The Honeymoon is...?

Well, they say that when you transition to another culture you go through cycles of adjustment. The first cycle is the honeymoon phase... If you are married you know about this phase. Everything is new and exciting, and you are much more forgiving about those little idiosyncrasies of your spouse that in the beginning made them "interesting". But after a time, those little things aren't as interesting as they once were..haha. Well, I'm not so sure that the honeymoon is over, but we are definitely feeling more at "home" here. And for the most part, that's a really good thing.

The language still seems to be the biggest challenge here. Now I know that a lot of people might be thinking...why aren't y'all fluent yet? And believe me, I've wondered that too many times. Sometimes it's very easy to forget that fluency really is a life-long process. Just like our spiritual walk, we will never have everything together and there will always be more to learn. But we are thankful for the grace of God and of the mercy and patience of all those poor Colombians that bear with us and our language...haha.

Ministry Opportunities: Right now, If our language was up to speed, we could have opportunities aplenty. But for right now, I try to tag along and hear and understand as much as I can. I'm really praying that I can become very proficient at Spanish, because I think there are some really amazing opportunities here. For example, the school, which has 450 students, needs a Chaplin. Someone that will come in everyday at 6:00 a.m. to give a short devotional to the kids. What a great opportunity!!! To have the chance to start rubbing elbows with the teacher and the students is awesome. I'm going to start attending the teacher's devotional in the mornings as well. This meeting in mandatory for the teachers, but there are still some teachers that don't know Jesus. More opportunities to share the love of Jesus. Our prayer is that we be used by God to develop leaders and disciples. The Church also desires our to help them think/plan/execute a program that will help disciple all the kids of the church. From ages 4 till the you get married...haha. What a challenge, but one that I look forward to seeing how God is going to provide, both in wisdom and strength to see this completed.

We also have opportunities to work in 1 of the 3 church plants that the church has right now. We still don't know which one we will be working with, but that's an exciting opportunity as well. These young churches need lots of encouragement in the beginning, because the enemy desperately wants to discourage these young churches.

I am going on a retreat this weekend with about 25 of the students and some of the leaders of the church. This is going to be my best opportunity so far to get to know the kids and allow them to know me. I will be leading the games and I look forward to laughing a lot about the things that I'm going to make them do.

Amanda is also getting plugged in the with the ladies. Along with helping me, her main focus will be on the ladies and ministry to them. This is a critical ministry because, just like in the States, there are a lot of single parent homes where it's the mom that is bearing the burden of raising and supporting the family. Please pray that Amanda would have many opportunities to support and be apart of discipling the women of the church and the city.

I'll close with a few of the things that we miss from the States, and some of the things that we love about being here.

What we miss:

1. Amanda misses Barnes and Noble and Starbucks

2. We both miss having a car. If you've ever taken a ride in a taxi in South America, you know what I'm talking about.

3. We all miss family and friends

4. The kids miss having parks to go to. There really isn't a place here with grass for the kids to play at. Maybe we just miss grass :)

What we love about being here:

1. We LOVE the people of Colombia. One quick example: We took a taxi to the mall and we left a little plastic cup in the taxi. The driver of the taxi, parked his car, got out, went into the mall to find us to give us the cup back...how amazing is that!!

2. We LOVE our pastor and his family. Julio Caesar and his wife Claudia are some of the most helpful and loving people ever. Their kids have demonstrated so much love to our kids.

3. We LOVE the food here. Big surprise for us, but everything that we have had has been really good.

4. The beach. We can walk two blocks to see the Caribbean. That's pretty nice.

5. We LOVE our church family. They also have demonstrated so much love to us. We are so thankful for them.

6. We are THANKFUL and LOVE all those that are standing behind us and the work that God is doing here.

Prayer:

1. For our family. You sometimes forget how big of a transition it is for the kids until you send them off to a school where they don't know that language, the culture, or the "rules".

2. For clear direction into what ministries we will throw our "weight" behind.

3. For our walks with the Lord. The most important one, pray that we hold fast to the truth of God's word, and we intimately and closely follow him.

Parker loves the beach.

Parker sporting his new hairdo. Amanda doesn't like it, but I think it's pretty sweet. He's a good looking boy, just like his daddy..haha

First day of school. She has done pretty well and the crying has been to a minimum. All the kids wear uniforms to school and each grade has their own style and color.

