1915...

One thousand nine hundred and fifteen. That is how many pages (of books, not articles) I've read mostly for Covenant Seminary in the last two months (although some was for the missionary prepartion program at Wheaton Bible). Within the next 25 days that number needs to be two thousand seven hundred and seventy seven pages total. I guess for a normal person who reads a bit that is not really that much...say 30+ pages a day, but given that I went from reading very little (except presentations at work and also stuff online) - this has been a huge adjustment for me. Also, many of these books I would categorize into 'smelly old textbook' which can make them brutal to get through. The books on the list thus far are:

Introducing Christian Education*
Teaching for Reconciliation*
The Heart of Evangelism
The gospel and the New Spirituality*
Introducing Postmodernism
Evangelism in the early church
Chameleon Christianity
Let the Nations be Glad
Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
Becoming a contagious Christian

Clearly some are better than others but if I had to chose my favorite (I've read 70% so far - all but the ones starred) I would say it is 'The Heart of Evangelism'. Dr Barrs is the professor of the class (Apologetrics and Outreach) I'm taking at Covenant Seminary and I have learned a tremendous amount from him. I have to write a small reflection on many of these books so if you want some fantastic night time reading do let me know and I will send them along.

It is hard to believe that Christmas is only 7 days away. I think as a child you always spend a whole month gearing up for the big day so it takes forever to roll around. As with most things in life, the older you get the busier, and important days seem to sneak up on you. Luckily, I think our family is mostly done with Christmas shopping so the stress of the season should be at a minimum. That being said, all of us (Christy, Sammy, Elizabeth and I) have all had a little case of some sort of bug that we can not seem to shake fully. In conjuction with that, my Crohn's symptoms (for those of you that do not know - can not imagine who you would be - I have Crohn's disease) have been coming back. This is especially frustrating after I had been off any medicine for several months. Certainly a matter of prayer for the whole family getting back to a healthy, if not at least normal, state. That being said, staying up until 1:30am probably does not help so I am off to get some sleep...

A Window Into Kindness

So every other Wednesday a lady, Sophia, comes and cleans our apartment (one of the many perks of living in my in-laws condo unit!). I can not really communicate with her because she speaks Polish with only a few words of English (thank you, yes, okay, etc). Sammy is a little afraid of her and will usually get close then run away back to Christy or I. Elizabeth likes to peer in at her from the door frame and watch what she is doing. Even though we can not communicate, you can tell she is such a sweet lady. Every time she cleans Elizabeth's room she will make her bed (something we don't even do as she just has two blankets) and will arrange all of her stuffed animals in a row. I've also seen her cleaning the kids bibs if they happen to be in the sink. Those things are clearly not in her job description, but are little acts of kindness she does simply because she loves children.

I remember thinking weeks ago that Christy and I should buy her some type of gift with a nice card as small token of our appreciation beyond just the money she gets - but as usual - I totally forgot. This last week when she was cleaning, I put together a bag of oranges and grapefruits that we had sitting around (Christy's parents had bought us a big box from the rotary club) for her to take home...way to go me. Problem solved. I'm such an innovator. She said thank you very kindly. When she was leaving that day, she motioned us over and proceeded to bring out of a large bag toys for the kids, Polish candies for all of us and a very nice card. Everything was in Polish but given the Halo around two people over a manager on the card - I'm pretty sure it was for Christmas. First of all, how cool is that? Second, its such a reminder to me that you can be the nicest person in the world but if you do not move from 'nice ideas' or 'warm thoughts' to action - what good is it? I find that this is constantly true of me - I'm the king of great ideas with no action - and here is an example again with someone I hardly know and can not even talk to showing me what true actionable kindness looks like. I need to continue to work to push myself beyond thinking 'It would be great to...' and actually do it.

So this weekend my parents were in town - and I was able to put them to work as soon as they got here. My dad watched Lizzy and Sammy while my mom, Christy and I had a cookie making evening. We probably made 120+ cookies that we were planning on delivering and/or mailing to several people. One such cookie package was sent to my friend Dave down in Florida. He wrote me a note to say thank-you, and also to show me the state of package when it got there. So clearly, most normal people sending cookie tins will put them in a box - however - most normal people are not quite as lazy as I am. At the post office I saw large padded envelopes and thought, 'This is a great idea - the tins will be fine in there...' Well, if you look at the picture on the left you can see that is clearly not the case. As good as the hole by the return address and the packaging tape over the other hole in the upper right is - my favorite part is the big 'Fragile' stamped on the front. Can you imagine what would have happened if THAT wasn't there? Yikes....

Anyway, I hope the holiday shopping is not getting the best of everyone and you are enjoying the snowy (in Chicago) and cold (also in Chicago - I miss warm temperatures) days before Christmas. Make sure you keep the economy going...shop early and shop often.

Until next time...

Where did November go?

Well...its been almost a month since I last made a post and I can not believe that much time has gone by! I feel like it was just yesterday that we were trick-or-treating and now all the stores are fully decorated with Christmas trees and lights. I even found myself getting out some Christmas music to get into the spirit. From age 5 until 25 I started hearing Amy Grant Christmas songs immediately after Thanksgiving - just would not feel like December with out that music. So... lets see what all has happened since I last posted...

With me quiting my job to pursue full time ministry in Costa Rica the kids wanted to do their part to pitch in financially as much as possible. They have been working around the clock to get the big project out the door, but I think when its finally done it will be great. Actually, Christy's Nana and Papa bought the kids little faux laptop computers that are to be used to help them learn how to spell, add, sing, etc. Elizabeth already knows how to turn hers on and make it play music. Sammy quickly learned how to chew the mouse and throw the computer. Thats my boy.

The week before Thanksgiving I went with my dad and my middle brother to go deer sight seeing which was cold (9 layers of clothing cold) but fun. While I was sitting outside enjoying the 30 degree weather, 25 mile an hour winds and occasional snow, I snapped a couple pictures of the property we were on (the old family farm that my grandpa owns). The picture on the left is cool because many of the apples are still on the trees in the old orchard even though the leaves are long gone. I guess they have not had a hard enough freeze to make everything fall yet. Add a little snow and I thought it made a nice picture. The picture on the right is the looking out over the backside of the property. If you were to walk left from here there is an old beaver pond and on the right is a small swamp.

