By the Numbers

 

Want to give?  Click on over here!

Visas, Tickets and 8%

Today I realized that we are just about three months away from returning to Costa Rica!  I knew that this summer would fly by, but oh dear!  Didn't we just get here?

I also realized that we needed to get started on the paperwork process.  This last year in Costa Rica, we didn't worry about getting a student visa, we just left the country every 90 days to renew our tourists' visas.  Remember this trip?

But now that we will be living in Costa Rica permanently, leaving ever 90 days would be a drain on our time, not to mention financial resources.  So, that means we need visas.  So, I started working on the process of trying to figure out what paper work we need from what government offices, and how many stickers and ribbons each one needs and where it needs to be sent.  Apparently, in Michigan, there is one office in Lansing that has the authority to issue the Great Seal.  And that Great Seal needs to be on just about everything.

And unlike here in the States, where you could use the same birth certificate your whole life, we need new ones for each member of the family, as well as a new marriage license.  And apparently we need a police statement saying we are good, upstanding citizens and some other letters of recommendation from our sending agency and Roblealto.  But really, a lot of this is just me guessing at this point.  You know, dealing with government agencies is never easy or straight forward, even if you speak the same language.

And then there are the plane tickets...what a racket!   I did discover this last year that one of the best ways to get cheap tickets is to break the flights up.  Instead of searching for a trip from Grand Rapids to San Jose, I look for tickets from Grand Rapids to Orlando or Miami, and then tickets from one of those cities to San Jose.  We were able to shave $100 per ticket off the price when we came back in April this way.  And right now ticket prices are looking good for the end of September!  I am praying they stay that way until we get the green light to buy them from LAM.

We are still in the support raising process, although if you've noticed on the sidebar, we are now up to 92%!  We are praying that God would bring in the rest of the support by the end of July, so that we can buy the tickets and move forward with the move.  Really, 8% more isn't much.  And it breaks down to be three partners at $50 a month and four at $100.  Would you pray with us about the need?  And if you have been thinking about partnering with us and Campamento Roblealto, now would be a great time to let us know!  Follow the link here, and jump on board.

Thoughts on the Last Month

Well.  Let's see.  We've been here Stateside for just over a month now and I am amazed at how fast it's gone already!  I think we are over the big hump of the transition back to Michigan, which, if we are being perfectly honest, was a bit rockyier (is that a word?) than we anticipated.  Oh, nothing earth shattering or frightening, just things that never seemed to be an issue before, you know, like calling the doctors office became overwhelming at times.  Noah was even in the middle of setting up internet and we realized it was going to cost way too much a month and he didn't know what to do, so he just hung up the phone.  Ha!  Yeah, situations that we think we should know what to do, and then all of a sudden we're caught off guard, not knowing how things work.  Or things have changed since we left, like Panera now has waiters?  I know that's not what they are called, but that's about what it amounts too. 

The kids have had a time of it too.  One day Forrest asked me if we were going back to Costa Rica tomorrow.  Oh honey.  And Elliot has just been a ball of tears when he can't find where stuff is.  That started in Costa Rica as we were packing up.  He would go to look for his shoes and then come back crying because the basket was gone.  Poor dude.  But they seem to be settled in more here now.  And slowly we are developing a routine to our days, which will change again as soon as baby comes, but for now, we are feeling a bit more normal.

Thanks for your prayers and notes over the last month.  Seriously, we've had some good days and some not so good days and you have all helped on the not so good days.  And now that we have a bit more routine, I am hoping to get into more a routine here again too.  You know, until baby comes!

The Answer!

Remember the whole "We thought we were going to Honduras and now we're not"  situation?  And how it was hard and stretching and we grew in our faith?  Well, finally after months of praying and looking and fussing, and praying some more, we have an answer!  We met with the director of Campamento Roblealto and a representative from LAM Tuesday and we will be joining the work there in the fall!

While we still have to sign our letter of intent, things are pretty set now.  I can't tell you what a relief it is to have an answer, have more of a refined direction and to be able to move on to the next step of this crazy adventure!

