A Large Part of What Seven Months

of Spanish language school looks like:


Multiply that sheet times five hundred which is an estimate of how many verbs we know. Now we have learned fourteen ways to use them in conversation. Here is where the rubber meets the road--putting the conjugations all together and making sense while talking with someone. Right now it feels like a huge mix of verbs and conjugations is floating around in my head, but I know that with practice, it will become clearer. Actually, it already has in some ways!

Last week, we began the subjunctive mood in grammar. It is how people express their will, suggestions, and ideas, among other things. Very important for people whose desire is to share the gospel with others! There are fifteen rules to the subjunctive, and my class will probably only cover three or four before the end of this trimester.

Gracias a Dios for this work! Now, off to study and practice!


 

Love

I have written twice on love. I wanted to add to my thoughts on some of what God has been showing me. The importance of love is stated over and over in the Bible. For example when Paul wrote to the Philippians, in ch1 vs9 he stated "I pray that your love will grow more and more." He did not pray for their faith, hope, physical health, giving, etc. All of those are, of course, important but what he chose to pray for was their love.

So how do we know if we are loving? We can get a love "check up" by studying First Corinthians ch 13 vs 4-8a. Verse four says "Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant." (NASB) This verse is pretty straight forward. I need to be patient in all areas of my life such as being more patient with my children and more patient with Spanish learning. I need to be kind to everyone, even when a beggar comes by for the fourth time this week and it is a really inconvenient time for me but I must remember that hunger is always inconvenient for him/her. I should not be jealous of others or brag to others or feel superior to others. In fact I am to treat others as more important than myself(Philippians 2:3). How often do I truly treat others as more important than myself, especially if it is someone I have conflict with? Not enough is the correct answer.

Verse 5 reads "(Love) does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered." Most versions of the Bible substitute the word "rude" for unbecomingly probably because it is more familiar and easier to wrap your mind around. "Unbecomingly" is far broader. I cannot remember saying that someone acted unbecomingly in all my life. I believe it means I should do nothing that is unattractive in any way, especially to the cause of Christ. I can be "unbecoming" without being rude.

The phrase "it does not seek its own" means I should not be selfish or envious of what others have. The next phrase "is not provoked" means I must not be easily angered or irritated. Again an area of my life that needs work. The final phrase in this verse "does not take not account a wrong suffered" was a major issue early in my life. I could tell Dawn that she had committed an offense 3 years, five months, and 10 days ago, but who is counting? Thanks be to God I am married to an extremely forgiving woman who has taught me not to remember past wrongs but to forgive and not bring up stuff from the past. I have not perfected this concept but I am much better than when I married Dawn.

These verses are a good start for a "love checkup". I will finish verses 6-8 next time.

Breakfast at the Feria

Saturday mornings, there is a small farmer's market, called a "feria," about a mile from our house. I usually go early, around 6:30-7:00 am, to get the best selection. We can buy fruits and vegetables cheaper than in the grocery store. Lettuce, yucca, pineapples, peppers, carrots, bananas, plantains, potatoes, onions, garlic, cilantro, etc. are available. At times, there is a lady selling bread and other vendors who sell juices and homemade baked goods. We've bought honey there before in a secondhand bottle, but we haven't seen that vendor lately.

There is a small outdoor restaurant also. When we first arrived in Costa Rica, I would not have dreamed of eating there. Once we all got settled in to life here, a couple of classmates starting having breakfast there, so I decided to join them. Timothy went with me the second time. We had a great time just visiting and enjoying the beautiful Costa Rican weather. You can get a huge pile of gallo pinto ("rice and beans"), two eggs, and sausage for about $2.50. Believe it or not, rice and beans are great for breakfast. My friends are David Miller of Lancaster, Pennsylvania on the left who is going to Chile, and Jacob Folk on the right from Powdersville, SC who is staying in Costa Rica after language school. We tend to think of people here not in terms of where they're from, but where they're going after language school to serve the Lord. In the foreground, there is a typical layout of carrots, potatos, and onions. Timothy is sitting next to Jacob.

A Wonderful Weekend

Last weekend, we had a great visit with Margaret and Dwight Carr, the president of BMDMI.  This was their first visit to Costa Rica and it was a special time for Tully and me, and for all the missionaries here with BMDMI.  There are currently nine of us with BMDMI in language school, the most at one time in the history of the mission.  We were all encouraged by Margaret and Dwight--in our time with them, we laughed a lot, played games, and ate some great food.  On Monday, before their flight left to return to Honduras, we took them for a quick tour of the school and they got to meet some of the teachers and staff of the school. It was a great time of fellowship!

