A Part of the Whole

Trip to get Veggies

2012-02-06T21:10:00.000-05:00

Before all the excitement on Saturday, we went to the Feria. Check out these sweet little boys on their way...

Elliot's Adventure

2012-02-04T19:02:00.003-05:00

First off, he is fine. Today during rest time he managed to find a little 1/2 oz bottle of bleach we took with us to Honduras. It had a lid on it that only allowed a drop out at a time. Somehow he got some of the bleach in his eye. Yeah.

After Forrest came and told us something was wrong, and we realized what had happened, we tried flushing it out with water and then we headed to the emergency room. Good grief. There they flushed and flushed and flushed his eye out. It took two male nurses and Noah to hold him down and his piecing scream (remember that cry from when he was a baby?) could be heard in the waiting room. Poor kid. When the nurse came to get my from the waiting room, I asked how it went and he said good but he was soaked. And because Elliot was soaked from all the water, he got to wear a pair of hospital jammies home...they told me I could bring them back in a week when I come from my next doctor's appointment for baby.

After a check with the doc, there is no burn, ulcer or any damage to the eye. He has some antibiotic cream we need to put on his eye (sorta like what they put on newborns) for the next two days.

We are so grateful that God protected his eye!! And that God caused a missionary couple from Scotland 90 years ago to start Clinica Biblica (the hospital we went to). The staff there speaks English, the signs are in English and Spanish and it was just good to be in a place that we could trust. The whole visit came to about $145! That's another thing we are grateful! Pretty reasonable emergency room visit! Friends of ours here just got a car 2 weeks ago and they were able to come and pick Forrest up at the hospital so he didn't have stay though it all. Also, we managed to leave Elliot's only pair of sandals in the taxi on our way to the hospital. The taxi driver saw them, after we had left and turned around and brought them back to the hospital for us!

Anyway, so that was our exciting Saturday.

Uncollection

2012-01-30T22:13:00.001-05:00

I have to talk for 20 minutes tomorrow about a topic I care about. Help me out...what do I care about that I could talk for 20 minutes on?
I had a thousand (errr, maybe 6) blog post ideas in the last couple of days. Can I remember any of them now? No.
Roblealto has a kid sized zipline. Forrest was thrilled

Papaya smoothies need something...some pineapple maybe? Banana?
It's summer here. Yep, don't get all twisted around by the fact that yes, we are in the northern hemisphere and therefore it really is winter. According to Ticos, it's summer. The stores even have their summer sales now. Complete with coolers, swimsuits, lawn chairs. And apparently, summer doesn't necessarily mean warmer temperatures, it just means it isn't raining. Remember, the temp here only changes about 15 degrees throughout the whole year.
Limón Dulces (sweet lemons) are A. Not really sweet B. Not very tangy C. Not very good.

January Newsletter

2012-01-24T21:42:00.000-05:00

We're back into the swing of things here in Costa Rica after a fantastic month in Michigan. Classes are off to a great start for our last term of language school.

A while back, Noah mentioned to you all that there was a need for shoes for the homeless here in Costa Rica. And wow, did people take that to heart! We were given enough shoes to fill 4 huge duffel bags. We were also given donations to cover the expenses of bringing them back with us! Also, we didn't have a single issue with security or customs. I really wonder what the customs guys thought when we brought in 4 duffels of shoes! What answers to prayer!

The shoes went to a program called Jesús en Las Calles (Jesus in the Streets) at the church we have been attending here. More specifically the shoes will go to a part of the program that works to help people get off the streets. When the contact people came by to pick up all the shoes, they were amazed at how many there were! They told us that about 75% of the people in the program are men and 25% women. Funny thing, we had 3 duffel bags of men's shoes and 1 of women's! They knew that not everyone can give so much and have invited Noah to come a be a part of distributing the shoes and working with the people they will benefit.

A huge thank you to all who gave and prayed for this! Many people will hear the love of Jesus because of these shoes!

"What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead."

James 2:14-17

Noah and Liz Kamper

2 Weeks Down, 14 to Go

2012-01-20T21:04:00.000-05:00

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.

Thanks!

2012-01-18T21:46:00.000-05:00

Thanks for all the prayers and kind words! We visited a camp yesterday and had some really good conversations with the director and the head of the program department. And aside from Elliot getting car sick and throwing up all over the backseat, things went great! Poor dude!

After we have a bit of time to think through all that we learned yesterday and after we do some praying, I'll share more about our time and our thoughts.

And now, it's back to grammar homework. Fun times man, fun times.

Where in the World?

2012-01-16T09:00:00.001-05:00

Ok. You have probably noticed some subtle changes around here. Like the map of Honduras is gone, and so it the clock with Honduran time. If you were to read our About page, you would find there is a lack of information about Honduras there. And if you and I are friends on Facebook, you might have noticed I changed my work information.

So what in the world is going on? Well...

LAM, in preparation for our deployment to Manantial de Vida later this year, did some reviewing of the situation there, and after much prayer, talking, and considering, decided that it was best we consider not moving there. Without getting into all the nitty gritty, (if you want more details, you can email me and I'll send you a copy of the letter LAM sent out.) they asked us to pray about this possible change of direction for a week before we talked with anyone.

Which we did. And in the end we came to a lot of the same conclusions LAM did. Let me just say it was a very hard decision to come to. We had been praying and planning and preparing for Honduras for the last two years. And just like that, or so it felt, we were without a country. We went through just about every emotion you can think of. Really. And there were a lot of questions. Still are. Like, hummm, where are we going? Even ask Forrest and he'll tell you, "we don't know where we are going yet."

But we are learning to trust God at a deeper level, again, still, something. Before we had to trust that God was going to bring us to Honduras because He was leading us there. And now we have to trust that we left everything we have ever know for a place we don't know at all. Like as in, we don't know where it is! I feel more like Abram than ever!

"By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going."

And can I be honest here? It's not a fun place to be. I long for stability. Really. If it was up to me, I would have bought a lovely centennial farm in a quaint little town just far enough from a nice city to be out in the country, put down roots, lived there until the day I die. My kids would be able to know their parents phone number when they were 50 by memory because it would be the same one they had when they were kids. I would plant a garden, and learn my neighbors names and we would be at the same church and community for 75 years.

Instead, here we are global nomads, with no idea what is next, a baby coming in just a few short months, and all we have is Jesus. And I can say with everything that is within me, like Peter, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life." (John 6:68)

And so we cling to him and trust that He will show us that next step.

And how are we going to know those next steps? Well, LAM has been working with us to help. We have already talked with one camp here in Costa Rica, and while we love the ministry that is going on there, it just wasn't a good fit for our family. When we were in the States over Christmas, we talked with the personal people at LAM and they were quite excited about a couple of possibilities for us.

On Tuesday we will meet with another place just about an hour from where we are living to talk about the ministry and get to know them.

And for now, a couple of things are for sures (yeah!!!)
1. God is still in control. He never wasn't.
2. We are still going to be in Christian Camping in Latin America. Somewhere. Luis Diego, one of the great people we have been working with at LAM said, "We know there is a camp, we just have to figure out which one it is."

And we wait on the rest. And would you pray with us about the rest?

Week in Review

2012-01-15T16:55:00.001-05:00

One week. That's it! Sure feels like it's been longer! Last week at this time we were navigating our way through picking up a rental van in Fort Lauderdale and driving it to Miami. Wow, what a day! Thanks to all who prayed! We made it safe, sound, and all in one piece! We even managed to get through immigration and customs without any extra fees or issues with what we were bringing (more on that a bit later)!

As for this week, we've slid back into our routine here. School started Tuesday. Hard to believe we are beginning our third trimester! That means in just 4 months we will be done with our year of language study! Wow! Gosh, ya think I could add one more explanation mark to that paragraph?

This tri, Noah and I are in different classes again, which while we miss spending the morning together, it's for the best to meet us each where we're at ability wise. And the boys did great the first week. Both came home each day happy and excited about what they did that day.

I have a lot to share with you all in the next couple of weeks. We have had some big changes in our placement (if you get our newsletters, you probably know about this already, if you don't get our newsletters and want to, shoot me an email!). I will be explaining some more about that. Also, we had an amazing response to a shoe drive we did, and I want to tell you all about that. And just a bit more about our comings and goings in Michigan.

But for right now, know that we are home, all in one piece and back in the routine of life here.

And Here We Go Again

2012-01-08T05:00:00.000-05:00

So we are off today. And yes, this is a prerecorded message. Today we will be doing a marathon day of traveling. If you think of us, please pray. It's going to be a longggggggg day. Here's our schedule.

4:00 AM Head to the Grand Rapids Airport.
6:00AM Flight to Balitmore

9:10 AM Flight to Fort Lauderdale

In Fort Lauderdale, we'll be renting a car and driving the 35 minutes over to Miami International. We land in Fort Lauderdale at about 11:41 and our flight from Miami leaves at 5:25 PM. It's going to be intresting.

5:25 PM Flight from Miami to El Salvador
Sometime after that, we'll fly from El Salvador to Costa Rica

We are suppose to land in Costa Rica some time around 9:05 (10:05 EST). From there we'll need to clear customs, find our ride, travel about a hour (depending on traffic) back to our house in San Jose. We are thinking we'll be in bed sometime around 11:30 PM.

Yeah, long day. Thanks for your prayers!!

Just Stopping By

2012-01-05T20:14:00.000-05:00

Hard to believe, but we are drawing to the end of our month here in Michigan. It's been a crazy month, full of lots of traveling, lots of food, family, friends, and fun. How's that for illiteration?

Anyway, we will be spending the next couple of days packing up, saying goodbyes, and finishing up all those odds and ends.

I haven't had time to really work through the photos I took this month, but I will leave you with this one of the boys from a few days ago.

Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T07:00:00.000-05:00

Truly He taught us to love one another,
His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains he shall break, for the slave is our brother.
And in his name all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
With all our hearts we praise His holy name.
Christ is the Lord! Then ever, ever praise we,
His power and glory ever more proclaim!
His power and glory ever more proclaim!

O Holy Night, 1847

When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature,God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
Colossians 2:13-15

Coming to a Mailbox Near You

2011-12-24T07:00:00.001-05:00

Sometimes it's standing room only on Costa Rican public transit.

Merry Christmas!

Love,

Noah, Liz, Forrest and Elliot

Quick Note

2011-12-22T20:55:00.001-05:00

Good.ness. What is with all this not posting? It has a whole lot to do with eating and laughing and playing and being with dear people we haven't seen in 8 or 9 months. So far we have been with family, and friends in three corners of the mitten state...and yes, I mean Michigan, not that imposter state that is claiming to be a mitten...

Anyway. Thanks for all the prayers for our trips, they went great! All the connections went well, I felt good and we managed to arrive in one piece on the 9th. Since then we have traveled almost 800 miles, have had some great converstations with people about Christian Camping, and are now settleing into our time with family.

I probably won't be on much over the next week or so, but wanted to drop by and say yes, we are alive and kicking and enjoying being back in the Great Lakes!

This, That and the Other

2011-12-05T20:25:00.000-05:00

Hi. Remember me? Your friendly missionary blogger here in Costa Rica. Yeah. We're still alive and kicking...sorta.

While I had a couple of days of feeling a lot better, you know, like being able to walk around without wanting to puke, I am back to feeling cruddy. But, we have just two more days of school before we fly to the States on Thursday!

But I realized a lot has happened in the last week. Instead of getting into all the nitty gritty details, I'll just say we made Christmas cookies for the boys' teachers and since I hadn't the foggiest where to get decorating sugar, I google dying it at home, and sure enough it came out great!

And then the boys had their Christmas program last week. Forrest can sing Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer in perfect Spanish. Elliot didn't want to sing his song at all. In fact as I was going into the chapel for the program, he ran up to me and said, "I don't want to do this." Ahhh, and yet parents and teachers think Christmas programs are a good idea.

You'll notice a couple of photos with Forrest in a flower head piece. Yeah, not completely sure about that. I think it had to do with the song, something about the angles in the heavens sing and the flowers on the earth sing to the newborn king. Errr, something...preschoolers singing is always hard to decifer, then through in another language and your guess is as good as mine. But I will say that when Forrest walked in with his flower face, he looked at me and whispered, "This is the boring part." HA! Anyway. Enjoy the photos. And if I don't talk to you before Thursday, please pray for our trip on Thursday and Friday.

Thanksgiving

2011-11-29T17:58:00.000-05:00

So, I know, I am almost a week behind on this holiday, but well...yeah, I just am.

We had classes on Thanksgiving, which was a bit strange, the first time in my life I have gone to school on that Thursday. I did miss the parades and eating pumpkin pie for breakfast, but we lived.

After school we headed to McDonald's. I know, weird, right? Well, we were getting together with some other LAM families and some Ticos around 1 and school was done early, we didn't want to walk home to turn around and walk back to where we were going, and it was raining, and the McDonald's we were going to was an easy bus trip so we went.

And since we weren't eating until about 2, be grabbed a light early lunch, and let the boys play at the playland until their hearts were content.

Then we headed for AMCA house, Which stands for Asociación de Ministerios Cristianos. Basically it's a building where all sorts of really cool things go on through all sorts of different ministries. And they have a big kitchen and a big space for eating.

And eating we did. There was a real turkey (at $4.90USD a pound here, that is impressive!) and pumpkin pie, pecan pie, a relish tray, salad, green bean casserole, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, even cranberry relish! Amazing! I will say though, it was the first time I had fresh lemonade as a drink at Thanksgiving.

We played games, had some good conversation and were completely stuffed!

At one point, while shoveling pie as fast as he could in his mouth, Forrest looked at me and said, "wait, we are eating supper and we didn't even take a nap! Yes!"

And they were so confused. When we got home, they took a rest and slept until 5 and then were all confused as to why we were waking them up to eat again!

Overall, it was a great first Thanksgiving out of the country.

La Paz

2011-11-27T12:17:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago now, we took a day trip with some other families from school to the La Paz Waterfall Gardens. What a fun day! The trip up the mountain was about an hour and half, and on the way we stopped at a coffee plantain for a quick look around, some bathrooms, and of course, some cafe! (I really got to figure out accent marks!) Yes, those are coffee beans, growing and maturing.

While we were stopped a guy came by with his ox cart. These started being used at the end of the 19th century durning the hight of the coffee boom and before the railroad was put in. The painted ox cart is now the national symbol of labor in Costa Rica. This guy saw a bunch of white people who might be willing to pay for a ride. We didn't. Just took pictures.

Then it was back in the bus and we continued on towards the waterfalls.

The park was lovely! We were able to just wander around and look at all the animals, all of which are native to Costa Rica (something I wasn't thrilled about when we came to the snake exhibit!). And some of the animals you can feed like these guys.

Noah had one that he would throw chunks of papaya to and it would catch them with his beak. Crazy!

There was a butterfly house, and since we were there early and it was rainy, all the butterflies were hanging on out on the floor, which Elliot LOVED! He would ask if he would touch them, and after getting a yes, he would barely poke them and laugh hysterically.

There were also big cats, jauaguaries, oscelots and mountain lions.

Elliot thought the jaguar needed a pile of rocks to look at. Funny kid.

There was also a monkey that wanted to shake Noah's hand

Then we headed to the waterfalls. There was a whole lot of walking, but the boys did well getting down to the falls

After the 45 minute hike out to the falls, we took the shuttle back to the restureante for lunch. I was worried about how I was going to do that day, food wise and feeling crummy, but the food was perfect for us, and I ate more than I had at any one sitting the whole week prior.