The next week our whole family spent time in Spring Lake, Michigan with my parents and my middle brother and sister-in-law for Thanksgiving. One day we were able to sneak across Michigan to Detroit and spend some time with my dad's dad, Grandpa Meyer. He recently had his 95th birthday, and still manages to get around the retirement home pretty well. The kids enjoyed being smothered with attention by him (see to the left) and also getting rides on his walker as we tooled around the building (see right). Even at 95 my grandpa's memory is still far superior to mine. I enjoyed learning more little nuggets about his life like the stories from when he grew up on the farm as a boy, his time in the service during World War II, how he became a follower of Christ as a boy (he remembers the month,day,year,place and preacher who led him to Jesus - I can not even remember what I did yesterday!) and many other things. I know that he misses my grandma who recently passed away - they were married for 63 years but knew each other their whole lives. He is so looking forward to seeing her in Glory, but I suggested that God wanted him here for a while longer. He is really a ray of light for the retirement home he is in. He befriends everyone that he meets (this place has a huge staff and everyone knows him and was so excited to see the great grand kids that he talks about all the time) and lovingly and consistently shares his faith. I pray that I can be as effective at building relationships and witnessing as he has been and still is.

After Thanksgiving we drove back to Wheaton where we plan on being until Christmas day. My brother-in-law John recently changed jobs and had some time off work so we decided to do something fun with all of our kids. My parents always deprived me of the fun/joy/germs that are chuck-e-cheese so we loaded up the car to give our kids a flavor of what we never had. It was basically everything I expected. The pizza was terrible (even the workers warned us not to buy any - but we did not listen) and the kids play area smelled like finely aged throw-up. However, those two things aside, it was great. They had a reasonably good salad bar to offset the pizza, and plenty of little kid rides that everyone enjoyed. By far the kid favorite was the small carousel ride. It had three horses which was the perfect number for us. After three hours there, John and I realized that next time we need to find a babysitter for the kids so that he and I can go back and play video games for a couple hours. If we tried to play a game for more than 30 seconds, I would look up and realize Sammy was climbing up a skee-ball machine, Lizzy was in the back of the building and Luke was walking towards the front door. Needless to say, not a great atmosphere for us focusing on video games.

I hope that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and are looking forward to some time with family for Christmas. Until next time...

Purple Puppy

We had a very fun time trick-or-treating with cousin Luke on Halloween. Luke was his favorite animal in the world - a cow. Sammy dressed up as a farmer with overalls, a flannel and a red bandanna. And Elizabeth was a very proud purple puppy. For those of you that do not know - her favorite buddy in the world besides 'Hammy' is her pink puppy - shown in the picture. Christy sewed the ears and tail in the afternoon - I think they looked great. I snapped two pictures of Elizabeth but did not have my camera to get some pictures of Sammy - I think Luke's Grandma may have gotten some of all of us so I'll see if I can post those sometime. We walked around downtown Wheaton in the block just north of Memorial Park. The number of people was amazing - and so was how much some people do up their houses. I'm not talking the occasional pumpkin or spider webbing - but full electronic moving ghosts and goblins, light shows, creating miniature haunted houses enclosed in porches - the works. Some things looked so overboard that we decided not even to take our kids there. I would think (or should I say hope) people are a little embarrassed when my three year old daughter dressed as a puppy comes to the door and they answer with their full Freddy outfit, fake blood, etc. The other funny thing I noticed was that 10% of all the dads trick or treating with their family had either 1) an ipod in their ear 2) their blackberry out responding to an email or 3) their blue tooth in their ear so they could talk on the phone. Pretty sad. My brother in law was yapping on the phone as well, but to be fair, he was talking to his sister (or so he claims...)

Our remaining weeks here in the US seem to be filling up pretty quickly. We will be spending time up in Michigan to visit my family during both Thanksgiving and Christmas. In January, I have a tentative trip planned to Phoenix early in the month - then I will be in St Louis for a week of seminary residency and our whole family will be in Denver the next week after that. Lastly, I think we are planning a trip back to Richmond in mid February to visit West End Presbyterian Church and our other friends before we fly to Miami and Costa Rica in March. Someone asked me this week if I was still planning on trying to get a part time job but given that I'm gone for one full month of the remaining four and a half it seems a little silly.

Here is an article about a town running out of water that I thought was interesting. At least this was a relatively small town...but...for those of you that are not aware - the the entire metro Atlanta area has been hovering at about a 90 day supply of water as well. Their large reserve is drying up quickly. Water shortages have always been a problem in the west and its a growing threat to the southeast that many people do not talk about - but I think could be a great investment play in the future. Its slightly less urgent than the fossil fuel shortage because we already know how to solve the water 'crisis' - simply build more treatment centers, reserves or desalination plants. So, you just need to be in on the companies that do these sorts of activities. You could guess at that, or just do an ETF that tracks these sorts of companies like PHO.

Anyway, that's about it for now. I'm having fun listening to lectures and reading books for my Apologetics and Outreach course and I'll share about that next time - that is of course assuming no more amusing notes are posted in the condo building that require my attention...

Words from a warrior

Greetings! I hope all has been well with you over this last week. This last Monday we had the opportunity to meet briefly some of my parents long time friends John & Pam Propst, a missionary couple from Africa. We had a great time talking about their efforts in Africa, their upcoming move to Chad, and sharing about our plans in Costa Rica. The thing that sticks with me most though is that after 42+ years of service in the missions field, they were both so passionate about work for the Kingdom. He was energized by the tremendous need for missionaries in both Africa, India and the Middle East. One stat that he used was in India there were 250,000 non believers to each believer - that is astounding. One of the last things he said to us as they were leaving was 'Keep the vision!' I hope that after 40 years of whatever God has me do in this life I can stay as engaged, excited and passionate.

One big piece of news is that we have nailed down when we are heading to Costa Rica! We purchased tickets last night and will be going to Miami from March 18th to March 25th to spend some time at Latin America Missions' Miami Service Office, and then we will fly out to Costa Rica on March 25th. We plan on spending about a month at La Palabra helping out with odds and ends, getting settled in (buy a car, get a license, find somewhere to live, etc) and also to get a taste of what our roles will look like when we officially join the La Palabra de Vida staff for the 2009 teaching year. After a month , we will head to the other side of San Jose, Costa Rica and begin the first of two semesters of language school. Christy and I are so excited to have this detail worked out so that we can plan towards that time. We will certainly need many prayers as we continue preparing to go.

When you get a chance, let us know how you are all doing!

