The Lord's guidance and protection

A couple of weeks ago we took our first weekend trip outside the city of San Jose, Costa Rica to a place called Tortuguero, where green sea turtles come to lay their eggs. We were all thrilled to watch the baby turtles dig out of the nest and make their way to the sea. Hannah and Samuel were especially privileged to walk alongside some of these babies as they headed toward the water. Those little turtles were so focused on getting to their destination that they never noticed our guide smooth the path for them out of the nest, nor the children at their side. However, the birds looming overhead did! They were quite angry at the protection Hannah and Samuel offered those little ones. The birds were missing out on a meal!

As I observed this taking place, I was thinking about our own lives. We're focused on adjusting to life in another country, to a new language, new foods, new school, new friends and we don't see the hand of the Lord smoothing our path nor the things we are protected from as we head to our destination. But He is there and faithful. And, He is indeed setting our way before us. What a blessed reminder that we are never left alone and though we sometimes feel small and vulnerable, the Lord is not and He is our ever-present help!

It is hard to believe, but half of our first trimester in language school is over. We still have a lot to learn, but we are amazed at how much Spanish we have picked up already. The Lord is smoothing our path!

He has blessed us with a wonderful Tico church plant that we will share about in the next blog post. Hopefully with pictures! Each week we're understanding more and more and are able to talk with our Tico brothers and sisters beyond, "Hello." "How are you?". What a blessing!

Thank you for your continued prayers! We know you are there, helping us to our destination...Mexico!

Here are some prayer requests:

1. Praise the Lord for His provision and protection.

2. Pray for our strength and health. This is cold and flu season and we've all gotten the flu in the past week.

3. Pray we will learn Spanish rapidly and will soon be able to speak well enough to share our faith.

4. Pray for Generacion de Campeones EC Church, our church here in Costa Rica. Pray for new believers to have boldness in sharing their faith and for many more to trust in Jesus.

5. The UNIFAM churches in Mexico have a bold vision: To start 2 MILLION house churches throughout Mexico by 2015, thus reaching 20% of Mexico for Christ. Please pray that nothing will hinder their efforts and many, many Mexicans will trust Jesus as their Savior!