Woods on Mission

New Year's Day

2012-02-14T19:40:00.000-06:00

Kitchen Hand towel update: In the neighborhood we handed the towels out a few weeks ago a lot has happened. The church was no longer able to meet in the home they were in, so the pastor set out to find a new place. He came upon a lady whom he began talking with but she was a bit stand-of-ish until he mentioned the "kitchen hand towel" that she had receive a few weeks earlier. At this, she smiled real big and agreed to open her home up for the new "church". Two weeks ago our friends decided to visit the church and what they saw amazed them. There were 20 adults and 18 children attending the service, all of whom received a "kitchen hand towel" a few weeks ago! God really is using these towels for His purpose. In the next couple months we have plans to go into 3 other towns to distribute them. We can't wait to see what God will do.

New years day this year we were invited to partake of the feast they have in the village to bring in the new year. It consists of smoked goat and enchiladas. They also had a chicken for those not accustomed to eating goat. It was a great day among friends and really enjoyed bringing in the new year learning more about a wonderful people.

Jan 2012

Honduras

2012-01-28T17:05:00.002-06:00

Aaron had an opportunity to visit an Agricultural Center in Copan Ruinas, Honduras. He visited a training center that trains extension agents to train local farmers how to implement soil conservation practices. The goal is to help farmers with the basic need of conserving their soil but also giving the extension agents and local pastors the opportunity to share stories from the Bible. Most everything he learned he will be able to teach farmers of indigenous villages orally (to those who do not know how to read). Please pray that he would effectively use these methods and train others to implement them. Also please pray that this training would lead to the planting of house churches among indigenous villages. Acts 2:46-47. Click on the link below to see pictures of this beautiful country. Enjoy!

Honduras Trip Chorti Project

Operation Shoebox

2012-01-08T20:34:00.000-06:00

Posted as promised, are the photos taken at two locations of where Operation Shoeboxes were given. First was in a village where the church we attend is planting a church. The other location was the actual church. They had enough boxes to give to each child at the church as well as those who were invited and a few from the neighborhood. It was a wonderful opportunity to see the receiving end of these boxes and we are thankful we are able to share our pictures with you. Only God knows if one of these boxes was donated by you and we thank you for that. It truly put a smile on a child's face this Christmas season. Enjoy the pics!

Operation Shoebox

Lottie Moon Christmas Offering video

2012-01-05T16:55:00.000-06:00

This is a Lottie Moon Christmas Offering promotional video we made for our home church in Independence, MO. It is never too late to support international missions through LMCO. Thank you!

Kitchen Hand Towels

2011-12-29T16:27:00.000-06:00

A couple of weeks ago we had our first project using the kitchen hand towels that a lot of you donated back in September. We handed out about 80 of them to each family in a neighborhood. We put a "God Loves You" band around them, and invited them to a new Baptist house church that is located in their neighborhood. Through this we were able to make contact with four christian families in the area, which was really exciting for the pastor. One family was riding on a bus for an hour to attend church and was very excited to hear of a closer one to attend. It was a great day making some great contacts and possible homes for other Bible Studies. Click on the picture below to see pictures from the day.

Dec 2011

Long Time, No See

2011-12-08T16:20:00.001-06:00

The title says it all, huh! In fact I haven't been to the site in so long that it took me a minute to remember how to get to this point to type in this little square, LOL! Since I have written last, we have transitioned over to our new role as Agricultural Strategist for Mexico as well as moved to a new city, but still in the state of Puebla. Back in May and June we were busy packing the house to move on June 20, when we received the call that my paternal Grandfather ascended to his place in heaven at the feet of Jesus. So we moved to our new city and two days later I (Brie) was on a plane back to Missouri for the funeral. I returned with my parents on July 1 for their already scheduled trip to visit us in Mexico. So for two weeks we had a great time showing them around our neck of the woods. After they left we went for a week to our Annual Mexico meeting with others from around Mexico and immediately upon our return I began Homeschooling the girls for the first time. This kept me very busy for a few weeks trying to get into a good rhythm. September arrived and found us back on a plane to the States for Aaron's brother's wedding. Aaron was a groomsmen and the girls were flower girls. It was one of the most beautiful weddings I have ever been too and was so blessed to have been a part of it.

So here we are in December and getting a good grip on our new job assignment. Back in October until just a few weeks ago Aaron has been helping a little town get back on their feet after torrential rains took out their town with flooding and mud slides. He was able to take food, water, and coats for the children to get them through this tough time.

Just last week we were able to use some of the kitchen hand towels we brought back with us from our Prayer Partners, for the first time. We gave them as gifts to each family in a neighborhood and invited them to the new Baptist church that was being started in a home near them. We were able to find fellow believers who were traveling over an hour to get to a church in the nearby town. They seemed relieved to know of a closer one they could attend that was just 5 minutes away.

Aaron is getting ready to head to Veracruz next week to talk to another little town about a well-drilling project. At this point the people have to walk to the creek to fetch their water and carry it quite a ways back to their home. Aaron will be talking with the men of the town to group them together and teach them how to reproduce the wells around the town, as well as spreading the Good News of the "Living Water" that is free for all. We are very excited to see what God has in store for this town and how He will reach the lost through Aaron and these men.

Catching Up!

Well Drilling in Texas and Training in Peru

2011-04-30T20:45:00.000-05:00

Click on the link below to see a few pictures of Aaron's Well Drilling training in Texas and Gabrielle's trip to Peru. Also included are a few pictures of a weekend exploratory trip to Oaxaca. Enjoy!

Peru and Oaxaca

New Life

2011-03-14T19:21:00.000-06:00

What a great weekend we had in the village! The other couple we work with and us held a cook out before the service, inviting the church members and their friends. There were two men that came to eat with us who had never had anything to do with the church before. One of them even stayed through the service! The other couple said this was a pretty big deal. We were excited to be able to witness it.

Mylee and Evie were able to experience new life this weekend as they were able to play with some new baby goats. You can probably imagine how much fun they had carrying them around. In fact they had a hard time leaving them!

Click on the picture below to see these pictures and more.

New Life

Farm, Village, and Onyx Factory

2011-02-27T20:09:00.001-06:00

This a a compilation of a few different events that have taken place in the past two weeks. The first set of pictures takes place at a local horse ranch that Evie's class went to for a field trip. She was able to ride a horse, pet a bunny, milk a cow and press the fat out of cheese to make it ready to eat. It was a day of many firsts for her and what fun it was to experience God's wonderful creations around us.

The second set are of our second trip to Tehuacan where we revisited the village where the bio-digester was built. We were not able to get the stove lit, because of the lack of pressure to push the gas through. Hopefully the next trip we will be able to see the fruits of their labor. While we were in the village, Aaron was able to teach from the book of Acts about the early church to the believers there during their Saturday night service. He will have another opportunity in a few weeks.

The third set is of a day trip we took to Tecali. Tecali is a city about an hour from us that is famous for its Onyx and Marble crafts that are cut from the local mines around that area. We went with a volunteer team to help translate for them. On this trip, we were able to take a tour through the factory to see how they craft some of their pieces, of which we took a couple of pictures. It was a great day for our family and the volunteers.

Click on the picture below to see our adventures. Have a great week!

Farm, Village, and Factory

Christmas and Birthdays

2011-02-17T18:49:00.000-06:00

Since our last blog we have had two birthdays in our family. Gabrielle turned the big 3-0 and Mylee turned a big 7! For Gabrielle's birthday a couple ladies here in Puebla helped Aaron throw a small surprise party the night before her birthday so that she wouldn't expect it. She was very surprised! Among our missionary friends, who feel a lot like family, we were able to celebrate Mylee's birthday as well. She chose to have hers at Peter Piper Pizza, which is a little like Chuck-E-Cheese. It was a great time to be had by all! We also added a few Christmas pictures that we just realized we hadn't gotten off the camera. Enjoy!

Christmas and Birthdays

Parrot Park and New Year's Eve

2011-01-11T19:29:00.002-06:00

Parrot Park and New Year's Eve

Because the girls were out of school for Christmas break we decided to visit the parrot park once again to visit some of our favorite animals. We took some pics of our favorites and then took a little lunch break about halfway through. It was a great family day for all.

Our New Year's Eve was great fun with other families here in Puebla. We had fun with sparklers and dominoes well into the night. It was a great night of fellowship and we were blessed to have been able to spend it with friends. Enjoy the pics!

The Month of December

2010-12-27T12:00:00.000-06:00

Medical project, Christmas program, Christmas Eve

We started our month off with the Medical Project in two of the neighborhoods we have been working in. We made quite a few contacts from that day that have led to ministry opportunities since then.
Evie came down with croup a couple weeks ago and had to stay home from school for a week to get over it. But because of her absence she was unable to take part in the Christmas program at her school which was really sad for her. However, Mylee was able to participate and I took a couple short videos of her performances.
Our cell group had a Birthday party for Aaron on Saturday the 18th. It was a great time of fellowship for everyone!
Christmas is celebrated a little different here in Mexico. The nationals begin on Christmas Eve around 11pm with dinner and continue on into the night ending with breakfast. Then they take Christmas day to rest and recoup. Our friends knew we had plans the next day and couldn't come at 11pm so they invited us to eat at 8pm the typical Christmas food they had prepared all that day. We had spaghetti with a white sauce and pieces of deli ham mixed in, fruit salad, cooked pork with a spicy barbecue-like sauce on it, chipotle peppers stuffed with goat cheese, and BIG shrimp with heads and all! It was all very good and we were proud of the girls for trying a little bit of everything. We left around 10pm to give them time with their family and so we could prepare for the next day. Another difference is they don't give presents until the 6th of January when the Wise Men's visit to baby Jesus bearing gifts is celebrated.
On Christmas day we were able to share the day with other families that live here in the same city. We started with lunch at 1:30 and ended our day with games leaving around 10. We also played the White Elephant game with Aaron winning a twin blow-up mattress and Gabrielle a CD case. It was a great day for all.
Also included in the pictures is Evie's scraped up nose when she tripped on the concrete at school. PTL it wasn't broken! There are also pictures of the girls dressing up as the different characters of the Nativity as we talked about it over 3 days. We had to get creative with this one, using only what we had around the house. I will post pictures soon of our Christmas day festivities! Enjoy.

Trip to Tehuacan

2010-11-13T20:53:00.000-06:00

A few weeks ago we were able to take a trip to Tehuacan which is the city where we will be moving to next year. Aaron had visited the city before for the regional convention meeting. But this was the first peek Gabrielle and the girls were able to get. The main reason for the trip took place in a nearby village with another family building what is called a bio-digester. The main purpose for this contraption is for goat farmers to put to use the manure they collect and turn it into gas to cook with in their home. This will be very helpful to use in our new position in other villages around Mexico. In the link below are a few pictures from this trip plus a few extra at the end. Enjoy!

Tehuacan

Baptism

2010-09-27T11:20:00.001-05:00

Baptism

How excited we are to tell you about the day of the baptisms! Thank you so much for praying for us during this day. As the day went on we witnessed many great things that we know wouldn't have happened without you all praying. There were 65 people that attended the service! Missionaries, pastors, friends and neighbors all attended to observe what baptism looked like for a young evangelical church. Many seeds were planted as the Gospel was presented to those who were present. We found it interesting that one of the church members prayed that God would hold the rain off until after 6:00 PM, and at 6:01 PM the rain began! God provided beautiful weather for the outdoor baptisms and fellowship. We used a big water tank cut in half for the baptistry and a tent for the sanctuary. We were given permission to use one of the dead end streets in the neighborhood which the group members said was a miracle in and of itself. It was fun to watch the members of the church put all this together and carry it out which is important in the reproducibility of the cell groups and the cell church. Aaron did give an explination on the meaning of baptism and presented the gospel, but it was easy enough for one of the leaders of the cell group to recreate for the next time. It was wonderful to see one of the leaders co-lead with Aaron so that later events will be led by one of the national leaders. It is evident that God worked through you all that day and we are very excited to see what happens next in New Life Baptist Church.

Trip to the USA

2010-08-24T20:28:00.000-05:00

Trip to the USA

In June we had the opportunity to take some vacation time back in the USA. The main reason for this trip was Aaron's study tour trip with the Seminary to Germany where he studied Church History and the Reformation. So while he was learning, the girls and I spent some much needed family time with our extended family in Springfield and Kansas City. We were so blessed to have been able to reconnect with our family and friends. Above in the link are a few pictures of how the girls and I spent our time. Coming soon...Aaron's Germany pics! Stay tuned...

2010-08-11T10:50:00.000-05:00

La Laguna

When we returned from our trip in July we were invited by some friends to visit a lagoon. The city has been cleaning it up and preparing an area for families to go and spend time together. They are still working to get it up and running but the path around the lagoon was finished to where people can walk. What they have done so far is absolutely beautiful. In Puebla there are very few areas where there is open areas to allow for play. Most areas are taken up with either homes or businesses. Having this area will be a great blessing to those who live near it. Above are pictures from that day along with what our back yard looked like after being gone for 26 days during the rainy season. You're not going to believe it! Until next time...

Kindergarten Graduation

2010-08-05T17:48:00.000-05:00

Graduation

On June 11, 2010, we experienced Mylee's Kindergarten graduation! The school that the girls attend put on a program much like the one at Christmas, but only with graduates of Kindergarten and 6th grade; however, every child was given a certificate for completing the year. Above is the link that will take you to the pictures and a few videos of the program. Enjoy!

Our Cell Group and Happy Birthday Evie!

2010-06-02T16:22:00.001-05:00

Cell Group and Evie's Birthday

Last Wednesday was a special service for our cell group because we had our first commissioning service for three of the leaders. They completed the 12 week church planting training that Aaron led every week and fit all the requirements of a leader that is mentioned in 1 Timothy 3. Aaron taught a lesson from Acts 6 where the leaders of the church prayed for and appointed new leaders. After the lesson we laid our hands on them and prayed for them as they did in Acts. It was a very touching moment for the cell church and we are very excited to see what God will do next with this group.

Also this month we celebrated a very special day. Our little Evie turned 4 on May 15. She was able to have a little party with her friends at her school on the 14th since the 15th was on Saturday. However on her birthday we went to the restaurant that she picked and we found that she had a temperature. She slept through the whole lunch. She had this for about 12 hours with no other symptoms and then she was fine. It was so strange but so glad it wasn't anything serious. Maybe just too much partying the day before!

In the link above you will find a few pictures of the cell group and some of Evie's birthday. Enjoy!

Cinco de mayo Parade

2010-05-26T09:54:00.000-05:00

Cinco De Mayo Parade

We were adventurous this past month along with thousands of other people and headed to the Cindo de mayo parade that was held here in Puebla. Cinco de mayo is a holiday held on May 5 that commemorates the Mexican army's victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. Going against the popular belief, Cinco de mayo is not the Mexican Independence Day as this is September 16. Many schools traveled from all over the state of Puebla to participate in this parade showing off their uniforms, their school band and their school float that, as you will see, they spent quite a bit of time on. Also included are a few short videos of the parade that you may enjoy. Have a great Memorial Day Weekend!

