Two of the Last Emails From My Brother, Tom

I shared these today at his memorial service at my Mom's church.

dated Nov. 17, 2008


Hey Dawn



Please keep Cherri, Chelsea and me in your prayers this week. I am really down in the dumps. I learned last week that I had a light stroke recently. I think it happened one day while I was cleaning the carpets. ( Sitting at home is killing me. I paint, I cook, I clean, and I tend what’s left of our grass!! Oh and I do the shopping!!) I have become a good little house wife. I never knew how busy Cherri was until we switched jobs. Anyone who thinks housewives have it made is crazy. My hats off to you, I have trouble keeping up with one child! I am having tests run this week on my heart---new cardiologist thinks I need another valve replacement. I have an echo cardiogram today and another angiogram Friday. I really am going to push for a zipper or Velcro on the incision this time. I have joked about it for years but this is ridiculous.



I am in really severe pain with my neuropathy, and have wondered if something else was wrong. I am tired all the time now. I hope that that if I have the valve replaced, the pain will be better. I am at peace with having surgery again if that is what the Doctors think best. They are very concerned about the scare tissue around my heart from all of the previous tune ups, and have all agreed that surgery is not a good option due to the proximity of the aneurism repair. However the function has gotten to the point that something needs to be done.



I spent the day with my darling daughter for my birthday, Cherri helped with a shower all afternoon, so Chelsea and I went out for lunch and then made a trek through Wally World. I listened for hours as she bubbled on about this and that. Golly I feel old one minute and then she rejuvenates me the next. There is never a dull moment. It is soooo different than when we grew up.



I am so proud of you and I really enjoy the blog and pics that you guys post. I can’t believe how big your kids are!



XOXOXO



The following is dated Dec. 3, 2008:

Dawn—I don’t know quite how to say what I want to say. I have prayed and prayed, and the answer to my prayer is just not happening. I am scared to death, not for me, but for Cherri and Chelsea. I have so many things wrong now that one thing is now affecting another. The Doctors are not very sure of themselves and I have lost my cavalier spirit. My health problems have beat me down to the point that I don’t know if I can go through this again. I have so many questions and no answers. Mentally and spiritually I am tired.




He was one of my biggest encouragers and a good brother. I'm going to miss him so much.

My Brother . . .

Thank you for all of your prayers and e-mails. My brother, Tom, passed away this morning. Please continue to remember us all in your prayers, especially my sister-in-law, Cherri, my niece, Chelsea, and my mom. I am thankful I was able to see him again, and that I can be here with my family during this time.

In Christ,

Dawn

SC Bound for Christmas!

Things we're looking forward to:

Being with family and friends
Decaf Mocha at Starbucks
Cheeseburgers
Grits
No rice and beans for three and a half weeks! : )
Annual Christmas Cookie Swap
Trey's doctor's appt. with the orthopedist about his knee--finally, answers!
paintball
fruitcake
banana pudding
green beans
turkey and dressing
going out for dinner with friends
playing games with family
one overnight getaway for Tully and Dawn
NO TESTS for three and a half weeks! : )
Christmas lights at Hollywild
Christmas decorations everywhere
Cold weather
No rain
A yard for the kids to play in
Worship services in English
Advent devotions

Remembering and reflecting on the Reason for Christmas!


O Come, O Come, Emmanuel . . .

Guess Who Has Five Big Brothers? : )

Anna at the Preschool Christmas Program, Sojourn Academy

You know your kids go to a small school when. . .Part 2

your teenager misses school due to illness, and his science teacher walks over to check on him and deliver the work he missed.

You know your kids go to a small school when . . .

the principal's wife lines everyone up on picture day and takes pictures. : )

We love Sojourn Academy!

Spanish 101

If you have heard any Hispanics speak, it seems like they have a machine gun in their mouth spitting out hundreds of words per second. It is really hard to try and understand people when they talk so fast. Of course when Hispanics are learning English, they say we speak very fast.

But there are reasons that the Hispanic speakers truly talk fast. Two of the reasons are uniones and dipthongs. Dipthongs are when two vowels occur together in a word. Take the word for God--Dios. The i and the o occur together. Both letters are pronounced but with the timing of one letter so the pronunciation is very fast. The speed of pronunciation for the two letters is the same as is normal for one letter.

