Putting the cart under the horse??!!???

Well, we have arrived here safe and sound in Costa Rica. We passed through customs at 11:30 pm CR time (That is 12:30 am central) and arrived at the AMCA guest house at 1:00am CR time. The flight was a bit delayed out of Atlanta due to TSA wanting to go through the bags. It might have been due in part to the fact that many of us had those black footlocker trunks that look the same.

The kids were real troopers throughout the journey. Poor Connor got motion sickness when we were landing, but he managed to use the bag this time instead of his clothing to catch his dinner. Customs was not too hard, and we were outside the airport, all 20 of us with over 75 bags in no time. Imagine our surprise when we saw a flatbed truck awaiting us to put our luggage on. As they dropped two pieces of our luggage off the top while stacking them up about 6 feet off the bed, I turned to Ken and said, "What were we thinking??!!??" Yes, sometimes you just have to be a little bit crazy to follow God's call in your life. Ken said, "It's just stuff." Connor, a little more concerned said, "I think we need to pray for the luggage!" Well, we arrived safe at the house and the bags did too.

Thank you everyone for all your prayers and encouraging emails. We really do feel that is what is sustaining us during those mule in the air moments!

Saying Goodbye is Never Easy

Why does it take a minute to say hello and forever to say goodbye? Today is our last day here in the US for the next 3 1/2 years. These last few weeks have been a series of bittersweet moments saying goodbye to friends and family as we prepare to go on the journey God has set before us. I wanted to take a few moments and just say thank you to all of you who have shown us your love and support. Thank you for your prayers most especially. Although we have very heavy hearts leaving all of you, we know that there is something truly wonderful God has in store for us as we share His love with others far away. I believe George Eliot said it best when he said,"Only in the agony of parting do we look into the depths of love." Thank you everyone for showing us the depths of love.

The Nelsons,

Ken, Kirsten, Connor, Kayleigh & Cade

In our natural habitat!

This last week was very interesting for Ken and the kids. I had to go up to Richmond for a medical conference on Tuesday. The conference was to last until Sunday. I knew with it being so close to us leaving the country it would be a real challenge for Ken to get anything done and still provide fun for the kids. I want to thank all those (Amy & Trent, Beth, and Ann & Harry) for all their help with the kids and giving them some wonderful memories to leave with.

I knew that the kids would enjoy a trip to the Zoo, so I told Ken to take them there one last time. He took them to a new kangaroo exhibit that he said the kids really enjoyed. Usually the kids use the sprinklers there in the summer, so they all had their bathing suits on and were prepared to romp in the summertime fun. Unfortunately Kayleigh slipped and fell just going into the water. As Ken tried to care for her, Cade took his turn taking a fall as well and reopened a cut on his arm, so with two injured children and our oldest saying he was really now too old for the sprinklers, poor Ken was forced to call the fun time to an end. I hate that I missed that....

¿Còmo se dice...? (How do you say...?)

On Sunday we had the privilege to speak to Dawson Memorial's Spanish congregation, Congregacion Hispana. Byron Mosquera, the pastor, was so kind to allow us some time to share with the church how they can partner with us in missions. I gave them a short speech in...(gulp)...Spanish, and Ken introduced an amazing video in Spanish that really shows the heart of missions in South America. It was such a wonderful service and a great opportunity to meet some people from Birmingham's Hispanic community that have a heart to pray for missions and be a part of leading people from their homelands to the Lord. Here is their website if you would like to see it:

http://www.dawsonchurch.org/index.php/ministries/international/hispanic_congregation/congregacion_hispana

Now, we were prepared for the whole occasion by several people. Our dear friends from orientation, the Marlins, helped translate the speech from English to Castilian Spanish. This was then translated to Latin American Spanish by Byron, and then Saturday night was practiced with two great families from where we will be serving.

Glenda and Carlos were so gracious to invite us and my mother to their house Saturday night for dinner with them. Glenda and her sister-in-law even taught me how to make arepas. We brought some gazpacho, and they gave us some wonderful carne mechada (shredded beef slow cooked with spices, peppers, onions, etc...) It was muy delicioso! They taught us how to put the cheese and meat in the arepas to make a little sandwich...a taste of heaven! I do not believe it will be too big of an adjustment for us to learn to love the local cuisine. If anything I believe we may have to restrain ourselves a little!

