REAPing in Peru

January newsletter

2011-02-06T04:37:00.000-08:00

We hope each of you had wonderful Christmas and New Year's celebrations. We were so excited to be home with friends and family in New York celebrating a white Christmas! We could barely convince Mark to come in out of the snow, he had such a great time playing in it. Yet, to our great surprise, now that we are back in 70 degree weather here in Arequipa, Mark has resumed his complaints about being cold!

Well, we are about to see if he continues feeling cold in Lima where we will be at sea level rather than an altitude of 7,500 ft. here in Arequipa. Yes, we are planning on moving to Lima on Feb. 10-11. Please pray for us as we pack...it is a rather difficult task with two little kids underfoot. Pray for our children: for the first time Mark is old enough to understand what is happening and miss people and places...he is already sad about this move. Pray for safety for us and our things during the move. Pray that Steve will quickly feel competent in his new job. Pray that God will help us find a new church home in Lima. And join us in thanking God for providing housing for us in Lima already! Our mission has graciously agreed to allow us to stay in a furnished apartment until we leave for our time in the States (July 2011 – Jan. 2012), which means we don't have to pack, unpack, and repack in July!

Please also pray for REAP South during this time. We will be handing our job over to Candy Bruce, who will live here in Arequipa for the next two years. However, she is in the States until the end of March, so the rest of the team will have to pick up the slack until then unless Steve has time on the side to help out.

Finally, we would like to thank you for your prayers for Steve's language exam. We were excited to learn that he reached the level required of him at this time. Please continue to pray for us to make Peruvian friends as this is the best way for him to improve his language skills.

The photo below is of the first baptism by Valleydale Baptist Church in Atico. We praise God for what He is doing in this area.

November newsletter

2010-12-06T13:48:00.000-08:00

Wow! Another month seems to have flown by already! We hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving! We had a rather quiet Thanksgiving celebration at home...we were going to have some people over but in the end it didn't work out. Nevertheless, we took time to reflect on God's goodness and faithfulness to us over the past year and our hearts were encouraged by our great God.

Steve's trip to Patambuco in November went well. He felt a little awkward leading a trip to a place he had never been, especially since we had received conflicting reports about how to get there and what to expect when we got there. Thankfully, the trip went well and they found a place to stay when they arrived. They were housed in a two story building: one open room upstairs (climb a ladder to get there) and another open room downstairs. The “bathroom” (it was a “squatty potty”) was located two doors down the hill. Given the circumstances, it is a good thing the team was all men and I didn't go along with the children!

The team had no idea that there was an evangelical church in the area, so they were very encouraged when they found three people by the side of the road on Sunday morning and learned that they were part of the local Baptist church! They are hoping to partner with this church and help them grow and reach out to their community.

Meanwhile, back in Arequipa Miriam was dealing with sick children (thankfully, nothing serious). And just to make things more exciting she went out to water the grass and left the keys inside the house on the off-chance that the door might slam behind them leaving them stuck outside...and it did. Praise God both children were outside as well! And praise God the owners of our house live nearby and they found a spare set of keys!

Right now we are very excitedly looking forward to our next trip – to the United States! Ok, we are not really looking forward to the “traveling with two small children” part, but we are looking forward to spending Christmas with family...most of whom we have not seen in over 3 years!

Family Stuff

2010-11-04T10:57:00.000-07:00

Ok, here is the promised family post. First some pictures: Mark was helping me water the front yard...

...while Sarah was busy playing in the dirt...and eating it, I might add. Yes, Mark is our "clean" child and Sarah is our "dirty" child. Mark refused to eat his 1st birthday cake with his hands; Sarah gets mad if I don't let her eat with her hands and rub it all in her hair!

Sarah seems to be on the verge of walking; she will "let go" she just won't "step out" yet. Of course since she is able to crawl pretty well she is not as motivated to walk as Mark was (he never really crawled and walked before 1 yr.). I feel like just recently I have reached a turning point in motherhood since Mark and Sarah are finally starting to play together. Mark has an extremely difficult time doing anything by himself so it is rather freeing to have him entertained by someone else. We have a tiny little pantry and they will both crawl in there and play together.

Mark seems to have taught himself the Alphabet Song. Ok, I know that is not really possible, but I'm pretty sure we have only sung it to him a few times. I have been working on the alphabet with him, just not the song, and all of a sudden he is able to sing it through perfectly...ok, almost perfectly...instead of saying J,K he says K, K. Unfortunately for him they are currently working on the vowels in Spanish at his school. Not sure how he deals with the fact that they insist that the letter I makes a long E sound, etc., etc.

Sarah is "talking" a lot these days, but, unfortunately for us, we have not learned her language yet...we're a little slow. ;) She picked up a credit card the other day and was acting like it was a cell phone and saying something reasonably close to "hello". And she knows to wave bye-bye to people when they say "chao". The other day Steve blew me a kiss as he walked out the door and I couldn't see him, but I blew him one back...the kissing noises continued, so I continued blowing him kisses...until I realized he was long gone and it was Sarah making the kissing noises! :)

Oh, one last "funny" from Mark. When Steve was gone I was in charge of reading our daily verses from Proverbs. So I read them and explained them a little bit just like Steve does. At least I thought I did it just the way he does it...apparently I did not, since Mark proceeded to tell me I had "missed something". What did I miss? Well, "Daddy normally talks a lot." :) Thankfully he didn't ask for a more detailed explanation the next day when I read about the adulterous woman. :)

October Newsletter

2010-11-03T18:45:00.000-07:00

October was a very stressful month for us with six teams and Steve traveling on top of our other responsibilities; so thanks for praying for us! The medical team that went to Oyolo had a great trip and reported quite a few professions of faith from the patients they were able to see. They were also very encouraged by the help they received from a “local” pastor (he lives and works 4 hours away) and the fact that the pastor was willing to continue helping with the work in Oyolo even after the team left! Sadly, the church that has “adopted” this area is only able to come about once a year due to their own financial situation. Imagine if your own church only had someone come and lead it once a year! That is why we encourage our REAP churches to partner with other churches to help provide continuity in the work.

Valleydale Baptist Church has been one of our most faithful churches. They have sent four teams to their area this year. But they realize that even four teams is not enough when you are working with new believers who know nothing about the Bible. So they have just recently worked out an agreement with a local pastor who will move to their area and work there on a temporary basis until a church is well established.

The vision trip Steve led to Andaray went well and it looks like the church will be “adopting” this area. Andaray is a village of about 800 people. There is one Catholic church and the priest only goes there for baptisms and weddings. There is supposedly an evangelical church in a town several hours away but they were unable to find the pastor or the church during their time there.

Steve will be leading a trip to Patambuco in November and once again Miriam and the kids will remain in Arequipa. Mark was a bit more weepy than normal during Steve's last trip, but we praise God that in general everyone did fine (although we heard rumors that Steve cried himself to sleep... :).

September newsletter

2010-10-04T19:35:00.000-07:00

Everyone except Steve was over the flu-like sickness by the time we celebrated Sarah's first birthday on September 5^th...so everyone but Steve got to enjoy the pound cake with strawberries and whipped cream! Sarah is such a precious little girl and we are extremely blessed to have her as our daughter!

Our trip to Lima went well, though poor little Sarah got sick again...ear and throat infection. Because of how exhausting this cycle of travel/sickness has been, Miriam and the kids have decided not to travel with Steve and the church teams for awhile. Steve will be taking two more vision trips this year (trips in which a church visits an area for the first time and prayerfully decides whether or not to “adopt” the area). From October 22-29 Steve will be traveling with a church team to Andaray. Then November 12-19 he will be taking another vision trip to Patambuco.

Please continue to pray for our decision regarding our future. We will not be returning to our current team (REAP South) after our time in the United States next year (July 2011 – January 2012). Please pray that God will make it very clear to us what the next step in our lives should be.

Thank you for praying about our housing situation here in Arequipa. We praise God that the owners of our current residence have agreed to extend our contract through the end of June.

We also praise God that it appears that all of our translator needs for the month of October are taken care of. October has turned out to be our busiest month yet, with six teams coming, one of which has requested seven translators!

By the way, if anyone ever reads this blog, don't miss the previous post on Sarah's b-day....

Happy Birthday, Sarah!

2010-10-04T17:51:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I am a month late wishing her a happy birthday...she turned one on Sept. 5th. But, better late than never...so here are my favorite photos from her birthday:

and the photo shoot gets a bit long...

Brotherly Love:

And, the birthday cake:

Unlike Mark at his first birthday, Sarah has no problem with getting "dirty":

We praise God for the precious daughter He has given us. She is not walking quite yet, but is getting more balance by the day. Recently we bought her a pair of shoes and she is now constantly "asking" for us to put her shoes and hat on her...too cute!! She makes her wants known, but she is not really talking yet at all. We have been shocked recently that she also has been "asking" to sit on her little potty and has done her business on it several times! No photos there.

August Newsletter

2010-09-08T05:37:00.000-07:00

Most of the month of August we have spent away from our home in Arequipa. First we took a trip to Chivay in order to help deliver clothing, blankets and food items to the poor and elderly. We spent quite a bit of time visiting at an asylum for abandoned elderly people. The living quarters are two large rooms (one for the five men and one for the one woman currently living there) with beds and a small shelf next to each bed for clothing. The rooms are solid concrete and there is no heat (Chivay is around 10,000 ft. so it gets pretty cold in the winter). The director told us that the son of the previous owner of the land is trying to run them off the property by physically threatening them and since the son is in politics, the mayor of the town doesn't want to defend the asylum. Please pray for this situation as it comes to mind.

Sarah got a throat infection during our time in Chivay and she had just recovered when we traveled to Lampa. We were in Lampa for 11 days, translating for a team from Beulah B.C. Most of our time there was spent in training and encouraging the leadership of a newly formed Baptist church there in Lampa. Miriam also got to become famous on the local radio station! Our team was able to help the local pastor fund a daily radio program and twice we were able to be guests on the show. Crowds gathered outside of the radio station … probably to get a glimpse of who was butchering their language! :) While we were in Lampa we also got to tour the Catholic church. Parts of it look like something belonging in an Indian Jones movie: first, because the church was built over some catacombs, and second, because there is a huge vault with dozens of skeletons hanging on the wall in one section of the church. The following picture is of us in the catacombs.

We have just returned home … and everyone but Steve has been or currently is sick with flu-like symptoms. :(

July Newsletter

2010-08-16T13:15:00.000-07:00

Peru's independence is celebrated on July 28^th and 29^th. It is actually a pretty quiet holiday here in Arequipa, though, because, due to local pride, the founding of Arequipa (August 15^th) is a more important holiday than the country's independence. Despite the low-key celebration, though, every house is flying a Peruvian flag...because if you are not flying the flag, you can be fined by the local government! We spent the 28^th with several families from our church who got together for lunch at a local restaurant and we spent an enjoyable afternoon together. Steve ordered the sampler plate of traditional food and enjoyed it all except for the cow's ear (which still had some hairs attached)! Miriam ordered the “safer” chicken and french-fries...also a very typical Peruvian meal. The photos we have included came from this event.