Uniones or unions are when the last letter of a word is a consanant and the first letter of the next word is a vowel. Then you join the two together, only when speaking, to form one syllable. So the words "infundiran aliento" (from the 23rd psalm) become one word. The syllables are divided as follows: in-fun-di-ra-na-lien-to (the ie in lien is a dipthong as well). So now the two words are pronounced as one word making the speech very fast indeed! Trying to understand a new language is hard enough but when 2 words become one word, deciphering what people are saying is a true challenge.

The good news is that when I went to the market this past Saturday, I was so appreciative that all the venders had decided to start talking much more plainly and understandably. I just wanted to thank each and everyone of them. Or maybe I am just learning to understand what they are saying and they have not really changed at all. Either way, it's a good thing!

Little Dogs

Some of the garage doors are opaque, and those homes are where a teeny tiny dog with an inferiority complex and a really loud bark lies in wait for an unsuspecting gringo to walk by. He waits until the gringo gets almost past and then springs into action. If he times it just right, he can jump high enough to get his mouth right next to the gringo's ear and then let out a bark that exceeds all safe decibel levels and sounds like he's ready to rip your throat out. Then I picture him laughing hysterically in his dog-way as he watches the gringo jump two feet off the ground with the adrenaline pumping, and then look around to make sure no one saw it. With the satisfaction of a job well-accomplished, he settles back down for a little rest to wait for his next victim. We are his entertainment for the day. Now we've learned him and his evil ways, so he doesn't bother with us much anymore. ; ) Yes, this is the voice of experience talking. And yes, the little dogs are all over the city and all the same. And yes, there are a whole new slew of unsuspecting students coming in for the January trimester.

Smells

It's true what they say . . . you can be walking along through your day-to-day life and then all of a sudden, with no warning, you're taken back to some point in your past by something you smell. It seems so strange when it happens. Last week, as I walked home from school, I smelled cotton candy. Weird. I did find out that they have cotton candy here. Trey said it smelled like bubblegum. It reminded me of fall fairs at home.

Here the smells range from big city smells (cigarette smoke, diesel fumes, car exhaust) to particularly Latin American smells (chicken roasting over coffee beans--YUM!--frijoles and rice cooking, and fried food, cologne) to regular everyday smells (laundry detergent--that is different from home but still nice (some of it), and cleaning smells, shampoo, etc.)

All of the houses are open and very close to the street, so as you walk around, you can catch snippets of conversations, hear pots and pans clanking together, the swish-swish of a broom, a TV or radio playing, but most of all, you can smell what they are doing--cleaning, cooking, showering.

Last weekend, we went with the school to a restaurant on a little mountain above the city. We enjoyed typical Costa Rican food by candlelight, and when the fog lifted, we were able to look down in the valley and see the lights of San Jose twinkling in the night. It was beautiful. My favorite part was not the beauty of the lights in the distance, nor the taste of the delicious food, nor the time out away from school with friends, although all of those were great.

My favorite part of the evening was the opportunity to smell woodsmoke for the first time this fall. The restaurant had a fireplace which we smelled as soon as we got off the bus. Some of our fellow missionaries here are from much colder states than South Carolina, but we all talked about the same thing. How wonderful it is to smell woodsmoke, which we had taken for granted before.

Various things

The city of San Francisco de Dos Rios has trash pick up every Wednesday and Saturday. I usually put the trash on the sidewalk right outside our garage early so that we're not rushed to do it when it's time to leave for school. We always leave the house by way of the garage as that is where we keep the stroller. When the garage is shut we have no way of seeing what is outside the garage. So it was somewhat disconcerting to open the garage door and see a man opening our garbage bags and going through our garbage only four feet away from us. It was even more disconcerting when he pulled out a small plastic bag of food we had thrown away and proceeded to eat it right in front of us. It is hard to put into words how it made the boys and me feel but it was not a good feeling.

When we arrived at our first class this morning there was alot of talking and animation--much more than usual. There was an earthquake just over the Panamanian border that registered 6.2 on the Richter scale. It occurred just after midnight. Dawn and I slept through it but many students felt it. Elijah came downstairs (and fortunately went to Dawn's side of the bed) during the night and we wonder if the quake is what woke him up. Fortunately there were no injuries. Those who felt it said it was a very eerie sensation. Well life goes on and the earthquake was forgotten by the end of the school day but the man going through our garbage will not soon be forgotten.

