EcoRun 2011

Saturday I ran a 10K with a few friends to raise money for the turtle refuge in Hermosa (about 10 minutes from us.) We had so much fun!! Daniel and the boys borrowed a golf cart and drove around cheering us on by banging pots and pans--it was great! My favorite part of the race was when Thomas and Jacob met me close to the end and ran across the finish line with me...it was such a sweet moment for me!! Here are a few pictures of the event...

George's Baptism

Daniel got a call from his friend, Shawn, at the beginning of the week with good news. George wanted to be baptized!! George is a guy who was homeless on the streets of Jaco for many years and was a drug addict during his time on the streets. Daniel and Shawn got to know him through the homeless feedings Daniel has been a part of on Friday nights. Seven weeks ago George decided he had had enough and was finally ready for help. Shawn took him to Casa de Amor, a Christian rehab center in Quepos, and he has been there ever since. He came back to Jaco this week, 7 weeks later, to get his tooth fixed and told the guys he wanted to be baptized here as a symbol of the change the Lord has done on the inside of him. So, Daniel had the privilege of baptizing him at our house on Wednesday surrounded by all the guys that have been pouring into George and praying for his salvation. It was truly amazing and just more evidence that the Lord is doing something here in the streets of Jaco. The Lord desires lives surrendered to Him--praise the Lord George has finally surrendered! Please continue to pray for him as he has returned to Casa de Amor to finish his time there .

My sweet boys

Meeting Needs

Today we had the privilege of going down to Quepos (a city about 1 hr from Jaco) to take food that our church has collected for Casa de Amor. Casa de Amor is a drug and alcohol rehab center for men that is run by some wonderful missionary friends of ours, Kim and Laura Stilwell. They emailed us last week saying that they had great needs at the center for food and toiletry items. We presented the need to our church last week and what a blessing it was this week to see our church members wanting to help!! They provided tons of groceries for us to take and bless the ministry today. So, because Thomas was out of school today we made it a family day and went down with all of the goods and visited with Kim for a while. It ministered to us to be there with these men and they were so excited to receive all that we had, knowing the Lord had provided!! We then took the boys to a fun little restaurant for lunch called"El Avion" (the airplane). It is an actual a C-123 that was abandoned here after the Iran-Contra affair was exposed in the 80's. Later it was moved to Quepos and turned into a restaurant. They had a blast playing in the airplane and we enjoyed a delicious lunch there! Enjoy pictures of our day below...

Daniel with Kim (green shirt) and our friend Alejandro, who is an overseer at Casa de Amor

Here are the guys eating lunch

Here is some of the food we brought from the church donations

Daniel and George, a guy from Jaco who has been at the center for 6 weeks...Daniel knows him from the streets of Jaco--today was his birthday

The boys had so much fun!!!!

Pictures....

Here are a few pictures of Thomas with his science project at the kindergarten science fair. It was so cute seeing these little people present their projects to the parents and teachers. And it was all in Spanish so we were especially proud of Thomas for presenting his in Spanish as well. Thomas did a project testing different shapes of boats made of aluminum foil. He tested which one floated best. He had a great time with it!! In addition, here are a few pictures of little Micah. He is 6 weeks old and growing so fast!!! He is such a joy!

God is so good!

This is somewhat of a long story but I hope you are as blessed by it as I was on Thursday when it happened.

Thursday before lunch a friend, Karina, from INVU (the neighborhood where we do the women's Bible Study, Kids Club, etc) came by to visit and to see if we were interested in buying any men's cologne. She comes by quite often to say hello and we helped her move a few weeks ago. She is out of work now and walks the streets daily strolling her 2 little boys (ages 2 1/2 and 6 months) and looking for work. (She has a 12 yr old daughter who is in school) She shared w/ me that her landlord had come by that morning asking for at least half of the rent she owed by that day because it was originally due on the 11th. She had no money but told the lady she would get it to her. (Karina even mentioned that she felt bad lying to the lady and telling her she would have it that day for her not knowing how she would get it.) She then asked a friend who sells cologne if she could try and sell some for her and she could earn 6 to 8 dollars per bottle. So here she sat and we chatted and I prayed for her. Rewind to an hour earlier--- I had received a phone call from my friend Leslie that there was a group of 3 people who are with a Christian organization in Jaco for a few days filming a documentary on prostitution, sex trafficking, etc. She was wondering if I personally knew any prostitutes personally that are no longer in the "business" and who might be willing to share their story. I began praying and I called 3 different girls I knew to see if they would. One said no and two were unavailable and I was going to call them back later. Leslie called me back as Karina was at my house and I shared w/ her the news of what I knew thus far. I also shared with her that Karina was there and all of a sudden I felt like God told me to ask her if she knew anyone that would be willing to share. I told Leslie I would call her back and she said, "Oh, by the way, they are paying whoever agrees to interview $50-100. I talked with Karina and asked her if she knew anyone and she immediately said "yes, I am that girl." I was totally unaware that this was her past, and she was totally willing to share. I told her, "And, by the way, they are going to pay you a little to do it." Well, the crew immediately came over and they filmed Karina and her interview in our back yard. The interviewer was in tears as Karina revealed that she was tricked into coming here years ago, paid $300, and was sex trafficked in and they worked her like crazy to "repay" the money that she would never be able to repay. Horrible situation!!!!!!!!!!! Anyway, as everyone left and Karina and I were there she began to tear up as I asked her how she felt about it. She showed me the money==they had given her $100--the exact amount she needed to pay rent for that day---what a miracle from the Lord!! But more than that, she shared w/ me how FREE she felt because she had never shared her full story with anyone before. She was FREE!!!! She has accepted the Lord as Savior and is involved in our women's Bible Study and another Bible Study as well. She is really trying to grow and she was just speechless at how the Lord not only provided for their financial needs that day, but also freed her in a way that she had never been freed before. It was just beautiful!! She then asked if she could come over next week to share her full story with me over coffee--she felt she wanted to tell me all that has happened to her. What a day this was for all of us---such a perfect example of how we never know what a new day is going to bring here in Jaco--God definitely gets all the glory for His love, goodness and faithfulness that He lavishes on those who are seeking Him. If the Lord sets you free, you are free indeed! Praise the Lord!!!!

Feliz DIa de Independencia Costa Rica!! Happy Independence Day, Costa Rica!

Thursday was Independence Day here in Costa Rica. We had a parade in town and all of Jaco was decorated with red, white and blue flags. We had a fun day as a family since Thomas had the day off of school. Thomas volunteered to participate in a cultural/typical Costa Rican dance with a few kids from his class. He performed at 2 different assemblies at the school and absolutely loved it!! He definitely had dancing in his blood!! Here are a few pictures of Thomas dancing..