We were kept pretty busy this past month with church teams, but things are finally slowing down. This was the first trip for F.B.C. Eufaula. They are partnering with Valleydale B.C. working in Atico and Caraveli. The work went well in Atico, with several professions of faith in Jesus Christ. The other town, Caraveli, is a training center for Catholic nuns and is not very open to Evangelical mission work. On this recent trip the church helped repair a playground at an orphanage in Caraveli and provided the children with Bibles and shared Bible stories with them.

In answer to your prayers, we have been able to build a friendship with another couple from our church, Dan and Jully. They are from another part of the country and are actually working in Arequipa as missionaries. Thank you so much for praying, as it has been a true blessing to finally have some good Peruvian friends!

In other news, Sarah has finally begun to crawl and it is amazing how quickly she can get into things! She has heard the word “no” more often over this past week than ever before in her short life! Mark never did learn to crawl, so this is a new stage for us.

June newsletter

2010-07-10T19:15:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we returned home from Nazca where we met with the summer missionaries and heard stories from their first month's experiences. It was a blessing to be able to spend a few days with them and with the other members of our team. We praise God that Mark did not get sick on the trip (the road winds along the cliffs above the ocean for hours on end and Mark gets car sick) and we also praise Him that the kids slept really well at the hotel so we were able to have a relaxing time in Nazca. We also praise God for protection as we traveled, especially since we witnessed a pretty bad wreck right in front of us on our way home.

One of our summer teams has been working in Chaviña, an area where Quechua (KE-chew-uh) is the native language, though Spanish is taught in the schools. Many of the translators we send out speak Spanish, but not Quechua, but the Peruvian on this particular team does know Quechua and therefore understood that every time the team left their hostel they were being cursed at by children and adults alike. After much prayer and a decision to respond to each insult politely in Quechua, they are just now beginning to receive respect. Despite the fact that numerous teams have come to work in this area already, this team feels like things need to just “start over”. Please pray that over the next month God will continue to soften hearts towards them and towards the truth of the gospel.

This photo was taken at a “field day” at Mark's school celebrating Father's Day. One of the activities involved Mark and his classmates crawling through a tunnel and bringing Dad a paper with either a tongue-twister, a riddle or a saying...all in Spanish of course! With a little audience participation, Steve did just fine! :) A second event had Mark placing a plastic egg in a spoon and Steve running with the spoon in his mouth to the other end. Mark thought this was absolutely hysterical and they made a winning team in this event!

May Prayer Letter

2010-06-09T12:31:00.000-07:00

Perhaps the highlight of the month of May is the fact that Steve has released his online database for use by our REAPSouth team and the churches we partner with. Once we get past the initial learning curve, this website will help allow our churches to plan more of their trips themselves and help ease the workload on our team. Steve began work on this project about a year ago and if he knew then how much work it would be he might never have begun. He has learned a lot along the way and is excited to have it “finished” but he is already working on improvements!

This photo was taken at a Mother's Day program at Mark's school. Due to the fact that we were gone the two weeks prior to this event, Mark didn't really have a clue what he was supposed to be doing in the program...but at least he stood on stage with the other kids and let all the parents admire the “gringuito” (little white boy) at their school!

We sent out about 40 summer missionaries last week. They are working in some of the hardest to reach areas of Peru for the next two months. Please pray for their time there as the glamour of being in a different country wears off and the reality of village life and ministry settles in.

During the month of May we had a team of 15 students (plus the librarian) from Trinity College in Florida come and serve in Aplao. Multiple health complaints allowed them to build a friendship with a local nurse who then shared with them the needs of an impoverished family infected with TB. The team members were able to provide this family with blankets, food, clothing and other necessities along with doing some repair work and cleaning in their house and giving their two-year-old boy “his first bath in a long time, possibly ever.” But despite all of these good things they were able to do, one team member commented: “we only brought 'temporary' relief and a 'band-aid' over an open wound....which is why we are going back tomorrow morning one last time. One more time to encourage, motivate and challenge them all (the grandmother, mother and thirteen-year-old son) with the gospel.”

You never know what you will see in Peru...

2010-05-15T18:53:00.001-07:00

This first photo is actually from our trip to Colca Canyon rather than our time in Puno/Cusco. But it is an absolutely adorable picture so I just had to include it! :)

Look closely (or click on the photo to enlarge) and you will see the sheep tied on top of the van. Poor thing! Its head was hanging off the side and it kept trying to raise it's head and then would get exhausted and let it dangle over the side again. :(
Unfortunately, we missed the very best picture...three pigs tied on the back of a moto-taxi! So I snagged a picture of a moto-taxi off the internet and you can just imagine for yourself what three full grown pigs looked like tied behind it. :)

We saw quite a few of these buildings between Juliaca and Huancane. We thought they were little storage buildings but we were told that they are actually houses (not sure if many are still in use though). Interesting structures.
Here's another picture we missed. This is a painting of the Last Supper with cuy (guinea pig) being the main course. For those of you who don't know, cuy is a delicacy here. Anyway, given the cost of touring the cathedral and the fact that you aren't allowed to take photographs inside anyway...we never actually got to see the original. But I still thought some of you might enjoy seeing it. :)

And last but certainly not least...Machu Picchu! I just had to include this photo since it is even better than the postcards!

April prayer letter

2010-05-15T18:25:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the delay in getting this newsletter written and sent out. April has been a crazy month for us. We just returned from a two week trip to other parts of Peru. First we went to Puno and had a great time visiting with a fellow missionary family and getting acquainted with their work, which our team will be taking over soon. While in Puno we got to see Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable fresh-water lake in the world...it is an incredible blue color as you can see! From there, we traveled on to Cusco where we spent some time with two of the single girls on our team … and took the opportunity to go see several local archaeological sites, including Machu Picchu! The trip was great, but definitely tiring. Sarah began teething, so none of us got much sleep and we all came home with colds, coughs, and general exhaustion. Earlier in the month, we had the joy of celebrating Mark's 3rd birthday. We had his party at school (his teacher is holding the cake). There, we learned a new tradition … the birthday boy gets to take a bite out of the cake before it is cut! We were actually surprised that Mark cooperated with that one since he generally doesn't like getting “dirty.”

Happy Easter

2010-04-05T17:27:00.000-07:00

Rather than being awakened to church bells pealing out a welcome to Easter morning, we were awakened this Easter to thunderous explosions as the Catholic churches called everyone to mass and to the traditional "burning of Judas" ceremony. Below you can see a video taken at the church near our house. Judas is present in the Easter ceremonies of Catholic churches in many parts of the world...in Spain they apparently yell, "Who killed Jesus?" and then respond, "He did!" and point at a representation of Judas. Anyway, here in Arequipa they choose a local politician and burn him in effigy as Judas after reading out his crimes against the people. As you can see from the video, the body is filled with fireworks. There is definitely no sleeping through their Easter service!

March prayer letter

2010-04-03T08:57:00.000-07:00

First of all, for those of you who were expecting our return to the States in November for our six-month stateside assignment...well, the Lord has led us to continue on here in Arequipa a little while longer before taking our stateside assignment. This will give us a chance to feel more at home here and will allow us to help our team transition through the decrease in personnel. So right now we are planning to take our stateside assignment from July 2011 through January 2012. We look forward to visiting many of you then!

Because of the change in our stateside assignment, however, we decided to go ahead and plan on returning to New York to be with Steve's family for Christmas. Miriam's parents are also hoping to stop through and meet their second grandchild. It is sad to think Sarah will be 15 months old by the time they meet her...this is missionary life! Anyway, we are looking forward to seeing family (and hopefully some snow) for Christmas!

A few weeks ago Mark told us: “I speak English. Rosario speaks Spanish. Some people don't speak English because they don't brush their teeth.” We have no idea where he came up with such an idea, but to help dispel the myth, we have been sending Mark and a toothbrush off to school three days a week. Mark is posing with his new school uniform in the photo to the left.

In April, we will be traveling to Huancané, a new area for our team. The missionary family that has been living and working in this area will soon be moving to another area. While there, we will visit several different villages and meet with a local pastor. From Huancané, we will travel on to Cusco where we will be visiting our teammate, Ellen, and also taking a short vacation. Please pray for our children while we travel...Mark tends to get car sick and neither of them sleep as well when we are away from home.

February Update

2010-03-03T10:10:00.000-08:00

It has finally begun to rain here in the desert and will supposedly continue to do so for about a month. We have been amused to hear people talk about how hard it is raining, when to us it seems like barely more than a drizzle! But as you can see in our prayer request for Monday, some parts of the country, such as Cusco, where our teammate Ellen works, and Puno, where another missionary family works, have received quite a bit of rain. Please pray that through the relief efforts, our co-workers will have opportunities to share the gospel.

Thank you for your prayers for our student teams. The team working in Caraveli last month spent a few days in our home this past week so we were blessed to hear of the many contacts they have made and the seeds they have sown. While they were in our home, their translator, Arturo, received news that his father had been hit by a car. Arturo flew back to his home in Lima a few hours before his father passed away. His mother passed away a few years ago, and her death impacted him greatly. Arturo is one of our best translators and he does a great job of sharing the gospel...the only problem is that he does not claim to be a Christian. Please pray for him during this difficult time.

The photo we have included is of two children dancing the marinera, a typical Peruvian dance. If you would like to see more family photos, check the sidebar (click on photos to enlarge). We are still not good bloggers, but we are trying to at least include more photos! :)

All is well on the home front. Sarah is rolling over pretty well and will be crawling before we know it. She turns 6 months this week and Mark will be 3 in April! My how time flies!

January Update

2010-02-06T05:19:00.000-08:00

As you can see, we decided to slightly change the format of our newsletters. We are hoping to include more specific information about the teams we are working with here in southern Peru so that you, our faithful prayer supporters, can lift them up as well. We are also hoping to encourage more of you to pray for us on a daily basis, as we highly value your role in what we do here in Peru.

On Saturdays we are asking you to pray for our REAP South team. Partly due to limited finances, the IMB is planning on reducing the number of missionaries in Latin America and changing the focus of those who remain. For REAP South, this means that we will lose about 2/3 of our team due to natural attrition over the course of this year and we will be unable to replace these team members. As far as we know, our team will continue to exist, but will be forced to carry on the work with fewer members. Please pray for wisdom and guidance for Mike and Kathy Weaver, our team leaders, and for us as we consider what the future holds.

