If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. I Corinthians 13:3
We love because he first loved us. I John 4:19
Hello dear friends,
It’s hard to believe we’re already the end of January. We’ve had an interesting last few months, with a variety of visitors, events, and natural disasters. Through it all we continue to see God’s patient love and faithfulness in our lives.
In October, through the generosity of the Mayo Department of Family Medicine, we were invited to share our lives and work at the Family Medicine Scholarship Forum, as well as participate in the Clinical Reviews (a continuing medical education conference). We hadn’t been in Rochester, Minnesota since residency, and it was a great opportunity to reconnect with friends and former mentors.
In November and December, we were blessed with a succession of visitors including our dear Canadian friend Sandra, Judith’s sister Jennifer (and kiddos), and Judith’s brother James. These were times of redirection, reflection, and fellowship; also of flooding, snakebites, and landslides. The last two weeks in November, the river in front of our place rose to unprecedented heights (according to the locals). Fortunately, we had no significant damage – just some minor erosion at the bank of the river. There was, however, significant damage to the roads, with one large landslide leaving our area incommunicado from the rest of Costa Rica for about a week. Around this time, one of our cats miraculously survived a venomous snakebite (cats really do have nine lives). It was touch and go for a while – but she’s back to hunting anything that moves now (which is what got her into trouble in the first place).
One significant change in our lives since our last newsletter is Alekcey’s new position as the Assistant Medical Director at the Hospital Clinica Bíblica in San José. You may be wondering how this fits into what we are doing in Paso Marcos. In late September, Alekcey was approached about the possibility about filling this position, which was vacated by our very dear friend Juan Manuel Aragón when he left for the U.S. for family reasons. This was about the time that Alekcey and I decided that it was time to take on the daunting project of revamping the government healthcare model for the Chirripó indigenous territory. Normally, we would have immediately said, “No, thank you” because of our commitment to being in Paso Marcos, but the Hospital was willing to work it out as a flexible, part time position. After praying about this, we both felt that this was an opportunity to begin networking with the people with the power to make decisions and changes from the top. Since November, Alekcey has been working at the Hospital in San Jose two days a week, with the remainder of the week in Paso Marcos. So far, it has worked out very well, and a variety of wonderful opportunities have come from this position. The Hospital has been extremely generous with allowing flexibility for Alekcey’s developing different programs for the hospital and for Paso Marcos (and surrounding areas).
In December we were really blessed to have our parents, Judith’s brother James, and close family friends for a Christmas Eve celebration at Paso Marcos. Soon after that, we were blessed to host a team from San Antonio, who helped us with our 2nd annual Paso Marcos Community New Year’s Eve party. We had a great attendance (mostly Cabécar people –some from 8 hrs away) and had a great time of games, food, movie, and fellowship.
The team also spent the week fixing up Ana and family’s house in the nearby town of Pacuare. Ana is a single mother (abandoned by her abusive husband) with five children, supported mainly through her son’s work as a day laborer at a nearby timber farm. The team did a great job demonstrating God’s love to her and the family by fixing and painting her roof, installing windows and a door, and painting the house (among other things).
You may have heard about the earthquake in Costa Rica earlier this month, resulting in much personal tragedy in this country through loss of homes, businesses, and lives. We are grateful that we are safe and were spared any major damage from the quake.
We have a lot in the works in the upcoming months, and we are looking forward to being able to tell you how it all went in our next newsletter. These include beginning the building of the bridges and new school in Tsimari and the coming of our dear friends Dan and Lori Friedly, who will be coming to Costa Rica permanently with their family for one year of Spanish school before coming to Paso Marcos to work with us.
Thank you keeping us in your thoughts and prayers,
In Him,
Alekcey and Judith
Alekcey and John making a new door for Ana's house
The work team and Ana's family at their newly renovated house
Giovanni, Alekcey, Judith and Brieanna at the end of the road which the river washed away as it changed course
School supplies for the Cabecar students
