Prayer Request

Please say an extra little prayer for our family. The change in seasons has wreaked havoc on all of our allergies and we've all been struggling with quite a bit of congestion and cough. Maggie is home for a second day today with a bronchial infection and an asthma flareup. Please just add this to your prayer requests so that we can make the most of our learning time here in Costa Rica. Thanks!
~Tona

Alex is 10!!

I can't believe it's been an entire decade since he was born! I remember everyone telling me that time flies, but I didn't realize till now how quickly it goes! Today Alex is celebrating his 10th birthday. I don't want him to get any older! Is there any way to make time stand still?
~Tona

San Isidrio

Today we visited three different areas in the town of San Isidrio to do some street ministry. We were working with three groups from Castillo del Rey. The pictures in this post are from our first location, "The Projects". We went to an overgrown soccer field next to this small neighborhood of tiny houses. We spent a few minutes canvassing the neighborhood inviting everyone to come see our program in the field. While we waited we pumped up the music, played soccer with the kids coming in and Corey was making balloon animals. What a sweet group of kids. (I'll post a ton more pictures soon) Our program for this group consisted of music, puppets, a game, and a drama. The kids seemed to really enjoy it.

There was an older lady, I believe 78 years old, who our friend Renay engaged in a game of soccer. She was so funny. Here's a short clip of her playing...

The second site we went to we didn't have much luck at all. We talked to a few people, but it was lunch time and a soccer game was on...tough competition!

The third location was very interesting. It was in between a church, a small school building and a soccer field. We were in a basketball court. Quite a few people came to watch, but the interesting thing was that no one would actually enter the court. Everyone sat on the fringe of the place, so we kind of did the program for ourselves, but with an audience from afar.

Here's a pic from the drama.
The whole day was wonderful. The only downside was that we came back with very red faces... a little too much sun!

Defeat!

I thought the football craze in the US was incredible. I have to say I think soccer fans have the upperhand on dedication to the sport. Today Costa Rica played Germany in the World Cup opener. Just about everything stops. The kids took board games to school because they had already announced that they would be watching the game and if they weren't interested they could play games. I heard Intel put up screens throughout the factory so that people would come to work. Everywhere you looked people were dressed in Costa Rica colors and ready for the big game. Even at our school everything stopped to watch the game. Sadly, however, Costa Rica lost 4-2. They're not out yet, but I hear it's a long shot for them to go very far. Honestly, I still have a lot of learning to do about soccer or "futbol", but the excitement is contagious!

Thank You!

I've spent a good part of this evening updating our database. As I worked through it I realized how many people have supported our ministry and helped us follow through in the mission God called us to. We want to tell you all thank you. To our prayer partners, thank you for the time you give to pray for our family. We see God working in our lives every day and we know we couldn't do this without you. Your emails of encouragement brighten our days and always seem to come at just the perfect time! To our partners who have given financial support, thank you for believing in what God has planned for Colombia and being willing to support His ministry. We have incredibly faithful monthly supporters. We know God's hand is in this work when we look at our list of supporters and see that we have some that have never met us, yet are partnering with us. This week our missiology class was on The Holy Spirit In Missions. All of you who give of yourselves physically, financially, emotionally, etc., thank you for responding to what the Holy Spirit has laid on your heart and partnering with us as we follow God's leading. We praise God that you are in our lives. You're in our hearts and our prayers. Thank you.
~Tona

While The Cat Is Away The Mice Will Play

Thinking of mice... another tiny monster was found in the kitchen, this time after a funny smell began to fill the room. I was fortunate to not have the experience of seeing it, but I hear that it was dead for at least a few days and it was disgusting! But that wasn't the reason for my heading...
Corey and Alex are gone for the weekend on a Royal Ranger Father/Son Campout. I'm sure they're having a blast and putting all of the Spanish they've learned into practice. While they're away, Maggie and I are having some fun of our own. Last night we had girl's movie night and stayed up late watching Annie and eating popcorn. My brother bought the Annie DVD for Maggie last year because he said he remembered me watching it and singing all the songs all the time. It brings back a lot of memories and it cracks me up to hear Maggie singing along to Hard Knock Life and Tomorrow. If I was anything like Maggie is now, I'm sure I owe my family tons of apologies for endless hours of singing the same line or two from a song over and over and over.
Today we went downtown with our Tico friends, Sujan and Kristen. I should have done this a long time ago. They took us to all of their favorite stores. For us and most of the other students we tend to go to stores like Hipermas, which is pretty much a Super Wal-Mart (in fact Wal-Mart just bought the majority of their stock). For us, the prices at Hipermas seem very reasonable, but Sujan and Kristen took Maggie and I to stores where they buy shoes and clothes for very, very low prices - much lower than Hipermas. We wandered all through downtown - to many areas I had never visited - for almost five hours. Kristen is from Nicaragua and her father now lives in Miami. We went with her while she went to one office to pick up money her father had sent and another to exchange it for colones. The day was so interesting. Sujan kept asking Maggie if she was getting bored, but she kept saying no and wanted to keep exploring. We've learned so much more about San Jose and our dear friends!
~Tona