Dear Reader...Please read this all the way through - the management

Tonight I thought I would share with you all something that recently caught my attention while working out in the condo unit facilities. On the third floor, the entrance to this room is right outside the elevator. You can see the picture to the left. Nothing too odd except for the little note above the door knob. What could it be? Take a look to the right...its the standard 'Please keep this closed as we have the AC running overtime in here' note. Seems fair enough to me, had I not seen this note I would have never guessed they had different thermostats between the hallway and the work out room. Okay...lets take a look inside...

When you view the inside of the workout room it is pretty standard stuff. A bike, StairMaster, Elliptical machine, universal gym and a treadmill you can not see behind me. Actually pretty nice given how small this condo building is - the stair master is in great shape and works well. Nothing unusual right? Take a closer look...on the door, above the light switch and by the thermostat. What could those things be? Lets take a look....above the light switch you see the 'no children under 18 sign' Again, this sign seems to make sense to me from a liability standpoint. You have to at least make an effort to stop children who could hurt themselves from working out in this place (although most likely this sign would not hold up in court after anyone, above 18 or not, dies while working out). Either way...the attempt is safe and I think it makes sense. However, this is where things get a little crazy....

You can see below the close up of the thermostat. The only thing I can guess here is that all these things happened in progression. First, I would think the 'DO NOT change the temperature' sign went up. People, unable to follow the instructions, necessitated the condo management to place the large plastic guard around the thermostat to let everyone know they were not kidding - they really didn't want the thermostat touched. Next, someone in an intense workout must have popped the guard open and turned the temp down - but managed to break the thermostat. That's when 'the man' started getting a little upset. You can see the tone of the note clearly get snappy in the middle picture. But wait...there is more.

This next sign to the left can be seen above the light switch. Although good intentioned, it seems flawed. If you are going to leave someone a reminder to do something before they leave the room, best to leave it next to the last thing they see before they leave said room. If someone was intentional about looking at the light switch before they left the room, don't you think they would naturally turn of the lights? Am I blowing your mind? Well, agree or not, management must have felt this was adequate, and that everyone would see it. Problem solved, right? And they were even able to do it with a friendly 'thank you' - no problems here. Uh oh...look to the right and you can see the most recent sign that was posted on the door leaving the room. So... clearly someone still forgot to turn off the lights even with the reminder above the light switch so 'the man' had to up the ante. That being said, this note kills me for so many reasons...which I will try to address here

1. This is a note with someone clearly upset while writing, but woefully unable to convey their thoughts in an adequate manner.

2. Given the lack of success in the past for leaving instructions to be followed (e.g., the thermostat) I'm surprised that 'the man' thought that THIS TIME a note with instructions will work.

3. The shear number of notes is funny in and of themselves, this is simply the icing on the cake

4. These are just lights, right? What is this really costing the condo association? 20 dollars a month I would guess for the extra time? Just bill everyone and extra dollar. Or, buy a motion sensor switch...I'd even install it for them.

5. Its awesome that the best leverage management has is not just posting this note, but declaring that it is PERMANENT

6. The ! on the end

I'm hoping to get time to type up/print out/hang up my response to the note in the next week. I'll fill you in when I do. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed that as much as I have over the last week. Onto something more serious...Christy and I are both doing well. We had a chance to catch up with my aunt, uncle and cousins out in St Charles this evening, and to make things even better, my brother and his wife were able to come as well. Seeing family is one of the great perks about being in the Wheaton area a bit before we head down to Costa Rica.

One thing that not everyone is aware of yet is that I have been accepted to Covenant Seminary to pursue a Masters in Arts in Theological Studies through a distance program. The format of the program is great: You take one class at a time and it can take no less than 2 months but no more than 4 to complete it. There are lectures to download online and lots of reading with each class. You have a mentor and are paired with other people in the class to share thoughts/ideas and generally keep you accountable. After the class is done, you sign up for the next class whenever you are ready. It usually takes between 4 and 9 years to get a degree depending on how ambitious you are. I've already registered for my first class (Apologetics and Outreach) and have started reading some of the material to get a jump start on the work. I'll keep everyone informed on how it is going.

I mentioned earlier, I finished the John Piper book 'Let The the Nations be Glad' and I thought it was great. In summary the book is broken into two sections. The first is making the case that God is supreme in missions (makes sense) and that our primary goal should be worship. So, missions isn't a final goal, worship is. Missions is happening because worship is not. He then details out how prayer is a valuable tool in furthering God's power while working in missions. Lastly, he shows that suffering (in many different ways) is a very real and powerful model to help advance the final goal of missions. The second part of the chapter clearly lays out how Hell does indeed exist, it is eternal, Christ is the only way to salvation and people do need to hear about Jesus from believers or else they will be lost. This in total makes a strong case why all Christians should be interested and actively engaged in missions efforts. Each part of the book is accompanied by passage after passage of scripture backing up each point which is helpful - and it is done in a way where a lay person like me can understand it easily. In general, its a great book and I would recommend it.

Anyway, its pretty late so I'm going to get some sleep. Hope everyone is doing well. Until next time.

Six years later, and this feels odd

I saw this in the paper last week... My whole life I grew up saying 'pop'. To me, and every other Midwesterner, Pop is to us what Coke is to Atlanta. However, after six short years out on the east cost, I'm purely a soda man now. When I saw this coupon and it made me laugh....Pop...thats so Busch league.

Sonny Acres

You know its getting close to every kids favorite holiday in October when even the grocery stores start carrying pumpkins. To get into the spirit we met Christy's cousin's family and also Courtney and Luke over at Sonny Acres. For those of you back in Richmond - this is pretty much the equivalent of Ashland Berry Farm - with a little more flare (e.g. rides, shops, etc) and a little less land (so no free hayride to go pick out your pumpkin). I had not been there since about 3rd grade, and I must say, I'm impressed how nice they can do it up for Halloween. Elizabeth was excited to get a pumpkin there - but in all my shopping savvy I told her we would buy one somewhere cheaper. Little pie pumpkins were about $2.25 a piece there, I paid $3.00 at Jewel for mine - look at me go.