Then it was time to see the crazy frogs.

We talked a lot the week before about how we don't touch animals unless you talk to mom and dad first, because, well, these little guys are so pretty, but they are also so poisonous! I seriously need to get a field guide for Central America!

On the way home, we stopped at a road side stand and I got 2 kilos ( about 5 pounds) of strawberries! They are grown in the mountain area we were in so they were cheaper than I have seen them in town. They were so yummy. We ate some and then froze the rest to have on pancakes and ice cream, you know just like in our former life!

It was such a great day! God blessed us with nice weather, and I felt really great most of the day.

New and Exciting!

2011-11-21T21:35:00.000-05:00

Well, I promise I have some exciting things to share, like a trip to the crazy waterfall gardens, a visit to the doctor and navigating an ultrasound, but I am plum tuckered out.

But I did want to let you know about the brand spanking new LAM website! What an improvement! Head over here to check it out!

And maybe tomorrow I will have enough energy left to tell you about something else.

Ugg

2011-11-16T17:10:00.000-05:00

Ugg. I am going to say it again. Ugg. There are so many things that need to be done. I am having a hard time getting out of bed, getting dressed and getting to school these days. I can't believe how icky I feel with this baby! What in the world! Maybe it's the altitude? I don't know, but I know nothing works well for any length of time.

Different families from school have been so sweet and have brought us many meals, which has been such a huge help. Noah is finishing up two seminary classes on top on language school and I only want to eat popcorn and Ramon noddles, so cooking has fallen to him as well. Seriously, what a blessing it has been!

And all of this explains some of the silence here. There are things I want to write about, but I am crawling into bed at 6:45 a lot of nights...

So as you think of us, pray for my husband especially. He is pulling double duty and doing well at it, but he's tired. Thanks all!!

November Newsletter

2011-11-14T07:58:00.000-05:00

Part II of the Exciting Kamper Update....

We are super pleased to announce that we are going to have a new baby!!!

God has answered our prays and we are expecting this new Kamper baby to be born at the end of June. We will be back in Michigan for the summer after we graduate from language school in late April.

Liz is struggling with morning, noon, and night sickness which has made school and being a mom and wife challenging at times, but we have seen God use this for good. The boys are excited about the baby and the fact that Elliot now is a "big brother" as well.

In other news:

God has been providing some encouraging opportunties that remind of the importance of this year of language school to prepare us to serve in Latin America.
Noah was able to help run the staff retreat at school where he took part in leading games for the staff. It was like adult ambush but all in Spanish, his first time doing so.

Also, a couple weeks ago we had the privilege to observe and be a part of a camp here in Costa Rica. La Cumbre is a beautiful, outdoor adventure camp run by a Costa Rican Director named Silenia and another LAM missionary. Silenia invited us up to observe and help run some of the activities at her camp.

We were tremendously blessed to sit under and hear the heart and philosophy of this women who knows christian camping in a Latin culture. She taught us a number of things and encouraged us in our passion for Christian Camping in Latin America. Silenia also gave us contacts with others who are doing camping and could help us out in the future.
What a fun weekend to spend time with volunteers at a camp and to begin doing the job we are called to do.

To other quick praise notes:

God has provided the funds to pay for Noah's last seminary semester.

Noah has started a homeless shoe ministry and our church here in Costa Rica might be able to partner with him to begin providing shoes and the gospel to the men we see on the street on a daily basis. If you have adult shoes to spare or a few extra bucks we will be collecting shoes to take back to Costa Rica when we come to visit in December in Michigan.

That is all for now, thank you for reading and feel free to keep up with us on a weekly basis at nlkamper.blogspot.com

With much grace,
The Kampers

Elliot's Birthday in Review

2011-11-12T19:46:00.000-05:00

Three Years

2011-11-06T12:10:00.000-05:00

So, we now have a 3 year old again! Where did the time go! I really feel like it had to be last week we brought this little pixie home.

And now he's into everything, talking in two languages, exploring constantly, potty trained and full of his own little personality.

Love you Elliot! So glad you are ours!

Pumpkins

2011-11-01T08:00:00.002-04:00

A few weeks ago, Noah brought home not one, not two, but three lovely imported pumpkins! They were a fortune, but he decided we need them. And they have been lovely to have around! And with the coolness of Rainy Season, it really has felt a bit like fall around here.

On Friday night we ordered pizza from the Brazilian pizza place down the road, and then it was time to cut into these pumpkins. The boys were confused by this. In fact, there were some tears involved becuase often we watch a movie on Friday nights. They didn't understand what they were getting into, but they knew they were giving up a movie night.

But after I showed them pictures from last year's pumpkin carving, they were excited. Elliot decided he wanted a smiley face, and Forrest went for a hippo. Right, try to figure how to carve a hippo into a pumpkin.

And of course there was the sharpies involved to outline what needed to be cut. And then the boys took over with the sharpies and things got colorful fast. They did a good job at keeping the marker on the pumpkins though.

It was funny, neither of them wanted to scoop out the guts. Last year Elliot was all about that. Not so much this time around.

When we added the candles, both of them laughed and clapped their hands. What sweet little boys.

Oh and for the record, hazelnut candles inside pumpkins smells delightful!

Details

2011-10-31T09:58:00.000-04:00

So people have been asking for more details. Imagine that.

Alright, here's the run down.

I'm due around June 23rd. And this means that we will be back in Michigan for the birth. With my history, it seemed like a better option to be in a place where we know the medical system and where all the doctors and nurses speak my first language. I know many people have had babies in a country other than their own and been just fine, but for us, we decided being in Michigan is the best option.

We will be done with our year of language school at the end of April and then we will fly back to the States after that. Right now the plan is to spend the summer there.

Someone asked how we are going to work doctors and appointments and what not. Well, there is a general practitioner doctor who comes to school twice a week, who speaks perfect English. We'll start with him. And once we are in Michigan, we will go to the practice we used when I had Forrest.

As for how I am feeling...awful. Morning sickness, although I haven't thrown up, and exhaustion like I can't even believe. I think both have been much worse than with the boys. I've been trying to eat a little bit through out the day and sleep whenever I can. And I'm not sure any of it is helping much. But Noah is home with us all day, which is huge.

So there you go. For all you inquiring minds.

October Newsletter

2011-10-30T07:59:00.001-04:00

Our Honduras Trip!

We've been very busy in a good way recently and have so much to tell you. At the top of our list is our recent trip to our future home in Honduras. Here is our first installment of a multi-issue super exciting Kamper Update.

Hanging with the Williamsons at Camp

We were so thankful to spend time last month with our ministry partners in Honduras. We know that one of our priorities is to develop and maintain a healthy relationship with them. You can guess by the photo how well it went.

The boys had a great time with the Williamson kids, and Ellie, Becca, Joel and Abigail did such a fantastic job with our boys! Elliot followed Joel all around investigating toads, lizards, bugs and just about anything they could find and Forrest talked up a storm with the girls and Joel. They even got to go "fishing" with nets in the river.

Taste of the Future

Our visit at Camp Manantial involved getting our hands dirty and experiencing a little bit of what life will be like once we move their next fall. Liz helped Cindy with camp laundry while Noah, along with two Honduran volunteers from PIER (the church that owns camp) helped Wes build some new bunk beds for camp.

A Huge Surprise Blessing

The plans to build our permanent home is progressing!

The Friday morning before we left to come back to Costa Rica, we were able to meet with some of the pastors of PIER who also happen to be engineers and architects! And they literally said to us, "What do you want in your house?" What in the world!! We never in a million years thought we would be able to help design a house for us to live in! And what a beautiful thing it is! At least on paper right now!

After our meeting we went to lunch with everyone and Pastor Daniel started sketching what we had created back at church. Here it is, on the back of a paper place mat.

And now we continue to pray.

Pray for the work teams, volunteers and money that will equal the $75,000 (We currently have $21,000) it will cost to build the house that could one day function as our camp’s main office. (This is a change from the $45k we thought it might cost)
To update you on the big grant we were hoping to receive: we did not receive it this year and know that the Lord has other plans for how we would provide for our future home.

A Lot More To Share

We have tons more to share but couldn’t fit it in a simple email. Be looking for our next month’s update or get a sneak peak by checking out our blog by clicking here nlkamper.blogspot.com<http://nlkamper.blogspot.com/2011/10/in-mountains.html> to see what else has been happening.

Thank you faithful supporters, family, and friends for your prayers, money that you give to the Lord through us to reach and disciple His people in Honduras and for your emotional support and friendship!

Noah, Liz, Forrest, and Elliot

By July

2011-10-29T20:04:00.000-04:00

We will be a family of 5!

Exactly!

2011-10-26T23:24:00.000-04:00

If you have ever wondered how to pray for missionaries, check out this article. It was sent to us by a dear friend tonight and I cried as I read it because it hits the nail on the head.

We have been feeling the lonliness and just the everyday struggles of language learning and navigating a country that isn't your own. And the way the article is worded, well, we need every single one of these things!

Tip for the Tropics #1

2011-10-24T21:34:00.000-04:00

So, while I am sure that most of you are sick to death of hearing about my laundry, I just have to share something that is revolutionary. And I don't say that lightly. At all.

If you have been with us for any length of time, you have heard me talk about the challenges of drying clothes here durning the rainy season. Like here, and here, and here.

But let me recap. It's rainy season. Stuff doesn't dry. Even with fans. Ever. And just imagine how towels get. The midew smell coming from the bathroom has been bad. And even when the towels are dry, they have this, well, funk to them. Ya know what I mean?

So, I started to think about how I could fix this. Cause it certainly isn't in the budget to buy all new towels. And really, aside from the funk, they are very nice towels. So, I went to my old stand by, vinegar. Just plain old white vinegar. I added that to the fabric softener dispenser thing. And then I thought, "well, tea tree oil is an anti fungal, anti viral, anti bacteria. Let's try some of that!" So in went a few drops of that to the vingear in the fabric softener dispernser thing. Since we don't have hot water hooked up to our washer, I used cold, por supuesto.

And low and behold, those suckers come out of the washer funk free! No lie! Just like brand new! It makes me want to take a shower again. I am telling you, I knew the towels were clean, but when they smelled so weird, it just made you not want to use them at all!

So there you go, your first Tip for the Tropics.

And just because, as an added bonus, here are a couple of photos of the boys. They should both be sleeping at this point, but as you can see, just one is.

Our Taxi Ride

2011-10-20T18:51:00.001-04:00

Yesterday we took a taxi to and from school because we had another flat tire. It's been a while since our last one, which is lovely, but this one took use by complete surprise. Noah went out to start unlocking the gate and realized the back tire was flat as could be. And there wasn't time to fix it before we needed to leave.

So. That meant a taxi...which is a treat. The boys loved it, we got to school a bit early and the best part? We got home from school a bit early!

As we waited on the corner for a taxi on the way home, the one we got had music blaring from it. Not unusual at all. But all of a sudden I started catching the words "Él es el Rey, Él es el Rey, Él es el Rey de mi vida"(He is the King, He is the King, He is the King of my life)

This guy had it cranked and not only that, but he was singing at the top of his lungs too. The whole ride home. It was so nice on so many levels. First, I understood the song. Second, I was glad I understood the song. Third this guy was unashamed to sing at the top of his lungs that Jesus is the King of his life.

As we were almost home, the next song came on, this one

As we got out of the cab, Forrest looked at me and said, "Mommy, I think we sang this song when we were in Honduras at the dinning hall."

My goodness! Not only does he remember the song, but the place we sang it in! And then he got to hear it in normal everyday taxi riding life.

I was glad for the opportunity for my kids to see someone so unashamed at proclaiming Jesus is the King of his life.

And just in case you haven't spent the last 6 months (oh my goodness, how did that happen?) in language school, here is a rough translating of two songs. And no, I didn't use Google Translate for these!

Él es el Rey
He is the King who is infinite in power
He is the King of the Heavens
I will be His faithful servant

My life was bought with your love

I confess with my being He is King

He is the King of the ages

I surrender my life at his feet

He is the King of my Heart

He is the King
He is the King

He is the King of my life

He is the King

He is the King who reigns with authority

His Kingdom is everlasting, His throne is in the Heavens

He is the King who comes to his people to take

Eres Todo Poderoso
The only reason for my adoration
Is you my Jesus
My only motive for living
Is you my Lord
My only truth is in You
You are my light and my salvation
My only love is you Lord
And forever I will worship you

You are all powerful
You are grand and majestic
You are strong and invincible
And there is no one like You.

Noah's Wife

2011-10-15T00:24:00.001-04:00

So I caught a glimpse into Noah's wife's life the other day. How is that for ironic!?

But really, I am talking about Noah, the guy with the big ark, the one who found favor in the eyes of the Lord. Yeah. Her.

I was reading Elliot the Peter Spier version of Noah's Ark, well, reading maybe is a loose term because there are something like 2 sentences in the whole book. But there are captivating illustrations. And Elliot is enamored by them right now.

Anyway, we came across this illustration

Yeah, do you see her? Hanging up laundry on top of the ark? And how do you think that worked out once the rain began?

It's been raining here, and I mean raining, like buckets of rain. Our clothes have been hanging on our indoor line for 2 1/2 days with the fans on them full blast and they are still soaking wet. And I thought of Mrs. Noah again. Yeah, after 40 days and 40 nights of rain...nothing was getting dry anywhere in that stinky old ark!

Anyway, this Mrs. Noah is am grateful for a dryer so that in a pinch we can get our clothes dry!

Uncollection

2011-10-12T21:52:00.000-04:00

There is something about these Costa Rican cold bugs...they knock me out completely! I have been in bed for 24 hours now...and by in bed, I really mean in bed. I never did that back in MI. Ever. But here, just about every time I have a cold that's what happens.

Noah came home from PriceSmart (think Costco) tonight with not only a Supreme Pizza, but 3 pumpkins. Yes, three real, round, orange, lovely fall pumpkins. And yep, they are imported from the US. But they are lovely and Forrest keeps asking when we are going to have pumpkin pie. And he did say something about carving them like last year in the Dinning Hall.

We not only have plane tickets to Michigan for the entire month of December, but a pastor we know has a car that we can borrow for our time! You don't know what a relief that is for us! Seriously, we have been praying about how to make this trip work, because while we have free domestic tickets from this mess the tickets from Costa Rica to the States were quite pricey, like close to $400 each. Yikes! So we watched and waited and prayed, and a couple of weeks ago we found tickets for $170 each!! Yeah, that's like $200 less than what we were planning! And because we are going to be traveling all over the state, we needed a vehicle. Again, we kept praying and asking around, and sure enough, God provided! Can you tell I am excited about this trip? Yeah, and yeah, we will be praying there will be snow while we are there!

The rainy season has finally hit with a vengeance! It's been pouring for about three days now. Someone asked me if that is a good or bad thing. Sorta both. It's nice and cozy with all the rain, it's cooler, like you want to wear jeans and a hoodie, but it also makes some things more difficult. Like you know, drying clothes and walking places.

Noah's Got Skills

2011-10-04T23:07:00.000-04:00

So I just need to brag on Noah for a minute. Check out this video of him facilitating a team building activity all in Spanish. The first part is him explaining the activity, and the second half is the debriefing afterward. I love this man!