Spring Break

2010-05-07T16:17:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago the girls were out of school for two weeks. One for Holy Week and the other for the actual Spring Break. We continued on as usual with our regular work week but we did have a little extra family time together. At Christmas we had brought back a bag of pretzel sticks and a package of white almond bark that we hadn't used yet. So the girls and Gabrielle made some chocolate covered pretzels and when we ran out of pretzels we used saltine crackers dipped in the chocolate and they were yummy!
Another day we took time to go visit the famous Catholic church built on top of a Mayan pyramid. Below are some facts about this famous church.

With a base of 40 acres and a height of 214 feet, the Great Pyramid of Cholula is the largest in the world, whereas the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt, with a base of 13 acres and a height of 480 feet, is the tallest. This immense structure is the result of 5 huge overlapping constructions built over a period of 10 centuries.

Only a tiny part has been excavated, down to the fourth layer, with the rest of the pyramid remaining completely covered by soil and vegetation, which makes it look more like a mountain than a pyramid. On top of this mountain-esque pyramid a Catholic church was built, by the Spanish in honor of the Virgen de los Remedios. This beautiful church is still used to perform mass and other important Catholic services.

There are a total of eight kilometers of tunnels that run from north to south and east to west beneath the Great Pyramid. These tunnels were built in 1931 when the architect/archeologist Ignacio Marquina started exploring the site. He traced the edges of the five bases, the angle of the slopes and the stairs. Nowadays, just two kilometers of tunnel is open to visitors.

http://www.bestday.com/Editorial/Cholula/

We had a wonderful day exploring this pyramid, however we were unable to explore the tunnels as they were shut down for reconstruction after a recent cave in. On the way down from the mountain/pyramid there were vendors selling different kinds of nuts and fried grasshoppers. Gabrielle tried a handful of baby ones because they were tiny compared to the adult ones. Her comment was "they weren't bad at all; a little crunchy and spicy because of the chile powder on them but not bad at all!" We ended up passing on this purchase and bought some pistachios instead.

All in all we had a great two weeks with the girls but they were ready to get back to school to see their friends. Click on the picture below to see pictures of what was talked about in this post. Have a Happy Mothers Day for all the mothers out there!

Spring Break

Preaching and Teaching in Spanish

2010-03-29T08:49:00.007-06:00

How time does seem to fly these days. We have been getting busier and busier as the weeks pass as God continues to put different ways to expand His kingdom in our path. One of the most recent ways was Aaron's first opportunity to preach in Spanish. Mount of Olives Baptist Church asked Aaron to teach on Prayer Walking. God gave him the ability to speak with fluidity and clarity. After the service, they used the Sunday School hour to go out and practice what they learned in five neighborhoods. Gabrielle had the opportunity to go out with the pastor's wife and had a wonderful time seeing her heart for the lost.

We have also seen God work in the lives of the members of New Life Baptist church. By God's grace nine people have come to Christ in the past 2 months. Recently we took a day trip to a nearby village to visit one of the member's brother and his wife. Elvira, the cell group leader that we have trained, ended up leading the wife to Christ only 2 weeks after the brother had given his life over to Christ during a visit to his sister's house. We participate in the cell group every Wednesday and have seen this group grow from 5 to the 19 (including children) that attended this past week. It has been real exciting to be a part of what God is doing in Puebla.

Below is a link to pictures of these two events plus a couple of other events like Mylee's Birthday and some of our family time outings. Thank you for your continued prayers that we feel have gone straight from your lips to the Father's ear. We are praying that you and your family have a blessed Easter and will have a chance to celebrate together the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus.

Aaron preaching, day trip, Mylee's birthday and more!

Cell Church Workshop

2010-02-12T14:31:00.005-06:00

After looking back through pictures we realized we did not tell you about the Cell Church Workshop that our team held in November for Baptist pastors and lay leaders in Puebla. We asked our co-workers Tommy and Beth Larner in Tijuana to come to Puebla to lead a one day workshop explaining what and how the Cell Church structure works. We had about 75 people show up for this event and we were ecstatic! It began at 8:30am and ended at 4pm. The day included a coffee and tea break around 10:30 and then a quick lunch that consisted of typical Mexican lunch (mole poblano, tortillas, rice, beans, sausage and boiled pig skin).

At the end of the day everyone was asked to fill out a questionnaire about the workshop and what kind of interest they had in partnering with us. We received very good feedback with quite a few pastors and leaders interested in starting cell groups in their churches. Since then we have been busy starting work in the different areas that the Lord has led us to work in. Below are the pictures of the workshop plus some pictures taken from our roof of the four volcanoes that surround Puebla. This is our favorite part of the landscape here in Puebla: Waking up every morning and seeing the magnificent handiwork of God! You will not want to miss these or the few pictures of the girls! Have a great week in the Lord.

Cell Church Workshop and Volcanoes

Trip to the U.S.

2010-01-22T18:24:00.005-06:00

Introducing our New Prayer Card!!

If you are interested in receiving one please send us an email with your name and address by going into "view complete profile" and click on "email us"!

We were blessed this past Christmas to have been able to spend it with family and friends in the States. We made the 28 hour trip back in a VW Euro van to the border first and then switched to a rented Chevy impala for the rest of the way. We could feel so many prayers going up on our behalf during the whole trip as we never had car trouble and we were never stopped by the police. We were able to have some quality time as a family and then time where we, as a couple, could talk and catch up on life. We also had the opportunity to speak in two of our supporting churches and gained a few more prayer partners. It was a very long trip in the car and very tiring but worth every minute. God is good! Below are a few pictures from our trip and then at the end a few random pics from before we left that are just now getting posted. Thanks for checking them out. Have a great day in the Lord.

Christmas 2010

Christmas Play and Parties

2009-12-20T20:08:00.005-06:00

Last week the girls' last day of school before break consisted of a Christmas Program. Evie was a shepherd and Mylee was an angel. I thought the program was very well put together and each child was given adequate spotlight time. In the picture below are videos of each of the girls'! It was so wonderful that throughout the program parts of the Christmas Story were told by some of the children.

Also included in the group of pictures are pics of our team Christmas party, a group picture of our cell group and pics of the biggest 3 year old birthday party we have ever been to!

We wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Christmas Program

Catholic Baptism

2009-12-05T17:46:00.003-06:00

Part of getting to know people here in Puebla is you kind of become part of their family. We have noticed that they are quick to invite you to many things to include you into their culture. One of the things we were invited to was a baptism of two brothers, ages 4 and 5, at a local Catholic church in our neighborhood. This is a family that we have been getting to know that lives 2 doors down from us. They are a very nice family that we are looking forward to getting to know better in the future. Below are some pictures from the baptism, plus some other pictures that we took of the girls and other interesting finds.

Baptism

Virtual Prayer Walking

2009-11-19T17:39:00.003-06:00

The past several months we have discovered the joy of taking a stroll and praying for people in our neighborhood and other parts of Puebla. We have encountered people during these walks that we have been able to pray with and share the Gospel. These times have been some of the most enjoyable for us. We have seen God transform us through ministering to others. We would like to give you the same opportunity as well. We have posted a link from Google Maps that shows our house with our blue van in front. You can virtually walk our streets and pray for us and our friends in our neighborhood. You can also catch a glimpse of what our area looks like. We hope you enjoy, and God bless you.

View Larger Map

Also, below is a link to pictures of when we went on a tour of historic Puebla:

City Tour

Field Trip

2009-10-24T15:44:00.002-05:00

A week ago we were able to accompany the girls on their first school field trip to Parque Loro (Parrot Park). If this sounds familiar it is because we visited this park with friends about 3 months ago. However this time was with teachers, parents and kiddos from the girl's classes. We had beautiful weather and a wonderful time getting to know some of the other parents in their classes. From this outing Gabrielle was invited to attend breakfast with about 6 of the other mothers on a different day. We are thankful for the many opportunities that God has given us for language acquisition. Thank you for the many prayers that are prayed on a regular basis for the city of Puebla.

Field Trip

New Work

2009-10-09T17:35:00.003-05:00

The last couple of months we have been meeting regularly as a team. The Bennetts, some Mexicans and us have been talking about and implementing various projects to reach the city of Puebla. Prayer walking is the base that we have decided to work from in our team ministry. We have been prayer walking in Los Heroes, a neighborhood of 15,000 homes that look all the same! If you took the average number of 4 in each home and multiplied it by 15,000 homes it would equal 60,000 people living in this area; most of whom are lost! As we prayer walk up and down the streets we see many idols of Mary in front of some of the houses. This has broken our hearts, realizing that Jesus is the only mediator between us and God (1 Tim 2:5). We hope that God spurs up a passion in you as well for the great amount of lostness in our city. For that reason we have a few pictures of the area in the link following this post. As you look at these pictures please take a moment to pick out a house and pray for that family. We can call this a "virtual" prayer walk!

We have also been prayer walking in our neighborhood (colonia), which is called La Colonia Vicente Guerrero. Please pray for a "person of peace" that we will encounter. This is a person whom Jesus in Luke 10 commands his disciples to find who will open their home up as a place for the disciple to stay, while having the intention of sharing God's Word in that community. In regard to that, this week Gabrielle decided to open our garage door and sit outside with an empty chair hoping to develop relationships with people of our colonia. She held small conversations with 4-5 different women who were on their way to the market, and was able to witness to a couple ladies as well. Gabrielle is hoping to do this a couple times a week so that God will open doors to minister to women in our neighborhood.

Another team effort that is very exciting for us is the work that God is doing in the church that we have been involved with since we have lived in Puebla. The church is called Iglesia Bautista Vida Nueva (New Life Baptist Church). The pastor of this church is moving to another State in Mexico, and the Bennetts and us have been talking with a local church to help us in transitioning Vida Nueva to a cell church. Pastor Eustorgio, from Iglesia Bautista Hananeel, will be helping in this transition by providing leaders and allowing Vida Nueva to attend his church for celebration and fellowship. Please pray that God would bless our efforts of establishing a cell church model for Puebla and our future team ministry.

Much of our vision for cell church occurred when Aaron and the Bennetts went to Tijuana to observe a cell church that the Larner family planted. During his time in Tijuana he ended up in the hospital. He was diagnosed with an obstructed intestine, which caused him extreme pain. We now see that God used this time to bring him closer in his dependence on the Lord. Staying in the hospital gave him time to reflect on what God is doing through cell groups in Tijuana and to talk with Tommy Larner, cell church founder in Tijuana. We also saw God's amazing provision in that when Aaron returned to Puebla we were able to find an excellent doctor who prescribed meds to treat his parasites and infection. He was healed in 2 days. We found out that the obstruction had been caused by the infection. God is definitely our Provider, and we believe that He will minister to our every need; in health and ministry.

Finally, we have also been keeping up with our language and cultural training through the Kaleidoscope program. One of the assignments was to attend a theater performance. We went as a family to see Dora La Exploradora, and the girls loved it! We were even able to find and enjoy some Cotton Candy! Find these pictures and many more in the link below. Have a great day in the Lord!

Prayer Walking

A New School

2009-09-07T12:18:00.002-05:00

Well the summer was finished up with one more VBS that we attended. I say "we" because while the girls were in their VBS class I attended a woman's cooking class that they had for the mothers. I was able to taste all different kinds of Mexican foods. Some looked pretty normal like one day we had a Mediterranean Salad with lettuce, raisins, different fruit and a sweet vinaigrette dressing. Another day we had seasoned chicken tortillas which was very good. Then we had a Cactus tamale which was a little harder to eat but the winner of the week of the strangest new food that I ate was the boiled chicken feet. Not chicken legs but the actual chicken foot. I am so sad that I didn't get a picture for you. But it was pretty funny to the Mexicans when I was trying to eat them. They had a great time teaching me how. The way you eat them is pretty much just pop the little toe in your mouth then eat off all the skin and meat then spit the bone back out. It actually didn't taste bad but it was the thought of what you were eating that made it "different". It reminds me of when Jesus sent out seventy of His followers, in Luke 10:8, when He said to them "whatever city you enter and they receive you, eat what is set before you." However when asked if I would like more I very nicely replied that it was sufficient.

A week later the girls started their first day of school. They are attending Alfred Binet, a bilingual school. They have Spanish 3 hours a day and then English 2 hours of day for a total of a 5 hour school day. They both really like their teachers and look forward to going everyday. The biggest difference we have seen was their definition of "lunch". They told us to pack them a lunch. So we did: sandwich, chips, fruit, dessert and drink; only to be told that it is too much. But they were eating it all so we were very confused. So when we went to the Open house we learned that their "lunch" is a snack. The Mexican custom is that the biggest meal of the day is eaten at 2-3pm in the afternoon. So the teachers are expecting the children to eat when they get home with their families. Little by little we learn all these cultural differences that when we embrace them we begin to fit in a little better each day. Below is the link to the pictures of the VBS and their new school.

New School

Our First Prayer Retreat

2009-08-19T19:17:00.002-05:00

A few weeks ago we attended our first prayer retreat for the missionaries of Mexico's urban centers. It was held at La Muralla in Queretero, Mexico, which is about 5 hours from Puebla. It started with dinner on Thursday and ended Monday after lunch. This was a wonderful time of praisin', prayin', and preachin'! It was also a very valuable trip for us because we were able to sit and talk with missionaries who have been on the field for 15-20 years with a lot more field experience than we have. We gained many valuable ministry tools. Another thing that we were able to experience was the compassion, love, and support from the other missionaries here in Mexico. They have all experienced a first term on the field and know what it is like to miss friends and family in the States. They know what it is like to worship in a different language and not be spiritually fed in a church service, and what it's like to learn to live in a whole new country. Why are we telling you all of this? Not because we are complaining or saying we don't like it here, but because this gives you a glimpse at how difficult it can be and helps you know better how to pray for us. It truly is your prayers and encouraging emails that help lift us up while here in Puebla. Would it be much easier to throw in the towel and head home? Yes it would, but there would still be people out there searching for hope and love that only Jesus can give them. If we are not here who will tell them? In Luke 10 Jesus commands His disciples to beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers. Since being here we have recognized tremendous lostness. Please be praying with us that national believers (new and old) would join us in bringing in the harvest, and that Satan would have no hold on us or this city of Puebla. His lies are so appealing...we know and have been refuting them. With daily prayer we know who will always win!!! Thank you so much for joining us in the battle.

Click on the link below to see some fun pics and videos from the retreat! See you next time.

Prayer Retreat

What a week!

2009-08-06T16:50:00.003-05:00

Last week was a very busy week! We started it off by attending church at a church in our area, Hananeel Baptist Church. We attended this church because a volunteer mission team was in town preparing to do Vacation Bible Schools at about 8 different sites all over the city of Puebla. Monday night we were asked to speak at a dinner the mission team attended about our call and the work in Puebla that we are involved in. From that night they asked us to come and visit one of the sites the next day where they would be having the VBS. So the girls and I went along. Aaron was already involved in another VBS with another local church here in Puebla. So he went there and we went with the mission team. What a wonderful day we had! I ended up translating a game for the team which was very different and a little difficult. This was my first experience translating. The girls had the chance to be involved in the crafts, Bible story, and games. After we left this site we went back to the church for lunch and then the girls headed back out with the team to a different site while I stayed behind to learn about a new ministry that the mission team brought with them. It is called a Prayer Shawl Ministry. The main idea is where we all make Crocheted shawls and then pray over them for the person who will receive them whether we know or not who will receive each one. The ladies at the church decided they wanted to continue to meet and Crochet twice a week every other week. I am very excited about this time that God has blessed me with to make some new friends and hopefully develop my Spanish a bit by having conversations in Spanish. Please be in prayer for this ministry that people will be blessed not only with a shawl but the name of Jesus possibly spoken to them for the first time.

