Wow, it's been over a month since we updated our blog! It's been a great one, filled with visits from friends in the States who have been a tremendous blessing to us and to our missionary student community at language school.
First, David Beisiegel, a chiropractor friend of ours, came down for a medical mission to Costa Rica and Nicaragua. He offered to do free chiropractic adjustments for fellow missionary students, and 35 people took him up on it! We hadn't really thought about it, but lugging books back and forth to school, sitting in hard desks all day, sleeping on strange beds, and being stressed out about language and culture shock can take it's toll on one's spine. There were many happy students around campus after David came by!
Next, Jonathan and Joy Klee arrived to do a ministry check-in and help us make a video to capture our lives and ministry here in Costa Rica. Jonathan has his own fundraising ministry in Kansas City, and was a great help to us in preparing financially to come to the field. He has generously offered to be an ongoing support to us on the field by making this video. We took advantage of Jonathan's visit to bless the missionary student body again with a fundraising workshop. It was a great encouragement to about 25 missionaries who participated, all of whom are faced with raising financial support during a time of unprecedented financial strain in the U.S. and needed some fresh assurance that God continues to provide for all of our needs in his own creative ways.
Anyway, Jonathan and Joy have shadowed us for the better part of a week, filming as we go. We are very excited to share the final product with you all soon, and hope that it will be a good visual summary of our lives here so that you can see with your own eyes what we're up to!
Blessings,
Andrea
Hearts, Minds and Spirits Being Restored
Posted by Seth and Andrea Sears on Tuesday, October 6, 2009I thought I'd write a bit about my experiences so far at Restoration House, a recovery home for women with addictions who have been living on the street.
What an amazing and receptive group of women! They are strong -- they've seen horrible circumstances and survived them. They are spiritually hungry -- they have no illusions about their "goodness" and are seeking God because they are desperate for Him. They are welcoming -- willing to share and invite myself and other women from the language school into their lives. There are about 15 to 20 of them living in the house at any given time, and they are wide-ranging in age (ranging from high teens to over 50). I had apprehensively wondered if they would be sullen or unfriendly because of their life situation, but have found that most of them want to learn about the Bible, read it and contribute to the discussions. Thank God that their terrible circumstances have gotten them focused on what's important!
Isabel's story is a common one in the house. She did drugs when she was younger, but stopped when she got married and had children. She had 3 children, and then her husband left her. In the ensuing depression, she again turned to drugs to relieve the pain. She was out of control, lost her kids, and ended up living on the street. She now knows that her lifestyle did nothing to ease the pain, but rather caused her more and more pain. She is putting her life back together and looks forward to getting her kids back, and now knows that Christ is the only thing that will fill her and sustain her when she has problems to deal with.
We are alternating between studying through the book of Romans to go over a sound and progressive presentation of the gospel, and studying themes of interest to the group. We have covered the first 3 chapters of Romans and this week will be studying on the topic of Self-Esteem: Who Does the Bible Say We Are? Understandably, many of these woman feel worthless and used up. I pray that they will be encouraged and equipped to fight the lies of Satan and rely on God for their worth when we discuss that they are the bride of Christ, friends of God, adopted daughters given an inheritance, wives pursued by her lover even when they are faithless, and conquerors with the power of the Holy Spirit. Please join me in praying that they will grab hold of these identities and claim the love that Christ has for them each day.
Since my time with these ladies, I've seen and felt (and been somewhat surprised by the strength of) very real spiritual warfare. First, I was prevented from visiting them to start the bible study for nearly a month when I was ill. Ironically, Paul starts the book of Romans by talking about how many times he has been prevented from visiting Rome despite his heart's desire: "I planned many times to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now) in order that I might have a harvest among you." Romans 1:13 I don't think that's a coincidence. I believe God plans to make a harvest among these women who are so thirsty for his Word, and He WILL change their lives!
