Costa Rica

REACHGLOBAL CHURCH PLANTING CONFERENCE
Orosi Valley, Costa Rica


We were privileged to travel to Costa Rica in November to partcipate in a ReachGlobal Church Planting conference. The conference was sponsored by ReachGlobal, and it was exciting to see the teaching being done mostly by Latin Americans. Latino pastors and church leaders from all over Latin America were present, and we were thrlled to see people from so many countries working and learning together.

While at the conference, we met many of our ReachGlobal Latin American team members. Meeting with our team leaders helped us gain a clearer vision for the work being accomplished, and the urgent need for training church leaders.

While helping the ladies cook for the event, I had "Spanish lessons. " Needless to say I provided much entertainment with my poor pronunciations.



TICO LADIES PREPARING FOR CHILDREN'S EVENT

The conference was held at a church camp located in a beautiful mountain valley. Words cannot describe the beauty of the Costa Rican moutains and the lush vegetation. We were surrounded by mountains covered with coffee and banana plantations. The Orosi River flowed beside the campground, and it's rushing waters put us to sleep each night. Every day we had fresh "limonade" made with limes plucked just that morning.

OROSI RIVER


Jim was able to stay an additional two days in San Jose. Touring the language school we will attend was a highlight of this portion of his trip.

THE SPANISH INSTITUTE

http://thespanishinstitute.com/index.html

Please pray for us as we begin the support team building process in earnest. God has blessed us with several team members, and we are thankful for their faithful support as we raise our monthly and one time support needs.

Fall Update

Just a short update on our latest. Jim returned from a fantastic trip to Nicaragua with team members from three different churches at the end of August. After returning home he had to finish writing the curriculum for a trip to Nicaragua in October. Currently he is enjoying Nicaragua with dear friends from FBC Conway. Needless to say, he's staying out of trouble with all this work!!! In November he will travel to Guatemala and possibly Costa Rica. I'm a little sad that I have to keep my day job and cannot travel with him.

We have been looking for a house in Jacksonville as the house we were renting was recently sold. Through contacts with some friends at church, we rented an adorable older home that was clean. Being clean usually isn't that big of a deal, but after looking at a couple of houses I have a new appreciation for cleanliness or even the ability to reach the state of cleanliness. I felt rather ill after leaving two disgusting homes. Scarcity of rental property in Jacksonville had me a bit stressed, and I've been stretched to trust God on the little things in life.

I am enjoying teaching at East Side Elementary in Jacksonville. I had a good laugh this past week at the thinking of one of my students. He has been trying to impress another boy in the class, and as a result was getting in a lot of trouble. To try to help him do better I pointed out the fact that he never got into trouble when the other boy was absent. I asked what he thought of the pattern he saw on his behavior chart. He thought for a couple of minutes and then blurted out, "He cursed me!!" We are now trying to "break the curse."

SOLD!!!!

God has been so gracious to us!!! After juggling many different events in the past several weeks, we finally got our house on the market. God brought a buyer in less than a week (HUGE SMILE)! We are so thankful, and we give Him the praise for providing a buyer.

August will be a busy month for us:

*Completion of our relocation to Texas 8/1

*Jim preaches in Ft. Smith, AR 8/2

*Training with Jacksonville School District 8/3-6

*Close on the sale of our Conway home 8/7

*Back to Texas 8/9

*Attend BodyBuilders Support Team Building

Class in Fayetteville, AR 8/10-11

*Work starts for Melanie in Texas 8/13

*Jim is off to Nicaragua 8/22

WHEW! We'll have to stop and take a deep breath sometime soon.

THANKS FOR PRAYING FOR US!!