On Tuesdays and Wednesdays we are asking for prayer for our student teams. Nine students have come down to spend the semester working alongside our churches in the areas that have been “adopted”. Each three-person team will spend one month in a given area, and two of these teams are in our part of Peru this month. The team in Caraveli will be “breaking new ground” and the team in Chupa will be ministering to an already-formed group of believers.

On the home front, we are beginning to suspect that Mark's stomach complaints have more to do with a new baby in the house than anything else. The doctor sent us home with a placebo to see if it “helps”. Miriam had some health problems last week that affected her ability to nurse Sarah, which led to a very fussy baby, but, praise God, both Miriam and Sarah are better now!

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-25T03:53:00.001-08:00

Out of the mouth of . . . Mark

2009-12-14T12:02:00.000-08:00

Mark is talking non-stop these days, and here are some of the other interesting things he has said recently:

We started teaching him some of the children's catechism and he had just learned the answer to "who made all things?" ("God"). So later that day, when I jokingly asked "who made this mess with all of your toys?" he innocently replied, "God did".

He has had problems wetting the bed at night so we are forever having to change his sheets. So when he saw me take the sheets off of our bed he asked if we had wet our sheets too!

November Newsletter

2009-11-30T13:12:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving! As you can see from this picture, we enjoyed our Thanksgiving dinner.

We are especially thankful this month for our new pediatrician here in Arequipa who agrees with the doctors in Lima and in the States that Sarah is a healthy baby. Praise God!

Steve is now the official coordinator of the southern section of REAP South. We have had several teams come down this month, but not all of them fly through Arequipa. This month we got to meet a team from Parkridge Baptist Church in Florida. They are working with some Quechuan that are about a 15 hour drive from here. This trip for the church started out disappointing because they had truck problems that kept them from going to two villages that they had intended to go to. However, God was at work because in the village they were able to go to, they had two people accept the Lord and had three people that were baptized. Baptism is a big step because it signals a clear break from the Catholic church which is the prevalent religion in Peru.

Mark is doing well and is a big helper these days. Recently he asked, “Are you working?” (I was hanging the laundry). “Yes,” I replied. Then he said, “Well, I want to work, too.” . . . Where is the recorder when you need it?? One day I will long to hear him say that again!

Recent photos

2009-11-30T12:55:00.000-08:00

Here is Mark just "monkey-ing" around

Mark modelling his "highwater" shorts.

We finally got a picture of Sarah smiling!
She smiles all the time, but I guess our camera is just too slow.

Three bugs in a rug.
Mark is in his classic pose . . . is Sarah going to follow in his footsteps???

October Newsletter

2009-11-01T19:48:00.000-08:00

Sorry there are no photos in this blog post. The laptop with all our photos on it died, but thankfully Steve was able to revive the computer . . . kind of. The screen is now so dark that it is very difficult to use. But at least we didn't lose all our baby photos, they are just kind of hard to access. :) Oh, and for those who did not know, you can click on the photos of Baby Sarah at the right (in the slideshow) and you can see a larger version of the photos. Enjoy!

As you all know by now, baby Sarah decided to come about three weeks early. Sarah Ellen Christy was born on September 5th at 11:15 pm. She weighed almost 6 lbs. at birth and is now a little over 7 lbs. She is growing slowly, but seems to be a healthy baby.

It seems like Mark takes after the Ligon side of the family with respect to his growth and Sarah takes after the Christy side. However, despite the fact that small babies are very common on Steve’s side of the family, our pediatrician is concerned about Sarah’s growth rate and is really pressuring us to supplement her with formula twice a day, which we do not want to do. Please pray that we would have wisdom in this situation: would it be better to give her the formula or find a new pediatrician???

In other news, we had a wonderful visit with Steve’s parents. They helped us out in so many ways: rocking the baby to sleep, playing with an active toddler (or reading stories over and over until they are memorized), washing a seemingly endless pile of
dishes, cooking and freezing meals until the freezer could hold no more, etc., etc. THANK YOU!!!

Steve’s parents also graciously brought down clothes and other gifts for both Sarah and Mark from several of you . . . so thanks to each of you as well! It is nice to know we have friends and family in the States thinking of us and our kids.

We are currently in Lima where we are trying to take care of Sarah’s documentation. We are also enjoying spending time with our friends in Lima (and showing off our new baby, of course!). But we are definitely looking forward to getting back to
Arequipa (and sunshine!) on November 3.

Baby Sarah's Arrival

2009-09-12T08:10:00.000-07:00

Wow! Can you believe that I am posting again? Actually, Miriam put up the last post on the 5th and that night, Baby Sarah made her appearance. Though she was about 2 and a half weeks early, she is healthy and strong. God really blessed us with Sarah and Miriam and the baby were in the hospital less than 12 hours. Though the birth was nothing like Mark's, it was still dramatic. Sarah was born not in the room designated for such things but was born in the regular hospital room. Since the doctor didn't get there soon enough, I was the first person to hold my precious bundle of joy screaming her lungs out. We praise God for a quick and safe delivery and quick release from the hospital. I have also added a slide show to the right with pictures of the new baby. Enjoy!

August newsletter

2009-09-05T06:13:00.000-07:00

After five weeks of hearing, “we will come and install your telephone and internet by this afternoon—or at the very latest, by tomorrow” . . . we FINALLY have a home phone and internet connection. Now Steve is able to do his job and we are able to better keep in contact with all of you as well!

August has been filled with the miscellaneous details of getting settled into our new home, looking for a good church to attend, and making contacts in our neighborhood. One of the things we are hoping to accomplish this week is have the Chocano family (the owners of our home) over for dinner. We want to do this before our baby arrives, since life will get chaotic then. Unfortunately, Mark has been sick with a fever for several days and we want him to get better first since the Chocanos also have a little baby.

It is hard to believe that by this time next month we will have a newborn around the house! Please pray for the health of Miriam and the baby during these next few weeks. Though there is an 80% rate of c-section births in Peru, our doctor seems very supportive of natural births, so we are praying that God will give us a healthy, natural birth. Please pray that God will help us with clear communication during the labor and delivery as we do not expect anyone at the hospital to speak English. Please pray for Mark during this time of transition from being an only child to an older brother. We rejoice that Steve’s parents will be coming down Sept. 22 to help us during this time and they will be staying for about a month.

September’s newsletter will most likely just be a baby announcement . . so just pray as you feel led. Thanks!

Ps 107:7 And He guided them by the right way, so as to go to a city to live in.

2009-07-07T13:15:00.001-07:00

We made the journey down to Arequipa to try to determine whether God wanted us to move down there before the baby comes in September or whether we should wait until next April as we had originally planned. We were going to wait until April because our team was originally going to be 3 families short in Lima from December through April: one was planning on permanently moving to Cuzco, one would be in the States from Dec. through April and one would be in the States for an entire year beginning in December. But the moving plans fell through for the family going to Cuzco, so it began to look like the people left in Lima might be able to manage without us. In addition, we began wondering if the reason our plans to move to another apartment (which we were assured would come to pass the end of April) continued to fall through and the reason we never felt completely satisfied with any of the doctors we had found in Lima could be due to the fact that God had a place for us to live and a doctor waiting for us in Arequipa. So that is why we drove down to Arequipa last week.

We were a little disappointed with the way the week was playing out at first. We had called a realtor the week before and asked her to begin looking for places to show us on Tues. When we arrived in town and called her she asked if we could get together on Thurs at 4:30 pm (we were originally planning on leaving Friday morning). Finally she agreed to meet with us on Wed. at 4 p.m. but said she only had three houses to show us. Anyway, Tues. kind of felt like a wasted day to us.

The first house the realtor took us to was all locked up and the people who were supposed to have the key never could find it so we never got to see the house . . . but it looked huge!! The second house she had the keys to, but apparently they had just changed the locks so we were only able to get in the front gate. However, as we were walking back to our taxi to leave, a man who was working in the yard said one of the windows was unlocked so he climbed through and let us in. This house was huge also and had a half-dozen staircases which did not seem appropriate for small children . . . not to mention the decorative swimming pool/fountain in the front yard which goes beyond mission policies! :) At the third house thankfully the keys worked. We liked it best of all, but there were two serious problems with the house. One was that our stove would not fit in the given space (they like "Barbie-sized" stoves down here) and the only other option was along a wall of glass. :( The other serious problem was that the laundry area was on the third floor/roof and the only access to it was a narrow metal spiral staircase . . . we would definitely have to hire someone else to do the laundry, lest I break my neck trying to get up and down the stairs . . . and I suppose the washer and dryer would have to be hauled up onto the roof over the side of the house. So, all in all, Wed. was a bit disappointing as well.

Thurs. I had a doctors appointment scheduled with a lady who came recommended by two of our fellow missionaries. The doctor was everything I had been looking for and had been unable to find in Lima. We had been praying that God would make His will plain to us through the doctor's appointment and the house search. So far, the house search was not looking so promising, but the doctor's appointment went so well that I was almost in tears as we left her office. I asked Steve whether I could just fly down to Arequipa to have the baby there even if we couldn't find a house! :)

But the house search took a positive turn on Thurs. as well. We have a single young lady serving with our team in Arequipa and that is one of the reasons our team wanted to place a family down there as well. Anyway, she spoke with one of the guards on her street and he said there were two places for rent in that area. One of the houses was furnished, so that didn't work for us. The other house was an older house and the inside looked a little worn, but it had a nice area for Mark to play outside and a good layout of rooms (laundry on the bottom floor) and a fairly reasonable price, and it is located about 2 blocks from our teammate. We actually might not have stopped by to see about this second house except for the fact that the realtor told us she would meet us at 3pm and show us two more houses, though they were smaller ones (and we are thinking, "yes, please show us something smaller!") but then she wasn't at her office at 3pm nor was she answering her cell phone, so we decided to go check out the second house and come back to her office later (and we still got back to her office before she did!). When the realtor arrived she said that one of the houses had been rented just that morning, but she took us to see the other one. It was a beautiful brand new house in a nice gated neighborhood. We went back to our hotel that evening trying to decide which of these two houses would work for us and whether we should still leave the following morning as planned or whether we needed to stay in town to look into the two houses a bit further.

We decided to stay in town for one more day and try pursuing the older house first. Friday was filled with lots of "yeses" "nos" and "maybes"(if such words exist:). In the end, we were glad we had stayed an extra day because it helped us iron out some details. We ended up saying "yes" to both houses and waiting to see what would happen by Monday when we went to our office for approval.

Just today (Tues.) we received the final approval from our office for renting the older house and we are really excited about moving there in a few short weeks. All in all, we feel like God has graciously fulfilled Ps. 107:7 for us during the past week.

Ps 107:4 Some of you were lost in the scorching desert, far from a town.