Next, a new resident shared a chilling dream she had on her second night in the home. In the dream, she could see a small group of believers worshipping God, and a large group of people worshipping Satan. She was in a neverland between the two groups of people, and knew she had a choice to make. She felt that she wanted to join the smaller group of Christians, but felt the strong pull of "the known" with the group of worldly people who followed Satan. When she tried to move in the direction of the Christians, she was confronted by Satan, who told her, "You must worship ME! We had a deal, you can't be with them! You won't be accepted!" She expressed a desire to leave him and he taunted her, saying, "I'll be waiting for you on the street; I know you'll be back." I believe these woman are regularly fighting these types of mental and emotional persecutions as they attempt to break the oppression and bondage in their lives. And how brave they are for persevering!
Finally, I've felt personally attacked this week. As I've prepared a study on self-esteem, I've experienced unexplained feelings of worthlessness myself, and found myself taking comments made by others to reinforce this view. This is not a normal preoccupation for me, and finally I realized on Sunday (at church during worship) that it is the enemy trying to distract and disable me from teaching strongly on the subject! After praying and asking God to bind these efforts, the feelings have begun to subside. I'm not one to "over-spiritualize" things (if that is really possible, that's for another blog post), but it's been made clear to me that the source of this oppression was not natural.
Please join me in praying that God would heal all of the many wounds that these women have accumulated in their lives, and specifically for the following women:
- Lorlly, who went home to return to her 8-year-old daughter after only one month in the home. This is a short time, and she was anxious about the strength of her ability to withstand temptation, but had to resume care of her daughter. We prayed fervently together before she left the home that God would protect her and strengthen her, and enable her to be a good parent to her daughter.
- Mari-Paz, who is young and lively and always contributes to the discussions. She has been in the home for about 9 months, so she is preparing to evaluate her readiness for the outside world as well.
- Jerilyn, who shows interest in learning about God's Word and actively participates in the study, but is shy about it and seems unsure of her faith.
- Isabel, mentioned above, that God would heal her wounds from divorce and life on the street and continue to grow her as she walks steadily while leaning on Him.
- Maria, who is young, pregnant, and so wants her child to be healthy and not affected by her former habits.
And please lift up all of us, including my co-teachers Helen, Sandra, and Tiffany, and ask for protection as we fight this battle (spiritual and earthly) together!
For the King,
Andrea
The title of this post has several layers of meaning for Andrea and I. She's back in action after more than two weeks sick with flu, and the pneumonia that landed her in the hospital for four days. While she was on her "vacation" as the kids and I jokingly referred to it, we had a ton of support from the States and also from our new community here. Our church, La Iglesia Berea, lifted her up in prayer throughout the illness. And our friends and fellow missionaries at the language institute fixed us meals, cared for the kids, visited her in the hospital and prayed for us, too.
All of this love and support really demonstrated the love of God for us and confirmed that He is, "... the Father of compassion, and the God of all comfort," (2 Corinthians 1:3). So, thank you for all of your love and prayer and support of us!
Andrea also had another "back in action" moment, when she and our new good friend Helen (she and her husband Steve, and daughter Nisha, are missionaries from England) went to the "Restoration House" and led the women there in a Bible Study. The women in this house are voluntarily living in a home together as they try and overcome drug addiction and life on the street. Andrea reports that all of the women were very eager to participate in the study and engage. It was a real encouragement to her to be back in the game and feeling better physically and spiritually by sharing scripture and discipling women who've known real hardship.
Finally, I've been able to go up to La Carpio several times a week and begun to engage in ministry there. While I've been making some cabinets for the offices above the shop, several young men wandered in and began hanging out, asking if they could help. What a blessing it has been to be back in action in ministry and beginning relational outreach with these young men. Please join me in praying for William, Jeffrey and Ricardo. I'm praying that we'll connect relationally and that by God's grace I'll be able to share my skills, but more importantly my faith and love for Jesus.
