me an email at nesbittrobert@gmail.com.

  The days are long but I really like the challenge of all that happens day to day.  You never can figure how a day will unfold and so it is very exciting and dynamic.

      We are thrilled to announce that Pastor Dan Coffin of a supporting church, Small Point Baptist in Maine, will be able to visit us for a week in June.  We are grateful that he is taking the time to join us and take in all that is happening here.  If any of you know of a church that would like to get involved in missions and missionary support we would love to talk with them.  We will be in Maine for a couple of weeks this August and could explain and present what we are doing here in Costa Rica to them or interested families as well. 

      Sojourn Academy is a school of about 180 students made up of the children of adults who are at the Spanish Language Institute as well as students from other missionaries here in the central valley and some students from the local community.  The Institute has been operating for about 70 years and has prepared and sent out some 10,000 missionaries during that time!  It is directed by a board of missionaries and administrated by missionaries like myself from many different mission agencies and societies.  It is a real privilege to be helping at an institution such as this. 

If any of you would like to bring a group here to minister in any manner please let me know as there are plenty of opportunities to do so.   I am working on producing a list of things that are beyond our normal budget ability to fund and on areas of the campus where extra help would be a blessing.  There are also opportunities to interact in the local communities nearby.  If any of these offerings strike a cord with you, give us a call (207-512-2229, a Maine number) or write us an email at nesbittrobert@gmail.com, we would love to talk with you and help set something up. 

      On a relational note I’d like to share a bit about a couple of ladies that work in my area of the campus.  These two ladies, Sonia and Gloria, have a combined work experience at the preschool of over 63 years.  Sonia is a gift to every mom as she cares for the newborns to age 1 ½ years.  She loves the littlest ones like a doting grandmother.  Gloria handles the 1 ½ to 2 ½ year olds and likewise has the wisdom and experience that allows young mother’s to study and have peace of mind, knowing that their children are in good hands.  This is such a blessing when you are in classes  studying Spanishfor 4 hours every day for a whole year.  This also makes my 1 ½ years on the scene look like a drop in the bucket by comparison.  My hat goes off to these ladies.  

      Many thank you’s for your support both in prayer and financially.  We are grateful to you every day and our being able to bless others is a direct result of your support and blessings to us. 

A couple of prayer needs come to mind.  For me, pray that I will have patience and seek the big picture for Sojourn Academy.  I have a tendency to move faster than the prevailing culture is used to and at times miss a cultural cue as well. 

A couple of the ladies that B works with in the prison will be getting out soon to serve the rest of their sentence working in the Prison Bakery with some added freedom. They have been in the prison for over 3 years now and are scared of what it will be like for them outside.  Please pray for them to continue to be strong in the Lord!

We are healthy and looking forward to talking with many of you this August when we are in Maine.

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

As I sit here taking a break from our Thanksgiving preparations, I am so much more aware this year, not of the work it takes to prepare this wonderful meal, but of the true thankfulness in my heart that we can even buy the food this year to have this celebration. I am not sure that this reality really hit home for me before as it has down here. The constant begger at your door and large populated  areas of the city where the people live in tin shacks with no floors or windows with little to eat really brings it closer to heart. Not only am I thankful for the food we will share with a mix group of Ticos and Gringos tomorrow but I am also reflecting on the wonderful friends and family who are part of our team here in Costa Rica. We are truly blessed to be here serving our Lord and Savior.

We got to share some time with our pastoral couple from CTEN, our mission sending agency last week. The picture is of us with Dick and Birdie, our pastoral couple,in front of the oldest standing church in Costa Rica.

They came down to observe and encourage us here in our ministry. Dick spent some time with Bob at school and Birdie came to the prison to meet the women that I work with there.  I jokingly told the gals in the prison that they had to behave while Birdie was there. They quickly told me that it was I who needed to behave! We enjoyed getting to know them better. They come down every two years to see our work. If any of you are interested in coming down to see us as well, we would be so blessed to have you! We may even put you to work!

Please hold the women in the prison in your prayers, this time of year is doubly hard and I have noticed a real sadness in some of their eyes as they suffer being away from family and friends. We are planning a Christmas celebration for them and asked what they would like to do  and their first responce was to have a worship service in English! We are excitingly putting this together for them as well as a few other surprises.

