Learning beyond the textbooks

    So we are now in full swing with school. We are both really enjoying this semester, although it has been a lot more work. My classes are a lot of writing and presentations this semester, which has been a bit of a challenge for me, because writing is probably my least favorite thing to do. Every Monday I give a 30 minute Bible study in Spanish. Thirty minutes may not sound like a really long time, but, for me, in Spanish, that is a REALLY long time. It has been fun to able to express myself a little bit more in my new language, but still is a challenge to be able to completely express all the things that I am thinking. I feel like our school does a really great job of helping us to prepare for our future jobs by helping us to write and present Bible studies now before we get to Peru. So, all this work is very beneficial and is really helping me to build more confidence in my speaking abilities in Spanish.

   This weekend one pastor and one of the leaders from the student ministry in Augusta, GA came here to Costa Rica to encourage us and to give us a little more training for the field. We have really enjoyed getting to see them and have them here. We were able to talk a lot about our transition to Cusco and to dream more about what God might do there both medically and in the lives of students. Today while we were eating lunch, they asked us if we could possibly meet them in Peru for one of their medical mission trips so that we could function as medical providers as well as translators. 'Translators?' I thought...that actually may be possible!

    Nathan has been very busy so far this trimester. He has actually been working a few days a week (in between his classes) with a few ophthalmologists around the city. He has been seeing patients in clinic and spending time in the operating room with them. He is not really able to do much ophthalmology on his own, since he is not licensed in the country, but this has been very beneficial for learning ophthalmology spanish and to see how their clinics and operating rooms here work. We have been very grateful for this opportunity and he is enjoying building relationships with some of the doctors.

      My ESL classes begin again this Wednesday night. I will be teaching with my same teaching partner and we will again teach the advanced students. I am hoping that since we know many of the students from last semester that I will be able to form deeper relationships with them over these next few weeks. Please be in prayer for that.

Here we go again....

  
So I kind of fell off the blogging horse for a bit, but it was so fun to have Nathan post pictures and tell stories from his time in Africa. He is now back in Costa Rica and yesterday we started back to school for this next semester. This will be our last semester at the school, as we will be finishing here on April 20. I am hoping to learn as much as possible in these next few months. Everyday I am reminded of how much I have learned, but how much more I have to go!

    Last week my parents and Nathan's parents came for a visit to Costa Rica. We were able to travel with both families to see different parts of Costa Rica. I will say that my favorite time from the week was last Friday morning, when Mamí and Papí had a breakfast for both of our parents at their house. It was such a fun time for our parents to meet Mamí and Papí, and get to see a bit more of our world here in San José. It was really sad to see our families leave. It is amazing because I do think that last week flew by faster than any other week. We looked so forward to them coming, but they were gone way too soon. It was a great time to rest and prepare for starting school again.

All six of our "parents" in one picture

     I mentioned about a month ago that my grandmother had died, and yesterday my grandfather (her husband) died as well. These are my mom's parents and my last living grandparents. In many ways this is a blessing for my grandfather, but has been difficult for my mom and her siblings. I would love to be home with my family, but it appears right now that it would be difficult to fly to Atlanta due to the weather. In all things we know that our God is soverign and that His timing is perfect. He is once again using this situation to show me that. Thanks be to our God!

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday season. Here are a few pictures from our time with family:

My future pet. Nathan just doesn't know it yet!

Nathan and his parents at a waterfall

This is what a coffee plant looks like. Every red cherry is picked by hand and placed in the basket. Harvesting the coffee cherries is a lot of work!