Click on the link below for pictures from the VBS and the first Prayer Shawl meeting. Stay tuned for pictures taken at our Prayer Retreat this past weekend.

VBS

Mexican Baptist National Convention

2009-07-25T18:38:00.004-05:00

Last week we returned from our trip to the Mexican Baptist National Convention in Guadalajara. Our teammates Scott and Sherry Bennett went with us. All in all the trip went well with only a few mishaps that God led us through every step of the way. We planned to leave Puebla at 7:30am in the morning to arrive to Guadalajara no later than 3pm. However between Puebla and Mexico City one of our tires blew out. I guess we had had too many curb checks in Puebla. Aaron and Scott got out to change it, but when they pulled out the spare they found that it was flat also. So we had to call our supervisor who lives in Mexico City to come and help us out. We drove around with him while Aaron stayed at the van. We finally found a repair shop where the spare could be patched since the other tire was beyond repair. We returned to the van, they put it on and off we went through Mexico City to find some new tires. We found a Sam's and figured they had a tire center. Nope they only sell the tires. So we found a Goodyear, to find out they only put the tires on. So we then found a Costco who had the tires and put them on but remembered that we had left the other tire at Goodyear. So we bought the tires, found our way back to the Goodyear just before they closed. We were set to head out of Mexico City by 5:30pm which put us arriving in Guadalajara at 11:30pm. Wow that was exhausting typing that I think it was worse living it! But we were safe the whole time and saw God's hand (and his funny side) throughout the day.

The Convention was very interesting. They started the week with an evening service where a band made up of police men played the national anthem, while some others carried the flag in. It was a very respectful presentation. The following day the meetings started which were pretty heated while discussing some of the topics to be voted on. By Wednesday morning they found themselves voting on each board member whether to keep them or let them go. One of the members read his letter of resignation before this happened. They voted to dismiss the Comisario (Commissioner/Superintendent) and the Executive Director. The next session they nominated two new members and continued on with business in a whole new atmosphere. It really was a great experience, and we feel blessed to have been a part of it. We were able to meet several Mexican pastors and missionaries, and many people got to see that we were interested in Mexican Baptists. Lord willing we will return next year because of the relationships that were started this time. We made contacts with folks from different parts of Mexico, which told us to stop by if we should pass through their area. We saw many doors being opened.

We ended our trip by almost running out of gas. On the toll roads there are very few places to stop and we got caught in the longest stretch. Our gas light came on and the GPS was saying 20 miles until the next gas station. We then started praying and made it just in time. It was a definite test of faith. Thank you for praying us through. Click on the picture below to see some pics of the trip. Have a great week!

Trip to Guadalajara

Exploring our country

2009-07-02T19:36:00.003-05:00

One of the other assignments we have is to explore our area in Mexico. So a couple Saturdays ago we were taken by another missionary family to a favorite trout fishing spot that a lot of people visit on the weekends. It was about 30 minutes outside of Puebla, but the drive was breath taking with all the hills, mountains and volcanoes we saw on the way there. Once we arrived we felt like we were back at home in Missouri because there were a lot of trees and a babbling spring fed brook. There was a little playground for the girls and plenty of places for them to run and play. We all were able to catch one fish a piece. Yes even Evie hooked a pretty good sized one. Of course I (Gabrielle) reeled them in and took them off the hook, but they had to hook them first. We had a great time spending time as a family and teaching the girls a little bit about fishing, which is one of my (Gabrielle) favorite past times with my Dad!
We have experienced quite a few hail storms here in Puebla and the latest one covered our back yard. The girls played in it like it was snow. But with hail is usually rain and a lot of it. We have found the drainage here is lacking and have found quite a few detours around flooded streets. So I figured if that is the closest we get to snow I can handle it. But the majority of the time we have beautiful weather!

This next week we will be driving to Guadalajara for the Mexican Baptist Convention. We are hoping to attend some meetings and begin relationships that will soon turn into partnerships in reaching the city of Puebla for Jesus. Please pray for traveling mercies as we will be gone from July 4-15. See you in a couple weeks.

Below is the link to the fishing pictures and a few more.

Fishing Trip

Parque Loro

2009-06-23T12:37:00.002-05:00

One of the requirements for our orientation is to visit a nature tourist attraction. So we went to Parque Loro for a day with the girls. This is a park/zoo with a lot of different animals but mostly monkeys. I just absolutely love this because I could sit and watch monkeys all day. But we had a great day as a family. We also had another missionary family with us and Sherry Bennett. It was a beautiful day for being outside in God's beautiful earth. Below is the link for this day along with a couple videos of some animals at the end. If you have kiddos around they will love some of these pics. Have a great week in the Lord.

Parque Loro

Funny Story

2009-06-14T12:41:00.002-05:00

When I returned home last November for my Grandfather's funeral, I noticed my Grandmother had some crochet projects started with enough yarn to get a good head start on a blanket. So I asked her if I could take it back with me and finish it. I had figured out that I learn better while doing something with my hands which makes me a tactile learner. So in some of my language school classes I would sit and crochet, and this would help me to concentrate so much better. I was able to finish it before we left Costa Rica.

So here is the funny part. Before we left we sent some of the girls school work back to the states because we wanted to keep it but not necessarily travel with it. So Aaron took it and mailed them the day we moved out of our house. The next day we were visiting the Dewetts in their new house which was our old house and a guy on a moto rode up and asked for Aaron Woods and said the postmaster needed to talk with him about his package. Come to find out he had given Aaron the wrong price for the postage and the way they found us is because Aaron had put our Costa Rican address as the return address. So after he paid this I started thinking about something. About 2 weeks before I had mailed this blanket back to my Grandmother in one box and in another one my Dad's jeans and a duffle bag that belonged to my parents. We paid more to send the jeans than we did for the blanket because they weighed more. So now I am worried that my Grandmother was not going to receive the box because there was not enough postage. So I started praying. My dad received his jeans and the duffle bag but still my Grandmother waited. When we arrived in Mexico City I called my parents to let them know we were safe and my dad said "I need to tell you something." He proceeded to tell me that my Grandmother's box had arrived at their house in Independence, MO instead of Springfield, MO because I had put my parents address as the return address. And stamped all over the box was "Return to Sender. Insufficient postage." Doesn't God have a great sense of humor!!! Hope this brightened your day as it did mine that day a few weeks ago. The pattern in the blanket is an 'L' which stands for my Grandfather's name "Leroy" who passed away at the end of October. I love you Grandpa and Grandma Day!

Don't forget to read the post below if you haven't already!

A Mexican Funeral

2009-06-13T15:34:00.004-05:00

Part of our job here in Pubela in the beginning is completing a series of assignments in order for us to get to know our city better. One of the assignments is attending a funeral. So we heard about one that was taking place in a small town near by. It took place in a town where there are chickens, horses, goats, and dogs randomly walking about. A town where mexican music was blaring from big speakers and no noise ordanance to stop it. A town where everyone knows your name if you live there. A town where the simplicity of life gets it's name. A town where you walk in and you instantly feel like family. The day started off by waiting until we get the word that it was time to start. We walked down the street from the church were there was a huge tent with about 100 people sitting and eating together. There was also a Christian Mariachi Band playing songs and reading scripture. We were served a watermelon juice with flavored rice, tortillas and a very spicy shrimp, potato and tomato based soup with a very "different" taste. The girls and I ate the rice and Aaron ate the soup. I did taste it but that was all I could do. It was way too spicy for me. Next thing we know people are getting up as four men pick up the casket and start the procession to the burial site. We walked for about a mile in the hot sun and finally we see on the hill the cemetary surrounded by a brick wall. And then we watched it pass by as we continued on up the mountain side to another cemetary in the process of being built. The worst part was Sherry and I had worn shoes with heels. So the rugged mountain side wasn't so kind to us. No wonder people were looking at us so weird. We finally arrived and stood as the preacher said a few words and prayed. Then the men slowly lowered the casket into the ground and other men began filling the hole back in with the dirt. The put rocks around the loose dirt and then put the flowers in buckets of water on top. All of the supplies were carried up by different people. The whole process took about 2 hours. In the mean time the girls played in the dirt, sat next to other kids and asked lots of questions. Mylee had the most because this was the first time she has been to a funeral. In one of the videos loaded with the pictures you hear her say "this is so sad." All in all our experience was a good one and we were able to learn quite a few cultural lessons like don't wear heels to a mountain side burial. After we walked back down we were invited to the Pastor's house of the Rose of Sharon Baptist Church. They served us Coca cola, while the girls were out playing with the other kids. Mylee even caught a little chick and held it for awhile. We were able to start new relationships and know we would be welcomed with open arms when we return. Below is the link to these pictures and more. Have a great week.

Mexican Funeral

2009-05-30T21:58:00.001-05:00

New House, Regional Baptist Convention & New Church Organization

Here are some pictures of our new house and some recent meetings that Aaron went to.

Happy Birthday to Evie

2009-05-29T15:04:00.002-05:00

Evie's 3rd Birthday

We arrived in Puebla May 14, 2009 and Evie turned 3 May 15, 2009. I wasn't about to gip her again from having a birthday celebrated in a proper way. So we arrived in Puebla and quickly began to pull things together. We met some other missionaries on the 14th and invited them over and then we invited the 3 children that live next door to the guest house. It was really a spur-of-the-moment party but I think it turned out really well. I even made a cake for it and Sherry made homemade ice cream to go with it. We had a lot of fun that night!

I was telling my parents how different the Walmart experience is here. And they said take some pictures and show us. So I did. I was telling them you park underneath in a parking garage and then take escalators up to the store. The coolest thing however is how the basket wheels have a groove in them to where it sticks to the escalator and won't roll until the end of it. So inventive! Also pretty much everywhere you go you will also see parking attendants that like to help you back out of your parking spot for a peso tip. So that has been pretty hard getting used to. We now keep lots of small change on hand. I should've taken a pic of this, but one day Sherry and I were running errands and were sitting at a stop light in a line of traffic. There are guys who walk up and down the traffic with cleaning fluid to clean your windshield for a tip. So we were sitting there and Sherry was teaching me how to make the NO signal with your finger which is the pointer finger being waved back and forth. Well one of these guys came up and I told him no and he decided I wasn't telling the truth and I really did want it washed. So he started squirting my window and I told him no again. Then he hopped up onto my bumper to reach the rest of the window because our van sits pretty high. Keep in mind Sherry and I both are now telling him no and he is continuing. Then the light turned green and we were still sitting there because I couldn't drive with a guy standing on my bumper. Then of course the honking from other cars started. Finally he jumped down and even if I did want to give him a tip there was no time. Sometimes it could be helpful if you have a dirty windshield but this time it was just plain annoying. Oh well you have to give the guy credit for trying to make a living. Enjoy the pics!

The First Days in Mexico

2009-05-22T18:17:00.004-05:00

Our first few days in Mexico were soooooo busy! We arrived in Mexico City (MC) and sat in traffic for about 2 hours and then finally made it to the guest house where we were staying. We unloaded our bags and then I (Gabrielle) couldn't decide if I was more hungry or tired. So I figured I would feel better after we ate. So we chose to go to Chili's! It was the best meal we have had in a long time. It was so good and tasted just like the states. After we ate I regained enough energy to attend a birthday party that night for another missionary family with another association. The girls had a really good time and we were able to have some cake and ice cream. The next morning was when we were scheduled to go to the immigration office to have our FM3s checked. We were so blessed to have a lawyer with us to guide our every step. Otherwise we would've been lost! That afternoon we had our office orientation while Scott and Sherry Bennett watched the girls for us. That night we took it easy and rested a bit. The next morning we left at 5:15am to drive the hour and a half to Puebla from Mexico City. It was dark most of the way but by the time we made it to Puebla we were greeted with snow capped volcanos. Sorry I couldn't get any pics for you, but it was really pretty. We arrived in Puebla around 7:30am and later in the day looked at our first house which is the one we are currently trying to get a contract on as I type. Pics to come later! Below are our pics from Mexico City and a few from the city of Puebla. Next blog will be Happy Birthday to Evie! Have a great weekend!

First days in Mexico

The Final Days in Costa Rica

2009-05-17T21:37:00.002-05:00

Last days in Costa Rica

Above is the link to the last few pictures that were taken on the final day we were in Costa Rica. We stayed in a Hampton Inn Hotel with a swimming pool the night before our flight because our flight was so early the next morning. So it was very helpful that this hotel was only 1 mile from the airport and they had a shuttle service to take us there. Which allowed us to get a few more Z's that morning! Stay tuned for the "First Days in Mexico" posted later this week!

Another Blessing

2009-05-07T20:57:00.002-05:00

If there was an answer to the the question "Why did we have to wait to leave, God?", I think God would answer with "to give you the desires of your heart." One of the things we were heart broken over is the fact that we were going to leave before Ted and Kerri Dewett made it here with their precious twin girls,Taylor and Kameron, that we prayed so many prayers over a year ago when they were born at 25 weeks gestation. But God knew we really wanted to love on those girls so he delayed us here in Costa Rica to be here for their arrival. We were also able to take part in their 1 year birthday party that they had here in Costa Rica. It has been so wonderful to reconnect the friendship we had with Ted and Kerri back at Orientation in Virginia. Below are some pictures that were taken from their Birthday party that will allow you to see how God answered all of your prayers in their lives. I will let you be the judge! At the end of these pictures are a few I took yesterday and today of the girls and of Mylee and I's pedicures we went and had done along with haircuts. We had a really good time and Mylee loved her first pedicure.

Twins' First Birthday

A little break at the Beach

2009-05-07T19:03:00.002-05:00

Last week, when we found out we were going to be delayed for a bit, we weren't sure what was going to occupy our time. As we were relaying our dilema to some other missionaries, they looked at us and said "why don't you just come to the beach with us?" So that is what we did. We went to The Doubletree Resort at Puntarenas. It is an all inclusive resort to where we didn't have to go find our food or pay extra at a restaurant. It was all included in the price of the room. So this was great for us since we didn't have anything to begin with since other missionaries moved into the home we were living. We decided to go on this trip Sunday and was headed there Tuesday afternoon. Nothing like being spontaneos. This hotel is on the beach but the girls had no interest in the beach just 2 of the 5 pools they had. Since Aaron and I just celebrated April 20, 7 years of marriage this was a great gift to each other. We even traded babysitting with the other couple we went with, 2 out of the 3 nights. Aaron and I were able to eat dinner at a nicer restaurant on the resort, walk on the beach, and then swing in a hammock while we talked about life. It was one of the best dates we have had in a really long time. So I guess Aaron redeemed himself from the Taco Bell dinner we had on our actual anniversary=). It was a wonderful week of relaxation, playtime and family time. We feel so blessed to be able to have taken advantage of the time God had given us to revive before we hit the ground running in Mexico. Enjoy the pics!

Puntarenas Beach

We Graduated!

