November Update

Well, we have now celebrated our first major holiday outside the US and can I say that our God is faithful and continues to do more than I can ask or imagine! We celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday with about 50 fellow Christians from here in the area where we live and work. It was an incredible thing to see the community that Christ has blessed us with in such a short time. We are closer to some people than others, but to know that all the people in that room yesterday are followers of Christ and most are here trying to make a difference in His name is quite amazing. We had a traditional American Thanksgiving meal, with all families contributing something. We fixed a ham and green bean casserole—from scratch (no Campbell's soup here and they were all out of canned green beans). We also had turkey, cornbread dressing, bread, potatoes, deviled eggs, salads and pineapple. We had a whole array of desserts from cupcakes for the kids to pumpkin and pecan pie! We haven't eaten like that in months! We were so full. Our tropical twist to the day was a walk down to the beach after we ate. Eden and I played in the sand and water and Bart went spelunking! He finally had a group of guys here to go exploring with and they had a blast. We are going to have to get a waterproof camera so he can get some good pictures of the caves.

My heart is full right now. As we continue to serve here, I am humbled that God chose us to be here and grateful that through your generosity we were able to come! Since you last heard from us, we completed 6 weeks of language class and are so thankful we did it.

Bart and I can now function pretty completely in Spanish, though he is much better than I am. The family that are the caretakers here at Refugio Solté speak only Spanish and we now are able to visit with them as well as accomplish the work with them that we need to. I am overjoyed with how far we have come. Bart even made a trip to an island where we have been working with some locals and served as the translator for the day! Can you believe it?

The longer I am here the more I hunger for the local people to know the love of our redeeming savior. For so many of them, they have no joy. I know there lives are far more difficult than mine will ever be, but I also know a redeeming savior who can change so much of their outlook on life. Please pray for them and that God will provide ways for us to reach out to them and show them His freedom and love!

I am now serving as coordinator of our Preschool Sunday School at Iglesia de la Costa, our church here. I teach the class once every 3 weeks as well as plan all the lessons and activities. It is also a great chance to use my Spanish as Eden is generally the only English speaker in the class!

Speaking of church, we had a program last Sunday afternoon for the kids in the community. It was a great time and the group that presented not only gave the kids a fun time, but presented the gospel of Christ! There were clowns, an obstacle course and candy! Eden was also one of 2 gringo kids present but she had a blast. When it was all over she told Bart and I we need a clown at home so she can play with them all the time!

We said 'goodbye' to JoJo early last week. Bart and I miss her, but not like Eden does. She was such a blessing to have here. She is a beautiful young lady of God and I am looking forward to see how He chooses to use her sweet and caring heart! She is a special one!

We are still waiting on our container...I know, I can't really believe it either. We have word a month ago that it would be about 2 more weeks and here we are...We spoke with our agent again last Friday and An he says it really will be just about 2 more weeks now. I guess we will see. I think about all of this and realize how little I feel like I need most of that stuff now. I am praying God will show me how I can pass it on to bless someone here that doesn't have much! Please be praying that God will open all the doors to finally get it out of storage and that He will provide the last bit of money we need. He has been faithful to give us all we have needed up to this point and we know He will continue!

We make out next trip out of the country the beginning of this next week. It is hard to believe it is already that time again. We are going a little early so we have it done before Christmas activities at church pick up and before my Mom arrives! We are looking forward to some family time together and to enjoying some air-conditioning for a little while!

As far as Refugio Solté goes, Bart is working very diligently to have what we have here complete by the end of February, including a more reliable power supply. He is currently working on building a house for the caretakers and then will dive into really finishing up the kitchen. Please be praying that as Answering the Call is working on raising the funds we need to complete the work, that God will open doors and lead them to the people they need to be in contact with. It is exciting to think we may actually have a full schedule next spring.