The typical, "what are you doing look".

Here are Kendall's buddies. Tatiana and Jenny. Jenny just turned 8 and Tatiana just turned 14.

Funny Happenings and Upcoming Ministries

We are thankful that we had a low-stress Christmas and New Years here in Santa Marta. We attended our church's Christmas program on the 23rd. They had singing, a short drama, several readings, and dinner.

We spent Christmas Day mostly in the house enjoying the day and the quiet. Christmas evening we had an impromptu invitation by our neighbors for dinner at their house. They had family and several people from church there, so we were able to practice our Spanish and observe. I was, however, a little embarrassed because we weren't planning on visiting with anyone so the kids weren't wearing shoes and looked a little disheveled after their naps, plus Jon and I were both wearing shorts. We certainly weren't a picture of culture (Colombians always dress up when going out), but we didn't want to be rude either by turning down the invitation. At one point, I zipped home and gave the kids a quick bath and put them in their pajamas and shoes. Believe me, it was a vast improvement.

Jon and I have been doing tutoring in the morning and working on our vocabulary and reading. We are still trying to get to know the ministries here at the church. One blessing has been the music. Jon was able to accompany Pastor Julio this past week in preparation for the worship service. While the songs were presented, Julio and Jon analyzed the words and messages of the songs to make sure they were sound and profitable to sing.

This past Sunday Pastor Julio asked Jon to help with communion. Jon was a little nervous because he thought he was going to have to pray in Spanish, but he didn't. It's a lot of pressure to speak Spanish in front of everyone, not to mention pray. While Jon was passing around the communion cups, he went to rest his hand on the bottom of the plate and inadvertently tipped some of the cups over because there wasn't actually a bottom. This was a prime example of how Jon's good sense of humor can be such an asset to ministry. While I would have been absolutely embarrassed, Jon just kept going, dripping juice on people, apologizing all the way, and smiling.

Praises:
1. Pastor Julio and his wife Claudia have been a tremendous help to us as we get to know the city, church, and the people.
2. Tutoring continues to go well as we build on what we know.
3. Our house is starting to feel more like home.
4. WE ARE HERE!!! Yay!!! Thanks for all your prayers and your support. It's been a long journey, but we are extremely thankful to be right where God would have us to be.

Prayer Requests:
1. At the end of January, the church is having a retreat for the young people at church. The theme is "Amar es Esperar" "To Love is To Wait." Premarital sex is a huge problem here, as in the United States, even among those in the church. Jon will be helping plan this event and will attend it as well. Pray that this message will pierce the hearts of the young people who attend as they grow in understanding and appreciation for God's design for sex. Pray that this will be a good time of relationship-building for Jon as he gets to know the youth.

2. Pray for the kids as they continue to adjust. Parker has been having a hard time since we have been here and we want to be sensitive to him, yet discipline him in a Godly way. Pray that we would have wisdom and patience with them because they are adjusting too.

3. My tutor, one of the ladies at church, has asked me to prepare my testimony for the first women's meeting of the new year. This will be a good way for the ladies to get to know me, but more importanly for them to see the power and provision of God in my life.





Christmas Day with the horse that Aunt Angie gave to him. Parker just loves horses.












Kendall is pretty excited about this book. I love it when she "reads" to me. She can make up some good stories just looking at the pictures. Thanks Grandma for the books.











We went to a really great Christmas program. This was part of the choir. They sang with great enthusiasm.

A Place Called Home

Well, we have finally made it to our new home in Santa Marta, Colombia. After a long journey of raising support and language school, we are here. Jon and I are both experiencing a combination of emotions. We are excited and energized about being here and yet anxious and overwhelmed. We arrived last Tuesday and had a fairly uneventful trip. We sailed through customs and baggage with no problems. Through the wonderful blessing of a ticket agent in Charlotte, NC we got all our 12 (overweight) bags through without even one being checked.

When we arrived in Colombia, five men from our church were waiting to pick us up. We rode in traditional South American-style, loaded down with baggage, kids sitting on laps, and three grown men in the front seat. We drove for about 1 and 1/2 hours to our new home. As we got off the bus, two families were anxiously waiting for our arrival. People were everywhere giving hugs and offering greetings. Our pastor's wife and another SAM missionary had brought in food and prepared our apartment for the first few days. We had a mini-refrigerator, beds, pillows, pots and pans, a table, and food. It was a wonderful testimony of the body of Christ and how well it can function for His glory.

