Update/Prayer requests

I would first like to thank you for taking the time to stop by and read our blog.  Until very recently we have been doing our blog using a dial up connection which takes a lot of time and effort.  Your interest is very much appreciated!  With our new DSL connection we hope it to be less work to maintain our blog.  That's right, after almost a year of waiting we now have a DSL connection at our house! 

As for updates...

HOGAR DE VIDA:

Some months ago we mentioned the possibility of our family becoming house parents at Hogar de Vida, the children's home where I voluteer as a pediatric nurse.  I don't think that I ever updated that information.  Well, Tim and I met with the directors to discuss this and it was decided that it was best for me to focus on working as a nurse.  Though they need more caretakers the concern is that if I take on the role of house parent I would not have any time to help manage the healthcare of the kids as well.  There is also an issue of not enough housing on campus for our family.  So it was decided that I would be given office space on campus to work from, which I now have!  I have all kinds of plans for the space and will take pictures when I'm all settled in (sometime in January).

SCHOOL:

Another recent update is that we have decided to enroll both of the kids into Tanner's school so that we will all have a more predictable schedule and I wont have to supplement so much at home.  We thank God for his financial provision for Laura to go and also for opening up a spot for her!  They are so happy that they will be at the same school! 

CHIRRIPÓ:

I don't think that I ever posted a blog about my July trip to Chirripó.  If you would like to learn more about this trip and to see pictures (I was too busy to take very many pictures) you can visit: http://www.sinoli.wordpress.com/ 

This coming week, December 2-5, I will be going on my 5th trip to Chirripó!  This will be an exploratory trip as we will be visiting two new villages who have asked for some time that we go there.  There will be 14 of us going on the trip and several of our indigenous friends will join us.  Some of the team will be putting on a church roof in one of the villages, some will be helping me in the clinic, and others will be praying with and for the people in each village.

Prayer requests for this Chirripó trip:

*Safety of our team.  It is supposed to be wet, rainy, and muddy the entire time.  If the river rises too high the trip will have to be canceled.  Please pray that if this happens we will find out before hiking many hours to the river. 

*Protection from illness and injury (including snake bites).
*Strength and endurance.  It will be a lot of hiking, around 20 hours on the trail over the 4 days. 

*We aren't exactly sure what our sleeping arrangements will be like in the new villages.  My guess is that it will be a spot on a dirt floor in an indigenous hut.  Please pray that it is a DRY spot free of any poisonous critters.

*Please pray that we have all that we need on the trip:  enough food, construction supplies, medical supplies.

*Please pray for Tim and the kids while I am away. 

 As always, we thank you for your prayers!  We couldn't serve here without them and that is a fact!

~Cindy

Fundraising tour results

Thank you to all of you who prayed for me as I left my family once again to speak in Florida about how the Lord is using Cindy and I as His instruments in Costa Rica.

I was privileged to meet with Lou Ritchie and Cory Cragle.  Lou is the director of the Árbol de Vida mission that I served in February 2008 and Cory was a volunteer and my roommate for that project.

Both Lou and Cory helped me establish connections with other professionals while I was in Florida.  Please pray with me that the seeds planted during my time there would produce fruit:  raise up design professionals to work with EMI, motivate Christians to use their skills and experience as an offering to the Lord, and raise needed support to allow my family to continue to serve the Lord here.

Tim with Lou and Cory

Tim and Cory being interviewed on Moody Radio

Tim

Tanner's school

Tanner goes to "Colina Azul" (Blue Hill), just outside of Atenas. It is a small, private school for preschool through 6th graders. Class size is small and there are several other English speaking students from the U.S. or Canada. Though the school is not bilingual, several teachers are bilingual.

We chose this school for Tanner because of the small class size and better access to English speakers should he need it. Though there are public preschools, the class size is very large with just one teacher and no English. We felt this would be too overwhelming for an introduction to school especially since he was scared to go. The goal for this year has been to get Tanner acclimated to school and help him feel comfortable being away from Mom and home. Next year he'll brave complete Spanish immersion at the public school!