2009-07-07T09:34:00.000-07:00

If anyone is out there reading this anymore, well, sorry for the four months of silence. I think I will begin posting our monthly newsletters up here so that there is at least something for people to read. :)

Ok, so here is the extended version of our recent trip from Lima to Arequipa. As I have alluded to in the title to this post, we felt like we were lost in the scorching desert, far from any human habitation for hours on end. Who knew that you could drive through so many hours of wasteland??? And this wasn't the pretty kind of desert with blooming cactus . . . in general it was more like a litter box or a moonscape. But part of the way is along the ocean and, if winding along the cliffs along the coastline doesn't make you sick, it is quite pretty. The ocean is a beautiful color and the beaches are deserted (no pun intended! :).

If you were to take a bus from Lima to Arequipa it would take about 14 hours: 6 hours from Lima to Nazca and 8 hours from Nazca to Arequipa. It took us longer than that. First, we had the problem of the pregnant lady (that's me!) who had to stop at every bathroom along the way . . . and some places where there was no bathroom! Then we had the problem of a 2 year old boy who can only take so many hours sitting in a car seat. Not to mention the fact that he got sick on the way from Nazca to Arequipa so we had to stop for that and then we decided to take a longer lunch break to make sure it stayed down as well. Our final problem was that no one had told us exactly how to get there . . . all we heard was "stay on the Pan American Highway and it will take you there". Well, we didn't have a map of Peru with us, but we did have a map of Arequipa showing a connection to the Pan American so we thought we could figure it out. Unfortunately, either there are two Pan American Highways near Arequipa or somehow you get off of the Pan American without them ever telling you so. All of that to say that when we tried to match up our "reality" with the map . . . they didn't match. So we wandered around Arequipa for two hours in the dark trying to find a street sign that would tell us where we were. When we started climbing back into the mountains and saw the city spread out beneath us (we needed to be in the center of town), we decided we had better start asking for some directions. Anyway, we finally found our way to the hotel we were staying at, but we never did figure out what went wrong with the map.

Apparently we should have discussed this discrepancy between "reality" and the map with some of the locals before leaving town, but we never did. So, of course, on the way out we decided to try to follow the map and get to the Pan American. Now it was getting dark as we arrived in Arequipa, but still, we thought something ought to look familiar as we headed out of town . . . but it never really did. Eventually we ended up at a large gate with an armed guard asking what we were doing there . . . we had ended up at a mine of some sort. Well, we told the guard we were looking for the Pan American and he said the turn off was about 1 km. back. So we turned around, wondering how we could have made such a mistake . . . until we saw the turn off. It had been marked clearly enough, but the fact that the road called the Pan American looked more like a deserted path through the wilderness must have caused us not to recognize it as where we had hoped to go. So, what to do??? Well, by this point we could have turned back and added at least another hour on our trip or we could try following this semi-paved track through the wilderness and hope it led to the road we had come in on. We opted for the latter. I don't know why I forgot to get out my camera and take pictures of it - sorry! We felt like we were stuck in a Looney Tunes episode and were on the lookout for Wiley Coyote to drop a boulder on our heads as we came around the bend or through the tunnel. I'm sure the guard at the mine had a good laugh about the crazy gringos looking for the Pan American! Anyway, we wandered down this extremely well beaten (in the literal sense) path for about an hour in the hopes that we would surely eventually come out on the road we were looking for. Not so much fun for a pregnant lady, but I was laughing hysterically most of the way because it was just such a crazy adventure.

Apart from that, the trip back to Lima was much less stressful than the trip out: Mark slept better and didn't get sick, and we were able to make the trip faster. We will be making this trip in the car again soon when we move down to Arequipa, but other than that, my vote is to fly!

Oh, I forgot to mention that we did take time to see some of the famous Nazca lines while we were going through Nazca. It costs about $50 per person to do the airplane tour of all of the designs, but there is an observation tower along the highway where you can climb up and see two of them for 1 sole per person (about 30 cents)! It was pretty impressive for 60 cents! Here are some photos (though my little digital camera doesn't do them justice):

New apartment .... and stuff!

2009-02-18T14:41:00.000-08:00

Wow, almost two months! That's bad, even for us. But I don't take all of the blame. During that time, we moved into our apartment (yeah!) and began setting up a new home in Peru. However, because of that, we didn't have any Internet for about three and a half weeks while the phone company tried to figure out what to do with us! Our Internet is through the phone line and we had to get the phone before anything else. The phone took about four days to install but not so fast on the Internet. Such is life here in Peru. Some things go fast, some slow!

Not much else has happened yet. We are beginning to learn what we will do as well as doing all of the "busy work", the second year culture and language learning that we are assigned on the field. Besides that, we have sent off 6 enhancement teams to travel to different parts of Peru and help the work in those areas.

Since no post should be totally boring, here is a video of Mark learning to jump (and do the army crawl!). Enjoy!

Feliz Navidad

2008-12-25T17:27:00.000-08:00

What a blessing it is to be a part of the family of God and have family members in every corner of the globe! Though we missed our blood-related family members, we enjoyed getting to know our new family members here in Peru. Christmas Eve we spent with the Austin family (our teammates). They invited a good sized group over and we ate gumbo (a first for me . . . pretty good stuff!) and played "dirty santa" (a game where gifts are exchanged and can be stolen). Mark didn't get to benefit from the gift exchange, but the Austins bought him a little plastic car for him to ride around on. Here is a picture of Mark with one of the Austin boys:

Christmas day, Mark helped me fix blueberry muffins for breakfast:

Then we enjoyed opening our gifts:

In the afternoon we got together with about 50 people from our mission here in Lima and had lunch and hung out and had another gift exchange. We ended up with a very furry stuffed monkey, but managed to trade him for a Springform cake pan!!!!

This Christmas, as we have been here in a new place with new people, I have been thinking about the incarnation. On a very small scale (like, possibly even incomparably small) we are experiencing some of what Jesus did when He left His rightful place at the right hand of His Father and took upon Himself human flesh. Wow! What a difference that must have been! But that was just the beginning of how low He stooped in order to make us part of His family . . . He humbled Himself to the point of death . . . death on a cross . . . my cross . . . your cross. And that is why we are spending our Christmas away from friends, family and the comforts of life in the USA . . . to share this message with others that they too can become part of God's family.

Goodbye and Hello

2008-12-14T12:15:00.000-08:00

The last few days have been filled with goodbyes and hellos. Here is a picture of us with fellow graduates Jeremy and Crystal Nelson (also serving in Peru) and Henry and Tasha Clary (serving in Uruguay). The next picture is of our good friends Cesar and Scarleth, their daughter Priscilla and new baby Josue.

We were stressed out about packing for Peru because when we flew from the U.S. to Costa Rica we had 6 checked bags: 70 lbs. each, 3 carry-ons: 40 lbs. each, 3 "personal items": 40 lbs. each. The flight to Peru allowed 6 checked bags: 50 lbs. each, 3 carry-ons: 22 lbs. each, and no additional "personal items". In addition, the information we had about luggage requirements said that our stroller would be counted as a piece of luggage and that Steve's guitar was too big to be a carry-on item and would also be counted as a piece of luggage. We praise God that the didn't count the stroller as any of our pieces of luggage and they allowed the guitar to count as a carry-on!

We arrived in Peru at about 3 p.m. (Peru is in Eastern Standard Time in case you were wondering). Everyone told us that we arrived on one of the few sunny days Lima every receives, but either the clouds came in, or I just don't know what a sunny day looks like around here, because the skies looked pretty gray to me. Anyway, we made it and so did our luggage.

Today we went grocery shopping and I wanted to include a picture, but unfortunately the picture didn't come out right. The store is underground but the entrance/exit is at ground level so you put your grocery cart on an inclined moving walkway (like at airports) and the wheels on the cart automatically lock so that when you are leaving with your loaded cart it doesn't roll down the walkway, crushing you in the process. How cool is that!

We don't know how much Mark actually understands of what has happened over the last few days. It seems like he must have some understanding, though, because when our friends Noemy and Melinda came to visit the night before we left he just clung to them and didn't want to let go. Finally they decided to take him around the block in their car since he really seemed to want to go with them. Now I can tell him that I have stayed up late at night (ok, it was like 9 pm, but that's late for him!) waiting for him to come home while he was out driving around with two girls ever since he was 20 months old! Oh, it was kind of funny because we made it a habit to sleep with a fan running to help block any noises "for Mark's sake". Well, we got rid of the fan several days before leaving Costa Rica and guess who couldn't sleep at night! Yep, the big people. One night we heard an awful noise at 2 am - I thought it was a woman moaning and wailing after losing a baby or something. Steve finally decided it was a cat. But that made us wide awake and we couldn't get back to sleep until about 4am and that was when someone decided to turn up their radio and keep us awake until about 5:30 . . . and of course Mark usually wakes us up at 6. Pretty much the same thing happened the night before we left, only that time it was a man who was plagued by the dry heaves right outside our door. It was pretty awful, too, and I must say I wouldn't have been surprised to see a dead body out there in the morning considering how violently he was retching (or attempting to retch). Anyway, we were exhausted on the plane ride and were hoping for a good nights rest in Peru, but unfortunately Mark did not sleep well last night. We are starting to feel the daze of having a newborn around. Well, hopefully we can get some more sleep soon. If this blog seems to make no sense, well, now you know why! :)

So long, Costa Rica!

2008-12-09T19:05:00.000-08:00

Well, this will be our last post from Costa Rica. Saturday we fly to Peru where we will begin using all that we have learned in this last year here in Costa Rica. Time has really flown while we were here. Mark has grown extremely fast. I've learned to communicate in Spanish. We've seen some really beautiful places and made some really good friends. Most of our apartment is packed up and tomorrow is my last day of classes. Friday we have our graduation at the Institute. Pray for us as we make this move to Peru and settle into the work that we know the Lord has led us to do.

Here are a couple of pictures to hold you all over until we have Internet again. I'm not sure when that will be, but it could be a while.

Posadas

2008-11-26T17:42:00.000-08:00

Wow, how time flies by! It has been another month since we updated our blog! We have been enjoying a visit from Miriam's parents here as well as getting ready for our impending move. Miriam's parents were here for 10 days. It was a great time and Mark really blossomed under all of the attention. He has started talking nonstop and trying to repeat a lot of the words we say. :-)

This last week at the Institute, we had a culture day when we learn more about Latin culture. This time, we learned about "Posadas". This is an interesting festival. It started with the Aztecs and was celebrated in December. It was a 9-day festival to their highest god. The people would purchase a slave who was healthy and they would parade them around the town, feed them well, and pay homage to them as the representatives of the god. On the 9th day, they would be sacrificed to the god.

