Schedule additions

So, the past week has brought up an interesting and unexpected chance to serve here in Guzmán, and to get to know more people in our community:  I (Nick) am teaching English!

A few weeks ago, as Zoe started school at the nearby private school, the administration expressed some interest in me teaching English there, but we couldn't make it work because we were planning on being in the States in November and December this year, and they needed a teacher that wasn't going to need to miss 6-8 weeks of classes this semester.  I was a little bummed out that I didn't get to teach, but I knew that God had the plan, and apparently there were more important things for us to be focusing on right now in Guzmán.  So we worked on getting Zoe settled into her school schedule, focused on our Bible studies with the college students and some visits with pastors in Guadalajara, and looked for other opportunities to serve the Lord.

Then, last week, we got the call: one of the teachers had a family emergency, and they needed someone to cover for her for anywhere from 2 weeks to a month.  So, since last Wednesday, I've been teaching a 3rd grade class and a secondary (Jr. High) class every day.  It's been a challenge for several reasons: first of all, I'm definitely being challenged to use my Spanish in a very different environment than I've ever used it before.  All of the normal classroom words and phrases that we use to communicate, to demand attention, and to control the class... all are ones that I haven't used much in my everyday living there in Guzmán.  Second, normal classroom behavior here is slightly more chaotic than it is in the States... kids get up, walk around, talk more, listen less.  And, with the gringo in charge, they KNOW that I can't command a room quite as well as their normal teacher, so they're definitely pushing their boundaries.  The first few days were very rough, and I've been praying for patience.  Today was much better and more encouraging, and I'm hoping that, as the students get used to me, they'll continue to respond well to my teaching.  I have some freedom in my lessons with what I teach and how I teach it, so I've been able to talk some in class about my past as a pastor and what we're doing in Guzmán now, as well as topics such as prayer and God.  I'm hoping for more opportunities to share, especially one on one with some of the secondary students as I usually have the chance to talk with them more personally after class is over.

Please pray that, for however long it lasts, I'll be able to be a light to these students, and bless them, not just with the teaching, but with opportunities to share the Gospel!  Also, pray that we'll develop stronger connections to the community and to new families through this opportunities.  Already, it's been exciting to have children come up to me saying, 'Hola, profe!' (Hi, professor!) at the school and occasionally in the streets of Guzmán, and we're praying for more and more chances to get to know these wonderful children and their families through this chance that the Lord has given us to serve them and the school during this time.  Thanks for your prayers!

How You Can Help Us: Communication

This is going to be the first in a series of blog posts over the next few months about different ways you can support us on our mission here in Mexico.  They won't be long, but hopefully they'll be helpful for you as you prayerfully serve us while we serve here!

Today's topic is one that we bring up from time to time, but one that is probably more important than you realize:  Communication!  Growing up in the Southern Baptist Convention, I heard frequently about giving monetarily to support missionaries, I heard often about going on mission, and I heard rarely about praying for missionaries (specific missionaries, not just ones in general).  However, I'm not sure I can remember ever being encouraged to reach out and contact a specific missionary, probably because I didn't really know any missionaries.  However, now that we've been gone for 18 months, I can say this: I never realized how important contact is for a missionary!

Our letter wall, just some of the letters and cards we've received here in the past year.

Sara and I were talking a while back, and she said, "You know, now that I've been a missionary, if we ever returned to live in the States, I think I would have to find missionaries to write to, now that I know how much it means." This pretty well sums up how much it means to us when we get letters, packages, emails, phone calls, skype calls, and even Facebook messages.  They're visible, tangible reminders for us that there are people back home that are holding the rope for us, that are supporting us.  They are weapons against discouragement on days when we feel lonely and homesick, that we are far away, but not forgotten.  They are encouragements on days when we are discouraged, that we are not in the fight for souls alone.  They opportunities to talk to our kids about how blessed we are to have the family and friends that we do.  They mean the world to us!

And, we're blessed to live in the day that we do!  Not that long ago, communicating with a missionary would mean writing a letter that may or may not make it to the missionary within a few months.  Today, we have computer communication with Skype, Facebook, and email that is instantaneous.  We have a VOIP (Vonage) phone that sits in our house, but uses a Wyoming phone number, that can be called at any time, and doesn't cost us extra.  And even physical mail like letters and packages are much more reliable than they used to be.  It's pretty incredible how much smaller the world is these days, and we can't describe what a blessing that is to missionaries!

