Mes de Patria

Patriotic month.

On the 15th of this month is Independence Day here, as it is in most of Latin America. The blue, white and red flags and decorations are showing up everywhere. Houses have decorations. The classrooms and hallways have accordion streamers and balls, flags and the shield of Costa Rica decoration. The street vendors have replaced or added to their wares of fruit, drinks, and cellphone accessories with flags of all sizes and the traditional candle-lit paper house lanterns.

All this week, La Palabra de Vida (and every other school around the country) is having almost daily civics assemblies with dancing, recitations, national hymns, and skits. Lizzy's class is participating in the assembly next Monday with a traditional dance. We decided to buy the full outfit, for the assembly, but also to take with us as a souvenir of our time in Costa Rica. Though not traditionally in the colors of the Costa Rica flag, this skirt is essential in the traditional dance. Lizzy was so proud of her new dress that she performed her dance for me (Christy)without music in the front yard. She takes her participation in the dance very seriously and has put much practice into it.

From Lizzy dancing

Getting Ready to Go

Hi…Christy here. I’m hijacking the blog and writing a post since it has been quite a while since Josh has posted. Josh is busy these days working on applying to grad schools, while at the same time still teaching, grading, and prepping for classes at La Palabra de Vida.

I, on the other hand, have been arms deep in planning for the transition that we are going to go through in just 3 short months…selling our stuff (since we are not shipping stuff home), packing bags to send home with people who have visited us or the school, figuring out what we need to do for Sammy and Lizzy for schooling in January, and making travel plans, while homeschooling (preschool) Sammy and taking care of my increasingly mobile funny-girl Kate (whose current favorite word to say is “tickle, tickle, tickle”).

My preparations for the move have made me realize some of the things that I will miss, some that I won’t, some of the things I am looking forward to, and some of the things that I am not…so here they are:

I will miss looking out of the window up into the Escazu mountains while I am washing dishes…but I am looking forward to having a dishwasher again.

I will miss the fact that my children are becoming bilingual…but I will not miss the times when I feel like my Spanish makes me sound like a toddler.

I will miss the open windows and doors with outside air flowing through the house…but I don’t think I will miss the little critters that come with having more open houses.

I will miss the beautiful weather here, I’m not looking forward to leaving during the best weather here…and arriving just in time for a cold Chicago winter.

I will NOT miss the geckos in the house. Although people like them for eating bugs, I do not like finding random baby geckos, cleaning up gecko droppings, or hoping that I get a chance to find them before Kate does.

I will miss having a clothes line…I know, this one might seem nuts to some of you. I might be glad to get rid of it if I had to line dry everything…but we have a dryer, so I only have to line-dry when I want to do it or have time for it. Hanging cloth diapers out to dry is one of my favorite household chores.

I will miss the fact that every time family comes to visit, we get to see a cool new part of Costa Rica….but I am so very excited that, for a while after we get back, we will to be able to see family almost every day.

I will miss the friends that we have made here.

I will NOT miss the sugar ants. They don’t bug us too much, but when you see a stream of them coming into the house, you kind of wonder what the kids left somewhere that they are going after.


I’m sure that Josh could add many things to both sides of this list….but he is going to have to add his own post to do it. We’re excited and nervous to be moving on to the next stage in our lives….curious to see where God is taking us.

Back from the U.S. and gearing up for the new teaching year

The end of 2009 proved to be a bit more busy for me than I first had imagined it would be. Baby Katherine Grace Meyer was born at the end of September, wrapping up the final trimester at La Palabra and finally our trip back to the U.S. We had a great time visiting friends and family - as well as having the opportunity to take part in the exchange program which included 13 students from La Palabra de Vida being in the Chicago area for 3 weeks.

I have created a slideshow below which contains pictures of the ministry in general, with many specific shots from 2009 and January 2010. Thank you all so much for your continued prayers and support throughout 2009 - Christy and I are really excited about what 2010 will bring!

I finally got to use this thing!

So when we first moved to Costa Rica, I bought what any guy would have - a machete! Because....you never know when you might need one, right? And, five dollars is a small price to pay for a knife (sword?) the size of my leg. But, for the first time in our 1.5 years down here I got to use it for real! Yesterday we had a thunderstorm of grand proportions - including hail and everything. It blew over several banana trees near our house - so I went to town trying to get them off the electric fence. I also cleared out some banana leaves in our back yard so we can start to line dry some clothes more effectively. Nothing makes you feel more HUGE then machete-ing huge leaves like they are butter - lets be honest though - palms and banana trees don't put up much of a fight.

10 + 1 = 8

So I was sitting with my daughter at the dinner table this afternoon and next to us was one penny and one dime. She asked me something like 'What do you see daddy?' and I promptly (and proudly) answered '11'. She said no. I smiled a sly smile and said 'Okay, 9...' She said no again. I was left with nothing to say except 'you are too smart for me, what is it?' She quickly responded with '8'. Christy looked at me and smiled, wondering if I would understand. I looked at the dates and saw no eights or clever combinations - certainly not that my four year old would be able to do the math on. I just was puzzled and annoyed. Until she explained, with the help of Christy, that when the two coins were put together, side by side, they made the shape of an 8. She is absolutely right and there was nothing I could do but smile. How many times do (dare I say 'we' as adults?) just totally miss something right in front of us because we assume we already know the answer. Worse than thinking that we already know the answer, how many of us think that EVERYONE else must be wrong. I fall into that category quite often. Thank goodness I have my daughter to help ground me in my own bias and thoughts of superiority.

Shame, let down, sadness....

These are things I feel after waiting so long to update the blog. But, in the words of of my favorite Jane Austin book/movie 'Do not worry Lizzy, this too shall pass, and probably more quickly then it ought...' Its from Pride and Prejudice - I highly recommend you at least watch the six hour A&E special version if not even read the book too.

We recently sent out a prayer letter to everyone – if you did not receive it please do let me know. I’m also posting one on the blog here and will be sending one out via email today….

