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?

Nazarenes from SC to Costa Rica--Friends from Home!

Inside of the meeting room/dining hall




Luke and Gabriel




Eddie Estep is the DS for SC with the Nazarene church




Trey and Tee with one of the mission team members




The whole family with a worn out Elijah on my shoulder


Dawn and I went to speak at the First Church of The Nazerene in Greenville, SC on July 13th this year. We had an absolutely wonderful time and experience. They have two different services. Instead of contemporary and tradional like many chuches do, they have an English and Hispanic service. We enjoyed speaking at both services.

We received an email about 3 weeks ago saying that the church was sending a team to San Jose, Costa Rica and the team would like to contact us while they were here. We asked if we could send some shoes for the kids with the team. You cannot get brand name croc's here and the off brand crocs had given the children blisters on their feet. The team was very gracious and said we could send up to 50 pounds worth of luggage. So our family and friends put together a trunk of stuff for us. The mission team called us this week and arranged to send a van to pick us up and take us to the Nazarene seminary in Guadelupe. It is about a 30 minute drive from our house to the seminary.

We had good old fashion American hamburgers and hotdogs to eat. Our older boys thought they were great(dad did too) and would not have wanted anything else to eat. We then had a time of worship with songs, a devotion, and 2 other missionaries gave their testimonies as did Dawn and myself. The other talks were exciting and interesting. The people were very warm and welcoming and friendly. How satisfying it is when brothers and sisters in Christ can come together, fellowship with each other, and worship the King--Jesus Christ! We received our package that included some much needed clothes, shoes, and edible goodies (including peanut butter since a 10 ounce jar is a little over 6 dollars in Costa Rica). The children were very excited to get the things. God in His mercy also held off the rain until about 10 seconds after we were all safe inside back at our house that night.

Many thanks and blessings to the First Church of the Nazarene of Greenville, SC, and to the other team members from Nazarene churches all over South Carolina. It was a night we will fondly remember!

submitted by Tully Stoudemayer

Chapel

We have Chapel on Tuesday and Thursday mornings at the school. Different students sign up to speak or preach. They always bring an encouraging word. They are asked not to debate various points of doctrine differentiating denominations since there are so many denominations represented in the school.

When we sing praise songs, for me, it serves as a great reminder of why we are here. Invariably I am moved to tears each time, sometimes to the point that I can no longer sing. I think part of it is my guilt feelings over not spending as much time in Bible study and prayer as I think I should.

So we were in Chapel yesterday and I was so choked up I once again could not sing. I thought to myself, "I will be glad when I get over this and can sing all the songs like everyone else does." Then I heard a small quiet voice say "No, don't ever get over it". We serve a great and awesome God and I feel so blessed yet unworthy that He has called me to foreign missions.

Posted by Tully Stoudemayer

Ordering Ice Cream and Dowtown San Jose

Trey and Tee with friends



I wish you could have heard this band--the parades were very different. This one was composed of two bands--that's it. They just marched down the street and played their music--it was phenomenal! Their costumes were gorgeous. Parades occurred like that all over. You could see them a couple of blocks ahead and then run and watch for a few minutes. There were a bunch of small parades all over. This band was from Panama.


Anna and Dianne Wilson watching the parade--she and Rick let us borrow their Vonage phone to call home for the first few days before we had internet service




The tent for ambassadors



Carmen had so much fun waving her Costa Rican flag!


Here's Elijah hamming it up. . .




And then the protesters, of course!



The bus trip downtown




The flowers and trees will take your breath away!







Gabriel with his two flags--the red, white, and blue one is Costa Rica's flag and the other is San Jose's.


I never thought that ordering ice cream would make me so happy. . . On the Dia de la Independencia here, we all went into the downtown area--about a 15 minute bus ride. It was quite a day. But I'll never forget the feeling I had when we all sat down to eat our ice cream and I realized that I had ordered everything in Spanish, and we had all gotten exactly what we wanted! : ) Little by little, we're getting it!

