Poco a poco

Our Spanish tutor tells us that we learn Spanish little by little or poco a poco. Last week Dawn and I went to dinner with a couple, Kelly and Trisha Lawrence who are going to Honduras with our same agency, Baptist Medical Dental Mission International. It was the first time we had been out to eat on a date in a couple of months. We ordered everything in Spanish with ease such as asking for a glass of water, our entree, and the bill, etc. That truly is not a big deal except I can remember the first time I ordered a glass of water or asked for the bill in Spanish and I was quite pleased at my accomplishment. So we are learning little by little.

Kelly and I have something in common. We both quit our line of work after 21 years to go to the mission field. I ceased my medical practice and Kelly shut down his HVAC business. God called us to do different things than what we had always known and done.

Amos 7:14-15 says: "Then Amos replied to Amaziah, 'I am not a prophet, nor am I the son of a prophet; for I am a herdsman and a grower of sycamore figs.' But the LORD took me from following the flock and the LORD said to me, 'Go prophesy to My people Israel.'"

Learning Spanish

It really does not seem fair at times but we all know that it is easier to learn a langauge the younger you are. Even with our children the younger ones seem to have an advantage. So this morning we were getting ready for school. I called upstairs and the conversation went like this:

Tully: Trey, qué está haciendo? (in English "what are you doing.")
Trey (age 15): What do you mean?
Elijah (age 6): He said, "what are you doing?"

We all learn at our own speeds and all of us are learning to speak Spanish. The girls are starting to speak spanglish. The other day Carmen said, "daddy, I want some aqua (water)." And she asked, "where are my zapatos (shoes)." Poco a poco.

Mi cumpliaños!

Yesterday, I turned 40. WOW--that looks really old now that I've written it out and looked at it. Anyway, when I got into class today, my classmates hurried me away from the room and said I couldn't come in yet. It turns out they gave me a wonderful fiesta. Kyungya, my friend from Seoul, South Korea made spring rolls--she says they are the Korean version of tacos. : ) Darlynne, my friend from New Jersey, made a banana-chocolate chip cake with chocolate icing and little confettis on top! Both were yummy! Tully and I are so thankful to be in a great class this trimester again--and we're together again!

Francisco, our teacher, took the opportunity on my card to demonstrate what he has been teaching us--the subjuntivo mood of español.

It was a great time!

A Big Day for the Girls

The girls rode in the stroller all of our first trimester--from August to December. It was the peak of the rainy season then and the stroller we have here has a wonderful rain cover that fits right over it. (Before living in Costa Rica, I would never have known stroller companies make elaborate rain covers to go on strollers.)

We have lived in a drought for several years and when we first got here, all of our kids were so excited to doodle around in the rain. They loved the rain and being out in it with their umbrellas, for awhile, then as with everything . . . the novelty wore off.

All except for the girls. They just couldn't understand why they couldn't walk home with umbrellas in the rain. Fast forward to January and the beautiful sunny days--we decided they needed their exercise (as they were trying to give up their afternoon naps--YIKES!) so they began to walk to and from school. At first it was hard for them, and now they have adjusted and walk everywhere and love it.

Tully went into downtown San Jose one day recently and bought them two cute umbrellas so that they would be prepared. Today was the first day it was raining as we walked home from school. Hope you enjoy the pictures of our two cute girls experiencing something new and exciting and feeling like big kids now!

The Body of Christ

"Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. . . if the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as He wanted them to be."
1 Corinthians 12:12, 17-18

Tim Meloon, Bob Lee, Joe Aughtry, Louis Waters, and Paul Rogers. My brother, Dee McCraw, took the picture.

Yesterday, this group of men gave up their Saturday to help us. I'm sure they all had things they either could have been doing or would rather have been doing with their Saturday, but they chose to help us out--one of them does not even know us personally.

We had a room full of furniture and boxes stored at our house in SC and needed to have it all moved to a storage facility. It was alot of stuff, and it was raining to boot.

Storing our things at our house has been a blessing for us, because up to now, it has been free. The time has come, however, to move the remainder of our things into storage. We couldn't be there to oversee the move or movers, but this is when our friends stepped in to help.

