Hello all,
We'd like to share the details of some of the more interesting events/developments in our lives in the last three months (with photos to illustrate at the bottom of this blog).
Family
As many of you know, our 14 year old niece Ellie came to take care of us for a little over three months (Sept-Dec). Ellie is sweet, gentle, and servant-hearted, and we were blessed by her stay with us in many ways. In spite of language barriers, she was able to befriend the girls in the Art Mentorship Program, who are all asking me, "When is Ellie coming back?"
During Ellie's time here, her mom (Judith's sister Jaime) and younger sister, Edith (11), came to visit. Jaime brought her card-making skills with her, and taught the girls in the Art Mentorship Program to make Christmas cards. Following the class, I (Judith) was thrilled that we were going to have the opportunity to hike (4 hrs) together to one of the girls' homes for a house dedication service, with an overnight stay and hike back the following day. In spite of years of hearing about the Cabecar people, after the trip my sister remarked, "I had no idea." It was a blessing to be able to share that experience with my family.
Art Mentorship Program
We wrapped up the first session of the Art Mentorship Program with a field trip to San Jose to visit the glass shop and a movie, "Voyage of the Dawn Treader", topped off with a choral performance by the girls (with Ellie on the flute, Phillip Jones on the guitar, and me on violin) at the year-end Cabecar meeting at Timothy and Keiry Jones' house in Grano de Oro (see video below). We have been so blessed by these girls, as I have seen their faithfulness and perseverance in coming to class (a 5-6 hr hike for some), as well as their love and care for one another.
While at the glass shop/school in San Jose, they were able to show their glass mosaic projects and were encouraged by positive feedback. For most of the girls, this was their first trip to the city. Many of the students and staff had tears in their eyes after the girls shared a couple of original a capella Cabecar praise songs. It's fair to say that both sides were blessed.
This year, we'll be teaching the girls how to do stained glass, with plans to finish a stained glass project for a series of four windows at the Tsipiri church.
Agribusiness Partnership Program
We continue to add new partners to the Agribusiness Partnership Program, including a few women, for a current total of 18 partners. Our friend and finance guru from San Antonio, Ron Sweet, was able to meet with the partners and continue to teach them business basics when he was here with the team last month. At the partner's request, Ron will be spending more time in Paso Marcos (starting in March of this year) to teach them about things like balance sheets on Microsoft Excel while they teach him Spanish. We are looking forward to seeing how this program grows over the next year.
Village Parkway Baptist Church team
This is the fourth year in a row that the Village Parkway Baptist Church in San Antonio, Texas, has sent a team to Paso Marcos for end-of-the-year activities. We have been blessed each time with new and returning team members, and this was no different.
This year, activities included working on construction of the Cabecar shelter/Art workshop (future site of the Art Mentorship Program) in Tsipiri, Vacation Bible School in Paso Marcos, New Year's Eve community party, New Year's Day carnival, and a variety of youth/adult classes (guitar, conversational English, basic finance, and jewelry-making).
We were blessed and encouraged by God's faithfulness in showing His love to the community through all of these activities, and we are seeing the community opening up more to His love as we were able to pray with several and distribute Bibles to those who asked. One teenage Cabecar girl, Ruth, gave her life to the Lord, and Pastor Steve Branson baptized both Iris and Johanna (our neighbor's and dear friends - Giovanni's wife and daughter) in the river. To God be the glory.