The past week has been filled with trying to get set up, registering our visas, and getting to know the people at the church. Bob and Ruth Ann Moyer, veteran SAM missionaries from Colombia, spent the first 9 days with us. We would have really struggled finding our way around without them. They also served as a third-party go-between for us. The Colombian culture relies heavily on a third-party to offer introductions, invitations, and information. Bob and Ruth Ann were a great help in all of this. We were able to go and observe several of the ministers that the church is involved in, including AWANA, prayer meeting, and the men's and women's meetings. The kindess of the people here is amazing. After travelling from place to place and visiting so many churches, it is such a relief to have a place that we can call our new home.

Praises:
1. There are several kids in our apartment complex for the kids to play with.
2. Our house is far better than we expected. We have so much room, in comparision to how we were living. I keep rearranging things to figure out the best way to organize things.
3. The Holy Spirit continues to remind us of how He can and wants to use us here in Colombia.

Prayer Requests:
1. We are continuing to study Spanish here with a tutor. We quickly realized that the vocabulary is different here and we have a long way to go before we are fluent. This can be frustrating at times when we think about our ministry here. We need to have the language down to do effective ministry. Pray for patience and a good attitude in this area as we meet with our tutors and talk with people from church and our neighborhood. The only bad thing about knowing some Spanish is that people assume that we know more than we do and start talking really, really fast.
2. Pray for the continued adjustment of the kids. We are going Monday to check into preschool for Kendall. This is the best way for her to learn the language, but we want to be sensitive to how she is feeling about going to school.
3. Pray that we would both covet our time with the Lord and make it a priority each day. The "activities" of the day can be overwhelming, but we know that our spiritual health is what is going to sustain us here when things are difficult.

Thank you for your prayers. We love you all.
Jon, Amanda, Kendall, and Parker

Breathing Deeply

This is kind of a long one but here's the highlights:

* We got our Visas
* We bought our tickets and we leave on December 8th

One of the things that I've been catching myself doing lately is sighing...you know, taking deep breaths when you're not really doing anything strenuous. Well...I've been doing that a lot lately. When I get stressed and I start to worry a lot...I sigh. Last Sunday and Monday I was in worry mode. Last Sunday night we were driving to Atlanta to so that we could go to the Colombian consulate the next day. As we were driving I started to ask Amanda about some of our documents...like our school transcripts, my Ordination certificate, and whatever else I thought that we might need.

She looked at me and said that she didn't have them...Out comes another sigh. We had given them all to our boss who was joining us in Atlanta, but I guess I thought that he might not have them for some reason...he did thankfully, but that still didn't stop my worrying though. God's probably not real impressed with my faith right now, but thankfully our getting these Visas wasn't contingent upon my faith because we probably wouldn't have gotten them.

We arrive at the Colombian consulate at 9:00 after a waking at 4:00 a.m. to drive to Atlanta. I thought, "How many people could be in the Colombian Consulate at 9:00 a.m. to get Visas?"...I was wrong. It was packed. All of the Colombians were packed into a very tiny waiting room with a group of six gringos. We got a lot of smiles that day...I love Colombians. I spent some time waiting near the elevators so the kids wouldn't go crazy when a Colombian couple walked by. They started to ask what I was doing there, and I got to share with them what we'd be doing in Colombia. They were so kind and they said "Dios lo bendiga"..God bless you. This made me smile, and was a great reminder of why I love Colombia.

The kids were so great, Parker played with legos for about 2 hours straight and Kendall did great as well. We were very proud of them and thankful that they held it together considering that they woke up about 3.5 hours before they usually do. So we waited and waited for our number to be called.

There were so many people in there, we were worried that when they came to us they would be in a bad mood because of the craziness before us. So when we got to sit down before the Vice-Consul of Colombia, we were all praying that she'd be in a good mood. She was.

She had met our boss before, so there was a prior relationship. She asked us if we were missionaries, and when we told her that we were, she just smiled. We sat down with our paperwork, and as she flipped though it, all she said was "Perfect, perfect, perfect". She than said, I just need some money. It literally took her longer to count the $620 than it did to go through our paperwork. She said come back in a little bit, and you'll have your Visas.

