Prayer Request for a Friend

I would like to ask everyone to pray for a good friend of mine - Rod Kelley in Marietta, GA. He was in a bad motorcycle accident last week. He had surgery last week on his knee and leg. Now, he is starting physical therapy. Please pray for his recovery and physical therapy.

Also, continue to pray for our family to learn Spanish. There are days that this task seems unattainable, but I know that it is not something that we can do overnight. As everyone says here... "poco a poco" or "little by little." Tomorrow, both Charlotte and I have grammar tests. Please pray that we will do well, but most of all that we will begin to understand and be able to communicate. We are also learning the Romans Road verses in Spanish. Pray that God will give us the ability to memorize these verses that we know so well in English.

The Rainy Season is Here....

The rainy season in Costa Rica is from approximately April 15th through approximately December 15th. Since we've been here, it's been sunny and warm almost every morning, and then around late morning the sky gets cloudy and it often rains in the afternoon. Today was the first day that we got caught in a downpour. By the time we got out of our last class, it was raining hard. We live very close to the school - basically just across the street - so we were especially thankful today! Most of the people we know live much further away - and they are just like us in that they don't have a car which makes the rainy season even worse!

By the way, since we've been here, we have learned an interesting fact about umbrellas and the Spanish language. There are actually two words for "umbrella" in Spanish. "Sombrilla" is the word for a woman's umbrella; and "paraguas" is the word for a man's umbrella! I was glad I had my "paraguas" today!

A Funny Story

This past Sunday our lack of language understanding caught up with us. We have been attending the same Spanish church for the past three Sundays - even though we have understood almost nothing of what has gone on. Well, we did know that the pastor was preaching about deacons, but that was about the extent of it. We also heard him say, "...La palabra al Dios" every once in a while which means "the word of God." At the end of the service, everyone began standing up one at a time, but not in unison. We didn't know what the pastor was asking the congregation to do, so we remained seated, until someone behind us said, "You probably should stand up!" When everyone had been dismissed, the associate pastor's wife came up to us, and said in English, "Would you like for me to explain what happened?" Of course, we said, "yes!" Three men had been presented as deacons the previous week. The pastor had asked that if anyone in the congregation did not agree with the lives of these men, they should remain seated; and for everyone else to stand. Of course, it became obvious that we had no idea what was being said; so the pastor had said to the congregation in Spanish, "Apparently this family doesn't understand Spanish, so we won't count them!" Needless to say, we were a little embarrassed by our lack of understanding.

Life in Costa Rica

We have now been in Costa Rica for over two weeks. We are getting settled into our new life and routine. Now, we all go to school everyday. The kids go to Sojourn Academy which is a Christian school that is actually part of the language school. They have normal classes, but also have Spanish classes. Charlotte and I go to the Instituo de Lengua Espanol. We are both learning so much, but the task of learning to communicate in Spanish at times seems monumental. We have three classes - an hour of language, an hour of phonetics, and two hours of grammar. The teachers are all Christians and native speakers. They work hard to help us grasp our new language.

Tasks that we have been good at now have become very difficult due to the language barrier. When we order at a restaurant, we feel like 5 year olds trying to order our food. Even going to the grocery store is a challenge. Not only are the product labels in Spanish, they are packaged much differently, many familiar products are unavailable, and to top it all off they are priced in colones instead of dollars!! Attending church services is also difficult, as we understand very little of what's going on.

Each day gets a little easier as we learn new words and phrases. We look forward to the day when we can understand a Spanish sermon and worship in Spanish, and also share our testimonies in Spanish. Please pray that God will help us to learn the language quickly, so that we can be effective in serving him in a new culture.

We Have Internet

We have internet. Here is a movie that John Robert put together. We will post thoughts soon.

No Internet

We still do not have internet. Hope to have it by Monday or Tuesday. We will have video and pictures!

We have arrived in Costa Rica!

We arrived in Costa Rica on Monday evening (4/27) at 8:30 pm local time. This week has been spent getting settled and attending orientation. We don't have internet at home, but should have it next week. We will write more details next week! Please continue to keep us in your prayers as we experience life in a different culture!