2009-05-04T09:52:00.005-05:00

Well we did it! We made it through one year of language school in Costa Rica. What a great year it was that we were able to do it as a family. We just loved it so much that we just decided to stay a little longer...NOT! We are currently delayed from heading to Mexico until the Swine flu settles down a bit. We don't have a travel date at this time and will be sure to let you know when we do have one. But for now we will keep working on our spanish, hang out with friends one last time and get this blog updated with new pictures. So below are pictures that were taking at our Graduation ceremony that we were able to be a part of because of our delay. This was actually a strong desire of mine that I layed to rest when we were told we would need to fly out on April 22. But God knew the desire was still there and blessed us with this closing of our school year. What a GREAT God we serve! Have a great week.

Graduation

We are leaving CR...We are not leaving CR...

2009-04-27T21:08:00.002-05:00

I wanted to update you on how we ended our year here in Costa Rica. Aaron and I both tested at Advanced Low which is one level higher than what we were needing to be for Mexico. So we were both very happy with this score and really saw how God helped us obtain this level of language this year.

What a crazy week this has been! We are currently in Costa Rica awaiting our flight to Mexico this next Monday, May 4. We were delayed because of the swine flu epidemic currently still spreading in Mexico City. Please pray they will be able to get this under control before it gets worse. So because our house is being filled by a new Missionary family tonight we had to move out. Another IMB apartment will be available tomorrow for us to stay in throughout our remaining days here. So for tonight we are in a mission team house with a lot of bunkbeds! However, we were invited to go to the beach one last time by another IMB family. So we decided we would enjoy one more place in Costa Rica that we have yet to see. We will be gone Tuesday through Friday. Then we will come back and probably repack for the 3rd time! Sorry there are no pictures attached to this one but will get some others up real soon for you. We will keep you updated on our upcoming travel plans. Have a great week!

Easter in Costa Rica

2009-04-18T11:54:00.002-05:00

I can't believe Easter has already come and gone!! How fast it went by. We had a small break from school, Wednesday through Easter Sunday. This break came at just the right moment as we are packing and cleaning the house for the next family to move in. Good Friday morning the Catholic Church had a Crucifixion parade. They start about a 2 miles from their church and walk back and reinact the walk Jesus made to Galgatha. Overall it was very interesting to watch. I could see that this was a very important part of the Catholic church here in San Jose. Saturday afternoon we had a small Easter "egg" hunt at our house with our friends The Burtons. However instead of eggs we just had wrapped candy to hide. So each child could find 1 each of the 4 types of sweets we had for them. I think they had a really good time with this. Easter morning the girls woke up and went to find their Easter "baskets". I am getting really good at improvising! They loved finding their surprises. We went to church Easter morning and was excited that we were arriving on time for once. We walked in to find that the 8am service started at 6am and the 10:30am service started at 9am. We didn't know that the services were changed for Easter Sunday. Oh well, we'll just say we were REALLY early for the 9am service. So we waited and were able to have a good conversation with the Pastor. We really had a great Easter and were able to relax with a little down time in order to reflex on the great sacrifice Jesus did for us. I really feel that with the parade it really helped me to picture myself there on that walk to Galgatha. It brought tears to my eyes. In the picture link below are pictures of everything mentioned above along with a short video of the parade. Try to picture yourself there 2000 years ago as a bystander watching the procession. Hope you and your family took time out this year to give thanks for the sacrifice that took place 2000 years ago for you! May God bless your week.

Prayer bug: Pray for our visa process that it will be completed soon and we can move on to what God has for us in Puebla.

Easter

Secret Sisters

2009-04-08T09:25:00.002-05:00

Below is kind of a schmorgasborg of pictures. But here is a run down. Mylee and I went to a Surprise Baby Shower for Cohen and Amie Ezelle, other students, that we have been in school with since our First Trimester. Because they are getting ready to leave also, we took up a collection and purchased a Visa giftcard for when they return to the states to have the baby. They will be traveling next Monday and she is about 8 months pregnant. Please pray that the baby waits!!

Also included are photos of a Secret Sister Fellowship. At the beginning of this Timester, ladies signed up to have a secret sister throughout the 4 months that they can pray for and encourage through notes and little gifts if they desired. So this past Monday was the "Revealing" fellowship. Our time started off with a little activity, then we had snacks that were made by me and a few of my friends (Thanks ladies). While they ate their snacks, I had a little devotional time with them. After that was the "revealing" part. This was the most fun! Nobody knew who they had. Everyone had kept it a secret! I had no clue who mine was. Her name happened to be Connie Andy. She thought I knew who mine was since I had put it all together. But my good friend Christina and I made it to where I could have fun with it also. It was a great time together and hope another lady will carry on Secret Sisters.

There are other random pictures of the girls that are pretty cute(I might be biased)! There is also a small video of how our yard is cut. I will leave it up to you if the art should be adopted in the US=). Have a great Easter and please be on your knees for our visas to come, in order to purchase our tickets to Mexico!

Baby Shower/SS Fellowship

Cultural Day

2009-03-30T16:21:00.002-06:00

Below is the pictures from our cultural day at school. Aaron and I took a Latin dance class and then Latin children's game class. It was a great day but we were exhausted by the time bed time came around. But it was a great day to learn more about Latin culture. At the end of the end of the pictures there is a picture of Mylee and I but I have my new specs (glasses) on. Aaron thinks they make me look a little smarter. I guess whatever works, huh! Thanks for visiting.

Cultural Day

Disconnected- Cut off

2009-03-29T15:28:00.002-06:00

Yes we are currently not connected to the internet. Yes we are currently bumming off any friend that will allow us to use their internet. We had asked for our internet to be turned off April 24th. March 24th showed up and we found our internet connection disconnected. Imagine that. So when trying to have it reconnected, we found it was going to take a 5 step process including more money and a house call and found it not to be worth it for only 28 days left. So I guess that leaves time for other stuff now, like packing!!! This blog entry will have no pictures and I might try to get some up this week but I can't promise anything. As of this point we still do not have visa papers to allow us to head to Mexico. Therefore we still do not have airline tickets either. We will keep you posted but we still have 3 weeks to go. So plenty of time! Thanks for checking in and keep checking periodically as I am not sure when pictures will be posted! Have a great week!

Toothless Grin

2009-03-22T07:10:00.003-06:00

This past week was a milestone in Mylee's life. For the past 3 weeks or so, Mylee has been saying she has a loose tooth and once I even felt it and it didn't move. So I figured her friends at school were loosing teeth and saying this so she was too. Then on Tuesday she told me again and then showed me and sure enough she was telling the truth. Wednesday came around and I asked to touch it and when I did I thought it was going to fall out right then because it was sooooooo loose. So I asked her if I could go ahead and pull it, persuading her with the "surprise" that would be under her pillow in the morning if she puts her tooth under there. So she said okay. So with some toilet paper it came right out. It took me a couple tries in order to get the correct grip but it only bled a little bit. So now we have a toothless grin everytime she smiles. Pretty cute. The Toothfairy left her 1000 colones which is about 2 dollars. I guess with inflation and all, kids are getting a little more these days=). Or the tooth fairy wanted to give her some paper money, instead of a coin because she gets coins all the time. So she wanted it to be extra special and the 1000 colones is the smallest Costa Rica has in bills. Oh well. Below is the link to take you to the toothless grin! See you next week.

Toothless Grin

Costa Rican Mountains

2009-03-15T08:33:00.002-06:00

Last Sunday we had the privilege of accompanying our Costa Rican friends, Ronald and Marcela and their two children, on a visit to their home in the mountains they are building little by little. So far they have the living room, kitchen, bathroom and a wrap around porch. Underneath there are 3 bedrooms and 1 more bathroom in the making. We left at 8am and drove for about an hour to get there. The last 30 minutes were on a dirt gravel road. But the view was breath taking when we arrived.

The day started off with a little hike up the dirt road to a SMALL town near by. We met a friend of theirs in the town. At one point on his land you could look out and see the ocean that is about a two hour drive to get there, past the mountains. It was incredible. After we walked back, it was time to get lunch going and the kids wanted to play in the water. The whole time we were there the wind was SO strong. However in the sun it was pretty warm. But the kids didn't care one bit that the wind was a bit cold. They had a blast.

For lunch we had chicken and steak on the grill with potato salad, chips and salsa and bean dip. It was all very tasty. After lunch the boys took a hike down the mountain to see a spring fed river. Aaron thoroughly enjoyed this. Meanwhile Marcela and I chatted at the cabin. We were a little nervous that we were going to be speaking in Spanish the whole day but we did it! The time finally came that we had to pack up and head home. We had an excellent day with new friends; one that will not be forgotten in our thoughts and memories. Below is the link to the pictures we took from that day! See you next week!

Costa Rican Mountains

Ladies Retreat #2

2009-03-11T16:28:00.002-06:00

This past weekend I was able to attend a Ladies Retreat like the last one I attended last June when we first arrived here. I found this one to be a lot more meaningful for me. I realized how important it is to woship and be fed spiritually in your heart language. During the first session I was just eating up all her words and worshipping with all my heart. I love to worship in Spanish but it is harder when you don't understand some of the words. But as the spanish language becomes easier for us it will be easier to worship.

The theme for the weekend was Forgiveness and Repentance. I was in charge of getting together Dramas for each session. We (my friends and I) prepared one Human video to Chris Tomlin's song Amazing Grace, My Chains are Gone. The other two were skits I just made up and one was even more improv. It was really fun. There were 4of us in a room together. We had thought two of us were going to have to share a bed but we got there and saw we had 4 beds in the room. So we thanked God for that blessing. But we had lots of chocolate given to us that we said thanks for also!

I think the best thing that came from the weekend was me asking God how I can become a more submissive wife and what exactly it means to be just that. And since then on three different occasions I have been given information on how to be a submissive wife. I guess God thinks this is really important to learn so I am going to try my best to learn it. Below is the link for some pictures from the weekend. I didn't take any pics of the pool because I did that last time. You can find those pics in the archives from June of 2008. Check back early next week for our pics from our time in the mountains with our friends. Ya'll come back now, ya hear! =)

Ladies Retreat

Manuel Antonio

2009-03-02T16:36:00.003-06:00

This past weekend we went to the final place that we wanted to visit before leaving Costa Rica. We went to a place called Manuel Antonio which is a group of beaches. This is also the place of the Manuel Antonio National Park which has the prettiest beaches inside the park. At first we thought we were not going to be able to go into the park because of contaminated water but it was open so we swam on faith! The weekend all together was very fun. It was about a 5 hour bus ride including breaks. We were a little nervous about Evie because this was her first trip being potty trained but we had no accidents. We got a little nervous at the end of the trip when we were sitting in traffic after driving for an hour and a half and still had about an hour to go so we put a diaper on her just in case but it was dry when we got home. So we were so proud of her. I think our most memorable time we had at the beach was when we sat down on Saturday to have lunch in the National Park. One of the features of the park is all the wildlife they have inside of it. Well during lunch we were able to see first hand the wild life with 3 raccoons that were very bold and came within about 2 feet of our food. The girls were a little nervous about this. So I had to get up and kick sand at them to scare them away. One of the park guides even helped me once. I did this about 4-5 times before they realized that this woman is getting more violent every time. So they finally gave up. But then a little monkey showed up but he didn't want our food so he posed for a few pics! Below is the link to see some of the pictures of the weekend. Other people said they were going to be sending me some so we'll get those up at a later time!

Please pray for us this week as we will be celebrating our son Daeton's birthday (born before Mylee but is in the arms of Jesus) on Wednesday, the 4th of February. It was 6 years ago but still fresh on our minds.

I will also be attending a Woman's Retreat this coming weekend that I have written dramas for. Please pray for the women, that their lives will be changed through the dramas and the message of forgiveness.

Manuel Antonio

Day of Rest

2009-02-22T10:06:00.002-06:00

Sundays have become our new day of rest. Since our bible study worship has been changed to Saturdays, by the time Sundays come around we are just ready for a day to stay around the house and not have to walk anywhere. So I decided to take some pictures of our Day of Rest. Below is the link to take you to those pictures.

Day of Rest

Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures, but we had the priviledge of having Ticos in our home last night. This was a family that we have gotten to know through church and our school. They have a son in Mylee's class and a 9 year old daughter. After last night we were regretting we had not invited them over sooner but we didn't feel comfortable with our spanish before now. We grilled hamburgers and I made some guacamole and had a wonderful time together. We were also invited to go with them in a couple of weeks to their house they have up in the mountains. So we are very excited about having that interaction with them. And I will definetly take pictures of that day. But that isn't until the 8th of March.
Next weekend we will be taking our last little trip here in Costa Rica. We have signed up to go to Manuel Antonio beach. So stay tuned for those pics next week. We only have 8 weeks of school to go counting a couple breaks we have. Please pray we stay strong to the end. We have not received any word yet on our visas but we'll let you know the minute we do. Thank you to my cousins Andy and Christie and Nathan for the package that was sent to us this past week. Praise the Lord it made it here! Have a great week.

A Calm Week

2009-02-14T07:11:00.005-06:00

Evie trying on a Princess hat Mylee made at another Princess Party!

Mylee couldn't smile very big because she had a big piece of candy in her mouth.

Silly Evie with her swimming goggles on!

After last week, this was a much needed calmer week. We made it through, however. We think Wednesday night Mylee ate some bad ham and got sick two times in the middle of the night. So we were ALL up changing sheets and getting her cleaned up. That was a pretty hard night. But in the morning Evie slept til 7am, which she hasn't done that since...well I can't remember the last time she did that. Why couldn't it have been on a Saturday? Oh well.
Aaron and I went out last night for Valentine's Day. We didn't do much, however, because we were so tired from the week. So we decided to go watch the Pink Panther 2. It was a great therapy movie because we laughed quite a bit through it. Then we went and found Mylee and Evie a Valentine's present. We bought each of them some chocalates and a little doggy in a purse. Aaron and I very carefully selected a different one for each of them that we thought they would like. Well they found them without us this morning and ended up picking the opposite of what we had picked for each of them. Oh well I guess we still have a lot to learn! But the important thing is they didn't fight over which one to have.

Looking ahead: Please be praying that our visa papers for Mexico will be processed quickly. We have 10 weeks to go and the business manager will not buy our plane tickets out of here until we have a fax saying they are processed. Also a couple weeks ago we reserved a mission house in Lee's Summit for our stateside assignment in 3 years (talk about looking ahead-2012). However, our first option has become a possibility for us again as Missionaries in Residence at Midwestern Baptist Seminary. This would be the best option for us as Aaron will be completing his Masters there and I will be completing my Bachelors at UMKC. This would save us on gas expenses and travel time to allow us to have more time as a family. Please be praying for our acceptance by the president of the Seminary. Have a great week!