I guess this is where we could sit back and pat ourselves on the back about having done a fine job putting everything together. All of our hard work had paid off...wrong. God had gone before us. He had made the path straight. This was from His hands, not ours. When we had our Visas in hand, it was such a relief and we could reflect that all of our worry was in vain...like always.

So we now have Religious Visas that allow us to stay in the country 2 years, after those expire we will apply for residency. Along with that, God has really blessed us through the sacrifical giving of many people. We would still love to raise a little more support before going, but we now have an official leave date of December 8th. We origianlly thought that Nov. 11th was going to be the date, but we made the decision, along with SAM, to go in December. Priase God!!

It's so hard to believe that another chapter is about to start in our lives, but we are thankful for the journey that God has put us on. We are thankful that when we travel to Colombia, we will be accompanied by predecessors who spend 40 years in Colombia. They are going to help us set up, and get acquainted with the school and the church.

So we will be spending our last month, saying final goodbyes, packing, and getting spiritually and emotionally prepared for what God has called us to do in Colombia. Thanks for your prayers and your investment in our lives. We appreciate all you.

So Close

Even though we are so close to being in Colombia, until we are there, it still feels like miles away. But we are are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel and I'm praying that will be ready for the next part of the journey that God has before us. We had a problem with our papers that came up with some teammates in September but thankfully we had our good friends in the Esperanza church work on getting us a new set. We are extremely thankful for the members of the body of Christ in Colombia because I'm not sure how we'd get there if it wasn't for their prayers and their work on our behalf. It's amazing to think of the army of people that are standing behind us in the States, as well as the body of believers that will stand beside us in Colombia.

So we are headed to Atlanta on Oct. 26th to the Colombian consulate to hopefully obtain our Religious Visas. Our supervisors are coming with us (they have worked in Colombia for over 40 years!) so that puts our hearts and minds at ease. As God brings us to your minds, please pray that this would go smoothly and that we'd bring everything that we'll need to complete this process.

Amanda and I had the opportunity to spend some time in Charlotte for SAM's annual conference for those that are on the field for furlough. What a neat opportunity to rub shoulders with those that have spent decades ministering and spreading the gospel all over South America. We were able to deepen some relationships as well as make many more new ones. Praise God for Godly leaders and friends!! They brought in a local pastor that really challenged our hearts and our minds with the truth that God is more interested in who we are, than what we are doing. As Christians, it's really easy to think that if we are doing enough "work" than we must be o.k. But it was a great reminder that apart from an abiding relationship with Jesus Christ (John 15:5)....We can do nothing.

We are still short on our support, so if you could please continue to pray that God would provide in an amazing way so that we can leave shortly after receiving our visas. But we desire to go in God's timing.

Oh!! One other thing. God has really answered our prayers for a great place to live until we can find a more permanent house. The place is located directly across from the church/school and we will be living next to the pastor of our church. Praise God!! It's relatively small, but it has 3 bedrooms and 3 baths. It also has a great protected courtyard and parking space that will be great for the kids to play in and ride their bikes. Here are some pictures:

Waiting on the Lord

To those that we love,

This is our first blog since returning back to the States from Costa Rica and we have really enjoyed our time reconnecting with friends, families, and churches. It really has been an overwhelming experience as people have really showered us with love since being here.

After spending time in Costa Rica, we have a new appreciation for the family of God and the amazing community of believers that we have been surrounded by. We've also come to a much deeper understanding of the importance of prayer in our life and ministry. God's made it abundantly clear in our lives that we need to devote everything we do to him...especially the little things that we take so for granted.

The kids have adjusted well to all the changes, even better than us in most cases. It's so fun to see them grow up and change, but we are praying that they profess Jesus as their Savior very soon in their young lives.

We are waiting on the Visa process right now. Our mission has submitted a request for a Visa to Bogota, so we are waiting on that right now. When that comes in, we will travel to the Colombian consulate in Atlanta where we will take all of our papers and information and they will tell us that day if we have been granted a temporary religious Visa. If you could, pray for that as you remember us.

We still have some support to raise as well. Right now we still need to raise anywhere from $300-$500 monthly. But we know that God will do it in His timing.

