Mid-term!

I can hardly believe it. We have made it through half of the first trimester! So far Charlie and I are still making A's, but it is getting harder and harder. We're moving through Spanish grammar at a neck-breaking pace. I am so grateful to God that our family has remained well; only a minor cold here or there. Up to now, we haven't missed any school. However, next week we travel to Guanacaste, Costa Rica for a medical conference. We'll be there a week. The object of this conference is for Charlie to learn medical Spanish. While this is truly a good objective for Charlie, I'm afraid to miss a whole week of school. Please pray that we won't fall behind in our studies at the institute.

In other news, teaching English as a Second Language is going very well. The people that attend are precious and eager to learn. They are always so grateful and are making good progress. I also attend a Spanish Bible study on Tuesday afternoons. It is a small group of Ticas (Costa Ricans) and Gringas (foreigners). I am enjoying the fellowship with this sweet group of believers. They have so little in terms of material possessions, but their hearts for God are filled to overflowing. I hope to learn a lot more than Spanish from them.

Pictures:

Colleen turned 9 on October 3rd. We celebrated with a homemade cake, popcorn, and fruit juice in her class, and then she had a sleep over with two of her Tica friends.

Colleen, Scarlett, & Mary-Esther with Karis relaxing on campus after school.

One Sunday, we got rained out from the pool, so we played in the rain at a nearby park.

Devon with some friends at school. They look pretty good for it being 7:15 in the morning! Note that Devon is sporting his Global Outreach t-shirt. (our sending agency)

As I said in an earlier post, we go swimming most Sundays. Can you tell from the picture that Mary-Esther enjoys it?

Broadening Horizons

Since we've started school, I have been amazed daily about something. It seems that for every new word I learn, I suddenly see and hear it in use everywhere. Now the question is, did everyone and every printed sign wait until I learned some new word to use it, or was it already there? Of course, it was already there, and I just didn't notice it!

To digress a bit, I remember the countless car trips (around town and longer) before our children could read. What did the see when they looked out the window? Yes, they saw the same things we did, but they didn't comprehend it all. They noted colors and shapes at first, then patterns and individual letters. When they started to read, they would notice familiar words and the light would actually look like it was turned on in their eyes when they realized that those words meant something specific! Car trips were a lot more pleasant as well when they could share in the information around them.!

I wonder if our spiritual lives are like that too? Have you ever read a verse or passage from the Bible, and then needed or used that new knowledge that very day? Or noticed something going on in your life or someone elses that you didn't before? Spiritual warfare is constantly going on around us. I think the more we spend time with God and study our Bibles, the better equipped we'll be to stand against the devil, but also just to see what we couldn't see before. I remember the saying, "Forewarned is forearmed." Have a great day!