Many people told us that one of the fringe "benefits" of being a missionary is how many times you say goodbye to good friends. That's been the theme this week, as the trimester in language school concluded and many of our new friends are heading to the field. Today, we grabbed some pizza and met our friends Anders and Jessica at a park nearby to say goodbye to them and their kids, Addie and Boden. Anders and Jessica became fast friends these past few months and will really be missed. They're off to Chile to serve the Mapuche, an indiginous group South of Santiago.
Later this afternoon, we're going to visit Ronnie and Amanda (and kids) and say so long. They're off to San Juan, Puerto Rico, to plant a church there. They were our "Big Brother and Sister" who welcomed us to Costa Rica by finding us a place to live and stocking our fridge with food. They too, became close friends here and will be missed. So long also to David and Carol, and Darlene, classmates at ILE and close friends. David and Carol work as missionaries in Newark, NJ with World Impact. They serve a large population of Ecuadorians there. Darlene is returning to Mexico City where she's served for more than four years, supporting a church plant there and doing outreach to the poor.
What a blessing it's been to see God's will and call on other's lives and enjoy fellowship with them for a time. We're really excited to hear from these folks and receive reports from how God is using them in their different countries. And at the same time, our hearts ache somewhat to know that they're gone and we may never share the same time and experiences again.
Grace and peace,
Seth (and the gang)
Wow, we have overcome in the last two days two major bureaucratic hurdles of being strangers in a strange land!
Number One: Getting a Costa Rican driver's license yesterday. What an adventure! We went with a friend from school who also needed to do this. After she was pursued by a suspected robber in the morning before we set out, a taxi driver ditched us, an interesting medical exam, lots of waiting at the driver's license bureau, different rules at different desks from the people that helped the three of us (Andrea got a difficult person who made up new requirements that she didn't meet), more waiting, and Seth's name being misspelled on the first shot at his license, we FINALLY achieved a victory. Despite the many hurdles, God was with us: He protected Amy in escaping her pursuer (and had her meet a great "tough guy" protector in our new neighborhood -- they call him "the Russian"), gave Andrea favor with a different worker at the bureau, and got things done and us home safely in the end. Lessons in patience, you think?
Number Two: Getting extensions on our tourist visas today. We had hoped to get this done yesterday as well, but showed up just a few minutes too late to get a number in the line for that day after the ordeal with the licenses. SO, back at it first thing this morning, we were number 5 in line. Woohoo! This was a great experience in feeling like an outsider among other people who have a better idea of what's going on than you do, and don't want to tell you the secret rules of society, or don't understand that you don't know them: where should you wait, when do you know that it's your turn, where do you get the mysterious stamps that we didn't know we had to have, etc.? How humbling! After only and hour and half, we were on our way and hit the worst traffic jam we've been in here. Something was on fire on the highway, the police had close the on ramp where we (and apparently 1/2 of San Jose) needed to get on, and we fought traffic for over an hour to leave the area we were stuck in. After all that, we still made it back to school in time for grammar class!
Praise God for small victories! We're looking forward to a three day weekend, as we don't have school on Monday due to a holiday to celebrate the annexation of the Guanacaste region of Costa Rica. More good news: schools here will reopen next week after being closed this week due to the swine flu. No more kid juggling and hopefully the flu risk is subsiding!
Blessings,
Andrea (and the Gang)
Dear friends and family,
It seems like July suddenly crept up on us, along with decisions about what to do at the end of this trimester of language school. This terms ends August 14 (Alden's b-day). We'd been planning on leaving language school and hiring a tutor to help us continue the journey toward fluency in Spanish. However, when we sat down and crunched the numbers, we realized it would be less expensive to enroll half-time at the institute. In addition, we've really wanted to complete the grammar curriculum at the language school, which we won't be able to by this August.
So, we'll be starting a new trimester of language school on Sept. 1. We'll take two hours of classes each day. Once we finish the grammar curriculum, which we expect to take another month, we'll begin focusing on translating. We've heard it's an excellent way to uncover weak spots in your language acquisition and correct them. Apparently, you really can't "fake it" in this class, or use circumlocution to describe what you're translating.