Tomato Soup

It is said that necessity is the mother of all inventions. For the last 2 years or so before we came to Costa Rica, we had a tradition of eating tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches for Sunday night dinners. In Costa Rica we have had a hard time finding tomato soup. There is only one store that carries it and it is very expensive. We have been able to buy Hunts tomato paste at Pricemart which is owned by Sam's Club and carries some familiar brands. The tomato paste is not cheap but it is reasonably priced. I began to think that surely I could make some tomato soup from the tomato paste. I researched allrecipes.com and kind of made up my own recipe after experimenting a time or two. The amounts are large but remember we are cooking for 9 people. So for good tomato soup that sure beats what is in the can, try this:

Ingredients:

3 six ounce cans of tomato paste
1 tsp of dried onion flakes
1 tsp of paprika
1/2 tsp of garlic powder
1 tsp of basil
1 Tbsp of Lawry's seasoning salt
1 Tbsp of regular salt
36 ounces of water
35-50 ounces of milk

Directions:

1. Mix 1 can tomato paste with one can(tomato paste can) of water. Whisk until smooth. I usually put it in a pan on medium heat which makes it smooth easier. Once it is smooth add another can of water and whisk until smooth. This process will make the paste the consistency of tomato sauce. Put aside.
2. Repeat step one for cans 2 and 3 of the tomato paste. It is much easier to get the paste to mix with water if you make one can at a time and then add cans two and three to can one as they are made.
3. Add onion flakes, paprika, garlic, basil, Lawry's Seasoning Salt, table salt to the mixture and stir. Heat on low or put in a crock pot for one to two hours.
4. Ten to fifteen minutes before you are ready to eat, add the milk and stir. For thicker soup add 35 or so ounces of milk. For more volume add up to 50 ounces of milk. Heat to your desired temperature. For extra creamy soup substitute evaporated milk for regular milk. (We added evaporate milk this past Sunday and it was really good).
5. We like to serve the soup with grilled cheese sandwiches and Cheezit crackers. It surely beats what comes in a can and is very quick and easy to make.

Enjoy!!

Introducing Talí y Alba

When we first got here, we quicly realized how difficult our names are to pronounce in Spanish.  Our teachers try very hard to get our names right, but they are just like we are in Spanish, sometimes their mouths can't make the words in English without much effort. And not just the teachers, but we had this problem everywhere we went. Many of the locals think my English name is "Don," which is "Mister" in English. They wondered why I was called "Mister." : )

And Tully. The "u" sound that we say for his name does not exist in Spanish. They would say "Too-ly." The slash over Tully's name is called a "tilde." It is very important as it tells where to put the accent.

So, allow me to introduce our Spanish selves: Alba and Talí. These names work great. One of my maestras gave me the name Alba, because it is the translation for "dawn" in Spanish. Now even some of my English speaking friends call me that. And Talí sounds very close to Tully in rapid Spanish. Our tutor gave him the name and said it's a very old Spanish name.

So it's easy to introduce ourselves now.

Muchos Birthdays!

Within the months of February and March, our family has five birthdays and one anniversary! We celebrated with parties and friends and cake! Hope you enjoy the pictures--we will celebrate Elijah's birthday (6 years old!) this weekend (March 29).



Luke and his buddies



Luke's Birthday Party



Trey's Birthday Party


Elijah carefully putting candles on Tully's birthday cake


Elijah colored a beautiful picture for Tully and Gabriel gave Tully a craft he had made in his art class.

Love and Joy

In my last blog entry I talked about the truth that God is not only loving and lovely but God is pure, simple, complete love (1 John 4:8 & 16). The Bible teaches alot about love. In fact the New Testament teaches a new commandment: John 13:34 "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. Verse 35 adds, "By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." The truth is I have found this "new" commandment difficult to follow at times. Quite frankly I have felt some people appeared to be unlovable. I am sure some people have felt the same about me. I know that I have highly offended one Costa Rican man whose son had a conflict with one of my sons. I did not mean to offend him but offend him I did. I thought, "Is there any reason to love everyone other than that the Bible commands it?" Of course if the Bible commands it, that really is the only reason we need. But I thought from a purely selfish point of view is there a reason we should love everyone? I think the answer is yes. John 15:10-12 says "If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full. This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you."

So the Bible promises we will have full joy if we obey God's commandments and love other people even when we do not want to or feel like it. If you do not want to love people just because the Bible says to, then love them for purely selfish reasons so you too can have full joy. I can tell you that I want, I mean I really, really want, to have full joy in my life. Who doesn't? So I have resolved to put alot more effort into loving everyone, even those that I may think are unloveable(unlikeable). Maybe those people will start to love me in return. So I hope and pray that the next time you see me you will think I have more joy in my life.