We spent most of the evening learning all about foods, customs, and the people we will be serving. It was so wonderful to hear about how friendly the people are, how warm and hospitable they are. It was even better to experience this first hand from these two sweet families. We will always treasure that night as our first real taste of our new home.

We are now preparing for our final week here in the states for the next 3 years and have been going around town having that "last meal" at our favorite spots. I see it as a good excuse not to cook and Ken just sees it as a great excuse to eat! Either way we are both happy with the end result, except that extra few pounds we need to lose. Remember, IMB is BMI spelled backwards! Yes, I see a trip to Full Moon BBQ on the horizon, or Luna's as we affectionately call it.

Goodbye Garfield

Yesterday we said goodbye to our good friend Garfield. Garfield has been very faithful to us over the last year. My children after last summer had another nickname for Garfield, the deer slayer. Now I am sure many of you are wondering who is Garfield? Garfield was our little PT Cruiser. It was the last really big piece of America that we had not either crated or prepared to stick in a suitcase to follow us to Costa Rica.

Several years ago when I first saw a purple PT Cruiser, I told Ken that it was the car for me! Last summer we had to get rid of my big Tahoe so we could prepare to downsize and we found a great deal in this little used PT Cruiser. God had provided one of my desires and needs at the same time. Less than a week later I hit a deer in it going through Wedowee to work a locum nursing job out of town. Although I was shaken, and the deer did not make it, the little car got me to town before the radiator said enough. It was fixed up and remained a faithful vehicle for us until the end.

Now some of you may be wondering why I am waxing poetic about a car. You see, I believe that God knows our needs and provides them, but He also knows our desires. Years ago I never thought I would spend over a year without a vehicle and be excited about it. A few years ago I would never have been happy about selling a car I had wanted since I first saw one. But you see that is the beauty of the way God works inside of us. He gives us the desires of our heart when those are His desires as well, and when we can release these things to Him he also gives us joy in the loss knowing that He has something even better in store for us ahead.

Anyone that really knows me also knows I am looking forward to "walking" all around Costa Rica. A little known fact about me is that I am a little crazy about exercising (see obsessive compulsive disorder). I also love to prayerwalk, so for me this is the best of both worlds. Even better I get to do this with my family in one of the most beautiful places on earth. So, I am truly happy to say goodbye to Garfield. He has been a faithful car for us from an even more faithful God!

See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil

Well, we are in the dog days of summer now. The kids are loving going to the park every day, eating Popsicles, and visiting with friends in town. Ken and I spend a great deal of our time on the phone trying to prepare for leaving the country. This has left us both a little frazzled as we find ourselves leaving multiple messages, staying on hold for hours on end, and spending several minutes explaining our situation to one person only to be told that this person is not qualified and we need to be transferred to someone else. Yep....it would try the patience of a saint. I actually momentarily thought, "Hey, why do we really need insurance on our stuff for? We sold most of it anyway." and "Do we really need a life insurance policy? Wouldn't that just encourage us to drive recklessly in South America? Ken certainly doesn't need any more encouragement in that area. And why do insurance companies have so many problems with insuring property going to third world countries?" Just something to ponder I guess.

One thing we are very thankful for is this great mission house here at Dawson. It even has it's own prayer room! The people here at the church are so nice. We look forward to getting to know some of them over the next couple of weeks. We were excited to find out the house would be available in January of 2012 when we will be back for stateside assignment (STAS). The children's schools are within walking distance along with 3 parks and a playground just a couple of blocks away. Best of all, the Edgewood Creamery is only 1 block away and has an awesome assortment of homemade ice creams!!!!! Yeah, God must be preparing us for some major inconveniences in the near future, because this place has every convenience. Thank you everyone for all your prayers and encouragement. It has made these last few weeks in the states so precious to us.

