New Videos!!

We just made a new tab for videos of the work here!!  There are 4 new ones!!  Check them out and enjoy!!

 

Flying back to Costa Rica!!

Here are some pictures of us waiting in Charlotte to fly back to Costa Rica!!  We did great with the weight of our luggage!  Everything was between 49 and 50 lbs!  I had to wear 3 shirts to get my clothes all back, but it is worth it!!

 

We have moved into the mission house!

Over the last two months our home church has been remodeling an old home on the new church property to make it into a mission house!  We were able to move in yesterday!  It is such a huge blessing to have a place to call our own while we are back in SC!!  Thank you to everyone at Mt. Moriah Baptist for this blessing!!  You guys are awesome!! We have finally moved out of our suitcases after a month of living out of them!!   Here are some pictures of our home for the next 2 months!!

The dedication of the new mission house!

The mission house!

The front porch!

The den with the girls enjoying a movie on our computer!

The dining room

Encouraging little touches

Benja’s bedroom

The girls’ room

Lizzie decorated her bed as soon as we arrived!

The kids’ bathroom

Our bedroom

Even a tire swing in the backyard!!

 

We are back in SC

We arrived last night around 1:30am at Jacob’s parents house.  The kids did great on the planes and in the airports!  Monica was there to pick us up in Columbia when we arrived and drove us to Jacob’s parents’ house.  We arrived to cumphy (not sure if that is a word) beds and a great night’s sleep.  We woke up around 10 SC time, but that is 8 to our bodies.  The kids were excited that their Grammy had Lucky Charms for them for breakfast and Jacob and I enjoyed Raisin Bran!  Oh the little things.  Then all of the kids got to take long baths!  Another luxury they are not accustomed to because we did not have a bathtub in our house and few Costa Rican homes do.  They were so excited!

Please pray for our time here, that we would bring glory to God with all of the work that has been going on in Costa Rica!  We have about 17 speaking arrangements already lined up and we would love to share with even more.  We are praising God for this time in the States and are celebrating the time and calling that we have to Costa Rica.

 

Lemonade is sweet, but….

God’s love is sweeter.   That was the theme this week of a group of 3 – 5 year olds from Columbia, South Carolina.  What does that have to do with us in Costa Rica?  Well, a friend of mine from high school, Ashley Lindler, messaged me on facebook a couple of weeks ago to ask if I could share over Skype with her group of 3 – 5 year olds from Columbia First Baptist summer camp.  I, of course, was happy to do that.  With the time difference of 2 hours between here and South Carolina, I would be able to speak with them at 7:30 here and miss just a few minutes of my first class.  Easy peasy!  They were just adorable!  Well, earlier in the week I had seen on facebook where Ashley had posted pictures of her children holding a lemonade stand with a sign that said, “Lemonade is sweet, but God’s love is even sweeter!”  How cute is that?  When I mentioned to them over Skype that I saw the pictures they told me that they were doing it to raise money for us!!  I was so shocked!  I started crying!  I think it is so amazing that these little ones were working so hard for missions here in Costa Rica!  They ended up doing 3 lemonade stands and raised a total of $277.46!!  Can you believe that?  These were 3, 4 and 5 year olds and they are making a difference for Christ at such an early age.  Their efforts will benefit missions in Costa Rica and the children that we are serving here!  That is why I think it brought me to tears….these little ones already working for the furthering of God’s kingdom and look what they did!!  So amazing!  What amazing lessons these little ones are learning and teaching!  Such a fabulous way to be spending their summer vacations.  I love the idea of getting kids and families involved in missions.  This has truly blessed me and my family.  And I am thinking that they may even inspire some of the readers of this blog….what do you think?

Here are some pictures of these cuties!!  Thank you guys so much!

Lemonade stand advertising!

Lemonade stand cuties!

The firemen came on the first day!

Second day of the lemonade stand

Who wouldn’t stop and buy some lemonade from these cuties?

And the firemen came back for more on the second day!!

Taking a break for some water time fun!!

 

Snow in Costa Rica?

Me, Benja and Lizzie in the snow after we shared at Providence

Driving in the snow/covered streets

Catching flakes!

The view from outside the missionhouse

The front porch

Jacob and Benja

Sophia enjoying the snow from the warm inside

Lizzie making a snow angel

Lizzie’s snow angel

Lizzie, Jacob and Gus made this snowman without gloves!

Well for those of you who know where we are currently you realize that these pictures were not in fact taken in Costa Rica.  We are in South Carolina.  We have gone from the tropics to snow in March in South Carolina.  It started snowing around 4:30 Sunday afternoon, but we decided to go anyway to speak at Providence Baptist about 30 minutes away.  Well, they decided to cut the time short and have just us share and then leave and when we were done and got outside it was like a winter wonderland.  It was beautiful!  It was very hard driving home in the snow, but we made it home.  Amazingly, we had power all night and we got up the next morning and played in the snow and even built a snowman.  Being that we were not expecting to come to South Carolina and have snow, we did not have all of the needed snow gear.  Jacob, Lizzie and Gus managed to build the snowman without any gloves!  Brrrrrr!  We are having a great time and have been tremendously blessed on our trip so far.

 

4th of July 2008

What a great last holiday in the states!  It started with a party at our friends Ray and Wendy Scott’s house!  We had a great time!  The kids got to play and we all got to hang out!  We then went to see the fireworks at Trinity Point!  They were fantastic!  On Sunday night our church had a church picnic and a softball game with the teenagers against the adults.  We did not keep a close score, but I think that the teenagers won!  It was great fun.  I think that everyone had a great time!  Here are some pictures from both events!

Life long buddies Jacob and Ray

Wendy and her sweet mom that threw the party, notice silly Benjamin in the background!

Me, Amy and Wendy

Christina and I enjoying watching the softball game

Bryan, Jessica and Ava Little

Chris and Amy Burke being silly!

Dan, Tasha and Lucy Wigington

Jacob and I with Chris and Amy after the softball game

Gerry and Sophia at the picnic

Jeff and Lisa after the picnic

 

Great VBS and Family Vacation!

  Whew!  It has been a busy two weeks.  We had VBS at church where we were the featured missionaries.  The theme was Indiana Jowers and the Quest for the Ultimate Treasure.  The kids learned about the treasure that the Bible is and had a great week.  They also had a competition to see who could bring in the most coins, which the boys won.  Thanks to all of the kids that brought in coins and to all the parents that did not mind the kids digging through their sofas and cars for all of their spare coins.  The kids raised over $300 for our mission in Costa Rica.

Lizzie Grace, Abbie, Sophia and Maggie at the water park

All of the kids at the waterpark!

Benjamin put Mary Claire to sleep all by himself!

After VBS we traveled to Gatlinburg to have a family vacation with my parents and my sisters and their families.  We had a great time.  We went to the theme parks and to a water park and we had a great time. It was a wonderful time of togetherness before we leave for Costa Rica.