Noah's main job will be working with the college aged volunteers (you might call them summer staff).  He will be working along side of them during the camping seasons (January and July) as well as following up with them during the six months in between camp seasons.  You might call him chaplain of sorts, or pastor to these young adults.  He will also be working alongside the program department to help develop Bible studies, themes, and lessons for the campers.  If you are at all familiar with Barakel summers, he will sorta be Roblealto's Dave Douglas.

I will be helping where I can with things like having the volunteers over for a pizza night, or plan a Christmas party or whatever else comes up, the same sort of things I would do during the summers at Barakel, but my main job for a while will be the boys. 

We're excited!  We can see how God has been preparing us for this ministry, everything from our degrees, to our time at Barakel, to what our gifts are.  And there is a huge need here in Costa Rica to train up young men and women who are firm in the Faith, who know the Bible and who have leadership skills to lead the next generation.  This position hasn't existed before us, but it is something that the director and staff at Roblealto have been praying about for a while now.

Roblealto is about an hour from where we live now, up the mountain north of San Jose (thanks google maps for this image!).  It was started in 1948 (how funny, that's right around the time Barakel was started!)  The property is lovely and perfect for a camp.  The camping season is a bit different from the United States because of school schedules. Instead of camp being full all summer, we will be busy all of January and then for half of July. 

We won't live on the property, but somewhere close  Right now we are praying that God would show us the perfect house for our family in the area.  And big on the list of things we are praying for is a secure yard for the boys to play in and a bath tub.  Yep, a bath tub is number two on our list of priorities!  We aren't sure exactly what town we will live in, but Roblealto is going to help us figure that all out as the time gets closer. 

So what's next?  Well, in 41 days we graduate from ILE after our year of language study.  Then we'll head to West Michigan for the summer, to have baby and finish support raising.  We are hopeful that we will be at 100% by the end of September so we can move to our new home in Costa Rica early October.

Thank you all so much for all your prayers for wisdom through this process!  God sure has used it to grow us and for that we are thankful.  We are also very thankful to be on this side of the process too!  

2 Weeks Down, 14 to Go

Yep, we have just about 14 weeks left here in Costa Rica for our YEAR of language school!  Wow!  Somehow we managed to make it through the last term, morning, errrr all day sickness, seminary classes and all.  And now we are looking at the Subjunctive and making plans for our summer in Michigan.

Yep, you read that right.  We will be back in the Mitten state (is Wisconsin still pulling that junk about being the Mitten state?) from the very end of April through about September.  I started looking to see what ticket prices would be to fly back tonight.  Crazy!  And here is another crazy thought, tomorrow I round the corner at 18 weeks pregnant!  Almost halfway folks!

So you might be wondering what our plans for the summer are.  Well, have a baby is probably number one on the list.  Second would be finishing our support raising.  Right now we are hovering around 86%.  We really need to be at 100% before we can leave for our field of service (wherever that might be, and yes, we are working on that.)  And third on the list is hanging out with a bunch of really great people.

We are in need of a couple of things for the summer though.  And I wouldn't be completely honest if I didn't say that at times I can get anxious about them.  Biggest need, a place to live.  We don't have a huge budget for renting, but if you know of anyone who needs someone to keep their house nice and occupied in the West Michgian area from May through September, would you let us know?  Or maybe you know someone who has space for missionaries or your church has a missions house we could use?    We would love a 3 bedroom, but could probably get by with 2 for the summer since baby will be, well a baby.

Also, right up there on the list of things that we need, a vehicle.  We were blessed beyond words with a van for the month of December.  We don't want to buy something for the summer, but again, if you know of anyone who has a family vehicle that can fit 3 car seats that just needs to be driven this summer, or a church that has a ministry vehicle we can borrow, let us know.


And please, be praying with us about these things.  I know that God has this all worked out and I don't need to fret, but sometimes I do.  And then usually, Forrest will start singing this song, and I am pulled back to the Truth.

 

Our Weekend

What a fun couple of days!  On Saturday we drove up to Traverse City for the weekend.  Noah's brother and sister in law threw us a going away party at their church and it was great to be able to see some of relatives and supporters in the area.  The boys loved the warmer weather and sun, and had a great time playing with cousins in the church nursery.