Dear Jesus break my heart with the things that break Your heart and Holy Spirit teach me to respond in a way that will only bring glory to You. Amen

Forgiven and Healed

I entered a blog on October 16th talking about the guilt I felt after Trey, my oldest son, tore the medial meniscus (cartilage) in his left knee. I knew I needed to forgive myself and received wise counsel as such from my wife and a very good friend and mentor. I knew it was sin to continue to feel guilty when the Lord Jesus Christ has forgiven me. It is an act of the will to make the decision to forgive myself. I know from practicing medicine for 21 years that many people are weighed down with a chronic guilt (like I discussed on Oct 16) they cannot shed and it adversely affects every aspect of their life. But thanks be to God that He forgives us and therefore we can forgive ourselves.

After Trey injured his knee, we had an ultrasound done that clearly showed a tear of the posterior horn of the medial meniscus of the left knee. A few nights later, as Trey was going to bed I decided to pray for Trey's healing according to the biblical model found in James Chapter 5. I went into Trey's room, sat on his bed, confessed my sins, laid hands on Trey's knee and prayed for God to heal Trey. In the meantime I had called an orthopedist back home and he suggested we go ahead and get an MRI of the knee to get a better look at the cartilage and to see the internal ligaments in the knee that the ultrasound will not show. The MRI was done 2 weeks after the ultrasound. It showed a small amount of swelling and some bruising of the bone but the cartilage tear was healed and no longer present. In the meantime Trey's knee seems to be healed clinically as well. He no longer has any pain and the click he had frequently complained of has resolved. We give God all the credit and glory for healing Trey. While I know that the cartilage will on occasion heal on its own, I never in my 21 years of practicing medicine had a patient I was aware of have their knee cartilage heal on its own. So in my mind Trey's healing is a miraculous healing. As I had my quiet time this morning I was reading in John ch 14, verses 12-14.

" 'Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father. Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.' "

We should not be surprised when God does the miraculous. Rather, I think, we should expect it.

We love you Jesus and give You, God, and the Holy Spirit all the glory, honor, and praise that we have. Amen

Costa Rican Fall Festival

Theresa Anderson, a fellow missionary with BMDMI, checking out the treat bags the girls received.



Gabriel, who thoroughly enjoyed himself--and especially the candy


The older kids completely designed and worked the carnival themselves for the younger ones.



Our friend Ben, having a great time with the "Which cup is the treasure hidden under?" game




One mom remarked to me in mid September, "Sometimes, do you ever feel like your kids give up so much being here?" She went on to relate that Halloween was such a special time at their house in the States. They live near her parents on family land and the grandparents have everyone around over for a big celebration complete with costumes and hotdogs. After dark, they pile all the grandkids and their friends onto a wagon and have a long hayride through the countryside. She really wanted to do something special for her kids while here.

What we ended up with, I can honestly say, was the best Fall Festival we've ever attended. We adults, of course, all have tests to take, papers and homework and talks to prepare and complete through the week--not much extra time for planning anything. In the days prior to October 31, another friend's teenage daughters got on the internet and looked up festival games and picked out a few. Without help from the adults (except to buy the supplies), the older kids designed the festival.

The afternoon of October 31, an excited group of teenagers transformed our garage into a fall festival complete with candles, apple-bobbing, face painting, bean bag tossing, Go Fish (one of Trey's crutches was transformed into a fishing pole for the evening), and several other games. Of course, no fall festival is complete without mounds of candy, ours included. The younger children were delighted by their candy loot, the older ones were champs at working the games, and the adults were mesmerized by it all.

Recently, . . .

We were blessed to have Pastor Beltane Harrigan, from St. Croix, US Virgin Islands, over for dinner one night during Spiritual Emphasis Week. ILE brings in a guest speaker for one week each trimester (a little over the halfway point) to give students spiritual encouragement and rest. The Lord spoke to Tully and me through Pastor Harrigan's messages and he was a delight to get to know. He and the boys tried to stump each other with riddles and enjoyed sharing jokes. We look forward to keeping in touch with him.




Elijah showing off his new smile, minus one top tooth! It won't be long before the other top one is out, too!




A race at the track that goes around Parque la Paz (I think that's the name!). It has a huge hill that children slide down on pieces of cardboard. Our kids tried it, but got bogged down in the mud--it's too far into the rainy season for that, we decided! : )




From the top of the big hill, looking towards our "neighborhood."




