Sunday, October 08, 2006

OUR VIEW FROM HERE...



View of the hospital from our back porch...


How we get around...

Our temporary apartment...






















One of the Honduran children in our Sunday School class in the pueblo of Margarita.

BALANCING IT ALL...





Like any other time or place we've been in, the struggle is balancing it all... home schooling, work at the hospital, ministry opportunities, visiting with other people. Ministry opportunities that have presented themselves thus far include: teaching and training of local midwives (Margo), assisting with pastor training classes on weekends (Nelson), Sunday School at one of the local churches (Nelson and Margo), and the Dental Dog Hygiene program in local schools (Kristyn and Shelby). We greatly appreciate your prayers as we seek to focus and be intentional about the ministry God has for us here in Balfate. The needs are many, and we're praying for wisdom to know where to put our focus.

HASTA LUEGO, KRISTYN...





Goodbye for now...

As many of you have heard, Kristyn will be attending a discipleship training program through RAD (Radical Action Disciples) Ministries out of Gainesville, Georgia. She heard about the opportunity via another young woman who's been here in Balfate with her family for about 7 years.
We all went to the airport to drop Kristyn off and say goodbye on October 3rd. She begins the program on October 15th. Another big chapter in all of our lives begins...
We're very excited for her and covet your prayers as she seeks the Lord's will for her life!

MOVE'N ON...




After the graduation ceremony on August 18th at the Spanish Language Institute in Costa Rica, we were ready to move on to our final destination... Balfate, Honduras. Needless to say, the goodbyes were difficult. Many of our fellow students, missionaries, and members of our church had become like family to us over the past year.

A good-sized step of faith for us (though maybe not for others who might be adventurous!) was taking a bus from San Jose, Costa Rica to San Pedro Sula, Honduras. There were several reasons why we decided to travel by bus instead of by air, but one of the main ones was due to the amount of luggage we had and the costs involved in air transport. We left Costa Rica on August 23rd and arrived here in Balfate, Honduras on August 25th. We saw God's hand throughout our trip as different people helped us with border crossings, transporting, and looking after our extra luggage, and with overnight accomodations. It was really an amazing opportunity to see much of Central America...ask us about it sometime!

Friday, July 14, 2006

We miss you...


As we continue to seek God’s direction and plans for our lives we covet your prayers at every step. In addition to the preparations for our move to our final destination in Honduras, the trip with our belongings by bus, and our transition to another culture once we arrive, we also ask for your prayers for Margo and her family as they suffer the loss of her grandmother, Phyllis Adler. Phyllis passed away August 13th at the age of 91. She will be missed not only by her family, but also by the staff and the friends she made at the assisted care living facility in Fort Wayne. Many were blessed the past few years by her sweet and tender spirit while she lived there.
Another loss we are working through right now with countless others is that of our friend, Ben Lindle, who passed away last week (July 6th) at the age of 24. Nelson still remembers having Ben in his 3rd to 5th grade Pioneer Club class. When we first went to Honduras in 2003 to look into the ministry opportunity at Hospital Loma de Luz, we were amazed that someone “passing through” and visiting the hospital after spending time at an orphanage in Guatemala had also heard of the infamous “Big Ben” ! The only thing bigger than Ben was his heart for others...
The picture above is of his inner city latino kids choir that came to perform at Community Church of Greenwood in a
double decker bus almost 2 years ago.
The picture to the right is of the Lindle family at our going away party last year. Ben is on the right.

"FAMILY REUNION" IN PANAMA...








We were able to take a road trip to Panama in June to visit with Nelson's family in Panama. It was good catching up with his brother (Erwin) and his family, his nephew (Stephen), his cousin (Gerta), his uncles (Ramon, Oscar) and his parents.

IRAZU VOLCANO




Imagine having to sweep the sidewalk and cleaning the gutters and roofs of your home everyday, because of tons of ash that fall from the sky. Imagine walking around with an umbrella in order to avoid getting dirty, or driving with the headlights on even in the daytime. These are real situations that occurred when the Irazu volcano erupted on March 19, 1963. The volcano had the nerve to erupt on the same day that President John F. Kennedy visited Costa Rica. For the next two years after the eruption, the volcano spewed showers of ash that went as far as San Jose, and that damaged many crops and homes. The volcano’s first recorded eruption had occurred in 1723, during colonial times, but the 1963 eruption seems to have been much worse.

The park that includes this volcano covers 2309 hectares, its highest point being 3432 meters (approxim. 10,300 feet) above sea level. There are two theories for the name “Irazu”, one being that it’s a combination of “ara” (point) and “tzu” (thunder), and the other being that it’s named after “Istaru”, a 16th century Indian palisade built in the nearby town of Cot. The park is remarkable because of its surreal lunar landscape. There are two main craters, one is called the “Diego de la Haya” crater that contains a strangely colored lake (some days it’s light green and others it’s red) and the other is 300 meters (900 feet) deep.

CELEBRATION!!!


On May 28th we had a housefull of friends from school and church help us celebrate Shelby's 15th birthday and Kristyn's high school graduation.

OUR PROUD CLASS OF 2006 GRADUATE!




May 26th was the graduation ceremony for Sojourn Academy, the school affiliated with the Spanish Language Institute. Most of the children of the missionaries attending the language school attend the academy. Because of the workload she's carried since her freshman year at Frankling Township High School, Kristyn met all but 2 required classes and was able to go through the graduation ceremony a year early. Kristyn is on track to finish up with her two classes by the end of the summer.

We're all very proud of you, Kristyn!!!

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Some of the girl's pictures...








The life of a teen is never dull... no matter how many times they say they're bored : )

Sunday, April 16, 2006

Poás Volcano



One of the craters measures 1.5 kilometers in diameter (0.9 miles) and is 300 meters deep (900 feet). At the bottom of this prehistoric-looking hole, there is a medium sized lagoon, that spews boiling sulphurous gases. The other crater, called Botos Lagoon, which unlike the other lake, contains cold water that connects to the Rio Angel, and later to the large Rio Sarapiqui. The volcano has had a long history of eruptions! On January 25, 1910, the volcano spewed out 640,000 tons of ash, and in the period of 1952-1954, it bombarded nearby areas with ash and rocks. Since then, Poas has maintained a low profile, but as recently as 1989, the park was closed because of dangerous sulphurous gas emissions. Its geyser-like eruptions of muddy water and steam, have given it the reputation as the world’s largest geyser.

LA PAZ WATERFALL GARDENS











La Paz Waterfall Gardens is located 1 hour from San Jose on the slope of Poás Volcano. Here you find all that you expect to experience in Costa Rica: lush Rainforests, majestic waterfalls, fluttering butterflies and whimsical hummingbirds.