Pictures of life...

Daniel's parents came to visit us!

Surprise birthday party for Maria!!

We have been gearing up for a mission team from The States. They are arriving today and are with Believers World Outreach. They will be here for 12 days and we are really excited about all that the Lord will do in and through them. This mission organization is extra special to Daniel and I because this is the group we were with when we brought our Youth Group in 2004. On this trip the Lord planted the seed in our hearts for Jaco, Costa Rica. We are excited to see Mark and Debbie, the couple in charge that led our trip in '04 as well! I will definitely post pictures during next week so that you can see what they are doing here.

Here are a few pictures of every day life here...some of our sweet kids we minister to every week at kid's club. Others are of family and friends...

Our Amazing Intern

Many of you know we have the privilege of hosting an intern for 2 months this summer here in Jacó. Alicia Keel, who was part of our youth group at CC Lexington, is here with us for the summer and she is blessing our socks off! We have a lot in common and she is just like part of our family so we have been having a blast with her here! She is a wonderful help in everything--from washing dishes to helping Thomas and Jacob with whatever to helping us plan and host mission teams. We are so happy to have her here and I really am going to cry when she leaves in August. Maybe by then she will just decide to stay forever :) We love you so much Alicia--you are truly a gift from the Lord for us this summer!!!

Calvary Chapel Lexington Mission Team

We had a wonderful week last week with the CC Lexington team (a team from our home church in Lexington, SC)!! They did 2 kid's clubs in 2 different barrios; they painted the church office including building a dividing wall and putting in a sink and new cabinets; they gave our normal kid's club park a total makeover including cleaning the entire park, new netting for the goals, building benches/picnic tables, painting and repairing the swing set. They also did a movie night in the park and everyone was able to sit on the newly built benches. We served popcorn and Kool-aid and watched the veggie tales movie "Jonah" in Spanish. It was an amazing week with an amazing group of young people and adults! It was so refreshing to have "family" here visiting and working alongside of us---we were so blessed! We had kid's club this past Saturday in the newly remodeled park and it was so beautiful to see the kids so excited!! We had parents come out all week to see the new park and has definitely been the talk of the neighborhood! This team definitely left Jesus's handprints all over this town and we are so grateful for their sacrificial service!! Below are a few pictures of their week...Thanks team for everything---you are amazing!

And yet another birthday...

Happy Birthday Jacob! We celebrated Jacob's 3rd birthday on Saturday...I can't believe my baby is 3 years old!! He had so much fun celebrating with a few of his little friends. Here are a few pictures of the festivities...

Baptism

We had another dinner/baptism service at our home this past Sunday. It was such a joy to witness Geovanny, Denise and their son, Vinny, getting baptized as a family! They began attending our church only about 2 months ago and the Lord is really doing a work in their lives! We also had fun fellowshiping with our church family---we are truly blessed to be here!

Happy Birthday Daniel!

Sunday we celebrated Daniel's Birthday. Lauren (a friend from The States) has been visiting us for a few weeks and she babysat while Daniel and I got away on our own. It was wonderful!!! The boys had a great time baking a cake for Daddy, making cards and singing "Happy Birthday" (in Spanish, of course!).

Happy Birthday Daniel!!

At church on Daniel's birthday

Happy Birthday Madelyn!

Last Saturday we had the privilege of hosting a birthday party for little Madelyn, Veronica's daughter. (Many of you will remember Veronica as we have been ministering to her since we arrived here in Jacó.) Veronica has had a rough life, to say the least, and comes from a very poor family. She mentioned to me really wanting to have a special party for Madelyn this year and asked if she could use our house/pool. Her family from Orotina (a town about 1 1/2 away by bus) came and we had a great time! I think it was a blessing for them as well to get out of Orotina to enjoy the festivities. The Lord used this to again show me how the things that we think are so small and insignificant in our world could mean the world to someone else. This is ministry. Veronica would have never been able to give her daughter a party the way she was able to here and all we did was make ourselves AVAILABLE. All I did was make the cake and love on the people as they came. How easy was that??? She was teary as she thanked me and I know this was an opportunity to serve and minister to her family--none of whom know Jesus. God is so good....He even cares about the little things like making birthdays special for little four year olds. Here are a few pictures from the party.