June 29: R&R in Orlando

We are so thankful for a few days of rest, relaxation and play here in Orlando.  We arrived here Tuesday evening from San José and have been staying in a great condo that our friends, Ha and David, arranged for us.  We've been enjoying the pool, exercise room, basketball court, racquetball (!) court, play area, and 4 hole mini-golf green.

I had spent a couple of months researching and investigating how to spend a day at Disney's Magic Kingdom since our family has never been to Disney and thought it was the perfect chance since we'd be in Orlando a few days.  Once we got here, though, we just couldn't justify spending so much money for one day, knowing it's the busiest time of year and there would be huge lines for everything.  Sophia was particularly disappointed so we decided to go to Downtown Disney for an afternoon (an area of shopping, dining and entertainment) since it's free to walk around.  However, the extravagant prices on everything was a real turnoff coming from a year of simpler living so we didn't spend much time there either.  The kids were feeling disappointed so we looked for another option for our family.  Found it and we highly recommend it if you're going to Orlando!  Fun Spot Attractions is a small amusement park with 2 roller coasters, 4 go-kart tracks and lots of carnival-like rides.  It's less than half the cost of Disney and NO LINES!!!!  We could walk up to almost every ride - including the roller coasters - and get right on.  The only wait we had all day was for the one go-kart track that just opened yesterday when we were there.  The kids said over and over they were so glad we did this instead of Disney because we didn't have to deal with crowds and lines.

Since we didn't spend money at Disney, we also decided to spend a day at a factory outlet mall.  It was the first time our family has ever done that and our kids were thrilled...as Nathan put it:  This is the first time in my life I can actually wear new clothes to school :)!  That's probably pretty accurate since I'm a huge thrift store and garage sale shopper.  We never go to the mall as a family and the kids rarely have brand new clothes so they were thrilled and so were we because we really did find some great deals.  Our wardrobes took a beating this past year so it was exciting for all of us to get a few new things.

Tomorrow morning we plan to leave early on our way to Atlanta so we can visit my nephew and his wife and then continue on to my brother's family in Chattanooga, TN for two nights.  Lord willing, we'll return to Zeeland on Tuesday!!

If you're a regular reader of the blog and wondering if we bought a car in Orlando.....nope.  We did some looking but nothing seemed like the right fit and/or within our budget so we'll drive our rental van back to MI and look some more when we get home.

To any Vander Beeks reading this....we're remembering you all today as you celebrate Byron & Aletha's wedding in Calgary (the 4th wedding of nieces and nephews that we've missed this year :(.  Our thoughts and prayers are with you all!

Look for a final reflective blog post next week.

June 24: Brokenness & Beauty; Friends & Flood

Our last day in Quepos, Costa Rica reminds us of some of life's juxtapositions:  brokenness and beauty, celebration and struggle.

Brokenness and beauty
This morning I was helping Sophia pack her suitcase in her bedroom.  The girls' room has a window facing the street and when I looked out I saw a homeless man walk by and look at our garbage bags on the sidewalk.  He then stopped to bend down and examine them closer.  He couldn't see what was in the black garbage bag but he spotted water melon rinds in the white one.   As Sophia and I watched him open up the bag and take out the rinds that still had some edible fruit, I stood there in a paralyzed gawking stance.

Less than an hour later, just feet away from where the man had opened up our garbage bags, I discovered this absolutely stunning iguana (lizard?) in the rose bush in front of our house.

This juxtaposition of brokenness and beauty seems common in Quepos. The natural beauty surrounding the area is amazing, yet the city of Quepos is home to a lot of brokenness: drugs, prostitution, homelessness, broken families etc.  This year, through our involvement at El Puente Christian School, Casa de Amor rehab center and Seeds of Hope,  God had allowed us to see how He and His servants are at work to bring shalom, restoration and hope to a city in need of His presence, power and grace.

Friends and Flood
We spent the day packing but also hanging out with friends.  Laly came by the house after teaching her first block classes at El Puente (she joined El Puente's staff this semester and taught Spanish and Social Studies to the 4th/5th graders and Nathan).  She was up for learning a new game so we squeezed in one last game of Settlers of Catan before leaving.