Andrea and I will be in class with one other fellow student from our grammar class now, Amy Lineburg, who is here with Wycliffe Bible Translators. We hope that class will begin at 7:30 am so Andrea can come back home and dive into homeschooling with the kids, while I head North through the city to La Carpio and get started in ministry! The kids will be home during these two hours or so with a maid/nanny. Andrea is really excited to get back to homeschooling the kids soon, and I'm anxious to feel productive in ministry again.
In addition, we're hoping to move to another home in the area that has another bedroom, and more importantly, two bathrooms (5 people + 1 bathroom = frequent emergencies)! In November, friends from the states are coming to stay with us and help us put together a fundraising video. Then, we hope in Dec. Seth's folks are going to come down and spend some time with us to avoid the ice and snow back home and volunteer in ministry here. So, the extra bedroom will be a blessing, too. We meet with the landlord of the other home on Tuesday.
Please pray for us that God would bless and direct our endeavours to find a loving "empleada" to care for the kids and do some cleaning or cooking while were in school. Please also pray that God will bless our move to the other home we've found and that everything would come together.
Don't forget, we love to receive updates from all of you on your lives!
Peace,
Seth (and Andrea and the kids)
June highlights (so far):
- A trip to a park in the city called InBIOParque, a place to educate people on preserving nature and wildlife. See our slide show above with pix! Alden got to hold a Boa Constrictor at its 1st birthday party.
- A trip to Manuel Antonio national park and beach, and Alden petting a white-faced monkey in the wild. Seeing a trend? I think Alden is in heaven. Pictures (and video) coming on that later!
- Staying healthy; I can't tell you how many missionary families at our school are facing sickness and trips to the emergency room on a regular basis! So far, we've been untouched by physical sickness.
- Seth and I celebrating our 15th wedding anniversary on June 4. A fellow student babysat for us so we could have a date. Our gift to each other is learning to scuba dive (there's a very reasonable certification program being taught at our language school for interested students). We can't wait to take our dives on the July 4 weekend!
- Having our class of 7 students over to our place this past Tuesday for a fiesta. We cooked out burgers on the grill and just enjoyed each other's company in English for a change!
- Alden turning around his school performance. Yay for him, and thanks for your prayers! God has taught him much in the last few weeks about working through your problems, being disciplined, not giving up, and forgiving folks when you feel wronged.
Lowlights:
- Having the gas cap to the car stolen right out of the garage (the car barely fits into the garage, so I guess someone reached through the gate and could reach the gas door). Who knew we'd have to have a gas cap with a lock on it -- who knew they even had those?
- Other car problems involving the battery/alternator/radio. We hope they didn't sell us a lemon! If so, we pretty much have no recourse down here.
- Sunburns at Manuel Antonio (we apparently didn't re-apply the sunblock in a timely enough fashion)!
- Nearly getting hit in a car accident yesterday when some crazy driver cut us off in a roundabout.
Check out the new pictures (bigger on the photos page now), and please note that I now have a Facebook account (Andrea Reynolds Sears). It's a kind of fun way to share tidbits and snapshots of what's going on with us, so send me a friend request if you're on Facebook and I haven't established contact yet! Seth also has a new email address, which is seth.r.sears@gmail.com.
Blessings,
Andrea
Two weeks ago, we were blessed to see some friends and supporters from the States who came down on a vacation. On the last day of their trip, Sean and Jenny Evans (and their two girls) hung out with us for a day. In the morning, we went up to a slum on the North side of San Jose, named La Carpio, and took a tour of several of Christ For the City International's outreaches there (including a health clinic, school and home for abused girls). Andrea and I had visited these sites about a year ago on a vision trip to Costa Rica. It was exciting to see how much progress had been made in such a short time! They have a new computer lab set up with a ton of donated computers from the States, to teach kids and adults how to use computers and equip them with this skill that is more and more necessary to secure work.
