Our new home & the surrounding area

Here is our house in Costa Rica!  Don't you love the blue and white colors!  We enter through 2 gates before entering our front door.  And each lock has a different key.

This is our street looking from the park just north of our house (Parque el Bosque).  If you look closely in the picture below, you can see our house in the distance on the left of the street.

 

 Here are a few pictures of Parque el Bosque (Forest Park).  It is a very beautiful park.  In the second picture you can hopefully see the mountains in the background.

 Here is a map of the area.  It shows how far we walk to school each day.

In the back of our house, we have a small open area where our clothes lines are located.

On our way here from the airport, we stopped and bought some food.  We found out quickly that cereal is very expensive here.  But, it was worth it to have some Cheerios.  David couldn't wait to try out our toaster.

Then, we needed to do some shopping.  We found their version of Sam's Club, which is called Price Smart.

We also found Walmart!  We had to ride the bus to get there, but we found it.  But, it is very expensive here compared to some other stores.  So, we only try and go there when they have something we cannot find anywhere else.

 

From several places in the city, you can see the mountains in the background.  We learned that the San Jose area is surrounded by mountains.

 We also found where the nearest McDonald's is located!  David is very happy about that.  It is pretty far away, so we will only eat there on special occasions.  His Happy Meal comes with pineapples instead of apples.  But, we were happy that we were able to get our order correct (with lots of pointing at the menu, of course).

On Saturday mornings, there is a farmer's market (called "feria") about a 15 minute walk away.  We found lots of fresh fruits and vegetables. 

There is a free Zumba class next to the market.  The people are really into it.  Just in case you are wondering, we have not tried to get out there yet.  Maybe later we could try to keep up with them.

Walking on the sidewalks here is an adventure in itself.  You never know when the sidewalk will suddenly change height, a hole will be there, or other "landmines" such as dog poop or garbage will be in the way.  Also, here in Costa Rica, the cars have the right-of-way over the pedestrians.  So, even crossing the road is an adventure.

We hope you are enjoying these updates.  Thanks for your continued prayers and support.  We could not be where we are today without your many prayers.  We pray for you also.  Please contact us if you have any specific prayer requests that we can pray for.  God Bless!

More pictures from school

Here are some more pictures from our school!  We have to walk about 10-15 minutes from our house to get there.

 

Here is a picture of Eli and David swinging on the swings with one of their new friends. 

This is  David's desk at school in his class.

 Some of the teachers performed a traditional Costa Rican dance for all of the new students. 

New Years Eve in Costa Rica

One of the first things we experienced when arriving here in Costa Rica was the way New Years Eve is celebrated.  One way to some it all up:  they LOVE fireworks!  The fireworks went off all around the city of San Jose starting about midnight and continued almost continually until 3 AM!

Here is the view from one of the buildings at our school overlooking the city.  The small streaks of light were small floating lanterns that were being launched all over the city.

 Here are a few pictures of our neighbors shooting fireworks.  They were exploding right over our "back porch".

We watched the fireworks for a little more, and then tried get some sleep even though fireworks were still going off.

Were are in Costa Rica at Language School!

We arrived in Costa Rica on December 27th!  We flew in late so as soon as we made it to our new house, we made our beds and went to sleep.  The first few days, we were getting used to all the new sights & sounds, learning how & where to buy food & supplies, and hearing Spanish everywhere we go.  But, we are pretty settled in now. 

Our language school is very challenging, but we can already tell it is working.  Our kids love the school here, and have made lots of friends.  We have 3 classes: Grammar, Language, and Phonetics.  We have already had tests in 2 of our classes.

 The Boys Headed to the First Day of School in Costa Rica

We were finally able to get internet hooked up at our house, so we have been able to email and video chat with our family. We need to post several updates soon about all that has been going on, but we have been so busy with school.   Hopefully, we can do that soon.

Thanks again for keeping us in your prayers.  We are so excited that we are finally here at the Spanish Institute learning Spanish.  We can hardly wait to know enough Spanish to be able to use it without any help.  Thanks again for your prayers and support!

Our "Send-Off" Service

On December 15th, we had a special service for us to say goodbye to our family and friends.  It was an amazing service.  We showed a slideshow of pictures of our trips to Paraguay.  We also had several friends share favorite memories.  Then, everyone gathered around us to pray for us.

We had several tables of items from Paraguay.  We also had note cards for friends to write notes to us.  We also had two books for friends to write notes for Eli and David.

It was a very special time that we will never forget.  It is such a great feeling to know that we have so many people praying for us.  We are so blessed!

We are back from Colorado!

We just returned from our training in Colorado at Mission Training International (MTI). We had an amazing time! Now we feel much more prepared for Language School and living in a different culture. We loved getting to see the mountains, the snow, and made some new friends for life who are heading out to countries all over the world.

For the last two weeks at MTI, we focused on Culture and Character.  It has been extremely beneficial, but at times very difficult.  The staff at MTI really wants to make sure missionaries are prepared for the Mission Field in every single way.  And they do a great job!  One way they prepare us is covering things that missionaries struggle with while on the field. Some topics covered were:  making the transition to another culture, dealing with conflict & stress, remembering to take time to rest in God, handling paradox in life, and dealing with culture shock.  This training has been very helpful in many ways.  I am sure we will look back and appreciate what we learned even more in a few years.

An example of the paradox that we have in our lives:  we are very excited about spending Christmas with family and friends, but at the same time we feel deep sadness about leaving for Language School on December 27th.  The next few weeks will be will be both beautiful and sad, but we are prepared to make the most of both sides of the paradox.

You are invited to join us on December 15th at 2pm for our "Send-Off" Service at Grace Bible Church of the Shoals.  You can find where it is located here.  We would love to have you be a part of this special time.  As we pack and prepare to leave, please keep us in your prayers.

Our first two weeks of training in Colorado

We arrived at Missionary Training International (MTI) in Parker Lake, Colorado on October 28th.  Since this was our first time anywhere near Colorado, the drive from Alabama to here was very cool.  We saw windmills and oil wells along the way.  When we arrived at MTI is was breath-taking! (And not just because the elevation here is above 7,500 feet.)

The view from our training facility!

MTI: Our home for the next few weeks

We have had an amazing two weeks of our missionary training here in Colorado. We are learning all about the non-English sounds that our mouth can make (and how to make them and hear them) and some language learning techniques. It is very interesting stuff, and it gives me hope that my mouth can sound like a native Paraguayan!

We have also met some really amazing people here.  Each person has an amazing story, and we all have many things in common.  It is so neat to see how God is working in all our lives.  We have only known each other for 2 weeks, and we already have some deep friendships forming.

We are looking forward to the next 2 weeks of training, which will be about transitioning to another culture.  Please continue to pray that we are able to absorb all the information while we are here.

Thanks for your support of our ministry!

New Outfits for the Kids at the Daycare

Amy has been in Paraguay with the mission team from our church.  One of the things that the team took to Paraguay was a new outfit for each of the children at the Daycare in Santa Rosa.  Here are some pictures of the boys and girls wearing their new clothes.  What a blessing these kinds are!