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My parents arrived without delays on August 20th, in spite of Tropical Storm Fays attempts to impede their departure from Ft. Lauderdale, FL.  We spent the one week they were here visiting Arenal volcano, the Pacific Ocean, and two Waterfall Gardens.  My Dad was even adventurous enough to ride the zip line! 

We had a great time and enjoyed being able to travel with them to show them the sights of Costa Rica and to introduce them to our national friends.  They attended our first ever combined Bible study (our two Sunday groups combined) and they were all so overjoyed to meet my parents.  Doña Violeta even made them some of her famous arroz con pollo (chicken and rice) and another family gave them a delicious pineapple.

We shared some good memories and some good laughs like the time we were at a restaurant and my Dad ordered a tenderloin steak.  The steak was really tough and all he had to cut it with was a butter knife.  We alerted the waiter about the toughness and he just brought Dad a steak knife.  When asked about different options of meat, he indicated that the other cuts of meat were the same, “they are all from the same cow”!  Maybe someone should alert the USDA and let them know they can charge the same price for cube steak and filet mignon, because after all, it’s all from the same cow!!

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Two trimesters of language school down and one more to go.  As we’ve said goodbye to another semester, we’ve also said goodbye to more of our classmates.  One (not pictured) is moving to a Spanish speaking country in Africa, one to Chile and the others are returning to Mexico about 24 hours by car from where we will be living.  That just leaves three of the original members of our class. 

The results of our oral proficiency exams ranked us at Advanced Low, praise the Lord!  Thanks for all of your prayers.  We definitely would not have made it to where we are today without them!

Many of you faithful blog readers may be wondering what has happened to us.  We have been very busy with school, ministry, welcoming new teammates, and just life in general.  Within the next week, I hope to be able to catch you all up on the particulars of our lives.  Stay tuned…

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In a recent newsletter, we had asked our prayer supporters to begin praying about an upcoming birthday party that would give us the opportunity to get to know Francisco and Yolanda’s neighbors in a less intimidating setting.  God really blessed this effort as 23 people came to celebrate Yolanda’s birthday. 

Yolanda and I met early the Sunday morning of the party to buy all of the food.  I baked two cakes and one of their neighbors, Doña Violeta (Ms. Violet), made the main dish commonly served at birthdays in Costa Rica, the infamous Arroz con Pollo (Chicken and Rice).  The chicken and rice was cooked in the biggest pot I have ever seen in my life (it was about one-third full of chicken and rice, fed 23 people, plus several families took home leftovers!).

Scott and I gave Yolanda a Spanish Bible for her birthday.  Before presenting it to her, Scott read Psalm 139:13-14 (…”you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb…”).  Francisco prayed a prayer of blessing on Yolanda, as well as the food and fellowship.  The kids danced to Latin music and Scott and I invited everyone we talked to, to attend the Bible Study.

Our goal is to make some banana bread later in the week to take to each of the families to invite them once again to the study.  We pray God will move on their hearts to have a desire to study his Word.

If you would like to see more pics related to this post, click here.

The break from school was nice, but it’s time again to hit the books.  We have grammar classes in the mornings for two hours and conversation time in the afternoons.  Our classes are small, so we have the opportunity to receive the more targeted training that a smaller group affords.  Also, we are continuing to build relationships with nationals by having them as language partners.  We are having a wonderful time getting to know them while perfecting our Spanish, although we still have a long way to go! 

Please continue to remember us when you pray because language learning at times can be extremely frustrating.  At the same time, when I think back to what we sounded like when we arrived compared to what we sound like now, I can smile.