Please pray that God will continue to prepare our hearts for using us in Colombia. Also, remember the people of Colombia that God would continue to raise up laborers in Colombia that would reach the rest of this amazing country that desperately needs to hear the truth of Jesus Christ.

We also got some pictures taken while in Columbia by Destiny Wenzel. Her website is http://www.wenzelphotography.blogspot.com/ so if you're ever in Columbia, S.C. and want some great pictures... check her out.

note: If while reading this post you happen to stumble upon a spelling or grammatical error, please mentally insert the correction :)

Lessons

Well, 10 more days and counting. We have a few more exams to look forward to and packing. Amanda has not started packing yet because we actually use everything we have. It's a little difficult to sort things and put them away when you are still using them. Looking back on our time, we have really had a wonderful time. It is going to be hard to say goodbye to our friends, but it will also be wonderful to be one-step closer to Colombia.

During our time here we have learned a few things:
1. It is impossible to do anything apart from Christ--and language learning is no exception.
2. God doesn't want us to be comfortable just living life and doing day to day activities. He guides, moves, and sometimes pushes us into a deeper understanding of who He is.
3. Relationships with other believers is an absolute must in your walk with Christ.
4. What God calls us to do, He will equip us to do it as well. There were times when Spanish felt entirely too difficult and we thought that we could not possible learn another thing, but God enabled us to do it.
5. Satan wants to distract us from doing anything that will advance the Kingdom of God. He also will use any means possible to deter us.
6. Pride is a huge obstacle to face when learning a language. It's ok to get things wrong, because let us assure you...you will.
7. If you leave cake out, even if it is covered, ants will swarm.
8. Spanish and English do not translate the same. Words aren't always what you think they should be.
9. The price of vegetables goes down dramatically the more Spanish you know.

Prayer Requests:
1. We still have about $500 more to raise before Colombia.
2. For safe travel next Saturday Aug. 15.
3. For the details (sorting items to be left here, packing, final meetings, and final exams) of the last week to be stress-free.
4. Transition back to the States and then again to Colombia.
5. For our Visas to be approved quickly once we finish all our paperwork.

Praises:
1. For the opportunity to spend 8 months focusing on language learning.
2. For Carla, our house-helper, who has been a wonderful blessing to our family.
3. Continued protection from the Lord.

Thank you again for your support. We will see you soon.

Jon, Amanda, Kendall, and Parker

Ministy in Costa Rica

While our time here in Costa Rica has been mainly focused on the preparation phase for our future ministry, God really blessed both Amanda and I with an ESL ministry for several weeks here. What made this so great for me, was that it helped me to see how this might be apart of our future ministry in the future.

Why is ESL such a great ministry? Glad you asked! This is almost the perfect environment to introduce spiritual things to those who might not have any spiritual sensitivity yet. Outside of our knowledge of who God is, our language is an extremely valuable commodity. People all over the world are trying to learn English in the hope of having greater opportunities to both communicate and to acquire a better job. The reality is this...English opens doors.

So inside the classroom you have a group of people who are very eager to speak and read English; so many times we would use Scripture as our text, and use that as our basis for conversation. What a great opportunity to start to talk about spiritual things. So it was such a fun experience to encourage a great group of Costa Ricans, not only in their English, but I was able to communicate about Spiritual things as well.

I also was able to see how quickly relationships could develop in this context. They want to teach me Spanish, I want to teach them English and about God. Perfect!! Relationships seem much easier to form in the Spanish culture, and for that we are extremely grateful. We look forward to seeing how God can use our language to open up doors for ministry in the future. If we ever make it back to the States, I would love to be apart of a church that does this kind of ministry.

These are a couple of my "advanced" students. They were so kind to me, and they knew about as much English grammar as I did.











This is a picture of Regina. She is the one who Amanda wrote about who came to our school looking for us. She is from Santa Marta, Colombia, and she has been praying for our family for over a year.

It was so fun to meet her and her family. We went to their house and had cake and coffee. What a great blessing it was to meet one of our future neighbors.

More than likely we will be living in her apartment building when we get to Colombia


One of my favorite students. This fellow really wanted to learn English. Just really a very loving fellow.











Surprise!!!