Our sweet big sister, Lynda Gregg, went with us to the Parque, then treated the children to ice cream on the way back home! She has been such a blessing to us in so many ways--she will be graduating in December and moving to Honduras and we are all going to miss her immensely!!






Carmen's dirty feet after stepping in a mud puddle hidden by tall grass! : )



Fresh squeezed orange juice--a treat at the park.


View of the mountains from the big hill at Parque La Paz

Manuel Antonio Salas and Others

It begins with a ring of our buzzer. We greet them as we look out our window near the front gate. They start out asking, in español of course, if we speak any Spanish. We smile and say, "A little." That's the only encouragment they need to launch into a story at lightning speed. Our brains are left in the dust trying to play catch-up, and usually lag behind by at least 3 or 4 sentences if not a paragraph! : )

I would like to introduce you to all of the many visitors we've had at our gate since arriving here in August. Hunger and poverty have individual names and faces, and heartbreaking stories, and unlike in the US, they come up and ring your doorbell. Since I can't introduce each one, I would like for you to meet several in particular.

Manuel Antonio Salas came by one evening a couple of weeks ago. Tully and I went out and talked with him for a few minutes as the children were getting together some food for him. He said he had been a taxista, a taxi driver (which is a good job here), for many years and for the last few months had not been able to work. I asked him his name and he proudly gave us his whole name. "Manuel Antonio Salas." It was a little unusual as most only offer their first names, or first and last. Not Manuel. He gave us his whole name time and again. Like, please don't forget me. I'm important. Tully asked him if he knows Jesus, and he immediately grinned and said, "Sí, yo amo a Jesús." ("Yes, I love Jesus.") He asked if we knew Jesus and when we told him we do, and we love Him also, he stated that he thought so. Forgetting him is an impossibility. His name keeps going through my mind at odd times of the day. I wonder what he's doing right now. Was he warm and dry when it was pouring for several hours yesterday? Where does he sleep? Where did he eat last night? Did Manuel Antonio Salas eat?



Secondly, I'd like to introduce Eduardo. He's a regular. He has some stomach pain and is extremely thin. We give him food and he thanks us profusely. Last week he came by and had a trinket he was selling for the church up the road. He said it was a fundraiser for them, the money was not for him. It is the general consensus here that giving money is a bad idea for obvious reasons--just like at home, money can be used for drugs and/or alcohol. We said we couldn't give him any money, but we could give him some food. He protested a little, but took the food and went on his way.



This man came by yesterday and asked if he could cut our grass. Regretfully, I did not get his name. He said that he did not have any work and his baby needed milk. We agreed on a price and he went to work with his machete. A couple of minutes later, the bottom dropped out of the sky--it was the hardest rain we've had in several days. Gabriel and I were sitting in our living room reading a book together as we listened to the pouring rain. Over the sound of the rain we could hear his machete chopping rhythmically, never pausing, never hurrying. He was wearing glasses, had no umbrella, and he stayed on the job until it was carefully and neatly completed.



Confronted daily with poverty and hunger, we are constantly reminded of the verse, ". . .whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." May we do in all things as if we are doing for Jesus.

Thank Heavens I Learned English as a Child

This was given to us by one of our professors a couple of weeks ago after our class complained about how difficult Spanish is. Our class was sufficiently humbled! : )

Reasons why the English language is so hard to learn:
1. The bandage was wound around the wound.
2. The farm was used to produce produce.
3. The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
4. We must polish the Polish furniture.
5. He could lead if he would get the lead out.
6. The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.
7. Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.
8. A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.
9. When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
10. I did not object to the object.
11. The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
12. There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.
13. They were too close to the door to close it.
14. The buck does funny things when the does are present.
15. A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.
16. To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.
17. The wind was too strong to wind the sail.
18. Upon seeing the tear in the painting, I shed a tear.
19. I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.
20. How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

Let's face it--English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England nor French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat.

We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square, and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea, nor is it a pig. And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth beeth?

One goose, two geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices? Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of it all but one of them, what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital?

Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell? How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which an alarm goes off by going on.

English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race (which of course isn't a race at all). That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.

How about when you want to shut down your computer you have to hit start?