So much has happened since the last time I blogged! Roughly two months ago I had the opportunity to go for an over night retreat with my 7th, 8th and 9th graders. During that retreat there were several team building events – if you have ever been to a low ropes course, you have probably done something similar to what we did that weekend. However, they also had a military style obstacle course where you had to swim through mud water, walk up muddy slopes, climb rope ladders, run through tires, crawl underneath barbed wire (okay – it was just rope – but I was imagining that it was barbed wire), and other such activities. I’ve never had the opportunity to do that and it was quite a bit of fun.

To be honest, I often don’t feel *that* much older than my kids, especially the 8th and 10th graders, but one picture in particular really sealed the deal for me realizing the cold hard truth. I AM that much older then my students. If you look at the picture here, you can see that I both tower over my students (hard to do given that I am only 5’8’’) and I am also generally much more ‘thick’ then they are. In general, I’m just old. Christy has felt a bit old lately because Elizabeth has started telling her ‘Mom, your hands are rough because you are OLD!’ I’m not sure where she learned this (I certainly did not tell her to say this – even I have limits) but I guess all you can do is laugh because the kids don’t know any different

Roughly a month ago I had the chance to attend a camp with the 10th and 11th graders which was fun as well. We went to an area called Savegre which was absolutely beautiful. This camp was situated in a mountain valley right along the Savegre river so in every direction around us were mountain peaks. Also surprising to many, it was VERY cold in the evening time. I was wearing long sleves, to t-shirts, a long sleeve t-shirt, a fleece jacket and a rain jacket over it, but was still shivering during our evening meetings. There was a high ropes course there; however, it had rained so much recently that we were only able to use a smaller section of course including a ‘leap of faith’, a ‘rapture’ – where you get pulled up in the air by your team mates, and something called a hammock where you basically jump off a 40 foot balcony and swing like a monkey for a couple minutes. During this weekend, we had the president of the board of directors come and speak to the children and on the side we also did a brief study on the Biblical character Daniel.

One thing that was interesting was the ‘serenades’ at night. I guess this is more or less Costa Rican tradition. The first night everyone ‘goes to bed’ at 10pm (realize, no one is ACTUALLY going to sleep) and the girls prepare for their serenade. It starts at 11:30pm. For this year, the girls had black lights strung up everywhere and had hold up posers in bright colors that had the words to the songs that they were singing. The girls holding up the posters wore black so you could hardly see them and four girls in the front playing instruments wore white. Overall, pretty cute. The next night we ‘went to bed’ at 10:30pm – but then the guys had to get ready to serenade the girls. The must have pulled the pedals off of about 500 roses because they put rose pedals all over the floor. They also had formed some PVC in the shape of a heart, put alcohol in it, and set it on fire. When I saw this getting set up, I asked Matt ‘…this is going to melt the PVC – what are they doing….?’ (I was also thinking, why are you allowing this). Sure enough, about 10 minutes into the serenade, poisonous black smoke was billowing from this now melted blob on the ground. Matt and I were able to put it out while the boys continued ‘signing’ – if that’s what you could call it – to the girls. Overall, an experience to see, and a neat look into the culture.

More recently, Christy and I were able to spend two weeks in Miami and help Latin America Mission out with an orientation for folks interested in becoming missionaries. It was a hard time in La Palabra de Vida because Matt taught all of my classes (thanks Matt!), but a great time for us because we got to basically just act as a taxi service for the folks in orientation, answer questions, and just basically just be friends to them for 10 days. The orientation included presentations on the history of LAM, the nuts and bolts of Latin America Mission, advice on support raising and also a whole bunch of team building activities. This last thing was something new to the orientation from when Christy and I went through it in 2007, and something I think is a huge improvement to the program. It was truly a blessing for Christy and I also to be able to hear the story of every one of the candidates and why they felt called to missions work.

We just entered into the ‘spring’ break of La Palabra de Vida which means that I have the ability to rest for the next couple weeks. Before I started teaching, I thought this was a crazy amount of vacation, but now that I know how much is involved with both prepping and execution of the school work, and also emotionally with the lives of the students, I am really looking forward to the couple week break. My folks are coming into town which means the kids will have endless book reading times and outside bicycle riding times – which will be great.

I hope everyone is doing well, and I’ll try to use this break as a catapult to blogging a bit more in the future...

Things I've realized in the last couple weeks

1. Waking up at 5:00 a.m. every morning has not been as bad as I thought it would be.

2. I like to be planned out at least 3 weeks in all my classes

3. Total lack of an understanding of 'forming lines' or 'waiting your turn' still makes me annoyed

4. I also do not like having meetings that always run 6 minutes late when I only have 15 minutes inbetween to get somehere.

5. Even though #4 bugs me, I still hold my students for 30 seconds sometimes when they only have 3 minutes to get from one class to another.

6. Number 2 is not possible

7. I'm a little sad that football is over.

8. I am very happy that I just realized that we have 3 locals channels on our cable that are broadcast out of Denver.

9. We might have to travel out of country in the next 30 days if our Visa does not come through.

10. Although waking up at 5:00 am is not bad, it is still not very much fun.

11. Teaching students, much like leading teams, is difficult.

12. Sometimes the most simple assignments yield a wealth of information and context on students, their backgrounds and the struggles they are dealing with.

13. Riding a bike on the road is not nearly as terrifying if it is 5:40 in the morning

14. I miss Hulu.com

15. I'm hoping sometime to climb Mt. Pico Blanco

16. As much trouble as I have with my classes sometimes, it is still easier than teaching Lizzy and Sammy like Christy does

17. If I don't bring water to class in the morning, but the third class my mouth gets dry and I start spitting (accidently) on the folks in the first row

18. I take too long when I grade assignments

19. We still have big time 'I miss the states' moments - and probably will for the next two years

20. The second 60% I lost on Bank of America stock was much easier than the first 60% (math joke - get it?)

I've included a picture of me teaching that Matt Befus took unexpectedly. You can see how animated I get! The room I'm using too just got upgraded and we have a project unit and stereo,DVD,etc in there. Its pretty sweet. This is my 7th grade 'B' class. This year they split the 7th grade class in 2 because there was so many students, it would have been difficult to have them in one class.