When the Spanish conquered Latin America, a priest noticed that this festival was at the same time that the Catholics celebrated the birth of Christ, so they decided to "change" it. They started the tradition of "posadas". In Spanish, posada means an inn. They changed it so that instead of parading slaves around to worship a false god, they would celebrate Christ's birth by having processions in the towns. In these processions, the people would go from house to house carrying a representaton of Mary, Joseph and a donkey. They would sing a song asking if there was any room for them to enter because Mary was going to give birth. The people in the house would reply that there was no room. When they came to the designated house, they would be allowed in and would then have a time of reciting prayers. The hosts would then give everyone a small gift (food, money, or something else). This gift was called an "aguinaldo". Also, as part of the celebration, there would be pinatas that were in the shape of a star and had 7 points. The 7 points symbolized the 7 sins of the Catholic church (pride, greed, etc.)

Here in Costa Rica, posadas aren't celebrated much now but in other Latin countries, they are. To learn about them, we also had pinatas at the Institute. However, the teachers told us that we were too polite when recovering the candy that came out and they showed us how it should be done. Here is a picture of some of the teachers "competing" for candy!
An interesting side note, in Costa Rica, by law, the people have to receive a Christmas bonus equal to 1 month of pay. This is called the "aguinaldo". Even the garbage collectors will come and knock on your gate to receive it!

I Corinthians 9:27

2008-10-27T15:41:00.000-07:00

Apparently this is Mark's "life verse" at the moment. The Analytical-Literal translations says "But I beat my body black and blue". Of course, due to his limited biblical training at this point, he has taken this verse to the extreme in the last few days. Last Saturday he climbed up on a chair and was leaning on the table when, apparently, the chair slid out from under him and he hit the floor. He cut a gash in the back of his head and therefore received his first two stitches (and hopefully his last, but somehow I am not overly confident about that). The doctor said he could either get the stitches or wear a headband for 48 hours . . . ha! I'd like to see him leave a headband on for 48 seconds! Usually you can't even get him to wear a hat for that long! (Unless he is just playing with the hat). Anyway, he screamed bloody murder as they stitched him up. Steve and I had to pin him down during the procedure. I surprised even myself at how well I was holding up during the whole ordeal because the first time he split his lip I felt faint and had to sit down. Anyway, as they stitched him up I turned my head away because I knew I couldn't watch it. When they finished they handed him to me and I stood up and immediately felt dizzy and had to give him to Steve. I had to sit there for a bit with my head between my knees before we could leave. I'm definitely not nurse material! We did take a picture of Mark when we got home, but it makes me queasy just looking at the picture, so I'm not including it. Instead, I'll include the picture from when he fell off our bed two days later and got a huge knot on his forehead. Yep, sure enough! One of our friends here said now he knows why we are leaving the country in a few weeks . . . so PANI (child services) doesn't come after us !

Pumpkin Pie and . . . other stuff :)

2008-10-24T08:53:00.000-07:00

Hello, my faithful reading audience (or any other unsuspecting passerby who for some unknown reason has decided to read our blog)!

Well, tomorrow we are going to a party at a friend's house and have decided to give them a taste of pumpkin pie. Unfortunately, we have no pumpkin. So we picked out a nice looking squash and muscled it open (Yep, just ask Steve. I'm sure his hands are black and blue today from whacking away at that squash with our pitifully dull knives. And yes, we could buy better knives, but we are leaving in 7 weeks and 1 day.) I'm not sure if the stringy stuff around the seeds was supposed to be blackish-green or not, but it looked rather disgusting.In other news, Mark has been showing interest in potty training. (Sorry, no picture! :) I was intending to wait until after we got to Peru, but due to his interest, have decided to at least introduce him to the idea of using the toilet. We bought him a little cushioned seat that goes on the regular toilet and tried to get him to sit on it and at first he was absolutely terrified of it. But now he has sat there several times . . . and he actually went peepee in the toilet for the first time yesterday! Yeah for him! Before we know it he will ask for the keys to our car . . . .

Thoughts...

2008-10-13T12:53:00.001-07:00

Ok, I decided to write something on the blog. First, it is fun learning another language. But not all of the time. So, you look for whatever you can find that is fun to get through when it is just hard. For me, the high point this week was when we were watching Scooby-Doo in Spanish. That's right, they translated the original cartoon into Spanish. So, at one point, the group starts talking about King Tut. However, they translate it into Spanish: "Rey Tut". Ok, may not look funny but a "u" in Spanish is pronounced like "oo", or "Rey Toot". Ok, ok, you can tell I'm too tired.

We are doing better this week. Last week, Mark had more issues with his cough and on Wednesday and Thursday, he slept while constantly coughing until about 3 in the morning. Then on Friday, he didn't want to sleep at all until about 3:30 because of the medicine he is on. So, needless to say, Miriam and I are pretty tired. However, he has slept well for the last two nights, so we are catching up.

On another theme, I wanted to put up something that I read this morning. I have e-Sword on my computer and with this, I downloaded a daily devotional by George H. Morrison called "Devotional Sermons". I really don't know anything about Mr. Morrison, but today happened to read the devotional. It was on Romans 8:38. Usually, I have heard this verse taught to show that God is "todopoderoso" or all-powerful and therefore, nothing can separate us from Him. This is true but in Mr. Morrison's devotional, he takes a different slant on it. He talks about how "things present", things we can see and feel, can separate us from God not because they are greater than God but because we turn our focus from God and eternity and to the things around us and now. He illustrates this by saying if we hold a penny close enough to our eyes, we will not be able to see the sun. Though the sun is much greater than the penny, we loose sight of it. This is true in our lives as we relate to God also. While we are here in language school, it is so easy to forget the big picture "why are we here?". We begin to focus on learning the language as the goal, when in reality, it is only a means to help us present the greatest news ever to people that have never had a chance to hear it. What other things of eternal importance have I lost sight of because I am focusing on the present, temporal world?

I recently read the blog of some friends of ours that are in Peru now. The blog is at http://jennymclamb.wordpress.com/2008/09/29/if-i-just/ and http://johnmclamb.wordpress.com/2008/10/03/understanding-and-accepting/ (a husband's and wife's blog :-) I think these blogs have a connection to what I mentioned above. Things, always getting between us and God. But they also have a great point that they make - God wants us to become more like Him, not be comfortable! In the big picture, it isn't even about reaching others with the Gospel, though that is my task. In the big picture, God wants me to be conformed to His image! If I become more like Him every day, I will have succeded no matter what else I accomplish.

Ok, this post is really long. But, it started out funny so I'll end it with another light-hearted picture of Mark. Is there any better way to end? :-) This is Mark modeling his mother's hat.

When eggs look strange . . .

2008-10-03T13:35:00.000-07:00

You know you have been outside of the U.S. too long when white eggs look strange to you. Today I was at the local grocery store and I noticed something strange next to the eggs: a carton of white, egg-shaped objects. I thought, "How strange? Are they candies? Are they wax? What are they?" Upon closer examination, I came to the realization that they were, in fact, eggs, despite the fact that they were pure white! . . . And I had to laugh at myself!
Apart from the fact that it has been way too long since I've seen a white egg, another difference is that they don't refrigerate their eggs here (at least at the store; I don't know what they do with them at home - we refrigerate them). I don't know why we always refrigerate them in the U.S. but so far I haven't found one bad egg here!
Ok, and the picture has nothing to do with eggs . . . I just figured everyone would really prefer to see a picture of Mark rather than read about my issues with eggs, but since I insist upon writing something, I leave you this picture as a token of my appreciation for visiting this poorly tended garden we call a blog. :) -- Miriam

Happy Independence Day, Costa Rica!

2008-09-13T15:39:00.000-07:00

Ok, a week and a half has come and gone. So, what are we up to? Glad you asked. :-)

We have begun our last trimester here in Costa Rica. I have two classes this tri - one is a language class where we have debates and cover various topics in our quest for better Spanish. This week, we watched an interesting movie. It is actually an Italian movie called "La Vita E Bella" and in Spanish is called "La Vida Es Bella". Interesting how close the titles are! In English it is "Life is Beautiful". Of course, we watched it in Spanish and then discussed it.

My other class is grammar. We're supposedly learning the final rules of Spanish grammar. However, I have to do a lot of review of the things we have already learned!

Miriam is having tutoring with a Peruvian couple who are helping her to learn some of the different words used in Peru as well as cultural differences.

In other news, Costa Rica is celebrating their Independence Day this coming Monday, September 15th. In the Institute, we learned some of the ways that the Ticos celebrate. One of the ways is that the day before, the kids and families parade through the streets carrying lanterns and flags. To show us, they had the kids of the kindergarten and nursery parade through the grounds. Here is Mark and the kids in the parade:
Mark was the last in line and got left behind while getting a drink of water. :-)
Also, Mark has learned a new trick. He has started feeding himself most of the time which makes meals a lot longer and more interesting. But he has also decided that a spoon or fork is too slow sometimes and has decided that he should eat his fruit puree and yogurt by drinking them. Here is a picture of him trying the fruit puree:
Finally, to end it all, here is just a really cute picture of Mark:

Piercings at such a young age!

2008-09-03T09:47:00.000-07:00

I never thought my son would want a pierced lip at 17 months old! Yes, he took a dive off of our step between the kitchen and the rest of the house and tried to pierce his lip using his teeth. At first we thought his teeth had gone all the way through since his lip was cut on the inside and the outside, but we finally decided his top teeth went through one way and his bottom teeth went through the other. He kept picking at his lip so we thought it would never heal, but it finally did. As soon as he made the decision to get this piercing he regretted it, so we were taken by surprise when he tried it once again last night just as his previous scab was disappearing. And as if that weren't enough damage to his face, he scraped his head on the sidewalk this morning. We were out for a walk and he found a driveway with a slope to it (he loves walking up and down slopes) which he proceeded to walk up and down for about 5 minutes. Everything was going just fine until he decided - as he was going downhill - to put his head on the ground and look through his legs. Very bad idea! What will he think of next!!! :-O
Oh, by the way, the picture of Mark sleeping is just to show you that he does have peaceful moments. Of course the picture WAS taken BEFORE all of these mishaps . . . maybe all of the peaceful moments have come and gone . . . .