---By Sermon Fodder and Joke a Day Ministries

Guilt

Guilt, guilt, guilt. Did I mention guilt. You know the heavy, oppressive, taking a breath requires effort, guilt. The kind of guilt that weighs you down like wearing a hundred pounds of wet clothes. Guilt in the morning, guilt in the afternoon, guilt in the evening and especially guilt when you lay down to go to sleep at night. ...Black... dark... guilt. The kind of guilt that comes from doing something wrong or as in my case of not doing something right that you should have done. Some of you probably can relate to what I am talking about and some of you fortunately have no idea of what I am talking about.

Guilt is what I have been feeling for the last 3 weeks since my oldest son Trey injured his left knee on a water slide at the Arenal Volcano. You see, I had sensed that the water was too shallow for him to go down that particular water slide. That slide was for smaller or lighter weight kids like my 5 and 8 year old boys. But he went down the slide and everything was OK so I did not say anything. That I should warn him was not at the front of my mind but like a little whisper in the back of my mind and I ignored it. Later, as teenagers are apt to do, Trey did something different and went down on his stomach, feet first. He knifed through the water and landed with his weight on his left knee tearing the medial meniscus (cartilage).

As the man of the family I have a God given responsibility to be the leader and protector of my family. But, ... I did not protect Trey. I did not speak up and because of that he has been limping for three weeks and probably will need surgery over our Christmas break back home in South Carolina. Because of my guilt, living with me has caused Dawn a fair amount of anguish. I know that God has forgiven me because I asked Him to and He is faithful to forgive our sins when we ask Him to. Trey has forgiven me and really he did not hold me responsible but said it really was his fault. The reason I feel guilty is that I have not been able to forgive myself for my lack of action.

I thank God for a godly wife who can set me straight. Dawn reminded me that God is sovereign and nothing will happen outside of His will. That is not to say that God caused Trey's injury but He allowed it. Who knows what other injuries were prevented by this injury. I thank God Trey did not go down the slide head first and break his neck. Trey may also have had a worse injury by going scuba diving this weekend which he now cannot do. We are thankful that none of the kids have been hit by a car and hopefully/prayerfully will not be. We also have been praying as a family for Trey and learning to trust the Lord for Trey's protection. It is a sin for me not to forgive myself but it is still a hard thing for me to do. With Dawn's help I have managed to forgive ME and my guilt is vanishing poco a poco or little by little. It really is just a matter of making a decision to trust God!

To God be the glory!!!

Pura Vida. . .

There is a saying here in Costa Rica, "Pura Vida." It means "pure life." We've been told it's really only said in Costa Rica, it's sort of a national motto. We've heard it everywhere here--from taxi drivers, locals on the street, venders, and some of our teachers say it. It's usually in a harried moment, when you are asking directions, or feel a little stressed about something, or are thanking someone for something, or you're apologizing for something. You see this huge smile light up their faces and then they say, "Pura Vida." Like all is well, no problem, no worries.

This morning, it hit me that this is what I have. My life in Christ is pura vida. Being a wife to Tully and a mom to seven precious children is pura vida. Our life here and this opportunity to study and learn to share with others the good news of Christ is pura vida. The hilariousness that God would call a couple who are all set with their children and life in America to a foreign country for His Name's sake is pura vida. It's good stuff. I love it!

We need to start our walk to school between 7:00 and 7:15 am.

This morning, 6:35 am--I'm showered, dressed, have done the girls' hair, and am helping Luke, Timothy, and Trey review their espanol for a huge test today and tomorrow (today is oral, tomorrow written). They only have two exams in their Spanish classes, these at midterm, and the final in December.

As they are eating breakfast, I'm picking up dirty clothes and taking them to the laundry room, straightening up, answering questions, taking lunches to the stroller--this is a job because the girls tend to want to go and get stuff out if we put them in the stroller one second too soon. Then we have to go around and look for wherever they left it or replace what got eaten.

Dawn: "Okay, Luke, what is "to sing?" Elijah, did you get your blanket and put it in your backpack?"

Trey: "Cantar."

Dawn to Trey: "Are you Luke? I asked Luke. Luke, what is "to go down?"

Elijah: "Yes, ma'am." (from somewhere way off--it occurs to me that I haven't seen him in the last few minutes to make sure he's dressed and has shoes.)

Dawn: "Elijah, have you dressed and brushed your teeth?"

Luke: "Bejar."

Timothy: "No, that's something else, it's subrir."

Dawn to Timothy: "Are you Luke? Subrir is to go up, BAjar is to go down."