We had the great idea of taking the kids on a pony ride, so a ticket was purchased for three of the kiddies (JR, Luke and Lizzy - Sammy is a little young yet and likely would have just eaten pony hair) and tried to hoist them up on the pony. Elizabeth's first tactic was to be unsure which pony to ride - then she realized she didn't want to ride any of them. Luke (in the picture to the right with Courtney) was frightened of all of them imimmediately. JR was fine until he realized he was on a pony (maybe two minutes in - before the ride started) and then wanted off. So deflated - we decided to put them on a miniature train ride that Sammy was drooling over only a couple minutes before (see to the left). Needless to say, this was the most exciting thing we did the entire afternoon - the kids loved it. The only down side was the 8 year old boy in snow boots (75 degree weather) staring down JR (1.5 years old) while in the train for no particular reason. I didn't get a picture of it - but I wished that I had - it was funny but creepy. Needless to say, I was getting ready to jump the fence to help him out if he started getting pummelled by this boy.

Yesterday morning I was watching the Senate hearing committee on Blackwater, and I was simply amazed. Mind you, not about the incident they were investigating, but rather how foolish and unproductive the whole thing was. Senators (both Republican and Democrats) were blasting this CEO with figures that were incorrect and comparisons that did not make any sense. My favorite one went something like 'Mr Prince, you bill the United states government roughly $1300 per day for your defense contractors in Iraq. Our US service man only cost $25 dollars an hour at 10 hours a day making it $250 dollars a day - how do you justify the costs?' The CEO of Blackwater and I both sat stupefied...how do you compare the hourly rate of a soldier against the fully loaded costs of a contractor that includes training, travel, insurance for the people, insurance for all their equipment that they are using, overhead, etc etc. It blows my mind that these types of questions even make it out of their mouths. I figure one of two things is happening - they know its a foolish comparison but its political positioning OR they really are that unable to see its a terrible comparison. I think both is terrifying given that these are supposed to be the leaders of the US. Anyway...

Besides that things are going well. I finished reading Let the Nations Be Glad by John Piper and am currently reading Becoming a Contagious Christian by Bill Hybels for the Wheaton Bible missionary preparation program. Both have some good thoughts and I'll give a brief comment on them next time.

We miss everyone and would love to hear how you are all doing. Until next time.

A 'field' trip

Today was an exciting day as Elizabeth decided (well, actually I did) to cash in her coupon that I gave her for her birthday. The coupon was for one trip on the train to downtown Chicago for a day of adventure and fun. For those of you that I have not talked to (or don't have trains constantly running in your area) - there is a unique phenomena that happens. Little kids love trains, and want to see as many as possible. Adults who drive become incredibly upset - or maybe thats just me - when they have to wait for the trains to pass by. My kids have taking to cheering 'Yeahhhh train!!!' when the gate goes down in front of me and I sit stewing in the car. All that said, Elizabeth loves trains so I wanted to make sure she got a nice long train ride with a fun day spent downtown where we could see large buildings and also go to a museum. We took the 8:06 to downtown and Elizabeth loved the ride. Everyone was quietly reading their books, paper or blackberry, and the only thing you could hear every 10 seconds was 'LOOK DAD, LOOK AT THAT PARK! LOOK AT THAT! THERE IS ANOTHER TRAIN...OH MY GOODNESS...' and I had to constantly remind her to use her library voice inside the train. We made it downtown without much hassle, and I quickly realized that we were not in Union Station like I thought we were going to - which means I was lost. As I was loading Elizabeth up a business man came over to me and said 'Excuse me, you look lost. Can I help point you in the right direction?' With all the confidence I could muster, I let him know I was helping my daughter into our stroller and was about ready to go exactly where I knew I was going. After 28 years of life, nothing changes....

ALOT of walking, map usage, retracing of steps and a taxi ride later, we made it to safely to the museum. Elizabeth was quite impressed with the size of the museum, I was more impressed with how ugly Soldier Field is now after the renovations (you can see it in the background of this picture...just click the picture to make it bigger). Soldier Field is right across the from the field museum (get the joke in the title now?) in case you think I would drag my daughter all the way to the stadium just to see it. I've been there before - and lets be honest, the bears are terrible.

In case you are not aware, the Field museum is Chicago's natural history museum - and it really is great. I snapped a picture with Lizzy next to the T-Rex in the main lobby. When I asked her if she knew what it was, she had no idea. I'm not sure if we've not told her what a dinosaur is, or if she has only ever seen pictures of them with skin on. Either way we've got some work to do. We also goofed around and took a whole bunch of pictures of ourselves - one of which turned out half way decent (see above).

After three exhibits and lunch, she was pretty sure she wanted to go back on the train and go home....but I made her come to the Egypt exhibit because it is my favorite. Even though she was tired, she did muster the strength to try and pull the stone shown in the picture. Little did she know it weighs 6000 lbs - and I also believe it to be bolted and caulked to the ground. Even so, she was a little disappointed, but we pushed on home after that. We caught a bus over to state street and I decided to walk back to the train. Elizabeth fell asleep almost immediately, and doubled over (sleeping) in this little umbrella stroller we had. I realized that if I jogged, I could catch the 2:40 train back home. It must have been quite the site to see some bald headed man jogging through the streets in sandals and jeans with what appeared to be a child doubled over in distress in the tiny stroller. Fear not, no children were injured in the making of this story. We made it to the station and caught the train. While trying to transfer Elizabeth to the seat, she woke up. The first thing she said was, 'Why are we on the train - I want to be in the museum!' Oh well, you can never make them all the way happy. At the end of the day, I feel good because as Lizzy was leading prayer at dinner tonight she said, 'Dear Jesus, thanks for a wonderful day on the choo-choo and at the museum...'

Besides this exciting day to Chicago, we also had a very nice weekend with my immediate family. Both my brothers, their wives, and Christy and I were able to make it up to Michigan to hang out with them and my folks. Even though it was a little chilly I let Sam and Lizzy play in the sand on the beach. Also, my middle brother and I did a couple mile walk from downtown Grand Haven out to the light house. Here is a picture of the Lizzy and I facing out towards Lake Michigan. The waves were probably 8 to 10 feet near the pier, which makes me happy I was not surfing with the three other crazy people we saw out there.

With Elizabeth up in Michigan with my parents part of last week, I was able to get alot of reading done. I read Death by Suburb for our small group at church. It was a really easy read and had several good ideas. The thing that got me was less his stressing that the suburb life could seriously impact your Christian walk - that I get and agree; but rather, your reaction to dealing with the threat. He mentions that some people in response to this will do a stint in missions or enroll in a seminary....those are both things that I'm doing! Even back in January while at our LAM orientation, I did raise the question, 'Christy, should we be staying in the states instead of going to Costa Rica? There is alot of need here too, if we stayed here and focused on missions...' Luckily (well, actually not by luck), I don't second guess our decision. I feel very comfortable with God's call in our lives to go to Costa Rica and serve at La Palabra after much prayer - but - the book was thoughtful enough to jog my memory of that struggle. I also liked how he stressed quietness, and to a degree, simplicity in life. One of the books that Christy and I will be reading is the Freedom of Simplicity by Richard J. Foster which I think will be a great one on that topic with alot more meat.

