December 2, 2010

Dear friends, family, and supporters, It is truly with mixed feelings that Dawn and I announce that we are resigning our position with Baptist Medical and Dental Mission International at the end of this month. The Lord has made it clear to us that He is calling us back to the United States. We have mixed feelings because we will greatly miss the ministries in Guaimaca, Honduras. We will miss the Honduran people, the teams, the mountains, the cows and burros in the roads, the mission employees, the drives in the mountains, the dirt roads, and our fellow BMDMI missionaries. However, we believe we have accomplished God's purpose for us there which was to oversee the successful merger of World Baptist Missions into BMDMI. The various ministries in Guaimaca have an exciting future ahead for them. We hope and pray the Lord will continue to bless these ministries.

At the same time, Dawn and I are also excited about what the future holds for our family. Tully will resume the practice of medicine and will be applying to seminary, most likely at Gordon Conwell in Charlotte, NC. Dawn will begin to complete some undergraduate requirements before starting nursing school next year.

The last two years have been two of the most rewarding years of our lives. We have seen God at work in our lives and in our ministries. God has provided for us physically, financially, spiritually, and has greatly increased our faith in Him. There are many memories that we will cherish for the rest of our lives. The last two years will also have a profoundly positive impact on our children's lives. What a rich experience our whole family has enjoyed on this big adventure in which the Lord has led us.

Finally, we are greatly indebted to everyone who has supported us with their prayers, notes, gifts, friendship, and finances. You all have been partners in this ministry with us because without you we obviously could not have done any of it. Most importantly, we want to thank God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They have been our constant companion, friend, Lord, and source of strength and inspiration.

Please feel free to e-mail us if you have any questions: dawn@followinghislead.com and tully@followinghislead.com.

God Bless,

Tully and Dawn

Best Cup of Coffee Part 3

I just wanted to put in my two cents worth. What a great day to go to the mountains looking for places to bring teams. We encountered a family that Dawn describes in the last blog. They were extremely poor. Their clothes were torn and dirty. Their houses made out of decaying adobe mud. Yet they were full of smiles and appeared to be very happy. However there was one sister who was not happy. The brothers asked me repeatedly about their sister who is suffering with depression. It was obvious they love her very much.

One of the brothers brought me his 3 year old son to check who has had a fever and diarrhea for 8 days. (In the future I will always take my stethoscope and otoscope.) Then they wanted me to check another son who was sick with the same illness--probably due to bad water. I promised to return in two days with antibiotics for the two sick children and worm pills for all the children.

So they offered us a cup of coffee and I knew it would be an insult to refuse it. Many of you know that because of ventricular tackycardia I had a cardiac ablation in May of '08 and caffiene is forbidden. I just prayed that the LORD would protect my heart and then proceeded to enjoy the best cup of coffee I have ever had. Let me tell you that until you have had a cup of coffee where the beans are grown, picked, roasted, ground, and brewed at the same little farm that you really have not had a great cup of coffee. You may think you have but you have not.

Out of their poverty they went and cut us two stalks of bananas. Each stalk probably has about 100 bananas. I felt guilty taking them but again to refuse would insult this generous family. Well the Lord is good and I did not have any palpitations after drinking the coffee. Below are some pictures of their beautiful mountain.


The beautiful mountainside!!!



Dawn and me with our Honduran chuch deacon and guide--Rigo. Four different brothers tried to take this picture before one was able. Apparently they have never used a camara before!



Dawn on the mountainside.



Six brothers working in a tomatoe field.

Brigade in Guaimaca

A worship service under the brigade tent in Miraflores, a neighborhood in Guaimaca


Schoolchildren excited and waiting for the upcoming program put on by BMDMI team members


The Bible story the team shared with the children was on the creation--followed up by a short time for them to color a picture of something beautiful in God's creaton. I love this little girl's butterfly!


We were so happy to have a BMDMI evangelism team come here to the hospital (from Kentucky and Tennessee), along with one of BMDMI's Honduran bands who travel with the teams (and are fantastic!), and the big tent! During the evenings, we hosted the tent brigade in a neighborhood across from the hospital (near the extremely poor school that the boys are helping). During the days, we traveled around to the schools around Guiamaca and presented Bible stories, played with the kids, and sang songs. Our church members will follow up with people who made professions of faith and/or don't have a church home. It was a great week, and we are so excited about the seeds that have been planted here!

Beggar

So we were driving in the capitol, Teguscigalpa, last week and stopped at a redlight. I saw a lady out of the corner of my eye. I tried to not look at her or make eye contact but she kept coming towards us anyway. I knew she was coming to beg as happens so many times in a third world country. When we first moved to Costa Rica, beggars were definitely the greatest source of culture shock for our children. Maybe me too. They made me feel angry, guilty, and scared all at once. I definitely had alot of culture shock and lost alot of weight because of it. (Sometimes I jokingly think, "I wish I could get a little more culture shock now in order to lose weight.")

