Hello California, Goodbye California in 48 hours...

  Nathan and I with my brother at his ordination

    So this past weekend we were able to go to California to see my brother, who is a new pastor, be ordained. It was a wonderful time to see he and my parents. We did not arrive until late Friday night, and we left early on Monday morning, but the time with them was great. It was really encouraging to see the church where my brother will be the assistant pastor. The Lord has done tremendous things through him and we were so honored to be there.

My brother giving his ordination vows

    One other great part of going to the States this weekend was that we were able to renew our tourist visas to be in Costa Rica. The country requires that you are only permitted to stay for 90 days if you enter as a tourist. After 90 days, you must leave the country for 72 hours. You are then allowed to enter again for another 90 days. So for right now, we are legal foreigners for another three months. In February, we will probably have to take a trip to Panama or Nicaragua for the weekend.

    School is going pretty well. We are getting ready to finish up in about 2 1/2 weeks for the semester. As I type this, I cannot believe that school has flown by so fast. At times though, it seems like it is creeping at a very slow pace. Nathan has advanced well and is speaking much faster and smoother. I am not nearly as fast or smooth, but I am able to say and understand a lot more than I could in August. Some days it has been a struggle, as I am seeing how impatient I am with language learning. The Lord keeps reminding me that His timing and ways are much more perfect than mine (although, often I like to believe that I have a better plan).  Right now, Nathan leaves in about two weeks to go to Kenya to do ophthalmology, and I will be staying in Costa Rica to continue studying Spanish. The Lord has provided a really sweet teacher for me for the weeks in December. I am excited to get to know her better.

   Thanks for your prayers about Nathan's finger. He is doing better and it looks like he should have no problem operating in December.
 
 

First trip to the ER in CR......

   Yes, that is Nathan's thumb! We went on a retreat this weekend with our Peru team, and Nathan developed an abscess under the fingernail of his thumb. We really have no idea how this happened. He was in a good bit of pain, and so we decided that yesterday it was best that we catch an early bus back to San José. We went to a local hospital here, and an ER physician removed part of the fingernail and started Nathan on antibiotics. He was in a lot of pain last night, but seems to feel a bit better today. We are really thankful that this did not happen later, as Nathan will have about 3 weeks before he leaves to do ophthalmology in Kenya for the month of December. His thumb is pretty necessary to perform surgery!

   So, yesterday as a taxi dropped us off in front of a large hospital, where they only speak Spanish, I was a little worried and intimidated, but the Lord used all the people there to comfort and bless us. This was yet another learning experience for me about being inconvenienced. I am learning so much about how the Lord's promises are true and that He will provide and care for us, but often not in the ways or timing that I expect. I am thankful that we were able to experience the hospital here in Costa Rica  and be reminded that we do not need to be scared for our health or safety. I am sure this is not the last time that we will have a medical problem, either here or in Peru, so I am thankful that the Lord is using small things, like an infected thumb, to remind us of His protection and goodness.

   Thank you for your emails. Pray for quick healing and that this would not affect Nathan's ability to operate and work in Kenya in a few weeks.

 

Lots of rain and mudslides

   We have had a bit of an interesting week. Costa Rica has been hit pretty hard with rain from hurricane Tomas. Supposedly, we got about 6 inches of rain in two hours on Wednesday night. We were told that on Wednesday night it rained as much as it normally does in 4 days. Tragically, 30 people died in their homes on Wednesday due to landslides from the rain. They all lived in a town about 20 minutes away from us. Fortunately, we live closer to the city and not directly at the base of a mountain, so we have been safe. Our power and water have been pretty spotty over the last few days. We did not have water on Thursday and no power on Friday. Right now, the rain has stopped and hopefully the community here will begin to mend. Over 1,000 people have lost their homes. We shopped for the Red Cross this morning and will be taking food to the shelter this afternoon.
    This week I have struggled with these power outages, not having a car, and not having water when I would like to have it. I have been convicted of my very bad attitude about this, because there are lots of people that live life this way every single day-- with no car, no electricity and no running water. And many people lost their lives this week. I am blessed beyond my wildest dreams! This is really a good lesson for me to learn, because I have a feeling that this will not be the last time in our life that I struggle with these things.  The Lord is continually showing me my selfishness and how much I long to be in control through this whole process. I am grateful for the ways that He is continually teaching me.
     Thank you for your emails and concern for us this week, as many of you have heard about our weather! Please pray for the people of this country, and that the Lord will use this to draw many unto Himself. 

Workers look for survivors after the mudslides

Mountains near our home where some of the mudslides have been causing so much damage

Festival of Tamales

    Yes. It is just as it sounds. Yesterday we celebrated the tamale as we took part in a local Festival of Tamales. There were over 70,000 thousand tamales made for this event. Mamí, Papí, and Diana (our Tico sister) took us way up in the mountains for this festival. Papí loves tamales and has really looked forward to this for weeks. There were clowns and what they call masquerades, men on stilts with large heads on their bodies. Here are a few pictures, because I cannot do it justice by trying to explain it.

There were all these "characters" floating about the crowd. We saw the mario brothers, dracula, pirates, donald duck, clowns and many more

The faces were made of plaster and then painted

Mamí loved to grab all the intersting looking masquerades to have our picture made with them. It is funny to look at the pictures because you can see the face of the little boys who are carrying the masquerades.

 Nathan and Papí also found a "character" to have their picture made with!

There was also dancing in the streets

 In the center of all the towns is a Catholic church. This festival was positioned around the church

After watching the parade and the dancing, we of course took time to eat the tamales. When I lived in Belize after college, I had some "not so good tamales," so I was not so excited at first to try these. Papí was right though, these tamales were delicious! Nathan ate several!

 Nathan with Mamí

    We had a great day with the family. It was really kind of them to invite us. We continue to be blessed by our relationship with them.

    We cannot believe that it is November and we have lived in Costa Rica over two months. At times it feels like years, and other times it feels like it is flying by. Thank you for your continued prayers, which have sustained us.