British Propaganda

Sammy is into Thomas the Train in a big way. By the looks of the toy shelves back in the United States over Christmas, so are many other kids. I'm fine with it - which is a good thing based on how many new Thomas toys, books, adventure sets, etc that he received from my parents over the holidays. That aside, I do get a kick out of reading some of the older Thomas books. This is both because of the British-isms you find in there (see below) in addition to the down right silliness that are in these books. Lets take a closer look...

(Picture 1)
In this page of our book titled 'Breakfast time Thomas' written by the Reverend W. Awdry, we can see that Thomas was acting 'Cheeky' this day as he tried to pull away from the station without his engineer! (This was against the best advice of his friends Percy and Toby the Tram).

(Picture 2)
After Thomas loses control of his engine - he crashes into the stationmasters house (NOT a great way to keep your job in these tough economic times). Notice that I'm pretty sure two people and the Catog (hybrid creature) did not survive this crash. This picture also sets up the next one...

(Picture 3)
I think its great that the author really focuses on the big picture in the final page. Never mind the fact that a TRAIN ENGINE just crashed into the house - you ruined our breakfast you 'miserable engine'. The girl looks upset that her shirt got untucked and the boy looks mad that his gel did not hold his hair in place. He should come to Costa Rica because there are MANY kids with Mohawks and I never see one piece of hair move. (P.S. - I guess the station master was the only one who didn't make it).

Did you ever just want to know whats next?

I did. Multiple times in the last couple days actually. As I may (or may not) have blogged about in the past - time isn't a real big deal down here. There are some interesting implications to that when you work in a position that is VERY time dependent in a cultural where nobody cares - but thats for another day. What I'm looking for here is a simply schedule of events. Nothing big. Not a Gant chart, not workflow diagrams, not something to the second or even to the 1/2 hour sections. Actually, I wouldn't even need times - just a 'here is what we hope to cover'. I've had 4 days straight of showing up somewhere and being at the mercy of whatever just comes next. It nearly KILLS me. One of those days began with meetings at 6:15 a.m. and finally ended at 9:50 p.m. (yes, I'm serious. We just had three breaks - our bus ride to the place, 30 minutes after lunch and about 40 minutes after dinner). I joked around with the one other Gringo there that in the U.S. - I think people would have just left. However, I just would have had a list of events, I'm pretty sure I just would have been annoyed and not down rightupset.

However, as usual, two good nights of sleep and a weekend ahead of me (with the super bowl!) tends to calm the mind and soul.

P.S. The hot water heater still does not work

For those of you wanting to know - I'm still a failure as a plumber.

The Beach!

My whole family including both my brothers (and their families) and my parents came down to Costa Rica - for what might be one of the last large Meyer Family hurrahs - about a week ago. My parents rented a house in Manuel Antonio - a rainforest / beach area roughly three hours away from San Jose, Costa Rica with plenty of space so that we could enjoy the pool, the beach, good eats and time with each other. As with all things, sometimes God's plan is a little different than ours. Our trip was cut short - as in never happened - because as it turned out we needed to stay much of the time in San Jose nearer a top tier hospital (no one is in critical condition and all my family has since returned home - so no need to worry - but thanks for starting to worry). After you leave the San Jose area, the quality of care and options start going down hill fast. However, in the middle of that week My eldest brother, his wife and my family were able to go out for a few days and enjoy the property as it had already been rented.

The kids were a bit concerned at first that we may not get to go to the beach and enjoy the pool, ocean, sand, food, etc - you can see their agony in this picture. But, after we told them they were quite happy to be going - minus the three hour drive up non-U.S.A approved style roads through the moutains. Actually, I think my brother and his wife were even less excited about that drive - its pretty brutal for anyone who gets motion sick. As the driver right in front of the AC - its a little easier.

One of the more fun things we did (I think) was go to the butterfly garden. We had done this tour before with Christy's parents when they visited and it really is great. They have a wonderful selection of butterflies in the garden itself, as well as a unique exhibit that shows the different styles and stages of larva through butterflies. Really quite impressive. If you are willing to pay just a bit more, you can get a guide to walk you through not only the entire butterfly garden portion - but you also get to tour their reptile exhibit too which for given the size of this park is quite amazing. You walk on a catwalk above a grand selection of crocs, caymons, snakes, turtles, lizards and other creatures. Last time we were there Sammy was sleeping through the lizards - so I think he enjoyed it. The other plus side about this butterfly garden / park is that it is under cover of the rainforest so you don't get quite as zapped by the sun.

Although not uncommon to see out by the beach, here in San Jose we see almost no lizards so its neat to have them just outside your bedroom window getting some rays on the warm roof tiles. I especially liked these lizards better than the ones in Jaco because I'm pretty sure if this guy got angry at me - I would still be eating him for dinner instead of the other way around.

The last pictures that Justin was kind enough to take include a little beach time with Lizzy and I. Although I will never understand why kids love to get messy in sand (in their hair, their suits, their toes...everywhere) - getting in the ocean itself will always make sense to me. Although the waves are a bit intimidating people the size of Elizabeth and Sammy - they both did great in the water. We had bought little floaties (innertubes) for them to use - and as long as daddy was close and holding on - things were good. Luckily on this particular day you can see the waves were not too bad - only one capsized on Sammy and that was mostly my fault for not paying attention (needless to say he was done with the water and wanted mom after he coughed up some salt water).

I hope the new year thus far has been good for everyone. Christy and I are excited, if not intimidated to go back to our 'old' roles in the family. Starting tomorrow I'll be spending full days at La Palabra de Vida with teacher orientation and lesson planning, and Christy will be home all day with both of the kids. Lizzy is going to be home schooling with Christy starting tomorrow (pray for them!). In addition to my teaching at La Palabra, I've officially started another class at Covenant - Reformation to Modern Church History. So, if you want a survey course level detail history of that topic - feel free to drill me on it. :)

We will be in touch!