I would also ask you to pray for the women as I will be presenting the message of the Gospel to them as part of our Celebrate Recovery Program. Pray that God will open their hearts to receive the truth and that the Holy Spirit will draw them. I am so excited to have the privilege to share God's  great love and plan of salvation with them!

We finally got to bring our camera into our place of meeting at the jail. So after 2 years of working with these wonderful ladies I now have a few photos to treasure of them. Look for their picture in our Christmas newsletter which you should receive soon! I also have an opportunity to go to a conference on Biblical Counseling which would really help my ministry here in Costa Rica. The cost is out of our ability to cover and would be around $900.00 including air fare. If God puts it on your heart to help with this training you can  send the money directly to CTEN by going on their web site and clicking on our name.

Thank you and may God richly bless your time over the holidays with family and friends. Oh, by the way, down here you have to make your own onion rings from scratch. There are none in the can! ....and they came out pretty good!

Teaching Opportunities Abound

                                                                       Missionary Woman's Bible Study

Teaching opportunities have abounded this fall! God has blessed me with a chance to share inductive study methods with a group of missionary women who live in the area. I did a overview of how to study the Bible inductively and then we headed into a course called Sweeter than Chocolate, that gave us a chance to practice it.We had a wonderful 9 weeks looking at Psalm 119. We got to see how the Psalmist found God to not only be his refuge but his reviver as well! We looked at how he turned to God in even the most difficult moments of his life and remembered how faithful God had been to him!
The verse that really summed up his attitude to me was 68 when he states, "You are good and everything you do is good. Teach me your statutes". All through the Psalm you see his passion for God's law, and this is one of the places you get to see why he had that passion. He so knew his God and His goodness that it gave him the desire to serve and obey Him! Oh, to know our God as the psalmist did! What an awesome God we serve!

Another area of service opened up at Sojourn, the school where Bob is the director. The missionary that was teaching the Bible to the High Schoolers had to go back to the states. It is a two day a week position that allows me to keep up with all the other areas I serve in. It has been a real learning experience for me, as this is the first time that I have taught this age group! I don't know who is learning more, me or them! They are a great group of teens and I have really enjoyed working with them! What a blessing to impact the next generation of missionaries going out!

I am still disciplining two wonderful and patient ladies in Spanish, one from Costa Rica and the other from Nicaragua. They have been so gracious to me as I keep plugging ahead in the area of language learning.

The work at the jail is going great. I am so blessed to be able to serve these women who are displaced from their countries and families. They are really responding to the Celebrate Recovery program. We are hoping to get a picture of them soon, but things at the jail don't always go as planned!

Thanks for all your prayers! The driving here is very dangerous and we have had some very near misses! People and motorcycles are every where. We would love to hear from you and miss seeing you all!

Back Into the Swing

Director Bob with the Basket Ball Team

Well, we hit the ground with our feet running, as the old expression goes! After a very short but enjoyable time at home for two weeks in August we were very rapidly back into the swing of things. Honestly, it usually takes me a couple of weeks to get my heart back into the right place after enjoying being home with family and friends, but that was not available this time! Bob's new position as interim director of Sojourn, the preschool through grade 12 school that is attached to the Language institute, was in full swing just 7 hours after getting back to our house here in Costa Rica. The first week was teacher orientation and classroom preparation time. I was there every day as well helping serve homemade lunches for the teachers as Bob led them into a new year with a vision for unity among the faculty and students. The teachers are finding out that Bob is a quick thinker and also enjoys a good laugh. He has put them on "alert" to be looking for practical jokes at any turn in their day! Later in the week after a teachers luncheon for the girls only, I was sworn to secrecy as the teachers started planning how to deliver a little surprise attack on their new boss! The first two weeks were filled with long hours and a few almost sleepless nights as there are many bases to cover. Opening day brought 200 students to the campus, about one third of them Costa Rican children who want a better education than the local public school has to offer. Bob is enjoying every minute of this fast paced position and being able to share God's gift of grace with them.