Happy Birthday to Mylee

2009-02-08T15:53:00.002-06:00

Mylee's Birthday

What a fun week we have had celebrating Mylee's 5th birthday. We started off the week with Mylee's birthday party at McDonald's Play Place. We had about 22 kiddos show up (including all the little ones with the families) and about 15 parents or so. The kids were able to play in the play area, as well as games and a pinata. All the kids received a Happy Meal and the adults received a small fry and a small coke. Mylee also chose to have a Hello Kitty cake and all were served a piece of that. One of the new customs we have learned is that the Birthday girl (or boy) gets to have the first bite. So they are supposed to just dig right in with a big mouthful of the cake. Well, Mylee was just fine with a finger full. It was pretty funny. The other funny thing that happened was the night before, I went to fill the goodie bags and opened up the package that was supposed to have 12 units turned out to only be 6 units. Rememeber I had about 17 bags that I needed to prepare. So I ended up taking some freezer bags and filling those for the boys. Oh well you live and learn. The other common thing here is to not open the birthday presents at the party in front of everyone. So we brought the gifts home and opened all the gifts. I would have to admit I like this way alot better. It wasn't craziness with tons of kids around and I wasn't standing back hoping Mylee was going to be nice and polite as each gift was opened. So while Aaron went and watched the Superbowl up at the school the girls and my friend and her two daughters came back to the house with us for the gift opening. It was a very fun day!

At the party, when they served the cake they cut around the middle first and left the picture with Feliz Cumpleanos Mylee, written on it for us to take home. So for her real birthday we sent that to school with her to share with her friends. It was so thoughtful. She was also given about 4 more gifts for her real birthday from us!

Below is the link of the pictures from the birthday party and when we went back to the Children's Museum on our day off, Friday. We had a lot of fun as a family. We all also received hair cuts this weekend and those pictures are included also. We took pictures because I think this was Evie's first hair cut. I wasn't going to cut her hair but she wanted to be like her sister, so we cut all her beautiful little baby curls off. It was so sad but I knew I was going to have to cut them at some point. You can see her long hair in the early pictures. Thank you for praying for Mylee this past week and look forward to seeing you back here next week. Have a blessed one!

Vacation Bible School

2009-02-01T07:03:00.002-06:00

What a week we had at Vacation Bible School. It was such a different experience. I signed up to help so that I could get a glimpse into a Latin VBS. I have to say it was pretty much the same as the US. We rotated to 4 stations: crafts, snacks, missions and a teaching time. I helped with the 7-8 year olds. There was one little boy that would not stop running all over the place. We would be having the bible story time and randomly he would get up and run out the door to go to the "bathroom" or just get up to be moving. He would not follow many directions or sit long enough to get any. But on the 4th day I found out he lived in a home for children who have no parents. So that explained a whole lot. On Wednesday I experienced a little bit of the Latin culture when the teacher of the class I was in left to go to the bank with out telling me she was leaving. So after 20 minutes I realized what had happened and didn't have a clue of what to do. Didn't have the schedule given to me before she left. I could feel the stress creeping up my upper back and into my neck. So I tried to keep some order with my broken spanish and one word commands. I ended up just letting them run some energy out in the back lot you will see in the pictures below. By Friday we were all tired. I gave the choice to Mylee if she wanted to go or not and she said she just wanted to go home. So I didn't force her and I also didn't complain because I was pretty tired also. I did start feeling sad we didn't go but at the same time don't know if I would've had the energy or patience to do it. In the end I was very glad we went for the spanish practice and being one step closer to becoming one with the culture.

There are also some pictures of the ballerina princess pajama party we went to of one of the Missionary kids here with us in Costa Rica. The girls had a great time. Speaking of parties we have a big one today for Mylee's 5th birthday. You definetly know you are out of the the US when you plan a Birthday Party on Superbowl Sunday from 4-6pm. OOOOPS! Didn't even realize it until it was booked and the invites were out. We are having a McDonald's playplace birthday. So check back next week for pictures of the big party. Her birthday isn't until Wednesday, February 4th. Please send up a birthday prayer for her this week. See you next week.

VBS

POTTY TRAINING!

2009-01-24T13:21:00.005-06:00

Well what a fun week we have had perfecting the art of potty training. Evie is doing really well and is getting the hang of things. We have mainly been working on the day time and will tackle the night time at a later date. She just sleeps so hard that we can't wake her up to go. So after 2 nights of changing sheets we just decided to do diapers at night for now. The pictures above were taken when Aaron was trying to teach Evie how to get #2 out. It was pretty funny. Otherwise there really isn't much else that went on this week, just studying hard! We do have a praise of a contract on Aaron's grandmother's house. We are hoping to have everything said and done within a month. Please pray that it all goes through. Have a great week.

Happy Birthday

2009-01-18T08:42:00.002-06:00

I celebrated my 28th birthday this past Thursday. Since it was a school day we didn't do much that day. I did have a small party in my language class where the other 3 ladies and my teacher brought Gallo Pinto (breakfast rice and beans), fruit, scrambled eggs, and bread. Thank you ladies! One of my friends also made me a cake and brought it to school for us to have during our 2 hour break. That night I finished my homework early and sat and watched a movie before I went to bed. It was relaxing! Friday night Aaron planned a date for us. He even secured a babysitter! He took me to a restaurant in the mountains that looks over the city of San Jose. It was absolutely beautiful. We were so high there were small clouds that were sailing right by the window we were sitting by. However, because we were so high the temp was a little cooler. It was about 50 degrees and we were freezing! Aaron told me I could order whatever I wanted so I ordered Filet Mignon. It was a very good steak. I have not had one since we have been here in Costa Rica. We were getting ready to order dessert and next thing I know our waiter was putting a piece of cheesecake in front of me and then there were about 5 other waiters ready to sing Happy Birthday to me. I don't get embarrased often but I was at that point. I just wasn't expecting it at all because the environment is one of romance. But I couldn't be mad at Aaron for telling them, but our friend Fernando who made the reservations. Oh well, we had a good time anyhow. Saturday night our friends threw me a birthday pizza party. I even received some presents.

Joe and Heidi gave me some Yarn for more Crocheting.
Dwyndl and Lori gave me a little Happy birthday bear.
Ryan and Emily Buttes gave me some cookie sticks, Banana Bread, and Cookies.
Dee Jay and Christy Burton gave me a hand mixer.

Thank you to all my friends who helped make my 28th Birthday memorable. I am excited to see what adventures God will bless me with this next year!

We made it through our first week of school! We both love our Teachers and classes. Thank you for praying us through the first one. Only 14 weeks left to go!

Below is the link to the pictures from Christmas and Birthday. There are a few that were taken with our camera when Mom and Dad were here also. At the end of the pictures is a video of the girls opening presents from their other Grandma (Aaron's Mom) Grammy Candy! It is pretty cute.

Christmas and Birthday

The Last Two Weeks

2009-01-10T13:30:00.002-06:00

What an wonderful two weeks we have had with my Parents here visiting us in Costa Rica. We played games almost every night they were here! In the two weeks they experienced a Costa Rican New Year's, trips to the market, rides in public buses and taxis, zip lining through a rainforest, Costa Rican down pours, a Costa Rican birthday party, a Central American amusement park, and an earthquake. We were able to tour a Coffee plantation and see the whole process of how a coffee bean goes from the ground to the ground brown stuff you buy at the store. All very interesting. We took a couple days and drove to a hotel right next to the active volcano, Arenal. However it was cloudy and rainy almost the whole time. I guess that is what you get when you visit a rainforest! While at Arenal we all did a Canopy Tour which is zip lining in the canopy of the tree tops. Some of them about 800 feet in the air. But probably one of the most memorable moments we will all remember was the 6.2 earthquake we all made it through the day before Mom and Dad left. It was unlike anything we have ever experienced. Praise the Lord we were here with Mom and Dad and the girls because we have been prepared for this where Mom and Dad really didn't know what to do with it. The girls did very well and didn't seem to be the least bit frightened. Wow, as I typed what all we did made myself feel very tired. We sure were busy but had a great time experiencing it all together. We were all very sad to see them leave and I know they were sad to leave us, but we still have SKYPE and our memories until we see one another again face to face!

There are a lot of pictures, because my dad was a little snap happy with the camera. But out of 1600 photos I was able to narrow it down to about 370 or so. Some you can flip through quickly but you might have to see them in two settings. Sorry about that. I guess this will make up for all the weeks I didn't have very many photos, huh. Click on the picture below to view them.

Upcoming important dates and prayer opportunities:
We start our 3rd Trimester on Monday, January 12th, Gabrielle will celebrate her 28th birthday on Thursday, January 15th and then Mylee her 5th birthday on February 4th.

Grandparents visit

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-27T22:24:00.003-06:00

Christmas

Oh what a great Christmas we had. As long as we can look past the fireworks (or dynamite) at 2:30am Christmas Morning and the 85 degree weather, it was a pretty normal Christmas. Okay it wasn't normal at all. We woke up with no other family around and opening presents was done in record time, but we made it a holiday to remember. We bought from another family a little Dora Kitchen for the girls and Evie saw it and said "This is mine!" It was so funny. Mylee took the sight in for a little bit then went straight to her little bag of stocking goodies. But as soon as they were done opening presents that was the first thing they both played with. The other well-liked presents were the princess dresses and shoes. Both of them loved those and put them on immediately. Around 9am I had to go lay back down because I was so tired from only getting 3-4 hours of sleep from the night before. But in the afternoon we went and had a lunch with some other IMB folks. The kids had a great time running and playing, I had a great time playing Mexican Train dominoes with the ladies, and Aaron hung with the boys and watched bull fighting on TV. But there was one constant. I brought with us a children's nativity scene that we could sit down as a family and over a period of 7 days talk about the true reason for Christmas,the birth of our Savior, Jesus. Yes it was definetly a very different Christmas but, because of Jesus, one worth remembering.

As I type this I wait for my parents flight to arrive safely in Costa Rica. Please pray this week that we have a great week with my parents, Mike and Connie, and that things would run smoothly with the fun activities we have planned...Si Dios Quiere (If God Desires). Please pray also that Aaron's grandmother's house sells quickly down in Bentonville, AR and that we would know which offer God would have us accept. Click on the photo above to see our fun Christmas. Have a Happy New Year!

1st Week of Vacation

2008-12-20T11:54:00.004-06:00

Well we made it through our first week of vacation and didn't die of boredom. It went by really fast! However we didn't do much this week. Sunday we had a little birthday party with our Nicaraguan friends in our bible study because the father of Violetta, who hosts the BS, celebrated his 85th birthday the day after Aaron's birthday(16th). Below is a video we took of singing and blowing the candles out on the cake. Very fun evening. (Remember to push pause in the music box to the left, before playing the video to hear the sound of the video.)

Monday we went to the park and took some pretty cute pictures of the girls in which you can see when you click on the pictures below. Tuesday was another good attempt at Potty Training but didn't last all day. So we will try again later down the road. Wednesday and Thursday were spent going to Hipermas and PriceSmart to stock up on supplies for the month. Friday, Aaron and I found a sitter for the girls and went and did some final Christmas shopping. We then were able to eat lunch at Subway, where we found out they have Air conditioning! It was so refreshing after walking in the hot sun. We are finally moving out of the rainy season and have had quite a few days of no rain. Praise the Lord! We are looking forward to this next week celebrating the Birth of Jesus here in Costa Rica. Have a very Merry Christmas!

Park Day

End of Trimester Evaluations

2008-12-13T11:48:00.002-06:00

We finally made it through our second trimester of language school! We both came out with two more A's under our belt! We also received our language acquisition score for the trimester. Aaron received an Intermediate High, which is what he needs to move on to Mexico. Good work Aaron! I received Intermediate Medium Basic. I moved up a small step but small enough to probably say I didn't move at all but I didn't go backwards either. This last trimester has really been hard for me in dealing with the death of my Grandfather, including a trip to the states. We have also been without a house helper for the past 2 months and probably still a month to go. So towards the end of school Aaron and I had to get a schedule set to keep up with the housework on top of homework and studying. So I will be working next trimester one on one with a tutor trying to gain some ground back. My goals over our month break will be to practice memorizing some more verbs and brushing up on the 14 conjugations of each verb.
Above are just some random pictures I snapped the past week. We were mainly just trying to get through the week. Evie had a temperature Thursday and Friday, but no other symptoms. But her fever finally broke early Saturday morning but only after she had two nights of nightmares. So sleep was scarce for all of us. I pray tonight will be better. So Friday Mylee and I came home from the school Graduation to find Aaron and Evie snuggled up on the bed sleeping. So I snapped the pic because I thought it was so cute.
At the school garage sale I found each of the girls a new swimsuit (well new to them). So they wanted to try them on and Evie decided to put on her rain boots too and sweep the floor all at once so it was a funny sight. Thought you would enjoy that pic.
Below is a video we made to promote the Lottie Moon Christmas offering for a couple churches. I wanted to put it on here, so you could see Evie's personality shine through! If you would like to play for your church or would like for us to send it to you please email us at agmewoods@gmail.com. Aaron's 31st birthday is on Tuesday, December 16th. So if you wanted to shoot him a Happy Birthday, I am sure he would love it. Enjoy!

A Weekend of Parties!

2008-12-06T11:13:00.007-06:00

This past weekend, including Thanksgiving, we attended 6 parties! Two on Thanksgiving, two going away parties(one with our Bible Study group for Scott and Sherry), and two birthday parties! What a busy weekend! The girls participated in a Christmas program as well this week. Evie wasn't too sure of it all. So she just stood there with her fingers in her mouth. And at one point was crying. But it was her first performance so a little stage fright was to be expected. Mylee's class did the Christmas story and Mylee was a shephard. Below is a video of her class reciting in Spanish Luke 2:14. In spanish it says: Gloria a Dios en las alturas, y en la tierra paz a los que gozan de su buena voluntad. In English: Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace good will to all men. You can't really understand them but you can watch Mylee perform. She wasn't shy at all! The other video is of Mylee taking her turn at a pinata at a Costa Rican birthday party she was invited to. They had the party at McDonald's. Mylee had a great time playing with all her friends. There are also some pictures of a Cultural Day we had at school. They taught us Christmas Carols of Latin America and portrayed what is called Las Posadas. This is where the children of a Catholic Church dress up as Mary and Joseph and walk around to preselected houses singing a song about Mary and Joseph looking for an Inn. When they reach the final house they are accepted into the home for coffee and cookies and they sing carols and pray. So the teachers portrayed this for us. We then had Tomales, and hit pinatas. You will not want to miss some of these pictures! If you want to hear the sound on the videos be sure to scroll down and push pause in the red music box in the left column. Click on our family photo box to view the pictures.

A party weekend!

2008-11-30T18:47:00.004-06:00

What a great Thanksgiving we had with our Friends and IMB Family. We ate lots of good food cooked by some really great cooks. I will have those pics for next weeks blog!
For this week I have a variety of pics from different occasions. One of which includes the addition of a Christmas Tree in our home! The girls absolutely love it and think the lights need to be on every moment they are awake... which is fine with me!
I have added a couple videos this week. The first one is of Evie and Aaron and their daily custom when walking to and from school! Evie thinks it is the greatest and when you see the video you will see why. There is also a picture of Mylee(Click on the Christmas Tree below) walking with her little friend, Claire, who will be leaving in a week. Claire lives accross the street from us and the girls get to have a play date about every week where they trade on and off at each others house. Yes, we will really miss Claire!
The other video is of Evie at the Children's museum when their school had a Christmas party. And boy was it a Party! None of the kids had to pay to go and came home with lots of treats. One of us had to go with Evie because she was two, so Aaron went with her. I stayed behind and attended classes because I had already missed a lot a few weeks ago. So this is a little video of Evie playing around at the museum.

