Friday, September 26, 2008

A New Day


Every day it rains here. Usually the rain occurs just as I am leaving the school with Cade to go home for his afternoon nap. When I say rain, I mean torrential downpour! I call it "La Tormenta". We have had several of these and have learned to adjust to the fact that the rest of our afternoons will be spent inside (kind of like most of our day was spent inside in class).
It has posed a few little inconveniences for the kids when they need to run around and get their sillies out. Cade came in the living room after getting buck naked and covering himself in diaper cream the other day. (I'll save those pictures later for his humiliation as a teenager :).
Anyway, the other day as we were finally getting dried out Ken said, "Hey, the sky looks kind of funny doesn't it?" Now anyone from the tornado belt does not like to hear that comment because it usually indicates impending doom, but this was a different kind of funny, so we went outside our casa to look. Sure enough there was a purple sky with a huge beautiful rainbow! What a pleasant surprise. It was a reminder to us of God's promise. The rain will not last forever, the flood waters will recede, and God will give us a new day.
Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning. Lamentations 3:23

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Iron Eyes Cody



I know that this will no doubt date Ken and me, but does anyone remember Iron Eyes Cody? He was the "Indian" (actually of Sicilian ancestry if you read wikipedia) featured in a public service ad back in 1971 which had a tremendous impact on our attitudes regarding littering in the United States. I have gone ahead and included it here for the benefit of those lacking the years of wisdom that can only be obtained through living in the 70s first hand! The reason Ken and I were reminiscing about old Iron Eyes was because of the experience we had this last weekend at Tarcoles Beach. Needless to say, the video says it all. I wish we had a Tico with us when I filmed "our" beach clip. It would no doubt have made a great commercial to play on the television here in between news casts of graphic scenes from car wrecks and drug busts. Well, maybe it wouldn't have had quite the impact on the Latinos as good old Iron Eyes Cody had on us.....

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

"Hey, wait a minute Mr. Postman!"


There are a few times in my life I have related to the character Charlie Brown in the Peanuts comic strip. Most recently I have found myself looking longingly in the empty mailbox at our school kind of like Charlie Brown does in the cartoon. You know you really miss mail when you wish you could receive a bill or an advertisement, ANYTHING!!! So today I received my first actual piece of mail in our mail box since we arrived. I believe my Mom felt sorry for me, so she sent me 2 newspaper clippings from the Mobile Press Register. I have never been so happy to read a story about a tiger having surgery in my life. Yes, just call me a little homesick. So, I want to give everyone an opportunity to send a note, a postcard, a long letter, junk mail ...whatever to the Nelsons, especially those of you that know Connor, Kayleigh, and Cade. Here is our Costa Rican address:

Instituto de Lengua Espanola
Apartado 100-2350
San Jose, Costa Rica

If anyone wants to send a package, send it in an envelope in the mail. It is much cheaper than sending something in a box. Hey, if someone just wants to send a copy of the comic strips from the newspaper in English, that would be great too!!!!

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Diving in!

This week was our first official week of school. We feel like we have been here forever, so we are very glad to now officially be here as students. We have been treading water a bit this week, but I am glad to report we expect to be doing the doggie paddle by the end of next week! Thank you for all your prayers this week as we have I believe finally settled somewhat into a schedule. We leave for school each morning at 7 am and return most days by 3pm. Ken and I have lunch together most days, but we are not in any of the same classes because we are not at the same level (I'll let you guys guess who tested higher :) )
On Mondays Ken will be a part of a men's ministry and I will be part of a women's ministry on Thursdays. Both of these ministries are called Restoration House and are for women and men that are former drug addicts/alcoholics/prostitutes (it is a legal profession here by the way) that give them a place to stay and to study the Bible until they can get back on their feet. I had the opportunity to go to my first meeting on Thursday. The women are nice and they are genuinely excited to have us gringas there to lead the Bible study. There are 2 other ladies that have been going regularly there for the last 2 trimesters. They told me they would work me into the teaching schedule easy, I don't have to lead my first lesson in Spanish for 2 more weeks. Ken got off a little easier with his guys, he has a whole trimester until he leads! Anyway, we are really excited about the opportunity to be a part of such a great ministry.

Please pray in particular for one of the ladies I had a chance to meet and spend some time speaking with and praying for. She was recently diagnosed HIV positive. She starts her medicines on Monday. She is a believer and she knows that God has a wonderful plan for her life, but she is understandably a little worried about the treatment and converting from HIV positive to AIDS. Please pray God will give her strength and courage during these difficult days ahead.

God is so gracious to us in so many ways, but sometimes I need to be reminded of this fact in just the little ways, the beauty of a sunrise, the light that shines in a child's eyes when they laugh, and the warm embrace of a fellow sister in Christ who has shared such a great burden with me and who still says to me, "Mi Dios es fiel." (My God is faithful)