Then after she was done with Kids Club at church this afternoon, she met us at our favorite local eatery for patacones (fried plantains).  We were also joined by our best friend of the year, Laura, her two kids and Nikki (former student of mine and good friend of director Anna at El Puente) who's in Quepos for a few weeks.

As we were enjoying the great food and fellowship we did comment about the heavy rain shower and said we hoped it wasn't flooding our house like it has twice before.  We continued on in the downpour to the ice-cream shop a block from our house.  It was open even though electricity had just gone out in our section of the city.  George said he'd run home to check on the house......in the darkness, he found it with water rushing through from back to front door and worse than the two previous times.

  

Needless to say, it was definitely not the last night we had expected in our Quepos home. Again, a reminder of how one moment you can be celebrating new friends made and in the next you're struggling with a challenge or unexpected annoyance.  That's been typical of our life here this year through the ups and downs.  But through it all, God's faithfulness continues.

Laura graciously invited us to crash at her house so we ended up spending our last night (dry!) in the company of our best friends of the year.

June 23: Community Farewell

Our feelings of sadness and gladness continue as we go through our time of farewells.  Sadness comes with having to say goodbye to so many different people that God has allowed us to meet this year and gladness that we get to reconnect with family and friends back home soon.

Today our church family bid farewell to us...so humbling to be prayed over by these hermanos en Cristo (brothers/siblings in Christ).  It's hard to leave because we're finally feeling like we're making some deeper connections with church members.  For months, we didn't feel that at all.

This afternoon we headed over to our friend Laura's house.  She graciously hosted a farewell open house for us. We spent hours feasting on a buffet of delicious foods brought by the guests and enjoying the bicultural gathering.  It was a wonderful opportunity to see our various communities all in one place:  school, church, Seeds of Hope, and Casa de Amor (not the guys but the church members who often go with us on Sunday afternoons).

 What does an American-Tico Buffet look like?:  banana bread, lemon poppy seed cake, brownies, deviled eggs, bread with olive oil dipping sauce, tortilla chips with guacamole/salsa/black beans, watermelon, picadillo de papas, pejibaye dip for tortilla chips and arroz con leche

 It was wonderful to have such a great mix of Americans and Costa Ricans at the same gathering.  We were constantly switching between Spanish and English since some folks only spoke Spanish, others only English and some both.

 Marshall and Penny (on the left) own Sancho's Mexican restaurant where we went Friday night to celebrate our start to summer vacation.  Debbie (on the right) and her husband are missionaries here and organize the once a month English service at our church.

Seeds of Hope staff members, Penny and Chris, were able to come because another  staff member  graciously offered to cover the classes with the girls today.

Our kids learned how to play Clue 

June 21: Final Day at El Puente

A morning surprise
This morning started like no other this whole year....when we stepped out of the house this morning we heard some loud bird calls in the trees above our house.  We looked up to find two toucans singing in the trees!    We've seen them only a handful of times this year and never from our house.  What a beautiful way to start the day!

With Thanksgiving
We have so much to be thankful for.  Nathan returned yesterday from traveling with the Zeeland Christian group for 10 days.  He had a wonderful time and says it was the best part of the year.  Some major highlights were staying with a host family near the Poas volcano, meeting and interacting with some middle school students from there, ziplining, white water rafting and a big overnight jungle hike and campout.

Our last day at El Puente was definitely bittersweet.  Of course there's many reasons why we're looking forward to returning to Michigan but it was hard to say goodbye to the El Puente community today.  They totally loved on us and there was no way I could hold back the tears.

After normal morning classes, at 11:30 there was a special farewell gathering of students, staff and parents.
I started by showing a 13 minute music video with pictures that highlighted what we've experienced together at El Puente this year.  Then director Anna called the kids up to thank them for being a part of El Puente and gave them each a gift bag, including a small note pad in which students, teachers and parents wrote down personal messages and goodbyes.
Then George and I were called up and were given gifts to remember our time at El Puente, including a very beautiful and personalized scrapbook that details our time here......tears......more generous gifts and kind words from students and parents.....tears.... students and Anna prayed for us....tears.  

