February 24, 2001

Classes

Our classes QUICKLY came to where our previous knowledge of Spanish was, and has passed.  We now feel as if we are doing double time in classes.  Our teachers speak more rapidly to the class (Spanish only), and the material we study is new as well as very difficult.  Concepts in Spanish and grammar structure is very different than English.  The agreement in gender and number between nouns and verbs carries through to direct and indirect objects.  So when you refer to "They want it", you need to know the gender and number of both the "They" and the "it".  We come home many days with headaches, and still have homework to do!

Next week marks the half way point for this trimester.  We are  praising God and our supporters for allowing us to stay here for a full year - we'll need it!  

Personal Notes

This has been a very busy month not only academically, but physically as well as spiritually!  On the evening of Monday, January 29th, we experienced our first minor tremor of an earthquake.  It was just after the devastating earthquake in El Salvador.  We pray for those souls who are still suffering in that country.  Our tremor was minor, but alerted us to the potential of earthquakes in Central America.  The next day, we had another tremor.  As you might recall from the photos of our apartment, we can see Volcano Irazu just outside our window, and where there are volcanoes, there are earthquakes!  On Thursday of that week, February 1, our tutor informed us we were on a 36 hour alter for a major earthquake in Costa Rica.  We now have a "go bag" full of such things as flashlight, food in cans, water, blanket, candles, and matches.  We were blessed and did not have a major earthquake, but we are now ready.

Then on Tuesday, January 30th, some of our teachers gave their testimony in Chapel.  What a blessing that day was.  The entire program was in Spanish, but the love for Christ could be felt in that room.  One of the teachers ended his testimony with a song based on Philippians 1:6.  We are a witness that Julio Iglesius could not hold a candle to this man's voice!  All these teachers feel that their mission is to help missionaries learn Spanish.  Their calling and devotion is evident in their love of God and of their work. 

We were blessed on Friday, February 9th, with a Latin serenade!  Our apartment owner, Doris, has a 15 year old daughter, Maria Paz (Mary Peace).  That night her boyfriend plus about 10 other young men came to serenade her for her Valentine's gift.  What fun to lean over our balcony to enjoy the music.  The young men had guitars and just stood outside her door and sang.  What magic in the air!

So, yes Costa Ricans do celebrate Valentine's Day.  We had a great day ourselves on Wednesday, February 14th.  During our tutoring, Linda actually rolled her "r"!  She has only done it that one time, but poco a poco (little by little) the sounds are coming.  Ed has always been able to roll his "r" very well.  We also had a beautiful night in a restaurant with wonderful food.

We have found a Methodist church to attend - El Redentor Iglesia Methodista (The Redeemer Methodist Church).  It's in downtown San Jose, so we plan on 30-45 minutes to get there.  We walk to the bus stop, take the bus into town, then walk to the church.  We've been attending an adult Sunday school class (there is only 1 class) that is studying the life of Paul .  It's good to be in a Methodist church.  We had communion on February 4th.  Of course Sunday School and the service are in Spanish, so it is good practice for us.  However, the bulletin always has the scripture passages listed.  So no fumbling trying to translate Santiago is what Americans call James during the service!  

We are also attending a Baptist Bible study on Tuesday nights.  We have some friends even a little older than us in school who are Baptists (the majority of the students here are Baptist.)  Anyway, they invited us to attend their Bible study.  It's about a 30 minute taxi ride away.  But we are trying to hear the Word in Spanish as often as possible.

This week, February 19-23rd, has been Spiritual Emphasis Week.  It is what we would call Revival Week back home in the South.  We had chapel twice a day.  It was in English (Gracias a Dios), and our speaker was Rev. Evan Williams from Belfast, Northern Ireland.  The theme for the week was "Our Calling" and "Be Prepared".  Evan's text was first based on Romans 10:13-18,  "...And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?..."  Then we moved to Ephesians 6:10-18, "...Put on the FULL armor of God..."  It was an encouraging, enlightening, and scary week of hearing the gospel.  Take a minute to read both these pieces of scripture.  Hear them with an Irish accent, and please pray that these words will be embedded in our hearts.

Prayer Requests

We ask for your prayers for language acquisition.

We ask for your prayers that we will BOLDLY proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ at all opportunities.

Please pray that we will each have a national friend when we get to Paraguay.  We ask that God will make ready the hearts a two special nationals.

Side Notes

The NEW GRILL - we love to cook outdoors.  While the steaks here are a bit tough, not laced with all the good hormones and lot fattened like good ol' USDA beef, we have been wanting to do some grilling.  So we bought a Tico-style grill (see photo below).  It's great!  It is made from a tire rim and has a rebar grill on top.  Our cousin Grant Strauss says that it looks like the ones they use to make in Viet Nam.  This thing will last forever.  And it only cost $16!  We invited Scott and Charlee Pullon (fellow students from Hilton Head, SC) over to inaugurate it and the steaks were delicious. Scott took these with his digital camera.

Paseos

We have not had any trips overnight this month.  However, we try to spend at least one day on the week-end venturing into the unknown - a great way to force ourselves to talk Spanish.

We decided one day to take a bus to Moravia, a small town Northeast of San Jose.  No problem, we found it on the map.  We took one bus from our apartment.  Fortunately, we asked the driver, just in time, where the bus to Moravia stopped, and it was at THAT corner.  We quickly got off, and in just a second or two, a Moravia bus came along.  No problem----yet!  One would think that a Moravia bus would end in Moravia.  Well, that's American thinking.  We stayed on the bus like good little bus riders.  Then a lady started talking to us about where we were going.  We said Moravia, and she said that was about 30 minutes back.  We went to the end of the line which was NOT in Moravia, got off the bus, and retraced our route back to Moravia.  Moravia is a small, pleasant town, and we had a good paseo.  We found a Christian souvenir shop and bought a really good Praise and Worship CD by a Mexican evangelist named Marcos Witt.  Our route home was uneventful, just 2 buses.

Saturday, February 17th, was a good paseo for Linda.  She was invited by a Costa Rican friend to go on a one day women's retreat with a Nazarene Church.  What a day.  There were about 3 bus loads of ladies, only 3 North Americans ("Gringas").  The 3 North Americans only spoke about 10 words of English all day.  The day was all in Spanish with a woman's angle.  Good day of praise and fellowship Costa Rican style.

Other Photographs

We still don't have a digital camera, but our next door neighbors and fellow students , Tanya and Jared Cox, scanned these for us.