Meeting Caroline’s Family
By Scott & Sherry | November 10, 2007
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Recently we’ve had the pleasure of meeting the aunt, uncle and cousin of our sister-in-law Caroline (Scotts brother’s wife). Jonathan and Anabel are pastors of a Baptist church in Guadalupe, about twenty minutes away from us, and have so graciously picked us up for church the last several weeks. A couple of weeks ago they took us out for dinner after church to Lone Star Restaurant. Sound familiar? Well, it was a little different from the Lone Star you may know, but they served the same delicious steaks. Anabel also cooked us a wonderful meal our first week with them called Olla de Carne (Stew). Their hospitality was wonderful and they let us know we were their family. What a wonderful blessing to be so far from home and have people who love us and consider us their family!
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Our Homework Trip Downtown
By Scott & Sherry | November 7, 2007
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Our homework assignment this week was to take the bus to downtown San Jose and seek out a few parks, national monuments and museums. This is where it got tricky…our task was to ask the locals for directions to our assigned places and once there, ask what their operating hours were and the cost of entry. As you may have read in a prior post, asking directions in Latin America may get you lost, so one important lesson we learned was to watch the way their hands were pointing, instead of listening to “go east 3 blocks…” We had to stop twice and ask directions to the first destination on our list because we thought we’d gone far enough, but it turned out the first person did give us correct directions! 
We saw some interesting sights along the way, such as men sleeping on the sidewalk covered with plastic bags to protect themselves from the rain, plants growing out of the side of a wall, and a protest outside of one of the government buildings. We also ate a delicious meal at one of the local restaurants where vendors would come inside the restaurant and ask the customers if they want to buy anything from sunglasses to lottery tickets. One day soon this will all be so normal for us, but for now we’ll continue thinking, “it’s not wrong, it’s just different!”
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Birthday Parties Costa Rican Style!
By Scott & Sherry | November 3, 2007
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Attending any festive activity for the first time in a different culture is always interesting. Different foods and rituals, one never knows what to expect! We received an invitation to the birthday party of Josué and Ariana. The party was to start at 4pm and guests didn’t start arriving until 4:30ish and instead of unwrapping the gifts at one time during the party, as soon as a guest walked in the door with a present, Josué and Ariana opened the gift immediately!!
The food served at the party was Tacos Ticos. They were similar to flautas (rolled up, fried tortillas with beef inside), topped with shredded cabbage, mayo and ketchup. They were served in a small plastic bag that would catch some of the cabbage that would fall from our mouths. I think we used quite a few napkins trying to wipe off the mayo and ketchup from our faces!! Definitely not a food you would want to eat on a first date!! Check out some of the pictures from the party…I’m sure you’ll get a kick out of them!!
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Living and Laughing…
By Scott & Sherry | November 3, 2007
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One of the benefits of living with a Tico family is having native Spanish speakers all round us. As was mentioned in our prior post, Noel and Roxana are our host parents. They have two grandchildren, Ariana (6 yrs) and Josué (9 yrs), who affectionately call us “Gringitos” (white people). These two only speak Spanish, so it is always challenging to carry on a conversation in a manner in which we all understand each other.
One day, Ariana was telling us that something had fallen, but because she was using a verb tense we didn’t know, we couldn’t understand her. So in her cleverness, she told us the verb in its basic form and the light came on for both of us!! It’s very humbling to realize we only have the vocabulary of a 3 year old!! Nonetheless, we are having quite a few laughs with many more to come, I’m sure!
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Meet our Host Family
By Scott & Sherry | November 3, 2007
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Meet our host parents Noel and Roxana. Noel works at a facility where he teaches recovering drug addicts skills, such as woodworking, so they can eventually be productive members of society. Roxana is a Spanish tutor for students at the language institute we’ll be attending in January. They have three grown children, 2 sons and 1 daughter, and two grandchildren.
