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Before Jason & Kathy came to visit, we sent them a list of items that we were missing from the states (mainly food!) so they could bring a few of each of them to us.  We’ll, little did we know that they had involved our church in Kansas City, so we ended up with a suitcase (also donated) full of goodies!  Just a few items on the list:  mechanical pencils, pinto beans (believe it or not, they don’t have them here and they are a must for charro beans!), spices, chocolate baking chips (too expensive here!), chocolate pudding, Hershey’s cocoa, and Gates BBQ sauce!  In addition to Antioch’s gifts, some of our good friends from Scott’s former church in Cincinnati sent us some pecans, rechargeable batteries, blank CD’s, a rain jacket for Scott and of course, more chocolate!!  It was a pleasant surprise and a wonderful blessing!

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During our short break from classes, our friends from Kansas City, MO, Jason and Kathy came to visit.  What a blessing and encouragement they were to us.  Kathy, being the “details” person she is, had the entire vacation planned, which was a big blessing to us because it allowed us to just enjoy the time and not have to think about all of the details!  We were able to visit a couple of volcanoes (both active), ride the zip lines thru the cloud forest, tour a coffee plantation, and best of all…relax in the hot springs heated by the lava flowing from Volcano Arenal!

We all had some good laughs together, especially when it came to the GPS that we affectionately named “Olga”.  We may have had some laughs at her expense, but she directed us to where we needed to go most of the time (although sometimes it was off-road!).  When you live in a country where they are no street signs, any help one can get is a gift!  Although Olga wasn’t much help when it came to the time when we had to stop and wait for two hours on a two-lane highway while the highway construction workers painted the road.  We were first in line, so we just missed being allowed to pass!  If you’d like to learn to be a more patient person, just come and visit us because there are many patience building opportunities awaiting you!!!

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