Yellowstone Baptist Church in Cody, WY recently had EVERYone at the church write us a postcard and send them in a large envelope... SO COOL!

So, that's all to say, we'd love to hear from you!  Many of you already follow us on Facebook, and we'd always love to hear from you there.  Or, if you would like our Skype name, phone number, or physical address here in Mexico, write us on Facebook, or email me at missionguzman@gmail.com, and I'd love to send you the rest of our information.  Thank you to all of you who support us with your communication.  You'll never know what a blessing it is to us!

What are we doing?

So, what have we been up to the past few months here in Guzman? Quite a few things:

Hanging out in Chapala

• Learning: We still have so much to learn here!  There's been more things here, culturally and language-wise, that we've had to learn, and it's quite the time-consuming process.  Things like:
• Where do I get new tires when I hit a broken curb too hard and blow one out?
• How do we enroll our daughter in a school in Mexico, especially when we just don't seem to have all the documents that they think we should have? (More on this in the next few blog-posts)
• Spanish: in addition to normal language learning, Sara is meeting every week with Laura, a lady from our church, for hours at a time to practice talking.  This has been a blessing, not only because of the language study, but because we've been blessed to start to get to know Laura and her husband, Gonzalo, better in the past months.

Gabe helping daddy play the guitar

First day of school!  She's doing great with it!

• Preaching and teaching: I've had lots of chances to preach here lately, which is a huge blessing.  I've filled the pulpit here in Ciudad Guzman a few times when pastor Julian had to be away (twice on a Sunday night, ones on a Friday evening during a special service, and ones recently on a Sunday morning), I helped fill the pulpit once in Tamazula (about 45 minutes south of us) when their pastor was sick, and our friend pastor Ariel has let me preach a few times in their churches Rey de Reyes and La Nueva Aurora in Guadalajara.  It's still a challenge sometimes to preach, but it's getting easier to preach in Spanish, and with so many opportunities to preach, I feel like I'm getting into more of my rhythm lately.  I've also started teaching the college Sunday School class at the church, which is a huge blessing.  They have a lot of questions, and have a lot of things they need to learn, so starting this Sunday, we'll be going through a mix of lessons about the basics of our faith, plus some Sundays focusing on their questions that they have.  Many of the students here seem to know a lot of answers, but not why... meaning they have heard things we believe, or ought to believe, but don't know what the Bible actually says.  So, we're praying for deeper, more grounded study of the Word, with lots of focus on Bible reading and Bible memorization on their own.

Leading the worship at PIB Guzman with Daniel Delgado

Getting the opportunity to preach this past Sunday morning at PIB Guzmán

Some of the students at the camp praying.

• Helping:  Nick also had a chance to go help at a youth camp for a week in July.  The camp was at the La Laguna La María (Mary Lake), in Colima, about an hour and a half south of Guzmán.  Working with pastors and missionaries from Guadalajara, Puerta Vallarta, Queretero, Colima, and Puebla, I got to help with the recreation and activities of the camp, making runs to the store (an hour away) when we needed more supplies, and help in any other way that was needed.  The camp was a great success, with 150 people total at the camp (youth and adults), and at least 5 students accepting Christ during the week.

This was actually the kitchen all week at camp... 3 times a day, they fed 150 people out of here! (we did get walls up on 2 sides, and a fridge, but you get the idea!)

Activities!

Mega-Mexican-Relay!

More Mega-Mexican-Relay... in the rain!

I didn't do much to help us win, but I didn't help us lose!  Soccer champs!

There are other things going on here as well, but this is a good overview of what we've been up to lately.  It's been a busy few months, and we're excited to see how the opportunities for ministry will continue to grow here.  Be in prayer for more chances in the future, and pray specifically for an opportunity in the next few weeks to work with Pastor Julian to start a weekly Bible study in nearby Usmajac.  We'll post more in the upcoming weeks about what we've been doing, what our plans are for the end of the year, and how you can be a part of the ministry here next year!