We borrowed a projector screen from our friend Laura and threw a sheet over the chalkboard for our movie screen.

Enough tears....bring on the celebration!  Thanks to Anna and some of the parents we enjoyed grilled hot dogs for the El Puente community lunch...

and Teacher Ashley made delicious cupcakes for a sweet treat afterwards.

El Puente staff and students (minus a few preschoolers)

Our El Puente colleagues (three Americans and two Costa Ricans)

Twin sisters, Celeste and María, were two of my four second grade English students.    They're new to El Puente this semester and it's been so great getting to know them and their family. The twins became good friends with Sophia and their grandma is the one who fixed us the wonderful meal last week.

Prayer items:
We appreciate so much your prayers for us in this emotionally draining, but rewarding and meaningful week.  The goodbyes continue as we gather with our small group from church for the last time tomorrow night and then on Sunday afternoon our friend Laura is hosting an open house/farewell party for us after church.

June 19: Last Hump Day Hallelujah in Costa Rica

Today marks our last 'hump day' in Costa Rica so it's fitting to try to share praises from our whole year rather than just from the week.  However, it's really hard to try to summarize all the reasons we have to give thanks today but here's some obvious ones:

• for you, are supporters:  for everyone who has prayed for us, written a note of encouragement, followed the blog, or contributed to our fundraising
• for overall good health:  we have not had health insurance this year so we are extremely thankful that God has spared us from serious injury or illness
• for safety:  we've traveled many miles through three Central American countries and are grateful for God's protection over us. 
• for our home: although small, we have always felt safe and secure in our Quepos home which is a huge blessing.  It's central location allowed us to walk or bus to places since we didn't have a vehicle

And there are hundreds more.  In thinking about all that we could give thanks for I was reminded of the song 'We will remember' which was the theme song at Holland Christian a couple of years ago.  It seems fitting to share the lyrics as an offering of praise as we seek to tell His story in our lives this year:

We will remember, we will remember

We will remember the works of Your hands

We will stop and give you praise

For great is Thy faithfulness

You're our creator, our life sustainer

Deliverer, our comfort, our joy

Throughout the ages You've been our shelter

Our peace in the midst of the storm

With signs and wonders You've shown Your power

With precious blood You showed us Your grace

You've been our helper, our liberator

The giver of life with no end

[Chorus]

When we walk through life's darkest valleys

We will look back at all You have done

And we will shout, our God is good

And He is the faithful One

Bridge

Hallelujah, hallelujah

To the one from whom all blessings flow

Hallelujah, hallelujah

To the one whose glory has been shown

June 18: A week of 'lasts'

This week is an emotional week as each day we are reminded that it's our last time doing it before we leave Quepos a week from today.

Yesterday it was my last time leading music class.  Each Monday morning I've lead the El Puente students in 30 minutes of singing and worship.  It's been fun listening to them singing the songs during other parts of the day as well.

Last night marked the first -and likely last - time our family got invited to an El Puente's family house.  We were served a delicious dinner of pork chops, mashed potatoes, veggies, rice and fresh fruit punch. The grandma that prepared and served it made us think of Grandma's food that we look forward to enjoying in a couple of weeks!!  We were greatly blessed by the family's hospitality and deeply appreciated this opportunity to enter a Tica home.  We had to wait over 10 months for such an offer but we now have entered three homes in our final few weeks (the other two invites were from church).

Today was George's last PE class with the El Puente students.  Time to beat the heat and bring out the water balloons!

For me, today meant the last visit to Seeds of Hope.  I was deeply touched when the staff invited me to come for lunch before classes today.  I thought it would be just them but they invited whatever girls were available to come as well.  It has been such an honor to teach these girls English once a week and so very humbling to hear them each say a prayer for me and our family before we began our meal together.
In addition to teaching the girls for the last time, there were also eight other visitors who came to observe how I teach the class and to sneak in one final TPRS training session with me after the girls' class was finished.  It was tiring (mostly because of the emotions involved) with the extra folks and class but also rewarding to know that people are interested in knowing how they can teach using TPRS.
Although I'll no longer be here physically, the SOH staff is inviting me to be their English Program Director so I covet your prayers about what that might look like in the future.