Tiffany's Visit

2008-08-28T08:00:00.000-07:00

Our good friend Tiffany has come and gone. She flew in the last day of classes and stayed for 11 days. We had a great visit, though it seemed to fly by. Originally we had planned to rent a vehicle and visit Savegre, my (Miriam's) favorite place in Costa Rica. Savegre is a river and has several waterfalls and a great hiking trail. Unfortunately, we found out at the last minute that we would be unable to rent the car due to paperwork issues so the Savegre trip had to be canceled. :( Hopefully Steve and I will be able to go there some time before we leave Costa Rica! The problem is that you really need a car to get there. . . . Anyway, we had also planned a beach trip and, because of Mark's age and the length of the trip, going by public bus was really out of the question. In the end we hired a driver to take us. It wasn't what we really wanted to do, but God was sovereignly at work behind the scenes and He sent us a driver who seemed to have a real hunger for the Truth. Carlos (the driver) repeatedly brought the conversation back to spiritual things and we discussed everything from salvation to what the Bible says about homosexuality. He surprised us with how much he knew about what the Bible teaches . . . given the fact that he had never read the Bible. We left him with a New Testament and encouraged him to read the book of John. Now we can only pray that the Holy Spirit will open his eyes to the truth of who Jesus Christ is and what that means for him personally.

Un Turno

2008-08-02T14:41:00.000-07:00

A "turno" is the term they use here for something similar to our "fairs". Turnos were originally only held by the Catholic church for fund raising purposes, but now they are sometimes held by the local government (also for fund raising purposes). For our most recent "culture day" at school we enjoyed participating in a turno (though they were nice enough not to charge us for participating :). We played many familiar games and some that were new: dart throwing at balloons (attached to photos of our teachers!), ring toss, throwing a pingpong ball through the "mouth" of a painted clown, "fishing" in a kiddie pool, bingo, jacks (with the crazy-hard addition of flipping the jacks from the front to the back of the hand), and a game where you smack your hand on the table and try to flip over little paper figures. The highlight of the turno is a "masquerade" (see photo). People wearing various masks came dancing through the campus to the music of a small marching band. As part of the fun, the spectators try to "provoke" the "masqueraders" who in turn try to chase down these people and hit them with a wooden switch. We were told that in some areas they use pig intestines rather than a wooden switch ("the dirtier the better")!

virtual reality

2008-07-22T18:43:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture from our recent trip to the beach. It was so relaxing, so beautiful . . . in our dreams! Yes, the sad truth is that we weren't really at the beach, we just edited the photo. But the hats just HAD to be worn at the beach! So, no, we haven't been to the beach since our trip last December, but we are planning to go soon! Our friend Tiffany is coming to visit in mid-August and we are so excited!!! We haven't decided exactly where we are going, but we know that it will include a trip to the beach. We'll see if Mark likes it this time. He was scared of the ocean last trip and he never has really enjoyed the pool either. Oh, well, Steve and I both prefer the mountains to the beach anyway, so we aren't too devastated. But we are still looking forward to our next trip.

Chicken or hot dogs?

2008-07-18T08:37:00.000-07:00

Wow! Not even a week has passed and here I (Miriam) am writing again!
Anyway, who knew that when you bought pre-marinated Chile-Lime Chicken from the grocery store that it would taste like a hot dog. Yep. Crazy but true! And it was raw chicken breasts so we know it was not hot dog "meat" (whatever that might be). Anyway, other than funky tasting chicken we don't get too much crazy stuff to eat around here. They do like eating cow tongue and cow intestine but even some people in the US like eating that stuff! However, when we get to Peru we will have to eat over-sized gerbil-like animals. Yum!Yum! It's a delicacy there so they don't eat it every day of the week, but if someone offers it to you, you can't turn it down. Steve tried some on his trip to Ecuador and said it was pretty nasty but had he not gotten a mouth full of fat it might have been a little more palatable. We have also heard that there is an up-and-coming drink in Peru that is supposed to enhance your mental capacities or something like that - it is made out of raw frog meat thrown in a blender - we can't wait!!!! Hopefully if they ever offer it to me, they won't tell me what it is beforehand. Ignorance is bliss in such cases.

Father's Day

2008-07-14T08:32:00.000-07:00

Yes, we know, Father's Day was like a month ago. But this was a cute story so we wanted to share it with you. Those who receive our monthly newsletters already read this, so this is for the rest of you. And we are really sorry about not being better bloggers. Maybe someday we'll get better at it. I (Miriam) would write more to catch you up, but I have a fussy little boy here distracting me. So . . . here's the Father's Day story.

On Father’s Day Mark came home from church with a picture that has his handprint on it and a little chocolate candy to give to Daddy. He also had a beautifully iced cupcake to give Daddy. Unfortunately he decided to sit down on top of the wet handprint, the chocolate candy AND the cupcake before Daddy got to receive his gift. Happy Father’s Day!

Ok, it's been a long time!

2008-06-02T17:24:00.001-07:00

Well, from about the best time between posts to about the worst! Sorry about that. We are finally back into the swing of things here and I hope (yet again!) to post more regularly.

A lot has happened since our last post. We had a short vacation from school between tris. (Yes, we completed one! Only two more to go!) My parents visited for the break and we got to visit a few of the beautiful spots in Costa Rica. This included trips to Volcán Irazu, an inactive volcano; Orosi and another town that currently escapes my memory but that has the ruins of the oldest church in Costa Rica; a coffee plantation and La Paz, a park with many types of birds and a few waterfalls; and Volcán Arenal, an active volcano here.

Our second trimester has started at the language school. I have elected this trimester to take a different track from the classroom. It is a program called FARO and it means that I have to go out and talk with some Ticos twice each week plus write up reports in Spanish. I am liking it so far. It is definitely harder than sitting in a classroom and talking with other English speakers that are trying to learn Spanish but I believe it will help me to learn Spanish much more quickly.

Mark is growing VERY rapidly! He is now 13 months old and is walking all over and getting into everything! He is also tall enough now that he can grab things that are too close to the edge on tables and cabinets. Here is a photo of him from Mother's Day:

He also now has 11 teeth. This includes a molar or two that have been causing him some pain. I'll try to get a video of him walking to add. He just gets cuter by the day and Miriam believes she can see him growing. He has begun to copy us and loves to waive to everyone he sees.

Well, hopefully I'll be adding more often. Check back for more updates (I hope!)

More news of Mark

2008-04-02T19:46:00.000-07:00

A new post already! Wow, this must be a record! :-)

This is just a short post to let you know that Mark has joined the world of the walking. Or at least, he has started to. On Tuesday of last week, Mark took his first tentative steps. Since then, it has been a hit or miss situation whether he will try to walk or get down and "crawl". He is still not too sure he likes it a lot, but he is walking a little bit more. Here are two short clips of him walking last Friday (and I do mean short- he isn't into marathons yet!)

Hope you like the videos. More next time.

Semana Santa

2008-03-28T09:06:00.000-07:00

Semana Santa means Holy Week. It is celebrated the week before Easter. The Catholic churches hold a variety of activities this week to commemorate the events surrounding the death of Christ. We went to the local procession on the day before Easter. They used to have a man who acted out the role of Christ but now they just use a life-sized statue of Christ in our area. First, the statue of Christ came down the street from the main Catholic church and met up with a statue of Mary which came from a local chapel. At their encounter, the priest gave a speech about how painful this encounter must have been and how the Church is a representation of Mary and it is pained when it's members do not reverence her (the Church) as they should. Then the processional went back toward the main Catholic church and they made several stops along the way to "talk" to various people such as the "woman at the well" and "Veronica" (who supposedly wiped Jesus' bloody face and received an imprint of his face on the cloth). We didn't stay for the entire procession because for one thing we arrived an hour early (oops!) and for another, Steve had a headache and wanted to rest a little before we went to have lunch with our neighbors. Our neighbors kindly invited us into their home to share "paella" with them. Of course I would have accepted their invitation anyway, but had I known what "paella" was I would not have accepted it so excitedly. I should have remembered the fact that Catholics don't eat any meat but fish during Semana Santa and that should have sent up some warning flags, but I forgot that part. Anyway, paella is seafood over rice. As you may be aware, of all things I despise to eat, seafood is way up there (Steve isn't a big fan of it either). Also, some friends of ours had recently eaten the same dish and shown us some pictures of it - tentacles dangling all over the place!!! When I found out what it was, I lost a little of my desire to go, but we went nevertheless, claiming the "missionary prayer" (God, I'll get it down if you'll keep it down!). Thankfully, Mark is a great distraction. Between feeding him and my natural slowness at eating, everyone else finished and had all the seconds they wanted long before I had cleaned my plate. Since they were all moving on to the dessert, I felt justified in leaving my meal unfinished. But I survived!!! Oh, it was also nice that everything was cut up into fairly unidentifiable pieces (except for the shrimp, but at least they were miniature and I tried not to look at them :).

Some new news...

2008-03-06T17:35:00.000-08:00

Not really a lot to report. Language training is going well. But, I still make some mistakes...ok, more mistakes than correct sentences. :-( This week, I made a mistake while talking to the teacher. She had made a mistake in a sentence she had given us. She explained the mistake and then said she was sorry. I, being very bright and knowing a TON of Spanish, decided I should reply. So, I told her "Nosotros la perdemos". Very bright and grammatically correct. However, the wrong word! I should have said "Nosotros la perdonamos". Ok, for those that don't know Spanish, instead of saying "We forgive you" I said "We loose you"! Oops! So much for being bright and smart!

In other news, we made a day trip to Los Chorros a week or two ago. This is a park where they have a couple of waterfalls and some trails you can hike. It is beautiful. Here are a couple of pictures:

Don't worry about the date. The camera got reset but I can't change the date or get rid of it since the LCD broke and I can't see anything on it.

And now, news of Mark. :-) Mark is still cruising around using chairs to hold onto. However, each day his balance is just a little better. He can now stand for a couple of seconds without holding onto anything. And, yesterday, he stood up by himself without holding onto anything! He did it again today so it wasn't a fluke! Also, he has started to kind of crawl. He doesn't go into the classic crawling position but rather sits and kind of scoots on one foot and the other knee. Again, I'll have to get some video at some point. Soon, we will be in real trouble as he gains more mobility. At least with the bars on the doors, he can't wander too far and the house is only one story so there aren't many steps he can fall down inside. However, with the tile floors, it hurts him whenever he falls. He now has a couple of bruises on his face from falling. :-(

Growing soooooooo fast!

2008-02-19T12:20:00.000-08:00

Well, how quickly things change! Today, Mark decided that he has had enough of immobility. This morning, Miriam changed his diaper and then had to go and wash her hands. While she was gone, Mark climbed off the bed (we don't know how) and ended up standing next to it, holding on to the bed and a box next to it. He greeted us with a big smile! :-)

Then, Mark decided to conquer his bed. After his nap, when Miriam went in to get him, she watched him grab the side of the crib and sit up (another first). Then, he handed her his little doggy that he had in his hand. Once that was done, he grabbed the side of the bed and stood up! We are in trouble now!!!