The Great Airport Adventure!

This past Saturday, I got to go on my first decent-sized 'adventure' in San José: find my way to the airport and back by bus!  Our missions agency, Global Outreach, have several missionaries here in Costa Rica.  One missionary couple is Frank and Evelyn Turner, who serve about an hour and a half outside of San José.  They're a wonderful couple, and we're hoping to go spend a weekend with them and their ministry sometime soon.  Anyways, they had a missions team coming in to work with them, and the team was bringing some things for us from the states (our new debit cards, which were MUCH needed!).  So, I had to make it to the airport to meet the team there when their flight arrived at 12:55.

I was a little nervous about trekking across a city of 1.7 million by myself with my broken Spanish, but the Lord is good to me!  A friend of mine here at the school, Cody Whittaker, wanted to go with me, so not only would I have someone to spend the day with, but I'd have someone to help with the translating (Cody's wife, Maria, is from Puerto Rico, so his Spanish is quite a bit better than mine at this point.)  It was also incredibly humbling to have Cody go with me, because honestly, Cody has been a hero of mine for a few years now, even before I met him!  Cody and Maria are also a part of Global Outreach, and they originally served in Haiti before deciding to serve in a Spanish speaking country.  I don't have time to go into all the details at this time (though you can check out more about Cody and Maria here, then read through their blogs beginning in late 2010, though I warn you, it's not for the faint of faith!).  Cody and Maria in just a few years as missionaries have been through more than most life-long career missionaries, and have been through heartbreak that I've never been sure that I'd be able to withstand myself, yet they still have such a deep love for the Lord and for others.  I have been blessed to pray for the Whittakers for a few years now, and I'm even more blessed to call them friends now, and it was a huge joy to have Cody with me all day Saturday, just sharing our lives and talking about how God has worked in us.

Part one of the trip was easy: catch a bus from San Francisco de Dos Rios (The neighborhood that we live in) to San José Central.  Cost us about 200 colones (around 40 cents), and about 20 minutes on a bus.  We then asked a few people for directions, and got pointed towards the next bus (which ended up being about 8 blocks away).  On the way, we passed a nice little plaza, and even grabbed a burger at a Carl's Jr. (first burger in 3 weeks + sharing testimonies about how God gave us our wives and how we were called into missions = a great lunch!)  After a bit more asking, we caught the next bus, the one that was to take us to the aeropuerto!

The church at the plaza in San José Central

About an hour and a half later (and 50 minutes after the missions team landed), we realized that there's a big difference between asking for the bus to the airport, and the DIRECT bus to the airport!  That bus ride would NEVER end!  We wound through several neighborhoods (including every single road in Heredia and Alajuela (towns surrounding San José central), I think!)  The bus was incredibly hot, and got more and more crowded as we went, and my patience was tried every time the bus stopped.  We were most concerned that the team was waiting on us to show up, or, even worse, that they WEREN'T waiting, and maybe they just left!

Another view of the plaza, from the south this time, with the flag of Costa Rica featured.

Finally, we arrived... and found out that the team wasn't even through customs yet!  Praise God!  We got to talk with Frank and Evelyn for a bit, found out how to make sure we got a direct bus back, and met with the team.  They were a wonderful team, who seemed just as happy to see us as they were just to be in Costa Rica, and they couldn't have been more of a blessing.  We said our goodbyes, and made our way (direct!) back to San Francisco de 2 Rios!

Another Catholic church across from the depot for the Tuasa buses
that (eventually!) take you to the airport.

It was a blessed time of sharing and fellowshipping with Cody, and seeing more of San José, as well as meeting Frank and Evelyn face to face.  I'm pretty sure I got heat stroke (I was NOT well the next 36 hours after I got home), and the trip ended up being way longer than I expected, but it was still a great day... and now, if you ever get the urge to come see us here in Costa Rica... I know how to get to the airport!

Getting used to San José

Sorry it took a week to post again, it's been so crazy around here with our first week of school (I'll be posting what school is like next week so you can get an idea of what we're doing down here!)

A statue of Mary at the Catholic Church about half a mile from our house.