On Sunday we got to spend some time with the fun folks at Long Rapids Congregational.  This was a church that sent a group to Barakel for a winter retreat and got very excited about what God is doing in Honduras and our part in that.  They gave us the opportunity to share more about that in their service.  And then we enjoyed a fantastic meal with them.  We had to skip out on the softball game, but we heard it was quite fun too.

Sunday night we were back in Traverse City, and we decided the boys were old enough to be introduced to the joy of pizza and movie night.  It was a hoot!  We watched Milo and Otis, and really, they only watched about 20 minutes of it before they got up and started playing, but we kept it on and Noah and I laughed through the rest of it.  Every once in a while, one of the boys would come back over, declare with full gusto what animal was on the TV and then wander off again.

Monday we met our landlady for our Costa Rican house, because she lives in Noah's home town!  What a funny world!  She and her son met us for breakfast, and we were able to ask questions and she drew us pictures of the neighborhood, told us all the neighbors names, told us where to get fruit and how to take our trash out!  It got us so excited!
 

Hard to believe we are down to 13 days!  Just 13 days and we will be on a plane south!  And God keeps moving with support.  We are at 83% now.  That means just $435 more a month and we will be at 90%, what we need to be at for Language School.  Keep praying with us!

The Last Couple of Days

Well.  I am finally to a point where I can sit down at the computer again and write to you all.  What a crazy week and a half!  You saw the insane amount of tubs and packing that we did all last week.  I think Noah and I put in 12 or 14 hour days packing every day last week.  And I was a bit fearful that we wouldn't get it all done in time.  But we did.  With the help of a lot of people!  Friends watched out kids, brought us dinner, and on Friday, they came in like a huge pack, errr, herd, err swarm of Parana and picked the bones of the house clean of our stuff in an hour and a half!  The truck was loaded and we were on our way by about 11!  Amazing!

The boys took turns riding with Noah in the moving van and the whole trip was quite peaceful.  The further south we got the less snow there was.  Friday night we stayed at my parents'.  Saturday morning a work team from our sending church came and unloaded the truck and then loaded our storage trailer.  Again in an hour and a half! And everything fit in the trailer!  That is now small feat, a 4 bedroom house with garage was condensed down to a 20 foot trailer!

Then we hauled the stuff we are using now and what is coming to Costa Rica with us to our new apartment in Grand Rapids.  We are living in the upstairs apartment of a two family house that my sister and brother in law rent.  It's a sweet little place.  In some ways reminds me of our house in Holland. 

It's got character.  Glass door knobs, funky old windows, cupboard doors that don't completely shut.  I love it!  My sister had it all decorated which was such a blessing for me.  We have a lot of the same aesthetic and it's just nice to be in a homey place for this next month.

It's tiny, just one bedroom, but we are making it work.  And it's just for a month.  We at at 77% now!  Which means that we just need $774 more monthly dollars to get to language school!  And by faith we bought our plane tickets last week.  Crazy!

So there you have it.  Our move and our new apartment.  Home for the next month.

You Haven't Heard Much from Me Because

well, take a look! 

We are on day 3 out of 4 of marathon packing.  We will be pulling out of Camp Barakel for the last time on Friday afternoon.  Pray for us.  We are getting a bit frantic.  Really everything needs to be ready to be loaded on the truck by Friday morning at 8 am.  Oh, and we are now at 75%!  Just 15 % more to go before we fly out to Costa Rica in a month!  See ya in a couple of days!

Alive and Kicking

Just a quick note to say, Hey!  And to let you know that we are on the road again...imagine that!  We are in the middle of a week long Missions Conference in the Detroit area.  Noah is speaking at a men's group right now and on Wednesday night we'll be sharing with the youth group.  So, we'll see you when we get back!

A Shameless Classified Ad- Appliances

 Part of this whole moving thing is we have appliances to sell.  And so if you aren't into classified ads, you can stop reading right now.  But for those of you who are interested in what we got to get rid of take a look...