This lady walked up to the car, turned her free hand backwards and rapped on my driver's side window. I was reminded of the passage in Matt. 25 where Jesus talked of separating the sheep from the goats by sharing a glass of water, clothes, or food. So I reached into my pocket and pulled out a small bill, lowered my window and handed it to her. We then watched as she went to a group of motorcycles, and some other cars. No one else gave her any money this time.

This beggar was a little different from the many others we have encountered in that she was carrying a small child probably between 1 and 2 years of age. His head rested on her shoulder and he was sound asleep. It was sunny and very hot. She had him covered with a towel to keep the sun off of him but I am sure it made him hotter. Because of her poverty she was standing and walking and begging in an area of heavy traffic often moving fast. Very dangerous indeed.

Well, the light turned green and we all could leave and escape the sadness of the image of her and her little boy. You may wonder if I felt good that I had tried to help her. But as I drove away all I could think is I should have given more. I asked myself over and over, "Lord, why didn't I give more?"



Walking to the next car.







Going to the motorcycles.

Travel to Honduras

One A.M.--So I am sitting in the airport in Fort Lauderdale. Otra vez (once again) our flight has been delayed. It was delayed last October when we came home stretching the two day trip into three long days. Our first flight tonight in Atlanta was delayed and now our flight from Fort Lauderdale to San Pedro Sula has been delayed for two and a half hours. As I write, it is now 1 a.m. The kids are sprawled all over the floor and seats in the waiting area trying to get a little sleep.

What motivates me to write is how resilient kids can be. Here we are taking them on a trip across 4 countries, it is late at night, we are all sleep deprived and exhausted and not one peep of complaints from the children.

Five A.M.--We finally make it to our hotel and the clerk checks us in and says with a shrug of his shoulder: "we serve breakfast in one hour." We did not care, we just needed 3-4 hours of sleep in a bed which we were able to achieve. Again no complaints from the kids!!!

We get up about 8:30-8:45 and make it to the breakfast the hotel serves. We all feel alot better with full stomachs and load up the bus for a 6 hour trip to our mission house. We all dose off and on during the trip. The arrival at the mission house to pick up our van is 6 hours later as predicted. A two and a half hour trip to our house in Guaimaca begins. Later we thank and praise God for our safe trip back home in Guaimaca and still no complaining from the kids.

I worry about how the kids will feel about Honduras after three months of luxury and extravagance in the United States. Will they hate it or now complain for having to leave family and friends. But the next morning Luke jumped on our overstuffed couch and declared, "I had forgotten how comfortable this couch is. I really missed it." And otra vez I pray to God and thank him for his provision of a happy spirit in our children.




Here we are at 1 a.m. Can you spot all seven children??





Dawn and Elijah are exhausted and sleeping together.




Gabriel hopefully having sweet dreams.

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.

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

Learning the Culture and Seeing the Zoo

Luke with his "cool" sunglasses



Gabe giving Carmen a lift




Trey enjoying the day




Anna looking pretty




Elijah taking a picture of me




Timothy posing as usual


Little children as everyone knows can learn a foreign language much quicker than someone with my maturity (age). They sometimes learn the culture quicker too. In Costa Rica, men will stand in the road and sell baggies of water to passing motorists. A couple of times we have had people come to the door who only wanted something to drink. So I fill a sandwich bag with water to give to them. They will bite a tiny hole in the corner and suck (drink) the water. This past Saturday we went to the zoo in San Jose. I took a backpack with water bottles for everyone. It was a hot day and everyone wanted their water bottles. I noticed Eli kept putting the bottom of his bottle up to his mouth. Then I realized what he was doing. He had bitten a tiny hole in the bottom of the bottle and was drinking through it like the Ticos drink from the corner of a bag of water. Then like the six year old he is, Eli started squirting everyone through the hole in the bottom of the bottle so I had to trash the bottle.



Eli drinking from the bottom of his bottle.

You Know It's a Bad Day in Spanish When . . .

you say something and your tutor doubles over laughing as he reaches for his planner to write it down so he can tell his friends later.

What I meant to say was, "When I was pregnant with my fourth son. . ."

What I said was, "When I was pregnant with my criminal son . . ."

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.

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.

Home Sweet Home?

Costa Rican Kitchen


Master Bedroom




Our sweet friend and fellow missionary with BMDMI, Lynda Gregg, is in Costa Rica now at The Language Institute. This house in CR is one the language institute is considering for our family. Although Lynda is very busy with studies of her own, she walked down to the house yesterday and took a bunch of pictures for us to see what it looks like! Thank you, Lynda! : )

This house is only a block away from a park for the children, has more space than most Costa Rican houses, and is about a 10 minute walk from the school. No hot water in the house, which is pretty typical of Costa Rica--although there are widow makers in the showers. Widow makers heat the water really fast where the water comes into the shower. Lovely name, widow maker, huh!