Colina Azul starts it's school year at the beginning of February and ends at the end of November. Tanner's school day is from 8 am - 11:30 am, Monday through Friday. Preschool and Kindergarten share the same large room in a Montessori style setting. They have a classroom apart from the upper grades. Though the preschoolers and kindergartners do many things together, each class or group has their own teacher and there is an aide that helps all three groups. Tanner's group has 7-8 kids. The school is very organized, uses textbooks, and gives good notice of any changes to schedule (basically is run much like a school in the States). The school has a nice, wooden playground so recess is a favorite part of school. Tanner also has swim lessons and P.E. every week.


Tanner takes a bus to school in the mornings and either Tim or I pick him up in the afternoon. We recently started giving his teacher and the pre-3's teacher a ride home which has been so exciting for him. It's fun to learn more about what he's like at school. I have been learning that Tanner is very social at school and quite the talker in both languages. He'll speak English with his American/Canadian friends and then switch to Spanish for his Spanish friends. His teacher says that he makes friends easily and the kids all want his attention.

Tanner's best buddy Jake moved back to the States and he has been sorely missed! Then a new friend moved here from Canada and she even lives at Jake's house.

Tanner has grown up so much since starting school. He has become very confident and independent. It's so nice to see him making friends and being more social, too. He comes home every day and tells me about his friends. He knows everyone's name and says them with a perfect accent. School has been so good for him!

~Cindy

Laura's school

One of the biggest cultural experiences for us has been to have the kids in local Spanish speaking Schools. This year the kids go to separate schools, Tanner to a private preschool/grade school and Laura to a public grade school. Next year they will both transfer to a small public grade school just down the dirt road from the orphanage where I volunteer. This will allow us to spend more time at the orphanage and the kids can become part of the "family" there as well. They are pretty excited!

Laura is currently in first grade at "Escuela Central de Atenas", in the center of Atenas. She is in a class of 25-30 students and there are 3 other first grade classes with the same number of students. It is the biggest and oldest school in Atenas and I believe is for grades k-8.

The school has a very nice theater, library, computer lab, kiosks that sell food and drinks, and a cafeteria that serves free rice and beans with occasional meat or fruit as well. It also has a playground but Laura says that it is always too hot to play on and no wonder since it's all made of metal! Classrooms open to covered outdoor walkways that surround garden areas with trees and flowers.

The school year starts in mid-February and ends in mid-December. Each school day (at least at Escuela Central)starts at 7 am each day. This means an early morning for our family, but we are used to it by now. Tim and I take turns walking Laura to school each day (about a mile one way)and after school either Tim or I pick Laura up from school in the car, usually on the way to get Tanner from his school.

We never know when school will get out until the day before when Laura comes home with that information, but it's usually at 11:30 or 1:30in the afternoon. They don't use substitute teachers here so if the teacher has a doctor appointment or a meeting to go to then classes are cancelled. The kids get two morning recesses and on the longer days they also have a 40 minute lunch break/recess combined. We can even come have a picnic with Laura on her lunch break.

Laura studies many subjects at school: Science, Social Studies, Math, Spanish, English, Music, Religion, Art, and P.E. She has learned to read, write, spell, and dictate in Spanish and she speaks Spanish very clearly and without any accent (or so I'm told, I can't tell). Of course English is her easiest class and at times she gets to help the teacher. She has a different teacher for English, Music, Religion, Art, and P.E. and a homeroom teacher for the other subjects. Laura has been doing great academically, getting straight A's all year. Her teacher says that she is a good student and classmate.
Laura has easy homework on most days that she finishes in a few minutes and more difficult homework called "extra class" work just before exams that can take all evening to do. She has exams about every 2 months in all subjects except Art, Music, and P.E. Catholicism is the national religion of Costa Rica so there is open prayer in school, Biblical teachings, and before assemblies there is prayer and a praise song or hymn is sung.