We are once again humbled and reminded of the fact that God uses us all where we are, whether in life or location, to be a blessing to others in our service to them. We are here learning Spanish in order to be a blessing to others in the name of Christ, and these men were there, behind the scenes, serving us so that we could be here to serve. What a great picture of the body of Christ.

Thank you, Tim, Bob, Joe, Louis, Paul, and Dee. Tim, thank you for coming when you don't even know us! Dee, I'm glad we gave you lots of laughs yesterday about all the stuff we took with us and all the stuff we left behind. Bob, thank you for organizing the entire effort. Joe, Louis, and Paul, we're honored to call you guys "friends." You all are a great testimony in our walks with Christ of quiet service behind the scenes.

Steaks on us in November! : )


All of the cars and trucks lined up outside of our house.

Carmen's Blessing

The children have gotten out of school at 12 pm both yesterday and today, so we've all been together for lunch. Tully asked who would like to ask the blessing today before we ate lunch, and Carmen almost bounced out of her seat with excitement saying, "I will, I will!" I added, "Okay, en español, por favor." Now I was completely expecting her to take off in English which would have been fine, but her prayer went just like this:

Her eyes were squinched tight in reverance and concentration:

Carmen: "Gracias Señor por este día. Y gracias por mi papá. (now she was looking around the table) Gracias por Trey, y Lucas, y Timoteo, y Gabriel y Elías, y por mi mamá. Y por Ana. Y . . .y . . .y . . .

Tully: "Y gracias por mi mamá."

Carmen: Carmen looks up from her beautiful prayer and says, "I already said 'gracias por mi mamá, Daddy.'"

Three other voices chimed in: "Yes, she did, Dad."

Tully:"Oh, okay, great, Carmen!"

Carmen, continuing on with eyes closed tight, "Um. . . en el nombre de Jesús, Amén." Then she looked up at all of us quite pleased with herself! I added, "y gracias por esta comida."

Thank you God for this day. And thank you for my daddy. Thank you for Trey, Luke, Timothy, and Gabriel and Elijah, and for my mommy. And for Anna. And . . .and . . . and. . .um. . .in Jesus' name, Amen.

Hellos . . .

Along with the goodbyes, which I last blogged about, have been some great and very happy hellos. We have made friends with people here who come from Maine, Missouri, Georgia, New Hampshire, Alabama, Florida, Massachusetts, New Jersey, California, Texas, Pennsylvania, and Seoul, Korea, just to name a few. Our backgrounds are as diverse as the states and countries we come from, and you can hear that diversity as soon as we open our mouths and speak!

Back in September, we got to say "hello" to a group from First Church of the Nazarene, Greenville, SC, who came to Costa Rica on a mission trip. Our first visitors from home! It was very special--just to be connected for an evening with people who know us, know our city, etc. And they came bearing gifts from our family and friends--much needed shorts for Gabriel (whose shorts from last summer somehow disappeared between Greer and Costa Rica), candy for the kids, chocolate chips, etc.

In early November, we said "hello" to a group from Mt. Moriah Baptist Church, Powdersville, SC who also came to Costa Rica on a mission trip. It was also a very special time as they all go to church with my brother and sister-in-law, niece, and nephew. I remember wanting to sit and talk with them for hours. I wanted to know what the weather was like at home, and they talked with us about the colors of the leaves and one lady shared with me pictures on her cellphone of her driveway covered in red and gold leaves. When it came time to part, I wanted to hug them all tight, and give them extra hugs to take back to my brother and his family!

At Christmas, when we arrived back in SC, what a great welcome from family and friends we received! We were able to see many people during our brief visit, and we were very thankful for all of those "hellos" we got to say.

Each trimester, we say "hello" to a whole new group of incoming students. We are looking forward to meeting them all this week when we resume classes. There are two new couples here with BMDMI. Tully and I went to school Thursday, during their new student orientation, and introduced ourselves. We were all able to get together that night for dinner and a time of fellowship and getting to know each other. We're excited to be here with all of them this trimester and look forward to getting to know them all better!



BMDMI Missionaries in language school: Jessie and Timothy Crabtree, us, Sheila and Paul Hosier, and Trisha and Kelly Lawrence