It amazes me how quickly the days, weeks, and months go by here. This past month has been extremely busy for us! We had our very first visitors since the team that brought us in January; first we had the pleasure of hosting Jamir from Calvary Chapel Placerville, followed up immediately by Matt’s parents. We also celebrated Matt’s 32nd birthday, bought a dryer, and broke the right front shock absorber on our truck!
God is so faithful to provide for His work through His body of believers. He obviously can do anything and doesn’t necisarily require us, however, He chooses to involve us because of His love. We were so encouraged to hear from Jamir how God has been blessing him abundantly in his life. He also shared with us that when Matthew and I first left Placerville and shared with the church, God laid on his heart to help find computers for the ministry here. Shortly after a post on Facebook, he had 3 computers donated and ready to be brought to Costa Rica for ministry! He booked his travel and packed his bags full of computers, accessories, and cables. In the span of 5 days, he and Matt were able to build a table for the computers, connect them to the internet, download some English and typing programs, and set us up with internet in our home! They also found time to change the oil on the truck, build a desk for our home computer, and we even played some settlers of Catan, disc golf and soccer. We also thoroughly enjoyed fellowshipping, worshiping, and spending time in God’s word together. We were constantly reminded of God’s provision, faithfulness, and goodness throughout our week spent with Jamir. We are grateful to God for placing such a heart to serve and love inside our brother, and for his willingness to trust and obey His calling. 🙂
The same day we dropped Jamir off at the airport, we picked up Matt’s parents. The bridge on one of the main freeways we drive was closed, so Agustin helped us to find an alternative route to the airport. While we were a little nervous navigating a new route, we were grateful to learn some more roads in the area. While they were here, we celebrated Matt’s 32nd birthday with yummy food, dessserts, and presents. Matt and his dad were also able to do some electrical work in the house setting up some different outlets. They were able to get some outlets on the outside of our house so it is much easier for Matt to plug in his power tools now. We also planted some seeds to start our garden, and made some planters out of tree logs. We made sure they got to enjoy the surrounding beauty, meet our friends, and try typical Costa Rican food. This week they are continuing to explore the rest of Costa Rica; we can’t wait to hear about their adventures!
The weather has been beginning to change as we approach the rainy season here in Costa Rica. After it took me 4 days to get our laundry half-way dry, we decided it was time to invest in a dryer. We first bought an electric dryer thinking that would be the best fit for us. We soon discovered after getting it home that we aren’t even supplied with enough electricity to run the thing (Ha ha!) so we brought it back to exchange it for a gas dryer. After about 4 days, we finally had the exchange worked out and we were able to pick up our new gas dryer. This situation with the dryer was a perfect example of how everything here takes time; everything. We try our hardest to do our research and confirm that we have what we need in our trips to town, but almost every time something is either unavailable, or we get home to realize it in fact is not all that we need or even what we need! We still need to purchase a different type of exhaust tube for our dryer before we can get it up and running, but I have hopes of using it soon.
We love our truck; everyday that we drive it, we are so glad we chose the vehicle we did. Especially now that the roads are becoming so muddy in addition to their bumpiness. Speaking of bumpiness, we discovered that we busted our front passenger side shock absorber. Thank fully we were able to get the correct parts after about 5 days (and of course getting the wrong part first!) and our mechanic Jeffery installed it as well as some new bearings and other routine work for a total of just $80! We had also needed to get our exhaust pipe welded back on a couple months ago (it had rusted it’s way off!) and that only cost about $10 dollars to have done. We are very happy that mechanic labor is much more affordable here, especially with owning such an older vehicle. It must be one of the reasons vehicles last so much longer and retain their value here; it is worth it to keep the vehicle and repair it as opposed to invest in a new one before the repairs are more than the vehicles worth.
We discovered that our post box doesn’t actually exist; long story short, we need to bring in our receipt and hopefully we can get a new one! We also met with our lawyer and he has a better plan for our residency application. We are so grateful and full of peace for the route we are taking. First we will apply for non-residency, which should grant us about 3 years of permission to stay and do missions work here. This can be acquired more quickly than residency, giving us time to be here as we apply for and wait for residency. Our financial income requirements also wont be as much as we thought they were going to be, so we are very relieved. Please continue to keep the whole process in your prayers.
Guitar classes and Bible studies continue on a weekly basis as does our work on the house and property. The kids are always a blessing and the guitar students are coming along in their skills. Our relationships continue to grow as more doors to share Christ’s love are opened. It is hard to wait for the finished product with our more long-term projects, but we have been given our encouragement to work each day in Christ through His word and body. We really enjoyed having help when jamir came and we look forward to more individuals and teams coming in the future. It is good to remember that we are not alone and that the work and vision is God’s; we just get to do what He allows us to and the rest is not a cause for worry or discouragement; it will be seen through by Him.
An Adventure of a lifetime with you 