So, then this afternoon we were eating lunch and put Mark in his little plastic house to play while we ate. He started off crying but quickly stopped. He grabbed the door of the house and stood up. So, I pushed some chairs near to the house. He used them to walk over to the table where we were! Right now, he is walking all around the plastic house, holding on with one hand and checking everything out. He is also picking up anything he finds interesting on the floor. What a bright kid! I'll have to put up video of it later. Mark is tired now and doesn't want to perform. But, here is a short video of Mark and Miriam pulling weeds:

Inch by inch

2008-02-18T07:44:00.000-08:00

Well, Mark is not yet crawling or walking, but he is making progress. Last week I decided to intentionally work on his crawling. At first I put him face down on our little rug and he would just scream and cry and scream some more and he wouldn't even TRY to move. But I finally found something to motivate him: my keys! At first he would just move a fraction of an inch and I tried to encourage him with that, but yesterday when I put him down to show off for Steve he barely complained and he went a good distance, too. At first he would muster up all his little leg strength and try to force his top half to go somewhere. Now, Steve describes his actions as more of an "army crawl" . . . it definitely looks more coordinated. Mark also loves to stand up and take little steps while carefully holding onto something (and he'd better be careful since we have hard floors!). I have been working on him pulling himself up in his little plastic play yard/fort thing that our landlord loaned us. He is able to do it by himself, but so far he hasn't done it unless I am right there encouraging him. His balance gets better every day and he loves dropping things on the ground and leaning over to pick them up. He can also hold an object and stand unsupported for about a second. Second by second, inch by inch he goes out to conquer the world!

Happy Groundhog day!!

2008-02-02T16:26:00.000-08:00

Ok, Ok! Miriam yelled at me for not posting and others hinted, so I thought I would try again. :-)

A lot has happened since my last post but I will just give a few highlights. In December, we were able to take a four day vacation to Manuel Antonio. This was quite fun. In our side bar are pictures from the trip. We were able to see monkeys, sloths, lizards, hermit crabs, and more monkeys. We also spent some time just relaxing on the beach.

In January, we started our language learning. Miriam, because of her vast Spanish vocabulary and speaking ability, only needs to be in class for two hours a day. She is enjoying the class though. It is a translation class and she is learning to translate almost everything, from medical documents to bail and bond documents.

I, on the other hand, am in four hours of classes daily. I am glad for the constant exposure and training but wish that my classes were a little more difficult. However, I can definitely see my ability to speak Spanish growing. I am beginning to believe that I will leave here able to speak! :-)

Mark has really started changing also. He still doesn't crawl but he loves to stand up. This is how he greeted me when I returned from classes one day:
His balance is getting better day by day but I think it will be a while before he takes his first steps without assistance. Also, the ceramic floors make it hard because it really hurts when he falls. This scares him and so he doesn't try to do too much. For us, this is good because it means that he can't get into anything yet. :-)

Well, I guess this is long enough for now....Oh, I almost forgot! Did the groundhog see his shadow? Are you going to have another 6 weeks of winter? I wonder what that equates to for us. We are in summer here in Costa Rica. Does the groundhog seeing his shadow or not change anything for us? Hmmm, I'll have to ask around. :-)

Little Chipmunk

2008-01-24T12:37:00.000-08:00

Ok, so we obviously aren't good bloggers and I'm sure our fan club has dispersed. Sorry, everyone! I (Miriam . . . amazing, no?) tried to remind Steve to get back to his blogging duties but apparently my efforts have failed and I am left to write one on my own.

Unfortunately a cry from Mark's room has let me know that this had better be quick. So I will just give you a quick story about Mark and then I'll have to go. So . . . Mark used to like carrots. They were one of his favorite things to eat. But then we decided he was a big boy and could eat them in little chunks (cooked, of course!) . Not so! - he replied. Though I had great difficulty trying to get him to eat the carrot chunks, it seemed to me that they were having less difficulty at the daycare so I sent him with the carrots two days in a row. Apparently the last time I sent him he decided to try passive aggressiveness. They said he ate them just fine, but when he came home we realized he had been hoarding them in his mouth like a little chipmunk! :) There were at least four little chunks of carrot in his mouth and we finally decided to just dig them out! "You can make a baby eat carrots, but you can't make him swallow them!"

Tico Christmas

2007-12-18T07:28:00.000-08:00

Hee, hee. Ok, it is yet ANOTHER month later! Here it is, December 18th, and it sure doesn't feel like Christmas time. However, since it is that time, we wanted to put up a Tico version of the "Night Before Christmas", adapted from the Tex-Mex version found on the web by two of Miriam's former students. Enjoy!

'Twas the night before Christmas and all through the casa,
Not a creature was stirring -- ¡Y diay! ¿Mae, qué pasa?
Los niños were tucked away in their camas,
Some in their shorts, and some in piyamas,
While hanging the stockings with mucho cuidado
In hopes that old Santa would feel obligado
To bring all the children, both buenos and malos,
A bunch of confites and other regalos.
Like surf boards and sunscreen to take to the playa,
Cameras and swimsuits of just the right talla.

Outside in the yard there arose such a grito
That I jumped to my feet like a frightened cabrito.
I ran to the window and looke out afuera,
And who in the world do you think that it era?
Saint Nick manejando a bright red carreta,
Came dashing along like like a crazy cometa.
And pulling his cart instead of venados
Were eight little oxen approaching volados.

I watched as they came and this quaint little hombre
Was shouting and whistling and calling by nombre:
"Ay Pancho, ay Pepe, ay Chico, ay Beto,
Ay Flaco, ay Gordo, Minino, y Neito!"
Then guiding the oxen on a path muy derecho,
He flew to the top of our very own techo.
With his round little belly like a bowl full of jalea,
He struggled to squeeze down our old chiminea.

Then huffing and puffing at last in our sala,
With soot smeared all over his red suit de gala,
He filled all the medias with lovely regalos
For none of the niños had been very malos.
He ate all the queque that I preparé,
And with it he drank a whole cup of café.
Then chuckling aloud, he seemed very contento,
He turned like a flash and was gone like the viento.
And I heard him exclaim and this is verdad
"Merry Christmas to all, and ¡Feliz Navidad!"

We hope you all have a great Christmas and remember the reason for the season. It is so easy to forget in this busy time of year when everything seems to be about the gifts and beautiful decorations.

Happy Belated Thanksgiving!

2007-11-27T10:44:00.000-08:00

Ok, I'm only 5 days late. :-) Time really seems to go by here. It must be the busyness (is that a word?) of language learning and getting adjusted to life in another country.

So, a recap of what has happened lately. The Friday before last, we took a trip to see some tourist sights here in Costa Rica. We went to a wood shop that makes all kinds of wood products to sell both here in Costa Rica and for export. They had some really cool wood products there (though they seemed priced kind of high, but what would you expect from a tourist place?).

After we left there, we went to Sarchi. This is a town that is known for their rocking chairs that they make and sell here and in the USA. We bought a rocking chair and foot stool there. Both are wood and leather and have typical Costa Rican themes pressed into them. We like them a lot.

Sarchi also had many model ox carts you could buy. They are painted very beautifully but were not something we have any room for. Costa Rica is known for their ox carts and they are usually painted very intricately with many bright colors.

This trip also had some bad news. Mark, in his playful exuberance, kicked my digital camera that was in my pocket and broke the LCD on the back. :-( This means that I can no longer see anything that I am taking a picture of or change any of the settings. Real bummer! But, at least the camera still works. I just have to take a lot of pictures and hope that I get the pictures that I want. Maybe this will give me the chance to begin saving for the digital SLR camera that I would love to have. :-) Hmmm, I'll have to look into that.

For Thanksgiving, we kept to our normal routine for the most part. We had class in the morning and then had a get-together with other missionaries here in Costa Rica. Thanksgiving is not celebrated here so it seemed like a normal day. However, I was able to record the Macy's parade and the Dallas game, so at least I still had some common connections with my family back home.

This last weekend, we went to a parade that featured "drovers". These are the people that guide the oxen that pull the ox carts. We have some pictures of them (and baby Mark) but you'll have to wait to see them because my camera froze up and so I needed to have someone else take pictures for me. I haven't gotten them back from them yet. However, the good news is that once I replaced the batteries in my camera, it started working correctly. I'll have to keep an eye on it and make sure that the cause was just low batteries.

In other news, our Spanish training is going well. I am slowly learning some things. I was even complemented by my landlord yesterday because I could talk to him more than in the past. Every little complement or every little victory is so important when trying to learn a new language. They keep you going when at times it seems like you aren't really learning much and it is taking soooooo long!

So, there you go. A short blurb to let you know we are still alive and well. Hopefully I will get more regular at blogging in the future, but we'll have to see.

Another week, another post :-)

2007-11-12T11:23:00.000-08:00

Well, another week has passed. Maybe I'll get this blog thing down at some point and give more regular updates. At least, we can always hope. :-)

This last week has been good, but quite wearing. We have now been here three weeks and have settled in to our house and language learning. However, I am finding that a lot of our time is filled with just trying to get things done that need to get done. This doesn't leave a lot of time for exercise, language practice and fun activities. But, we are getting into a routine and and that helps. We are also doing more trips with our barefoot class and seeing more of San Jose. Last week we had to go downtown and visit some specific places. For us, this included the La Plaza De La Democracia and two beautiful parks: El Parque Morazan and El Parque España. The parks were very beautiful, with large trees and many flowers and vines. Here is a picture of us at one of them (Yes, little Mark is in the Snuggly Miriam is wearing. I'll try to get a better picture of him soon):
In contrast, the Plaza De La Democracia was drab with grafiti on the statue that was there.

I am still very slowly picking up some Spanish. I was happy that I was able to understand some of what the pastor was speaking about in church yesterday. Hewas talking about worshipping God and how it includes not just going to church on Sunday but worshipping Him each day of the week. This includes singing, praying and spending time with Him but also includes serving others. This reminded me of the purpose we are here for. We aren't here just to see the beautiful scenery or learn a language, though we hope to do both while we are here. We are really here to learn so we can share the Good News that anyone can enter heaven. God has provided a way through His Son Jesus and He is the only way. But, it isn't a hard way where we have to work our way to Him. It is a free gift. This is why we are here. To share this gift with those who may not have ever heard the name of Jesus. We hope to be able to do this with our mouths once we learn the language. Until then, we try to share what we can with our mouth in the little Spanish we know and also we try to show what God has done in our hearts by serving those around us.

Well, back to studying Spanish. I still need to learn my little bit for today. :-)

We're Back....Finally!!

2007-11-04T11:36:00.000-08:00

WooHoo! We finally have a connection to the Internet again! (For Miriam, the "WooHoo" is because we are in Costa Rica, not for the Internet:-) For those that have been wondering where we have been, we spent about three weeks in NY after leaving our training. We left there on October 23rd and flew down to beautiful Costa Rica. We moved into a little rental house that we love. It is very nice and is only about a 5 minute walk from the institute where we will be studying Spanish and from several stores and other missionary's houses. Here is a picture:
It is kind of strange getting used to living behind bars. :-) In order to get into or out of our house, we need to open and then re-lock 4 locks. But that is the way everything is down here. It does give a more secure feeling at night though.