So we've been in Costa Rica for 14 days now!  This is officially the longest that I've ever been out of Wyoming at any one time, and it's still hard to believe sometimes that we won't be back for quite a while.  However, we're getting settled in here better now, and we're really enjoying the area.

This is the main street that we live next to, just around the corner to the left from here.  Behind us about 5 blocks is the school, and just ahead on the right is Parque el Bosque.

We live in a part of San José that is actually to the south east of San José Central, in a neighborhood known as San Francisco de Dos Rios (though it's usually written out as 'de 2 Rios).  A lot of people around here, including the signs on the bus, simply call this area "El Bosque," referring to the park that we live directly across the street from. (For those of you wondering, 'Parque el Bosque" means "The Forrest Park.")  It's a nice neighborhood, with many nice parks within a mile of our house (Parque el Bosque, Parque Copa, Parque Sauces, and Parque Okayama, which is called by the locals "Parque China," even though it's actually a Japanese park!)  There are gorgeous mountains to the south of us, and if you get up high enough, you can actually see mountains on practically all sides.

A view of the mountains to the south from Parque Copa.

I've been walking a lot through our neighborhood, and have been finding lots of small grocery stores, bakeries, mom and pop diners (called 'Sodas' in Costa Rica), and other shops.  Earlier today, I had to find a small bathroom and glass shop called 'Alfa' to replace a small pane of glass that Caitlynn accidently broke the other day.  It was exciting to be able to ask "I need to find the store called 'Alfa' to replace a windowpane," (Turns out I was standing across the street from it :) ) and "I need to buy a new pane like this one," in Spanish and actually be understood! (Though I'm sure there was a lot wrong with each sentence, but hey, at least it was somewhat comprehensible!)

A few of our teachers at ILE doing some traditional Costa Rican ('costarricenses') dances for the students at the New Students Welcome today at ILE.

One of the interesting things about moving to another country is figuring out all the things that we know and take for granted back in the States, such as: How do I take out the trash? (Answer: put it on the street on Wednesday and Saturday mornings, and they'll pick it up... but DON'T put it out the night before, because people might tear into your bags and throw trash everywhere as they check to see if you threw away any metal they can take and recycle).  Or: There are no addresses or street names, so how do I receive my utility bills, and how do I pay them?  (Answer: they MIGHT stick your bill in your gate (but, then again, you may not get a bill), and you can pay all your utilities at pretty much any store while you buy your groceries.) Or, what do we do about water? (Answer: San José has one of the best water treatment plants in Latin America, and the water is supposed to be clean to drink... but, we think there's an issue with our pipes here, so we're buying large 5 gal. jugs of water each week for drinking and cooking).  All these sorts of issues and more keep us our our feet, but we're loving every minute of it.

That being said, pray for me this weekend!  On Saturday, I'll be leaving the comfortable confines of San Francisco de Dos Rios, and I'll be making my way to the airport via bus to meet up with a missions team that's coming into CR to work with another group of Global Outreach missionaries in CR, the Turners.  The team is bringing a few things for Sara and I from the states, so it'll be quite an adventure to set out on my own with my little bit of Spanish across this city of 1.7 million, but I can't wait to try it!  I'll take some pictures, and tell you all about it next time!  Thanks for your prayers!

First day of school

Wednesday, we started our orientation at ILE (Institudo de Lengua Española, the school we'll be attending).  It's a beautiful campus, with a great facility.  On the same piece of property they have classes for all the students (close to 100 students will be on campus this upcoming trimester), and their children who are enrolled at either the Sojourn Academy (for students who are K-12th grade), or at Rayitos de Sol, their preschool.  You can see how large the campus is here, and how close we are to it.

Even though their actual classes broken up by age won't start until Monday, the kids were still excited for their first day at school while we went through orientation.  Even Caitlynn, who is usually shy, was very excited to go to class, and has bonded quickly with her teacher.

Gabe was also pretty excited, though he doesn't always like it when mommy and daddy leave him behind for a while.  It was such a blessing to drop him off, and before we were even out of the building hear his teacher singing songs about God to him in Spanish.