Bob with Missionary Students

My work at the prison has taken on a new look this fall. I will be involved in offering a new program called Celebrate Recovery. This is a twelve step program based on the beatitudes. It has had great success in the United States and now is starting to gain popularity in other counties. Through many connections, including Waldoboro Baptist Church's donation of the money to purchase the books and North Woolwich's donation to the prison ministry last winter, God has opened a door to get this ministry started. The connections God has put together has truly amazed me, almost providing answers before the need arrived! He provided not only finances but also the people. I am now working with two wonderful women who will co-lead the program with me. One of them has led Celebrate Recovery before and is training me and the other woman in the program. Even with all these connections being made outside the prison I know that without God's hand of grace and mercy we would not get into the prison. So, right before coming home in August I made my first appointment with the director of education and asked for a place in his schedule. God would have to go before us to help us gain access. Praise be to God! He opened a time slot, but we were told that we would have to wait for a new room to be made into a classroom, which was now being used for storage and was full. After asking if we could help get the room ready he told us that would really speed up the process. We just finished our first full day of transforming our new space last week!
Bob was able to take a day off from his position at school to come over and help clean out and put up a wall to close off the space. The day was a typical one in that we left the house at 7:15 to go buy materials and after lots of paper work and purchasing of materials we were on our way. Half of our day was spent cleaning out the space and restocking the old storage shelves. Every once and a while a prisoner would come by wanting to know what the place was going to be used for. Upon finding out that it was to be for the specific class, starting with the women who are English speakers from other countries. there was great concern that a class in Spanish would be added soon for the greater population to be able to participate. 
Our second day of working in the space the English speaking prisoners were able to join us to paint the walls and ceiling. I am excited to see God bring this all together and to see what He has in mind for the future. Please join us in praying that God will  continue to provide the rest of the supplies needed, including the Celebrate Recovery Bibles. 
When I am not at the prison I am busy teaching in several locations God's Word. I have started a teacher's Bible study at our home with some of Bob's staff, a Bible study in our church and a one on one discipleship with a woman from our church. I am also co-teaching a class with another missionary doing an Inductive Bible Study for the local missionary women.Life has gotten very busy, but what a blessing to be involved in sharing the power of the Gospel with these groups through the study of His Word!

Welcome Leah!

We would like to have you join us in welcoming Leah Cook from Union, Maine to Costa Rica! As you can see from the picture below she fits right in! Leah arrived last Tuesday and has started working for Food for the Hungry which is located in Los Guido, one of the largest slums in the city of San Jose. She accompanied us when we did short term missions to Mexico with Extreme Mission several years ago. She has just finished high school and her desire now is to do the 5 month YWAM, Youth with a Mission, DTS (discipleship training school) program in the near future. Her specialty is performing arts. She will be with us here in Costa Rica until August, when we return home. We are really enjoying having her, especially B, who loves the girl-talk!

Sunday afternoon we took her out of the city to see the beautiful countryside of Costa Rica. She was especially impressed with the ferns and the volcanic crater at 11,500 feet .
Bob has been busy getting the school ready for the fall opening. He is really enjoying the challenge and he is using all the gifts God has given him! He received word yesterday that Costa Rica was closing down all schools for a week because of the climb in Swine Flu cases here. The summer children's program will close next week. This will make it hard for the parents who will continue to study at the adult school, as they will need to find places for their children. Please pray for God's mercy and healing from this flu, not only in Costa Rica but world wide.
We are excited to be coming back to Maine for two weeks in August. We had hoped to be home for more time but because of Bob's new position of service we will return to Costa Rica mid-August. We would love to see as many of you as possible, please get in touch so we can begin to make plans! Our available dates are August 16 to the 22. We will be sharing at our home church, North Woolwich Methodist, on August 16. We would love to have you join us then! It will be a special service with Spanish Missions as a theme.

We'd like to share an opportunity to help a couple of local families that are sending their children to Sojourn. We have at least 3 students that need $20 per month for 10 months to be able to continue their studies this year. If you or someone you know would like to help in this matter please get in touch, it is a "dream come true" in the making for these families. Thank you for asking around or considering. Even $5 or $10 a month from multiple sources would make a significant difference.