Please Pray

We've been told The Spanish Institute is a huge target of Satan's. This week we learned that two out of three of my teachers are suffering from severe health problems. Graziella, in the corner (my seat) in the picture below, has hyperthyroidism and a large growth on her throat. It has caused her tremendous pain in the last few days, headaches, and heart palpitations. Her doctor told her on Friday that she must begin treatment immediately and she went for an ultrasound yesterday. It was almost as if we could watch her wilt from the beginning of school until this past Friday. On the first day of class, Graziella told us very gently that language learning is difficult, and to remember that God is polishing us in this year of difficulty. When she told us last week how much pain she was in she said, "And now I must remember that God is polishing me and my family through this. And He is good all the time!"



Marianela suffers from Wegener's Syndrome. It is very rare and, although we didn't know it, she has been taking chemotherapy and prednisone to help ease the symptoms. Apparently, she just learned that there was a complication from the chemotherapy and that treatment must be stopped and now she and her doctors are trying to decide what her options are.



There have been so many students absent with illness themselves or with sick children. As some of you know, our youngest children have had colds and coughs that are lingering and lingering, and Anna had an ear infection over the weekend. Please pray for my wonderful teachers and for all the students here, that God would be glorified in all that we experience as He polishes us.

Independence Day Celebration at ILE--Costa Rica

The Rayitos children (nursery to kindergarten ages) paraded around campus with their drums and Costa Rican flags. Elijah was so excited!


The adults had a special speaker who gave us a cultural history lesson on the background of Costa Rica's independence from Spain.


We all made paper lanterns for the custom of parading around neighborhoods and school yards the evening before Independence Day.

In The News . . .

This past Monday, Costa Rica's Independence Day, we went to a celebration downtown to see the president of Costa Rica and many dignataries. The differences in our two cultures continue to fascinate me--well all of us, really.

We left our house at 7:30 am with friends, and met up with still more along the way. After riding the bus and walking to the beautiful park where the celebration was to be held, it was probably around 8:30 when we arrived. Perfect timing for us, we thought. The celebration was supposed to start at 9 am . . . we had time enough to find a good place to watch and visit for a little bit while we waited for everything to begin.

An hour and 15 minutes later, el presidente arrived! : ) Then the celebration started. Ambassadors from other countries were there, schoolchildren with uniforms crisp and clean, and many of the ministers from the president's cabinet. It was very exciting. As with political gatherings in the US, there were some protestors--an elderly lady with a pot and wooden spoon, and a man with a shrill whistle--that just added to the excitement!

Anyway, the North American group made the newspaper the next day! Trey had already written on this paper (identifying himself) to send to his youth group in Greer, and that is Timothy sitting in front of him.

Moved to Tears Today. . .

We have several Koreans at the Language Institute this trimester. One sweet couple is in my grammar class. Today, at the beginning of gramatica, John (it sounds like) was asked to pray for the first time in class, and our teacher added, ". . .and please feel free to pray in your heart language." I have no idea what he said, but as I listened to him pray in the beautiful sing-song language of Korea to our mighty God, who understands every word of each language on this planet, I was overcome with emotion at how great God is.

As we struggle to get our minds around just a few words in Spanish, God knows them all and listens attentively and patiently as His children pour out their hearts to him all over this planet.

Later on, in chapel(which is in English-- we have it on Tuesdays and Thursdays), I was in a small prayer group with another Korean man, who also prayed in Korean. Once again, I was in tears as he prayed when I considered how little and insignificant I am and how great God is that He understands every word all over the world. We are blessed to belong to Him, and that He allows us to communicate with Him--each of us in our heart language.

Please pray for John's wife. She is very weak from an earlier surgery (this summer)and missed class yesterday.

Also, please pray for my dear maestra, Graziella (see earlier blog on my professors). She is in pain with a growth on her throat and will see the doctor tomorrow.

Next week. . .we will be taught to pray in espanol!

Funny Things

We've said so far. . .

I greet people with "!Gracias!" instead of "Buenos Dias!" I wish I could say it has only happened once. . .