The campus of ILE is gorgeous, with some great views of the mountains south of us.  I'll try to get more pictures of the campus for you all to see later, but here's one last look at the campus for now.  Keep us in your prayers, as every day at orientation we find out more things that we need to be thinking about and working on!

Our new home: San José

Well, we've had a few days to get settled in here in San José, and while there's still a TON that we need to discover and find out here, it's been fun figuring some things out.  It's beautiful here, and we're going to love living in San José.  I wanted to take a minute and show you in pictures what it looks like where we'll be living for the next 8 months.

These murals are on a wall right around the corner from our house... they're very beautiful, and the girls keep asking me to take their pictures in front of them :)

We live right next to Parque el Bosque in the part of San José known as San Francisco de dos Rios.  Parque el Bosque means "Forrest Park," and the park lives up to the name.  It's a full city-block square, and is full of trees.  It's beautiful, and even has some places for the kids to play when we have the time.

This is the street we live on.  I'd tell you what street it is, but the streets here have no name! (That's right, U2 fans, those places do exist :) )  The street is nice, but it's fairly busy, and VERY noisy at all hours, which is taking some getting used to.

San José is a beautiful city, with gorgeous mountains nearby, and green EVERYwhere! (and, Casper readers, it's handy for us to keep our sense of direction here, since the mountains are to the south, just like in Casper).

There are lots of shops and restaurants in the neighborhood, which is great...the one thing that surprised me is the number of Chinese places around... these are just 3 of what have to be 6-8 different ones within a mile of our house!

And this is our house!  We live here (everything from the driveway to the left, the right side is another house).  We love the house, and will hopefully show you more of it in posts to come!

Loss & Gain

Today has been a hard day.  It's hard to say goodbye, and it's hard to see people, including family, struggling and hurting because of our decision to become missionaries.  Some of the words said to me today got me thinking, honestly, about the choices that we're making at this time in our lives:


It's stupid to be leaving behind my job! I've been blessed for 8 1/2 years to work at a great church, with people who love us, families that support us, and youth who respond to the Word of God when they hear it.  In a country where the average length of stay at a church for a youth minister is 9 months, it's stupid to imagine leaving this church after so long.


We're crazy to sell off our possessions!  We've been married almost 9 years, and we haven't gathered a TON of things, by any means, but we've managed to get a few nice things.  A great dining room table, some nice couches that a wonderful family we love gave to us, a nice bedroom set, a lot of things that were great for the kids.  Now, it's all gone, sold in the last 8 weeks, belonging to other people and we're left with almost no possessions... we must be crazy!


We're heartless to be leaving our family and friends!  We've never been very far from Casper, and we know so many people here that we love, and who love us.  I can go to the store, and run into 10 people who genuinely care about me.  We can walk through a neighborhood and meet people that we went to school with, who we're always blessed to see.  Our families are almost all here, or are nearby.  We have children who have friends and family here, and they love our kids, and have been blessed to see them grow.  How could we possibly consider taking our children, and ourselves, away from this?


We're idiots to leave America!  Sure, this country may be struggling the past few years, but this is still the land of the free and the home of the brave, the birthplace of the American dream.  People are dying to live here, work here, raise their families here.  Instead, we would move to a country with a culture that we don't know, a language we don't understand, to live with people that we don't know and have never met.  We will have to learn every anew.  Our kids will have to figure everything out from scratch.  All of this will be done for less pay, in a less safe country, thousands of miles away from everything and everyone we've ever known.  What in the world could we be thinking?


The fact is, what we're doing doesn't make sense, when you look at it.  There's no reasonable reason to do what we're about to do, except for Christ.  As the Bible says, "whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ." (Ph. 3:7) We've been so blessed in Casper, and the Lord has given us more than we've ever deserved: a family who loves us, a church who blesses us, all the things we need for every comfort. But, we believe that God desires all men to be saved (1 Tim 2:3-5).  We believe that there is only one Way, one Truth, and one Life, and that no one comes to the Father God except through Jesus Christ (John 14:6).  And we believe that God still has children in Mexico that He wants to come to a saving knowledge of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  He hasn't called everyone to move there and serve there, but He's called us, and we believe that, in light of the sacrifice of Christ, in light of salvation and eternity, how could we say no?