Rattle Rattle Shake Shake

As you may have heard - there was a 6.2 earthquake in Costa Rica, very near to San Jose, yesterday. Being unprepared gringos from a location in the United States with no earthquakes, I must admit that we were fairly unprepared for an earthquake of that magnitude. There have been smaller ones to date (in fact, three days ago there was a 5.0) - but those more just feel a bit odd but are not frightening. However, when the glasses and plates start dancing, my car is rolling in the driveway - and you can physically see how the house is moving different directions than the concrete walls outside are window - it is certainly a time for concern. Praise the Lord that everyone in our family is safe. Also, all of our friends here in Costa Rica at La Palabra de Vida and beyond appear to be safe and sound. However, please do pray for those families that have serious housing damage, and worse yet, lose of life in their family (I believe the death toll is up to 15 by today). I'm actually fairly concerned that the 15 is probably woefully low given that some of the smaller poor shanty towns are probably not getting either the news coverage or asistance that they need.

Unrelated to the earthquake, my parents and my brother and his wife landed (2 hours after the earthquake - I guess it is related) safe and sound. My middle brother Jon, his wife and daughter will be landing in 1 hour and we will be having a Meyer family vacation / get-together which given the current market and also hardness to find time to get together could be our last for a while. Its fun to see everyone and I'm hoping a few days at the beach will be fun time together.

I've been working on reading up on 8th grade science text books and working through lesson plans so that I will be one step closer to being able to teach at La Palabra this upcoming school season. I will be starting some teacher meetings at the end of this month and into early February and then my first foray into full time teaching begins. Yikes!

I tried the last two nights to post some updates on the hot water heater (of which their are plenty) - but both times I lost my posts. Can you believe it? As a summary, the offical store trip count was about 10 - and we came in about 50% over budget - but on the plus side it does make hot water. On the negative side - it could at any point blow up and ruin the back half of our house. More to follow....

I hope everyone is doing well - we'll be in touch.

A shop-a-holics dream

Well, I finally got around to unburying our camera out of the hotbox so I thought I would snap a few pictures around the new place. The first one here is one of the reasons why my living room is my 'new favorite room'. Actually - I told Christy it is the first room in all of the places in Costa Rica that we have stayed that has a room that I really like. Our ceiling is a bit unusual in that it is totally wood paneled. In the family room, there is huge piece of timber that is roughly 16 feet tall, that serves a major support for the roof. However, in all directions (and in all other rooms) there are vaulted ceilings with the amazing wood paneling. I can just sit out in the family room, listen to music, read and enjoy the setting.

Another exciting thing that occurred just today actually is that we bought a mid-sized on demand water heater. I'm not sure if I mentioned before, but our house does not have hot water at all (except for that water coming out of widow-makers in the showers in the two bathrooms with have). However, Christy and I figured that it would be pretty easy to buy an on demand water heater and feed some hot water to both our clothes washer and also the kitchen sink. You would not believe it - but I am excited about the water to the sink. During raining season, when you are always wet, everything is damp, and it is about 62 degrees - washing your hands in freezing cold water is a good way to both be uncomfortable and catch a death illness.

One implication of the hot water that I mentioned to christy at the hardware store is that I will have to yet again face my arch-rival...plumbing. For those of you who have never tried to adjust plumbing or even make new plumbing from something roughed in - you may not understand. However, its an art. Even when you think you have it 'all figured out' and buy all the pieces of PVC, the glue, the bends, etc....you WILL go back to the hardware store no less than 16 more times to get the right pieces. After my ominous warning - Christy and I began our adventure.

Given my healthy respect and FEAR of plumbing, I think that plumbing must be a shop-a-holics dream. You KNOW you are going to buy the wrong parts, and probably miss something, but you can combat this by buying every bend, every union, every connection possible. And they are only about 100 colones each! We are talking about 20 cents a piece. So, you can go crazy at the store. You can see a small collection of the pieces that we will likely never use because they are incorrect to the left.

As if hearing my words and exactly on que, when we got home we realized our first (or what will be many) problems. I was all excited as we pulled the unit out of the box, one side saying 'cold water' and one saying 'hot water'. So easy, what could go wrong. We bought all the PVC and connections for 3/4'' - this is what washers use. However, if you had rulers as eyes, you would be able to see what is wrong. Yeah, you guessed it (you didn't really probably) - these are 1/2''. Which means although I had hoped to start doing the plumbing tonight, it was almost silly for me to start because if you start gluing the PVC together before it is totally cut and assembled, you are bound to make a mistake unless you vocation is working on This Old House. So....as other road blocks and bumps come about on this - I'll let you know.

Totally unrelated - you have all done it before. You are packing for a trip, space is tight, however - there is something you really want. When your spouse is not looking you unzip the bag and smash something in - forcing the zippers on the bag to scream for mercy. Well - even if you haven't - you can imagine. I did that this last trip - but the sad part is that it was not even with one of my own things. Someone once gave Sammy a mini-Wisconsin helmet for Christmas. I saw it when we were home in December and what started out as an innocent 'that would look nice on my teaching desk' turned into me risking the life of one of our suitcases AND stealing (commandearing?) this helmet for my use in 2009. None the less, I am happy it is here with me in Costa Rica. If it could talk, I think it would be happy too.


One last picture to entertain you with. I've never really seen this before in a house, because Ive never seen a house that had vaulted ceilings in every single room. But in two of the rooms, the closets are just built out into the rooms. However, the ceiling is so tall that they did not continue the concrete to the top. The first week we were hear I told Christy that it would make sweet storage. She then mentioned how ugly it would be. Case closed, right? Maybe not....

Happy New Year!