Luke: "Okay, ask me another one."

Dawn: "Okay, count by 10s to 60 for me. Did everyone get their water bottles and umbrellas?

Skip to 6:55--

Dawn: "Tully, should I call for a taxi?" (for Trey to get to school with his hurt knee.) Meanwhile, the girls come in, one with shirt and no pants, the other with pants and no shirt, one with shoes, the other without, but they've had breakfast already. Yay!

I called for the taxi--it was pouring rain, so everyone else in San Jose was ALSO calling for a taxi--no answer there. A few minutes later, thank you, Lord, the rain let up, and Tully started off with Trey, Elijah, and Luke, walking towards school to get a taxi. (One of the boys' friend's mom picked them up before they got very far.)

I got the girls completely dressed and loaded into the stroller, with the rain cover on it, and . . .

7:15 a.m. off we went for another day of language school.

Pura Vida!

Dia de Cultura--Oct. 10, 2008

Yesterday was Culture Day at Sojourn Academy, the children's school that is affiliated with our school. Various age groups had special presentations of countries they had studied. It was a lot of fun!

Prayers

When we were at Volcan Arenal weekend before last, Trey hurt his knee in a pool. We learned yesterday that he has a small tear in the cartilage. Please pray for Trey, that his knee will heal on its own without surgery. Please pray for us, as well, specifically for the logistics of getting him to and from school (a ten minute walk) with no car. Fellow missionaries with BMDMI, Lori and Dwyndl Nelms, have had access to a car this past month and have graciously picked Trey up each morning for the last week and driven him to school. We've taken taxis back home most days. Believe me when I say that although Trey has had some pain, he is enjoying milking it--he assured me tonight that pizza would made his knee heal faster. I told him, "Manana." Tomorrow. Friday night is pizza night for our family.

On another note, Courtenay Folk (who is a member of my brother and sister-in-law's church--Mt. Moriah Baptist Church in Powdersville) and I learned yesterday that we are being moved to a higher level group of classes beginning Monday. Please pray for us as we make this transition. I absolutely love my current teachers and our current classes, and feel very sad about leaving them, but am also excited about the new opportunity. After so much time together, our classes have bonded, as I'm sure the classes are that we will be entering. We also leave behind a fellow student who wants to be moved up but is not going to be able to and several others who are moving down, all of which are stressful situations.

Please pray for grace in the transition, and for God's peace for all of us as we continue on in our learning.

Fonetica and Psalm 1

Last week, we were tested on the pronunciation and intonation of our reading of Psalm 1. Believe it or not, it took days to get it even close to sounding like accurate espanol! I scanned a copy of my notes so that you can see what we've been doing. We were also tested on a list of words that are difficult to pronounce (for English speakers). The way they run their words together is very much like English, but the accents in words are almost musical in their rhythm--very unlike English. This is what we learn in fonetica--pronunciation, intonation, the rise and fall of one's voice in asking questions and in making statements, which words are accented--verbs, not titles, not the masculine or feminine identifiers, which syllables get 1 1/2 beats as opposed to 1 beat, how to tell which words get a tilde (the little accent mark). At test-time in this class, we are called in individually with only our professor to demonstrate what we have learned. It's a little unnerving. : )

Anyway, I am so thankful that we are able to study and learn in a Christian institution. Although we speak two different languages, we are united there in our passion for the words of the Bible. And I love Psalm 1. And I made a 99!

Various thoughts and pictures

Dawn wrote about our visit to the church at Los Guido and I wanted to add some pictures that I took.











These pictures are from the fence around the little church. One is outside looking in and the second is inside looking out. Staying behind fences and razor wire is pretty much just a way of life here. You get used to it pretty quickly.





This room is where about 20 kids of all ages had Sunday School.







Pastor Gabriel is originally from Chile and is a missionary to Costa Rica.



One thing that seems strange is the way the streets get quiet after dark. It gets dark at 6pm. The streets are bustling with activity during the day but due to the crime, just 30-45 minutes after dark they are deserted like a ghost town. It is an erie feeling. The other night I had to walk to a grocery store after dark because we had to have some food for the next day. It is really weird to have to ask your 13 year old to walk with you because there is "safety in numbers."


Today in my quiet time I was reading from the Gospel of John ch5. In verse 22 it says "For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son,." It really struck me that Jesus will judge everyone. I would not want to put my trust in other faiths if I knew that one day Jesus will judge me. There is only one Judge and only one Savior--Jesus Christ!!! And only one way to heaven---through Jesus.