In the Mountains

2011-10-03T23:19:00.000-04:00

I am not sure how many of you remember the story of our trip to Costa Rica in 2005. That was long before this little space existed in Cyberspace. We had some sort of web page that we tried to update, but I can't for the life of me remember what it was, it's probably still in the bowels of the internet somewhere.

But here's what I am getting to. When we were here in the summer of 2005, we took a trip up the mountains. This is not typically where tourists head, but we wanted to pretend that we could do things on our own. We found a cloud rain forest canopy tour in our Lonely Planet guide book, and a cheap ($14 a night) hotel that had hot water. And we went. We hired a taxi to take us up towards the canopy tour, but decided to walk in most of the way.

It was there in the mountains where God planted this idea of Christian Camping in Latin America. As we walked we joked, "Ha, wouldn't it be funny if this place was closed? hahahah." And then we got there. Yeah, closed. Completely. But God used that trip. It was the next step. The next piece of the puzzle.

This last weekend, we had the opportunity to head back into the mountains. We spent a great couple of days at Campamento La Cumbre. Noah and I looked at each other with wide eyes and mouths open as we drove past the road we walked where God spoke to us. Yeah, it is like a half hour from La Cumbre! What in the world! Only God does stuff like that!

We were invited to observe the weekend by the director, a Costa Rican woman named Silenia, who shares an excitement for sharing Jesus in the context of the amazing outdoors and through the unique aspects of camp. She was so gracious to spend so much time with us, talking about how she deals with different aspects of camp. It was so encouraging to hear that so many of the lessons that we learned about Camping while we were in the United States can and do translate to Latin America.

We not only got to observe what was going on with the campers, but how Silenia works with her volunteers, the conversations behind the scenes, you know, the real camp. The group that was out for the weekend was a group of very at risk teens from San Jose. These were kids that were part of a program to show them Jesus and to help them make the right choices in the midst of terrible home lives, drugs, alcohol and all the other junk the world has to 'offer'. These kids had earned the right to come to camp that weekend and it was such a beautiful thing to watch them get to play. Just play and be kids. And learn about Jesus in the midst of the playing. Silenia mentioned that to them, this is like Disneyland.

We saw Costa Rican college age kids 'give up' a weekend to come and work at camp for nothing. They come because they love Campamento and they have caught the vision for what God is doing through La Cumbre. I got excited to watch them work with the campers and realize that this can happen in Honduras too!

I filled up a good two or three pages worth of thoughts, observations, and ideas in my journal. And did I mention that this whole weekend was in Spanish? Yeah, there were a few other English speakers with us, but all our conversations with Silenia were in Spanish, Noah facilitated a team building activity in Spanish, I helped run a relay race station in Spanish, and we were able to have conversations with different campers and volunteers in Spanish! Sure my verbs weren't always right, but I got the point across!

Is this the look of a happy man or what? It's so fun to see Noah doing what God made him for, playing with kids in the mountains of Latin America, sharing a very real Gospel with them.

And so now we are back in the city. Last night we both sighed a little when we heard the car alarms go off and the bus roar by our house. But what a refreshing, encouraging weekend it was in the mountains!

Just a Few Cool Things

2011-09-29T23:35:00.000-04:00

So in the midst of life, I have needed to take a few moments to create. Nothing huge, just a couple of things to remind us that it is indeed the end of September. And while we are still wearing tank tops and sandals (side note, the boys have to wear jeans and sneakers tomorrow and those poor children are going to roast!) pumpkins and soup seem like what we should be seeing and eating. Too bad we sweat through a bowl of soup. But it's oh so good.

And I discovered this neat idea on Pintrest. You do know about Pintrest right? And yes, this is the peel of a mandarin orange, with the fleshy middle part as the wick and a bit of olive oil in the bowl part. How cool is that!?

Well, these are some of the first candles we have had on the table in about 4 years. For obvious reasons. Something about trying to teach little jungle monkeys they need to chew with their mouths closed, wipe their mouths and hands on something other than their clothes and no, they can not keep blowing the candles out. Which really, the only time they have seen candles on the table is at birthdays and that is exactly what you do then.

Oh and I found this guy in the bathroom tonight. Can you believe there is something that little that functions all on it's own? Amazing!

Uncollection

2011-09-28T20:56:00.000-04:00

It's been a rough week around here. Lots of just hard life stuff that happens regardless of where in the world you live. Parenting has hit a different level of intensity, and trying to figure out your kid needs is always a challenge!

I sat through 5 hours of grammar instruction today. Yeah, to say my brain is fried is an understatement. And when you start to learn that there a words that look the same, but mean completely different tenses you're brain starts to cry, just a little bit. I feel like the further I get down this rabbit hole, the more lost I am. There was something almost comforting about only being able to say things in the present tense. Like, I wasn't responsible to sound like an adult because I didn't know how to speak at a higher level than a two year old.

I managed to find a notions store and a fabric store much closer to our house. In fact, I can take the bus there (still haven't figured out the bus route back home. How lame is that?) But I manged to get some supplies for a few Christmas projects I need to get started on.

This weekend Noah and I are headed to a camp up in the mountains for the weekend. Yeah, you read that right, Noah and I! The boys are staying here with a dear couple that is on their way to Mexico. Tony and Beverly have been so fun to be around, such a wealth of wisdom. Tony has been a pastor for 20 something years and Beverly has spent the past 10 years as the director of a Crisis Pregnancy Center. We are thrilled they are willing to watch the boys for the weekend and the boys are very excited to have them come.

While we at La Cumbre, we will be observing a camp in session. We are so excited about this! It's always good to get other perspectives, to watch how other people do your job. And this is great because it will be the first time we get an inside look at the programing aspect of a Latin American camp. Oh, and did I mention we get to go on a canopy tour too? Yeah, super excited about that tambien, errrr, as well.

Bought our plane tickets to MI for Christmas! Super excited about that also!! And if you know of a car that needs to be driven by a loving family for the month of December, would you get us a heads up? We are still in need of transportation for the month that we are in MI. Thanks!

What I am Working On

2011-09-22T22:34:00.000-04:00

So tonight I am working on translating these recipe for these which I am going to explain and make in class tomorrow. All in Spanish. Yeah. It should be interesting!

Dentist Visit

2011-09-21T20:38:00.000-04:00

So Elliot was playing dentist. And if you watch it until the end, you'll see he is a bit confused on anatomy.

Things that Make Me Smile

2011-09-20T21:23:00.000-04:00

Noah's First Ambush in Spanish

2011-09-17T08:00:00.002-04:00

Yesterday we didn't have school because the staff of ILE and Sojourn had a retreat day. One of the things the organizers of the retreat did was play what amounted to an Ambush with all the of the staff. Last week they asked in Chapel if anyone wanted to help with the games and of course Noah said yes. Because, well, that was his job. He said to one of the guys, "I can't help lead worship in chapel, but I can lead games!"

So all of us headed out at our normal time yesterday because well, the boys and I always go and watch Ambush!

And what fun! The boys fell right into it, running from helping Noah to climbing on the playground back to helping Noah. Of course the games were silly and exciting and a good time was had by all! Check it out!

Día de la Independencia

2011-09-16T14:35:00.000-04:00

Oh the catching up I need to do here! I blink and it's been a week, and this has been a very full week! Independence day, helping with the Staff retreat at school, cooking without a working stove or oven, yeah, it's been a bit crazy!

Let's start with Independence Day. Here it's September 15th. We also realized that most of Central America celebrates it's Independence Day sometimes this week. Google's Homepage even featured Costa Rica and Honduras!
So the festivities kick off on the 14th. That day the kids brought in their faroles (lanterns) to school for judging. The preschool and nursery kids also had a parade around the school during the mid morning break, which was really fun.

Most of the schools in this area just have a drum line, so our kids marched around the campus to the high schools drum beat. You can tell Elliot was less than thrilled about it. Really, the whole thing was like watching somebody herding turtles!

Then at night, we headed back to school of the program and parade with the faroles lit up. We all marched around the block that school sits on and we even had a police escort to block traffic for us, because, well, pedestrians don't have the right of way here!

I tried my hardest to get some good shots of the parade at night in the dark, but with holding a farole (because yes, as you can imagine, with a 2 year old and a 4 year old, this event because about the parents doing the work, you know, sorta like carving pumpkins with preschoolers) and the hand of a 4 year old, I wasn't able to stay still long enough to prevent camera shake, but let's just pretend these are blurry in an on purpose, artistic sort of way, mmk? Thanks.

After the parade, the prices for the faroles were awarded. We didn't think the boys' lanterns were part of the competition, but Forrest's was and he won 2nd place in his age group of his! Not bad for a gringo! And the best part is, he really did create his lantern. He told me he wanted to have a blue ball. And then he wanted it to say Costa Rica and Forrest. He added a few car stickers and some streamers at the bottom. So he really won his prize.

Elliot's farole was the Irazu volcano, and while his wasn't in the competition, it was super cool! We made them out of wire from the hardware store, tissue paper, and used some sticks we found by the side of the road. Yeah, we are those sorts of people. Remember the bottle?

The next day, the whole country turns out for parades. We went to the local one just a few blocks from our house even though we heard that others were better. And what an experience! So, just for a second, think about the last time you were at a parade. You probably found a good view spot, brought a blanket or something to sit on, and settled in to take in the parade. Yeah, well, that's sorta what we did. And then people started walking around use, past us, in front of us. And we noticed that no one was up further than about a block from where the parade started. Strange.

At first I thought maybe all the movement was because the first groups were little tiny kids and the parents were walking with them up the street. But then the kids started to get progressively bigger and bigger and parents were still right beside them, handing them water, ice, holding an umbrella over them for shade. And before we knew it, the parade was done, and everyone was gone, because well, the whole town was part of the parade, moving at a turtle's pace up the street. So different!

What fun to participate in our host country's Independence Day!

The House

2011-09-06T08:00:00.000-04:00

Alright, so back to the story of our trip.

One of the big things we have been praying about is our housing situation at Manatial de Vida. Right now, there isn't a place for us to live. And for a whole lot of reasons, it's best that we live on camp. When Noah visited in 2009, he and Wes talked about building a house for us, that if someday we weren't at Manantial de Vida, it could function as a main office.

Well, on Friday morning, before we left to come back to Costa Rica, we were able to met with some of the pastors of PIER who also happen to be engineers and architects! And they literally said to us, "What do you want in your house?" What in the world!! We never in a million years thought we would be able to help design a house for us to live in! And what a beautiful thing it is! At least on paper right now!

After our meeting we went to lunch with everyone and Pastor Daniel started sketching what we had created back at church. Here it is, on the back of a paper place mat.

Isn't it lovely? It was crazy to watch these guys take what we said and make it work! And the details they thought of! Things like which way does the wind come from, how to make it cooler, how "wow, that's a big space, boy, let's see what we can do to make that more usable."

I love the wrap around porches, the fact that I have a laundry room right next to my kitchen with a door to the outside just steps away. Something tells me that is going to come in really, really handy with two boys! And oh! There are plans for a bath tub!

And now we pray. Pray for the $75,000 it will cost to build this, pray for God to bring the right people and teams to help with the construction, pray that He will be gloried through this house.

And hey, if you are interested in helping with this important project in anyway, shoot us an email or give us a call (yes, we can get phone calls here, and it won't cost you anything! We have a stateside number). We'd love to talk with you about how you can help fiance this or come be a part of the building.

And so that pretty much wraps up our trip to Honduras. We are so thankful we got to spend so much time with the Williamsons and to be part of the day to day. We can't wait to get there for real. But for right now, it's back to the studying and working out how to communicate with this people that we have come to love.

Intermission: Sidewalk Paint

2011-09-03T08:00:00.000-04:00

Let's take just a little break from the Story of Honduras for something a little more light and fun.

So I found this idea to make sidewalk paint a couple of weeks ago and we tried it just before we left. It was perfect timing, friends of ours, the Vosses were getting rid of everything because they are done with Language School and are now in Honduras. And what do you know, Monica had cornstarch and giant kid paint brushes she was getting rid of. And I brought my food coloring with me, and we had a muffin tin and a sidewalk.

What fun! I really think our neighborhood must thing we are the locos gringos because we do things out on the sidewalk, like play in the rain, and sit on the curb and paint with cornstarch. But whatever. The boys loved it! And Elliot even convinced our guard to come paint with us. How sweet.

We'll defiantly be doing this again.

Daily Challenges

2011-09-02T08:19:00.000-04:00

One of the reasons LAM sent us to Costa Rica to study Spanish is because it's such a good in between for missionaries heading to the field. There is a whole lot of new and different here, but there is a lot that is the same or at least very similar to the states.

Costa Rica is the exception to Central America. There is a 95% literacy rate here. And there is a larger middle class. That's not to say everything is coming up roses in Costa Rica. They have problems, poverty and issues. But they have a stable goverment, money goes to schools, and things are more or less stable here.

Honduras is a different story. Remember when I said 90% of kids grow up in a one parent home? Yeah, and the average yearly income is somewhere around $1,000 USD. No one drinks the water from the tap, it's assumed that when you ask for water at a restaurant, you are ordering a bottle of water. There is a wide, wide gap between the wealthy and the poor, there is really no middle class.

This is even more true in the country. Two of the biggest differences we encountered were lack of clean water and spotty electricity.

Manantial de Vida is close to a little town, Pinalejo. For example, Pinalejo's water source is a mountain river up the mountain a ways. There is an attempt at filtering the water on it's way down the mountain, but really that's to filter out leaves and sticks. There is no attempt at cleaning up the water to make it safe to drink. If people can afford it, they buy those 5 gallon water jugs for clean drinking water. If they can't, well, they can't.

And to add to all this, a water study was done on the town's water supply and it was determined that 60% of the water was being lost through faulty pipes. And then another 20% gets lost because of poor water management, like not turning off faucets. While we were out at camp, Pinalejo was going on 5 days of the city water being shut off.

Camp uses the same source of water as town, but we have a pipe that branches off to camp before the filter systems, so we don't experience the same loss as town does. But it's still full of bacteria and other not so nice stuff.

We have been prepping the boys on keeping their mouths shut in the shower, to not drink water from the tap (even here in Costa Rica we don't drink straight from the tap). But there is something so strange about the very thing you need to live, water, is deadly. What does that do to a mental state of a nation?

I also discovered how much slower I moved in the kitchen because of it. There was one time in particular, I found grapes for the boys, such a treat here in Central America. I brought them home, bleached them, and then, I turned the faucet on and started rinsing them. I looked at Cindy and just groaned! I had to start the process all over again! Someone said to me "it just takes longer to sustain life here." Yep.

We were also warned about frequent power outages. And by frequent I mean like once a day. This is part of the reason we bought a gas stove! We'll be able to cook at least.

But I do think the power outages will take some getting used to. We are going to need to reordering our life to be less reliant on electricity. Things like using a French press instead of an electric coffee maker. We have heard of several ideas on how to provide alternative power sources that we need to investigate to power things like the refrigerator and fans. You know, just the basics. I wish I could explain it all out to you. I can't. I know it has something to do with some car batteries and some wires. Yeah. Sorry about that one.

Anyway, all of this to say, there are some very real daily challenges that we will be dealing with. We are blessed enough to be able to have ways around these things, unlike so many Hondurans. And we are praying that we can be a blessing to those we come in contact with because we have been blessed.