Katia, dishing up food on the left,  is the newest Seeds of Hope staff member.  She  is  a wonderful Christian Costa Rican woman hired to be one of the two tías (= aunts....or house moms) at the SOH shelter.  They hope to receive their first two girls (who will live there 24/7) next week!

The Seeds of Hope staff members and girls who loved on me today.

Final hug with the girls = tears

Prayer Items:
1.  For strength and encouragement during an emotional week of goodbyes - especially on Friday which will be our last day at El Puente Christian School.
2.  Praise that Nathan is enjoying his time traveling with the Zeeland Christian student group.  Pray for safety as he travels back to Quepos on Thursday from San José with our friend Laura.  Pray too for his health.  When we saw him briefly on Saturday he was complaining of cramps (a possible sign of parasites which he's had before here so we got him medication on Sunday morning before he left again).
3.  For wisdom whether or not to buy a vehicle in Orlando next week.

June 16: Casa de Amor....indeed a House of Love

I took you from the ends of the earth,

    from its farthest corners I called you.

I said, ‘You are my servant’;

    I have chosen you and have not rejected you.

10 

So do not fear, for I am with you;

    do not be dismayed, for I am your God.

I will strengthen you and help you;

    I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Isaiah 41: 9-10

Today we heard these verses twice....first from the visiting pastor from Panama who preached on them this morning at church and then this evening when Mauricio, one of the guys at the Casa de Amor rehab center, read them from his hand written letter to us before we left the center for the last time.  

Oh the tears!  Tears of joy because we can testify that God has indeed strengthened us and upheld us this year when it just didn't seem like we could go on.  The first six months in particular were a huge struggle as we adjusted to school and life here in Quepos.  When I asked Sophia this week to describe our first semester here, she called it 'horrendous'.  It certainly felt like that as we quickly realized our expectations of what it would be like was drastically different than reality.  Yet, God brought us through what seemed like a 'desert' time for our family.  One of those ways has been our involvement with the guys at Casa de Amor every other Sunday.  It has been where we have found the greatest sense of community, fellowship and worship this year.

Since they have blessed us so much, it was very humbling to hear their words of blessing and thanksgiving for us tonight.  They thanked us for choosing to spend our family time with a bunch of addicts and that really struck me.  To us, we look at them as family and friends because of their warmth and hospitality.  We're all broken and scarred, but society seems to have different 'categories' of brokenness and often we hesitate to involve ourselves with anyone too 'broken' or 'different'.  But tonight, as we listened to the men love on us through their kind words, I was reminded how God can work so mightily when we simply try to be obedient.  For us that meant we brought games, George led Bible study and I supplied desserts.  For them it meant providing gracious hospitality and a willingness to share stories of brokenness and restoration.  Simple yet significant acts of service that gave us all a clearer sense of what the body of Christ looks like when we recognize we're all broken, we all have 'desert' times in our lives and that we are all in need of the Bread of Life.

The guys NEVER got tired of playing Uno - it was their favorite game this year .

Love these guys!!  We're also thankful for our friend, Laura (black dress), who started this ministry with her husband Kim a number of years ago.  It was her idea to start the Sunday afternoon gatherings after we got here and invited us to be a part of them.  Next to Angelina is Nikki (a former student of mine) who is staying in Quepos for 5 weeks.  She'll be helping out at El Puente a lot and is staying with Laura.  Great to have her here!

June 15: Carnival & Vacation Villa

Today the visiting Zeeland Christian students put on a carnival for El Puente students and their families on the property where El Puente's new building will be.  Before the festivities began, however, the El Puente students and ZC students teamed up to plant almost 75 trees in celebration of Día del Árbol (Tree Day).  It was hot work so everyone was ready for some fun and food afterwards!
Nathan and the other immersion students on the trip and 2 teachers left San José at 6am this morning so they could join the rest of the group in time for the carnival.  They have been having a more intensive 'immersion' experience in the Poas volcano area but will now join the rest of the ZC group for the rest of the trip (Nathan returns back to Quepos on Thursday).  He's having a great time and says this is the best week of the whole year so far for him.

