1st FMC Mission Trip Costa Rica!

Donovan arriving on the bus with the group. Pablo is leading the
children in welcoming songs!

Pablo cut fresh coconuts from his tree with his machete
 to share Pipa (coconut water) with the group.

Pablo shared a beautiful testimony in his grotto
of the Immaculate Conception.

We gathered for prayer and testimonies daily.

We visited the Cathedral in Ciudad Quesada.

Praying in front of the Cathedral

   

We visited a convalescent home.

We sang songs and the children brought so much joy
to the people.

We made home visits and brought friendship, joy, prayer,
and food.

At one of Donovan's house visits this
little girl wanted to be held by Donovan.

Jen was the group leader for the High School group that came
from Dallas, TX. 

We had a blessed time visiting houses
to pray with the people who lived there.

We were so blessed by the joy of this family. 

Gabriel loves to "drive"! He really hit it off with our bus driver.

We gathered each day at the elementary school
near Pablo's for our work project (cleaning, painting, etc)
and to share songs, testimonies and play with the
children.

Our kids enjoyed coloring and playing together.

Pablo leading us in praise & worship songs at the
elementary school.

Suzanna (Joseph's sister) came to help lead the
mission trip. Here she is translating a testimony
of one of the high school girls.

The school needed to be painted and we had lots of
hard workers!

In the evenings we gathered at a high school for
evangelization.

Suzanna giving a testimony in Spanish.

The children sang songs and taught the students the hand
motions.

The group and the students played group games, jump rope,
 soccer, & hulu hoop. Playing crosses language barriers
and makes friends!

We shared some of the words of JPII in our testimony.

The children singing in the chapel while visiting with
a local community. Children really DO make the
best missionaries!

Walking to a waterfall for our Desert Day (a time of personal
prayer in nature with your Bible and the Lord).

We climbed down to the waterfall
(about 500 stairs).

Going down was fairly easy but for those of
us out of shape coming back up was a
challenge (especially when all the
high schoolers ran past, ha, ha)!

God's creation is AMAZING & POWERFUL!

We spread out with our Bibles to pray.

I love this photo of the Geerling Family.
We are so blessed to have them here in
Costa Rica with us!!!

We ended the day with a super special treat:
ice cream! (we don't have ice cream shops
in our town so when we travel to another
place the girls LOVE to get ice cream.

The group had so much fun getting to know Pablo and
his family.

Saying goodbye to our new friends.

The hotel blessed us with a free breakfast because
they enjoyed our group so much and wanted to say
thank you to us for staying there. It was a yummy tico meal
of gallo pinto, friend plaintain and scrambles eggs.

The group from Dallas brought 25 people, plus our missionaries
and Pablo's family.

One last chance to drive :)

The kids made leaf hats at Pablo's house with Suzanna's kids.

Thank you all who made this mission such an amazing blessing to us 

and to the communities we served!

Happy Easter Season!!!

Donovan prepared yummy lamb all day Saturday and
early into the morning on Easter.

We were so blessed this Easter to celebrate with our friends the Geerlings and some of our Tico friends. Our landlord gifted us a lamb for our Easter feast and a smoker for Donovan to cook it in! What a double blessing (the meat for the feast and a chance for Donovan to bar-b-que).

Our friends gathered in our new living room.

We were able to see our friend Claudia for Easter. She
used to live in Coopevega as a missionary but is now in Nicaragua for
a few more months before she will return to her home in Mexico.

So much has happened since our last blog post at the beginning of Lent so I'll try to give you a quick rundown.

February we did our 40 Days to Simplify while Donovan helped with the new house. The Geerlings (the new family in mission here) arrived from the United States and we all drove to Liberia to welcome them and meet them for the first time. We continued to gather things for their new house and continued with our regular ministries (home visits, walking rosary, Catholicism video series and English classes). We were also praying, planning and preparing for our first FMC Costa Rican short-term mission trip.  

Our friend Jorge cutting us fresh sugarcane
from his garden. We were at their home for a
house visit and got a tour of their property
that is covered in all kinds of fruit and
vegetable plants and trees.

Jorge's wife Leoncia holding a squash.

Our sweet little missionary.

 At the end of February the Geerling family finally arrived in Coopevega after spending 3 weeks in language school and almost 2 weeks living with Pablo while our house was being finished. As soon as our landlord gave us the ok we moved into our house and the Geerlings were able to move in to theirs (our old house). They only had a few days before the short-term mission trip arrived on March 4th. 

We had an amazing week with students from Bishop Lynch High School in Dallas, TX and their awesome chaperones. Suzanna Vanvickle (daughter of FMC founders Frank & Genie Summers) and her 5 children came a few days early to get the lay of the land and prepare for the mission trip. She was such a blessing to have here for our first short-term mission and helped make it run so smoothly. Even though we were exhausted we were even more blessed by the experience with this great group. Stay tuned for a separate blog about this special mission trip that was held in Florencia with Pablo and his family.