These thoughts beg the question, "How do we know if we truly love people?"--Next time:-)

God Bless and God grant us the desire to love all people more.
Amen

Written by Tully

Love

I wanted to write some about what God has been showing me in my quiet time. It began as I was studying participles in my grammer class. Dawn mentioned participles in her previous post. Participles are the passive voice in verbs. For example, "The food was eaten by my children." The verb "eaten" is the participle. Participles in English end in -en or -ed. The sentence structure is reverse of normal, hence the term "passive." Normally we would say "the children ate the food." In Spanish, participles are very important. They can function as nouns, verbs, and adjectives. I began thinking about how that applies to the word "love." In addition during our Bible study time with the kids we have been talking about love.

The word "love" can occur as a noun such as "Dawn's love is special." And that statement is true. We hear the word "love" used in this way often. More commonly the word "love" is a verb, such as "I love you." I have tried to tell Dawn this casi todos los días (almost everyday) since we have been married (another participle). The word love can function as an adjective such as "Dawn is a lovely person." The word lovely modifies the noun person and therefore is an adjective. We hear the word used in this way many times for people or for things such as "that was a lovely dessert." Finally, love can be an adverb such as "Dawn acts lovingly towards her family." The word "love" modifies the verb acts, therefore it is an adverb. These are all examples that we are familiar with. Some of these examples are obviously used more than others. But one use of the word I have never heard used in 51 yaers is for someone to say of another person "He/she is love." A very simple sentence but we never hear someone say it about someone else. We usually hear that someone is lovely or loving--both adjectives.

So, what is the point of all this grammer review? The phrase "God is love" does occur in the Bible and it has had a large impact on me. First John ch 4 vs 8 and 16say "...for God is love," and "...God is love..." I have always been taught that if the Bible says something 2 or 3 times we should pay particular attention to it. It struck me that the Bible does not only use "love" as an adjective such as God is loving, though He is, or God is lovely, though He is that also. With God, love is a noun: God is love; pure, simple, and complete. Más luego (more later on).

Thinking in Spanish . . .

First, the past tenses are the cause of much frustration among Spanish students. We have memorized the fine points of when to use which one, but have been told that it is really just a matter of speaking and listening to hone our usage of the two past tenses. With ongoing actions, descriptions, and narrations, you use the imperfecto tense, and with actions completed in the past, you use the preterito tense. Within those two tenses, there are some verbs you use that, when used with one or the other of those past tenses, their meanings are completely changed.

My tutor, who absolutely LOVES his language and teaching it, tells me the past tenses in Spanish are beautiful and he likes them very much. He laughs and adds that they help feed his family, because many students come to him for more explanation or practice with them. I will admit that upon first learning them, I only considered them quite ugly because they tricked me every time. What I thought was an action completed was instead a description, or vice versa. Now I think they are a little bit attractive. One day, I know they will be beautiful to me, too! : )

More differences:

If you have lost your keys and wonder where they are, you would say, "I wonder where my keys will be." The future tense is used.

If you wonder if someone lied to you or did some other action in the past tense, in Spanish you would use the conditional tense: "I wonder if he would lie to me."

It is tempting to think that a word in Spanish which sounds like a word in English means the same thing. There are many in which that is exactly the case. However, we have to be careful of the ones that are different in the two languages. For example, the verb desepcionar doesn't mean to deceive, as we English speakers would think, but to disappoint or let down. Embarazada doesn't mean embarrassed at all, but pregnant.

We are finishing up a unit on participles, which are very important in Spanish, and in English are verbs ending in -ed or -en. However, there is a group of participles that is "regular" and a group that is irregular, and some of the participles in the irregular group have two participles, one regular and one irregular. Some of those "irregulares" have two very different meanings. As with many subjects that we study in learning the language, our teachers smile at us and say, "I'm sorry, you just have to memorize these." And then, my grammar teacher, who has a great sense of humor, chuckles to herself and adds, "Pobrecitos," which translates, "Poor things."

Oh well, off to study. . .

More Language Learning Funnies. . .

In class, we were learning how to use the conditional tense and our assignment was to describe our perfect world. What my classmate meant to say was that in her perfect world, there would be no little children without parents. What she said was that in her perfect world, there would be no cucumbers without parents.