Anyway, its getting late, and I've smelled really bad since dripping in sweat after running in Chicago. This was simply made worse by the 1.5 hours of racquetball I played right when I got home. I'm going to clean up and hit the sheets.

Until next time...

Days at the park...

I've scoured every block within a 1-mile radius of our place here in Wheaton, and there must be over 15+ available parks for the kids to use. Okay...okay...I grew up here so I already knew where they all were - but I have checked them out and taken the kids to many of them. It has become one of the more favorite past times of Elizabeth, Sammy and I. We have 2 or 3 that our favorites and I snapped a couple pictures so you all could see some updates of the kids. The park I snapped all the pictures at is made specifically for 2-5 year olds which is great. Elizabeth can safely (this is key) play on every object there which allows me to focus about half my time on Sammy so he doesn't feel left out.

Underneath the slide shown in the picture above there is a little table with benches to sit at. Elizabeth thinks this is a dinner table and always brings me sand food and wood chip drinks to taste - yummy. For those of you that enjoy my own personal suffering, I've hit my head near bleeding multiple times on the walk way above this table. This little bench also seems to be where all the kids like to congregate in the playground, even Sammy likes it there (e.g. silly smile to the right).

Connecting two separate pieces of the equipment are this mesh metal tube that the kids like to climb through. Elizabeth asked me to try - so I foolishly did. I'm not sure if I am just a) Old or b) much heavier than she is - but those little strips of metal went digging into my surgically repaired knee. Two things followed - immense pain lasting 1 minute and then numbness for several more. Needless to say, dad will no longer be going through the tunnel. Instead, I just walk on top of it which freaks Elizabeth out and no doubt provides Sam with aspirations to do something similar which will simply worry me.

We miss everyone in Richmond but are enjoying getting reconnected in Wheaton. I've signed on to be a youth leader for a small group of guys in Student Body (Wheaton Bible Church's high school ministry). Tonight is the first night that I'll be going to the small group so pray that the other leader, the boys and I will be able to break down barriers and build some new friendships. In a situation like this, its easy to have huge visions of all the great talks you will have and spiritual growth you will be able to impart on the youth - but as a book I've been reading reminds me - the problem with that is that it is about YOU. Mind you, it is good to try and have deep talks and help people grow...but...this core group might grow by 300% or it might fade away. It is important for me not to get overly excited or disappointed by either of those - rather - to know that God has a plan for me and the boys, and to lean on him for help as we proceed through the year.

The Great Adventure

The adventure that I speak of is Elizabeth's first extended trip away from home and mom and dad - with Grandma and Grandpa! My parents are coming in tomorrow and will be leaving Wed morning with Elizabeth to spend a couple days up in Michigan together. I've heard of all sorts of fun events planned from the zoo to parks to museums and even making strawberry ice cream together. She might have so much fun that she decides never to come back! Although I am sure Christy and I will miss her, we'll enjoy a little down time with only Sammy to care for. We will see her soon enough on Friday when we had to Michigan to meet up with the entire Meyer Clan to celebrate my birthday on Saturday (feel free to send cash, gifts and other goodies my way).

Its been a while since I posted my thoughts on random articles that I see online - and I have a whopper to view today (not really). It has to do with something only slightly less cool than the pigeon hugging monkey I posted about last time. Today it has to do with missile silo homes. Maybe its just a guy thing, but missile silo homes and also the idea of purchasing an island was a topic of conversation and online searching at least once every six months while I was at Capital One. For all you rookies who have never dreamed so big, I've included a link to help understand the greatness that could be owning a house over an old Titan or Atlas missile silo and/or your own private island get-a-way. Christy and I were considering a private island in Costa Rica - but after examining our bank account we learned we were a few million short. To be honest though, the drive would have been a bear from the ocean to San Jose.

Another article that caught my eye was on the UAW labor contract disputes with GM. These disputes, along with similar ones that are always seen in the airline industry, are amazing to me. I guess I can understand the union position (e.g., you promised us this, now you need to pay) but at some level they need to understand they are running the company into the ground, and when that happens - no one wins. No retirement benefits, no job security, no nothing. Clearly we are a ways off from this; however, it has just always seemed like a dangerous game of chicken. They might actually get more now than they will when the company is very weak and can't afford to concede anything.

Until next time...

Settling into Wheaton

Well, Christy and I have been in Wheaton together for two weeks now and I must say it is better being together than being apart. My last two weeks in Richmond were fun as I got to say goodbye to all my friends and close out work at Capital One, but I did miss the family tremendously. Christy has started her job at Wheaton College as an adjunct professor and appears to be settling in nicely. I have given her sound advice on how to fail students properly but she does not seem to be listening - which is probably best for everyone. I've been mainly a stay at home daddy which is a big adjustment for me, but a wonderful (probably once in a life time) opportunity. The kids and I spend alot of time going to parks, museums, the public library, shopping for milk and other activities. I've also been able to try my hand at making several meals including Pad Thai, Red Curry Chicken, Spanish Rice and other meals. I even went shopping at the oriental grocery store for thai egg plants - I got some strange looks and had to search for someone to speak English, but I got the egg plants and they tasted great.

Christy and I had our first get together at the condo today and 7 different folks came. We had great fellowship together and everyone was so supportive of the move to Costa Rica. We've also enjoyed beginning to get plugged into Wheaton Bible Church. We have been going to service and also gotten plugged into a community group there. I'm also looking forward to being in the men's bible study on Thursday mornings and also involved in other capacities (not having a job has the perks of having more time to serve in the body).

Elizabeth and Sammy are doing well. Elizabeth's most common phrases (besides 'Milk Please' and 'Lets go see Nanna and Pappa') is 'Dad, lets go to the park' or 'Dad, I just have to get out of the house.' Sammy has started calling Christy and I 'Hey-dad' and 'Hey-mom' because Elizabeth will say 'Hey Dad....hey dad....hey dad....hey dad....hey dad...' until I answer her. Awesome.