As declared in the prayer letter we sent out, I'm going to do my best to try and update the blog a bit more often. TBD how this promise (for the second time actually...) shakes out.
We had a very busy December as we finished up moving (again) to our new house. We had been living on the Campus of La Palabra de Vida at the English house. It was a very convenient in that when we were teaching we could simply wake up, throw on some clothes and go teach (okay...slight more was involved) - however - it was time to move out. In mid-January there is another family coming down to help teach and they will be staying there. Also, although we enjoyed being close to the school and Matt & Lisa, we were excited to have a 'space of our own' that we could arrange just so. Luckily, we found a house that we can rent for a reasonable low rate given the normal expenses in the Belen area - and also it is only 1km away from the school (thats about 1/2 mile for all my American amigos). This means I can walk to the school every day without any hassle - giving Christy flexibility by not having to wake up and take me to work and also by having the car. The neighborhood is loaded with kids, which is exciting, if not tiring. Everyday Lizzy says, 'Can I go play with my friends?!?!?'

We moved in early December, and after what seemed like only a few days to unpack, we fly back to the United States. We spent some time in Colorado, Illinois and also Michigan. Although it would have been fun to see everyone - we quickly realized that two weeks in the states quickly gets taken up by not only time with family - but also travel. we spent close to 3.5 days of our short trip home either in car rides or planes. I think next year, if possible, we will try to take a longer trip back to the states so that we can see more of our supporters and be slightly less rushed.

We flew back into Costa Rica on New Years Eve and thankfully had no problems with customs or immigration. Actually, we might have set a record by making it through immigration, getting our bags, and going through customs. I can not imagine it took us any more than 30 minutes to do all of that - incredible! We had 8 bags crammed full of goodies that we brought back from the states - including two army duffels. Given the new airline rules on bags, we had heard that they might try to charge us more for those bags as they were outside the size limits - but our check in lady did not even mention it. God certainly was watching over us as we made our travels to the states and back.

Over yesterday and today we have been trying to finish unpacking boxes (and the stuff we brought back from the states) and make our house a perfect home. We have been hanging towel bars, mirrors, baskets, etc - trying to get everything just so. Starting next Monday I'm going to try and hit the books hard to start planning for the 2009 school year. This was something I had hoped to do on our short trip to the states but surprise surprise - I did not get to it. Also next week I need to take our car into the shop with our friend Walter because the turbo (it is a diesel, do not get too excited) is not working. Likely this will cost us around $1000 to fix - ugh. However, the little extra power is a) Nice to have around San Jose and b) almost necessary when you drive through the mountains. The last thing you want to do is stall out on one of the very steep mountain curves because you do not have enough power.

Anyway, this post is a bit dry as it is more of an update - but, and least you all know what we are up to now. I'll try to snap some pictures of our house for everyone to see what we are seeing (where we live, our beautiful view of the escazu mountain range, etc).

Thanks again everyone for your continued support and prayers as we are down here. As Christy and I venture into yet another stage of live as I full time teach and she begins to home school Elizabeth - we will need the continued support.

Blessings to all.

Tryin to make good on my promise

Well, here I am. Blogging again as promised - but I admit to being slightly dead now. Christy has been taking care of the kids in the middle of the night lately, and last night I could tell she was done. I sent her to bed at 8, and then I slept with Sammy and Elizabeth and kept them in their own room all night so Christy could sleep, peacefully, from 8pm until 5am - a rare treat. This morning she looked/sounded/felt like a new person. However, after I went nine rounds with Sammy who could probably give any kick boxer a run for his money while he sleeps - I looked and felt terrible. I can't wait to hit the sheets tonight.

I am longing for the weekend as I can just sit around, grade some students papers, do some seminary work and relax. This might be the week I buy the NFL football package again - so I can watch NFL games online. We'll see. Its 25 dollars a week (I get to watch any game I want, anytime I want, in HDTV online - if you feel like donated to the cause - let me know).

I hope everyone back in the states is doing well and can handle the ups and downs in the stock markets. I admit that its an exciting ride down here - but I'm sure its close to all consuming in the States - especially when you pile on the presidential election.

PS - How good is 'Without Remorse' by Tom Clancy and why is it not a movie?

12 years

Christy just came out and reminded me (wished me more like it) a happy 12-year anniversary. No - we have not been married that long...rather, October 25th is when we first started dating our senior year in highschool. We did not get married until just after college four + some years later. I know all you 'old timers' are rolling your eyes, but it none the less is striking to me. 12 years ago when we were both seniors in highschool, I blinked and somehow arrived in Costa Rica with two kids. The major difference in me is less hair and some lines by my eyes now. Time is certainly short and presious.

We were discussing 'genetically engineering' in our English class the other day at La Palabra (what else would you be discussing?) and the question was posed 'Should we do research that would help people live forever?' and also 'would you want to live forever?' Most answers were 'No, God should decide that. Plus, who would want to live forever? I don't...' I first I thought they were joking, now maybe I just think they haven't thought through the question - but everyone answered in a similar manner...."No, I'm totally ready to die at some point because being here forever would be no good at all." Am I totally alone on this one to think they are crazy? I KNOW that everyone dies, and I KNOW that if I believe what I say I would believe, I shouldn't worry. But hey, I like being here. However, here I find myself learning to have faith from the very students who I am supposed to be teaching not only English, but setting an example of a Godly life.

On this downer of a subject, I leave you a testimony that my dad sent me the other day. Its from the former press secretary, Tony Snow, and his thoughts on life and his battle with cancer.

I think I need to take more to heart both the sentiments of Mr. Snow and my students.


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Tony Snow Testimony
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'Blessings arrive in unexpected packages, - in my case, cancer. Those of us with potentially fatal diseases - and there are millions in America today - find ourselves in the odd position of coping with our mortality while trying to fathom God's will.