"Glad to Turn Again" a World Away

2011-09-01T08:00:00.004-04:00

It was so great to be part of the daily running of a camp again. We both got so excited when we heard buses pulling into camp on Friday night, just like Teen Winter Retreats at Barakel! And to wake up to the sounds of campers through out camp, doing what campers do, laughing, running, exploring. Oh, so good!

Noah, being Noah the programer, couldn't stay away and even managed to get a baliada (flour tortilla with beans, sour cream and sometimes eggs) out of visiting the group that was in camp. He came back with some great photos too.

And it was so familiar what the group was doing, breaking up in to cabin groups, making mascots for their groups, and spending time away from the ordinary in order to hear from God. Camp is powerful, no matter if you are in the pine forests of Northern Michigan or the pine forests of Northern Honduras.

We learned that right now, 10% of Honduran kids grow up with a two parent home. Yeah, let that sink in for just a second.

That means 90% of kids grow up with a single parent. Most kids will drop out of school by the time they are in 6th grade. The unemployment rate of 30 year olds and under is 60%. As if all of this is bad enough, there are gangs just waiting to give these kids a "family". A war is on for the hearts and minds of Honduran youth.

As we talked with Pastor Daniel, he said that the way Honduras is going to change is through reaching the youth of the country. Changing the mindset of the people, one kid at a time. Wow! What a challenge, and how exciting to be a part of what God is doing through the Honduran churches to reach these kids with Christ!

We also got to help with some of the projects around camp. Noah worked on finishing out making bunk beds for one of the dorms. When Wes was showing us the dorm for the first time I was confused on where in the world I was. For crying out loud, the floor was even painted the same color as Boys Dorm before carpet!

And I know if I looked hard enough, I could find a photo or two of Mike Baker or Dan Haines putting together bunk beds for one of the new lodges!

And check this out! Yep, those would be Do It Best screws. And no they weren't brought from the States, there is a Do It Best in San Pedro Sula! The Fairview Hardware store (you know, the famed VIP Hardware Sale store) is a Do It Best!

It was mind blowing how God placed us in Northern Michigan, where there wasn't a single native Spanish speaker for at least a hundred miles, and how well that prepared us for where will be in Honduras! I am so thankful for the time we had on the banks of Shear Lake, and for what God is doing there and what He is doing to reach the hearts and minds of the people of Honduras through Manantial de Vida!

La Playa

2011-08-31T08:00:00.004-04:00

And what a fun day it was!

Instead of boring you with details about the heat, the sun, the lovely landscape, I'll just show you.

A Trip to the City

2011-08-30T08:00:00.000-04:00

One of our goals for our time in Honduras was to check out household goods. You know, things like beds, appliances, everything you need in a house. While there are some things that we love and work well for our family and we can bring them with us, there is a whole lot that we need to buy there.

We were able to buy bits and pieces from another missionary that has left the country, which was huge! We now have a gas stove, two twin mattresses, some miscellaneous kitchen stuff and some wire cubes. We bought a big Rubbermaid tub and put everything in there. We now officially have possessions in three countries scattered all over the hemisphere. Weird I tell you.

So back to the whole going to the city. San Pedro Sula is the second largest city in Honduras. While there are many many many cars, there are also many horse drawn carts throughout the city. It certainly is a third world city. Not many tall buildings and poverty everywhere. And at the same time, many north American restaurants. There is such a drastic difference between those that have money and those that don't. There isn't much of a middle class in Honduras.

We headed to the city on Saturday morning. And this time, Elliot didn't get sick! In fact, on the way, he said, "Hey, I not puking!" Oh, and I did I mention that Noah drove the whole way in our truck? Yeah, we have a truck now in Honduras too. Again I say weird!

We went around town checking on prices of big appliances, dishes, towels, pillows, all sorts of things. And I was relieved to discover that a lot of what we need and want can be bought in Honduras. Many times it's more than what we would pay in the US, but when you factor in the cost of extra baggage, many times it's still cheaper to get in country.

After we did some research shopping, we headed to a missionary family's house to stay the night. We were going to go to PIER on Sunday (the church that owns camp). What a kind family to let us stay.

Sunday we went to church and were introduced to the congregation. And Noah did a stellar job of speaking before the whole body in Spanish, explaining how excited we were to come and serve them. He was in total programer mode, even got the crowd laughing!

After church, Pastor Daniel invited us to brunch which we enjoyed very much. It was good just to spend some time with him and get to know his family. At the end of brunch, he invited us and the Williamsons to join his family in Tela on the Caribbean coast the next day to play in the pool and enjoy the beach! Wow!

We spent that night with another missionary couple who has spend almost 40 years in Mexico and Honduras. What fun to sit and listen to them share about their years of experience.

Monday we woke up, and hit the road again, this time further north to the playa...

Staff Fellowship

2011-08-29T08:00:00.000-04:00

While we were at Manatial de Vida, we got to be a part of the weekly staff meal and Bible study. Sound familiar? Yeah, while we were on staff at Barakel, we would get together every Wednesday at 11 am for Bible Study and then eat lunch together. At Manantial, they do it on Monday evening.

All the women met together to cook the meal, which was tajadas con carne. It's fried plantains, with shredded cabbage, ground hamburger and a tomato based sauce. Yum!

While the food was cooking, the staff kids were running around the dinning hall playing tag of sorts. There are 2 Honduran staff families. Each family has one or two young teens and then a toddler, which is such a great dynamic because the Williamsons have young teens and we have preschoolers! I never did get a photo of our boys with Daniel and Fernando, who are almost 2 and 1. Forrest and Elliot were very taken with Fernando. Forrest even called him Fernandito (a term of endearment). What a blessing to have two Honduran buddies right around my boys' ages!

After dinner, we sang and then opened the Bible and read about the life of Joseph. And just in case you forgot, all of this was in Spanish. We were able to follow almost all of what was said and add to the discussion in Spanish, which was exciting for us. Our boys enjoyed the singing and they are starting to recognize some of the worship songs we sing in Spanish.

We are so thankful for Leonel and Marlen and Polo and Marlen (yes, the women have the same name.) They do so much around camp and it was great getting to know them some this week. Can't wait until they are our vecinos!

Where to Begin?

2011-08-28T11:30:00.001-04:00

We are back in Costa Rica. Have been since Friday evening. And as I look through the almost 500 photos I took and the pages of my journal, I have no idea even where to start sharing about our time.

I guess let's start with the basics. We got in to San Pedro Sula on the 15th around lunch time. Wes picked us up and after buying groceries (which was a trip, trying to figure out yet another currency!) we trekked the hour and half through the mountains to get to camp. This is where we discovered that Elliot can get car sick. Hummmm...note, when he says his mouth hurts, it means get a bucket ready!

We got on to camp property and I was blown away! Such a peaceful green space! And so strange...there are pine trees everywhere!! And just about the time you think you are walking through the woods in Michigan on a hot and muggy day in July, you turn your head ever so slightly and see a banana tree! Or you step on a mango! Or an iguana runs across the path! And then you remember, this aint Michigan. See the pine trees and the banana trees right next to each other? So strange!

We stayed in one of the cabins that campers would use, just a simple block building. For some reason, I hadn't realized we would be camping for the two weeks, but that's really what we did. We ate most breakfasts by ourselves up at our cabin (boxed milk comes in very handy!) and then lunches and dinners with the Williamsons.

And speaking of the Williamsons, what a fun group of people!!

Up until this point, we had only spent about 6 hours with them in Northern Indiana back in '09. Needless to say, all the kids are a lot bigger than they were then (Elliot is now as big as Forrest was).

The boys had a great time with the Williamson kids, and Ellie, Becca, Joel and Abigail did such a fantastic job with our boys! Elliot followed Joel all around investigating toads, lizards, bugs and just about anything they could find. And Joel did a great job at telling him, "don't touch that!" or "After you touch this toad, you need to wash your hands!" Here are the boys showing you how big the toad they found was.

We were able to help out with some of the stuff that needed to get done around camp. Noah and Wes had many little projects they were working on, like a chicken coop, building bunk beds, running errands into the local town. I helped Cindy do loads and loads of sheets from the work team that just left. It was good to be part of the day to day of Manatial de Vida.

And now, before I turn you cross eyed from reading too much on the computer screen, I am going to stop. Two weeks spent in Honduras is just too much material for one post, so, you'll just have to wait to hear about our trip into town, our mini vacation to the beach, Staff Fellowship, daily challenges, camping and a whole lot of other fun stuff. Stay tuned.

Just a Quick Note

2011-08-18T14:26:00.000-04:00

So! We have internet! And while this can't be really long, just wanted to stop by and say we're doing well, loving being out of the city! Camp is beautiful, and at times it feels like we are in the woods of Michigan because there are so many pine trees everywhere!

The boys have been able to play in the creek, catch fish for a tank, bang bamboo around, and just generally run around out in the woods. Noah and I have been able to have a lot of good conversations with Wes and Cindy and it's been great to just be around the place.

This weekend we are going to see a camp in season, and then we are going to head into San Pedro Sula for a few days, attend church, and investigate what sorts of household goods we can get here in country and what we would need to plan on bringing from the states.

Thanks so much for all your prayers! As you think of us, contiue to pray for health, wisdome, and just a great time of encouragment!

And We're Off

2011-08-15T06:00:00.003-04:00

So, today we are going to our third country this year. I was amazed when I stopped and thought about that last week. And since January I have flown to Arizona, Florida, Costa Rica, and now today Honduras. Oh, and we took a bus trip to Nicaragua! What in the world? Whose life am I living?

Anyway, so today we are off to Honduras. This will be the first time I will get to see Manantial de Vida. When Noah went in October of 2009 to explore the possibility of us joining the work there, the boys and I stayed at home.

But now, we all get to experience it. For 12 days! To say we are excited is an understatement. Forrest has been talking for weeks about going. We will be staying in one of the cabins at camp. That means you probably won't here from us until we are back in Costa Rica on the 26th. The internet hasn't been working all summer out at Manantial. But in the meantime, as you think of us, would you pray for:

A great time of getting to know the Williamsons. While Noah and Wes spent the week together in 2009, Cindy, the kids from both families and I have only spent about 6 hours together in Northern Indiana. Pray we would accomplish a lot in our relationship in the short time we have.

Pray we would be able to give the Williamsons a break. They have had a full full FULL summer of teams and minsitry. We really want to help ease there load while we are there.

Pray for rest for our family in the midst of all the newness. This is our two week break between terms at school.

Pray that we would be wise as we look at things we will need for our household, talk about housing plans, and other preparations for when we move there full time.

That our kids will do well with the transition there and then back to school in two weeks.

Thanks guys!! We can't do this work without you all around the world praying!

Goodbye (Maybe)

2011-08-14T07:00:00.003-04:00

Tonight Elliot "gave up the BB" (binky). It wasn't as if we planned this. Are you kidding?! We just moved him to a big bed like 2 weeks ago, and on Monday we are going to Honduras for 2 weeks. I really can't think of a worse time to attempt to lose the BB.

Except that we really did lose it. We came to Costa Rica with three. Then one got a small tear in it and ants got in the sucky part. I threw it away. And then there was two. But tonight, when bed time came around, there was none to be found. And it sorta just happened. We weren't planning it, Elliot didn't like it at all, but it is what it is.

I gave him a rousing speech about what a big kid he was, how he falls asleep on the way home from school without it, Forrest even joined in telling Elliot that he too used to have a binky, and it was blue and then it was broken and he threw it away at Buela's. And there was some mention of how much stronger (complete with muscle man moves he is now that he is 4). But after all that girding up and admonishment, all Elliot could do was look at me with a quivering lip and say, "I not big, I little...and I want my BB." Oh. my. word. Breaks your heart.

But after a bit of crying and a couple of hugs from Daddy, he went to sleep.

Now, the problem is, what if today he finds his BBs. Because, remember, there are two of them somewhere in this house. And what if Elliot finds them before we do? And we do have an international trip on Monday. Oyah! I am not sure if I am up for this!

My Bottle

2011-08-13T18:44:00.002-04:00

When we moved, I left a glass bottle I used for my olive oil. I had a jigger (is that the technical term?) in it and left it next to my stove to use as I needed. But, being as it was glass and space and weight were at a premium, it got left with my sister. However, I did bring the jigger with me.

I found a small bottle here at a store for oil, it even came with a jigger. But when I say small, I mean like a couple of ounces. I was having to refill it ever other day with my stash of olive oil from the fridge (and yes, it's good to keep your olive oil in the fridge. It keeps it from going rancid, and yes, it will solidify, but it will liquefy again when it gets to room temp.) Anyway, besides the fact that it was small, the jigger wasn't the greatest and last week, it fell apart.

But low and behold, on the way to school Wednesday, I spotted a empty bottle under a bush. I got really excited! It was the perfect size and shape and best of all it was free!! Right there waiting for me under a bush! I grabbed it up and put it in the basket under the stroller.

In class that morning I told my teacher about it because I felt very much part of the culture. See, Wednesdays and Saturdays are trash days. And on trash days, you will see guys with backpacks wandering the neighborhoods looking for what is still useful. It really is amazing what people throw out. And since there aren't places like Salvation Army or Goodwill here, a lot of stuff gets left on the curb. Apparently the word for these guys is the same word you use for bottom feeders in the ocean. And I can't for the life of me remember what that word is.

All this discussion lead to my teacher mentioning a used US clothing store in San Jose, which got me really excited! And she thought that was truly funny!

When we got home that afternoon, I scrubbed it up nicely, got the label off of it (orange oil is a great natural goo gone!), filled it with my olive oil and topped it all off with my jigger!

!Perfecto! I tell you!

!Vaya Con Dios!

2011-08-12T16:05:00.002-04:00

Today officially marks the end of our first Trimester here at ILE. Wow, it really did go by fast! Today was graduation day for everyone who is finishing their time here. What a lot of conflicting emotions!

On the one hand, it's great to see people finishing out their training and be better equipped to go where God is sending them. On the other hand, we have grown close with some of these people over our time here. And it's just hard. Goodbyes aren't easy, and there is something very strange about saying a permeate goodbye to people that you know you really will probably never see this side of heaven again.

It really hit home as we were talking with a mom of one of Forrest's classmates. They are getting on a plane tomorrow headed for Caracas, Venezuela. They are from British Columbia. I don't know them well at all, more like we've talked a few times here and there, but I cried on the way home, because, well, I guess I cried over what could have been. Our paths probably won't cross again on this planet.

And then there was our friends the Hings. We've done a lot with them, they were in class with me, and they are now on their way to Ecuador. They are from the Lapeer area, so there is a chance we could see them again, if furloughs and whatnot line up, but they too are getting on a plane tomorrow and heading to South America.

There is also the Vosses. !Dios les bendiga! They helped us get settled here in Costa Rica, they live just 5 blocks from us, and have been good friends over these last few months. They are heading to Honduras next week to join a church in Tegucigalpa. We are hopeful that at some point we will be able to see them again, as we will be in the same country. But it's hard. It's hard saying goodbye.

And yet...and yet! As we sat there and watched missionaries coming in carrying flags representing thirteen countries, I was in awe. God has taken people from all over the world, birthed in them a love and compassion for a people that isn't their own. They have devoted time, money, energy to learn a language that is not their own, in order to share the saving news of Jesus with people they don't yet know. Wow!! That sort of love can only come from Christ. And to hear them talk yesterday about what's next for them all, well, the words servant, learner, observer came up a lot. These are humble people that want to serve the Latin Church, not dictate what it should do. How very exciting!