Up for sale at $150 or best offer is our GE electric stove.  Does the job you need it to.  All burners work, over has two racks.  Sorry, Rosie doesn't come with it.

Next is the Magic Chef dishwasher at $50 or best offer.    Does a fine job.

Whirlpool Heavy Duty Super Capacity Plus Washer. $50.  Apparently it's 7 cycles and 2 speeds.  Who knew?  I just know it has your basic functions.  Good workhorse washer.  Has a few scratches on the side next to the dryer.

Whirlpool Natural Gas Heavy Duty Extra Capacity Dryer.  $50.  Works well.

Interested?  Let us know through email, phone, Facebook, knock on the door...

Just In Case You Didn't See It

The Final Product

Isn't it great!?  My sister is amazing at what she does.  If you need a graphic designer for anything, give me a holler and I will hook you up with her contact info!  Seriously, she is great!

70%!!!!!

So within hours of posting on Tuesday, we hit the 70% mark!  And yesterday we were given the ok from LAM to commit to the May Term at ILE!  That was a fun email to write!

There is still a lot of work to be done.  We were able to commit to the May term at 70%, but we need to gain 15% in March and 15% in April.  Which means a whole lot of traveling and talking.  But there is a whole lot of fun packed into there too!  And as always, if you have a group of people who you think would be interested in hearing what God is doing, just let us know!  March is pretty much booked right now, but there is still plenty of time in April to get together.  Seriously, just give us a holler!

We now have some more specific dates.  Which helps me a ton! I have an end in sight, now we just dig in and get the work done!  We will be moving to Grand Rapids March 25th.  That means we have just about a month left living in the north here.  And even as I type this, there are boxes and bins starting to be filled. 

It is a bittersweet thing for sure.  Last night the Barakel staff surprised us with a going away dinner (we thought it was just a normal monthly potluck) and blessed us with kind words, and way too many sweet gifts!  It is hard to leave this place that God has Blessed, but we know He is moving us on, and for that we are excited.

While in Grand Rapids, we will be staying in my sister and brother in law's upstairs apartment.  It's such a great arrangement because they will have their space and we will have ours, and we will be oh so close to them!  And it will give us more concentrated time to support raise, finish up details and spend time with family and friends.

As best we know right now, we will be flying to Costa Rica sometime around the 25th of April.  Orientation starts April 28th, so we need to be there a couple of days before hand.  It's exciting, and bit overwhelming all at the same time.  There is still a lot of work to do, but we are trusting that since God brought us to 70% before March 1st, He is going to provide the rest of the funding we need to leave in April. 

And now, bring on the boxes!

There and Back Again

You, dear readers, are getting the shaft around here lately!  And for that I am truly sorry.  What is with this intermittent posting, you might ask?  Well, there has been and will continue to be a whole lot of traveling and talking and spending face time with people, and frankly, by the end of each long day, the last thing I have the energy for is to write. 

This weekend was another weekend that is becoming more the rule than the exception.   We were in Holland and Grand Rapids.  We stayed with a dear friend who was house sitting for missionaries (how fun is that?)  She fed us, did our dishes, played with our kids, and totally spoiled us for the weekend.  We also were able to spend time with a new group of Jesus Lovers who we met through an old friend from High School, and on Sunday we spend a good chunk of the day with Noah's brother and his family.  And then we got to brave the ice and snow back to Holland.  It took us twice as long as normal, but that just meant an hour, which as sad as this is, is a normal trip for us now.  Our kids don't understand when they get in the car for just a fifteen minute drive.

Anyway.  We had a great time sharing with two different groups about the work in Honduras and what God is doing through Manantial de Vida.  We were also able to share with them that we are just .5% away from being able to commit to language school!  Yep, just a half of percent!  And we still have a week before our deadline!  Let us know if you want to be that family that pushes us over that goal!

One of the highlights of this trip was taking our new prayer card photo.  I know, family photos right?  But we really wanted to have a tropical one this time around, something about moving to Central America made snow and knotting pine paneling seem, well, really out of place.