Among the pictures below are two pictures of the children that were orphaned when their mother was killed a couple months ago, which was the neice to our House Helper, Yolanda. Yolanda has traveled back to Nicaragua with the kids but at this time is unable to return to Costa Rica. She has been unable to get the proper paper work to return. Please pray for God's hand in this situation because she is missing her son and Fiancee a lot, who are still here in Costa Rica. Please take a few minutes to pray for the children when their pictures come up. I know they will appreciate it. Have a great week!

Oh Christmas Tree!

HSM3 and the Beach!!

2008-11-23T09:58:00.003-06:00

Movie and Beach

Right after I returned from the US, I took Mylee to her first movie theater experience to see High School Musical 3. We went with a friend of mine and her two girls as well. It all went really well except I had to keep telling Mylee we couldn't talk during the movie. And then during the one 5-second kissing scene she yelled EEEEEEEW really loud. Oh the 4 year old innocence. So after we recovered from that we were able to get through the movie. Luckily there were only 7 people in the theater and we made up 5 of those 7. You will be interested to see the types of seats in this theater. It is like nothing I have ever seen. I will give you a small hint: the name of the movie theater is The VIP! I will let you look at the pictures to see the rest for your self.

We signed up a couple months ago to go with the school to Punta Leona Resort and Beach. The trip was from Friday 8am to Saturday 6pm. We had a day off on that Friday so that is why we decided it would be a good trip for us. We had a lot of fun and the girls loved the sand. The ocean on the other hand was a different story for them. We tried to push them a little to try the ocean out and all was going well until a huge wave, bigger than Aaron and I, came over us and engulfed us all. Needless to say that was the end of the ocean for both of the girls. So in the sand they stayed and loved every minute. A very common thing in Costa Rica is an all inclusive resort. Which means your meals are included in your price. We really didn't know what to expect, but boy were we surprised. The food was incredible! Some of the best we have had here in Costa Rica yet. It was so good that even the white faced monkeys wanted to get in on the action. The restaurant is in the middle of a rain forest so what do you expect. But these little monkeys had some guts. So much, they actually stole a banana off my plate while Aaron and the girls were sitting at the table! We would look up and see them eating Splenda packets from the table, bananas, hard boiled eggs and once even a box of cereal. It was funny but eventually annoying because you had to guard your food and the girls would scream every time they would come within 10 feet of us which was pretty often. I guess a little later they set off fire crackers in the forest to scare them off. But it was definetly an expierence to eat breakfast with monkeys.

Click on the picture above to see all the fun pictures and more. Check back next week to see the new addition to our house! Look to left to see a poll I have added to the website. Don't forget to put your vote in! Have a Happy Thanksgiving with safe travels!

Chicken Pot Pie from Scratch

2008-11-16T07:11:00.006-06:00

We have been getting together with Scott and Sherry Bennett(teammates in Puebla) on a weekly basis for dinner and time to hang out. This particular night we made Chicken Pot Pie from scratch. So I had to get pictures of the whole process and the many little helpers we had in the kitchen (two to be exact!) But we had fun making it together and it was very good when we finally sat down to eat it. It was worth all the work that went into it!

One of the assignments in school was to present and demonstrate what we do in our free time. So I took some of my scrapbooking supplies and the necessary pictures to make a two page layout in class. So I had Aaron take pictures of my demonstration. It was a lot of fun. Probably the most fun assignment I have had yet!!

This is the blog update that I wanted to post before my trip back to the States but didn't get done. So I have also included some pics from my trip of my time with my family as well. Click on the picture below to see the album of the week. Coming soon (next Monday): Pictures of our trip to the beach this weekend. We went with the school on a 2 day trip to a close beach. You won't want to miss the stories or the Pics! Have a great week!

Scrapbooking

Update Coming Soon!

2008-10-31T15:36:00.002-06:00

I wanted to write a quick note to let you know my Grandfather has passed away. I am in the United States attending his funeral. I will be returing to Costa Rica Saturday, November 8, so I will not be able to have another blog update until sometime after I return. Thank you for checking our site and appreciate you checking back at a later time. Have a great week!

Blessings

2008-10-19T14:56:00.003-05:00

Here are a few blessings from this week that I took for granted in the states:

I found a bag of Funyun chips at the store this past week!
They had JettPuff marshmallows at PriceSmart(Sam's) and I successfully made Rice Krispie treats!
We finally were able to bring our Microwave back home! Long story, short: Our microwave wasn't functioning properly like coming on by itself and sometimes not working at all when the buttons were pushed. So only having it 5 months I figured they would just refund our money and we get a new one. Wrong. They said they would try to fix it and it wouldn't take longer than a week at the most. Well 3 weeks later I went to the store to check on it and it was ready and repaired with a new key pad. They said there was a short in the other one. But surprisingly enough I really didn't miss it!

A couple nights ago the girls were playing in their room instead of sleeping. So after going in there twice already I was headed in a 3rd time to lay down the law. I went in only to find that Evie had taken everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, off and was playing in Mylee's bed. How do you not just bust up laughing when you are supposed to be the really mad parent because the kids aren't sleeping? Thankfully there were no "accidents" on the bed because I would have been really upset, clothes or no clothes.

Coming up: Aaron and I were invited to a murder mystery dinner next Friday night!
Gabrielle is teaching the next Bible Study (in Spanish)!
Have a stupendous week!

La Fiesta

2008-10-11T14:18:00.006-05:00

This past Friday we had an exam in our Language class. After studying typical Costa Rican parties, our exam was, with another class, to plan a party! Everything from decorations, food, games, and clean up. Some of the requirements were to speak in Spanish the whole time, include some jokes and use a Costa Rican idiom or saying. I was in charge of the game. So I bought a pinata and filled it. It was a lot of fun! Below are a couple of videos of our time in the party. The first one is of me talking a little bit in Spanish. I am telling the class there are surpises in the pinata. The next video is of me hitting the pinata and breaking it! Be sure to push pause on music box on the side bar to the left to hear the video sound! Enjoy.

Also this week we had a cultural day. The grade school and high school put on a performance with many different performances from other cultures. They had a song in Korean, different verses of the Bible read in different languages, a video of many different people from around the world, and a human video (which was my favorite) to the song "Go Light Your World" by Kathy Troccoli. They worked very hard to get ready for this day and we were privledged to be a part of it. About half way through the performance I was looking at Evie and noticed I had dressed her in her little Mexico dress. Actually that morning she picked it out herself. So I don't know if she knew what she was doing or not but she fit right in for the day! Below is the link to click on to see the pictures. Just double click on any picture. Have a great week!

Lunch and a poopy diaper!

2008-10-05T19:44:00.004-05:00

What a week we had! This past Sunday Aaron was able to lead his first Bible Study in Spanish! He did a really good job and we think everyone understood his Spanish. Last Sunday before we left the Bible Study we asked our Nicaraguense friends over for lunch the next Sunday, which was today. We scheduled for them to come over at 2pm and at 2:20 they called and said they were lost from the directions we gave them. We live near Parque El Bosque and little did we know there are 2! There is a small one and a big one. We live by the big one. I guess they went to the other one first. But they made it here finally. I was so excited to make this new dish that my mom gave me the recipe for. I wanted to make them something different, like American. So I made them Chicken baked in a sweet salsa. Well during our dinner conversation I found out that this is a common Costa Rican dish=( Oh well, at least it turned out edible. When we were almost finished Evie came in from the backyard with her dress held up and you could see her little bottom covered in poopy. I guess she didn't want to bother me with a diaper change so she was going to do it herself. Oh how embarrassing. But they all laughed it away. But lunch turned out to be pretty fun and we were actually able to keep conversations going. Below is a few pictures of our lunch and as promised a few pictures of the girls. Evie is at that stage if I don't get a cute picture the first time I snap it, then I don't get one at all. But she is in the picture no less. Dios Le Bendiga! (God Bless You)

Somewhere over the Rainbow...There's a lizzard in our house!

2008-09-28T13:43:00.005-05:00

I had the opportunity this week to show the love of Christ to our water delivery man with a donation of $85. Berny had lost quite a bit of money in the robbery a couple weeks ago and a few families in the states followed the call of God to help Berny and his family out. How wonderful it was to hand him the envelope and tell him that there were people praying for his family and that God loved him very much. He didn't know how much was in the envelope because it was sealed but I said that I hoped it would help him out with the loss. All he would say is "It's enough, It's enough!" He was very thankful for the help and I pray that we will have more opportunities to be a light in a very dark place. Thank you families for responding to God's call and putting it into action.

For the first time in San Jose, we saw a rainbow over our house this past week. It was so big and the end of it seems to land right at our house! It was very pretty! We also had another little, and I mean little, visitor in our house. Check out the pictures below! However there are no pictures of the girls this week. But will have some for sure next week. Have a good one!

An IMB Weekend

2008-09-21T12:02:00.004-05:00

Not much excitement happened this week. Praise the Lord we have heard of no more excitement as far as robberies go either! But what we did have was our monthly IMB group meeting. These meetings can be different. Sometimes Member Care (counselors)come in for a training session. Sometimes we have different speakers come in. But this month our Mentors talked with us about church planting. It was Friday from 4-6pm and then continued Saturday 9-12pm. These weekends are packed with helpful information that will help us with church planting here in Costa Rica and in Puebla as well. Below is a slide show of a few pictures from the weekend and a few extras(double click on the pictures to see the pictures on the web). As you look at the other missionaries you will not have their names. But God knows who they are. Please send up a couple of prayers as you look at the pictures of our fellow IMB missionaries that are in language school just like us.

After the training was over Aaron and I were able to go out on a double date with our friends from KC, Scott and Sherry Bennett, whom we will be serving with in Puebla. We went to lunch and then to a movie and had a grand time!

A week of Celebration!

2008-09-15T17:55:00.010-05:00

Not only did we celebrate the Independence of Costa Rica this week but God's safe deliverance from what could have been a very bad situation: A robbery!

Yes, and I will rejoice, for I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayers and the provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Philippians 1:19
Taking a step of faith has a whole new meaning when there is a gun not two feet away from you. For precautions of water diseases, we have a man deliver some water to us on a weekly basis. This particular week, my husband wasn’t home, so I was taking care of the water exchange. As I went out to unlock our gate, which is about 5 yards from the door to our house, I noticed out of the corner of my eye that another man had walked up on the sidewalk. Not really paying attention to them because people walking by are not abnormal, I proceeded to unlock the gate. However, when it was time to open it I realized I couldn’t because the man had stopped and a conversation in hurried and anxious Spanish began. As I looked from the ground up to the other man I came to the gun he held in his hand that he was using to rob our water delivery man. At that moment the words “get in the house” ran through my head but I knew I needed to lock my gate first. So I reached down slowly and locked it as quietly as I could and turned very slowly to have my back to the robbery and walked the longest 5 yards of my life back to the safety of my home. I have never been so scared in my life, but at the same time depended solely on my faith in God, to keep me and my family safe. I truly believe that God was guiding each of my actions. Every step I took was just as hard as the first one, but I could feel God walking every one of those steps with me.

What a week it has been. Trying to get used to Evie being in a big girl bed and trying to potty train at the same time. Her teachers at school and a friend of ours told me she was showing lots of signs of being ready. I really didn't plan on tackling it yet but I thought I would give it a try. Well after 3 days of accidents and no success I decided to stop for now. She would go everywhere but on the potty. One time she didn't have anything on and decided to go #2 on our back patio which we smelled and found some 2 hours later. So we will try it again a little down the road. It's too stressful at this point in time.

There was a storm one night this week and Mylee and Evie were a little scared of it. But I told them they needed to go right to sleep so they wouldn't hear it. So I prayed for them again and left the room. About 20 minutes later it was all quiet. I was praising the Lord after about an hour of trying to get them to go to sleep. I go in their room each night after they are asleep to make sure they are covered up and to turn their fan off. Well this night of the storms I was surprised to find them in the same bed. But they were asleep! It was so cute so I took a picture of it!

You can find this picture along with a few others of some other happenings throughout the week. Just click on one of the pictures in the slide show! Thanks for visiting...We will see you next week!

Additions to our Home!

2008-09-07T12:14:00.004-05:00

No, Evie is not new to our home but the big girl bed she is sleeping in is. We arrived home after our first day of classes and the gentleman that that does all the handyman work on the IMB houses was ready to make the switch of beds, but needless to say I wasn't so ready. Mylee was really easy to switch to a big girl bed. But Evie on the other hand has the word FREEDOM blinking before her eyes. So this week has been sort of a week of struggle getting her to stay in her bed. At one nap time I heard Mylee yelling "Evie get out of my bed"! But she is getting better at it. The reason we took her out of her crib is because we are getting ready to tackle the potty training task. I think she is very ready and will have it down with a little instruction and a few "incentives". Please pray it goes well.

The other new itew we have is a Radio Flyer Wagon. This has been passed to us by another IMB family when they left and when we leave we will pass it on to another family. It has been a fun asset to our home as it brings a few memories of the wagon at Grandma and Grandpa's house that we had to leave behind.

Please pray for Evie as she has just been diagnosed with RAD-Reactive airway disease. During the rainy season (October-January) we were told this is going to get worse before it gets any better. We have started her on 2 weeks of meds hoping this helps her. Please pray her condition will improve and we will not have to resort to a Nebulizer. Thanks for visiting us. Have a great week!

Evie's Week

2008-09-01T16:10:00.006-05:00

As you read in the previous blog, Evie stayed with some friends of ours, whom we refer to as Grammy Diane and Grampy Steve, during our week at Playa Ocotal. I asked them to take some pictures of their week together so you could see what a great week she had as well as us and she didn't have to endure the long bus ride as we had to do. Above is a video of Evie singing a song. It also is a really good video to show you a little bit of her personality. I think this is her singing about 3 different songs but she ends with Jesus loves me because her last line is "for the Bible tells me so". Remember to push the pause button in the read music box at the left side of this webpage to view the video. Below is the link to see some pictures of her fun week. Enjoy!

Evie

To the beach we went!

2008-08-30T18:53:00.005-05:00

PlayaOcotal

What a fabulous week we just had in Playa Ocotal. (Ocotal Beach) Because we didn't do any sight seeing during our trimester, we thought it was time to see the ocean. We visited the Pacific Ocean in Guanacaste. It was so beautiful. In fact the beautifulness of it was worth the very hard bus trip we took to get there. Because we were taking a public bus, we decided to leave Evie with another missionary couple, Steve and Diane, who so graciously offered to keep her for the week.

In my mind I thought this was going to be a Greyhound bus ride. Boy was I fooled! We got on the bus to find there were no bathrooms! Okay, so we will hold it. Hopefully they will stop just a little ways down the road, right? They did make plenty of stops but it was to pick up other passengers who stood along the road. Did I mention the bus was full when we left the station. And now we are picking up more people? Yep, they stood in the isles! So soon I had about 3 armpits in my face as people stood over me holding onto the the luggage racks. Then further down the road they stopped to let on a boy selling drinks and snacks for a living. So up and down the isles he went pushing people aside as he went. We are definitely not in America anymore! We caught the bus at 8am and were supposed to arrive at 2pm. Praise the Lord we made it a around 1:30pm! By the end of the trip it was very hot. The lady in the seat in front of me wanted to lay her seat back and was then in my lap (literally), and the isle was crammed packed with people. I was getting very claustrophobic and barely made it. It helped me at that point to take my tennis shoes off to cool down a bit. Don't worry about the smell, it didn't make it anyworse than it already smelled. But we finally made it and had a great time that made it all worth it! Oh and they did take a 20 minute bathroom break about 3-4hours into the trip!