Although it would be the height of presumption to declare with confidence 'What It All Means,' Scripture provides powerful hints and consolations. The first is that we shouldn't spend too much time trying to answer the 'why' questions:
Why me?
Why must people suffer?
Why can't someone else get sick?
We can't answer such things, and the questions themselves often are designed more to express our anguish than to solicit an answer. I don't know why I have cancer, and I don't much care. It is what it is, a plain and indisputable fact. Yet even while staring into a mirror darkly, great and stunning truths began to take shape. Our maladies define a central feature of our existence:
We are fallen.
We are imperfect.
Our bodies give out.
But, despite this, - or because of it, -
God offers the possibility of salvation and grace.
We don't know how the narrative of our lives will end, but we get to choose how to use the interval between now and the moment we meet our Creator face-to-face.

Second, we need to get past the anxiety. The mere thought of dying can send adrenaline flooding through your system. A dizzy, unfocused panic seizes you. Your heart thumps; your head swims. You think of nothingness and swoon. You fear partings; you worry about the impact on family and friends. You fidget and get nowhere. To regain footing, remember that we were born not into death, but into life - and that the journey continues
after we have finished our days on this earth. We accept this on faith, but that faith is nourished by a conviction that stirs even within many non-believing hearts - an institution that the gift of life, once given, cannot be taken away. Those who have been stricken enjoy the special privilege of being able to fight with their might, main, and faith to live fully, richly, exuberantly - no matter how their days may be numbered.

Third, we can open our eyes and hearts. God relishes surprise. We want lives of simple, predictable ease, - smooth, even trails as far as the eye can see, - but God likes to go off-road. He provokes us with twists and turns. He places us in predicaments that seem to defy our endurance and comprehension - and yet don't. By His love and grace, we persevere.

The challenges that make our hearts leap and stomachs churn invariably strengthen our faith and grant measures of wisdom and joy we would not experience otherwise. 'You Have Been Called'. Picture yourself in a hospital bed. The fog of anesthesia has begun to wear away. A doctor stands at your feet, a loved one holds your hand at the side. 'It's cancer,' the healer announces.

The natural reaction is to turn to God and ask him to serve as a cosmic Santa. 'Dear God, make it all go away. Make everything simpler.' But another voice whispers: 'You have been called.' Your quandary has drawn you closer to God, closer to those you love, closer to the issues that matter, - and has dragged into insignificance the banal concerns that occupy our 'normal time.'

There's another kind of response, although usually short-lived, an inexplicable shudder of excitement as if a clarifying moment of calamity has swept away everything trivial and tiny, and placed before us the challenge of important questions. The moment you enter the Valley of the Shadow of Death, things change. You discover that Christianity is not something doughy, passive, pious, and soft. Faith may be the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. But it also draws you into a world shorn of fearful caution. The life of belief teems with thrills, boldness, danger, shocks, reversals, triumphs, and epiphanies.

Think of Paul, traipsing through the known world and contemplating trips to what must have seemed the antipodes ( Spain ), shaking the dust from his sandals, worrying not about the morrow, but only about the moment. There's nothing wilder than a life of humble virtue, - for it is through selflessness and service that God wrings from our bodies and spirits the most we ever could give, the most we ever could offer, and the most we ever could do.

Finally, we can let love change everything. When Jesus was faced with the prospect of crucifixion, he grieved not for himself, but for us. He cried for Jerusalem before entering the Holy City. From the Cross, he took on the cumulative burden of human sin and weakness, and begged for forgiveness on our behalf. We get repeated chances to learn that life is not about us, that we acquired purpose and satisfaction by sharing in God's love for others.

Sickness gets us part way there. It reminds us of our limitations and dependence. But it also gives us a chance to serve the healthy. A minister friend of mine observes that people suffering grave afflictions often acquire the faith of two people, while loved ones accept the burden of two peoples' worries and fears.

'Learning How to Live'. Most of us have watched friends as they drifted toward God's arms, not with resignation, but with peace and hope. In so doing, they have taught us not how to die, but how to live. They have emulated Christ by transmitting the power and authority of live. I sat by my best friend's bedside a few years ago as a wasting cancer took him away. He kept at his table a worn Bible and a 1928 edition of the Book of Common Prayer. A shattering grief disabled his family, many of his old friends, and at least one priest.
Here was an humble and very good guy, someone who apologized when he winced with pain because he thought it made his guest uncomfortable. He restrained his equanimity and good humor literally until his last conscious moment. 'I'm going to try to beat [this cancer],' he told me several months before he died. 'But if I don't, I'll see you on the other side.'

His gift was to remind everyone around him that even though God doesn't promise us tomorrow, he does promise us eternity - filled with life and love we cannot comprehend, - and that one can, in the throes of sickness, point the rest of us toward timeless truths that will help us weather future storms. Through such trials, God bids us to choose: Do we believe, or do we not? Will we be bold enough to love, daring enough to serve, humble enough to submit, and strong enough to acknowledge our limitations? Can we surrender our concern in things that don't matter so that we might devote our remaining days to things that do?

When our faith flags, He throws reminders in our way. Think of the prayer warriors in our midst. They change things, and those of us who have been on the receiving end of their petitions and intercessions know it.

It is hard to describe, but there are times when suddenly the hairs on the back of your neck stand up, and you feel a surge of the Spirit. Somehow you just know: Others have chosen, when talking to the Author of all creation, to lift us up, - to speak of us! This is love of a very special order. But so is the ability to sit back and appreciate the wonder of every created thing. The mere thought of death somehow makes every blessing vivid, every happiness more luminous and intense.

We may not know how our contest with sickness will end, but we have felt the ineluctable touch of God. What is man that Thou are mindful of him? We don't know much, but we know this: No matter where we are, no matter what we do, no matter how bleak or frightening our prospects, each and every one of us who believe each and every day, lies in the same safe and impregnable place, in the hollow of God's hand.


T. Snow

Oh yea, I have a blog

So, to be honest that statement above is not entirely truthly. I've REMEMBERED that I have a blog. Also, many of you have reminded me. However, in the very small amount of free time that I have I'd usually rather be relaxing, working on covenant school work, playing with my kids, exercising or just about anything but blogging. When you have so little free time, its hard to give it up doing something that can often times be mini yelling sessions at blogger while trying ot arrange pictures. Also, I honestly think that my first forray into teaching has been so frustrating (at times) that if I bring out the usual sarcastic Josh in writing blogs - it could turn into a whine session which would not be good for you guys or for me. All that aside, I think I'm ready to begin again in ernest - so I here I am tonight.