I get in a cab and tell the driver we need to go to San Francisco de Dos Rios, and he looks at me a little puzzled and says, "Uh, that's where we are."

I was asked in Spanish how my kids were feeling and I replied, "By tomorrow, I hope they'll be better." What I actually said was, "By tomorrow, I hope they'll be woman." mejor. . .mujer Oh well.

Tully takes the cake, however. Yesterday, he was asked in class to introduce himself and he said his name and thought he was saying he had seven children. What he said was that he has seven eyes. : ) siete ojos. . . siete hijos.

Last Friday Night

We are very thankful to our wonderful big sister, Lynda Gregg, for finding the perfect house for our family, and for Dr. Carlos and his lovely wife Maureen for renting it to us. In fact, I would love it if we could pick the house up and move it to Honduras when we go. I'll take some pictures soon and blog about the house some more. It's open and light and airy with room for a crowd.

Anyway, we had some people over last weekend for pizza and games. The pizza tasted pretty much just like American pizza--AND it came from Domino's. : )

Photos of arrival

Our big sister, Lynda Gregg, met us at the airport and took us to our house. Here are two photos she took of us arriving at the airport and our luggage. She said when she saw all the luggage she knew it had to be us.

Posted by Tully

Our first communion in Costa Rica

We have gone to a local Nazerene church that is a short 7 block walk from our house the last two weeks. The service starts with about an hour of singing. They use a screen so we can see the words we are singing. It helps that they repeat the chorus frequently so we can get used to singing the various songs. Today was special as they served communion. It was our first communion in a Spanish church so I know it will be special for us. Praise God for His loving kindness in all things. See some of the pictures I took today.


Posted by Tully

A day in the life of Tully

I thought I would write about what our days are like now. Dawn and I set our alarm for 5am as it starts to get light at about 5:10. We will get up and have some quiet time reading our Bible and praying. We do not always arise at 5am, alot depends on how tired we are. We then go out to exercise at 5:30. We go one block over to parque de los sauces (Park of the Weeping Willows--we think). We then run laps around it for 20 minutes. Dawn, being quite the runner, usually laps me a couple of times as I walk half and run half. We come back to the house by 6am.

The next hour is definitely the hardest and busiest of the day. I call it controlled chaos. Our goal is to leave the house by 7:10am. In one hour we get 5 showers, breakfast for 9, 7 beds made, 6 backpacks for school packed and 8 lunches placed in the stroller or in backpacks(they are made the night before). Dawn comes home for lunch. Then when we leave, I turn the key 2 full times to unlock the inner door to the house, 2 full times to unlock the outer door to the house, and then turn the key in the security gate a quarter turn. Of course when we forget something like our umbrella, we have to repeat the whole locking and unlocking process. Praise God we have not been late yet although we have been just on time most days.

My first class is grammar (gramatica) and it starts at 7:30. It goes for 2 hours. We start it with a prayer each morning. This week we could pray in English. Next week our prayer has to be in Spanish. I do not think I will be praying the opening prayer for a while. After grammar, I go to phonetics for an hour where we learn the correct pronunciation of the letters of the Spanish alphabet and the words. The Spanish language puts its emphasis on the vowels whereas the English language puts its emphasis on the consonants. That class brings us to 10:15. All students then have a 15 minute break. From 10:30 to 11:15 we have Chapel on Tuesday and Thursday. We have many pastors in school and they take turns preaching. So far the two sermons we have heard have been excellent. This is our time to worship God in our heart language because, of course, all the churches are in Spanish. We are attending Spanish church on Sunday morning, but it is difficult to pick out a few words here and there we understand. On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday this period is free for study. I then have a free period from 11:15 to 12:10, and Dawn has class during that time. I each some lunch and try to study although I'm still looking for a good quiet place to study at school. From 12:10 to 1:05 I have my language class, and Dawn is done for the day and heads home to get a quick hour of studying in and lunch.