Noel and Roxana were missionaries in Mexico for two years ministering to the poor and they have also been involved in ministry at an orphanage here in San Jose. Most recently, we have been participating in the house church meetings they have started on Wednesday evenings at their son’s house. Their desire is to also host conferences dealing with interpersonal relationship issues and providing biblical answers for those issues. Please pray for their neighbor’s hearts to be receptive as they seek to reach their neighborhood for Christ!
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Barefoot Language School
By Scott & Sherry | November 2, 2007
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Since language school doesn’t officially begin until January, we’ve been spending our mornings in conversational Spanish language classes with our teacher Olga. Most every day we have homework assignments that require us to go somewhere to engage in conversations about interesting facts and customs of Costa Rica. One of the things I love most about Costa Rica is the warm reception we receive from complete strangers. Many of the people we meet tell us to come back anytime to practice Spanish! Also, Ticos are very helpful when we ask for directions. The directions they give aren’t always correct, but they have willing hearts to try to point us in the correct direction!!
Please pray that we will not be intimidated to share the Gospel even with the little Spanish we know!
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Bible Storying Training
By Scott & Sherry | October 28, 2007
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Our first weekend in Costa Rica was spent in training for Bible Storying. This method of evangelism and discipleship is very effective amongst oral learning societies. We believe it will be a very useful tool for us in Puebla, Mexico since many people of the Popular Class drop out of school to work and don’t have the benefit of higher level reading classes.
Please pray that God would be working on the hearts of the people of Puebla so that they would be intrigued by the stories we will tell them a year from now.
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Scott Turns 37!!
By Scott & Sherry | October 27, 2007
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On Saturday during our Bible Story Training, the group recognized Scott’s 37th birthday by singing “Happy Birthday” in English and Spanish. Check out the video clip…
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Our First Day in Costa Rica
By Scott & Sherry | October 26, 2007
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We were met at the airport by our Big Brother John Weaver, who was responsible for answering our many questions about what to bring to CR, as well as language school coordinators Mark and Pam Grumbles. Pam is responsible for pairing up students with host families living near the language school. After a 30 minute drive from the airport, we arrived at the house of our host family, Noel and Roxana, around 2:30pm on Wednesday, October 24th. After showing us to our room, they served us a nice lunch of Aztec Soup (Mexican in origin), chicken and white rice. We are really blessed to be living in a Christian household.
Later that evening, we met up with our Big Brother’s family and they took us to eat at a really good pizza restaurant called Otero’s. They also showed us some essentials in the neighborhood such as the bakery and the supermarket called Jumbo! The Weavers will be leaving Costa Rica in December to serve in Mexico a few hours from where we’ll be living, although we’ll be seeing them several times a year since their boss lives in Puebla! What a blessing they’ve been in helping us get acclimated to our new environment.
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Goodbye US…Hello Costa Rica!
By Scott & Sherry | October 26, 2007
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We arrived in Atlanta late afternoon on Tuesday, October 23rd and spent the evening savoring our potential “lasts” (at least for 3 years!) in the States. You know, our last time to eat food American style, our last time to have the luxury of being able to understand EVERYTHING being said to us and our last time to have a guaranteed hot shower.
Traveling light…we’ll sort of! Scott and I were allowed two suitcases each (62” total dimensions) not exceeding 50 lbs each, as well as two carry-on items each, not exceeding 40 lbs. When we arrived at the airport Wednesday morning we weighed our bags and one of them came in at 53 lbs so we had to do some last –minute redistributing of stuff. We made it thru security, thankfully without incident inspite of all the electronics we were carrying, including a voltage regulator. Our traveling partners and fellow missionaries, the Dunns, weren’t so fortunate. They were stopped twice, but after a thorough search of their persons and stuff, were released. It seems the American Girl dolls Chelsea was carrying in her carry-on bag were cause for suspicion. Pretty funny!
Thanks to all who were praying for traveling mercies for us! We do really appreciate your prayers.
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