Noah came up with the great idea of going to the Meijer Gardens.  Which was perfect.  And because we wanted to it to look as real as we could, we wore short sleeves and sandals.  I even changed into a skirt once we got there.  I know people were a bit confused why we were dressed like that, on a snow day for most of West Michigan.  But it was so nice!  Because the Tropical Conservatory was warm and humid, and since we were in summer clothes, it felt like a mini vacation!  And while the actual Butterfly exhibit doesn't start for another two weeks or so, there were some early hatchers flying around, which the boys were very excited about.  There were two other families in the whole place, so we were able to take a bunch of photos and not bother anyone.  What a treat!

We're back at Barakel now, working through the paperwork and physical unpacking.  And we're here for a while now, you know like two weeks before our next adventure!

PS- If you are reading this in a reader, click on over to the real thing, there is a fun new look!  More in keeping with moving to the tropics!

PSS-  Yes, I really do have two legs, despite the fact that the last picture seems to show I have had an amputation in recent weeks.  Rest assured, we are a 8 legged family.

New Notebook

So I have always had this thing for office supplies.  It goes way back, and somewhere along the line, I just embraced it.  Noah laughed today when I told him I started a new notebook.  And then he said, "Of course you did."



This notebook it going to be full of lists.  Lists organized by room on what we need to take with us and what we don't.  Lists of airline prices.  It already has the lists of recommendations from ILE pasted in it.

I started this new notebook today because yesterday we had a very exciting conversation with LAM.  We were told that if we are at 70% of our monthly support by March 1st, we can commit to the May term at ILE!  And if you take a gander over at the side bar, you will notice that we are at 67% right now!  That means we need just 3% by March 1st!

Now, just clarify, we still can't leave at 70%.  We will need to gain another 20% before we leave mid April, and then that last 10% before we leave for Honduras.  But to be able to commit to being in Costa Rica for the May term would be huge!  If you have been thinking about partnering with us, this would be a great time to let us know that!  For you numbers people, 3% for us is 3 families giving $58 a month.  Click here to find out how to give.

And pray with us.  This is a big milestone, but there is also a lot left to do.  Pray that God will bring the people and churches He wants to partner with us to our attention.  And that He would bring in the rest of the monthly support soon!

An Uncollection

Because life is just clipping along making writing anything more than bullit points difficult, we are just going to roll with it.

• Had a great few days with new friends in Saginaw!  And found out that quiet a few of you are lurkers!  Come out of the wood work and leave comments, now that we have met in person!  Seriously!  Oh, and check out our friend Amber's blog post about one of the funniest dessert times we have had with people!
• The crib tent's zipper died...and it's miserable around here at bed time!  But I have a sleeping bag zipper coming tomorrow and hopefully I can replace the zipper without an major issues...pray about that.  Seriously!  
• We've been working on all the paperwork that comes after a trip like this.  Part of why there hasn't been anything new to read here.
• Lunch is exciting today.  Minestrone soup and manicotti leftovers!  I love leftovers!

I Bought a Planner

This is not a weird thing, really.  I always use a calendar.  When I was teaching I had three.  One at school, a carry around planner, and one at home on the fridge. 

But this year, this planner is causing me problems.  I started to fill in some important dates, and I couldn't get any farther than March.  Because, and this isn't' anything new either, we don't know what March will bring.  Really, last year I didn't know what March would bring, or the year before that, or the year before that.  But somehow I had the allusion that I knew what would happen in March.  Or June.  Or November.

This year, we could be packing up a house in March.  And moving somewhere for a while, and then on to Costa Rica.  Or we could be here still.  Really don't know.  And that is bothersome to me.   In fact, if I am going to be completely honest, it brought me to tears this afternoon.  And as I sat there staring at the empty boxes of March, God spoke to me in a quiet way.

Honey, you never know what even the next hour will hold.  You plan, but I direct.  I've got this.  Trust me.

Oh my.  But my faith just seems so small.  I know God can do anything, and He loves us more than we know and has the exact thing we need, whether it seems good to us or not.  But my faith just seems so small!

I often turn to music to settle me, to help me think correctly.  This time the song that came to mind was Hold Me Jesus by Rich Mullins.  Listen to it.  But if you're not into that, just read the words.