When we got there we were met with pineapple smoothies and the news that we were upgraded to better rooms. We had requested beach front rooms, so we were a little worried. But when we saw the difference we couldn't believe it. God just decided to bless us with this extra perk after enduring that bus ride and boy did we love it.

During the week we were able to snorkel off the beach a bit with Mylee riding on Aaron's back the whole time, with her life jacket on of course. We did go on a boat ride with a bunch of divers, two of which were with us and we just snorkled while they were diving. Mylee did so good on Aaron's back once again and was even able to see a few fish from her view of the water. On this boat ride we were able to see dolphins as well. That was a fantastic day! We were so sad for the week to come to an end. But now are ready for the new trimester which starts Tuesday. Please pray that we would be able to remember what we learned last trimester and be able to apply it to the new classes we will have.

Above is the link to see all the pictures from our trip. Below are some pictures of the girls that one of our friends took of the girls when she was watching them on July 4th. Enjoy!

Our first Vacation-Arenal Volcano

2008-08-23T18:22:00.006-05:00

ArenalVocano

What a wonderful break we have had so far. This last Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we went and saw our first volcano. Arenal is one of the most active right now in the world. There was one night we were able to try and go see some of the lava, but it was raining and a little cloudy so our view was minimal. But a friend of ours was able to get a couple of pics. We were also not able to stay long because it was thundering and lightening. But we made it back to the hotel safely.

Aaron and I were also able to go on a date while we were gone. It was the most interesting and fun date we have been on. We went horseback riding! I have never ridden a horse before so the next two days my back and bottom were very upset with me. During this horseride, I learned two very important things that you should never do while riding a horse. One is never ride a horse with a full bladder. We were finally able to stop and take a break at an observatory with no bathroom, so behind a tree I went(the horse went while we were riding, and I almost did!). The other thing I learned is don't follow the horse in front of you too close, because when the horse in front of you has gas you see and smell everything. My horse had gas first and I thought it was so funny because Aaron was behind me. Then the horse in front of me decided to have some too. Oh well it made our trail ride comical.

There were a few different pools at this hotel. One pool and slide was a regular pool with cool water. The other pool and slide was a hot springs pool heated naturally to 90-100 degrees. It felt like bathwater. Mylee went down the slide once. She didn't care for the slides very much. Evie, on the other hand, went down the hot slide probably around 20 times and twice by herself, with me catching her. She would come down with a look of terror on her face and immediately say again and crawl out of the pool. Guess who is going to be our adventurer! We had an amazing time there as a family and with other IMBers. Click on the link above to see some pics of our trip and the volcano as well. Below is a video of the girls helping us sing one of our favorite spanish songs. I regret you can't hear the girls very well, but you can watch them do the actions. Before you start the video you will need to go down to the red music box and push pause (parallel double lines) so you can hear the sound. Have a great week.

A Break At Last!

2008-08-17T10:48:00.003-05:00

Children's Museum

We have finally, officially, reached the end of our first trimester of language school! Aaron received his evaluation score of Intermediate Low as well(Please see previous email for a break down of the levels). We have both reached our goal for the first trimester. But we were only able to do this with the help of your prayers reaching God's ears. We were able to kick off our break with a surprise trip to the Children's Museum of San Jose (Museo de los Ninos). The girls had a great time and us as the parents did as well. There was a lot of hands on stations and play areas for the girls. The best part was it only cost us 3,000 colones to get in which translates to 6 dollars for our family. Evie is still at the age she can get in for free most places. Above is the link to see the pics from our day at the museum. However, I have to warn you there were some pretty interesting things on display here that you would probably never see in the US. So it was a very comical experience sometimes. But the girls are still young enough they really didn't know what was so funny, and it was all in spanish, so most of the time we didn't even know what it was saying. However, we could put together the gist of what it was talking about with the pictures helping a lot!

Friday the 15th was Dia de Madre or Mother's day here. You would've thought it was Christmas because everything was closed! So for mother's day I received a clean house from my wonderful Aaron and kiddos. They had the time to clean it because I was gone most of the day with two other women painting a room at the school. There is a room that is called the Student lounge/library that we sit in quite a bit during the trimester. We were all sitting there one day and someone finally voiced what we had all been thinking... "This room could really use a paint job." So we received the permission and all the supplies to get the job done. We were so excited to see the end result and are very anxious to use the room this next trimester. The before and after pics of the room are right after the pics of the museum. Tune in next week for pictures from our first trip to Volcano Arenal. Please pray this week for traveling safety for our family the 4 other families we will be with. Hope you have a blessed week.

3 Days Left!

2008-08-09T08:13:00.004-05:00

What a blur this week was for me because it went by soooo fast. I (Gabrielle) had two tests this past week and one more to go next week and Aaron still has 2 more to go. I also had a pretty important test done but one they say you study for just like you study for a blood test! I took my language proficiancy test that the IMB requires us to have after each trimester. What happens is I go and talk, in spanish, for 30 minutes with our mentor Rebecca who does these tests all over Mexico. She then rates me at one of these levels:
Novice
Intermediate
Advanced
Superior
And then those are broken down to low, medium and high.
And then those are broken down to basic, mid and strong. Very technical.
To be able to go to Mexico Aaron and I have to reach a rating of Intermediate High, atleast.
So I went and talked and came out with a rating of Intermediate Low Strong! I couldn't believe it. Aaron has his Language test Tuesday so we will have his score by next week. By receiving this rating it gave me so much more confidence that what I was sent here to do is attainable.

This week the school held a function that I think has been the best function yet. At the end of every trimester the school holds a garage sale! I was so excited to attend and buy used stuff. I even walked around 4 different times just to look again in hopes of finding something I didn't find the first time. Oh the things we take for granted! A few items we were able to get: backpacks for the girls (High School Musical for Mylee and a smaller pink and black one for Evie), a couple books for Evie, beach toys to take with us in a couple weeks, a reading book for me, new kitchen towels, and a small christmas tree with a few ornaments and a string of lights! I was so excited about that. And we bought one more item for the girls that you will be able to see in the picture link below. They absolutely love it and I only paid $5 for it! Have a great week!

A new toy

The Count Down

2008-08-02T18:19:00.004-05:00

In the Kitchen

This was just a regular, boring old week in the country of Costa Rica. Nothing exciting really happened. We did have a short week because of the holiday on Monday so that made it go by really quick. We had our new friends the Gillen's over for lunch on Monday to have grilled chicken, mashed potatoes, steamed veggies, and Ghiradhelli Chocolate Brownies! It was a great lunch. The girls were excited because they had other friends to play with them in their swimming pool. We ended our holiday by going over and playing a couple rounds of Golf (new card game) with our friends DJ and Christina Burton. It was a great end to a really long weekend. Which meant Tuesday was really hard to get up and get back to school.

Today Mylee and Evie helped me make some more brownies. Above are a few pictures of them helping me out in the kitchen, with their friends in the pool, Mylee playing dress up in my clothes and a few other snapshots taken throughout the week!
May you see the small blessings this week!

The count down....only 8 more school days!

A Holiday!

2008-07-26T16:42:00.003-05:00

This Friday was the Celebration of the Annexation of Guanacaste from Nicaragua. So we were able to attend an celebration to see some Costa Rican dances, performed by some of the teachers and students. It was a great time to see a little bit more of the Latin America culture and to have a day off (Monday) from school!

We also were able to meet our "little brother and sister" the Gillen's! They flew in late Thursday evening with about 20 other IMB missionaries. It has been fun showing them around Costa Rica and getting them set up in their new home.

This week we discovered Evie knows how to count in Spanish better than in English! But have no fear she will learn it all soon enough! Click below for pictures of the Celebration day and a couple pics of the girls!

July5

New additions to our home!

2008-07-20T09:32:00.003-05:00

This week has been a pretty relaxing week with the excitement of our new rocking chairs arriving! It was a party opening the big boxes and then Aaron putting them together. We are still waiting on our cup holders but otherwise we are enjoying them thoroughly. So it was like Christmas in July for us!

Saturday we went over to the Blackstock's home (sent out by Kansas City Baptist Temple) so the girls could play. Mylee and their oldest daughter Avigail (spelled with a V-but here they pronounce the V like a B) have become good friends. So they were very excited to get to play together. We also had a good time visiting and talking about all our favorite restaurants in Kansas City! It was a great night of fellowship!

We also found out the greatest news ever this week. Hillsong will be coming to San Jose in October! I am so excited as I have missed them the last two times they were in Springfield, Missouri because of pregnancy.

Click on this picture to see the rocking chairs! Be Blessed!

Rocking Chair

Cultural Day

2008-07-13T09:31:00.007-05:00

Cultural Day

This last Friday we attended Cultual Day at our School. It was where the teachers made popular games of Costa Rica and then ended our day with a Tourno. This is a popular tradition in Costa Rica where costumes are made and they dance around with a band. There is even a custom when the crowd tries to aggrivate the people with the costume who has a switch and tries to hit the person messing with him to get him to leave them alone. But it is all done in fun! Click on the picture of the girls above to see some pictures and a couple videos from the whole day and a few extras of the girls! Thanks for visiting our blog.

Happy 4th of July!

2008-07-06T09:06:00.001-05:00

July 4th

What a hard week we had as far as language learning goes, but it ended with a bang for us. However, we didn't have a typical 4th of July like we would normally have in the States. There were no fireworks or cook outs and life when on like normal. We didn't have school on the 4th so Aaron and I were able to take a day trip to the town of Sarchi. It is kind of a craft type city where a very popular rocking chair factory is located and where all the colorful ox carts are hand painted. We were also able to visit a wood factory where they make many, many items out of wood. Some of the items were absolutely gorgeous.

We ended up having a bit of our own 4th of July cook out but on the 5th. We had some friends over and grilled hamburgers and hotdogs. Then we had a friendly game of Dutch Bliss (or nertz) to end the evening.

Mylee and I received our first hair cuts since being here. There is another missionary who is finished with Language School who went to cosmotology school in the states. So we set up an appointment with her. What a blessing it was to help out another family but then her being a blessing to us as well. The link above includes pictures of Mylee's new haircut, pictures of the factory we toured of the rocking chairs and our 4th of July meal. May God bless your week!

Saturday Mornings

2008-07-02T20:23:00.002-05:00

Not a very exciting week for the Woods. Nothing much happened except school, eat and sleep. But one thing we do every Saturday is we go to the local park and Aaron does some witnessing with Scott Bennett around the park while Sherry and I stay with the kids at the play area hoping to strike up some conversation with another parent. This last Saturday some red fire ants were upset with Aaron standing on their hill. So they let him know with a few bites!

Enjoy pictures below from the park as well as some pictures of us opening our first care package that we have received from my cousin Julia in Hawaii! Thanks John, Julia and Joanna! We loved it!

Click here on the picture below.

July 2008

A Birthday Party

2008-06-22T14:23:00.008-05:00

I just received pictures from the first Birthday Party we attended here a couple weeks ago. It was a party for our House Helper, Yolanda. It was also a strategic party hoping to be able to invite some of the neighbors to the bible study and it worked! These are the ladies who have been coming for the past couple weeks. Please continue to pray that these women will continue to come and more will be added!

Here are also a few pictures of the Chapel we have every Tuesday and Thursday at the school. This was the particular day that my praise team was singing. Also this particular chapel was titled "Concert of Prayer". This is the second time we have done this. The first time we prayed for our city and the citizens around us, which was about the time of all the robberies. This second time we had a chance to pray for the teachers, who are in a circle and then the teachers were able to pray for us as we recreated a map with the closest people going to Mecico, the middle people staying in Costa Rica, and the farthest people going to Argentina. It was so cool to be able to pray with and for different missionaries going to the same area we were going to. What a wonderful expierence we were blessed to be a part of.

Click on the link below to see more pictures of the birthday party and of the girls and their time here in Costa Rica. Oh there is also another picture of a little "friend" we had in our house the other night! Enjoy.

Birthday Party 4 Yolanda

A very blessed week!

2008-06-16T17:45:00.012-05:00

What a fortunate week we were able to be a part of. First, Thursday there was a Parents Night Out that was given by a volunteer group from Mississippi. They watched our kiddos among many other children from 5pm to 9pm. With two other couples we went to eat at a barbeque restaurant and then went to see the new Indiana Jones movie-in English! We made it back at 9:00 sharp. It was a much needed night that was exactly what we needed to get away from the stresses of school.

Second, there was a women's retreat put on through the school that was Friday afternoon until Saturday at 5pm. We went to a resort about an hour and a half away. It was a very fun time to get to know some (about 60) of the fellow missionary women who are here studying with me. The pool was absolutely beautiful with a concrete slide (pictures above). It was fun until I went down on my stomach and slammed my hip against the side of it. Then it didn't feel so good. But I will live to tell the story. All the ladies in the above picture are with the IMB except for the lady in the front next to me. The middle picture is of the pool with the dark rain clouds above it. It did rain on us for about 5 minutes while we were in the pool. Fun times! The other picture is of me going down the slide, aiming for the tube...I think I put one leg in that time!

Again this past Sunday we had all but one show up for the bible study. This week I was able to lead a couple songs for the group. It was a very successful bible study. Last week we walked home in the rain. If you could picture the worst down pour in Missouri and then us walking a mile in it to get home, that is what we did. So the picture below is a picture of our soaking wet pants when we got home. All we could do was laugh our way through it. Have a great week!

Our Church-Amistad

2008-06-07T22:00:00.009-05:00

June 2008-2

Not too many pictures from this week because I have posted our first little video below. This video is about a minute out of our 45 minute praise and worship time at the church we have been attending. We worship for the first hour and the second hour the kids go to their class. When the kids are gone we have a meet and greet time, followed by the announcements and then end with the sermon to be out by 12:15pm. This last Sunday we were able to experience our first Latin Lord's Supper. They didn't have the little bread waffers like the US. They use fresh baked bread that was so delicious we found ourselves wanting a little bit more. They also had the grape juice in bigger cups and a few of the little cups like we have in the US. Obviously it is all done in Spanish so we did a lot of looking around and following the lead of the locals. But a very special time, no less.

Last Saturday I also received my first cooking class for Puebla. Our mentor Rebekah brought some Mole Poblano back with her from Puebla. Mole is a bitter sauce made out of coco beans, but taste nothing like chocolate. It was invented right in Puebla, so very popular there. This mole that we ate was VERY spicy for this gringo tongue. I have to say it is definitley an aquired-taste-needed sauce. She had us all over and we cooked it then ate it over Chicken and Mexican rice. I made the manderine orange salad and it was a hit. For dessert we had homemade Flan made by Scott and Sherry. It was yummy! Click on the above link to see pictures of our meal and a few more from the week of the girls.

Please pray this week for the new people we had at our Sunday Bible Study, that the words of God they heard would land on fertile soil and that they would come back for more next Sunday!

The Inside!

