We made it!
Hola Familia y Amigos! As we write on our 7th day in Costa Rica, we have had an exciting time already. Some good, some challenging, but we have an overwhelming confidence of God’s goodness in it all.
Our Arrival:
We were picked up by our friends holding a welcome posterboard! They took us to lunch, and then to a special place to get snow cones and watch the planes fly overhead. This is a place Randall’s mother brought him as a child. It felt special to us for him to share this with us. Randall is the National Director here. We began moving into our house the very next day after our arrival at 6 a.m.! We hear this is impossible here in Costa Rica, but with the World Cup playing at 10 a.m., we think the movers were in a hurry to be done in time for the game. The spirit in the streets is wonderful: Red shirts everywhere, flags and excitement for the Costa Rica team.
New Things for us:
As some know, the house we moved into is on a farm, and has sat empty for months. We were greeted with many large spiders, bugs and mice upon our arrival. Yesterday is the first day we have not battled many critters, as we are winning back the house slowly. We have already endured a long power outage of about 18 hours, and we are overcoming problems with hot water, no oven/stove, dryer and internet. It’s cold here in the mornings and overnight, and rains daily in the afternoons. Sun is up at 5 a.m., and down at 6 p.m. Communicating is both funny and challenging, but our new farm friends are very gracious, patient and helpful. We are learning Spanish by necessity but also looking forward to beginning language school.
Our Family:
Kids are doing great. We had some rough times here and there with the power outage and all the spiders that wanted to join the party, but kids are acclimating well, and we are bonding together. We are driving! Friends have loaned us a car until ours arrives, and we’ve managed to get to the store, the hardware store, and have taken the kids for ice cream! This morning we enjoyed a sermon and prayer together over cereal and coffee, and felt humbled by scripture in Proverbs 15 as we try to manage challenges as a family and how to love each other well. God continues to grow us every day.
Our Vida Joven family has loved us well with a welcome party on Friday night, encouraging emails, calls, cooking for us and unpacking. We had a good meeting yesterday with Randall at the office in San Pedro and we are already feeling like part of the team.
We are so grateful to all of you. We are excited for all God is doing in your hearts too and we want to pray for you. Please let us know how we can do that. We love you very much and we look forward to sharing more once we are set up on the web.
Have a GREAT day and remember that WE LOVE YOU!
All our love,
Jimmy, Jeannie, Libby, Ella and Beck