Hola from Costa Rica

First day of school at Instituto de Lengua Espanola

(Nathan of course with his UGA shirt on!)

  

    What a week it has been! We arrived Monday and settled into our room in our Tico (Costa Rican) family's home. They want us to call them Mami and Papi. They are really wonderful. Mami has made many delicious gluten-free meals, which Nathan REALLY loves. Our favorite meal has been empanadas. Fortunately, we can eat as much as we want because we walk everywhere (probably about 1 hour/day). The Lord has really blessed us with this new family. 

    On Wednesday we started school, although the last few days have been primarily orientation. We had to take an oral and written placement test on the first day. Nathan did really well, and I was able to answer simple questions. We will find out what class we will be in on Monday. It is certain that Nathan and I will not be in the same class. 

    I feel like I am chomping at the bit to start taking classes so that I don't sound SO much like a southern Georgia girl when I speak Spanish. Mami and Papi are really intentional about spending a lot of time with us so that we can practice Spanish. They speak slowly and enunciate very well. I have been amazed at how much I can understand. I hope that I will be able to converse with them more after we begin school. We have one more day of orientation and then we begin on class on Tuesday.

   

    We have taken several bus and taxi rides to go to the store. I seriously love public transportation, so riding buses will be a great way for us to get around the city once we figure it out. We are hoping to get to see some of the countryside on our weekends off, although, Nathan wants me to be studying all the time! We will see once my classes begin. 

    I'm off to study the alphabet. Kind of like being back in kindergarten. Here are some pictures of our new room. 

Our very comfortable bed and desk

Courtyard outside of our room

Closet and door to bathroom

The time has finally arrived......

We are heading to Costa Rica for language school tomorrow (Monday) morning. Our bags are packed, the to-do list is done, and we are going to enjoy today seeing our families. We are so excited that we are beginning this new chapter of our lives.

A few people have asked about where we will get mail. If you would like to send us a card (please no packages yet), you can send it to my mom in the States at the address listed below. She will be sending our mail to us every few weeks. Once we arrive in Peru, we will have a more permanent address for mail to be sent.

I will update the blog when we arrive, hopefully with some pictures of our new home.

"The one who calls you is faithful and He will do it." 1 Thessalonians 5:24

Our Stateside mailing address:
Nathan & Kristen Henson
215 Matson Court
Martinez, GA 30907

Commissioned to Go

OUR TEAM

Left to right by couples: Nathan and Audrey Wilson (5 children); Nathan and I; Mark and Rachel Daniel (4 children); Ike and Joanne Holton; David and Brooke Daniel (3 children)

On Sunday night there was a commissioning service for our team at First Presbyterian Church. It was a wonderful service with a convicting, compelling message. Afterwards there was a reception for us to visit with family and friends. The most amazing thing about this service was to look out over the audience and see hundreds of past medical students (now current doctors) who had been impacted by the ministry of Medical Campus Outreach in Augusta. It is exciting to think and pray that this might happen in Peru someday. 

This service signified to me that all of this is real, and that we are getting ready to leave in 10 days. With that comes the emotions of excitement and apprehension. Thankfully, our God is faithful to overcome my fears. That will be my prayer in over this next week.  

We recently were assigned a very sweet Costa Rican family to live with. Their names are Sonia and Oscar Chacon (I am sure I will write more about them in months to come). Supposedly, they are well loved by many of the students at the language school, as several of them have said they would like to move in with us :=) Sonia has been writing me on facebook (of course in Spanish) and seems eager to help me with my language learning. She is also not overwhelmed by my food allergies, and is excited to prepare food that is gluten free. Her son is a dietician and is going to help her with what is acceptable for me to eat. What a blessing. Yet another way that the Lord has provided for us. 

This weekend we will go to Gainesville, GA to be with Nathan’s family. His brothers, who do not live in GA will be coming into town. It should be a fun weekend to see them before we leave. 

Thank you again for your prayers and encouragement over these past few months. 

Together in Cincinnati

Medical students, staff, and past residents from Texas A&M Scott and White at Christian Ophthalmology Society conference.  

We had a great week at the Christian Ophthalmology Society (COS) conference in Cincinnati.  We got to see many friends from residency that now live all over the country. A highlight was getting to see Glen and Kim Strauss from the Mercy Ships. He trained Nathan on the ship, so it was a pleasure to catch up with them. Nathan benefited greatly from the teaching during the conference, and speaking with other missionary ophthalmologists. 

While the ophthalmologists are in their conference, there is usually a separate speaker for the spouses. This year a woman from the "Voice of the Martyrs" magazine spoke. If you have not heard of this magazine, you need to get it! It is free and shares stories from all over the world from believers in the persecuted church. It was encouraging and convicting to hear about what is happening with our brothers and sisters in sensitive countries. The gospel is really spreading through persecution!

An interesting event in our lives this week was that we thought our certified birth certificates and criminal reports had been lost. We needed these documents authenticated to obtain a visa in Costa Rica. This whole process has taken months, so you can imagine we were really excited that our documents had finally reached the Costa Rican consulate and that we were almost done with this process. 

Unfortunately, we learned on Tuesday that our documents had been completed and mailed back to us on July 21. The consulate is only 120 miles away in Atlanta, so the documents should not take 2 weeks to arrive. The consulate nor the post office had any idea where our documents were. So after many hours of researching identity theft protection and praying for our documents to arrive, they showed up on the front doorstep yesterday. They had never been cleared through the post office, so although we had sent them via certified mail, they were not trackable. Wow, the Lord really provided!

On Sunday, we arrived in Augusta, GA to spend these last few weeks in the Sates with my family. We are really enjoying seeing my parents. This weekend we (our team) will have a Commissioning service at First Presbyterian Church in Augusta. My brother will be here from California, as well as Nathan's family and several friends. We are looking forward to great time with them. 

Here are some pictures from COS:

Dear friends from Texas (Katharine Williams, Mandolyn Tsai, and Allison Walgama)

Sweet friend Jennifer from our days in Texas

Visiting with a missionary ophthalmologist from Swaziland, Africa

Dear friends and mentors, Glen and Nell Brindley. Goodbyes are never easy