Laura's only textbooks/workbooks are for her Spanish class, but she has a different colored notebook for each subject. Daily the teacher writes things on the blackboard for the kids to copy into their notebooks or she gives them photocopies to glue into their notebooks. This takes the place of any textbooks.
With all those notebooks, her book bag is heavy! For this reason she only brings home the notebooks she'll need to do her homework on a daily basis and on Fridays she brings home everything for us to review together over the weekend. This is how we also catch any work she didn't finish in class or loose papers that need to be glued into notebooks.

So homeschooling has become more or less supplementing what the kids are learning in school to give more hands on experiences plus we do English studies and some Math. Just for fun and as time allows we also do art, music, science, and history using curriculum I brought with us from the States.











Laura has adjusted very well to Atenas and has seemed quite at home here. She seems to have adopted the food, culture, and language of Costa Rica and has made some great friends here. If you ask Laura on any given day how school was she'll give a thumbs up and reply "Fantastic!" or "The best day ever!"


~Cindy

Prayers for funding

In a few hours I fly away from home again. This time I'm headed to Florida where I will be presenting what the Lord is doing through my family here in Costa Rica. Please pray that this time will raise up additional support for our family.

During the past summer, the Lord brought new supporters so that our regular monthly expenses are now covered, but that leaves annual or once-in-a-while expenses that are still not supported; things like our airfare home once a year, car repairs, doctor appointments, birthday gifts and etc. Please pray with us, that during the time I am in Florida there will be people who hear the Lord's direction to join in the ministry He has called us to as financial supporters.

Please also pray for my family. I was gone for ten days last week and now will be gone for seven. Pray for strength for my wife. Pray our kids will be a joy to her.

Thank you for your prayers. May the Lord bless each of you for your faithfulness to His purposes.

Tim

YWAM Gonaives, Haiti - EMI Project trip #2

Three days ago I returned to Costa Rica from my second project trip with EMI. We served YWAM in Gonaives, Haiti by designing a new base camp for them. We worked with Maula Jean-Marie a native of Gonaive. Maula was born in a Voodoo temple and after living a life overshadowed by the rituals of voodoo recognized its futility and offered his life to Jesus. Once delivered, he soon began to preach about the saving grace of our Lord. Suddenly, he was referred to as Pastor Maula. Recognizing the need to have more training, he attended Youth With A Mission (YWAM) in St. Marc, about 45 minutes from Gonaives. Now he desires to start a YWAM camp in Gonaive to reach and train the people in his home town. Here are some pictures of the trip.

The team's arrival in Port au Prince, Haiti airport:


Travel from Port-au-Prince to Gonaives. 13 guys in the back of a truck, six hours each way:






Gonaives, Haiti:


Starting each day with Worship:


Daily travel to the project site:






People who live around the project site:








Avery surveying the site:


Avery playing with the locals:


The project site:


Working on the project:








The final presentation in-country:


The team:


Thank you so much for praying for me and my family while I was gone. It was a difficult trip, fraught with spiritual oppression. It's because of the prayers of our supporters that we were able to be effective. Thank you.

Praises

Thank the Lord with us! Because of your prayers and gifts our income now covers our regular monthly expenses. This means we can stay in our house! We are so grateful to those of you who have joined our supporters; those of you who have increased your support; and mostly for the many of you who lifted our need before our Lord. Thank you.

We still need to increase our support to cover non-regular, but necessary expenses such as annual trips to the States, car repairs and emergencies. Please continue to ask the Lord to provide from His boundless resources to cover these needs.

September 19, I lead my first trip to Haiti to serve YWAM by designing a new base camp in Gonaives. Please pray with us for an effective team of volunteers who work in a spirit of unity as unto the Lord.

October 8-14 I will be in Fort Lauderdale and St. Petersburg, Florida to join two supporters who have arranged to have me speak about what EMI does and how the Lord is using my family for His purposes. Please pray with us that this time would show believers that God has a plan for each of them. Please pray that this time would raise up new volunteers for work with EMI. Please pray that I would connect with people the Lord has intended to support what the Lord has called us to here in Costa Rica. I would love to connect with any of you who are in the area while I'm there!

May the Lord bless each of you for your faithfulness to His call.

Tim