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| We caught the bird watching bug! |
“Count your blessings, name them one by one. Count your many blessings, see what God has
done.” We are borrowing the theme from this hymn for our newsletter. Here is
our list of blessings:
Our financial and prayer support is a significant factor
that allows us to remain here and see fruit as a result. We appreciate your generous financial gifts
over the past two months. We will credit God for this, but want you to know we
do not take your support for granted as He works through people like you!
Back in December a friend came to Costa Rica and brought a package from home
that included a waffle iron. It has been
fun to have friends over and to make one of our favorite meals with them. A couple of our US friends even brought us real maple
syrup. What a treat!
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| Once a storage room... |
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| ...now our bedroom |
We were able to move into the bedroom of our “apartment”
just before Christmas. I (Bridget) must admit
I feel more at home in a room that is completely organized. The other plus is
that all of my teaching supplies are out of our bedroom and in the office. Now
everything is within easy reach when I am planning English lessons.
The fuel pump went out on our car while it was parked at our
mission center. We are thankful for the knowledgeable and capable mechanic,
Greiven (Grey-bin) Sanchez, who recently opened a shop in the area. He and his
assistant replaced the pump right in our parking lot! Another day we took the car to his shop,
which happens to be at his house. While I spent the day with Adriana, Greiven’s
wife, and their children, Paul and Greiven replaced our corroded fuel tank. Of course they discovered more issues related
to the car starting its journey 17 years ago on the salty roads of the Northeast
coast of the U.S. These mechanical repairs gave us an
opportunity to get to know our friends better.
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| Fun wedding photo booth |
The second weekend in January we attended a wedding and
spent time with friends we had met at language school. The wedding was held at a youth camp in the
Cloud Forest of Costa Rica. It was a
little rainy and quite cold, but we did manage to go bird watching and see the
illusive “Quetzal”, a colorful and unique species of bird native to that area.
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| Paul captured this quetzel with his cell phone. |
It took me a few weeks, but I was able to turn in all my
paperwork and fees for renewing my teaching certificate in Oregon before the deadline. The certifying organization accepted my Spanish
Language Course for my continuing education credits and gave me additional
credits I will need in the future. Bonus!
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| Birthday party time! |
My birthday celebration lasted more than one day this
year. I enjoyed a day in town with some
missionary girlfriends, had cake and coffee with the gals who run the Aroma de
Montaña restaurant, and some friends invited Paul and me over for a special
“Buffalo Wings” lunch. Of course Paul
made me waffles for my birthday breakfast.
With the nice weather, Paul and Julian, his worker, finished
the benches for the fire pit at Centro Emanuel.
On February 11th Paul lit a fire that we sat around and ate
dinner while the clouds cleared and the moon rose over the mountains. Then we
watched the lunar eclipse. God provides some amazing entertainment!
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| Paul secures the fire pit banches. |
On Valentine’s Day we were invited for coffee with three other
couples. We talked and laughed and, as
you can imagine, Paul was joking with everyone and they were teasing him in
return. There was a short devotional
about God’s love and the Gospel from 1 John 5:3. In the end we agreed to meet again for St. Patrick’s
Day. These couples are some of our close friends in the community.
Please be praying for:
- Approval from the emigration officials to renew our
residency.
- Bridget’s English students who read scripture every class.
- Our dentist’s family traveling in the reservation to care
for teeth and teach dental hygiene.
- The UTSA finance students visiting in March. These future financial world players are
always impacted by what God is doing here.
- The couples meeting on St. Patrick’s Day
- A focused and safe mindset for me, Paul, as I go about my
day. I’m currently dealing with a case
of “shingles” and am a bit distracted.
Thank you for your generosity in giving toward our ministry
and for praying for us and those we are serving here.
Blessings,
Paul and Bridget
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