My role here at Refugio Solté has finally come together. While we are still planning on having and hosting groups of pastors from other countries for training and recuperation, that only partially fills our calendar. Based on that fact and in an effort to raise money to maintain RS and bring in the pastors at no cost to them, we are going to begin hosting groups to come in and do local mission work. These groups will utilize RS as their "hotel" but we will be able to more fully serve them because we will cater to the work they will be doing. One thing that sets us apart from other place is we are welcoming families with children of all ages. Many of the areas of service here are kid friendly—working with kids in the orphanages, minor construction projects, community VBS programs to name a few. For those projects, parents will take their older children along. The younger kids, say from 3 to 8 years of age, will stay on the RS campus and I will provide a missions based program for them to go through. I desire to provide them with learning opportunities in many areas. I want them to learn about the local community, the areas and people Answering the Call is ministering to around the world, and learning more about God and our responsibility to share His love with others. I am in the process of developing the program and am really excited for the opportunity to do this. I am praying that God will use this to open the hearts and eyes of the kids to the world around them and to ways that they can share God's love even at a young age. I know this is part of God's plan for me here.

Thank you for reading all of this. I know it has been a while since we have been in touch. Know that we think of you often and miss you dearly. Our hearts are full remembering all our Lord has blessed us with especially his love and gift of salvation. We thank you for providing for our family so we can follow where God has asked us to go and we can do the work we have been asked to do. Your faithfulness and willingness to bless us is beyond words! Your prayers and encouragement keep us pursuing all God has for us and we thank you for that. We love you and are praying for you!

With a thankful heart,

Heather

"I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now." Philippians 1:3-5

September Update - Some things to laugh at...

Hola mis amigos!

As usual this was written earlier in the week. I wanted to get pictures in and that always takes me forever! Anyway, we do have more to share and will next week. JoJo is here safe and sound and Eden is EATING her up! What a blessing this time will be and we are looking forward to it. Please pray for her and her family as I know this will be a growing time as well!

I hope this finds you well and enjoying what God has blessed you with. I know it has been a while since you have heard from me. I have had a bit of difficult adjustment since my short return to the States. I struggled a little getting back into our simpler way of life and with having a positive perspective on it and all that we are going through. God and I have worked through so much and I find that I have a new joy in what he has given us here and beginning to find my place.

I know one of the things that we asked for prayer for as we began our new life was for fellowship. Can I tell you our Lord has been beyond faithful! We have Sarah and Jason who are here serving with ATC and have been such a God send to us. They have helped with so much as far as knowing how to save money on food, where to go for the things we need, how to get to certain places and then helped us through our first short stent in and out of the country. I cannot imagine where we would be without them and I know their first couple of years were tough not having been through this and not having anyone here, but wow, what they have provided for us is just beyond measure! Then we have Joe and Danette! They are also serving down here in a nontraditional missionary role. They are running a coffee shop and ministering to the local families through that. They have become really good friends. We find out selves at their place or them at ours several times a week. If we haven’t talked in a day it’s a little strange. They have 2 kids that are older than Eden, but they play with her and spend time with her and Eden just eats it up! I want to tell you that that prayer has been more than answered. God has moved, as always, beyond my wildest expectations!

We celebrted Eden's 3rd burthday here last week. We had a good time and she is PROUD to be 3! She is such a joy and a blessing. It is still so amazing to watch and listen to her here. She was created by our Heavenly Father to be here! We are soblessed!

I have a couple of funny stories I want to share - some things that have happened in getting adjusted to our new country, new money, new language and new surroundings, i.e. the jungle! First was a while back. I had gone to the store to buy a bill of groceries and we needed aluminum foil. I actually saw a brand I recognized as a cheap brand in the States but a very satisfactory product none the less. I glanced at the prices on the shelf and a far as I could ascertain, it was reasonably priced. I grabbed it and put it into the cart. I finished shopping and then went to check out. I was watching the prices and when the foil was rung up I about fell over. It rang up for the equivalent of about $14 American dollars. I was so flabbergasted that I couldn’t even manage to explain that I didn’t want it so I bought it. Now, I have never been one to feel the need to wash and reuse much like that – foil, saran wrap, ziplok bags, etc. But at $14 a roll, you begin to think twice, first before you use it at all and then again before you throw it away. I haven’t resorted to saving it yet, but wow was I surprised!

We have had a couple of language flubs of course but my favorite of mine was asking for butter (mantequilla) instead of a broom (macarena) – which here broom is escoba, so I wasn’t even close! And the ladies I was asking were very confused.

