Mid-November

Mid-November in Costa Rica is a little rainy and cool, but we know the summer weather is right around the corner here and that's a little strange. I feel like I should be putting away my summer clothes and taking out my winter sweaters, but I'll have to wait until I'm home at Christmas to wear those!

We have enjoyed having Lois, from Ridgewood, staying with us this week! She is here to begin planning Ridgewood's trip in February and for a Mom's In Touch event happening today. Women are meeting to pray for their children and their schools in over 1,600 sites today around the world. Lois is helping Pamela (our boss) lead one of the main Costa Rican sites at our church, Ciudad de Dios. We pray that it is a blessing to many! We've enjoyed talking to Lois about Roblealto and picking her brain for ideas of how to promote the projects. Our favorite day was bringing her to the Bible Home, the temporary shelter, where she is loved by MANY. Kids ran up to her with lots of hugs. One little boy insisted that I confirm to his whole house that HE saw Lois first! Mark and I haven't gotten into the houses much and so we enjoyed that a lot. I (Emily) enjoyed getting to do some translating for her too! It truly is amazing the relationships she's built over the years at Roblealto.

We have a lot of big projects in the works in the International Department. The main project for the mission trip groups this year is to rebuild the Arco Iris house at the Bible Home. This house is 40 years old and is rotting, has poor ventilation and lighting, and has a poor floor plan for the 16 people that live there! The projected cost is $160,000 and we've written the proposal plan that will go out to churches with groups coming to explain the necessity of this project. Also, we are really excited about the Los Guido campaign that is just beginning. Los Guido is the community we visited 2 weeks ago that has 25,000 people squatting in extremely poor conditions. After seeing Los Guido, we couldn't help but get passionate about the plan for a new child care center that Roblealto has committed to build. The first stage is projected at $300,000 and will allow some children to begin to receive services.

We've also been preparing packets and a powerpoint for mission trip groups that are coming and a big mailing went out this week to our sponsors informing them of the progress in 2009. So it's been a busy couple of weeks! Thank you for prayers for these projects. We know that God will provide for Roblealto and the hundreds of children that are served by its programs. We continue to be thankful that God brought us here as we fall in love with Roblealto!

Afterthought... Yesterday we experienced our first earthquake in Costa Rica. We were at the central offices when we heard a faint boom followed by the building shaking. It turned out to be a 5.1 earthquake centered about 45 miles away at Jaco Beach. New experiences!