Cristy was able to update many pictures of the kids (click on the link in the upper right) - I highly recommend everyone go take a look. My favorite is with all the cousins plus a few second cousin piled on the couch. I was in Richmond when that picture was taken, and with that many kids under the age of 5 in one area, I am kinda happy about it.

Before I go, I'll leave everyone with this picture. It is a picture of a monkey hugging a bird. I saw this on drudgereport and it is the cutest picture I have ever seen (minus any of my kids of course). Basically, this stray monkey has buddied up with this pigeon, and they are friends for life. Does it get any better than this?

Internet works!

Well, its been a while but I have an excuse...It took us a little longer to get the internet up running than we thought it would. I am happy to say that Christy and I have medium speed (I won't call it high speed because we went on the cheap and got the 700K download speed for 10 dollars a month instead of worrying about getting maximum speed for 40 a month) up and running. It is fast enough to surf the web, write emails, and stream music without any hassle at all. Hurray!

I'll be better about posting here and emailing everyone. Hope all is going well and we'll be in touch soon.

I caught a fish THIS big

Okay...so maybe it was a little smaller than I remember it being. I guess the digital age is not all its cracked up to be - it keeps us guys honest about our stories.

It has been a little over a week since I came back down to Richmond to finish out work and I am really looking forward to getting back and seeing the family. Things have been rough for Christy as everyone is sick (including her). Certainly something to pray for as Elizabeth has a 102 fever and Sammy has an ear infection. I guess when it rains it pours. All this and Christy has to start teaching her class mid next week and the storms in Chicago knocked out power for the next couple days.

I've been trying to keep busy around here with what little work there is left to do, exercise at the YMCA and lots of movies. I was also able to send out our update letter which I am hoping most of you have received by now. The most exciting thing I did by far this week was go fishing (see picture above) with two friends from church. My last few days are filling up with activities at church and meals with friends. It is hard to believe but our six year time is finally coming to a close here in Richmond.

Its been good Richmond.....

I'm off to play some bored (har-de-har) games with friends now. I'll try to get another post in before I head home.

What to do....What to do...

Between all the traveling, the move and the fact that we do not have internet at our place yet it is has been hard to get the blog updated. However, one thing I did not have before (time) - I seem to have an over abundance of now. I am down in Richmond finishing out my last two weeks of work - but Christy and the kids are up in Wheaton continuing to settle in there. Although a one or two hour break can be so nice when you are with the kids all day, my first three days of the fourteen day trip has left me really missing the Elizabeth and Sam. I managed to complete all my errands that I needed to do down here on Thursday and Friday, and I was able to spend some time today addressing, stamping and stuffing our next prayer letter. Keep on the look out as they will be in the mail soon!

We've settled in nicely to the new place in Wheaton. In between work I tried to spend time with the kids (cosley animal farm, children's museum, runs in the jogging stroller, etc) so that Christy could start preparing for her class. She starts teaching at the end of the month and is nervously excited - so hopefully everything will go off without a hitch on the first day.

A couple new posts of the kids below. The first is Elizabeth being cute while laying on the couch - the other is Sam-I-Am with a silly grin. More than likely he is thinking how much fun it would be to take the camera and chew on it. (I guess better that than Elizabeth's leg).

To sign off tonight, a quick note from devotions that I liked from yesterday. (Proverbs 4:25-27) 'May I let my eyes look straight ahead and fix my gaze straight ahead of me. May I ponder the path of my feet so that all my ways will be established. May I not turn to the right or to the left but keep my foot from evil.' I wish I could say that all actions I take in my life are the direct result of me focusing on Christ, but clearly that is not true. Clearly a verse to pray over and ask for help. Until next time...

We've moved!

This will be a short post, but I wanted to let every one know that we have officially moved. We packed up the truck on Monday, drove it up to Chicago Tuesday and unpacked on Wednesday (thanks to everyone that helped!) - we are now taking some time to relax in Michigan at my parents place. Our plan is to go back to Wheaton - and our large mess - in a couple days after some time with family and with Matt and Lisa Befus (the missionaries we will be working with in Costa Rica) who are driving up to Michigan on Monday.

We're looking forward to getting settled into our new place in Wheaton. If you would like to contact us you can use:

111 North Wheaton Unit #407
Wheaton, IL 60187

Can you microwave a plastic plate?

Now that we are less than 8 days away from driving the moving truck up to Wheaton, we find ourselves asking questions like that. We started packing up the house over five weeks ago - however - we promised we would not pack up the essentials (e.g., dishes, silverware, etc) until we go to t-minus 2 weeks. Now that most of our clothes, dishes, and many other common goods are in boxes, needless to say we are quite happy we waited until 2 weeks to pack them all up. When Lizzy asks for oatmeal and we are not sure how we will heat up the water - things are rough.

My (Josh) folks will be coming down on Friday which will be a huge blessing. We will be able to quickly finish up packing the house and do other odds and ends (clean, repair nail holes, etc). If we get everything finished early, I may try to get the moving truck a day early so my dad and I can get started. Christy and my mom will be driving up to Michigan with the kids probably on Wed morning. Another exciting event that happens on Friday is that Christy and I will go sign the paper work for the sale of the house. Although we do not close until the 27th, we are finishing up the documents early because we will be out of town. I guess its becoming real now!

God continues to amaze us with His faithfulness as we are support raising. We have a prayer team that spans from the east to west coast, and hits no less than 8 states along the way. We are at about 55% funding for our trip - which has come very quickly. We are looking forward to continuing our support raising up in the Chicago area and will hopefully reconnect with many old friends during the process.

Okay...I promise next time I will have some pictures of the kids. We had Sammy's birthday party two days ago (that kid can eat a cupcake like no one's business!) but I can't upload the pictures because the camera chord is packed. Even with no pictures, I still have something to offer. My investing tip of the day! And it is....*drumroll*...international stocks. I love international stocks for two major reasons. 1. Because if you are like me, you think the US economy is slowly peaking, and that to get larger returns (all be it with more risk) you have to go towards some of the emerging markets. I personally love the Vanguard ETFs as a no thinking way to invest in both European and Emerging Markets. The ETFs mean I can trade them easily like stocks and the management fees on the funds are quite low. However, another important reason is 2. It is a natural way to protect against the slide of the dollar which has been happening for some time (and will likely continue in the future). See here for one article with some economists that think the green back will go no where but down. Also, for those of you that follow, the subprime mortgage market has hit some hedge funds in the US pretty hard, which has driven the dollar down even further. Now clearly the US stock market and economy is still a money making machine so a majority of assets should still be there...though I personally have been happy to have 30+% of my assets outside as they have seen great returns. Clearly investment horizon should also dictate your international weighting. Given that mine is long, I like the high percentage.

