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Being the adventurous type, as most missionary families are, we decided to spend our Christmas vacation at one of the most active volcanoes in the world, Volcan Arenal. We drove for about four hours by van over less than perfect roads in order to reach our destination, and what greeted us was nothing less than majestic.

The volcano towers over the town of La Fortuna and dominates all of the surrounding landmarks. But there is much more to this volcano than meets the eye. During the day sounds that can only be described as roars emit from within the mountain as rocks the size of cars are spewed from the cone to tumble noisily down the active face. The nighttime, however, is when the show really begins as the volcano treats visitors to the sparsely populated and rugged west face to a light show that needs to be experienced in order to believe. The molten rocks, which look gray in the daylight, now glow a bright orange and leave trails like rivers of fire as they roll down to be extinguished hundreds of feet below the cone. It is a sight that forces you to appreciate the amazing creative power of God!

Of course, we did more than simply watch the mountain during our vacation. Take a look at our pictures of the trip here.

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With Christmas break upon us, we’ve had time to make some major changes at www.disciplemexico.org. Aside from the obvious, we taken time to add features to make your experience at our site more enjoyable. Some of these features include:

  • New site navigation
  • New links page
  • New expanding post feature for easier viewing of the site
  • and much more!

Also, for those of you who have subscribed to disciplemexico via Bloglet, we are considering moving all subscriptions to Feedblitz. This service works better with our site feed, and looks to be more reliable over the long run. Don’t worry, all of this will take place automatically.

What hasn’t changed, though, is all of the great content that you have come to enjoy at www.disciplemexico.org. So if it has been a while since you have clicked through to visit the site come and check us out!

The 10th Annual Festival of the Lights was held in downtown San Jose this past Saturday. Knowing that this was an event that families travel from miles around in order to see, we felt it worth 15 minute trip to experience, and wow, what an experience!

By the time that we made it to our spot, about 15 minutes before the 6:00 start time, both sides of the street were packed. We had to pick our way through the crowd in order to find a spot to stand. Few were available but we were able to fall into line with some very gracious families. In, fact. One group gave Rebekah a front row seat while others helped us by giving us water and catching candy for Jonathan and Joseph. We had planned to sit with another missionary family, but we were unable to find them. The funny thing is that we found out later that we were probably only a matter of yards from them, but unable to reach them through the sea of people

The parade started promptly on time, around 6:45, and after one group filed by, it ground to a halt. It stayed that way for another half hour as a generator had to be replaced in one of the floats. After the repairs, the parade started rolling, and it was a sight to behold. I’ve added some pictures in order to convey the idea. Unfortunately, our camera doesn’t do the best in the dark. Still, click here or on the picture in this post to view the shots we were able to capture.

We made it back to our apartment around 9:30 exhausted, sore, and ready for bed, but certainly enriched by the experience that we had standing shoulder to shoulder sharing a moment with the culture to which God has called us!

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As all of us approach a new year, we are looking forward to a new trimester of studies here at CINCEL. We celebrated graduation here on Friday, and said goodbye to twelve of our classmates, including Brian and Dena Norvell, missionaries to the state of Sinaloa Mexico, and Mark and Sandra Smith, missionary associates to the Mexican border. We are sad to see them go, but glad that they are now moving on to the work!
Kelly and I, meanwhile, received our marks for the current trimester on Friday. We have both advanced well, receiving high marks in our oral examination as well as in our classes. We have also noticed advancement as we go about our everyday activities. It is nice to be able to talk intelligibly with the people in street instead of playing charades! Thanks for your prayers on our behalf for this area of our ministry. They are working!

We are now able to rest for a bit before the new trimester begins in January. Actually, we’re looking forward to catching up on a few things that have been neglected since school began in September!

Words cannot describe the frenzy that I experienced as I attended what some would call the premiere Latin cultural event, a futbol (soccer) game. Some of the men from CINCEL hopped aboard the school bus in order to witness the championship game between Olimpia of Honduras and La Liga of Alajuela, Costa Rica.

Futbol in Latin America has no real equivalent in the US. There are baseball fans, there are football fans, but here they have fanatics! I had trouble getting a good shot, as it was nighttime, but the group of “fanaticos” in the picture were truly a sight to behold. Things got started as a flurry of fireworks erupted from the stands. Firecrackers, bottle rockets and sparklers exploded and flashed as the area was literally covered in a plume of smoke. Then the jumping began. The Ligistas jumped for 1 hour and 30 minutes singing and clapping their hands, only stopping to try to pick a fight with the contingent of Hondurans that attended the match. It mattered not that La Liga was putting on a subpar performance in front of them.

The game ended with Olimpia beating the Alajuelans 1-0, but because of a game with the opposite score in Honduras the week before, the series needed to be decided by penales, or penalty shots. As the final kick of the Ligistas entered the goal, sealing the victory, the staduim erupted into a deafening roar. With the game, the fans, the police in riot gear, and the smell of pepper spray in the air, it was truly a night to remember.

Our latest newsletter is now available on-line in PDF format. Just click on the image below or here to read about our recent events in Costa Rica:

There is no word for Thanksgiving in Spanish and no holiday either. So while most of the people in the US have the day off, for the people of San Jose, today was business as usual. The Gringos among them were celebrating though. We’re planning for a holiday complete with the turkey, the cranberries, the dressing, and, of course the running.

Here is a shot of field of the Inaugural San Jose Turkey Trot, 3.5 miler. We even had a total crowd of spectators of 5! Not a bad turnout if I say so myself.

There are more pictures of the run, along with shots of all of the festivities available by clicking here or on the picture to the right.

Get on the Stick!

The popsicle stick that is! We’ve been subjected to some strange exercises in order to get our mouths into the correct condition for speaking Spanish, but none have been as odd or humbling as the popsicle stick.

English speakers don’t open their mouths habitually as they speak. Therefore, we have trouble with several of the Spanish sounds that require an open mouth. The popsicle stick helps us “feel” the way that our mouths should be positioned. Of course, both the look and the sound produced by this practice were absolutely hilarious. Click here or on the picture to hear a sample of what we were doing in the classroom. In case you can’t make it out, I’m reading 1Tim 2:5,6 in Spanish

God has called us to go “into all the world,” and if we are to fulfill his mandate, we are certainly going to need some help. How will we get it? Teach missions!

We were blessed to be a part of a missions outreach in the countryside north of San Jose last weekend. Here, we were able, through songs, skits and puppets to teach missions to the next generation of Costa Ricans. We believe that you are never to young or too old to respond to God’s call. Click here or the picture to view our album of the event.

How does Jonathan, our almost three year old, celebrate a birthday in Costa Rica? By having an operation of course! Tuesday, November 8th is Jonathan’s third birthday, and we spent the last week and a half preparing by spending a lot of time in the hospital.

It started with some symptoms that we found earlier in October that necessitated minor surgery. However, the day after we scheduled the procedure, Jonathan fell and cut his face, requiring emergency surgery as the cut was very close to his eye.

Now all of this is difficult enough to deal with in the states, but try navigating through the emergency room in a foreign language! We were helped by a terrific team, however, and we want to take a moment to thank our doctor, Dr. John Longworth, Jay and Nancy Dickerson, the directors of CINCEL for providing translation and taxi services, as well as the entire school for their support, prayers and concern. Thanks goes as well to those who continue to hold us up in prayer. Your prayers do make a difference.

In this picture Jonathan is preparing for the final surgery, and, as you can see, the injuries haven’t dampened his spirits. Hey, he’s rough and tough right? The surgery went wonderfully well and the stitches in his face were removed at the same time. He’ll be able to celebrate his third birthday injury free!

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