After the mission we tried to rest and settle into our new homes. We did not have the time before the mission trip to put everything away so it was really nice to be able to get organized.

Gabriel helping us sort through the donations from the
mission trip.

We put together bags to take to our home visits.
We used our chapel to sort through all the items.

One of my favorite parts of our new house is that Jesus has His own room. We now have 3 bedrooms so we dedicated one bedroom to be our chapel. It is the perfect place to pray quietly and read scripture for our personal prayer time or as a family or community.

We LOVE our new kitchen!

Gabriel enjoyed watching the men pick up
rocks from the property after the house was
finished being built.

Donovan built a little bed for Gabriel and some ladders and
rail guards for the girls new bunk beds.

This past week we were able to go to Santa Rosa (the parish and main church of our area of the diocese) where we introduced the Geerlings to our Pastor Padre Alvaro. All 12 of us packed into our 7 passenger SUV for the hour and 15 minute drive to Santa Rosa. 

The girls playing a game of  "Mother May I"
in front of the Parish office and rectory in Santa Rosa.

There are three priests who work in the Santa Rosa boundaries that covers Coopevega and other communities. This year they started a rotation so that every 2 weeks we have a different priest in Coopevega. This priest stays in Coopevega and travels to the 13 surrounding communities to give Mass. Some communities receive weekly mass, others twice a month and others only once a month.

Tomorrow we will be travelling to Ciudad Quesada (2 hours away) to introduce the Geerlings to Bishop Jose Manuel. Please pray for all of our travels and for the mission trip coming up in June! We are in the middle of praying, planning and preparing for our 2nd short-term mission trip this June.

A beautiful bouquet of  hibiscus flowers she
brought to me. Our yard is surrounded
by them.

Gabriel visited the hardware store with me
and our friend Maritza (the owner) gave this
chair to Gabriel. He loves it!

40 Days to Simplify

Lent started yesterday with a communion service for Ash Wednesday. We thought it would be Mass but Fr. Alvaro couldn't make it in time from the other communities he had to visit yesterday. In this rural area of Costa Rica it is common that people may go without weekly Sunday Mass and no one has access to daily Mass (it's just not possible here). Read more about it on our post from last October.

Yesterday as we prayed our morning prayer as a family I felt the Holy Spirit urging me to simplify. I was reminded of the 40 Day challenge I had heard of when living in the U.S. last year. Basically you fill 1 bag a day for each of the 40 days of Lent (not the Sundays) with anything you have in your home. It is a great way to de-clutter and simplify your household. In our case we have had some practice with this concept over the years as we sold and gave away many of our things to become full-time foreign Catholic missionaries. But even in our life that is already more simple than what it was in the U.S. we can gather things we brought, bought or are given over time. I keep a bag in the corner of the living room as the donation bag. When we have an item we really don't need or use we toss it in the bag. This is something I started many years ago when living in Kansas.

When we make our home visits in the community here we are able to give these items away to others who are in much more need of them. It's great to see the Holy Spirit lead us to others who need our things.

We found 10 1/2 pairs of shoes to give away!

I always feel the tug of the Lord asking me to let go. Let go of my fears, my anxieties and my attachment to stuff. Yes it is still a challenge for me and something I need to continue to work on. So for this Lent we have used the idea of 40 Bags in 40 days and altered it a little to fit our little mission house. We made a list of 40 groups of things we have in our home (shoes, kitchen utensils, linens, etc.). Each day for 40 days we will tackle one area to sort through. We will be asking our selves: What do I realistically need in this area? What can I donate to someone else? What am I holding on to that I need to detach from?

This process is going to hurt a little, and it should. When we detach from our things it hurts! But, even more so, it is going to be freeing. We experienced this in a huge way the first time we went into mission and emptied our entire house in 4 weeks. It was 5% hard and 95% freeing! Not only does the Lord ask us to share what we have in excess, but He also asks us to give from our need.

He said to them in reply, “Whoever has two tunics should share with the person who has none. And whoever has food should do likewise.” - Luke 3:11

He sat down opposite the treasury and observed how the crowd put money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. A poor widow also came and put in two small coins worth a few cents. Calling his disciples to himself, he said to them, “Amen, I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the other contributors to the treasury. For they have all contributed from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood.” -Mark 12: 41-44

When we give from our need we must rely more on the Lord to provide all that we need. When we hold onto all of our things we find comfort and safety in our stuff instead of comfort and safety in the Lord.

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat [or drink], or about your body, what you will wear. 

Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you more important than they? 

Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life-span? Why are you anxious about clothes? Learn from the way the wild flowers grow. They do not work or spin. But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was clothed like one of them. 

If God so clothes the grass of the field, which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow, will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith? 

