September 25: Praises & Requests

Praises:

1.   Health and safety:  We continue to praise God for the overall good health we have enjoyed so far and for being kept safe through all of our daily activities and travels. 

2.  Our supporters:  We are grateful for everyone who is supporting us by prayer, messages of encouragement and financial gifts (over $32,000 of our $36,000 goal has been donated or pledged!)

3.  New programming at El Puente:  We are really enjoying helping to implement some new programming at school.  On Monday mornings, Anna and I take turns leading the kids in 30 minutes of singing.  On Tuesdays and Thursdays I've started Spanish reading groups with students (I pull 1-3 students out at a time for 30 minutes of reading and literacy activities).  On Wednesday afternoons I'm doing art with students and on Fridays, George and I end the day with gym class.

On Friday the rain forced us to go with Plan B and do gym indoors.

4.  Pet time: The kids continue to beg us for a pet and we continue to be non-pet lovers so the answer is always no.  However, they are getting to hang out with pets at other places which is just fine with us.  On Saturday morning George took them over to the animal shelter where he and Nathan spend time on Friday mornings.  The girls were thrilled to get the chance to spend time with the dogs and cats too. 

4.  Ewww...a snake:  I guess this is a praise since George and Nathan thought it was cool to see what we think was a (non-venomous) blind snake slithering into our kitchen tonight.  The girls and I are VERY happy George saw it coming under the door so we could 'encourage' it out right away.  We would have totally been freaked out if one of us had come across it in our house.

Requests:
1.  Fundraising for El Puente:  Anna, El Puente's director, is currently in the Holland/Zeeland area and is trying to raise awareness and funds for a permanent building for El Puente.  For now, the school runs out of a 2 bedroom condo but space is very limited and we'd love to have a permanent building for El Puente so it can become an accredited school and have room to grow.  It's great that land has been donated - now we need money to build a school!
  For those in the Holland/Zeeland area there is a way you can help this weekend:

The Holland Christian boys' soccer team will be hosting a car wash fundraiser at Quality Car Wash on South Washington Ave in Holland this coming Saturday, September 29, from 10am-2pm.

A portion of all car wash sales will go towards El Puente Christian School in Costa Rica.
Costa Rican coffee and jewelry will also be for sale and proceeds will go to El Puente.

2.  Skin issues:  Nathan, Sophia and George are all suffering various skin irritations due to heat, allergies, and bugs.  Please pray that they can be relieved from the rather painful itching and irritation.

3.  Protection in travel:  It's hard to believe we've been in Costa Rica for three months already which is the longest you can get a guest visa for.  That means we have to leave the country for 72 hours every three months and then enter again.  We leave tomorrow for our trip north to Nicaragua.  We'll spend 2 days exploring some of the northern area of Costa Rica before crossing the border first thing Friday morning.  We plan to spend our 3 days in San Juan del Sur, a beach town near the Nicaragua-Costa Rican border.  This town was recommended to us by some Nicaraguan missionaries we met three summers ago.   Please pray for traveling mercies (we'll be driving a rental car), smooth border crossings, and patience as we continue to spend a lot of time together in a small amount of space :)