Sometimes my life
Just don't make sense at all
When the mountains look so big
And my faith just seems so small

So hold me Jesus, 'cause I'm shaking like a leaf
You have been King of my glory
Won't You be my Prince of Peace

And I wake up in the night and feel the dark
It's so hot inside my soul
I swear there must be blisters on my heart

So hold me Jesus, 'cause I'm shaking like a leaf
You have been King of my glory
Won't You be my Prince of Peace

Surrender don't come natural to me
I'd rather fight You for something
I don't really want
Than  take what You give that I need
And I've beat my head against so many walls
Now I'm falling down, I'm falling on my knees

And this Salvation Army band
Is playing this hymn
And Your grace rings out so deep
It makes my resistance seem so thin

So hold me Jesus, 'cause I'm shaking like a leaf
You have been King of my glory
Won't You be my Prince of Peace  

 

You have been King of my glory
Won't You be my Prince of Peace

So much of what I want to say to God is in this song.  And forces to remember that He is the King of Glory, He is the Prince of Peace, His grace can handle so much more than I can throw at it.  And that I need to be falling on my knees. 

And that's why it's now printed out and glued to the front of that blasted planner.  Because everyday I need to be praying 

So hold me Jesus, 'cause I'm shaking like a leaf
You have been King of my glory
Won't You be my Prince of Peace  

Chocolates and Percentage

I am making these today.  And since I don't want to bore you with a oh so very similar post, I will just let you read it over there.

Oh, and in really big news, we hit 55% last night!  And to give you a little background, we have been praying that we would gain 10% a month in new monthly supporters.  And this month (for whatever reason, it runs from the 15th to the 15th)  we hit that to the day!  Thank you God! 

Back to You Regular Scheduled Programing

Sort of.

After a really really long trip home on Sunday (more in a minute), we are back to life as normal.  Errr, except that it's 10 days until Christmas, so maybe not completly normal.

After 8 days on the road, we made our way home in the first statewide snow storm of the season.  We left around noon, thinking that even if it took us 6 hours (normal is 4) to get back, it would be only 6.  Well...

A half hour into the trip, we got a flat.  And remember back this summer when we got a flat and learned that our spare is stuck to the van?  Silly us, we never did anything about that.  So that spare is still stuck to the van.  And our cell phones weren't charged like they should have been.  And the computer wasn't charged like it should have been, and well, we were pretty desperate.  We prayed, and Forrest started to, out of no where, sing a song from Seeds Family Worship "Philippians 4:6-7".  Ummmk.  Think God was trying to say something?

 A few minutes later a state trooper pulled up behind us and called a tow truck.  And we got a hold of my sister and her husband who live about 5 minutes from where we were.  My brother in law came and got the boys and I, while Noah took the van to the nearest open tire shop. They had coffee and Charlie Brown Christmas for us to enjoy.  And really, overall, it was a nice afternoon.

We were so thankful we got a flat where we did.   There were so very many worse places to get one on our route home.  You know, like in the middle of nowhere in a blizzard!  We got back on the road around 4pm and made it slowly north, through the ice and snow.  Really, we didn't loose that much time we were home by 8:30, but it was a looonnnng day!

And it was a good week of talking with people about Honduras.  And we are now at 54%!!  Thanks for all your prayers over this week.  We sure can't do this without the prayers and gifts of the people here!

Just Checking In

We are in the middle of a our 8 day trip to share with families and churches about what God is doing in Honduras.  It's been a good first half, although we are all getting more and more tired!  Elliot is still asleep this morning and it's 8:15!

Just to give you a glimpse of what this sort of week is like for us, in the since Saturday we have:

• Shared a meal with 5 different families
• Shared during 2 church services
• Driven 455 miles

In the next 4 days, we will

• Share meals with 2 groups and 1 individual
• Share at 1 more church service 
• Get 1 typhoid shot
• Drive another 511 miles

Thanks for all your prayers!  We have felt them, and are grateful!  You may not hear much more from me the rest of the week, but I will be back like normal next week.