God Bless the USA

Today was a bittersweet time for us as we watched what may be our last "Thunder on the Mountain" here in Birmingham. It is a family tradition for the last 8 years that we have gone to Red Mountain, where the Vulcan statue resides, to watch the fireworks. This year we are blessed enough to be staying in Homewood which is a 4 block walk to the park where we can watch the fireworks. We packed up the kids, the stroller, and took Nana and Papaw with us to the neighborhood park by the church where we are staying.

It was so nice to watch the fire works and listen to the music dedicated to the servicemen, the country and Birmingham. We really thought about all the freedom we have come to expect here in America. Many people think we are so crazy to leave that freedom behind to go somewhere that they do not have those same freedoms that we take for granted here. All I know is that my freedom goes with me everywhere I go. This freedom was bought at a great price, but it was not because a soldier fought on foreign soil, or that some one had to leave their loved ones behind to fight a battle in defense of their land. This freedom was bought through the shed blood of my Savior, Jesus. It does not matter what land I am in, free or otherwise. The freedom I have in Christ is one that I will have for all eternity and as Lee Greenwood says, "and they can't take that away!"

It is this that compels us to go and tell others of the freedom that they too can have in Christ. A freedom that can only come through the author of Liberty:

Our fathers' God to Thee,

Author of Liberty,

To thee we sing,

Long may our land be bright

With Freedom's holy light,

Protect us by thy might

Great God, our King.

Samuel F. Smith (America...My Country 'Tis of Thee)

"That's a Wrap!"

This last week was our final wrap up at FPO. We were commissioned on Thursday with everyone from our group. Ken drove that evening towards Birmingham and arrived a few hours before us in time to pick us up at the airport the next day.

A few comments about FPO:

All the kid's teachers were awesome!!! Each child really came into their own by the end and I feel each will really be a part of this ministry God has called us to. With Miss Dawna's help Connor has been much more open to praying out loud in front of others and he really enjoys the storying from the Bible. He also has a greater appreciation for different cultures now and he can't wait to be a part of our new culture.

Kayleigh has really taken to learning scripture for memory. She loves to quote scripture to others. A few weeks ago she was talking to some of the singles (journeymen) and they were being silly and telling her little funny rhymes, teasing her a little like her big brother does. She proceeded to say, "Let no unwholesome talk come from your mouths, but only that which is good for building others up according to their needs that it may benefit those who listen. Ephesians 4:29." The girls in the group were saying, "Go Kayleigh! Tell them another one!" Kayleigh's last day of class was so hard for her as she cried and said goodbye to Miss Becky. Becky really connected to Kayleigh in such a special way and I thank God that he placed her in Kayleigh's life during this time to show her that He would always provide for her people that love her along the way.

Cade towards the end finally really seemed to enjoy his time at school and with friends. I was most concerned with his adjustment since he had never been at a daycare on a regular basis before. Miss Marlene was so sweet with him and patient. Whenever I would bring him in in the mornings she would stop what she was doing and immediately distract him with the bubble machine. By the end of FPO he was having fun playing peekaboo with her during one of the services.

I can not express enough gratitude to the people of ILC and all the love and attention they gave to our children, but most of all the way they helped them to grow spiritually while we were there. I am also thankful to all the other men and women there with us that made such a great impact on our kids by showing them that wherever we go we will always have an extended family with us of "aunts" and "uncles". Now I pray with this foundation we will be able to continue this growth in their lives and to help them make an impact for God's kingdom.

We also learned so much and made so many life long friendships. This time together as a family of like minded believers was just a small taste to me of what heaven will be like one day. Now we are ready like little birds leaving the nest to spread our wings and see what an amazing flight God has in store for us as we travel this journey together!

Let's Go Crazy

This last week was a great week as we finally have gotten into a routine with the kids and our schedule. With all this improved adjustment also came a sense of giddiness as we found ourselves tickled about every little funny moment. We were really getting into the role playing during our T4T (training for trainers) small group. This picture shows our fearless leader, Brett, and his wife Nicole as they helped us to focus on the task at hand.

Of course these moments spilled over onto our children's lives as well. Connor begged me when it was time to get his haircut, "Can I pleeeeease have a Mohawk?" Ken said, "Absolutely not!" I said, "Sure!" Talk about role reversals. We told him he could keep it until commissioning service. He has loved it!