2008-06-01T14:59:00.003-05:00

Our house

You got it! Finally pics of our house. Thanks to my mom asking everyday when they will be up. I was trying to get the pics when the house was clean! We love our house and really don't deserve this nice of a home and definitely didn't expect it. We feel very safe here and know that God's hand is protecting us. Thank you to all who have prayed for us and our fellow missionaries here. Click on the link above to see our home!

I want to write out a portion from Aaron's journal of some funny things that was said here.

"Today I made two funny language mistakes. This morning I left our house helper, Yolanda, the following note: 'Correr los mangos, por favor', which translates to 'Run the mangos, please'. When I went to class this morning we went over verbs and I quickly realized that I had written the wrong verb. I meant to say 'Cut the mangos, please' which is the verb Cortar. My second mistake happened later in the morning when I asked my teacher the following: 'Como esta su pedo?' Which translates 'How is your fart?'. I meant to ask her 'Como esta su dedo?' Which is 'how is your finger?' She busted out laughing and informed me and the class of what I actually said. Her sutured finger is doing fine!"

Just thought you might enjoy that entry. We have found that my perfectionistic side of me doesn't want me to talk until I have everything put together perfectly. I am trying to break through this and just talk as much as I can. Pray that I will be successful.

Last weekend Aaron and I went on a date to LaPaz Waterfalls. Below is the link to see the most beautiful pictures that were taken there. We had a great day and wanted to try to share some of the beauty with you. Enjoy!

LaPaz Waterfalls

Happy Birthday To Evie

2008-05-22T17:03:00.011-05:00

We are officially parents of a two year old. Evie turned 2 on the 15th of May. I had been looking for a certain gift to get her but could only find half of what I wanted to get her and the half I found does not work without the other half. Her birthday ended up getting here and I having nothing to give her for her birthday. I was incredibly crushed, even though she didn't think anything about it. Around 6:30 on her birthday, one of our fellow IMB missionaries called and asked if she could bring a little something down to Evie. She had bought a little princess drum for her. I was so touched by this gesture that the next day I could not control the tears from coming when I thanked her from the bottom of my heart. God is Good!

The next night I did make a chocalate cake for her birthday to serve at our first IMB meeting. I had baked it the evening of her birthday and then was going to ice it before I took it to the meeting the next evening. We returned home from school and Aaron said "don't flip out but, Yolanda (our house helper) ate a piece of the cake!" So I had to take the cake with a piece taken out of it. I guess this is a cultual thing, I have since found out. Oh well, glad she enjoyed it.

Mylee and I also attended a baby shower and what an experience it was. They had a lot of games, a lot of food and a lot of presents. While the new mom is opening her presents they play the game of whosever presents are first, seventh and last will be the next babies in the church. My gift was number 8! Close call!

On Sunday evenings we attend a house church that our supervisors on the field, Scott and Sherry Bennett have been trying to get up and running. So far we have not branched out beyond the family whose house we are meeting in. WE are hoping to change this Sunday when we will be celebrating Yolanda's birthday and have invited the neighbors to the party hoping to get some new contacts. Pray this time will be successful. Pray for Francisco, Yolanda, and their son Moises, that they would be used by God in their neighborhood. Yolanda is also our house helper and does a tremendous job, helping us out with household chores so that we have more time with studies and as a family. Praise the Lord for Yolanda.

Click here for some more pics of time at the park, cooking class with Scott and Sherry , "monkey brain" fruit, the flowers I bought for 3 dollars at the market and our little lizard friend we stop and say hello to every day walking to class! Enjoy.

May2008-2

Doing well!

2008-05-18T21:11:00.004-05:00

We made it through our first full week of classes! However we both have our first exams this week. Pray we can do well. I would've made my dad proud Friday night when I played a game of basketball against the senior girls basketball team. It was exciting to know I could still make a few baskets! But the senior girls ended up winning 21 to 20 at the very end. Their coach also played a bit because they were missing 3 girls so that helped them out a bit. I guess I could go ahead and say I made 10 of our 20 points. It was the first time I was the high scorer ever! It was just a really fun time for me.

Above is a picture of the flowers Aaron bought for me from a street vendor for 6 dollars. They were so beautiful. Next week I will post a picture of the bouquet from the market today that I bought for 3 dollars! The other picture is of the girls playing in our front yard with their babies. We love it because Evie can't go anywhere because she is detained by the locked gate! These are all the pics I have for this week. Hope to have more next week.

First Two Weeks...

2008-05-10T13:39:00.008-05:00

May 2008-1

They have been very full. We have had 3 days of classes and we each have our different experiences with them. Aaron and I have Grammar class together but then Phonetics and Language in different classes. I feel my 2 years in High School is really paying off. I am wishing I would've paid a little more attention to it! Aaron loves his classes as well and we are adjusting very well. We are all sleeping very good and trying lots of new foods. But there is plenty of Gringo food here as well. For dinners we have fixed hamburgers and chicken on the grill, and last night we made tacos for our missionary friends.

We have a swimming pool on our back porch now for the girls to play in and they absolutely love it. We are getting into rainy season and a bit cooler (70s) but they don't seem to mind that. We went to a local market and bought some yummy fruits and veggies. It was an experience cutting up my first pineapple! I also gave Aaron his first haircut here and we ended up taking almost all of it off because Aaron wanted me to try something new. It didn't go very well. So he now has really short hair. But he says he wants it this short all the time because it is cooler.

Please continue to pray for our safety here. We are Americans and unfortunately are targeted for crime. We actually feel pretty safe here in our neighboorhood but crime can happen anywhere. Please also pray for some of our missionary friends who were pregnant with twins, but went into preterm labor at 25 weeks. These little girls are very little and having several complications. Please visit Ted and Kerri's website at www.dewettsonmission.blogspot.com to find out more specific prayers. Click on the picture above to view a few more pictures. Enjoy!

Saying Goodbye & Saying Hello

2008-05-02T20:42:00.006-05:00

What a busy last two weeks we have had! We were able to get all packed up and had everything weighed at 50 pounds each. We decided we wanted to take 1 extra bag with us to make a total of 9 bags plus carry ons going to the airport with us. Thank you to Doug and Arlene Driskell who offered their suburban to haul all of our bags up there. We get there and went to weigh our bags at check in to find all of them were 5-9 pounds too heavy. I guess our scale didn't match theirs. So Aaron decided to find a close Walmart and went to buy another suitcase. While he was gone, my dad and I started weighing all of them again and removing items to add to the extra suitcase coming. We got it down to a pile on the scale weighing in at 47 pounds hoping the suitcase didn't weigh more than 3 pounds. We ended up leaving the girls hooded towels, two pairs of jeans, a pair of jogging pants and a devotional book.

After we got all of that taken care of we were needing some lunch for us and the girls. Really more for the girls than us for a peaceful flight. About a quarter mile down the airport there was a Burger King. There were no other kid-friendly places to order from closer to our gate. The problem was they were moving so slow and there was a really long line. If it hadn't been for the kids I would've left but they needed to eat. So I waited. I finally made it back to the gate about 30 minutes out from the flight time. So we decided to eat on the plane. We said our goodbyes and went through security. It was at that point we found out we were selected for additional screening. So they had to take every thing out of our carry ons to test for any chemicals. Because they had to do this, it caused us to miss our first flight by 5 seconds. We stood there and watched the stairs pull away from the airplane. I was really disappointed and scared because I really didn't know what this meant for us. So they told us to go back to the ticket counter to see what other flights we could get on to get to Atlanta.

We found out there was a flight available with 2 coach seats at 3:30pm (our first flight was at 12:50pm)and 2 first class seats for about 900 more dollars. We passed on that option. We decided to go ahead and book the coach seats for Mylee and I on the 3:30 thinking it was going to be easier to find 2 seats instead of 4. After about 20 minutes of looking at other flights and trying to see what was going to work they told us all to go to the gate at 3:30 and they were going to try to get us all on that flight. We had to go through additional security again but this time we did it an hour and a half before flight time. It was time for Mylee and I to board so we go on not knowing if Aaron and Evie were going to be on the flight with us or not. Talk about walking in faith. Mylee and I sat on the plane and prayed that Daddy and Evie would be able to get on with us. The next thing I knew Evie showed up in our seats and there was Aaron with her. It was a most joyous moment. Come to find out the ticket lady had told Aaron that she broke some rules and pulled some strings for us and was going to trust God to take care and hers and her co-worker's jobs. We are eternally grateful for what those ladies did for us that day!

The next day went so much better for us. We got to the Atlanta Airport after a good nights sleep at the Hilton Airport, booked and paid for by a local church. We did the curbside international flight check in and went so smoothly. Then we found our way to security and found the line to be atleast a mile long if stretched out. No kidding. We stood and just stared and knew there was no possible way of making our flight once again. Until a security gaurd said we needed to get in the children's line, which was past all the people standing in the mile long line and to the front! We couldn't believe it. Needless to say that Evie could have gotten anything she wanted that day. It still took us about 30 minutes to get through because being selected AGAIN for additional screening but nothing near what we would have been waiting in the other line. We were Praising God for this.

We got a meal on the plane and the girls slept the last hour and a half even during the landing which seems to always be the worst for Evie. We were also able to watch National Treasure II and were able to spread out over 6 seats because our whole row was vaccant! It was so great. We got off and was told to go to another children's line at immigration so we didn't have to wait again because of Evie in the stroller. Got through that and customs oh so smoothly. I guess God knew we had already been through alot the previous day and wanted to give us a break. We found Scott and Sherry and made it to our house safely.

We have already had a little culture shock hit us with how crazy the traffic is and how pedestrian's have no rights here. If you get in the way they will hit you. But the side walks are too uneven for the stroller so the street is a lot faster. We will just pray and trust God to keep us safe. We love our house and will post some pics just as soon as we get settled and things are put away. We thank you for your prayers and are ready to begin language school on Wednesday. Below is a link to some pictures of our last few days in the states and the first couple of days in Costa Rica. In a couple weeks I will have some more airport pictures up. But this is what we have for now! Enjoy.

April 2008-3

Time to get packed!

2008-04-19T08:57:00.004-05:00

Well after being gone all last week visiting with family and saying goodbyes, it is time to focus in on what to take and what to not take. Last week we drove as far as Bentonville, Arkansas and ended up in Springfield, MO. We also were cleaning up Aaron's Grandmother's house to get ready to sell. Mylee and Evie were able to hang out with Aaron's mom and his other Grandma on the days we were cleaning. The theme of the week seemed to be "roadblocks"! There were lots of obstacles that we had to overcome but it was okay and we went "around" them smoothly. Below is a link to some pictures that were taken from the week. Be sure to read the explanations below the pictures.

We will be flying out on the 27th to Atlanta and then on to Costa Rica on the 28th. Pray for safe flying and smooth landings!

April 2008-2

Home at Last!

2008-04-06T21:11:00.003-05:00

Well we made it home safely. Even the plane ride seemed to take forever because we were all so excited to see Grandma and Grandpa. It did help however that we had some friends on the first flight to help the time pass. We had about 4 hours at the airport before we were able to board so the kids had a great time climbing on the chairs and watching the planes take off.

Below is a link to some pictures at the airport and on the plane. There is also a couple of pictures of our last day in Virginia. We had a commissioning ceremony in which I helped lead worship. It was a bittersweet day; sad because we were leaving but excited to get to the next leg of our journey. What a week it has been. But God has been good to us.

April 2008-1

Our House in Costa Rica

2008-03-31T18:55:00.011-06:00

I promised some pics so here they are! I can only post a few. So when we really get there we will be sure to post some more pictures. This is the front of our house complete with a guard shack right out front. We are not sure if this is really used or not but we will find out soon enough. Next is our back patio complete with the washer and dryer. The girls will also be able to play outside and stay dry under the covered part. Third, is a picture of our front yard complete with my Palm Tree! Okay it is only 3 feet tall but beggars can't be choosers right?

We are getting ready to fly back in a few days so the next post you see will be from Independence. Yahoo! Thank you to all who prayed us through these past two months. What a successful time we have had here and definitely feel more prepared to do the work God has called us to do.

Easter Sunday

2008-03-25T19:32:00.004-06:00

March-Easter

What a wonderful Resurrection Day we had. It was very similar to what we do at home. We got up and had Easter baskets, had breakfast, went to Sunday service (in our quad), had lunch and then boxed up leftovers for our dinner, took a nap, had an Easter egg hunt, and then to Cultural Worship Service we went.

The day before I helped pulloff a surprise baby shower for our quad mates, Ted and Kerri who is due in July with twin girls. We had a blast and she didn't have a clue. I was so happy we could bless them in this way.

Stay tuned to see pics of our house in Costa Rica in the next entry.

Click above to see pictures of all the event listed above.

A real life Visitor

2008-03-16T12:19:00.005-06:00

We had the privilege of having Aaron's younger brother Adam come visit us this weekend. He is in Master's Commission in Columbia, South Carolina. So we put him on a bus and in a hotel for the weekend. While he was here we were able to go swimming in the hotel's indoor pool Saturday morning. The girls loved it. We also had a couple of days in the 70's this past week so I took some pics outside at the playground of the girls, in which you can see when you click on the following link below.

We have a very busy next two weeks. Here is a typical schedule that we follow on a daily basis except the weekend.

7am-8am Breakfast (usually in our room)
8am-8:40am Group Talk(Mon.) or Small Group Worship(Tues.-Fri.)
9am-12pm Lectures and Workshops
12pm-1pm Lunch in Cafe
1pm-5pm Lectures and Workshops
5pm-6pm Dinner
6pm-8pm Play time with kiddos and then to bed

This is the first week we will have to go until 5pm. The last 6 weeks we have gotten out at 3pm and then if it is nice we would usually go to the park with the girls. We also have had assignments outside of our daily schedule. They keep us pretty busy here! Only 2 and a half weeks left!

March 2008-2

Washington DC

2008-03-08T14:24:00.003-06:00

What a day we had in Washington DC! We were blessed with beautiful weather and safety. We learned that Latin American people will give you any answer, except the word no. We asked 3 people for directions to a restaurant and they told us where it was like they really knew. We went to where we were told with no restaurant in sight. They don't want to disappoint us with a no. We ended our trip on a bus ride back with a screaming Evie. We were all very tired and done with the trip by that time. When we we returned we were informed there was a tornado watch out. But we didn't think much of it. We got back and all went to bed to be awoken at 11:30 by what we thought to be a tornado. It sounded so much like it that we grabbed the girls out of their beds and ran to the bathroom. We were only there for a couple minutes but it was the most scariest time we have ever experienced. Thank you Lord for keeping us safe!

Below is a link to more pics of Washington DC. There are a few pics of Evie and Mylee that were taken at a dinner we went to at our Regional Leader's home. Have fun checking them out.

Washington DC

A Visitor

2008-03-02T18:02:00.003-06:00

On Wednesday Mylee came home with a friend that goes by the name of Jeremiah, the pig. So for one night we were supposed to include Jeremiah in everything that we did. So because he was a guest we decided to treat him to a great meal of delivered Dominoes pizza! We then took a walk to the cafe with him on the beautiful evening. We also changed his clothes multiple times and Evie was able to rock him and shush him to sleep. Mylee tucked him in bed and I would hate to sleep with her seeing how she treats her guests in the middle of the night. Click on the pictures below to see all of our fun times with Jeremiah the pig.

Jeremiah