And as far as living in the jungle – or close anyway. Bart woke up one night because he heard something rattling the gate that acts as our front door. He came out to look, but couldn’t see anything. So, he came back to bed and just listened for a while. I woke up per my normal listening for Eden and all of a sudden I hear this noise and he says “That’s what I heard.” and jumps out of bed. He grabs the flash light and shines it into our living room which is actually a giant screen porch. As he does he sees something scurry across the floor and then up the wood brace on the other side of the room. At that point he turns on the light and there is a small opossum on top of this rail that runs along the front wall of our living room. I have joined him at this point and don’t know how we (or he – I wasn’t going near it!) was going to get this thing out of our house. He opens the gates and then opens the doors on either side of our living room/screen porch. He tries to shoo it out with the broom but it just runs back and forth on this pole and seems to have no desire to come down. So Bart grabs the pole the opossum is on, which is like 20’ long, and carries it out the door. I imagine that it is going to run back at Bart and attack him when the pole starts to move, but once it is out the door and close to the ground, it jumps off and runs away. We haven’t seen it again and I am very thankful. I had quite the mess to clean up in the morning and was thanking God for bleach and having enough towels that I could just throw the one I used away. I also wondered how zoo keepers possibly clean up after these critters every day. The smell was horrendous! So, we headed back to bed and had quite the story to share with Eden the next day. She was sad that she didn’t get to see the ‘possumus’ as she calls it and made us promise that if something like that ever happened again that we would come get her up.

As I have been sitting here writing, I have seen this flock of birds that lives in our yard, guans, walk across our driveway and just now fly behind me. They aren’t small birds, about the size of a grown rooster though skinnier and quite goofy in their behavior. They are quite funny and make a ton of racket when they want to. They entertain us pretty often.

It looks like things are coming together for my role with ATC. It will be in a role of working with children and I am thrilled about that. Pray that as this develops we will all be faithful to what God desires here.

God is teaching me so much right now. I am doing a study about who we are in Christ and it is just such a blessing. There are so many things that I have never been able to grasp about being a daughter of God and here in this place, I am understanding it so much better and feel like for the first time in a long time He and I are actually making some real headway in my understanding of how he loves me. There have been so many things that I have heard and studied during the past few years that I was curious about and wanted to believe, but was never able to make them a reality in my life and now I know my mind is being renewed and I am really taking these things to heart. Please pray that I will be faithful in my study and that I will continue to see what the Lord wants me to see and live a life that reflects my new understandings!

We want to share fully with you about the first retreat we had at Refugio Solté. Bart and I are working on it and we will have it to you soon. We appreciate those of you that prayed over that weekend. Know that the pastor and his church members were encouraged and uplifted and had God move in their lives in a mighty way that weekend. What an amazing blessing to get to be a part of!

Please continue to pray for the provision for the taxes and the release of our belongings we shipped here on the container. Also pray that we can come to some resolution quickly as our transportation situation is a strain not just on us but the family that lives at Refugio Solté. Based on information we received, we underestimated our taxes on the truck and personal belongings. We are working with an agent here to try and get things sorted out and to see if we can get any of that reduced. We know God, as he has in all things, has a plan and whether it is to supply the money we need, to reduce the money we owe, or a combination of the two, He will be faithful and provide what we need.

Thank you for each of you that are faithfully giving to allow us to be here. Thank you for each of you that are faithfully praying for us and our ministry. Know that you each are the reason we are able to follow the call God placed on our lives. We love you and look forward to hearing from you!

Feeling loved and blessed!
Heather

August Update - Poco a poco

Our first two months in the field have been a whirlwind for Heather, Eden, and I. It has been non-stop action and adjustment since we arrived. But now the winter is winding down here in Central America. The groups are finished coming, the rains have begun to fall almost every day, and projects are slowly grinding to a halt, and we moved into another (long term) house. And in this, we are beginning to understand the new life God has for us.

Before we moved here we thought that we had a pretty good idea about what life would be like in Central America based on our previous visit and discussions with others who live here. Things have turned out to be a little different than we were expecting. I hope that through my description you might more fully understand what things are like for us.

