We are in Wichita!

New family photo at Big Woods last week.

By God's grace we are back in the United States for a short trip. We spent the first week at Big Woods in Louisiana and are currently in Wichita. We want an opportunity to see all of you, talk with you, hear about your life this past year and share with you God’s mission in Costa Rica. We have 4 opportunities for you to attend a gathering with us while we are in Kansas. It is our hope that you can come to at least one of them (of course you are welcome to all of them)!

1) St. Jude Parish Hall, Wichita
Saturday, May 21st
Potluck at 5:30 pm & Talk at 6:30 pm

2) St. John’s Parish Hall, Spearville, KS
Sunday, May 22nd
Potluck at 5:30 pm & Talk at 6:30 pm

3) The Spiritual Life Center, Wichita
Tuesday, May 24th at 6 pm
Potluck at 6 pm & Talk at 7 pm

4) St. Patrick’s Cafeteria, Wichita
Wednesday, June 8th
Potluck at 5:30 pm & Talk at 6:30 pm

We will be leaving Wichita on June 12 and will take all of you with us in our hearts and our prayers! We will return to our home in Costa Rica and to the mission there. We will be in Costa Rica until God calls us away. Please continue to keep us and the mission in your prayers. Thank you to all of you who pray for and support this beautiful mission!

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!