Will it be hard to go?  Yes, it already has been, and it will continue to be so.  There will be hard days and long nights ahead of us as we struggle to learn the language, as we miss our family and friends, as we seek to adjust to this place in our lives that God has called us to.  But, while we will be without many of the things that we've had all these years while we serve in Mexico, we will never be without God.  It hasn't been our church that has kept us going all these years.  It hasn't been our families who have sustained us in all things.  It hasn't been our possessions that have blessed us.  All these things have come from the Lord, and will continue to come from Him.  We leave many things behind, but we go with Christ, so we do not go empty, nor do we go broken or defeated.  As Paul went on to say, "Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ." (Ph 3:8).  We are leaving much behind, but we aren't losing anything; no, we gain when we follow, when we go, when we serve.  Pray for us and miss us, but be excited for us as well, because we are blessed to follow our great God across the face of His earth and among His beloved children!

We're going!

     After years of praying and seeking the Lord’s will, and after over a year of raising support and traveling across Wyoming visiting churches, we’re excited to announce that we’re officially going!  We got the green light a few weeks ago to purchase plane tickets and make preparations to head to language school!  We can’t begin to tell you how exited we are about this, and how encouraging it is to see years of prayer from us and from the many wonderful believers in our lives lead to this moment!

     This means not only is it the Christmas season, but for us it’s also the season for CHANGE!  November 30th will be Nick’s last day on staff at College Heights Baptist in Casper.  We’re also moving out of our house that week to live with Sara’s parents for the month of December.  We’ll spend December visiting family and friends, selling the rest of what we own, packing up for language school, and celebrating the birth of our Savior.  Then we’ll head to Denver on December 30th, and board a plane on the 31st to fly to San José, Costa Rica.

     We’ll spend Dec. 31st-Jan 3rd getting settled in there, then go through orientation for language school starting on the 4th (our 9th anniversary!), with full classes beginning on the 11th.  We currently plan on being at language school through August 10th, then return to Casper on August 15th for a few weeks of seeing family and friends, visiting churches, and collecting the things we’ll need before we drive to Ciudad Guzman, Mexico!

     Be in prayer for us during this chaotic time as we make this transition.  Pray for our family and friends that we’ll leave behind, and for our children who are already struggling with the changes.  Pray that through all of this, we’ll keep our eyes on the Lord, and that He will be our focus during this time, so that we’ll be prepared spiritually as well as physically for our move to Costa Rica!  Thank you for all of your prayers, they obviously work!

A look at Guzman

As we get closer to moving on to language school and then to Ciudad Guzman, Mexico, I wanted to share some pictures from my latest mission trip to Guzman, so you could get a better feel for the area we're hoping to move to, and the ministry we feel that God is calling us to.  Hope you enjoy, and ask any questions you like!  The more information we get out, the better you can pray for us!

One of many large Catholic churches in Guzman... this one is directly on the main plaza on the south side.

One of the oldest Catholic churches in Guzman.

The Baptist church I've been able to work with some... one of the few, tiny faithful churches seeking to share the Gospel with Guzman.

This is the front gate for the Universidad de Guadalajara del Sur - One of 4 universities in Guzman, and the one we're hoping to live next to and begin ministry with once we move there.

A neighborhood near the University were we're looking at moving into.

One of the many canals for drainage when the city gets one of its rainstorms with 10+ inches of rain.

More ideas of homes near the campus.

This one is for sale!  And only 2 blocks from the university campus!!

More wonderful homes near campus.

The neighborhoods near the university are beautiful, and just what we had in mind when we wanted to move into the area.

We pray that the Lord will lead us to the right home to rent (or eventually buy) that will be a base for Bible studies, meals, and other ministry and outreach in the area.

The churches are beautiful, but the religion is dead, and doesn't offer the true Gospel that will bring people into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ.

Overlooking the volcano (Nevado de Colima) and the south end of town from the Ecological Park above the town.

The central/north central part of Guzman as seen from the Ecological Park.

Excited to soon make this our home!

Getting to preach on Palm Sunday at La Primera Iglesia Bautista in Guzman! I love sharing the Word!

This is just a taste of how great this city is!  We can't wait to tell you more about it in the coming weeks!