Back in Action!

After some time off from the blog due to technical difficulties (our camera died! LOL!) we are back up and running again! We pray everyone had a wonderful Christmas and you have entered 2010 in the blessings of the Lord! We would like to share with you some of our activities from Christmas. We had a blessed time celebrating with a children's Christmas party and had a church Christmas dinner too! Our children's party has been an annual event for the kids of the church and this year we had 13 children in attendance. It is always a fun time for them as well as for us!!

Musical chairs is always a favorite among the kids! We also play several other games...but this is their fave!


One of the ladies of the church blessed them by making a chicken and rice dish to serve. It was yummy!! Just ask the girls...LOL!

Or the boys!!We always end the party with the breaking of the pinata and the kids also get to open presents from the church. We take up offerings all year so that we can bless the kids with at least one gift at the party and lots of candy!!!

Right before Christmas we celebrated as a church family with a special dinner. It was a great night to reflect on the gift of Jesus for us as we shared in Communion and then broke bread together.

Jeremiah (our only youth in the church for now) and a few of the other children helped serve the adults.The women served up the plates and Jeremiah and Danghelo served everyone!It was a wonderful night of delicious food and good fellowship! One of the things we have really been trying to teach all of our members is the importance of fellowship and family time together!The Christmas tradition for Costa Rica, that many people still participate in, is making homemade tamales every year. They make them for their families as well as to share with neighbors. One family that lives next door to the church has blessed us with tamales for the last two years and they are so delicious. The mother and her daughters take about two days to make them. They cook on an open fire outside until they are done and tasty!! This is one tradition we have really enjoyed since being in Costa Rica...although I have not yet ventured to try to make them...having them given to us is much easier! LOL!

We would like to share a huge praise report with you too that took place during this last year! Dave and I are official Costa Rican residents now!! We received our residency status in June and in August. This means that we NO longer HAVE to leave the country every 90 days!! Praise God!! It was a miracle the way our residency came through too. Our immigrations lawyer that was working with us during the whole process told us it would be easy for us to get since we have a baby that was born here. He did not even realize how easy it would be once it came through! Both of our status' were approved within days of our paperwork being received!! He said that this was a miracle and he had NEVER seen it come through so quickly for anyone else! He said he knew that God was on our side! What a wonderful testimony! We had spent time sharing and witnessing with our lawyer and his wife and he immediately realized that it was the hand of God that brought everything through so quickly! At the end of the month we will be picking up our residency cards. Sometime during the year we will begin to work on the children's residency. Since they are minors it is not necessary for them to have theirs until they are 18 years of age.

We want to thank you for your continued prayers and support for us and our church. We are believing that we will see more miracles this year as we pursue the calling to Costa Rica!!! God bless you all....we love you!!