Sophia waits in line for the dart toss.

Taylor gives Valerie some archery instructions.

The face (and hair!) painting station was very popular.  Sophia came home with hair the color of the pink chair :)

Director Anna's husband, Andrés, did a great job on grill duty.

Tonight we enjoyed a lovely evening at Villa Pelícano, a lovely home/villa overlooking the ocean.   We had been there once before last summer when the HC soccer team came to Quepos.  One of the owners is currently in Quepos and has connections to Holland Christian and Zeeland Christian.  We are thankful for the wonderful hospitality and the opportunity to enjoy some relaxation and fellowship with the ZC group in such a beautiful setting.

June 14: Skating & Soccer

Today, we finished classes an hour early at El Puente so we could have a roller skating party with El Puente students and the Zeeland Christian group.

It was the first time skating for some of the students so skating expert George (who prefers to skate on ice) gave them some pointers.  Some students are really good skaters and had fun competing against George in races.  

Tonight included more soccer.  Angelina played goalie again for the Zeeland Christian group who played two indoor games tonight.

June 13: Cleaning, Prepping and Playing

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, life here is usually not dull.  For example, in the last 24 hours we have dealt with flooding in our house, experienced another earthquake and had school canceled today because of a continuing lice issue.  It was the perfect time to have extra hands around El Puente to help clean!
The Zeeland Christian student group spent the morning wiping down all walls, furniture and windows in an effort to eradicate any lice in the building.  They also organized and prepped for the carnival they are hosting for El Puente students on Saturday.

Angelina and Sophia helped students figure out the Spanish they wanted to use for their carnival game signs.

Tonight's highlight involved some soccer action!  The girls from the Zeeland Christian group played against local 13-14 year old girls under the lights of Quepos' downtown soccer field.  Angelina (in orange) was thrilled because they let her play with them even though she was a couple of years younger

Way to go Team USA!  The four boys did a great job of coaching :)

June 12: Rainy season flood

A number of adjectives come to mind that could describe our life in Quepos this year.  'Dull' is not one of them.  Example from today....a flooded house!  Thankfully, it's only the second time it's happened this year even though we've had LOTS of heavy rain showers.

Our friend Laura's kids came over to help sweep out the water (it was rushing in from the back door and running out the front door).  As soon we saw it coming in the back door we got everything off the floor and started putting rags down to try to keep it out of the bedrooms (somewhat successfully).  The shower once again had inches of really gross water that came up through the drain and the toilet water was gurgling and bubbling over the seat...oh the fun!

Our side yard flooded once again.

It's a terrible quality of video and you'll have to tilt your head, but it will give you an idea of how we spent a few hours this afternoon and evening.

On a positive note, we hear Nathan is off to a great start with the Zeeland Christian group.  They're in the central part of the country which means milder temperatures.  They've gone strawberry picking, visited a coffee plantation and visited a school.  This afternoon the non-immersion part of the group arrived in Quepos and stopped briefly at El Puente.  It was great to see some familiar faces and we look forward to having them around these next few days!  Nathan and the other immersion students will be coming on Saturday.

June 10: Adiós to Nathan

Although Sophia and I had a regular day at school today, the rest of the family spent much of it on the road.  George and Angelina drove Nathan to San José in a rental car so he could join the group from Zeeland Christian that's coming to Costa Rica for 10 days.  George checked the flight schedule this morning and saw the group's flight out of Florida was delayed a couple of hours.  Since they had extra time before they had to get Nathan to the airport to meet the group, he decided to take the more scenic, longer way to San José.  It's part of the Pan-American highway called 'Cerro de la muerte' (Mountain of Death) largely due to its curves and higher elevation in the mountains.

Visibility was very poor at times due to clouds and rain but thankfully they made it safely to the airport.  George and Angelina took the more direct way home and returned to Quepos by 6pm.

