We just had a great week with the group from Ridgewood, Emily's home church. It was a small group this year, but the 4 guys plus Mark plowed through their project of demolition - exhausting, but they can't fool us, we know they loved it. They tore through the walls, ceiling and pulled up the floors - all that's left is the frame and the outer walls basically. Quite incredible! This is one of the homes at our temporary shelter. It's 40+ years old and Roblealto plans to replace it next year with a new house to expand the capacity of the Bible Home.
Emily kept busy this week working on letters for grants for the Los Guido child care center, putting together a big mailing for the sponsors and emailing the churches who will be receiving the Los Guido campaign information. Oh, and she really enjoyed the time with Lois, Pamela and the house mothers. Lois made a delicious ice cream treat and brought supplies for a fun craft activity. It was a great time of fellowship.
Tomorrow we are headed for Panama City. We have to leave every 3 months for our visas and though we're a little early, we had to plan around all of our groups coming in and this week worked best. We've been glued to the TV watching the winter olympics - Mark LOVES cheering for Canada. The Costa Ricans don't get it at all as they don't have any winter olympians :) The hockey game is apparently the most important thing, so we'll see...
Have a great week to all!
Friday, February 26, 2010
Friday, February 19, 2010
Our first group of 2010
We've had a great week with our first mission trip group of 2010. This group was from Connecticut and although they've supported Roblealto for 25 years, this was their first visit to Costa Rica. And boy were they touched by the kids here! They completely fell in love with our children and we know they are going to continue to be a part of Roblealto's ministry. We really enjoyed spending Monday night translating for some of the volunteers as they had dinner with the house parents and kids. We keep practicing our Spanish! One of the highlights for the group was going to Los Guido to see the community where many of our children come from and prayed over the lot where we Roblealto will build their next child care center.
It was also a big week for the campaign for the new center. After months of planning, we officially launched the Los Guido Campaign! We sent out a letter, brochure and DVD to 42 churches that support Roblealto to encourage them to join us in this initiative. We also put the campaign online and you can see it at roblealto.org Our next big job is to look at various foundations for funds. We feel very over our heads in applying for grants, but we were blessed with help from one of the volunteers this week who has grant-writing experience. We have a list of many Christian foundations that are more likely to be interested in supporting Roblealto than secular foundations so we are praying that this will be a chance to raise money. Thank you for your continued prayers. We have such a passion for this project that will serve 250 at-risk children and their families!
Tomorrow Ridgewood comes for their week at Roblealto. We get to meet them at the airport and it will be great to see them! Mark will join the men as they do demolition on one of the houses. Very manly! And next weekend we head to Panama City for the weekend to stay with my friend Janna as we need to leave the country for our visas. It'll be fun to get to see another part of Latin America and spend some time in hot, sunny weather (we've been having lots of rainy, cool weather here, not that I'll get any sympathy from the Minnesotans!)
We love you!
It was also a big week for the campaign for the new center. After months of planning, we officially launched the Los Guido Campaign! We sent out a letter, brochure and DVD to 42 churches that support Roblealto to encourage them to join us in this initiative. We also put the campaign online and you can see it at roblealto.org Our next big job is to look at various foundations for funds. We feel very over our heads in applying for grants, but we were blessed with help from one of the volunteers this week who has grant-writing experience. We have a list of many Christian foundations that are more likely to be interested in supporting Roblealto than secular foundations so we are praying that this will be a chance to raise money. Thank you for your continued prayers. We have such a passion for this project that will serve 250 at-risk children and their families!
Tomorrow Ridgewood comes for their week at Roblealto. We get to meet them at the airport and it will be great to see them! Mark will join the men as they do demolition on one of the houses. Very manly! And next weekend we head to Panama City for the weekend to stay with my friend Janna as we need to leave the country for our visas. It'll be fun to get to see another part of Latin America and spend some time in hot, sunny weather (we've been having lots of rainy, cool weather here, not that I'll get any sympathy from the Minnesotans!)
We love you!
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Is it really February?
So we've heard there is snow in Minnesota, but for us, it's hard to believe that it's winter. We've had really great weather which has been a blessing as we host Mark's parents for a couple of weeks. We spent a week seeing a lot of Costa Rica's Central Valley including a volcano, rain forest, churches, and eating authentic food. We spent 2 days painting a bedroom in one of the foster homes at Roblealto and John and Sharon got to know some of the wonderful kids that we have fallen in love with. We especially enjoyed being able to eat dinner with that home and sharing in their devotional time. Now Mark's parents understand on a personal level why we love Roblealto and how God is at work here.
Today we are meeting with our team because the volunteer groups start coming this month! We have several volunteers coming this week, but our first official group is coming next week from Connecticut. They are a church that has supported Roblealto for 25 years, but has never come on a trip, so we are very excited for them to meet the kids and be able to do some work projects! We also look forward to having Ridgewood's group who is coming at the end of February. Currently, we are very close to launching the Los Guido Campaign to start raising funds for the 4th child care center Roblealto plans to build. This is a big passion of ours and is a needed service for this very high-risk community.
Mark and I will have to leave the country again soon for our visas so we are busy planning that as well as the week when my mom and sister (Joan and Krista) come to visit us for Spring Break. We love getting to show off our new country! Things are busy and we are always so grateful for your friendship, support and prayers. Much love!
Today we are meeting with our team because the volunteer groups start coming this month! We have several volunteers coming this week, but our first official group is coming next week from Connecticut. They are a church that has supported Roblealto for 25 years, but has never come on a trip, so we are very excited for them to meet the kids and be able to do some work projects! We also look forward to having Ridgewood's group who is coming at the end of February. Currently, we are very close to launching the Los Guido Campaign to start raising funds for the 4th child care center Roblealto plans to build. This is a big passion of ours and is a needed service for this very high-risk community.
Mark and I will have to leave the country again soon for our visas so we are busy planning that as well as the week when my mom and sister (Joan and Krista) come to visit us for Spring Break. We love getting to show off our new country! Things are busy and we are always so grateful for your friendship, support and prayers. Much love!
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