Dear Loved Ones,
Feliz Navidad! Last year when we were writing our Christmas letter, the thought that we would be writing our 2009 Christmas letter from Costa Rica preparing to serve in Guatemala full time seemed like a very far off dream! And now here we are! As we reflect on the last year we are amazed and humbled by God’s faithfulness and graciousness. He has been so good to us as we have followed Him in obedience and you guys are part of that blessing.
On August 22nd we tearfully bid our good-byes and boarded a plane for language school in Costa Rica. Once we were here, it was no time at all before we saw answered prayer. One of our prayers was that we would have a good host home situation since we are living with a Costa Rican family. We couldn’t have asked for any thing more! Our hosts are awesome in many ways. Besides having the gift of hospitality they have been a great encouragement for us, mighty prayer warriors, and have a deep wisdom and understanding for new missionaries that is borne out of 20 years of hosting missionaries in their home. God is faithful!
We have now completed our first of two trimesters of language school. We heard language school was tough, well that was an understatement. Slowly but surely we are learning Spanish along with a whole lot of other things! One thing we have learned is that learning a new language, especially over the age of 40, is a life long process! We have also learned that God can use us whether we are fluent in Spanish or speaking like a toddler. Thankfully God is not limited by our human limitations! God is also using this time to draw us closer to Him and each other. He is pruning and shaping us so that we can serve Him to the best of our ability. For this we are grateful even though it isn’t always easy!
We have really felt God’s presence in these last 4 months and He has cared for us in a very personal way. The 3 month mark was when reality started to set in. Many other students at the school also hit a hard time around 3 months and we were told that this happens often. What added to the difficulty was that our son Ryan’s birthday AND Thanksgiving were also near the 3 month mark. So we had a triple whammy. But we have to say that God pulled through! First we were able to see Ryan on his birthday through the wonderful invention of Skype. Second, our dear friends Steve and Sally Frick were able to come to Costa Rica and spend Thanksgiving with us. What a blessing! They brought a deboned, smoked turkey with them in their luggage along with some other important Thanksgiving Day ingredients and the four of us made Thanksgiving dinner for us and for our host family. There were 9 of us around the table. This was our host family’s first thanksgiving dinner and they really enjoyed it! We also had a chance to visit with our families in the states via phone and Skype. It was still hard but having close friends to offer a shoulder to cry on made it very bearable! Thank you Lord!
Thanksgiving Day 2009:
We celebrated Norman’s birthday December 9th with our host family and Heather got to watch him open her present via Skype! We are now well into the Christmas season. The hardest part is getting into the Christmas spirit when it is 74 degrees and we are wearing short sleeves and sandals! But the Christmas decorations and a Christmas party on Friday night with fellow students has helped. And once again the Lord is blessing us by providing for our kids to come spend Christmas with us in Costa Rica! They will be here from Dec 20-30th. We are so excited! Then on the 30th, Heather and Ryan will return to the states and we will travel to Guatemala to visit our family there until January 9th. We are looking forward to this as we haven’t seen them for 2 years.
We pray that each of you has a wonderful time celebrating the birth of Jesus. May God richly bless you! Thank you for the blessing you are to us!
Love,
Norman and Vickie
~Praises & Prayer Requests~
-Praise & prayer for continued good health and safety!
-Praise that we are very near 100% of our monthly support goal!
-Praise that Heather & Ryan are doing well on the home front.
-Prayer for travel safety for us and the kids in December & January.
-Praise and blessings for our wonderful host family.
-For encouragement during our second trimester of schooling that starts on Jan 12th, that everything we have learned and are learning will start to all fall in place and that our understanding and ability to understand will increase exponentially!
-Prayer that we will have a special time of renewed vision during our visit in Guatemala.
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