Earthquake relief completed

The spring here has kept us really busy! We want to note a special thank you to North Woolwich Methodist Church. They were moved to take a special offering for assisting families affected by the earthquake last January. This last week we were able to appropriate those funds to help two families. The first was a mom and her daughter that needed some funds to get necessary paperwork to remain in country and get assistance.
The other family, Odir and Magali, we were able to help fund the beginnings of an outdoor bathroom, an improved electrical system in the house and shutters for the window openings. They are a precious family of five and their new house, 10'x30', is almost complete. They moved in a month ago and have been sharing a toilet and a shower with 3 other families that live nearby. They are so excited to see their own bathroom taking shape. It also is outside and will be shared with others nearby.




While I was building with the men, B took the ladies and children down to the river where they all collected a special rock. Each one then had to tell the group why their rock was special and then we related that uniqueness to how God has made each one of us special and unique! They all seemed able to understand the message and when they got back to the house it was retold to those working on the construction.

Magali, his wife, tends house with their three children and is beginning to integrate into the new community. Odir was the youth leader in the church in the mountains before the quake. His hardest adaptation is living and working 6000' lower on the other side of the mountain, with temperatures 15-20 degrees warmer and very high humidity.As you can see form the picture the dining room consists of a very long log in the front yard!

March News

We would like to first of all thank all who prayed for Bob while he was sick with pneumonia. I am happy to report that he is all better and back to normal. It was a long haul of about 2 months. He is very happy to have his energy back!
The first picture is of a baptism at our sister church, The Grand Commission Church. We have been attending this church plant since we came back in September. We meet in a house but are currently looking for a place to rent as we are out growing the house! Our sister church is in the area of Limon, which is one of the hottest regions of Costa Rica.They day we joined them they were having a picnic and two baptisms in the small outlet.
We recently had the opportunity to host Marsha, the tallest one in the picture,who came to Costa Rica to investigate possible future plans in missions. She was in Costa Rica once before at age 1 1/2 while her parents were attending the same language school as we did and where Bob now works! Marsha and her family were missionaries in Argentina for abut 10 years before returning to the states. Her father is a writer and while she was here she meet a pastor who had read several of his books! What a small world! The picture was taken at our church meeting.

Speaking of small worlds,I would like to introduce you to MariJose and some of her family! MariJose and I meet at the bus stop in San Jose center about three months ago. We got to chatting and discovered that she lived within 5 minutes walk from my house. We kept in contact and are now attending a work out class together three times a week. It has been fun to get to know her and just this last week we celebrated her birthday at our home and then on Saturday she attended church with us. MariJose is from Nicaragua. It has been hard for her to meet friends here in Costa Rica although she has lived here several years. We have fun laughing at each others lack of agility in exercise class. I am thankful to God for putting her in my life.
I also meet another woman in this exercise class who just had surgery on her hand and I told her that I would pray for her so she asked me to also pray for her son who had been out of work for some time. It has been two weeks since we started praying and he now has two part time jobs! We are praising God for His faithfulness in her life and that of her son.
The last two pictures are of a dear friend and who just turned 85 last week. We celebrated her birthday with her by bring food over to cook at her house while Bob started the construction of a chicken coop for her. It is hard to believe that we live in the city! Everyone takes advantage of their back yards to either grow fruit and flowers or in this case for laying eggs! Her name is Doña Vicky and she has a sweet heart for God. Her family has taken in many missionaries over the years. One of the things I love about Doña Vicky is her love for the Lord and her radiant smile! She likes to call me 'Barbie'! Her husband has suffered from diabetes for many years now and in these last years lost his leg to it. But amidst all the suffering they always have a heart warming story to share of how God has provided for them! They are a wonderful example to us of God's faithfulness.
Lastly, the news from the jail has been encouraging. I have started up the pen pal program again and all 7 of the girls have a pen pal. This is a wonderful encouragement to them. We are going to start a new study called, Lesson's I learned in the Dark,by Jennifer Rothschild. It is a Bible Study about how at age 15 Jennifer turned blind and how God has lead her and taught her about faith. She has a beautiful testimony, if you like to read she also has written a book sharing her story.
Over the last two months our group in the prison has lost two of our women who have gone back to their home countries. This past week God opened the door for two new women to join us. One was a little shy but when I invited her to join us she reluctantly agreed. We just happened to be studying the 4 types of love expressed by the Greeks. She became very interested in the subject and was so thankful to be part of our group that day. God moved in our midst and everyone was so encouraged!Please pray that these women will remain faithful to read and study the Bible during the week.
Thank you again for your loving support and partnership here in Costa Rica. We are so excited to be perhaps days away from becoming grandparents and treasure your prayers for Peter and Bethany as they prepare their hearts for their first born!