About a month and half ago, we had Spiritual Emphasis week. At one point during the week, the worship leader said "now sing in your language." And almost every one of the students choose to sing in Spanish. Our language. What a group of people to be surrounded by.

In a lot of ways, this was a hard morning. But it was a morning of perspective, focused on The Eternal.

Y vaya con Dios, nuestros amgios!

Elliot

2011-08-08T22:35:00.000-04:00

I have been struck with Elliot lately. He seems so much bigger than his two and half years right now, and then there are moments, like the other night when I went to check on him were his movements were identical to what they were when he was 3 days old. I don't remember feeling this in between stage so much with Forrest. Maybe because when Forrest was this age, Elliot was 6 months old.

Elliot has such a sweet little personality. I feel like he is coming into himself more and more. He is talking up a storm, both in English and Spanish and yet there are times when his words fail him. Like tonight. For the life of us, we couldn't figure out what he was saying, which resulted lots of tears. But then brother translated and life was good again.

He is constantly trying to figure things out. Watching how things work, putting Legos or train tracks together, taking them apart.

He is also a little worker bee when he wants to be. He asked me the other day if he could use the vacuum. Now, this child hasn't seen a vacuum in over 4 months. He meant the broom. He wanted to sweep. Sure thing kiddo! He always wants to help carry bags in from the taxi, to help flag a taxi down, to open the gates.

Love you Ellie Whit! Can't wait to see what God does with you!

Genius!

2011-08-07T19:08:00.001-04:00

So, are you tired of seeing my laundry yet? At least it's clean. I told you I like just looking at it hanging on the the lines.

And remember when Noah put all those lines up for me? Inside even? Well, then we discovered another challenge in doing laundry in the tropics. Stuff doesn't dry. And by "doesn't" I really do mean "doesn't". It can be on the lines for 4 days and still be damp, and by that time, well, it's also getting mildewy.

See, we are in the throws of raining season, with higher humidity, and times without any sun. And those two things don't help clothes dry well. Sometimes, if you aren't careful your clothes will seem dry, and you have something other to do than take them down right at that moment and you'll come back 2 hours later and the clothes will be wet again. Yeah, they just sucked moisture out of the air.

So, in an attempt to get our clothes drier faster, we bought a couple of fans from another family that is finishing language school this week. We tried them on their stands this week, but our lines are kinda high, and well, it just wasn't working.

So today, I brain stormed a bit. See, this particular fans won't tilt upwards. But, the fan part did come off the stand very easily. And as I looked around the laundry room, I spotted it. A round laundry basket. Well, wouldn't you know, it was perfect for holding the fan so that the wind would go right up to the clothes! And because the basket is tall enough for the motor part to not touch the ground and because there is all sorts of ventilation around the motor, I feel pretty confident in this solution.

And can I tell you, that even on this rainy, humid, cloudy day, my clothes are almost dry? Now, the jury is out on if this will cost less than the dryer, which I am pretty sure it will, but wow, it's nice to know the clothes are dry within one day!

And Now for Something Completely Different

2011-08-06T18:48:00.000-04:00

10 points to whoever gets that reference.

So this has nothing to do with Language School, Costa Rica, Missions, or Latin America. Except that these are all a lot of the reasons we choose to do cloth diaper. And as we were preparing to live outside of the US, I would scourer the internet for things about raising kids in another country, how to make ingredients you can't find easily in your host country, how to make mosquito nets for your beds and on and on and on. So. Here you go. Everything I know about cloth diapers.

I am not going to pretend that we researched this all out and thought long and hard about the benefits of cloth diapering before we had Forrest. Truth is, one day when Forrest was about 4 months old, my sister in law emailed me and said "hey, do you want our Fuzzi Bunz?" And I said, sure, why not. We just sorta fell into this cloth diaper thing. But the more we used them, the more we realized they fit very well into this missions in the global south life. And they really weren't that hard. And if I am being honest here, washing diapers is one of my favorite chores.

Let's start with what type. We use Fuzzi Bunz. Why? Because that's what we were given. When it came time to enlarge of stash (yes, that is the technical cloth diapering terminology for your cloth diapers) we went with what we knew. We have the old type, and they are mediums and larges. If you are only going to buy one size, get the mediums. My boys wear them from the time they were four months old through, well, Elliot is still wearing them at 2 1/2.

Fuzzi Bunz are what's known as a pocket diaper, meaning you don't need rubber pants on top, it's sort of an all in one sorta deal. We use terry cloth liners. Really, this aren't your grandmother's cloth diapers. During nap times, I sometimes double the liner up.

Someone asked me if I thought about making diapers, which I am sure work great, but that was just further down the road than I was willing to go. So sorry, not much help on that front.

As far as night time use, well, we have never had good luck with that. I wrote about that here once.

As for care...well, we just have a trash can with a lid. We through the dirty ones in there (after dumping off whatever can be dumped) and wash ever couple of days. In the states, I would rise in cold water, run a hot cycle with a bit of All free and clear and occasionally some oxiclean, and then another cold rinse cycle. I have always hung then up to dry, either inside in the winter, or outside on the porch in the summer. The sun does wonders for the stains.

Here, we don't have hot water attached to our washing machine, so we just do cold. I am trying to run them through two full cycles now because of that. Also, I haven't figure out a system to get them outside yet, but that is changing soon I hope. They really do need a good sun bleaching.

As for other bits and pieces, we have two wet bags to contain dirty or wet diapers in the diaper bag (I am so glad Elliot's teacher is good with using cloth diapers!) We tried a diaper sprayer once and well, while it worked well for about three weeks, it then exploded all over the bathroom and we had to run down to the firebarn at Barakel to turn the well pump off, and well...we just never got back around to it before we left.

I can't imagine the amount of money we have saved over the years. Since Elliot is only 19 months younger than Forrest, we have had kids in diapers for 4 years and counting, and for a good chunk of that we had two kids in diapers. And now that we are in Costa Rica, disposables are even more expensive, with no coupons or off bands.

Alright. There you have it. Everything I know about cloth.

Oh, one more thing, I do know of a foreign missionary cloth diaper grant from Cotton Babies. I have a friend in Columbia who actually was the recipient of the grant and she has been so happy with her diapers! So, if you fall into that catagory, check it out. Also, they have ways for people to help make those grants a reality, so if you want to help, you can check it out over at Cotton Babies

July Newsletter

2011-08-02T01:52:00.000-04:00

A Million Dollar Moment

What is worth more than a million dollars?

We are here in Costa Rica for a year preparing to be able to serve God in Honduras. Recently I have been amazed at how He is using our day to day lives now to impact people for eternity just by how He placed us on the street and neighborhood that He did.

We aren’t simply preparing to become missionaries; we are seeing how we are ones wherever we go. Our neighbor Alejandra has asked Liz if she would be interested in leading a Bible study to read the Bible and explain what it says to her and her family. God placed us on her street for a reason beyond needing to pay her for our rent and to ask how to order a pizza.

I have had the opportunity to develop a relationship with our guard, Lidubino. From day one when I told him my name and he said “oh like the Ark of Noah” we have talked about God and faith. The other day a group of Jehovah’s witnesses came to the door. I was able to tell them, in my broken Spanish, how they need to have faith in only Jesus who is God and not in their works. After they left Lilito asked about them and I was able to explain the differences between their false misleading beliefs and the Truth found only in the Bible.

I believe God using our broken Spanish to speak truth into Alejandra’s and Lidubino’s lives. Recently he handed me a gospel tract in English he a friend have given him. It was the one that looks like a million dollar bill and asks the “million dollar question”. I was able to translate it and share with him how everyone is a sinner and how to be saved.

I am so very grateful that we are being trained to be able to share this Truth in another language while here in Costa Rica. Thank you for using the money that God has given you to prepare and send us. We want you to know that already God is using your gifts to reach people with the gospel.

Pray for Alejandra and Lidubino. Pray for boldness for Liz and me as we represent Christ. I've asked Lidubino if he wanted to receive Christ and he flat out said no. Pray that I would continue to have opportunities to talk with him.

Praise God, after I told Forrest that our guard said no he was really distraught and after thinking about it all morning out son came to us and said he wanted to pray to believe on Jesus. He did and we even got to go and share the good news of his spiritual birthday with the Lidubino!

To those of you who have never considered supporting us; we invite you to be a part of sharing this good news with people in Latin America who are confused about who God is, how He views them, and how to be saved.

Because of Him,

Noah and Liz Kamper

11 Thoughts

2011-07-31T17:07:00.001-04:00

So, in no particular order, here are some of the things I have learned over the last couple of weeks:

1. Baking soda is not an easily found ingredient. Last week I walked to four different stores, totaling somewhere around two and half or three mile walk. Never found it.

2. Mint green is never a good color. Unless there is ice cream involved.

3. After many months of not experiencing it, air conditioning can take you aback. I took a taxi yesterday to look for sheets and when I got in something seemed strange. I couldn't put my finger on what it was. About 3 minutes into the ride I realized all the windows were closed. And that's when it dawned on me, this taxi had AC!! First time I had experienced that!

4. Being far away from hurting friends forces you pray harder. You desperately want to do something for them, and since there is no way to clean their house, bring them a meal, you pray. Which is really what they need the most anyway.

5. Four year olds can spend the whole day with their underpants on backwards and not care.

6. Given the right conditions and the right amount of time, I can tell you what I am doing right now, what I am doing continually, what I want to do, and what I did in Spanish. Again, note the stipulation of the right conditions and the right amount of time you have to waste listening to me stammer through the conjugation.

7. It's truly amazing that in three months you can go from needing the help of another family to maneuver around the city, to being that other family to help someone new. Our 'little brother and sister' Will and Elaine Savell come tomorrow! They will be here for a year studying Spanish and then they will be working with pastoral training in Latin America.

8. Without having a 30 year experiential knowledge of the subtle nuances of the weather, it's hard to keep track of what time of year it is. Seriously. You know how you can tell by the way the air smells, the look of the leaves, the sky, when it gets dark at night, what produce is in season, how the seasons are changing? Yeah, well, I got nothing here. It gets dark every night at the same time, there are no leaves to change, no familiar signs. I don't even know if there are seasons for produce here. It's a bit disconcerting really.

9. Just like in high school or college, adult language school students get lax at the end of the term. Wow, we are all ready for our two week break!

10. Stores in Costa Rica sometimes carry only pink sheets. Yes, for real.

11. Sometimes you just need a nap at 10:30 am.

Big Change

2011-07-30T22:05:00.001-04:00

So, there has been a big change around here today. Elliot is in a big bed. And so far, no noise from their room! Could it possibly be that he is going to transition to a big kid bed with no issues?

There are a lot of boring reasons why we decided to do this big bed move three months into our stay in Costa Rica (three months? How did that happen?), but I am really sure you don't want to hear about that all. Anyway, let's get on to the fun part...

So we found a bed that another language school student had made and it was lovingly painted royal blue. Ok, with the risk of offending people, royal blue is awful! Sure it matched the Bob the Builder mattress and that's great if you have a royal blue thing going on. But, well, we don't. Forrest's bed spread is a lovely shade of green with tan foliage, and well, I have a thing. Noah laughs at me and says, "yes, you have a thing." My thing is I like things to make sense together. And I am pretty sure royal blue Bob the Builder and tan and sage don't make sense together. But the great part about this was I knew this was going to cost me next to nothing to remedy the problem.

So, yesterday after school, we found the paint store and the hardware store (yes, they are different here) and got some sandpaper and a quart of what I thought was a lovely shade of green paint. See, I was trying to get out of my comfort zone, you know pick something other than khaki or tan or some other neutral tone. So I thought green. Green is good. And I have a brown blanket and it will match Forrest's bed and all will be well.

And then we started painting.

The boys really wanted to help with the project, so we let them help sand the bed and paint a couple of the support boards that go under the mattress and bottom of the bed. Yeah, well, it didn't look great. Sorta like a bowl of mint ice cream. But I thought maybe it wouldn't be as bad on the bed. Yeah. No.

I got done with the first coat last night and I was so disappointed! Goodness, it was awful!

So this morning, I went back to the paint store and got the darkest chocolateist brown I could find. Oh, and interesting note about the paint store, they don't have color swatches you can take home. When you go in and tell them you want a particular color, they pull out their swatches that are on a ring, you know, like a designer would have. When you pick you color, they put them back in the special box under the counter. My guess is it costs too much to keep swatches for people to just take.

Anyway. So, then, we needed bedding for this bed. I went to one store and all they had were pink sheets. Yeah, whole store, just pink sheets. So I took another taxi further away and found a wider selection, like about 6 colors, all polyester or poly cotton blend. Sigh. And the worst part is, I bought bedding for the boys in January, but left it in Michigan because we didn't have twin beds in this house. Anyway, I settled on a sage green and brought them home.

And then it was time to paint the bed brown. And after the first few strokes I looked at Noah and said, "I should have just stuck with what I know. Neutrals!" Oh, my! It looks a million times better!

And after it dried we took it upstairs, put it together, and we have one happy little boy! I am hoping he really does well with the transition and we don't have any issues. It makes things all the more complicated when he shares a room with his not very much older than him brother.

Tomorrow we will hang a few prints that I found over at vintageprintables.com, where they have a great variety of vintage public domain prints you can print for free. I put those in some frames our landlady said we could use and they turned about fantastic! Amazing what a little (of the right color) paint and a few printouts can do!

Reed Update

2011-07-25T23:55:00.000-04:00

I know a lot of you have been praying for our friends Chester and Jenelle and their baby Reed. Here's what they wrote tonight:

"It is with a heavy heart that we share with you the news that our little Reed is now with Jesus. We were blessed with 7 days to love him and hold his hand. He passed away peacefully in our arms with our family surrounding us. We covet your prayers as we grieve the loss of Reed Marlin. His 7 days of life we know will be used to glorify God. We hope that his life will effect other people's lives for eternity. As we said goodbye to Reed it was not with out hope for we know we will see him again.
We have hope because God gave his own Son to die for us. God has already intervened on all of our behalves by giving us a chance to spend eternity with Him. The question is whether or not we'll choose Him (Jesus) to be our God and Saviour.
We want to thank you all for all of your prayers and support!
Praise God for he is a good God even in the midst of storms in our lives.
Chester & Jenelle. "

So hard! So very, very hard! Would you continue to pray for their family? Thanks guys!

Challenge Irazu

2011-07-25T20:34:00.000-04:00

Sunday Noah ran his first trail run. Which, according to him, was very, very, very different than a road race. He ran a 10k next to cows, through ruts, and rivers and over hills, errr, volcano...anyway.

We left school around 6:30am after a fair amount of geek runner talk.

This was the group of school that tackled the volcano. Some ran 10k and some ran 20k. No one was insane enough to attempt the 80k!

These guys did the 10k.

It was a fun day, even if it was rainy and cold (55 F) up in the mountains. The boys loved watching Daddy run across the finish line and they really enjoyed his metal!

Baby Reed Update

2011-07-24T20:44:00.000-04:00

Wow!! Thank you all so much for praying for Chester, Jenelle and Baby Reed!!