In the basement of the school for boys, there's a shop with donated power tools (table saws, routers, belt sanders, etc). Delhy, the gentleman giving us the tour, explained that they had a man who was going to teach the boys job skills, but he left after all the equipment was donated without getting the program started. He explained that they've been praying for God to send a man who wants to be more than a teacher, but a mentor and a discipler. At this point, I had to interrupt Delhy and tell him that I'm the guy! We had a good laugh about this and as we were leaving, he told me that they'd be waiting for me to come back soon and clean and oil the tools. It was exciting to meet Delhy and several of the young men whose lives have been changed by CFCI's outreach in this impoverished area (click on the photos link above to see photos of the shop and some young men building a kitchen off of the main office at the school).
I feel an added impetus to finish language training soon and get to work, but I also want to be well-equipped to share my life and faith with young men and to do it fluently. Please pray for my progress this trimester in language school!
Later, Sean and I took the kids to a park near our home while Andrea and Jenny went with another CFCI missionary up into the mountains to a place called Renacer (meaning "rebirth" in English). This facility is a CFCI outreach to girls who've been involved in drugs and prostitution, living on the streets. The first thing they heard when the pulled up was the girls singing worship songs to the Lord; they had arrived right at chapel time for one of the four cohort groups! They were getting ready for a graduation ceremony the next day, in which 6 of the girls would graduate from the program. One of the girls who was about to graduate (also named Andrea) gave the women a tour and explained how things operate. There was a real tug on Andrea's and Jenny's hearts after hearing how this young girl's life had been rescued and changed! She'd clearly received good counsel, come to faith in Jesus, and had good boundaries with her family and a strategy for going forward in life. What else can one need when those basics are in place?
Another ministry opportunity that has been plopped in my lap has been in time spent with our neighbor Juan. He's a retired electrician and now works part-time as a handyman for neighbors on our block. This past Friday, he and I pulled the alternator from our car and had it rebuilt with new diodes and ball-bearings. Yesterday, he put it back in for us while we were on a trip to a park with other students and their kids. Through time working on the car together and through interviewing him for homework for class, I've gotten to know him quite well. He doesn't believe in a personal God and doesn't pray. However, I can see that he's eager to "do good" and serve people, as if there's a celestial supervisor reviewing his behavior. He's really been turned off by the hypocritical behavior of family members who claim to be Christians (in fact, one is a pastor).
Please pray with us that our friendship with Juan will continue to develop and the Lord would give me the right words at the right time to help move him a step or two closer to faith!
Thank you for all of your prayers, support and encouragement!
Seth
OK, the title of this post refers to the fact that this morning I woke up to a centipede (3-4 inches long) crawling on my face! We have purchased mosquito nets to protect us from bug bites at night, but unfortunately ours fell on us in the night and we were too lazy to get up and replace it. I won't make the same mistake again!
What a week we've had! Here are some highlights:
- We bought a car: a white 1999 Isuzu Rodeo. It seems to be in good condition and should serve us well. The rules of the road in Costa Rica are: whoever has the biggest vehicle has the right of way, and you don't hesitate, just GO and expect people to get our of your way! We won't use the car often, but it will help us get across town to friends' houses or on trips outside of San Jose for now, and later to get to work. The car buying process was quite an ordeal (added bureaucracy), and we're very thankful that we had Edwin (a Tico friend) to help us through it!
- We ALL started school! We learned after our arrival that the kids and I didn't HAVE to wait for August to start as we had previously thought, so we turned on a dime and enrolled me in the language school and the kids in Sojourn Academy on the first day of orientation. It's been a shift in expectations, but a very good one. It will shorten our time at the school, Seth and I were placed in the same class so we can learn together (we really enjoy competing with each other), and gives the kids something to plug into right away to find new friends and have something to do besides bounce off the walls in our cozy house!
- Our spanish classes started on Wednesday, and we can already tell we'll be learning SO MUCH. Please pray that we'll be able to learn quickly, eliminate our bad habits (and Mexican words that we picked up in KC that aren't the same in Costa Rica), and that the kids will adjust to going to school every day instead of one day a week. We're trying to get used to homework, schoolteacher expectations, etc. and it's quite a hustle to get the whole family up, dressed, through the one bathroom that we share, eat breakfast, pack lunches and walk to school by 7:30 am!