Until next time....

Happy July!

Isn't it hard to believe that it is already the month of July? Where does the time go? I feel like it was just yesterday that we were celebrating Christmas, now we are half way through the year. I'm certain that we will blink, and it will be time to start school in August and then buy gifts again for Christmas. Let the cycle repeat! Which reminds me...

One of the books I'm reading is on the Apostle Paul written by Chuck Swindoll. I've always thought it would be fun to get to know all of the apostles a little better - so I've been trying to make time to do it. In the book, Swindoll mentions that it is important to 'not allow a lot of activity to dull your sensitivity.' The context in the book is specifically for those involved in ministry, and making sure being too busy in that ministry does not impeed your ability to hear God speak - but it can certainly be used in a more broad context. Anything in our lives can do this - spending time with family, working, getting things done on the house,vacation planning, etc. His simple advice is 'Be sure you're carving out regular time to be with the Lord, keeping an open mind, meditating on His Word, remaining devoted to prayer, and taking sufficient time to relax. Only then can you hear and discern His still, small voice...'

So clearly time will slow down for no man. Also, I would venture a guess that even if we do take Swindoll's advice and carve out time to focus on the Lord - time will still feel like its going fast. However, how great will it be when we think back at the last six months and instead of saying 'Where did that time go? I wish I would have...' we can take comfort knowing that we were in sync with God's will for our life over the last six months - and we can look forward to what he has in store for the next six.

Anyway...Christy and I have a little less than four weeks before we head to Wheaton. We are in the home stretch for the house (all home inspection addendum items are fixed on the house, we are getting the Virginia required termite inspection today, we have about 60 packed boxes in the dining room, etc) and are getting excited for the move. If you talk to Elizabeth, she'll probably tell you that she is looking forward to seeing Nana and Papa, but AFTER Costa Rica. So she clearly understands that changes are coming - the order is a little wrong though :) I personally think she would be most excited if she knew there were long hallways that she can ride her tricycle down at the condo unit in Wheaton. She is a terror on that thing; Sammy has the tire marks on his hands and legs to prove it.

Okay...my quick investing tip for the day. I personally love to invest in commodities or companies that have fundamental shortages in the long-term horizon (you need to be willing to live with large swings in price before that time so it is important to sit tight). I think a great example of this is oil which maybe I'll touch on another time. However, today we're talking about fiber optics...and I think this article does a good job of showing that. There was alot of fiber layed before the Internet boom - so when the demand starting increasing because of things like surfing online and emails - there was still a glut of supply and some of the companies suffered. However, now that larger bandwidth items are transmitting across the net there is a huge demand increase. The article mentions google and HDTV streams for phones, but I think there are tons more examples available. Online video gaming, streaming movies to consumers computers like Netflix has started, streaming TV shows like the IPOD allows you to do, technology like slingbox, etc. We are in the earlier adopter stage for some of these things and I'd venture a guess that demand will continue to go up exponentially. So, fiber optics is probably still a safe bet - however - I'm not so sure I'd invest in one particular company because you never know who will be the last company standing. Rather some index fund that tracks a broader set of stocks and technology would be a great idea.

Anyway, its time to get ready for work. Until next time...

Change in ETA

We've just recently changed our plans for moving back to Chicago! We had originally planned on moving our stuff up to Chicago around July 18th, and coming back down to Richmond until mid August, at which time Christy would move up to Chicago for good. Instead, we will be moving to Chicago the following week (July 26th) and will stay up there permanently. I plan to take the remaining part of my vacation during the first week of August - then fly down to Richmond August 15th to finish out my last two weeks of work, and finally drive our other car up to Wheaton. This change will prevent us from having to stay in an extended stay hotel for three weeks and also keep the kids from traveling back and fourth twice. So I guess everyone has one more week to rest up their back before they move all of our stuff :)

The family is doing well this week. Sammy has gone from taking a step or two, to walking everywhere. It is amazing how quickly young children take a totally new concept and make it business as usual. Certainly something for *old folks* like me to be envious of. Elizabeth continues to evolve as well. She entered a stage in life where she can not obey me, but be clever about it. I dropped a big glass milk jug in the kitchen which shattered. I told her to get in the living room so she would not get cut or track milk everywhere as I cleaned it up. I look over to see her with one toe in the family room, but the rest of her stretched out as far as she could into the kitchen. When I told her again to go into the family room, she said, 'I'm already in the family room daddy....what do you mean?' I think we'll need an extra dose of patience as we enter this stage of toddler-dom.

Well browsing the news this morning, I saw this article about Venezuela. When people started rioting in Venezuela after Chavez took over the airwaves a couple weeks ago, I remember thinking that perhaps his people had finally reached breaking point with the dictator. After dwindling oil profits on poorly thought through & managed social welfare programs (and on himself), and now taking away their freedom of information through airwaves - people were ready for a change. However, reading the above article reminds me that taking away power from a dictator is not always easy. Not only does buying more military give Chavez a chance to rally his population against the US (I'm bad-but looking how bad THEY are....) but it gives him greater control over his people. The article pitches Chavez as a threat against the US, but honestly, what will 53 helicopters, 24 fighters and 100,000 guns do against the US? That would be like a mosquito going after a tank. However, his small military can help him suppress people in or near his country that have differing view points. All this said, it is a constant reminder that in Latin America, things are not always stable. Thankfully Costa Rica has a neutral and fairly stable government; however, the entire region generally dislikes the US (and sometimes rightfully so given our self focused policies) and can change in a hurry.

Anyway....investing tip for this week is Apple. Four years ago my brother-in-law told me that Apple was 'money'. I laughed at him and told him the washed up computer company was nothing. Looking back at my stock returns, maybe (just maybe) I would have been a little better off having a little fruit in my portfolio. This week they are releasing the new i-phone which folks are excited about. I find myself again thinking 'this will never catch on, and who would want to pay 400 dollars for this..' However, I know they will. Don't pay any attention to the analysts who are worried about the bugs that need to be worked out. People will buy this phone, and buy it again if they have to get an updated version. And if I'm smart this time, maybe I'll buy a little Apple.

Until next time...

Happy Monday!