Just to give you a quick update, this is what his parents wrote right after the surgery:

This is Chester again. I just want to thank all of you who have been holding up our little Reed in prayer. The past few days (almost a week now) have been a tremendous roller coaster ride of emotions. Bouncing from being very hopeful of Reed's recovery to beginning the grieving process of losing him. I sense God has already used this in our lives by bringing us to our breaking point and then showing himself strong. Praise God and I hope he receives the glory from this! Obviously we don't know what all lies ahead for Reed and what challenges may encounter. Please pray for Reed's continued recovery... he is still on some critical life support.
As you've heard from Reed's latest update, he has survived the surgery of placing the dialysis catheter! He miraculously began urinating!!! Most recently his dialysis has been going very well!! We hope this is a huge game changer now for Reed's recovery.
So all that to say God has seriously intervened! Praise the Lord for working in such a powerful way! I asked the nurse today if there was any urine showing in the bladder on the last ultrasound and she said there wasn't. Now he's urinating!!! Again praise God for intervening on Reed's behalf. Thank you all for praying!!!

Big sister holding Reed's hand

And this is what they wrote this morning:

We just went and and saw Reed. The nurses said he had a great night. And looks a lot better than he did last night before the surgery. His vent levels went down, he didn't need any blood products (which may indicate that his liver is functioning), he had 55 ml of urine (amazing because his kidney levels still show he is in kidney failure), and the dialysis was able to remove a lot of excess fluid. We have so many things to be thankful for today. I spent the night praising God for who He is and what he has been doing in our little Reed. It was a nice change to the pleading that we had been doing. If you want to pray specifically, pray that we can get him started on nutrition, that they can keep turning down the vent settings, that the dialysis keeps getting fluid off and that his blood levels stay stable. We can not thank you all enough for all of your prayers. We are so thankful we are not walking this road alone.

Guys, you all blow me away!! You don't even know this family, and yet so many of you have let me know you are praying for them! Thank you!

Please Pray!

2011-07-23T17:47:00.000-04:00

This little guy's name is Reed. He was born on Monday night two months early with lots of fluid on his lungs. And his little kidneys aren't working. The poor dude has yet to have a wet diaper. He has had an exchange transfusion (drawing off his blood and replacing it with new), surgery, and a whole lot of help breathing this week.

His parents wrote today, "We have been meeting with doctors today and we have some tough choices to make. None of which give a lot of hope for survival, one is wait and see and the other is dialysis." What a heart breaking thing to have to write!

Right now, as I write this, the doctors are getting him ready for dialysis. This is a delicate thing with one so tiny and so fragile. And it remains to be seen if this will help him.

Would you pray with us for Reed, his mama and papa, Jenelle and Chester? We know that God is bigger than all of that. He formed Reed and He knows how he works best. Pray with us for a miracle for Reed.

New Birthday

2011-07-22T23:49:00.001-04:00

Noah has been talking with our neighborhood guard for a while now about Jesus. Something about the name Noah that automatically brings the conversation to the Bible. For about the last week or so Noah has been feeling like he needed to flat out ask Lilto if he wanted to know Jesus. Today he did. And Lilito said no. And Lilito said yes, I know you have peace in your heart and I don't, but I don't want to know Jesus. Pray for him.

Noah came home after his run (that's a whole other story for another day) and told us what Lilito said. Forrest was very concerned and confused as to why someone would say they didn't want to know Jesus. Smart kid.

Today was very different for us routine wise. With Noah and Elliot at home because Elliot is still sick (again, another story for another day) Forrest and I took a taxi to school. This gave us time to talk. And as we were just coming up the hill to school, Forrest looked at me and said, "I want to believe on Jesus!" Well! It think his little brain was working all morning on this question of knowing Jesus and why someone wouldn't want that.

I asked him what that meant and he knew it all, that Jesus died for his sins, that Jesus was God's son and that Forrest wanted him to be the boss of his life. I asked if he wanted to pray then, and he looked at me and said, "No, tomorrow." Ok. I wasn't going to push it.

I told Noah about it when we got home and Noah asked Forrest, who was like, "Yeah! I want to do that, tomorrow." Noah then shared with him how the Bible talks about not putting off until tomorrow what you can do today. As soon as he said that, Forrest looked at him and said, "let's pray now!" And he did, with all of us there! How cool!!!!

We know that this is the first step in a lifetime of following Jesus. And we are thrilled! Can't wait to see what God does with Forrest!

Welcome to the family dude! It's quite a ride!

Alien Invasion

2011-07-19T17:56:00.000-04:00

Yesterday a classmate brought these to school (sorry about the terrible photo!). I just stared at them in a box and couldn't figure out what they were, animal, vegetable mineral? A toy maybe? Then one of our teachers said, "No, son mamón chinos." Que raro!!

I laughed at them all morning. It looked like either we were eating a koosh ball or they were some alien pods come to invade us with eye balls. So weird! And who was the first person to look at these and decided eating them was a good idea?

I brought a couple home for the boys to try. And to take photos of, of course. Forrest saw them this morning and asked what that new paper was. Funny question. Then he asked if he could play with them. Ha! And when I told him he could eat it, then the poor child was really confused!

They are sweet, with a grape sorta texture. There is a big seed in the middle which everyone keeps warning us about. And they are just stinking hilarious to me! I wish I could bring some back to the States as presents, but the customs guys don't usually like that sorta thing. Sigh. Wouldn't they be fun to put in a bag like this and give as hostess gifts? Customs guys are no fun at all.

Anyway, they are such funny things I will probably be buying them. And if you come visit us, you can be sure you will get your taste of mamón chinos!

Bath Time

2011-07-15T20:32:00.000-04:00

One of the essencial parts of any house in the United States is a bath tub. For very good reason, right? How in the world would you get children clean without it?

One of the things that we were warned about when we began this process of moving to another country was the lack of bath tubs. They are not at all common here or in Honduras. So we started introducing the boys to showers while we were still at Barakel. And they enjoyed them.

But since we've been here I have noticed fingernails and toe nails don't get as clean. And the boys are constantly trying to play in the shower like they would in the bath tub.

Then I realized the other day, "well, hey, there is a spout near the botton here that looks like water can come out." I tried it, and low and behold, a spiget of sorts! And then I thought, "Hey! I brought one of those rubber drain covers with us!"

" And the sides of the shower go up pretty far. Far enough at least for the boys to have a BATH!"

Now remember, they haven't had a bath since we left the States at the end of April. When Elliot walked into the bathroom tonight he looked the water and said "Ohhhhhh!!" I could barely get his diaper off of him before he in working hard at playing.

And when Forrest came up he said, "Mom, we should do a bath every time!" Do you think they liked it?

They had a good long soak in the "hot tub" as Forrest refered to it when we were done. It's was a prefect night to get snuggled in nice warm towels from a friend at Barakel and read with Dad.

It's the little things, you know?

Missing Something I Haven't Had Yet

2011-07-14T22:44:00.000-04:00

"And oh, I long to see Your face, invisible, invisible God
All the works that You have made
Are clearly seen and plain as day
So mighty and tender"

-Invisible God, Andrew Peterson

Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them.

They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.

Revelation 21:3

"Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the

Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day"

Genesis 3:8

Reflections

2011-07-11T21:58:00.000-04:00

It's now mandatory to have a window by my desk. I was thinking about this view today, and this one and now this one. And while I didn't grow up with the mountains, I am coming to really enjoy watching the clouds dance over and around them every day.

I miss the accomplishment of seeing tasks completed. Language study doesn't give you that sense of getting something done. Sure, you are washing the same clothes again next week, but there is a few fleeting moments when you see you work pay off.

I was talking to a Tica friend this week about her childhood. I said I prefered the country to the city. She said, yes, it's nice, but in the city you have running water and electricty. There are jobs. Where she grew up, these things didn't exist. She told me of a time when her parents were both not able to be parents and she didn't have any clothes. She made a dress for herself out of one of her mother's aprons. Puts things into perspective a bit.

I like hanging clothes up on the line and watching them dry.

I still am confused on Direct and Indirect Object pronouns.

I need to spend more time everyday, outside of class, speaking in Spanish with native speakers. This is challenging with kids who need time with their mama and to rest.

I like it when it rains all afternoon, after we get home from school.

Excuses, Excuses

2011-07-09T21:33:00.000-04:00

You know, there was a time, not so very long ago, when this little space got a lot more attention that it is now. I miss being able to write every day, but we are just in a season right now where that can't happen. Here's a little taste of why:

5:45 am
wake up because of either a) the kids are up b) the sun is streaming in the windows c) a car alarm goes off

6:00-7:00 am
Get everyone clean, dressed and backpacks packed for the day. Make sure everyone has a water bottle, sunscreen, and sandals. Get the kids piled into the stroller (after making sure it doesn't have a flat tire, again). Unlock about 8 locks to get the stroller out the gate, and then lock everything back up again.

7:00-7:20 am
Walk to school. Tell kids no, we can not stop at the bakery that smells so very good to get donuts, that was a one time thing. Avoid glass that could potential give us another flat tire (Noah has started to carry in his backpack a patch kit and a mini bike pump. You know, sorta like making sure you have jumper cables and a spare tire in your car.)

7:20 am
Get to school, drop the boys off at their rooms head to our classes.

7:30-8:20
Noah has Phonetics and I have Language. Phonetics is where we work on our pronunciation in the hopes that someday we won't sound so very much like gringos. Language is where we learn more vocabulary, and work on getting descriptions and stuff out. The director of our program said, "we would call it conversation class, except then you would think you can have a conversation, and well, you can't at this point." Ha!

8:25-9:15
Noah has Language and I have Phonetics

9:15-10:15
We have an hour break, which we all need for our brains to regroup, to finish up homework, to spend some time in chapel on Tuesdays and Thursdays and to grab a snack. It's funny, it feels like a lunch break, but really it's just the middle of the morning. Most days in the States I was barley out of my pajamas by then!

10:20-11:10
The first hour of grammar for both of us. This is where we move forward (we hope) in our understanding of the Spanish language. Again, with the hope that one day we won't sound like gringos. We have a break halfway through where I usually find some cafecito

11:15-12:05
Our second hour of grammar.

Then it's time to pick the boys up and walk home. And while the walk seems long in the mornings, it feels even longer on the way home. It really is up hill both ways and by noon, the sun is usually beating down. That, or it's raining. Ha! Can you tell I like the walk home?

12:30 ish
Home, time for lunch, and then rest time for everyone!! It's amazing how much language study takes it out of you.

After the boys get up from naps, we play some, do some chores around the house, and then it's supper time. And then bed for the boys and studying for us. And a lot of times, we are in bed before too long...you know like 9ish. Because, well, remember that 5:45 wake up call?

And just making meals is still a challenge for me some days. Making ice can involve 5 steps now, six months ago I didn't even think about it. And I really am not complaining. We are learning a lot of about how long it takes do things, and how to enjoy that.

And with that, I am going to go sleep...wait, it's only 7 pm...well, maybe I'll still go to sleep.

Happy Birthday Noah!

2011-07-05T23:56:00.000-04:00

Check this amazing use of technology out!!

In Preparation

2011-07-03T20:48:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow is the Birthday of the United States of America. Just in case you didn't know that. Ha! Well, we now being expats toyed around with the idea of attending the American Colony party on the other side of town. And then we realized it would cost close to $50 just to get there and back in a taxi. The bus ride there was doable, but the ride home would be after dark and probably not the safest.

And then we got an email from school, and there is a party planned there. So, we went with that option. One of the great things about it getting dark at 6:00 each night (well, there are a lot of great things about that, like it's dark and the kids go to bed a bit easier) is that we can do fire works and still have a semi normal bed time!

So today, I made potato salad, and a new thing, Fireworks Cookies. I need a bit more practice, and I think next time I would make them all big, because it's easier to work the design. But overall I like them!

So enjoy your campfires, and pools, and lakes, and fireworks, and grills and hot dogs tomorrow. And know that we are doing some of the same!

Laundry

2011-07-02T20:32:00.001-04:00

So, we had sort of a large electric bill this month. And by sorta I mean more than what we had budgeted for our entire utilities. Come to find out, it's the dryer. No, nothing is wrong with the dryer, it's just they are so very expensive to run here. There is a reason most Ticos don't have one, or if they do, they only use it when it's really, really wet.

So, we set about remedying the problem. We have an amazing laundry room that had three clothes lines to begin with. However, the diapers filled those right up. So we bought enough line for two more lines. Noah installed them, we ran some laundry, put it up on the lines and realized that we still needed more.

Today, I trekked out to the Feria and to Pali (think Aldi or Savealot) and bought enough line for four more clothes lines. But then I needed hooks. So after running into an acquaintance at the Feria, I managed to find the hardware store close to our house, and ask in Spanish for hooks and spacers! It's a far cry from where I was eight weeks ago. And yes, I knew the word for hook from memory!

Noah promptly installed the four additional lines, bringing our grand total up to nine. I think that should suffice. Maybe. Oh and we have one of those octopusy sort of things to hang small stuff on.

I find myself returning to the laundry room just to look at the clothes hanging up. I wish we had some lines outside, but we really don't have any place to put them and it being the rainy season right now, it wouldn't do much good anyway. But in Honduras I have grand plans for clothes lines semi inside and outside.

And for now, I am thankful I have a huge laundry room to house 9 lines. Thank you God!

The First Best Thing

2011-06-27T18:36:00.000-04:00

So the day we moved from Barakel, Forrest didn't love the idea of leaving. When he woke up that morning, the first thing he said was, "We need to unpack everything and stay at Camp Barakel forever!" But as he thought a bit more, he said, "But we are going to Costa Rica and Honduras, and it's always warm there!"

The week before we moved from Grand Rapids to Costa Rica it snowed. That was the morning of the double ear infections and as we were driving to the doctor's office, Forrest looked around at the snow on the buildings and said, "We need to go back to Florida because it's always warm there!"

And now we are here. And it is always warm. I asked Forrest a couple of weeks ago what the best part of living here was and he said, "The first best thing is that it's always warm!"

And we are taking full advantage of that. Yesterday I bought the kids a pool. I found one for about $12 USD and thought we could get our money out that during this year here. And they LOVE it!

And while we know this is only for a short time (since they breed mosquito and in Honduras there are more scary mosquito borne illnesses like Dengue Fever, they really aren't something you can have around), we are certainly loving it right now!

Can I Get an Amen?

2011-06-26T12:53:00.000-04:00

Lessons from Today

2011-06-25T20:55:00.000-04:00

1. It may just take 2 buses and a taxi ride to meet some new friends at the park.

2. Be forewarned, fountains in Costa Rica can apparentely have bleach added. Yeah, ruined my favorite black dress today.

3. June is not pineapple season according to my pineapple guy. Could have fooled me. And yes, I now have a pineapple guy.

4. Always bring sunscreen. Because even if it looks like it's going to rain all day, it won't. And while your children will be just fine, your will be very pink.

5. Always make sure to drink your 32 oz of liquid first thing in the morning, otherwise you will get dehydrated and cranky.

6. Sometimes you will find very familiar things in the most unfamiliar places. Like an antique firetruck that looks like it should be getting ready for tug in the middle of an amusment park in Costa Rica.

7. Language comes in spurts. Yesterday I was totally on. I had conversations in Spanish all day. Today I couldn't even get out what time I get to school in the morning correctly. Uggg...