My tutor asked me where my friend was as she hadn't met with him at her scheduled time this week. What I meant to say was that she was probably just really excited because she had two new grandchildren born Monday or Tuesday, twins! What I said was that she was probably just really excited because she had two new grandparents born Monday or Tuesday, twins! He smiled patiently and said, "WOW! Can you say that again now?" Which is my cue that I had really messed something up. Then I figured it out and we had a big laugh. : )

An Exciting Day

Yesterday, we experienced our first two earthquakes. I was in class, where we were all discussing participles--it was a little loud. My chair began to shake a little, as if someone had their feet on the bottom part and was bouncing their legs. Then it began to shake a little harder, and a little harder . . . I turned around to ask my classmate behind me what she was doing and at the same moment I realized her feet were not touching my desk, a man in our class calmly said, "That's an earthquake." We all went outside to wait it out, and it was over in a few moments. The students were much more excited and animated than the teachers, of course. The teachers are always tranquilos! Not knowing how strong it was nor where it originated, our hearts went out to those closer to the epicenter than we were.

Later in the afternoon, I was talking to a friend on the telephone and saw a book near me begin to shake a little. Then I felt the shake as well and heard my friend's husband (through the telephone) say, "That's an earthquake!" At that point we just thought it was an aftershock of the first one. It was actually another earthquake, and stronger than the first. It was a reminder for all of us how quickly life can change.

Lastly, a group of NFL football players came to the children's school and shared their testimonies with the kids during their chapel hour yesterday. They said they enjoy doing that in the offseason. What an impression it made on the kids, especially the ones who love sports. Our boys were able to get autographs and talk with the players. The kids couldn't believe how huge the players were, and how friendly, and enjoyed being able to talk to them. We are grateful for these men who love Jesus and spent an afternoon encouraging a group of missionary kids. It was a day the children will never forget.

Our Security

I talked to my aunt yesterday, and before we hung up, she asked me if we were safe. She said she worries about that sometimes. Honestly, security is always a concern here.

I remembered then what one of my professors told our class last semester about what it was like to grow up in San Jose, Costa Rica. She is my age and grew up riding her bike in the street, walking to the corner store by herself, all the normal things kids do. It was safe to walk around at night and the neighbors visited back and forth. She didn't remember when it changed. When she and her husband built their first house, she remembered looking at all the bars on the windows and the heavy gate outside and thinking, "This is great. We are so safe." That's when she realized that if there were a fire at the front of the house, they would die.





This is the door going into our house. There are no exterior door knobs, and all the bolts can make two complete revolutions to drive the bolt further into the wall.



Same door, going out of the house




We do not live in fear, but we definitely live with a heightened sense of awareness, of surroundings, of people, of strange cars, or cars or motorcycles speeding, of anything out of the ordinary. It is prudent to live that way, as it would be in any big city in the world.

Before we left last summer, one of Tully's former patients gave us some books written about Psalm 91, God's promise to us of His protection. When we received them, we did not realize how important that chapter of Scripture would become to us on the mission field. We have claimed it numerous times about many situations and have prayed it for our family and over our kids, even as they slept at night. More than any lock or gate could ever be, God is our security.

Psalm 91

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.

Surely he will save you from the fowler's snare
and from the deadly pestilence.
He will cover you with his feathers,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.
You will not fear the terror of night,
nor the arrow that flies by day,
nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness,
nor the plague that destroys at midday.
A thousand may fall at your side,
ten thousand at your right hand,
but it will not come near you.
You will only observe with your eyes
and see the punishment of the wicked.

If you make the Most High your dwelling--
even the LORD, who is my refuge--
then no harm will befall you,
no disaster will come near your tent.
For he will command his angels
concerning you
to guard you in all your ways;
they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your
foot against a stone.
You will tread upon the lion and the cobra;
you will trample the great lion and the serpent.

"Because he loves me," says the LORD, "I will rescue him;
I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.
He will call upon me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble,
I will deliver him and honor him.
With long life will I satisfy him
and show him my salvation."

I do know that there are many Christians who are the victims of crimes and other bad things. These verses, in fact, assure us that there will be times of trouble. There is also a flip side, however, in that we really have no idea how many times throughout our days and nights God saves us and/or protects us from something or someone. I praise Him for His tender care and protection and want to be no place else but under His wings and covered by His feathers, finding refuge.

It's the Little Things in Life . . .

I ordered pizza last night and, upon hanging up the phone with the pizza place, got downright giddy! He understood me, I understood him, and forty minutes later, there they were at the gate with exactly what we wanted! I don't think the delivery guy understood why I was so excited. But that's okay! What a feeling of accomplishment! : ) (Phone conversations are difficult).