After I get out of my language class, I go and pick up the girls from the nursery and walk home with them (see my earlier blog on the rainy afternoon). Dawn and I study until time to leave at 2:15 to pick up the boys at 2:30. After the boys get home, we help them with homework and Dawn does most of that. I will often go run some errands such as getting a new ink cartridge for the printer or more commonly go to the grocery store for a few items. Most houses here do not have pantries, so we cannot keep a big supply of food on hand. Praise God I have lost some weight since we have been here from all of the exercise we get. I walk a mile to a fairly nice grocery store. Often I walk that mile to the store just to buy $5-$10 worth of groceries. Overall, I feel so much better since losing a little weight--if I lose much more, I'm going to need some new pants! There is a bakery 7 blocks from us. We went to it the first morning we were here and I remember thinking it was a long walk. Now I think it is a short walk as I have gotten used to walking pretty much everywhere.

Around 5:30 we start getting supper ready and try to eat between 6-6:30. Supper is a good time for us to review our days, talk about school with the boys and remind each other of any upcoming events. After suppper Tully, Trey, Tee, and Luke usually clean the dishes. There is no dishwasher so everything must be washed by hand. I then make lunches for everyone to take to school the next day. In the meantime, Dawn is getting the girls, Gabe and Elijah their showers (no bathtubs here--see Dawn's earlier blog on cleanliness here!). By now it is usually 7:30-8:00. I may play a game of chess with the boys or talk about their homework. We usually go to bed by 9:00 in order to get up at 5am the next morning. Dawn and I have some prayer time before we go to bed each night. We pray for our family, the school, our learning of the language, our ministry partners, and for God's Psalm 91 promise of protection over all of us. Then it's lights out and we usually have no trouble falling asleep because we are tired!

Class

My gramatica teacher--she's the crazy one sitting in the corner (my seat yesterday). Her name is Graciela, and she is very intelligent. More importantly, she loves the Lord and we pray together each day before class begins. For gramatica, we begin at 7:30 and go for two hours. That is my largest class as two sections of students are combined for grammar. She gives us vocab., culture, and history as well--right now, she is speaking some English to us, but she said by the third week, she'll switch to only Spanish. I have a grammar test Wednesday on "la" and "el," which I've already blogged about.




This is Maritza, my wonderful fonetica teacher. On the first day, we went over and over the Spanish vowels--over and over and over again until my mouth muscles got tired! Then she said we must always remember that Spanish is "a language of bowels." As we speak to people, they listen for our bowels, not consonants like in English, but bowels. Then she told us the b and v in Spanish are inter-changeable, it's not important which to use. "But remember, muchachas, in Spanish, people will be listening for your bowels." : )

Maritza is standing on her tiptoes in this picture of us, and I am scooching down. She speaks a little English. She's great. There are only four of us in this class and the next one, which is: lenguaje= language.



This is Marianela, or Nela, my lenguaje professor. She is teeny tiny--and she asked me yesterday how old I thought she was. I guessed 23--it turns out she's 36! She looks very young. She is an excellent teacher as well. She is teaching us conversation--they each are able to tell us the differences in the languages between Spain and Latin America, and also some differences between the Latin American countries. Right now it is all so new to me, it seems like I'll never be able to tell where someone comes from by listening to their Spanish. In Costa Rica, the ll sound ("llamo") sounds like "zhamo" or "jamo." In many other countries, it is pronounced "yamo." Right now I'm delighted if I catch that in conversation at all!

La Feria

I put in some pictures of la feria last week, but here is the "haul" from last week's trip. It's a farmer's market on Saturdays at a local park here and fun for all of us. As our Spanish improves, so will our bargaining skills, I'm sure, but we got all of that for around $10. The bananas are sold by the banana and not by the kilo, and they are around 20 bananas for $1. Not bad, huh! They're more expensive in the grocery store.

The funny fruit (we call it "furry fruit") is grape-like. You peel off the spiky skin and eat the fruit, which is around a large seed. Grapes here are really expensive, so this is our substitute.