 I'm pretty sure this was Nathan's attempt at showing us how much he'll miss us.  

LOL...According to George, Nathan was so excited to see his friends after a year, that he got on the bus without even saying goodbye to him and Angelina.  

June 9: The Week in Review

The weeks seem to go by in a blur now as we approach the end of our time here (we leave Quepos on June 25).  Here's a few highlights of our week:

• Visitors at El Puente:  Director Anna's parents and aunt came from Michigan to help out with some projects at El Puente.  Her mom and aunt worked on sanding and staining the 13 cubbies that George has made for books and storage.  Her dad and George worked on making bulletin boards and white boards.
• Seeds of Hope:  When I got to the girls' English class on Tuesday I told them I didn't really have a good idea of what we should do for a story.  I asked them what they wanted to create a story about and they said they wanted to do a story all about how they were going to stop me from leaving....It involved coming to Quepos at 2am the morning of the 25th.  While I'm asleep they'll bribe Angelina (with an ice-cream cone and a cute cat) to let them into the house.  Then they'll send one of the girls' 2 year old son to go into our bedroom and grab my passport so I won't be able to leave.  It was very fun to see how creative they were with the language and also very sweet of them to try to stop me from leaving.  If I hear noises outside our house on the 25th, I'll know who to suspect :)
• TPRS training: The women from last week Friday night's training session (on how to teach English) were eager to have a second night of training so we met again this Friday.  It's exciting to see how enthusiastic they are to learn more about the method and how they could use it to teach English to a variety of groups here, including starting an English Kids Club at church and starting language/literacy classes for hotel staff.

  

  Laura, Tracy and Penny = awesome students who are now equipped to teach English in a fun and personal way.

• Casa de Amor Graduation Day:  Today we were thrilled to share in the celebration of six guys who have completed the 9 month program at the rehab center.  

  

  Sophia and I went early to church to help our friend Laura set up tables and decorations.  

  
  

  

  View of the street from the church entrance.  It's a 15 minute walk from the nearest bus stop.

  
  

  

  The guys were all invited to come to the regular morning service at  10am.  The youth group made lunch for everyone as a fundraiser for their upcoming camp.  Everyone's waiting for the food to come:  fish, rice, beans, cole slaw,  and potatoes....it was delicious!

  
  

  

  Some of the guys had family members that joined them for the celebration.

  
  

  

  After lunch there was the graduation ceremony that included a time of worship, testimony time, presentations of diplomas and ended with refreshments and more fellowship and celebration.  It has been such a HUGE joy and blessing to get to know the guys at Casa de Amor.  They received us like family every time we went and we are grateful for the opportunity to share this special day with them.  The guys in the picture include both graduates and current residents of Casa de Amor.

  

  Kids playing across the street from church as we were leaving.

PRAYER REQUEST:

Tomorrow we say goodbye to Nathan for 10 days.  He is very excited to be able to join some of his classmates from Zeeland Christian who are coming down with a group of 20+ students and teachers.  George and Angelina plan to drive him in a rental car to San José to meet up with the group who arrive tomorrow.  We will see him for a few hours on Saturday when they'll be in Quepos for a carnival at school and then he'll be gone again until the 20th.  We covet your prayers for safety and good health for him and the entire ZCS group while they're traveling in Costa Rica.

June 5: Hump Day Hallelujah.....Jehovah Jirah

We are very pleased to bring you this positive update on our financial status.   If all pledged funds continue to come in . . . and if no errors in our accounting are later found . . . then we have not only reached but surpassed our initial fundraising goal ($36,000)!    As of our best information right now it looks like we are closing in on $38,000 raised!  Thanks be to God and to our community of faithful supporters who have stood with us throughout this journey!  We are amazed at God's goodness and humbled by the generosity of His people.  Thank you!

    We are, however, stopping short of putting an end to our fundraising efforts altogether until we know that all expenses are covered. We have tried to live frugally but we saw continued increases in cost of food and basic items here, many of which were already higher than what we expected.  We are also anticipating the expenses that come with resettlement.  We’ll need to restock the pantry and cupboards, and our wardrobes are in need of renovation since we have not bought clothes here and the sun, sweat and humidity has taken a toll on them.  We are hoping garage sale season is in full swing and Ditto (our Christian school second-hand store) is fully stocked!  