So much has happened sense the last time I wrote anything. Can you believe its been so long. I can not. The first (and probably most important) thing that many of you missed was my birthday. Fear not you late folks, I'm still excepting gifts whenever you would like to send them. I only expect 2x the gift for each month you have failed to send me anything. Although Christy and I are notoriously bad at taking pictures to 'capture the moment' I do have a few from this day. Once again, Christy put me to shame by making a better cake then I ever make her as well as buying more thoughtful gifts then I can dream up. I'm so grateful to have her as my wife - and so grateful that she is quick to forgive after I forget (I've actually only done that once) her birthday. The picture with Sammy is my new favorite with him and is now my desktop. I like the one with Elizabeth as well as its a good action shot. Lastly, in the shot with Christy and I - us being the only people we trust with our camera in our family of four - we took our own picture. The flash didn't go off and the picture is not centered - but the slight craziness of that picture reflects how our life is right now I think.

My parents were in town last week to spend some time with us. It was great as it was a week off (more or less) from La Palabra - so we had some time to just spend with them. First of all, big props as they brought down the maximum limit of luggage, packed to the brim, with stuff for us. It was a little odd that they wore the same clothes everyday, but then I had to remember that the rest of their bags were filled with stuff for us. I'd say at least 50% of this was gifts for the kids - lucky dogs. Even though this was the case - of course Elizabeth said 'Where are more gifts?' after opening the last one. They got Christy and I the new NLT study Bible additions which are great. At first I did not think they were too different then my old study Bible - but I was wrong. It is much more 'academic' in the approach of what information they give you. I love the book introductions and also how they give information on translation descrepencies and other things like that.

We spent some time here in San Jose showing them our lives at La Palabra, our old lives on the other side of town in San Francisco de Dos Rios, and just hanging out. We also spent three days out at the beach. We decided to go to Punteranus at the old Fiesta Resort. To be honest, the beach in Punteranus is really ugly. Its at the opening of a bay, so basically nothing gets washed out once it gets washed in, so there are logs, sticks, dirt, trash, etc on the beach. However, the hotel was amazing as it was huge, the food was amazing and it had about seven pools. The only major down side was the tropical storm that was passing through during our whole time there. I've included a picture of a tormenta so you could see what it looks like - the only difference between this one and what wewere experiencing is that we saw nothing but clouds, no clear skies. It literally rained for about 55 hours straight - awesome. All that aside, we had fun anyway. Lizzy and I would swim until her faced started turning blue - after which we would run upstairs and take a hot bath. The adults got some good card playing in - and the kids got to watch the new Veggie Tale and some Bob the Builder - everyone had a great time. The only downer on my trip was that I was hoping to have more time to study covenant and Spanish - but it just did not happen. Honestly, it was more my motivation then anything else, but we will blame it on that today.

Well we were driving back I got to experience many new '1sts'.

1. I had my car break down on the highway

2. I had to use the Costa Rican insurance company hotline (INS)

3. I had to try and explain, in spanish, that my car had no collant and was burning up. (I think the direct translation was 'The tank in my car for liquid that makes cold broken, car hot, FIRE!') Whatever I said they must have believed me as they sent a tow truck and a taxi.

4. I rode in a towtruck that was about the same size as the car that it was towing.

5. I helped (okay, watched) my friend replace the collant tank in my car

For your pleasure, I've attached a picture of the old tank in here so you can see what happened. You usually think there might be a small little crack in something like this, but oh no. Look at that picture and you can see the fracture running the whole length of the tank. My engine temperature went from cool to above red line in 30 seconds. The thing that I am so greatful for us that there was a 20 minute stop with traffic/construction (very common in Costa Rica) that gave me both the time and the patience to get out of my car, look for a problem and notice there was one. My friend said its good that I noticed the engine temp gauge as most people don't even look at it. He also said if I had driven on it - I would have destroyed my engine (few!)

To leave you all with today, I have a few shots of La Palabra de Vida where Christy and I are now. These shots are a bit heavy on the library because I originally took them for a work team that is coming down from my Church in Richmond, VA. However, I did include some other shots as well.

You know its time for a weekend

When you start hoping your students do bad on a pop quiz. Mind you, I do not wish anyone ill. I actually want all of these kids to do great, learn alot and succeed. However, we started reading the Diary of Anne Frank last week. Well...CORRECTION....I handed it out and they were supposed to start reading. I know they did not read the first ten pages like they were supposed to, they know they did not read the first ten pages like they were supposed to - so what is one to do? Coming from the teacher who said on the first day 'I LOVE HOMEWORK' as I have proceeded to give them homework a majority of the days - my solution was a pop quiz. Some questions were a bit more tricky, but some questions easy enough that you could almost guess the answer (e.g., what noise did they hear that scared them - answer: soldiers. One of my students guessed because there were tanks, guns, plans and soldiers. I gave him a quarter point for good guessing). Anyway, hopefully that will jolt them back into reality and allow them to study a bit more. At the end of the day, these are really smart kids - so I'm hoping that they throw all they have at this play as I think it is a great one.

I wish you all could hear this. There is a car alarm going off in the La Palabra Parking Lot - its like every $50 alarm you buy at Radio Shack back in the states. It prevents nothing - but it sure is both loud and annoying. Wait...it stopped for a second....oh wait...its back on. My ears hurt.

Anyway, did you all catch the news today? The U.S. government decided we needed another one trillion dollars in taxes and bailed out all the finance companies. I'm too tired to do a 'my analysis' of the situation. At the end of the day some variation of a saving plan was probably worth while, but when you think about the long term impacts its pretty staggering.