Tejarcillos VBS

WELL, God is shaking up my world!!! In more ways than one!!!
Bob and I woke up at 1:10am with the house shaking again! There was another quake of lesser magnitude, 4.3, but it hit in the same area and the houses that were still standing or had anything left no longer do. Also, there where several other smaller ones through the evening before the 1:00am one hit! Everyone is a little on edge. At times it feels like the world is moving like being on a boat! Our church is planning a meeting tonight to discuss what we as a church can do to demonstrate God's love to the ones who have lost all. please pray for wisdom, as it still is very dangerous in the zone and the main bridge is cracking a bit more every day and without it, it will be very difficult to enter the area.
The last two days I have gone to Tejarcillos, a slum community, to help out with a Vacation Bible School. The children are so precious. They have these big round eyes, which sometimes look so sad and empty. Many do not have any parent around during the day as the moms have to work and there often is no dad in the picture.When this happens an older child of 8-12 years is in charge of a younger one for the day. It is wonderful to just hold them and hug up on them. We worked there for two days and the first day had about 100 children and then today we had about 200.

We do simple crafts and teach them about the love of God for them! What a blessing to be able to tell them how much they are loved, as some have never heard those words before!

Christ the Light of the World!

God gave us many opportunities to see his light shinning around us this Christmas Season! Bob had a couple of weeks off from school and responded to a request to install windows in a home of a brother of a friend who had just had surgery after being beaten up. Chicho's house only had openings for windows which meant for a draft that was dangerous to his healing. His home is a very small, simply constructed house that had tin panels over the windows. What a blessing to be able to share the light of Christ's love with this family who had just received Christ into their hearts the week before!

We shared the light of Christ when we held a Woman's Christmas Coffee in Los Guido for about 35 women. We had coffee and pastry together as we talked about the real meaning of Christmas. This was meant as an invitation to join us in the new year for a Bible Study in which we will take a look at the issues the women face and what God's Word has to say about them.

We shared the light of Christ when B served at the children's party given for some 130 children from the slum in Los Guido. We had food, clowns and a gift for each child.The clown with the help of some adults shared the Christmas story.

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Their faces were precious as they enjoyed the excitement of the day.

We finished our Christmas holiday with a trip to California to see our boys and Bethany.
Bethany got tickets to see the Glory of Christmas at the Crystal Catheral, which was a beautiful production complete with flying angles! She is now looking very pregnant and we are so excited to greet our first grandchild!

Christmas must be here it's Windy!

This has been a busy fall! We have not been able to get our Costa Rica Visas and so every 3 months we must leave the country or pay a fine and maybe be asked not to return for 10 years! So, earlier this month we drove to the border and walked across to Nicaragua to visit my nephew Adam and his wife Rachel and their two beautiful daughters. Bob took the opportunity to practice being a grandfather! I think he's going to make a good one! ( the latest pictures of our soon to be grandchild were amazing!)We also got to visit our good friends, The Sharpes, in Managua who were in language school with us.

We have been taking some training from some new friends on how CHE (Community Health Evangelism) works. It is a method of Christian development that seeks to give dignity and hope to the people you are working with. Ted and Graciela Quiocho are CHE trainers and we had the opportunity to be a part of the first level training that was held here in Costa Rica. They are now starting to work in a small rural community about 1 1/2 hours form the city. It is an approach of community development and evangelism that we find to be very practical and allows the community itself to be the center of the vision for their own community.