So do not worry and say, ‘What are we to eat?’ or ‘What are we to drink?’ or ‘What are we to wear?’ All these things the pagans seek. Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 

But seek first the kingdom [of God] and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides. - Matthew 6:25-33

Trust the Lord with faith like a child.

The Mathematics of God

"Peter began to say to him, “We have given up everything and followed you.” Jesus said, “Amen, I say to you, there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the sake of the gospel who will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age: houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and eternal life in the age to come.

                                                                                                                          - Mark Ch. 10: 28-30

I remember reading this passage over two years ago on our Come & See weekend. At the time it really strung a cord with me knowing I would be leaving my family in the United States to go somewhere in the world (not even knowing where that would be at the time). This made my discernment very difficult because I am very close to my family and have amazing friends who I consider my family. But God also spoke to me in this passage knowing the struggles I was having. I felt like He knew what I would be giving up and He knew it was hard. 

Now fast forward over two years later and our family is living in Costa Rica (going on 8 1/2 months) in a new mission post. Just the fact that our family came to Costa Rica last May as the first FMC missionaries in Costa Rica is amazing knowing the person I was at my Come & See weekend. Now that we are here and I can look back at all that has happened in the first 2 years of being FMC missionaries I realize a whole new perspective of this passage. How many more brothers and sisters, homes and land, mothers and children the Lord has blessed our family with! This doesn't mean that my family and friends have been replaced. No, no! I still love them and miss them and I always will. But God has grown our hearts and our family in our yes and surrender to Him.

...brothers and sisters and mothers and children...

The first week we arrived in the Philippines (our first foreign mission) we found out we were expecting a baby. There is a really cool story all about that here if you missed it the first time. 

Our sweet little missionary Gabriel is already 15 months old!

This kid loves shoes! His shoes and
everyone elses too!

Our own family grew but so did our missionary family. The last Intake (3 month training for FMC missionaries) welcomed over 50 new missionaries. There are currently over 150 of our FMC missionary brothers and sisters in foreign mission. Then there are all the brothers and sisters, friends and families we have come to know and love in the Philippines and Costa Rica. 

Our 7 + 7 family the first day we arrived in Costa Rica.
We lived with Pablo and his family of 7 for 7
weeks before moving into our house.

This past Saturday we welcomed our new friends the Geerling family to Costa Rica. They just went through Intake 2015 and are on their first foreign mission with FMC here in Costa Rica. They are such a blessing to our family and a beautiful expansion of our FMC community here. They are currently in language school and will join us in February.

Penny, John, Mary, Catherine & Teresa

...houses...and lands...

When we heard that we would be welcoming a new family to Costa Rica to join in the mission here we were overjoyed. Then came the necessity to find a home for them to live in. We talked to our friend Pablo about how we had been looking around Coopevega for a home to rent for the new family. He was also very excited about the Geerlings and offered to call our landlord to let him know a new family would be coming. Pablo had mentioned that our landlord had been planning on building more houses on the property where we live at some point in the future. Our landlord told Pablo, in their phone conversation, that he wasn't planning to build a house right now but he would think about it. It was already the end of December and we only had until January when we thought the family would be arriving. We returned home after our visit with Pablo. Three days later construction started on the new house! Our landlord decided to build a house he and his wife had planned out. It will have 3 bedrooms so it made sense to move our family into the new house and let the Geerlings move into our current house. This is quite the event around here so of course I have too many pictures!

Laying the foundation with cinder blocks.

Building the foundation wall.

Filling in the foundation with more dirt.

Putting up guidelines for the interior walls.

Interior walls going up. Rock drain in front of the house to prevent
flooding during the hard rains.

Our amazing landlord hand mixing
mortar. He is at the house everyday and is
often helping.

On top of the cinder blocks the wood wall frames are
being set.

The metal roof frame arrives!

Roof frames put into place

Flatten that dirt Felicity!

The metal roof sheets are on!

Grace loves to hold her brother.

Cement floor is done.

Tile floors are going in.

Wearing his normal attire Gabriel loves to
visit the new house with Daddy.
Every morning he wakes up and says
 "houssssse" because he wants
Donovan to take him to look at the house.

Our homes are right across the dirt road from each other and on a piece of beautiful property lined with all types of trees and plants. What a blessing to be close to the Geerlings and see what mission God had planned for us together! We expect the house to be ready in February around the same time that the Geerlings will be returning from language school.

...there is no one...who will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age.

How much we have received from the Lord in our yes to follow Him. There are so many blessings: growing our faith and surrender, opening our eyes to see what we couldn't see before, experiences of miracles and healings, growing in virtue, becoming more united in our marriage and family, and so much more. Thank the Lord that he doesn't call the qualified, but qualifies the called! He took us where we were and are at and works with us. He is loving and FULL of mercy.  

And of course I can't forget to mention our newest
"family member" Princess. The girls are so happy
to have a kitty (mom and dad are happy that
the girls are happy)!

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