My ESL class. Best thing I've done while in Costa Rica

The End Is In Sight

Well, we have a little less than a month left in Costa Rica. It's hard to believe that we have been here for almost 7 months. Things have been about the same and school continues to be tiring. The kids are actually out of school this week due to the swine flu. The government closed all the schools in Costa Rica to avoid more cases. There have been about 300 cases of the flu here, but no one at our school has it. Since the kids don't have school, but we do, Jon and I have been taking turns staying home with the kids. I must confess, I did not object to staying home with them. Not being with the kids all day has been my biggest struggle. I know that this has only been a temporary part of our lives, but I have needed comfort and confirmation from the Lord that we were following His plan for our lives. Veteran missionaries often talk about making sacrifices on the field--this has been one of mine. Though the God of all has continued to show me love and kindness during this time. The kids not having school is in a way a gift for me.

Spanish is coming along day by day. It will be nice to have practical and more natural conversations with people. Two weeks ago I had to give an hour long presentation about Colombia (yes, in Spanish). My classmates and I about went over the edge that week. Jon was certainly glad when I was done with it too. Jon and I are now on the last couple of conjugations. When we leave, we will know how to correctly form all verbs and recognize all the verb tenses. It's now a matter of practicing, building vocabulary, and reinforcing when to use which tense. No problem, right?

We will arrive in the US on August 15. Our wonderful friends from South Carolina are planning to pick us up. Everyone is counting done the days, especially our parents. We plan on being in North Carolina for about a week in a half and then we are going to Columbia, SC for a few days. Jon and I are going to celebrate our 10th anniversary in New York for a few days while his parents have watch the kids. After our trip, we will be going to Virginia to spend time with my family and my parents' church. They have been wonderful supporters and encouragers while we have been here. Our goal is to meet with all our supporters while we are in the States. This will be a challenge though since we have supporters all up the east coast.

We still have some more support to raise and we need to work on securing our visas for Colombia. We don't have a definite departure date, but we are thinking early October, about 6 weeks.

Praises:
1. Three new SAM candidates have been assigned to Colombia. This is great news for us so that we will have more teammates in a city that has very few Americans.
2. Our ESL classes are finished and we both had an amazing time with the people we worked with. ESL has probably been our highlight here because we were actually working on building relationships. Ministry is all about relationships, plus it was excellent practice for Colombia.

Prayer Requests:
1. My dad has had a blood clot in his leg and has been receiving blood thinning shots. Pray that this problem will heal and that my mom can receive some rest too. She's been going non-stop.
2. Pray that we will preserve through the last couple of weeks here.
3. Pray for the details of packing and preparing to leave. It's going to be a challenge to get everything together because we have classes right up until we leave.
4. Pray for the transition back home and then to Colombia.
5. Pray for the members of the Esperanza Church in Colombia as they are working towards a new vision and unity within the body.
6. Pray for a couple from SAM who is living in Colombia for the next three months to learn the language and work on getting to know the ministries and people of the Esperanza Church. They will be returning to work in the home office in Fort Mill, SC in October.
7. Pray for good health for the last 4 weeks for school. We had another round of stomach viruses that went through the whole family about 2 weeks ago. Pray that our bodies will adjust to being back in the States.

Much love,
Jon, Amanda, Kendall and Parker

A Gift from God

Today I experienced a gift from God. I know that God intimately cares about His children, but today I had a first-hand account of this. During school today, one of my teachers told me that there was someone who wanted to see me. I thought this strange, but I followed him anyway. Sitting at a table on the patio was an elderly women. I introduced myself and I see that she is holding a picture of our family (one of our old prayer cards actually). Anyway, she proceeds to tell me that she is from Colombia, Santa Marta, Colombia to be more specific. She attends our church in Colombia and her daughter works in the Esperanza School where we will be working. Her son is one of my teacher's pastors here in Costa Rica. We talked for a while and she told me that she had been praying for us for a year now and was anxious for us to be in Colombia. How special that she came to Costa Rica to visit her family, but made a point to come to the school to meet and encourage us. God certainly knew that I needed encouragement. Yesterday was a difficult Spanish day for me and I was feeling very discouraged. I am grateful that God sent me someone, a lonely woman from Colombia, at just the right time to remind me of His provision, care, and concern for His child. How cool! Praise God for He is worthy is be praised.