Here is our newest Newsletter that will be arriving in your mailbox in early December.
Peace and joy in Jesus! We write to you today with our hearts full of gratitude for all the gifts the Lord has blessed us with. We apologize that it has been so long since our last newsletter! We have very exciting news to share with you. We found out in August that we are expecting a little baby Bailey due in April of 2017. Blair is currently 19 weeks pregnant and finally feeling much better. The first 3 ½ months were very difficult with 24 hour nausea. All the children are very excited and awaiting a new sibling!
The
last time we wrote to you was in May as we were in the States visiting for 6
weeks. Time flies and we can’t believe it’s already been almost 6 months since
we returned to Costa Rica. When we arrived back we jumped right back into the
mission with a mission trip in our Parish town of Santa Rosa. It was a
beautiful experience to work together painting and cleaning the Pastoral
Center, sharing with the students in the high school, and holding prayer
meetings in the church in the evenings. There was much fruit that came out of
this trip.
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| Giving a testimony during our evening Prayer Group in the Church in Santa Rosa. |
We returned to Coopevega and continued with our prayer
meetings, home visits and work projects. We were blessed to be able to be a
part of a work project in the home of our friend Don Fabio who suffers from
heart problems. Donovan was able to hire a man to help him build a bathroom
attached to Don Fabio’s home so he wouldn’t have to continue using the out
house that was very far from the house. Walking is difficult for him with his heart
condition. Thanks to some donations we received we were able to build this
bathroom.
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| Starting the bathroom... |
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| and almost done! He also put in a small shower area at the end of the room. |
Upon
returning in June from our visit in the States we thought that we would be here
in Costa Rica for awhile, years possibly. About 2 ½ months ago we began feeling
promptings in our heart that God was calling us to something. At first we kind of ignored these thoughts but they
kept coming back in prayer and in our hearts. After we talked about what we
were feeling we realized that we were both having the same promptings
separately. So we took these to prayer
and continued praying for over a month. After talking with our Director,
Joseph, and asking for his guidance and prayers we decided to have a family
retreat. We took 3 days to pray with scripture and share what the Lord speaks
on our heart with one another. Even the children participate in this sharing.
We felt confirmed in this retreat that indeed the Lord was calling us back to a
special mission in the United States. We will be living in KS very near to
Donovan’s brother who has 9 children. Two of his boys have Muscular Dystrophy
and we really feel that the Lord is calling us to be with them right now
helping in any way that we can.
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| Dominic at his Confirmation with Bishop Kemme, Diocese of Wichita & Melissa, his Confirmation Sponsor and Donovan's sister. |
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| Saying goodbye to friends is always difficult! |
We will
be returning to the United States on December 1st for the FMC annual
Year-In-Review (YIR: many of our missionaries from around the world gather for
a retreat and commissioning Mass of the new Missionaries). After YIR we plan on
spending Christmas in San Diego with Blair’s family and then returning to
Kansas to be near Donovan’s family. We don’t know how long we will be back in
the United States but we do hope to be able to return to Costa Rica in mission
again. We are sad to leave all of our friends and “family” that we have made
here but we know that wherever we are we are missionaries. We know that God is
doing great things here in Costa Rica and we are so thankful to be able to see
the fruits of this mission in the growing joy in the local church here. We know
that God still has many great plans for the missionaries who will be here. The
Geerling family will return in December after YIR and another new missionary
family from FMC will be arriving to this mission post in January!
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| The Brupbacher Family will arrive in Coopevega early next year! |
As we will be out of foreign
mission for a time, but still in mission in the U.S., we wanted to explain how
your donations are handled. If you, our mission partners, would like to
continue donating to our family’s mission fund we will still receive a small
stipend in the U.S around the amount we received here in Costa Rica ($1,000
monthly). The transition back will incur extra expenses as we are traveling
from Costa Rica to Louisiana and then back to Kansas.
What that looks like:
Ø
Bus Tickets to the hotel near the airport $25
Ø
Hotel Room & food for 1 night $140
Ø
Plane tickets to Houston $1,428
Ø
Rental Van to FMC in Louisiana & food $130
Ø
Housing for Year-In-Review free
Ø
Food for Y-I-R $125
Ø
Rental Van to Kansas $300
Ø
Hotel for 1 night & food for travelling $160
Total $2,306
Would you please consider making a
special one-time donation to help with the extra travel expenses we will have
in December returning to the U.S. and back to Wichita?
We
will be praying for you all and your intentions. Please keep our family in your
prayers as we prepare to leave Costa Rica and return to the States. Please also
keep the new family, the Brupbacher’s, in your prayers for their transition
into this mission post and for the Geerlings as they return for another year.
Our wonderful friends Pablo & Yalile (the family that first welcomed us to
Costa Rica) and another friend Lucrecia, who helps in our mission, would all
like to visit FMC early next year. Lucrecia feels she may be called to be a
full-time missionary! Please keep their families and travels in your prayers. Please
also pray for this transition time as we look for a job for Donovan, a home to
live in and a vehicle (we are hoping to find a 12-15 passenger van as we don’t
fit into the standard 7 passenger minivan anymore!).
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| Our family in May 2015 right before leaving for Costa Rica. |
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| May 2015 Our first day in Costa RIca with the Rigioni's. The hardest part of leaving is saying goodbye to our new family the Rigioni's. We will miss them so much! |
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| Last week saying goodbye to friends. The kids have grown so much! Lucrecia is behind Hannah wearing yellow. |
In His Mercy,
Donovan,
Blair, Hannah, Catherine, Grace, Felicity, Gabriel, & Baby Bailey
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