Archive for Costa Rica
Our Last Semester Begins
Posted by: | CommentsThe countdown is on…we have just over 100 days left in language school. It seems just like a month ago we were stepping off the plane and getting settled in to all of the sights, smells and sounds of Costa Rica. We are definitely speaking more Spanish than when we came, but we still have so far to go. Please pray that we will stay focused on the task of language learning and keep our eyes on the ultimate task of why we are here…sharing Christ with those we meet!
Our First Combined Bible Study
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With my parents in town, we thought it would be a good opportunity to combine the two Bible study groups. Doña Violeta graciously offered her house for us all to meet in and extra plastic chairs were brought in from the other group. Our friend Antonio brought and played his guitar, which made the music a little more lively. Scott had memorized the story of Paul and Silas from Acts 16, so the Bible study was conducted a little differently in that no one read out loud from the Scriptures. We brought our time together to a close by celebrating the July and August birthdays by singing, of course, Feliz Cumpleaños!
Our goal is to have a combined Bible study with the two groups (or more groups, if God allows in our remaining time here!) every two or three months which will be a time of fellowship, studying the Word and celebrating special events, like birthdays… you know, a small church! We can’t wait to see what God is going to do next!
Time with Family
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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!!
End of the 2nd Trimester
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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!
Dinner with Grace
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A few months ago, Scott and I were in the park looking for people to talk to about the Lord when we met Grace. She was there with her dog, sitting on a bench alone. We began a conversation about her dog which led to her opening up about personal matters. As she was telling us about her family problems, she began to cry. I felt the Holy Spirit leading me to pray for her. My prayer, in Spanish, had a lot of holes in it, but I managed to include in it the message of Salvation. Grace didn’t accept Christ that day, but we are praying that we will have more opportunities to share the love of Christ with her.