Anyway, hope everyone is going well. I'm going to try and listen to another Covenant seminary lecture before I get too tired to be of any use. If you get a chance, write us and tell us how you are doing.

Where do I start...

Its been so long I hardly even know where to start. We just completed our second full week of teaching (my last post was right before our first day). I would say that Christy and I are starting to 'feel' like teachers which makes our class go a little more smoothly. She has a class of mostly 9th grade girls that - if not interested in learning - are at least a bit more respectful. I on the other hand have a class of mostly 10th grade boys who....well....I guess act like 10th grade boys. But, none the less after what was a totally frustrating first day, have seen glimmers of hope on almost every one of the kid's faces based on something I said or some topic that is resonating with them. I just need to lock those mental images up in a special place and refer back to them the other 90% of the time. We have a test next Tuesday, our first one, so hopefully the kids will not do too terribly.

Also, we are going to be reading the Diary of Anne Frank - hopefully the kids will enjoy that book. I remember it being a powerful book for me when I read it. I also hope it provides them a chance to see what World War II is all about. Christy asked her 9th graders what they knew about the war today and they mentioned they had not even studied it. That blew my mind. I think I shocked my class by finding out that Costa Rica actually joined the Allies in 1941 and allowed the US to base an airfield off of the coco islands. I'm not so sure they even believed me though :)

One thing that is nice about teaching Engish instead of something like science is that you have alot more freedom to do 'what you want' in your plan. At the end of the day, the most important thing they need to do is learn how to speak/write/read/listen to English. So, we have flexibility to take a curriculum and tie it back to the Bible alot. For example, the book we are using just had a lesson plan on superstitions - so I used a verse from proverbs which says 'The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.' From there we were able to talk about and contrast the worlds view of luck versus the Biblical view - all in the name of learning English. So...thats a pretty cool thing. However, as cool as that is, I am also looking forward to teaching more science next year as I am both a) intrigued by science and b) more comfortable with it as a subject given my background.

Lizzy has been going to the Kinder here which goes from 6:45am until 11:45am - five days a week. This is officially both the earliest and the longest (time each day) that she has been going to school. She really enjoys it, and it is fun to see her starting to learn more Spanish already. However, we can already see she is beginning to wear down some. This is not surprising given that Lizzy is actually almost a full year younger or more then folks in the class (you have to be 4 at the start of the year, which is in January, Lizzy didn't turn four until last month.....we got a special exception from the school to allow her to go. So, we need to decide what to do by either implimenting more quiet times, reinstituting naps, or maybe holding her out of school 1 day every week or two to give her some quiet time.

Rainy season has been in full swing here. Its getting humid to the point that if you leave papers out in the print hold - the edges start to curl. And in the worst couple days ink even started to bleed slightly on the water logged (from humidity) paper. Also, clothes start just to absorb water just hanging in your closet. Thank goodness we have the drier because I'm not even sure how would we would be do anything.

Oh yeah, we have a new empleada and she is great. Her name is Neli and she is just amazing with the kids. The first full day after coming back from school lizzy said, 'Where is my friend?' so I guess they have hit it off. Neli likes to brush and pull up Lizzy's hair in different types of pony tails - wich is just fine with Lizzy. They also play number and letter matching games as well. Also, she likes to hold Sammy and let him help sweep the floors, make the beds and do the laundry. Sammy is a natural helper (when directed) so this works out well. Best of all for us, in the last couple days we've actually been able to start and get ahead on school work. This is wonderful too because it means we can spend a bit more time doing some of a tutoring work as well. All that said, God has provided for us and we feel very blessed.

There are so many things that I could talk about like my 'new friend' - that is what Christy likes to call him. I met a random american through a strange circumstance who is martial arts guy and works down here in Costa Rica. He had coffee the other day at a place near buy and he is both funny and down to earth. I'm hoping we can hang out some because even though it is great to know students and other Ticos, its nice to be able to continue conversations with someone from your own culture as well too. Also, my brother who had lost his job just got a job ofer - praise the Lord!

Anyway, it is getting late and I'd like to get some sleep. However, I hope everyone is doing well. Sorry for the delay in getting this posted and I'll try to be both more prompt and include a little less text a few more pictures next time.

The First Day....

Well, here we are. Tomorrow is our first day of teaching, and I don't feel like we know what in the world we are doing! Please pray for us! In all honesty, whenevery ou do anything new in life, you feel like this. We both agree that after a week or two we will be in the swing of things and back to feeling like our lives are normal. Another new thing tomorrowis that Elizabeth goes to kinder! She is so excited, and I am hoping dearly that her excitement and expectations are met. We got a 'special exception' to enroll her in the kinder because she is actually too young (about 9 months younger then the youngest person in the kinder). To pile onto that, she does not speak hardly any spanish....so....we'll see how it goes. If nothing else, she got to buy a whole bunch of school supplies with Christy - AND - got two new pairs of shoes.

So here is a question....lets say (hypothetically) you are supposed to teach a class on 'conditionals'. And, lets say just for yucks, you don't really know what conditionals are in your own language. And, for yucks, lets say you got a few questions wrong on a test on conditionals in your primary language. Is that cool? How do you proceed.... (PS - If you are like me and do not know what conditionals are in the English language, google it to learn more).

On the plus side, we have some other pretty excited stuff going on this week. We have what I think will be an AWESOME tutor starting on Tuesday. Also, I believe that sometime this week we will have an empleada starting FULL TIME to help us out. We are so excited because this is exactly what we have been praying for. Please pray that she would make instant and lasting relationships with the kids and that she would feel comfortable with us as well.

Also, please pray for Roxanna's (our old empleada) grandson as he is back in the hospital after having surgery a couple weeks ago. He had a very high fever, infections, head pain and was throwing up. I know that two days ago that had to put him on a ventilator and the situation sounds very serious. Christy and I will have to call her this week sometime to get an update.

Sorry I've been a bit thin on the posts lately - we have just been so busy. I'm hoping that in the next two weeks we will be settled into a routine again.