There is a beautiful fountain here at ILC. The kids love to run around it while we adults place bets on who will fall in first. It has been so hot here the week before last (Highs of 103) that when it was only in the 90s this week we spent a lot of our time outdoors. On Father's day we recorded a message for Papaw by the fountain.



Later I got a chance to play some soccer in the tournament. I was more than just a little intimidated by one of the opposing team members who is over 6'3". I learned to just move out of the way when he came towards me with the ball. Now, I will say in my defense that I did scrap it up pretty well with the girls. The South American team did end up winning the tournament with cheers of "OLE, OLE, OLE" resounding on and around the field! Ken had an opportunity to go fishing this week with Anthony. I call this picture "Fisher of Men" since they didn't catch any fish that day.

This last weekend I had the privilege of teaching a CPR class to some of the people here. We had mannequins and a DVD to use for practice. It was a great class and Doug was so nice to help me out in teaching since he has several years of EMT experience. Something important I had to convey to the students...if you are trying to reach emergency services in another country check and see what the official number is for that country. 911 in one country I found out was the number you call to get a pizza.

Last week we completed our contingency training. Basically this training teaches you what to do if you are ever held hostage. Although it was only 3 days of training, it was pretty stressful for some people as they do real life role play with people randomly selected in the group. I had a little training in the military, but it was not nearly as intense as what the people selected for role play went through. Connor decided to have his own scenerio on the playground with some of the other TCKs (Third Culture Kids). They determined that they would use tickling as their form of punishment. Eventually the hostages escaped and made their captor the recipient of some merciless tickling.

Here are a few pictures from these last two weeks:

Connor and Kayleigh show off their new pillows with Miss Bobbie.

These strawberries are "HUGE" Mama!

"Uncle Mark" reminds us to pray for the mentally challenged of Italy.

Our last cultural worship we had Arabic Underground House Church. It really gave me an appreciation for the freedoms we have here in America to worship the Lord without fear of being persecuted. It also reminded me to pray for those that do not have that freedom.

Worship As One

Cultural Worship is every Sunday evening at 6:00 here on the "compound" ( and Jacque, no, they haven't given us any Kool-Aide to drink yet). It gives us a chance to experience what "church" will be like in other cultures.
Two weeks ago we had Latin American night. Yours truly had the honor of playing the keyboard for the service. We had 3 guitars, drums, a bass guitar, shakers, and I even got to play bongos for one song! The entire service was presented in Spanish. We had thought we would be using an overhead projector to give them the words to the songs so they could follow along, but at the last minute we were told that there would be no dependence on audio/visual equipment as a crutch for our worship time. I was reminded of the words our Minister of Missions, Jeremy, used to say to us..."You can't just be flexible...that is too rigid. Be FLUID!!!" So, it was an eye-opening experience for people who had never been in a Spanish only environment. No doubt Ken was thinking, "I better really pick up the Spanish quick in Costa Rica." Another interesting "non-Western" idea is that childcare is NOT provided in most other cultures during church services. This proved to be very interesting as well during the Latin American night as I looked up while playing bongos to see my 2-year-old running down the aisle toward the stage saying "Me play! Me play!"

Last Sunday we had African worship night. We went outside and sat on the hill by the gazebo with the lake as the backdrop to the setting. The women wore long dresses or skirts like the African women would wear, and even some of the men who had been to Africa wore skirts like the natives would, or at least the ones really comfortable with their masculinity. So the men sat on one side and the women and children on the other side. At this point I am thinking Ken considers it payback for having to watch Cade by himself the week before. It went well though.

The music was so cool, and the sermon was great because he would speak for about 5 minutes in Swahili and then sum it up in about 3-4 sentences in English. As he was coming to the conclusion of the sermon he was talking about how we should not fear things that come our way and right about that time a strong wind started to blow as dark clouds rolled in. We just wrapped things up in time to run to our Quad and watch the rain come pouring down. As the storm blew over and the sun returned everyone went outside to see a beautiful double rainbow! When I thought of the contrast afterwards between the Latin service, the African service, and even our own Western style worship I recalled what it says in Revelations 7:9-10:

After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: "Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb."