    Knowing that we won’t have regular incomes and health insurance until September 1, these minor concerns linger.  But we rest in the knowledge that God will continue to provide . . . as we have already seen.  We again thank you, our supporting community, for showing your care for us in the area of finances.  We have been delighted to observe this display of your faith in the action of giving.   Our God truly is Jehovah Jireh . . . He indeed has provided for us in so many ways this year.   Blessed be the name of the Lord!  ¡A Dios sea la gloria!

June 2: Weekend in Review

Friday:   I ended the week on a high...tonight I got to give a TPRS training class (how I teach Spanish/English) to some women from the English service at church.  They are interested in starting some English classes for children and adults and were very eager to learn how they could do it using TPRS.  We all had so much fun that we're going to try to set up another night this coming week so they can focus on practicing the method to build their confidence in doing it on their own.

Saturday:  We were blessed AGAIN to be invited by Scott and Tracy, owners of El Santuario Canopy Tour, to enjoy this adventure for the second time this year.  Back in October when they were getting ready to open they invited us to go for free because they wanted some guests' feedback and evaluation before they officially opened to the public.  A photographer was along that day to take promotional pictures and so we ended up being in their print and video advertisements.  Now they wanted to 'thank' us for helping them advertise.....well, we couldn't possibly say 'no' to their generous offer.  We thoroughly enjoyed it as much as the first time!

George and I have been part of a small group from church the last few months that meets once a week.  We enjoy some food and fellowship, discuss the week's sermon and pray together.  It's with our missionary friend, Laura, and two Tico couples.  One of the women, Mayra, knows that I want to learn some authentic recipes so she invited me to come early so I could see how she makes enyucados and sweet empanadas.

The enyucados are made with a mass/dough of mashed up boiled yuca that's formed into a tortilla shape and then filled with a delicious shredded beef mixture, rolled up and fried in oil.  Not exactly heart healthy but they're outstanding!

Her sweet empanadas are made in a similar way except that the 'dough' is made from mashed up boiled sweet plantain and then filled with cheese before getting coated with flour and fried in oil.

To see pictures of the canopy tour and cooking lesson, click HERE

Sunday:  George, Nathan and Angelina went paintballing today with three others from church, and a friend and teacher from El Puente.  Nathan was especially thrilled to be able to do this and everyone had lots of fun.
We were supposed to go to Casa de Amor rehab center this week but it got postponed since the guys were invited to a church retreat.  We greatly look forward to our final two times with them.  Lord willing, next Sunday we will celebrate with them at a graduation service for those that have completed the program in the last few months and then our last Sunday with them will be June 16.

May 30: A Soggy Celebration

We have been blessed to have more visitors this week!  My cousin Mike and his wife Amy (from Jackson, Wyoming) are traveling through Costa Rica for three weeks and have been able to spend 3 nights here in Quepos.

 After I got back from Seeds of Hope on Tuesday, we enjoyed dinner with them at our favorite soda (small eatery serving traditional foods) in town.  Last night they came over for dinner and then we all went to our friend Laura's house for an evening of Euchre.  Today Mike and Amy visited us at El Puente Christian School and then tonight they invited us to join them to celebrate BOTH their birthdays today!  We enjoyed a delicious dinner at El Avión restaurant in Manuel Antonio that overlooks the ocean.  The views however weren't great because we've had a huge rain shower all afternoon...we were getting a little worried we'd have flooding in our house but thankfully we just had some minor annoyances.

Water was a few inches deep along the whole side of our house but thankfully did not start coming in through the back door like it did once before.  We had a ceiling leak in our bedroom but a bucket took care of the problem.

A couple of inches of gross smelling yellow water came up our shower drain but disappeared after a couple of hours.

Click on the video to see what this afternoon's rainy season downpour was like.

Thank you, Mike and Amy, for inviting us to share in your celebration!