The Big Gust of Wind

As I (Bridget) sat down to write this afternoon there were some strong gusts of wind that came through and caused the neighbor’s tree to fall and our electricity to go out.   

Upon investigation, Paul found that the 100 foot tree had broken a fence, damaged a couple of other trees, blocked the road at the entrance to our center, but thankfully our electrical line was still in tack.  Something else must have knocked out the power. 

Paul got his machete out of the shop and started chopping the fallen poro (poe-doe) tree while I cleared the branches away.  

Leather gloves were a necessity since this species of tree has sharp thorns, but the thorns didn’t seem to slow the neighbor’s cows down.  They ate the branches and leaves as fast as I could throw them over the fence.  

In an hour we had enough of the poro tree removed that there is a path big enough for our car to get through tomorrow when Paul drives it to the auto mechanic.

My English students are making good progress.  The kindergarten class is learning six basic colors, the numbers one through five, and the song “Thank You Lord for Making Me.”  Their favorite game is “1, 2, 3, 4, 5!” that we play like “Duck, Duck, Goose.” No one wants to sit back down once “it” taps them on the head and says, “five!” They just keep running around the circle and laughing until I intervene.  During the Bible story time they listen attentively to a recording of a chapter of the Bible in their native language, Cabécar. Then I tell a simple version of the same story in English using a children’s illustrated Bible.  Last week we heard the story of Noah in Genesis 8.  They are really quite amazing students when I consider they all speak Cabécar at home and only since February, when they started school, they began learning Spanish with all their kindergarten subjects.  On top of that, they have a half hour of English with me each week.  My mind would be “blowing circuits” but their minds are like sponges taking it all in as it comes and having fun at the same time.  It is a pleasure to teach them.

Please be praying that God will teach Julian, our worker, more about who He is as Paul and Julian study the book of Romans and that Bridget’s English students will learn about the God of the Bible as they listen to the Cabécar recordings of Genesis.

Thanks for your prayers and support!

Paul and Bridget

This month we also celebrated our 33^rd wedding anniversary!