I must admit, now that I am part time at work, early in the week is not really all that bad anymore. The long three day weekends combined with less stressful items on my to do list at work have taken alot of pressure off me. This is probably good as I'm sure the move to Wheaton as well as living out of a hotel for three or more weeks in Richmond could increase the tension quotient at our house....



We have some new pictures to share. This is outside of Christy's Nana and Papa's place in Baltimore. The kids were outside playing, and quite happy. I'm sure that is because one minute after this picture was snapped, I drove up after being away in Detroit for 5 days (not because nana bought them new balls to play with).


Here is another picture that was drawn by Elizabeth last weekend while at my office. It is a puppy, apparently with a necklace or a bow tie. Also, the little red things that look like flames are not the tail; rather, they are the back legs (more than two? I don't know...) All kidding aside, it is the best picture she has drawn to date, and certainly worth sharing with the world.


My one investing tip for the day.... If you've been dying to know, which HD format is going to win in DVDs, it may have been decided yesterday (see: http://www.spokesmanreview.com/breaking/story.asp?ID=10363) The video rental business was a big driver in sorting out the Beta Max versus VHS tape format back in the 80s...so we will see if this has similiar implications. Untill next time...

Less than 3 months

It is hard to believe that we have less than three months before we move back to Chicago! We have continued to make tactical progress towards moving, including having our house officially sold (to close late July after we fix one or two items), reserving the moving truck, starting to pack up our belonging in boxes, looking into a one month rental to cover from July to August, etc. If you just LOVE moving furniture, let me know and I'll recruit you for the moving truck load in July. I've joked with my friends at work that I can probably get 20 something guys from Cap One over to the house easy enough - but a) They would probably demolish my furniture while carrying it and b) none of us young whipper snappers would know how to pack the moving truck. It is common knowledge that you don't attain packing greatness until you get past 45 (my two packing mentors are currently my father and John Scott). Christy will be heading back around August 20th to prepare to teach her class at Wheaton College and I will follow sometime in early September (my last day at Capital One is September 1st and I will probably need a day or two to close things out here).

God has continued to show provision and love to our family as we have met with others about our trip including folks coming to our home, meeting people at Church, and general conversations at work and beyond. We have had so many encouraging conversations with folks in the Richmond area and have started making some progress towards financial support, and more importantly, a prayer team. I was especially encouraged by West End Presbyterian Church's missions team commitment to consistently pray for our family and the ministry in Costa Rica. I know that we will have hiccups along the way and it will be so important to have that support. We have more information sessions at our house scheduled and will be speaking in a couple weeks during the service at WEPC, so if you would like more information, just shoot me a note and I can provide more details on times.

Now...onto some important details. My question of the day is, if I have 26' moving truck I'm driving from Richmond to Chicago, do I have to stop at truck moving stations? The consensus among friends is about 80% no and 20% yes. I'm thinking I can just stop at the first weigh station and ask someone there...this will satisfy two things for me: 1) I'll know if I need to stop the rest of trip and 2) I can tell everyone that I've been to a weigh station before (how many people can say that?!?!).

Elizabeth and Sammy continue to get big so fast. Sammy can stand on his own now and has started taking a step or two on his own. However, he much prefers to crawl as quickly as possible towards Lizzy and bite her feet. Thats right, he's is a biter. Luckily he only has a few teeth AND Elizabeth has kept a reasonably cool head and hasn't clubbed him too hard yet (although I've joked with Christy that if she is going to do it now is the time, because in a couple years he will probably be bigger than her). This new development of the kids going after each other makes things more *interesting* (aka - tiring and frustrating) at home for Christy, so if you see her dragging, give her a hug and tell the kids to obey mama.

Anyway...thats the update for now. I'll try to be better about posting a little more often. Also, I'll commit to getting a few more pictures up on the site of the kids. Until next time...

Up down up down

It has been a crazy couple weeks for the family. I found out two weeks ago that my grandma was very ill so I left work and drove up to Michigan on 5/8 and spent through Saturday there visiting with her and my grandpa. I drove down to Baltimore and met Christy, the kids, her parents, Nana, papa, aunt, uncle and cousins for mothers day brunch. We drove home on Sunday 5/13, but I got the call on Monday that my grandma had passed away. So, I flew back up to Michigan on Thursday 5/17 and was there through Saturday. It was fun to have the entire family together which had not happened for 15 or more years. Although the funeral was sad - we know grandma was a beleiver and is sitting with Jesus today. This certainly takes much of the sting of death away. After being gone for so long, when I got home and Saturday it was nice to spend some time with Christy and the kids.

We are making initial progress with our fundraising. We've met with several close friends and family over the last two weeks. Also, we are getting ready to open our house for folks to come over and hear how they might be able to partner with us and our mission. Lastly, we have filled out our application to be supported by West End Presbyterian Church. We still have so much to do, but it is nice to be making some strides in the right direction.

We're looking forward to meeting with many of you over the coming months....

SOLD!

Christy and I have been quite busy over the past couple weeks fixing up odds and ends around the house and getting it ready to list on the market (thanks to my folks who spent over a week down here with that activity). Much like the rest of the US, the market in Richmond is a little soft so we were not sure how long it would take to sell. We listed it last Wed and in three days we had 10 showings and 3 contracts - praise the Lord! The inspection and closing still need to happen, but getting the house sold should help provide peace of mind and some additional spare time as we begin to enter into support raising. Another change starting this week, I am officially part time at Capital One, giving me one day back a week to focus on support raising.

One last piece of good news is that Christy has been tentatively offered an adjunct teaching position for the fall semester at Wheaton College. Teaching at the college level is something that Christy has expressed interest in - and - given that we are planning on moving back to Wheaton starting in September anyway, this works out quite well. It will give her a chance to see if she enjoys teaching, and the timing will hopefully work out well with our missions time lines (e.g., going to Costa Rica sometime in early 2008).

Please be praying for us as we begin to move forward with support raising. It is unfamiliar territory and something that we will certainly need to continually look to God for guidance on.

We Have Been Accepted!

Its official: We have been appointed as missionaries with Latin America Mission (LAM)! Our hope is to leave for language school in San Jose, Costa Rica by early 2008. After we have learned Spanish, we will head to the other side of San Jose to serve at Escuela La Palabra de Vida (Word of Life School). I will be teaching English at the PK-11 school while Christy will be continuing the tall order of raising two young children. We also expect to be involved in both school and church ministries.