Volcan Arenal

An evening glimpse of lava--


Timothy on the zip line




Things we enjoyed last weekend:

Not peering at the world from behind bars and fences for a couple of days

Hot AND hard showers--our widowmakers run either hot and soft, or cold and hard, but mostly vascillate between the two, and never hot and hard at the same time.

The scenery--God's creation in a whole new way. He could have stopped at mountains, but He made volcanoes, too! For His glory!

An alligator farm

Turning on the hot water faucet and having two wonderful things happen: water came out and it was hot!

A butterfly garden

Ziplining through the treetops of a tropical rainforest. There were 12 lines, one 500 meters long! Even got to see a honey beehive up close and personal! WOW!

Seeing the lava flow at night

Grass just a few feet outside our door

Waking to a beautiful view of the volcano in the morning

Geckos and lizards, and even a few lazy sunbathing snakes--our boys were loving it!

Hot pools--fed from springs near the volcano

Awesome slides going into the pools!

Cheeseburgers and fries--Hmmm. . .not like Fuddrucker's, but not too bad after six weeks without them!

Realizing that our standards are evolving here. We shared our restaurant floor with a few ants, and it was okay. Critters are a huge problem here, enough said.

All in all it was a phenomenal weekend, just what we needed!

The Church at Los Guido

A street festival going on as we left the neighborhood


Dwyndl and Lori Nelms and boys--fellow BMDMI missionaries with us. Dwyndl is working closely with Pastor Gabriel to coordinate the baptism of 30 people in the church.


Pastor Gabriel--he and his family have served in missions in Argentina and Chile as well.



Looking out from the front of the store where the church meets


Precious 6 week old baby, with mom (15 years old) looking on.




Elijah and Molly at the store where the church meets. The children meet for a children's church in one room.



There are sights here that are very difficult for me to give an accurate description of in words. One of those is the neighborhood of Los Guido. As you wind your way into the neighborhood, the trash begins to get thicker on the street, more and more grafitti appears on the buildings you pass, the paint appears duller, dirtier, the buildings dilapidated. The people look sadder, more fearful, and dirtier. And then, just beyond the trees and bushes, an enormous hole opens up as you drive along. You catch a peek of the rooftops of shacks and shanties upon more shacks and shanties. The poverty makes a knot form in your throat. People dump trash in the hole, and others, thousands of souls, live at the bottom of that hole amongst the trash, living their day-to-day lives.
A large concentration of Nicaraguans live in Los Guido. They have come to Costa Rica for a better life, and some have found the greatest thing of all: Jesus Christ. The only thing is that, in Costa Rica, generally speaking of course, Nicaraguans are the minority. Some churches have not welcomed these new believers in and discipled them, because of their nationality. It is to this area that Pastor Gabriel and his family have been called. They have started a church in Los Guido, and my family had the immense pleasure of worshipping with them two Sundays ago. Pastor Gabriel is renting space currently for his church in a storefront in Los Guido, but would like to have a permanent location, of course. Currently, around 30 people are awaiting baptism. A fellow missionary with our sending agency has preached at Los Guido and is arranging transportation and lunch for the ones who will be baptized to a pool nearby for the occasion.
An organization had contacted Pastor Gabriel the week before we were there and told him that they would give him 75% of the money and labor to build the church if he and his church could provide the other 25%. Praise God! There is one small problem, however, well, small for God. . .Pastor Gabriel and his church don't have any land nor the money to pay for a permanent location. As a church, we prayed about that with him. His enthusiasm is contagious, and we left with excitement to watch and wait to see what the Lord is going to do!

Still here!

We have had internet problems and took a trip last weekend, and both of us have several tests this week, hence no blogs for these past few days! : ( We have some great pictures to share and will post as soon as we can!

San Jose

I went into San Jose on Saturday morning with 2 other men who are students at the school with me. I saw many interesting sights and took some pictures. We went to an umbrella store where they make their own umbrellas and I bought 2 umbrellas for Dawn and me. The following pictures I took Saturday morning:

Pigeon square in downtown San Jose




fresh fish anyone?


Fish heads for soup?




A street musician playing an Australian wind instrument.





Some kind of feet--I think they are calves feet



More fish!

A local meat market




How about some pollo--chicken?