- Seth and I are experiencing our first bout of "mal estomago" (intestinal unhappiness). Please pray that it will pass quickly (figuratively speaking, of course).
- Sean and Jenny Evans arrived in Costa Rica yesterday, bringing four boxes of stuff that I left with them before we came. What a help they are to us in getting settled and having what we need from home to make a life here! They will spend some vacation time near Arenal (an awesome continuously erupting volcano to the north) and then we'll get to spend some time with them next Thursday before they go back to KC. We're excited to see people from home already!
"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has give us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ through the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade -- kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time." 1 Peter 1:3-5
Blessings,
Andrea
We’ve arrived! Our first four days here have been a whirlwind, but God had been good to us. We won’t give you the blow by blow of every day of our lives here going forward, but we know that some are interested in what our first few days have been like, and it’s definitely a testament of God’s mercy, sooo here goes….
We landed on time, tired from the overnight trip on which only one of us (Jude) got much sleep. Kellie from the CFCI base, Ronnie (our big brother from the language school), and Steve (our missionary friend with iTeams) were there to pick us up. All but one of our bags made it, the one with most of Alden’s clothes being the missing one. We called the airline this morning, it had arrived, and we were able to give them directions to our house so that it could be delivered. Our neighbor received it for us while we were out playing today, so everything is accounted for!
On Day 1, our Tico friends Edwin and Zeidy fed us brunch, after conducting an investigation to find us! Edwin was supposed to meet us at the airport, but tried an alternate route that morning and got stuck in traffic. We were concerned about how we’d meet up with them for brunch (we didn’t know our address or phone number before arriving, so neither did they, and we didn’t have their Costa Rican phone number with us because we usually use Skype to talk to them). But within an hour, Edwin managed to get our number after calling mutual friends in the States to get the language school info, calling the language school, and tracking down our phone number with our big brother! We thought it would take a day or two to establish contact with them, so what a surprise it was when our first phone call was Edwin saying, with a smile in his voice, “Hola! Es la casa de la familia Sears?!”
We unpacked a lot, took naps, made a trip with Kellie to Hipermas (a Wal-Mart-like store), and had a great Costa Rican dinner at Steve and Elizabeth Peterson’s house. While our house is technically “furnished,” those furnishings are sparse and there are not many kitchen items, so Hipermas helped us provision ourselves a bit and get Alden a few clothing items. We feel very blessed that so many people have made themselves available to help us get settled in and feel at home. Organized Annabel got all of her things unpacked right away, set up her room and toys, and declared that she loves it here. However, she also added “Caroline and Annie” to our Hipermas shopping list. ;-)
While at the Peterson's on our first night here, God graced us with the most beautiful and brilliant rainbow we've ever seen! It was so bright, we couldn't believe it. What a welcome!
On Day 2, another CFCI missionary who just finished her second trimester at language school, Sunshine, gave us a walking tour of our area to acclimate us a bit. Our house is located on the southwest corner of a park called El Bosque, and there are several other parks within a 15 minute walk. We feel very blessed to have so many options for the kids to run and play! It has 3 small bedrooms, 1 bathroom, a living/dining room area, kitchen, laundry room off of the back patio, and a small backyard (see photos on the “Pictures” tab). Two luxuries we weren’t sure we’d have are a small hot water heater (hot showers!) and a clothes dryer. Though we’ll probably still hang the clothes on sunny days to save energy (that’s the Tico thing to do), a dryer will be very helpful during the rainy season, which is just starting and goes through October/November. Every day people come by begging for food or money, and we've been advised by other missionaries to plan on buying extra rice and beans to hand out in ziploc packets. What a different world than Kansas City!