Ted And Graciela Quiocho

Panamanian Indigenous Indians

We had an opportunity to go to the mountains this weekend and as they are all around the city it is easy to get there. We visited some of the small towns and were able to connect with the Indigenous peoples who were there getting ready to work in the coffee harvest. We had fun speaking with the women who were a bit shy but loved inter acting with us. What a tough life they live.
Though the Quiocho's we have found a church plant that we have been attending this fall. The pastors are from Honduras and are a fun couple who have a real heart to reach the lost. We meet every Saturday night at their home for a service and then dinner and fellowship.

Carlos and Gladys Gomez

I would love to send along pictures of the precious girls in the prison! Below is the team that I work with. There is still have 5 women in one area and a single gal in another. I have had a friend from school help out with the young gal that is in the other building. Two of the women I work with have applied to be transferred back to their own country and the paper work is in progress.
One great story is one of the women had a birthday recently and the other girls surprised her with a bucket of warm water that they had boiled so she could take a warm shower! The nights here get cold and in the morning a cold shower is very hard to take,especially as there is no glass in the windows, so it was a real blessing! They are a wonderful bunch who are seeking to get life straight, which is a big job after having to admit the mistakes you have made and then suffer the consequences for those mistakes.

Prison ministry Team

In the community of Los Guido, the slum that I have been working in all fall, another woman and I will be putting on a woman's coffee for a time of fellowship and introducing the concept of having a Bible Study in their community. the local pastor has warned us that this is area is a very hard one to get into as thsy are living in such sub- normal conditions that all they seemed interested in are hand outs. We are praying that God will open a door to their hearts, thanks for joining us in that prayer.
This is the season of many Christmas parties for children that would other wise not recieve anything for Christmas. Would you be interested in helping us with the several children's events coming up? As well I want to get Christmas presents for the women that I have been working with in the prison. You get information on our mission agency, CTEN, using the link on our Blog, it is located on the right side.
Thanks for being part of our team here in Costa Rica!

Life In Costa Rica

After several days of straight rain Bob and I decided to get out of the city one Sunday afternoon and head for the mountains. On our way we encountered a familiar but comical scene! The cow was tied on the side of the road and decided to take traffic control into his own hands. We waited for him to move so we could continue on our way.


This is the rainy season and as you can see from the pictures the country has experienced a lot of damage to the roads and subsequently to houses that are in the flooded areas. The house in the picture has put black plastic over the falling soil in an attempt to prevent the house from further damage or collapse. The roads are in very bad estate and there are many families homeless in the areas that were affected by the floods.


Bob has been very busy at his position at the language institute. He has remolded the library to provide more room for students as it is always full. He also has been busy trouble shooting various electrical problems around campus and just finished working on a revised and simpler application form for student enrollment. Just in time! Because the enrollment for January has a waiting list already! It is exciting to see all the families God is raising up to serve in Latin America!
My work at the prison continues. In the area of unsentanced women I now only have one gal who is waiting extradition to her own country where she will go to trial. Her story is very sad and she is in very poor health having had a colostomy, which was originally planned to be reversible but because of sanitary conditions she has been infected several times and now the procedure may not be able to be reversed. Please pray for Miss L as she is very discouraged and fears death. I am trying to help her keep her focus on the Lord as He has promised to never fail her! She always ends her time with me with a smile on her face, but behind that smile is a lot of pain and suffering. The conditions in the jail are horrible and very unsanitary. There is lots of drugs and lesbianism. It is a difficult environment to say the least for one to live out their Christian values. Thanks for praying for God's strength for all the women who are serving there but especially for those who are trying to follow God's path for their lives.
Our life with the animals of Costa Rica continues and for those of you who have asked here is our newest friend, a praying mantis! He came to join us about a week ago and likes ot hang out around the bathroom. The internet says he is not harmful and likes to eat other insects, so we think he is a keeper! No name as yet!

This week my coworker, Isabel, and I will be meeting with the director of Food For the Hungry where we are serving to discuss our plan to start a woman's Bible Study in Los Guido, a slum nearby where I have been volunteering in in the 'comedor'(the feeding center for children). Please pray that God will not only give us approval to start the study but that the hearts of the women will be open to come and study God's Word with us.
We are so thankful for your support and love even though we are so far we can feel your presence with us which gives us strength!