Yvonne and I had a wonderful Valentine's day surprise for our 4 children. While driving through the snow and sleet to get to Orlando to vacation with Bestemor & Bestefar (Yvonne's parents), we sprung it on them that we were also going to bring them to Costa Rica to see where we will be living in a few short months.
It has been fun to watch as God has been in control of the whole trip. We were originally going to
leave very early Wednesday morning and drive all the way to Greensboro, NC to stay overnight with some old friends from CT that moved a couple years ago. We were then going to leave Greensboro early on Thursday for St. Augustine, FL to spend a few hours with some 6:8 missionaries that we will be working with, before heading to our hotel next to the Orlando airport, in preparation for our 8:30 am flight to Costa Rica on Friday morning. Because of the huge snow & ice storm that was forecast for the Southeast on Tuesday and Wednesday, we decided to move up the driving portion of our trip. We left CT at 10 pm on Monday night and drove for 15 straight hours, and made it to Savannah Georgia. We had clear sailing all the way to the Raleigh, NC and then hit heavy snow and sleet for about 200 miles. Fortunately, it was not sticking as we worked south into the slightly warmer weather. We ended up getting to St. Augustine just after noon on Thursday and got to spend the rest of the day with Josh & Alli Mcarthur and Spencer & Molly Boulter. These are two great families that will end up being our neighbors at the Children's Ranch in Costa Rica. We got to spend some time with Josh & Alli on Thursday before we headed to Orlando.
Our two youngest, Jonathan (7) and Abby (5) had never been on a plane, so they were very excited for our flight early Friday morning. We had an uneventful flight (always a good thing!) and landed in San Jose just before 11 am. Our friend Parker Thurman picked us up at the airport and we had great conversation catching up during the 30 minute drive to the team house. We then walked just around the block and had a tasty lunch at a little open-air eatery. I was impressed that the kids at least tried most of the food.
From there we has the privileged of helping with the Kids in Action program. This is an after school program that the 6:8 staff puts on each day for some of the children that live in the area. They play a lot of games, do crafts & activities and then learn about Jesus. It was a really cool experience to have all the kids welcome us into their group so openly and warmly. The language barrier did not seem to matter as we all had fun together.
On Saturday morning, we joined Parker, his wife Caroline and daughter Sophie and rented a small bus to take us out to the future site of the Children's Ranch. We were able to take a horseback tour of the 17 acre property and start to get a feel for how things could be built to best serve the children. It is going to be an absolutely amazing place out at the Ranch. Orphans and children from very difficult environments will have an opportunity to grow up in loving homes, as they learn about God and experience a safe and fruitful childhood. We are so excited to be a part of this ministry and I cannot wait to break ground and start preparing the way for these kids!
Tomorrow morning we will attend the Celebration church plant just up the street. We are excited for our children to experience the service in Spanish. We may not understand most of the words, but many of the songs will sound familiar and we know that we praise and worship the same God. We also plan to take a long hike up the nearby mountain to see a huge cross that overlooks the town of Alajuelita. And if everything falls into place we may even go check out a few nearby neighborhoods that we may choose to live in starting in July.
Please keep praying for our family as we continue to plan and prepare for the move. Please also keep praying for the people of Costa Rica that are far from God and live in some tough places. The purpose of 6:8 ministries is to shine the light of Jesus Christ into these places and to be His hands and feet as we unconditionally love the people here.
Talk to you soon. God Bless!!
Rob
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