We stopped by the nearby home of some other CFCI missionaries who just completed language school, Mark and Marge Long. They are the directors of a youth program in our neighborhood, are a very sweet couple, and have teenage daughters (potential babysitters!). More unpacking, and another trip to Hipermas, this time with Edwin while Zeidy and their daughter Monica hung out at the house with the kids. We swatted a lot of mosquitoes (they like our backyard, too), and found some insecticide to help out with that. Seth went downtown today with Steve to find some mosquito netting that we can put over the beds until they let up.
Edwin also took us to a ministry called MANA, which is a residential ministry to rehabilitate addicts. They recondition school desks to sell and make other furniture to support the center and learn a trade skill. We were impressed with this ministry that has turned around the lives of so many, and has 30 men living there now. The leaders love the Lord and the addicts, want each one to come to know the Lord, and offer comprehensive services to help these people who have been oppressed by their addictions. Back home, we ordered pizza for dinner, since Andrea was not quite ready to tackle cooking in the kitchen, and it was actually pretty good!
On Day 3, we played at a small fenced-in park at the end of our block where we could let Scarlet off her leash to run around with the kids. We made our first trip to la feria (the market) and bought plenty of fresh fruits and veggies from the farmers who bring their produce to sell every Saturday morning. Andrea went to a support group meeting of Christian homeschooling moms in the San Jose area with Elizabeth, most of them missionaries, but some expats too. She felt so blessed to get connected with such a group right away! They will be good mentors and are intentional about circulating curriculum resources amongst themselves since it can be difficult to get things down here.
Yesterday, we went to church at La Iglesia Berea and agreed that it would be our home church. Their style of worship is similar to what one would find in many evangelical churches in the U.S., and the teaching is rock solid. Several other missionaries attend there as well, but it’s mostly a Tico church, and it’s where Edwin and Zeidy attend. We enjoyed the praise time immensely, the kids were brave about going to their Sunday school classes, and said afterward that they enjoyed it.
Edwin and Zeidy fed us a delicious lunch at their place and we visited with them all afternoon and started looking for used cars for sale on the internet, with Edwin’s advice on what to buy here, which cars have the most expensive repairs, etc. and his offer to be our ambassador so the price doesn’t go up when gringos show up to look at a car. Without us even mentioning our need, they also offered to give us a cellular phone line that they aren’t using, which is something that we wanted to have, but you can’t get right now if you’re not a citizen or permanent resident of Costa Rica.
Today, again without us even mentioning our need, our neighbor Don Juan (yes, his name is Juan and he is an older gentleman, so you call him Don Juan) came over and asked if we’d like to use a wireless network that he and several other neighbors share to use the internet. More users means less per user to pay per month for them, and saved us what probably would have taken several more weeks to get our own DSL service hooked up.
We have felt very cared for, and God has placed many people around us already to help us with every minor detail of starting a life here, including things we haven't even been wise enough to ask for yet. Ephesians 3:20-21 comes to mind, which says, "Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen." We know that He is with us, and is providing us with everything that we need, whether we know yet that we need it or not! The kids and dog have all adjusted well to our life here, despite its transitional nature, and have cheerful spirits about what we are here to do. Praise God for His work in our lives!
We hope that each and every one of you are enjoying the new life of Spring back home, and avoiding the swine flu! We felt so loved by you all in our sendoff from the States, with so many kind words and parties and embraces. Already we can’t wait to see you all again!
Much love,
Seth, Andrea, Annabel, Alden and Jude
Just wanted to post a quick correction. We've decided to delay the farewell shindig to Sunday, April 19, and we're planning to have a get-together at a park (probably Antioch Park) from 4 pm until dusk. Folks can come and go, kids can play, adults can visit, etc. This has the advantage of being closer to the date of our departure, and allows us to focus in the short-term on packing and getting moved out of our house.
Pray for good weather -- we'll have a backup inside plan in case it doesn't cooperate. More details to be released later, but we wanted to get the news out that we WON'T be having the open house at our place next weekend for folks who may have been planning on it!