There is a saying that you hear down here all of the time; “poco a poco.” Little by little. This is truly the life that we are living and learning now. Daily chores are truly that. Several hours a day are spent cooking meals and washing the dishes. Sweeping must be done daily and bugs are everywhere. Laundry has become a marathon event as clotheslines have largely taken the place of the dryer. Four weeks ago we started the process to get cell phones. Late last week, we received them. There is no postal service and as a result, we have learned that you just go to the bank (which can be an extended event in itself) early in the month and ask how much you owe and pay it then or your utilities get cut off (We learned this lesson over a $27.00 electricity bill. We went a whole night not knowing this because I assumed it was just one of our regular black outs.). Everything takes more time here. No matter how early of a start you try to get to your day, it seems you always get to where you are trying to go later than you planned. From a fast paced American mind set it is a huge change, but as for us, there is no doubt that this is the place that God has prepared for us and this is the life that we are meant to live.

Back in the states, our house is still on the market. A potential sale fell trough and we are currently attempting to lease it. We honestly don’t know what else to ask or pray for with this issue. I just know that funds to pay the mortgage are gone after this month and it is all in God’s hands.

Up at Refugio Solte things are much the same. I look over the property and see so much that needs to be done and have learned that due to the tools, labor, money, building practices, and weather (have you ever tried to dig a swimming pool in the rain with a shovel? That’s my project this fall. My three interns are going to hate me by November), no project gets done as quickly as you would hope. At times this has been discouraging, but Heather reminded me to look at what has been done. The road drains better due to work we have done on it. Large areas of the property that were formerly mud are now landscaped gardens. A large portion of the main building is painted. There are stairways connecting the second and third floor. There are handrails around the third floor. There is a gate that is three quarters finished. The second pastor’s house now has a sidewalk leading to it and hot water (Sorry Houston; missed it by two weeks.) Plus I have been able to design the gate, a grand stairway to the fourth floor and a pool. Never mind that fifteen hundred and fifty coffee plants are going in the ground as I write this. God is blessing this project and moving it along in his time and expanding its scope.

South of where we are located is a small, difficult to reach, mosquito infested island with little in the way of electricity and no running water. A small group of people, many of them believers, scratch out a living here (The Houston group knows this island from their dental clinic). Refugio Solte is now to a state of completion that our fellow workers have been able to invite the Christian leadership and their families from the island to our mountain of refuge and restoration for a time of replenishment, training, and encouragement. In the early spring the site will be used for a marriage retreat, and this past summer the site was used to train almost twenty youths and twenty-somethings about kingdom living and the power inherent in being a child of God. Never mind the fact that Refugio Solte can now function as a home base for groups who come to work in the areas around our mountain.

Over the past few weeks we have met and become friends with several other missionaries in our immediate area. One family runs a pizzeria and coffee shop (the peanut butter cup latte makes Starbucks taste like instant coffee), another family leads a small bilingual church that we are currently attending, and another couple makes videos to help promote the ministries of other missionaries. Interestingly enough there is a common theme amongst us all. When we first met each family one of the first thing that was expressed was the desire for fellowship with other believers. Heather and I are currently praying about opening our home for fellowship and bible study among these new friends. Please be praying with us as to how God would have us proceed. In the states, missions is so often presented as a series of individual missionaries doing their work. This missionary does one thing, another missionary does another, and heaven forbid the idea that another denomination might be doing good work also. In practice, I am finding that these lines get a little blurry. You discover who is on your team and you play together.

On a lighter note, I have definite proof that God has a sense of humor. Growing up I thought it was a reasonable goal to be a millionaire by my thirties, I always wanted a place in the country with a tree lined driveway and a view. God gave it all to us. We just didn’t know that driveway would be lined with coconut trees and have a view of the Pacific Ocean and the Jungle and we really never expected that it wouldn’t be a house in the country but in another country. The funniest thing about it all is that down here I am not only a millionaire but, our support exchanges out to almost one point two million local dollars a month. As great as this sounds, it costs me one thousand local dollars to buy Eden a snow cone and gas costs over two thousand local dollars a gallon. A million doesn’t go as far as it used to.

Thank you for all of your prayer, love, and support. Taste and see that the Lord is good. To me he tastes like a peanut butter cup latte. We will write again soon. It’s raining and the power is out again.

We love you,
Bart