Monday, December 23, 2013

Feliz Navidad (this is the letter and pictures that we sent out this year)

Feliz Navidad Amigos y Familia!  Merry Christmas Friends and Family!                                                       December 2013

That is about all the Spanish we know but do not worry, we plan to know a lot more by this time next year.  For those of you who have not heard, we are dropping everything and moving to Costa Rica in July 2014 to serve as Missionaries.  We are so excited.  We are sad to say goodbye to all our friends and family but feel confirmed that this is what God wants us to do.  Each of the children are excited to do their part in serving God through serving the people and children of Costa Rica.  Please visit our website www.wutkamissions.com to find out all the details.  We welcome any questions you may have.

2013 has been full of more of the same.  Rob continues to be employed by The Hartford insurance company and will have to leave that job when we move.  It is our prayer that Rob will be laid off before July so that he won’t have to resign.  Whatever happens, we are trusting God for our financial support while in Costa Rica.  Yvonne continues to be self employed as a Marriage and Family Therapist in the near bye town of Granby.  Although business is going well, Yvonne is excited to use her skills in a different way with the children and families of Costa Rica. 


Elise is 12 years old and in 7th grade.  She continues to be active with gymnastics, soccer, piano, clarinet, friends and cousins.  She continues to enjoy school and especially learning Spanish.  She has been taking Spanish in school for 3 years and has been trying to teach the rest of us everything that she learns.  She is very good and we will likely be relying on her to translate for us the first few months.  She looks forward to becoming fluent in 2 languages.  Sadly, this will be her last season of gymnastics so she is focusing on making this the best season yet and going out with a bang.  Elise’s soccer team this year (coached by Rob) was once again the best in their league.  Elise is very good at piano and helps to lead music along with Yvonne at prayer/worship meetings that we host in our home.  We wish to continue to lead regular prayer/worship meetings at the ministry in CR.  She is also looking forward to taking care of the children who will be in our care and teaching them to play piano and English.  She really is such a caring girl and has a heart for serving.  We are so proud of her and her attitude toward this move.  This is an age where it can be so hard to move away from friends and the sport that is her first love (gymnastics) but she not only has a positive attitude, she sees this as HER mission field and a calling from God.

Mara is 9 years old and in 4th grade.  What can we say…she is a horse lover to the core.  Her passion is contagious.  She has been riding for a few years.  Spending time with horses is the highlight of her week and she looks forward to when we live on the Ranch in Costa Rica and she can spend time taking care of , training and riding the horses every day.  She sees her mission while there as helping to take care of the children as well as teaching them to ride and love horses like she does.  Mara also enjoys playing soccer, trumpet, youth group, friends and cousins.  She also enjoys school.  We have been blessed with a school that is excited about our upcoming trip to Costa Rica and they have arranged Mara’s schedule so that she could take Spanish with the 5th graders and get one year of Spanish in before we move.  Mara says that Spanish is easy and looks forward to using it for real.

Jonathan is 7 years old and in 2nd grade.  Jonathan is as charming as he is sweet.  He has a way of charming his way into the hearts of anyone who comes in contact with him (his sisters may not agree :-)  Jonathan enjoys soccer, basketball, and baseball as well as bey blades and creating things.  He is a natural leader and it is interesting to watch him gently direct others when his creative juices get flowing especially with building sand or snow castles.  Jonathan looks forward to having some brothers on the Ranch and his natural leadership skills will come in very handy for us.

Abby is 5 years old and in Kindergarten.  She is our snuggle bunny and never lets an opportunity to share love pass.  She is excited to finally be in school with the rest of the kids and learning to read.  She also enjoys playing soccer.  It is quite fortunate that all 4 kids play soccer since that is almost a requirement for living in Central America.  Abby also shares Mara’s love of horses and looks forward to “having horses” at the Ranch and having “our horses play with the neighbor’s horses.”  She doesn’t quite understand that we will all be sharing the horses that will live in a barn, not our houseJ  She also looks forward to having a dog again since she misses Barkley so dearly.  We’ve promised the kids that we will get a dog once we live on the Ranch.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and an exciting 2014.  Please remember that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is the reason for all the presents and decorations.  Philippians 4:13 reminds us that when we have Christ at the center of our lives, ‘I can do all things through him who strengthens me.’  Our prayer is that everyone reading this letter already knows or will soon seek out how to be saved by God’s grace.

We love you.

Rob & Yvonne 


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