How amazing to know that when we get to heaven we will not lose our language, culture, and personality; but we will all worship the Lord as one!

Coming Up for Air

Well, we have been here at orientation now for 2 weeks and I am finally able to do some blogging for the first time since we arrived. It has been a very busy time here with most of our days spent in class and most of our evenings spent trying to spend time with the kids and get our assignments completed before the next day. Although we are very excited to be here and learning all the important information, we do look forward to the weekends!

Some of you have asked what our accomodations look like. The Quads are 4 separate apartments that are combined by one large common area. We have a small kitchen, bathroom and 3 bedrooms in our apartment. It is small, but comfortable, and we spend our weekend evenings talking with other families, playing games, and working on puzzles in the common areas.

The kids are starting to adjust to life here in Rockville. They have school every day M-F. Connor has already been on one field trip to the main Richmond offices and out for Chinese for lunch. Kayleigh has made so many friends. I often see her holding hands with one of her play friends and whispering secrets back and forth. Cade is a constant bundle of energy. Most of my evenings are spent chasing him around the cafeteria, playgrounds, quad, etc...Although he still has not quite adjusted to the new routine as far as sleep goes, he does seem to love his class and enjoys his new friends as well.

There are 3 large playgrounds here, a river, a lake stocked with catfish, bass and crappy (Ken and Connor have already been fishing), some great walking/running trails, and lots of pasture and cows around. I guess it would be considered a great place to vacation if we didn't have so much work to do :)

One thing that has been emphasized here more than anything else I can say is to really increase our quiet times reading the Word and praying to the Lord. For me it has always been a challenge with three small children to do that, but now it is to be my top priority and it has been such a blessing to have that time with just God and me. Towards the end of the first week Ken and I were so tired and frazzled with the work, kids, and general adjustment. We just prayed together for God to help us to really focus on what was important. The next day they decided to send us all off with a box lunch to find a quiet place to be alone with the Lord. It was such a beautiful day. I remember writing in the journal our Sunday school class had given us Psalm 9:9-10

The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed, a stonghold in times of trouble.

Those who know your name will trust in you, for you, Lord, have never

forsaken those who seek you.

I thank the Lord that He will never forsake us. He is indeed our refuge and fortress!

Take It Easy

14 days ago we were given the news about our delay and asked for everyone to pray that we could find a place to take the kids that would allow Ken to study and give the kids a fun and educational time while we waited to leave. God’s blessings were really overwhelming to us as He provided a condo in Gulf Shores through a friend of Ken’s parents. What an amazing week and a half it has been!

We have been to the beach, pool, Gulf Shores Zoo, Fort Morgan, the Foley Railroad Museum, watched the Blue Angels practice and met the pilots, had a birthday party for Cade on the Lagoon, experienced a real old fashioned ice cream parlor in a drug store, caught crabs in the trap off the pier, played miniature golf, ate lots of wonderful seafood, spent time with family, met some new friends, and just reveled in the beauty that is God’s creation!

This last week and a half has really been a blessing to the Nelson family. God has been so gracious to give us this time to have that “peace, be still” moment in our lives. Our thoughts and prayers have been with many of our friends as we have had one friend lose her husband and prayed for another friend from Sunday school having serious health issues at this time.

I know that there are times in our lives when we experience the tribulations that this world can bring, but it is my prayer that through this all we as His children will be able to say that because He lives within us we can overcome this world and all of its trials. Please know that we continue to pray for all of you, our family and friends, and that we too cherish your prayers for us as well.

Go fly a kite!

We did just that as we found ourselves with 2 extra weeks on our hands. Our orientation was delayed 2 weeks due to a viral gastroenteritis outbreak in VA. So now Ken can spend the next 2 weeks studying and I get to homeschool for a couple weeks!
Yesterday we spent the evening with Ken's family in Bay Minette cooking out and playing horseshoes. Thanks Uncle Lonnie and Aunt Judy for the great food and fellowship!

Today we went to the park with Kirsten's family and cooked out. Then we flew kites with the cousins. It was such a great time this weekend with family. We are so blessed to have such wonderful family support! Thank you all. We love you and will miss you all!