Andrea
This past weekend, after weeks of watching airline tickets fall, we booked our tickets to Costa Rica! We're flying out Wednesday, April 22, on Frontier Airlines at 6:24 pm. In addition, last week we received our official acceptance from the Spanish Language Institute. Part of that process involves having a big brother sign up to help us find a place to live when we arrive in country.
Our new life in CR is slowly beginning to take shape and we're really excited about what the future holds after taking a couple of concrete steps forward. However, during the calmer moments between packing and planning, we've begun to consider all the people, places and things were going to miss about home. In fact, I've got a growing list of restaurants and meals in my mind that I just have to enjoy before we leave.
As to the friends and family we're going to miss, we decided the best way to say "so long" to a lot of people would be to have a going-away open-house at our home from 1 to 4 pm on Sat., April 4. Naturally, we'll be watching the Jayhawks play in the national semifinals later that night, and you'll be more than welcome to stay and watch the game with us, if you'd like! So, click the contact tab at the top of the page and let us know if you can drop by and say "hasta luego" ("see ya later")!
Final prayer requests for our state-side preparation:
- A smooth conclusion to our house sale and closing on April 15
- Good and healthy "closure" on relationships and situations here
- Family unity through stressful packing, moving, traveling, and settling-in times ahead
- Safe travel
- Continued progress in fundraising
- Discipline in finding time with the Lord during our hectic activity
Thanks for all your support and interest in what we're doing. We appreciate each of you and your special role in this endeavor. Our next post might be after landing in Costa Rica!
Love,
Seth and Andrea
It's exciting for us to be inside of the actual calendar year of our launch to the mission field! What a range of emotions: excitement, nervousness, humility, awareness of things that we'll miss, but also total confidence that we're going in the right direction and that God will take care of us and do His work.
Now that we've set a target departure date (April 20), the countdown has begun. We're beginning to be consumed with "last-minute" details of dental checks for the kids, packing for our move into storage once we sell the house on April 15, luggage and packing for the trip, plane tickets, dog health certificates, language school enrollment, finding a place to live there, etc., etc., ad nauseum. Boy, will it be great to GET there and settle in after so much upheaval! I don't want it to sound like it's terrible, though; every part of it has been a blessing, and we know that it is growing and equipping us for whatever we will encounter in Latin America.
Let us give a list of praises for the things the Lord has done recently:
- Annabel has "outgrown" her asthma this winter, eliminating the need to obtain her medication out of country. While we know that this somtimes happens in kids with asthma, we believe God has healed her at a very opportune time!
- A potential bone health concern with Andrea from years ago has turned out to be a non-issue. Where bones were apparently weak 5 years ago, they are now totally normal according to a recent test!
- While both of us remain officially "unemployed," we inexplicably have plenty of money for our bills and monthly needs, and work for both of us has come our way to provide for the next few months.
- We still can't get over the mercy and favor we have been shown in the sale of our house.
These are amazing things that show us that God is in the details, and is not too busy to attend to all aspects of the journeys that each of us are on!
Some of you may have heard or read about the 6.1 earthquake in Costa Rica earlier this month, which was centered just north of the capital, San Jose, where we'll be living. Smaller quakes are frequent in Costa Rica (which is located at several converging tectonic plates), but this is the largest that they've had in years. About 40 people lost their lives, hundreds of people were stranded when roads and bridges were destroyed, and over 1200 people were displaced from their homes. You can see some dramatic before and after pictures at http://www.crid.or.cr/crid/pdf/Antes%20y%20despues%20del%20Terremoto%20de%20Cinchona.pdf.This has renewed the vigor of our compassion for the poor there, and given us a new urgency to get down there to help with some of the relief work. A missionary friend of ours currently living there reports that it will likely take months if not years to repair the damage left behind, both physical and emotional. People who have lost most of their earthly possessions need to hear the good news of the gospel, that the Lord can sustain and restore them, and that Christ's body on earth wants to help!
Blessings,
Andrea (&Seth)