8. Most of the time, you can't even imagine what the next year will look like. Here's what we were doing a year ago.

Thankful

2011-06-22T18:33:00.000-04:00

Today I was home with Elliot because of a fever and a cough. Poor dude. We have an appointment for tomorrow with the Doctor because he has been dealing with this cough for about a week now, and just yesterday develeloped the fever. In some ways I guess we should expect this, with both boys now in school each day, they are bound to encounter more germs. But it's hard. It's never easy when your kid is sick, but now there is the added "do we keep him home? Is it just a sniffle in the morning? Is it something more? Who will miss class today? Do we take him to the doctor?" And honestly, a big part of it is just guessing! Ha, isn't that most of parenting, really?

So anyway, today I was home with him. And I was very thankful for our recorder our staff family at Barakel gave us as part of our going away present! We use it most of the time to record our homework for Phonetics class, but it came in handy today. Noah gave it to one of my classmates in my two hour grammar class so he could record the class for me. Apart from acutally being there, it's the next best thing!

So this afternoon, I sat at my desk (another thing I am so thankful for, remember my lovely one back in Michigan?) and listened to my grammar class and got most of the lesson today, which is great because I have another test this week. So Thanks Barakel Staff! We love you all!

To Nicaragua and Back

2011-06-21T23:14:00.001-04:00

This weekend we left the country. We are here on tourist visas that expire every 90 days. While we hadn't been here a full 90 days yet, the school had planned a Visa Renewal trip to Nicaragua for this last weekend. They even gave us a 5 day weekend for it. We had to be out of the country 72 hours before we could come back in and get a another visa.

So Friday morning, bright and early a bus full of gringos headed toward Nicaragua. This was suppose to be an 8 hour trip. It turned into about a 12 hour adventure. Nicaragua and Costa Rica have a crummy sort of relationship, and last week for about 3 days Nicaragua had refused to let semi trucks across the boarder.

That meant that for about 15 miles back from the boarder, semis were lined up. A couple had tried to turn around and gotten stuck, causing us to come to stand still for about an hour. This particular trucker came prepared for these sort of situations!

One we got moving again, we got through leaving Costa Rica just fine. Then a quick drive through no man's land and we were at the Nicaraguan boarder. Where we sat. And sat. And sat just a bit longer while our passports were processed. And yes, it's about what you are thinking, hot, sweaty, a bit confusing.

We were thankful we had a trip leader who did most of the work of dealing with customs. And we were very thankful for the air conditioning in the bus. Then came Forrest's highlight, going through the bug sprayer! The bus drove though a sprayer to keep all the Costa Rican bugs from coming into Nicaragua. This made such an impact on Forrest he asked if we were going to do it again on the way home! His eyes were wide the whole time, watching and taking in everything!

Then it was another 2 1/2 hours to our hotel. By this point we were very tired and worn out, but really, the kids did remarkably well! There were 6 kids on this trip under 8. And they played well, watched movies and even managed to sleep some!

As we drove on towards Granada, we drove in the middle of a Windmill Farm. All sorts of visions of Don Quixote crossed my mind as we drove through the windmills and saw two volcano in the distance with the cattle munching in the foreground. It was sort of surreal, especially as the heavy rain clouds rolled in.

We got to our hotel in Granada around 6:30, just in time to hit the pool we had been promising the boys all day and then go to bed! We put the boys down and then we were out very very soon after ourselves. Weird how sitting in a bus all day can wear you right out.

Granda was founded in 1524 and it has a very colonial feel to it. I wish we were able to explore more than we did, but with the kids so little right now, it was better to stick closer to the hotel. Which the hotel was amazing by the way! It was an old fort, and it just perfect!

We spent most of the weekend eating, sleeping, and swimming, although we did get to the market close by and Noah picked out his Father's Day Hammock. My plan is to have hammocks form all over on our porches in Honduras.

We also met a guy who runs a restaurant in downtown Granada who is from Sterling Heights, Michigan! What in the world!? It was a nice little taste of home, complete with foot long hot dogs for the boys.

Yesterday we started home, and made very good time, boarder crossing went much quicker and we were back in San Jose by about 6:30, with another 90 day tourist visa!

Breakfast Cookies

2011-06-09T19:50:00.001-04:00

We were in need of something new for breakfast and to send as a snack with the kids to school each day. I wanted something that was healthy, not too crunchy granola that no one would eat it, and something that wasn't messy. Oh, and it also needed to be able to be made with ingredients we can get easily here. You know like bananas or plantains or mangoes. I didn't have any bananas, the mangoes are still green, and I found ripe plantains at the corner store. So that sorta made the decision.

I've been thinking about some sort of oatmeal type cookie (I use that term loosely) for a while now, so I started looking for oatmeal banana cookies. After some tweaking and thinking, I came up with this.

We're calling them breakfast cookies and Elliot ate about 6 today. In fact, the first thing he asked me when I picked him up today was "more breakfast cookie?" So that tells yah kids will eat them.

Here it is...
2 ripe plantains (or regular bananas would totally work. I just happens to have plantains) smashed
2 cups oatmeal
1 cup raisins
2 tsps honey
1/3 cup canola oil
1 egg
1/2 tsp. vanilla
pinch of cinnamon

Mash plantains (or bananas) up. Mix in everything else. Let sit for about 10 minutes to let the oatmeal soak up some of the moisture from the other ingredients. Preheat oven to somewhere around 350. Bake for 15 minutes. Cool, put in a container tight enough to keep the ants out or put in the refrigerator.

Yes, that is a Barakel cookie scoop!

I also made a batch that subbed 1/2 cup peanut butter for the oil. You probably want to up the honey if you do that, because it does need to be a bit sweeter.

El Verbo

2011-06-06T23:21:00.002-04:00

"En el principio ya existía el Verbo, y el Verbo estaba con Dios, y el Verbo era Dios."

Today in Phoetics class, I read from John 1 and had one of those moments. First of all, I could understand what I was reading in Spanish. And that my friends, is a big moment! I was reading the Bible in Spanish and got the wording, not because I knew the verse in English, but because I was comprehending the words in Spanish! About once a week I joke as we are stumbling over things like "I see myself in the mirror every day" in my grammar class, "and we are suppose to be able to talk to people about Jesus?!" But really, I got what these verses were saying today! That is a milestone!

Ok, so not only was I blown away by the fact that I was understanding the Spanish, but I also was taken back by how the verse was translated. It was so much stronger than it was in English. Mas fuerte. Instead of saying Jesus was the Word, it said He is the Verb. Quick refresher for those of you who slept through freshman English. A verb is an action word. You know, run, hit, eat, dance, etc. Jesus is the Action Word. Wow!

I stopped mid sentence and actually said "WOW!" and my teacher smiled and nodded her head emphatically. She saw that I was understanding completely what I was reading. As I continued to read "En él estaba la vida, y la vida era la luz de la humanidad , " I saw the bigger picture again.

This day in and day out of language learning, which makes you tired and confused and maybe at this point six weeks in has given us just enough to be dangerous, is for a huge purpose. My college Spanish professor said on Facebook tonight, "God becomes human so He can communicate with us in ways we can understand--Jesus. We learn languages and cultures so we can communicate with others in ways they can understand--doing our best to model Jesus"

So very true!

So I will contiue to slog through, "How many times a day do you wash your hands?" to learn the reflexives, knowing that at some point, it's all going to come together and we'll be able to communicate the Verb, who has the Viva that we all need desperatly!

Poco a poca, little by little.

Time Out

2011-06-05T21:40:00.000-04:00

We are closing in on being here six weeks, and it was time for us to take a break. When we lived in the Great White North, we would take advantage of the off seasons in Traverse City and Mackinaw City where we could great a great room for about $50 a night. The distance wasn't too bad, and while the weather was still usually cold and snow, an indoor pool and some pizza made for a perfect Monday off.

Well, that's sorta what we did this weekend. Emphasis on the sorta. The drive to where we went was about the same, there was water involved, the idea of the break was the same, time out to refresh and get ready for what's next and it's the off season here because it's winter, ie rainy season (this subject probably deserves it's own post. Another day). But that is really where the similarities ended.

So we decided to head to Jaco on the Pacific coast with another family, who just happens to be from Lapeer Michigan! What in the world?! They are here until August, and then they are headed to Quito, Ecuador to work with people who are in extreme poverty. Teresa is in all of my classes, Jeremy is in our grammar class, and their youngest is just a year older than Forrest. Plus we have the Mitten State bond.

Anyway, we hired a driver to take us there, because while we could have taken a greyhoundish bus or rented a car, for our first outing with children this seemed like a better option.

We got there in about 2 hours and immediately, and I mean immediately, hit the pool! And what a pool!

We played in the pool that was like bath water (it was probably close to 90 F outside with somewhere around 75% humidity! Much different from San Jose, which is a mile up in altitude) for several hours, then ate outside (Forrest's favorite way to eat) and then played in the pool some more.

Ha, see that extra kid? His name is Sebastian and he talked to us for probably 45 minutes last night in Spanish. We caught maybe 1/3 of what he said, but he was a fun kid to have as our next door neighbor.

Now, back to the whole Pacific coast thing. Yesterday morning, our boys got up at the normal time, you know 5:15 am because that's sunrise here. So we ate breakfast outside, and then hit the pool by about 6 am. Seriously. After an hour and a half there, we decided to head to the beach. Oh my! Just take a look...

See, just like Mackinaw City. Ha!

Then it was back to the pool, for more water, then more eating outside. We all did take naps on Saturday afternoon too which was wonderful!

Yes, Forrest wanted to play Big Splash...that will probably always be with us.

In the evenings after the kids were in bed, we were able to play Euchre with Jeremy and Teresa, because, remember, they are from Michigan. We laughed and laughed and laughed. It was a good weekend!

On the way home, we stopped at a bridge and saw crocodiles in the river below (freaked me right out! Those things are MONSTROUS!!!!) and then stopped at a road side stand and got a caja of mangoes (a box of mangoes, probably about a bushel, maybe a bushel and a half) for $4! Yeah, not sure what I am going to do with a bushel and a half, but they were so cheap. Our driver suggested mango juice in the blender, and I think the people in the neighborhood might be blessed with some too.

It was a great weekend. One that we really needed. And the icing on the cake was I didn't have any homework! And now we are home, enjoying the nightly rain, ready to tackle the next week of language learning!

Well that was Quick Eight Years

2011-05-31T21:12:00.000-04:00

Family Day

2011-05-28T22:30:00.001-04:00

Friday the Preschool put on a sweet little program for the families of the kids enrolled. The kids sang a song, and then each family got to work on a craft together. It was a nice time in the middle of the school day to be together.

If you watch the video (which really, just know, it's preschoolers singing, picking there noses, and waving to their moms.) just know that the kids are singing in Spanish, so you probably won't be able to catch the words. I tried to get Forrest to sing it at home later so I could understand it better and he just smiled and ran away. Kids.

Un Mes

2011-05-27T00:35:00.000-04:00

One Month. One month today we were en route to Costa Rica. How is that even possible?

Over the last month a lot has happened! Holy Cow! I am just now really thinking about it all!

We've moved our entire lives to Costa Rica.
Set up a home here. No small feat, even with a beautifully furnished house!
Started school
Gotten through the week of tears!
Navigated the health care system here
Dealt with an allergic reaction to antibiotics
Had a flooded laundry room for about a week
Dealt with no refrigerator for 3 days when we had meds that needed to stay cold
Been through our first "real" earthquake
Had 6 tests between the two of us (an we each have another one tomorrow)
Figured out how to buy groceries
Gotten a sun tan on the tops of our feet (and if you know me at all, this is a huge accomplishment for just a month!)

Had 3 flat tires on the stroller. And three holes in the new tube we bought to fix one of the flats.
Figured out the Feria
Made Mango Pie
Started to build relationships with our neighbors and fellow students.

Seen God work in the hearts of our kids as they have gone from crying when we take them to school to saying it's the second best thing about living in Costa Rica.

No wonder we are tired at the end of the day. Almost everything we do is new in some way.

But we are so thankful to be here, learning Spanish in preparation for Honduras. We're grateful for a staff at ILE that really approaches teaching us all as a ministry. And they are so very patient with us. Goodness, we are a needy group of people. The other day I fell apart in the office trying to figure out where the boys were needing to be during this trimester. The administrator, Mimi, quietly said, "Can I hug you? And can I pray for you?" Which she did both. So sweet. She knew. There is so much new all the time, and I am sure I am not the first mama to fall apart in her office. The next day the academic director for our program saw me in the hallway and said, "I heard you were crying yesterday? How are you today? And just so you know, we prayed for you this morning in staff meeting." So this is a good place to be.

And thanks for all your prayers over the last month! We have needed them, we have felt them and we are grateful! We can't do this without you all!

Mango Pie

2011-05-23T20:57:00.001-04:00

So, we've been doing some adjusting of eating habits around here. You know, switching from apples to pineapples because pineapples, like the whole, fresh beautiful thing, is 80 cents. Apples, yeah, they would be $2USD a pound. And they don't look great either.

Anyway, it's mango season, and while I must admit, I am not wild about mangoes (they are good once in a while...I really do like them better green I think), they are in abundance and seem to be something that could be made into something somewhat familiar. And I need a bit of creating to keep me sane. So while the studying is in abundance around here, to bake something for my family is needed.

I put a call out to my tropical friends for a mango pie recipe, and the consensuses from those who know seems to be follow a peach pie recipe. And that's what I did. Here's the recipe for those of you who find themselves with an abundance of cheap mangoes.

Mango Pie
Double pie crust
Mangoes to fill pie crust, peeled, sliced to the size of peach quarters. (oh, and FYI, if you allergic to poison ivy, be careful. Some can eat them, but not touch the skin. Some can eat them, but not touch the sap. Some can't eat them, or touch them, or breath the pollen!)
1/2 c. sugar
3 tbsp. flour
Half a limon squeezed

Basically, do what you think. Slice the mangoes, squeeze limon over it, put into bottom crust. Sprinkle sugar and flour over it all. Cover with top crust. Bake at 375 for 40 minutes or so. Although, since I don't really time anything, that's just a guess. Check it...make sure it's done. And then eat!

Overall, our family gave it 3 1/2 thumbs up. That's pretty good for a first attempt! It was great warm out of the oven and on this rainy, cooler night, it made things feel sorta like a late summer night in Michigan when the fall weather is just beginning to whisper through the breeze. A nice nod to the familiar with a healthy dose of the new.

Just a Normal Saturday Morning

2011-05-21T12:33:00.001-04:00

So, today was the trial run of my new Feria cart. And it met all my hopes and dreams for what a feria cart would be. Isn't it cute?

It certainly made buying two pineapples, 6 mangoes, 2 kilos of potatoes, 2 kilos of carrots, 2 large onions, 12 limons, a bunch of bananas and a kilo of tomatoes much easier! So worth the $14 USD I paid for it!

These sweet ladies are always so patient with me. In Language class, we often get assignments where we have to talk with Ticos about different things. But of course today I forgot to ask directions to somewhere. But they also have great tomatoes and cucumbers.

So much to choose from! And so much of it is the same, it's hard to know where to buy from. I really think it's all about the same price. I am starting to get some regular stands I stop at. Like I always (you know, for the last 3 weeks) get my pineapples from the stand at the top of the hill. And I get my lettuce, beats, radishes, and herbs from this guy.

And then it's the half mile walk up hill home. Which is a whole lot easier than it was last week pre feria cart.

Once home, it's time to start dealing with the produce. A glug of this in a sink full of cold water, and let it soak for 10 minutes.