We have now been here almost two weeks. We started our "barefoot" training in Spanish this last week. This is a class that is basically an introduction to Spanish and helps us develop our listening skills as well as using what we learn each day. It is taught by a Costa Rican teacher and is all in Spanish. I am amazed at how much I can understand but I certainly have a long way to go. I have tried talking to local people but generally only remember the sentences we have been taught. It is kind of frustrating because I know that I know more than that but I forget it when faced with the pressure of actually speaking to someone that doesn't understand English or only understands a little bit. However, even with only one week of classes under my belt, I can see improvement. Immersion really is the best way to learn a language.

Mark is doing well (for the most part. He caught a local flu this weekend and was ill from Friday until today. However, he is now doing better and seems to be on the mend). He is being watched in the nursery of the language school during our barefoot classes in the morning. This is kind of hard on Miriam because she already speaks Spanish but is still in the barefoot classes with me. She already knows everything that is being taught and would really like to be challenged more if she can't be watching Mark. But, that is the way it is. We have three weeks of barefoot and then will have another three weeks of an extended session. Our time at the language institute doesn't start until January.

It has been interesting getting used to living in another culture. A lot of things are the same but usually with some minor difference. However, some things are REALLY different! The first thing I noticed was the way drivers drive. Here, the rule seems to be "if there is room, go for it". This means that as long as there is room for them to get through, they take it. For motorcycles, this means that they drive between lanes, passing cars or trucks that are in their way. At stop lights, they will usually slow down and then go on through if they can get into traffic without being hit. For cars, they will turn a one lane road into a two lane road if there is someone going slow in front of them and there is room. They also drive wherever the road is best, even if that is not in their lane. The roads are full of potholes and so they have to go around them if they can. This leads to some interesting traffic patterns but they still have a kind of order to them. For someone that is from the US where the rules are strictly enforced, it is interesting to watch. But I don't intend to drive in it any time soon! :-)

One of the nice things is being able to walk to a store to buy fresh bread and then go to another store and buy fresh fruits and vegetables. There are little stores on most corners that sell different things. In fact, my first solo outing was to a local bread store to get some bread for sandwiches. I was able to get the bread, but they didn't have the type we normally got, so I had to improvise. This doesn't work too well when you don't know the language so you can't tell what kind of bread it is from the description. So, I had to go by looks. I chose a bread that looked pretty good, but when I got home and we cut into it, we found that it was mostly air inside! It was a butter bread and really wasn't that good for sandwiches. But, my lovely wife just put her meat and lettuce on it and ate it anyway. :-) We also live by the main road, so we have access to bigger stores and buses.

The first time I rode a bus, I didn't know that I needed to pass through some poles that count the number of passengers before I paid for my ride. The driver yelled at me in Spanish but, of course, I didn't understand a word of it. My wife let me know what he was saying and I moved on. However, it is just one more thing that makes me want to learn Spanish that much faster. It is hard not being able to communicate with most anyone that I run into. It is also hard because the people are so friendly and willing to talk to me but I can't even tell them why I am here. I can tell them that I am here to study Spanish but I can't tell them why I want to learn it- so that I can tell them the Good News that Jesus died for their sins and they can go to spend eternity with Him. But then I think of a saying that we learned: "Hoy, no; mañana, sí". This means "Today, no; tomorrow, yes". I can't communicate yet, but I am learning a little each day (poco a poco) and soon, I will be able to share why I am here. I am praying that the Lord will help me to learn the language very quickly so that that day arrives sooner rather than later.

Miriam and I went to the church that she attended while she was here. She was able to re-join the praise team that she was a part of while she was here and sang with them the first Sunday we were here. Also, I am going to begin helping them with their sound. I am glad of this because it gives me a way to serve, which I need, but also because it will give me more interaction with Costa Ricans and help me to learn the language. I already told them that I would help them with the sound if they helped me learn English. They agreed. :-) So, from running the sound at the little Hispanic church in Indiana, I have moved on to doing the sound in Costa Rica.

Mark sitting up

2007-09-23T13:30:00.000-07:00

Well, another week or two have passed and again we are updating the blog. :-) Our time in Washington, D.C. went well, though it was a long day! We first went to a Catholic Basilica to learn more of Catholicism. While we were there, Miriam had a chance to talk to about 5 women. After we left there, we went to a Mexican/Peruvian restaurant for lunch. Very good food! I can tell I am going to need to watch what I eat in Peru or I may need to go on a serious diet when we get back!

After lunch, we walked to the Smithsonian by way of the White House. This was about a 1 to 1.5 mile walk with Mark falling asleep in the stroller for part of it. We had a short time to talk to a gentleman from Ghana on the way. It turned out that he was also a Christian so we had a good conversation. By the time we reached the Smithsonian, it ws time for us to head back to Union Station to head back to Richmond.

While the day was long and busy, it was still a good trip. I learned that I need to be more intentional in talking to people even among the busy times when there are other things that I need to do. Being an introvert, this is made harder by the fact that I really would rather watch people than talk to them if I don't know them. But this is something that I can work on now that I realize it is there.

Mark is continuing to develop. This week, he really found his thumb and loves to suck on it. We'll have to break him of the habit down the road, I'm sure. Another new thing he learned this week is how to sit up! I am putting a little video below of him sitting on the bed. It is a little dark but you can still see him. Enjoy!

We only have one more week here in Richmond. After that, we head up to NY to wait for our flight to Costa Rica. Time sure does seem to have flown by while we were here but it has been good.

2007-09-13T09:48:00.000-07:00

Wow, time flies when your having fun!!! Ok, maybe not exactly having fun but time sure is flying! Another week is almost done.

This is little Mark in his day care class. If you can't tell, he is the middle one in the bouncy seats. Isn't he cute, listening with such rapt attention??? He is continuing to do well.

If you have to choose between a cricket or a noisy sleeping baby, which would you choose? Yes, this was a little test for Steve this week. We were awakened at 3:30 AM by a REALLY loud cricket. Steve tried to find it but couldn't (after practically knocking over his nightstand and dumping all of it's contents and awakening his lovely bride!). (Ok, maybe the cricket didn't awaken Miriam, Steve did :-) So, after all of that, Steve went to sleep in the other room where Mark was. Of course, then Mark woke up at 5:30 and started screaming. Needless to say, Steve didn't get enough sleep that night! :-O

This week has been an interesting week for us, not just because of the cricket. We have been here for over 6 weeks now and are nearing the end and are beginning to get the "senioritis" feeling where we are just ready to get going! We had some training on using Bible storying to reach oral societies and "T4T", which is another method used to reach literate societies. Both were interesting and had some really good concepts that will help us on the field. One thing I (Steve) really liked about the "T4T" training is the hard push on obeying what we learn. "T4T" is used to train new believers to go out and multiply by sharing what they are learning as they are learning it. It requires them to go out and share their testimony with five non-believers within the first two weeks of training. The speaker gave an example of a sponge that soaks up the dish water and if it is not squeezed out and is just left to sit by the sink it begins to really stink - so are we if we just soak in the teaching from God's Word and then just sit there rather than letting it seep out of our lives. How much different would the church in the U.S. be if each of us was trained to DO what we LEARN each week? How many of our lost friends would be our spiritual brothers and sisters right now if we followed this rule? And really, isn't this what Jesus taught? He didn't let his disciples become pew sitters, He sent them out to spread the Word. But not only them, He sent all believers. Each of us is to be out sharing with others. How often have I failed to do this in my life? More times than I can count! I am praying that God would teach me each day to obey what He has taught me, whether it is easy or hard. I pray the same for each of you that reads this. Maybe God will allow us to be used by Him in changing the world around us. He has said that He would, so let's begin taking Him at His word. There is no one else that is so faithful as He is!

On that note, let me share what we are doing tomorrow. We are going to Washington, D.C. to search out the people group that we are going to and learn some cross-cultural concepts. For us, this will mean searching out Hispanics and learning more of their food and social interactions. It will also mean trying to be intentional and share with those we come in contact with. Please pray for us that we would be bold and yet not offensive in ourselves. We'll try to fill you in on how it goes later.

Well, on another note, the hot and sticky weather has finally broken!!! Yeah!! I don't know how long it will last, but it sure does feel good now. Being from NY, I have been melting for the last two months (especially since I am required to wear long pants here). It feels good to not feel sticky all of the time.

Today we had a session on marriage and staying in love while we are on the field and the stresses of life become greater. I thought it was good and hopefully Miriam and I will take away some useful tools to help us fall more deeply in love with each other all the years of our lives.
Note from Miriam: We're off to a good start - we went out to eat at a Mexican restaurant today, just the two of us! :)

Prayer Card

2007-09-08T15:48:00.000-07:00

We just finished week 5 of our training. Over half way through! Yeah!! And we just got our prayer cards printed! Now we just need to get them back and begin handing them out. This is what they look like:
Also this week, Mark sprouted two teeth! Well, actually, one of the teeth isn't through yet, but it has begun. He has been a little more fussy because of it but not too bad. On Thursday night, he woke up screaming at midnight, but normally, he is sleeping from about 10:30 to 7:30. Not bad for a not-quite 5 month old.

Isn't he so cute?!? We think so. :-) And we're not prejudiced at all!

Mark is really doing well here at the training. He has also been acting like a man! He has been "stuck" every week we have been here except this week. He had to have blood drawn, then he got his four-month shots, then two weeks of immunizations for going overseas. Each time, he let out a wimper (except when they had to draw blood and couldn't find a vein. :-() but stopped as soon as the needles were withdrawn.

Mark is also a great missionary kid already. He loves being held by different people and smiles at anyone that smiles at him.

Miriam and I are also doing well. This week was rather long with training Monday through Saturday, but we made it through! Tonight is movie night in the Quad with our fellow "campers". Time to relax and get some rest (and eat popcorn!) Hopefully Mark will cooperate and let us watch the movie. :-)

Well, off to rest. We'll put more up later.

Just a short video for those that miss Mark. :-(

2007-08-28T18:09:00.000-07:00

Here it is. The first short video of Mark to see how this works. If it works, you should see Mark playing with his doggy on the bed. Let me know if it works for you by commenting below. If it works, this will allow us to put up short videos to stay in touch.

First blog

2007-08-20T12:54:00.000-07:00

Well, here I am, starting on my electronic journey in the blogosphere! I never thought I would be doing this! Anyway, we will be keeping updates here on our journey to Peru and the reaching of the lost. Check back often and hopefully you will be able to follow our journey with us and see how God is working daily in making us more like Himself.