Now, guess what these are...

Limes? Lemons? Limons. Sorta a mix.

And check these beauties out! I am going to try making mango pie later today.

We'll see. I think it might taste like a peace pie of sorts. I'll let you know how it turns out for sure. So in case you all get a hold of lots of mangoes in the near future!

Uncollection

2011-05-20T17:34:00.000-04:00

It's been a week! And since I am out of energy to make anything coherent, I will leave you with bullet points:

After our trip to Clinica Biblica on Monday, we ended up having to see Dr. Longworth again on Tuesday. Elliot woke up with a suspicious rash. Sure enough, it was an allergic reaction to the antibiotic. On the plus side, the benadryl made him sleeping! And he is just peachy now.
We all were back to school on Wednesday. Which was good for me, becuase I had two tests this week. One in Phonetic and today in Language. I think I did pretty terrible on both.
In an effort to shop without half of San Jose in the store, I went to Hipermas (think Meijer or Walmart) by myself yesterday afternoon. Much better idea! Almost no one was there, I was able to take some time to investigate some things and everyone was happier all around.
Sunscreen is $10 a bottle here. And that's the off brand. Ouch. I about swallowed my tongue!
After committing to 16 bars of soap, I found body wash. Too bad we will be using bars of soap for the next year and half.
Eggs have got to be cheaper somewhere around here. I paid almost $4.50 USD for two dozen. That can't be right.
We have got to find the rain cover for Noah's backpack. We are getting closer to rainy season being for real now and it's just a matter of time before we need it every day. Where in the world could it be? I really hope it's in this country.
We need to figure out where the post office is and how to mail something. I will be glad when we are further down the road and know more how these things work.
Now to take advantage of the fact that it's Friday, it's raining and the boys are both napping!

Another Adventure

2011-05-16T19:19:00.001-04:00

Ok, so it's been a weekend! Since Friday at noon we've:

Experienced at 6.0 earthquake
Dealt with a 2 year old with a fever
Went shopping
Decided we needed to take Elliot to the doctor on Monday
Made an appointment in Spanish over the phone for what we thought was Monday, only to discover at the end of the conversation that it was Wednesday.
Decided who would miss school to take Elliot to the Doctor
Took Elliot to the doctor.

Overall, the doctor's appointment went well. The doctor is a Canadian national who was born and raised here, and is in more ways that not, a Tico (Costa Rican). He has been practicing at Clinica Biblica for years, and is a great guy. He comes to ILE twice a week just to see students and their families because he has such a heart for missionaries.

But, since Elliot got sick on Friday, had a fever all weekend, complained some of ears hurting, we decided we wouldn't wait until Tuesday to see Dr. Longworth. Instead, Elliot and I called a cab and went downtown to Dr. Longworth's office at Clinica Biblica. It felt sorta weird taking Elliot to the hospital, but the whole 3rd floor is doctors' offices, and that's just where you go.

After getting through the routine paperwork, you know, name, birthday, passport number, address( San Franciso de dos rios, de la pharmacia 6 cuardras este, 70 metros sur, casa armarillo, puenta negro, seriously, that is our address) we settled in for the wait. And I was glad at that point that Dr. Longworth speaks English! He said that Elliot has a redish ear (same one that was infected before we left the states) and very red throat. He prescribed an antibiotic. And it was great because he gave us a bottle right in his office, which meant no trip to the pharmacy, which was looming over me. But interesting thing about this antibiotic...it was powder. And we got to add the water to it. And it smells like some tropical fruit, not like bubble gum or something. And it comes in a glass bottle.

And he also gave us a couple of bottles of something like advil. Also in brown glass bottles, with a syringe labeled with weight in kilos. Oh, and I learned today that milliters are the same as ccs. So Elliot's dosage is 4 ccs twice a day of antibiotic, something that's a cousin to amoxacillin. Dr. Longworth wrote the script on the inside flap of the box.

So, we've now added going to the doctor to our list of adventures in the last 3 weeks. I really think it's enough for a while!

Why Shopping Makes Me Sleepy

2011-05-15T11:33:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was my shopping day. We haven't figured out how to do this shopping thing without dragging the whole family with us. Which probably needs to change. But I have to keep reminding myself that we have only been here for two and half weeks, and we are still learning how to do life here.

Anyway, so shopping. We've figure out that fruits and veggies are cheaper and better at the local Feria (market). Like yesterday, I got pineapples for about 80 cents. 80 cents! Apples however, are much more, like $2.50 a kilo, which works out to be 2.2 pounds. Yeah, we are learning to eat more pineapples and mangoes and papayas. And that trip I can manage myself. It's on one of the routes we take to school, it's a little under half a mile one way, I can walk, I can walk home, and I can interact with the vendors with confidence.

Then there are the stores. Oh the stores. I am sure immigrants in the US feel totally overwhelmed by places like Meijer or Target or oh my goodness a mall! We're figuring things out, but man it takes forever to get stuff and then because we don't have a car, that sometimes limits what we can get.

And then there is the packaging. A lot of the things are the same. For example

Or this

Yeah, can you believe I found this? It was the only flavor available, but I am totally fine with that! And it was about the same price as at home. Anyway, this is obviously easy to recognize.

But then there are other things that come in bags. Lots of things come in bags here that we would never even think of in the US. Like say, bleach...

Or sour creamish sort of stuff called natilla

Or my favorite, which I didn't get a picture of, Milk. Yep, you can get milk in several different containers. Bags, boxes (I saw someone buy a case of boxed milk yesterday. Off a shelf. In the unrefrigerated section.) And we have even found it in the familiar plastic gallon jug.

And really, this makes some amount of sense. You buy a bottle of something first, like say bleach or whatever, and then from there on out you can buy the bagged stuff. Cuts down on the price and the waste. But Milk in a box...I don't know. You can even get milk boxes to pack in lunches, like a juice box. It even says on the boxes, no need to refrigerate until after opening. See, when things like electricity or the money for a refrigerator are in short supply this sort of thing makes sense.

Other bagged things, mustard

And mayonnaise

Notice the handy little spout built in. Oh, and I had to look long and hard for mayonnaise that didn't have lime flavor added. Maybe at some point we will try it, but right now we are trying to stock the pantry with familiar things because we got enough going on that's different.

Which brings me to some thoughts on food and culture. There is a place here called PriceMart. And if you were to walk into PriceMart you would think you were in a Cosco or Sam's club. I think I had culture shock the first time I went in there because it was so much like something in the States. Anyway. There is a lot of US products there, some stuff that we bought at home and some stuff we didn't. We have been given different opinions about getting a membership. Some people think you can't live without it, some people think you should live without it.

I was very conflicted about this. See, we don't want to be this US island, where we try to recreate our lives in the States here. We want to eat more locally (80 cent pineapples!) but at the same time, we aren't going to stop eating spaghetti and meatballs or hamburgers and home fries. And honestly, ranch dip is good to get carrots down the kids.

As I was talking to one of my world traveling friends last week, she said something that made a lot of sense. "Culture is embedded in food." And she is right. It's not just ugly Americans that eat only American food. This is why there is Chinatown, and Little Italy and ethic food stores in the States. No matter what culture you come from, you long for "your" food. And you work to get "your food".

So, we'll eat a lot more beans and rice, and pineapples and mangoes. But we will also be happy to get flavored coffee creamer and Prego spaghetti sauce from PriceMart.

So there you have it. This is all why grocery shopping makes me need a nap.

Now that was an Adventure!

2011-05-13T21:02:00.000-04:00

So, that was exciting! Tonight about quarter to 5 our time, we experienced a full on earthquake. Like 6.0 earthquake at the epicenter. Which apparently, according to the Richter scale is classified as strong. It didn't last very long. Maybe 30 seconds. But boy it was different! Our neighbors came to check on us, which was very sweet of them. Everything was fine. My little art guy feel over in the kitchen and the hanging fruit basket in the laundry room swung around, but other than that, we really were fine. By the time we realized what was happening it was over.

Being from the land that nothing ever happens in (no earthquakes, hurricanes, poisonous snakes, alligators, fire ants, etc.) this was a new experience for us. I had to look up the whole Richter scale thing. Our neighbor said that the heavy rains this time of year sometimes cause tremors. He even called this tremor season. Brings to mind that silly movie that always seems to be on cable. Anyway, not sure how much scientific fact there is to his comment, but interesting none the less.

All of this did prompt us to look up the Red Cross information about earthquakes. I have been meaning to do that, but just hadn't gotten to it yet. Turns out you stay inside the house if you are already in there. And the whole thing about the door frames being safer, nope. Apparently a large sturdy piece of furniture is a better option. Want to know more? Here's the link to the Red Cross information.

So anyway, that was the big excitement for the day. Or maybe the week!

A Forrest Update and Taxis

2011-05-11T17:51:00.000-04:00

Thank you all who prayed for Forrest this morning! He did much better today. I think it helped that he knew I was coming in to read to his class halfway through the morning. We're praying that this will continue tomorrow. We also discovered that his teacher has a bachelor's degree in Bilingual preschool education. He couldn't be in a better place!

And now on to one of the things that we never experienced in our old life, but have done servery times here. Riding in Taxis. The boys love it! Forrest asked today if we could take a taxi to school, just for the fun of it! And every time we get in, they have to sing this song. Funny how they learned it living in the north woods of Michigan where I think the closest taxi was probably four hours away. Anyway, someday, maybe I'll capture a video of them singing it, but for right now, enjoy this little video with the taxi song.

Mover Monetes

2011-05-10T18:49:00.001-04:00

Remember the whole 'getting all our junk to Costa Rica thing? One thing that I forgot to mention about that is durning the time we were checking in our luggage in the hot humidity of Miami, I was singing

"Cristo Puede mover montes
solo Dios puede salvar
mi Dios puede salvar
por siempre autor de salvación es
Jesús la muerte venció
él la muerte venció"

You might recognize it better as

"Saviour, He can move the mountains,
My God is Mighty to save,
He is Mighty to save.
Forever, Author of salvation,
He rose and conquered the grave,
Jesus conquered the grave."

It struck me that God would bring this song to mind. At first glance it seems to be just about salvation. But He spoke in a specific way to me. If He is Mighty to Save, the Author of Salvation and if He conquered the grave, He certainly could take care of getting our stuff to Costa Rica.

Today was a hard day. Forrest threw a whopper of a fit going to school. It breaks my heart! I know that once he gets there and gets going with class, he is fine, but it's a hard start. He says he misses his brother (they aren't in the same class now) and it's a whole lot of new.

Today in chapel we sang Mighty to Save in English and I was struck again. If my God can conquer the grave, move mountains and save me, He will be able to give Forrest what he needs to get through this transition. And me for that matter.

As you think of us, will you pray for us in this transition. We talked as best we could with Forrest's teacher and she said overall, he really is doing well. He isn't crying the whole morning, he isn't wetting his pants, he is playing with the other kids and when we pick him up at the end of the day he really is glad he went. But it's that initial start of the morning. And this kid never has warmed up to things quickly. Ha! Remember this?

We get to school around 7:15 our time, which would be 9:15 eastern. Would you pray for us specifically then? Thanks all!

http://lyricstranslate.com

Virtual Tour

2011-05-09T20:04:00.000-04:00

As promised, a video tour of the house. Now on to my homework...how weird is that!?

First Week Done

2011-05-06T21:39:00.000-04:00

Well, we made it through our first week of classes! Well, not really the whole week. Classes started on Wednesday, but either way we were at school during the mornings the entire week in some form or another.

The boys had a bit rougher time after they weren't in the same classroom. Which makes sense. On Wednesday Forrest cried and cried when I picked him up. He said he didn't like it that Elliot wasn't in class with him because he was his best friend. Talk about breaking a mama's heart! But the next day Katie Dog came with him to school and things have been better. Although today his teacher said he clung to his perrito (little dog) like crazy.

Noah and i aren't in the same class, which we figured would happen. He is better at speaking in Spanish and I hear it better. So he is working on more advanced grammar and I, while not at the very bottom of the pile, and working on remembering all that I have already learned over the years.

It's been good to get going with classes. After all, this is why we are here this year. We have four hours of class in the morning with an hour break halfway through. I start the day with Lengua (Language) which according to the director, they call it that because if they called it Conversation, we would think we could have a conversation and we can't! Basically we describe things and work on just talking in coherent sentences. Then it's on to Phonetica, where we learn the mechanics of speaking Spanish. Like where you tougne goes when you say a vowel, and how the sounds of the language work. Then we have a break, followed by two hours of Gramatica.

Noah's first two classes are flipped from mine and then after the break he has his Gramatica .

After class we pick up the boys, and we have been packing a lunch to eat at school. The boys have cried the days we haven't. I think they like eating outside and then just playing. Plus, with the half hour walk home (although we made it in 20 minutes today!) Elliot is falling asleep in the stroller. So it's good for us to eat before leaving campus.

Alright, so you'll need to excuse the poor videography of this video, but it gives you a good idea (in condensed form) of what our walk to school is like. Oh, and make sure to note the time of day on Noah's watch. Oh, and one more thing. It sorta ends abruptly. That's because, as you will see, Elliot falls down, needs help, and I never got back to taping. Sorry. We have a whole year here. We'll work on showing you more of campus.

Cafecito

2011-05-05T22:21:00.000-04:00

One of the great parts of Costa Rican culture is the Cafecito. A little coffee, most often in the afternoon, but really any time, with some sweet, bread, cookies, just a little something. I will embrace this full on!

Oh, and those Chikys? Fantastic cookies covered in chocolate! Wonderful dipped in mi cafe!

A Part of the Whole

Trip to get Veggies

Elliot's Adventure

Uncollection

January Newsletter

2 Weeks Down, 14 to Go

Thanks!

Where in the World?

Week in Review

And Here We Go Again

Just Stopping By

Merry Christmas

Coming to a Mailbox Near You

Quick Note

This, That and the Other

Thanksgiving

La Paz

New and Exciting!

Ugg

November Newsletter

Elliot's Birthday in Review

Three Years

Pumpkins

Details

October Newsletter

By July

Exactly!

Tip for the Tropics #1

Our Taxi Ride

Spanish to English translation

Noah's Wife

Uncollection

Noah's Got Skills

In the Mountains

Just a Few Cool Things

Uncollection

What I am Working On

Dentist Visit

Things that Make Me Smile

Noah's First Ambush in Spanish

Día de la Independencia

The House

Intermission: Sidewalk Paint

Daily Challenges

"Glad to Turn Again" a World Away

La Playa

A Trip to the City

Staff Fellowship

Where to Begin?

Just a Quick Note

And We're Off

Goodbye (Maybe)

My Bottle

!Vaya Con Dios!

Elliot

Genius!

And Now for Something Completely Different

July Newsletter

11 Thoughts

Big Change

Reed Update

Challenge Irazu

Baby Reed Update

Please Pray!

New Birthday

Alien Invasion

Bath Time

Missing Something I Haven't Had Yet

"And oh, I long to see Your face, invisible, invisible GodAll the works that You have madeAre clearly seen and plain as daySo mighty and tender"

-Invisible God, Andrew Peterson

Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them.

They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.

Revelation 21:3

"Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the

Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day"

Reflections

Excuses, Excuses

Happy Birthday Noah!

In Preparation

Laundry

"And oh, I long to see Your face, invisible, invisible God
All the works that You have made
Are clearly seen and plain as day
So mighty and tender"