Commencement

A hard-earned piece of paper!

  Although my high school graduation was nearly 40 years ago, I remember the speaker that day talking about graduation as a beginning. Back then, I was young and eager to begin my life of independence.  Everything was a great adventure. Today, there is a sober realization that when we leave this place, we are essentially starting all over again….we will have to make new friends, live in a different house, locate a church, shop in a different supermarket or feria, figure out how and where to pay bills, learn another monetary system and public transportation system, and even learn the Chilean variation of Spanish.  My desire for adventure was long ago replaced by a desire for stability and a certain level of comfort. Nothing but the grace of God will enable me to face the new challenges ahead.  There were times this year that we didn’t think we’d make it to this day. We literally were depending on God hour by hour, one class at a time.  But we can look back and say that God has been faithful.  We have every assurance that he will be faithful in the future.  That is worth celebrating!

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A First

WHM Chile team (plus the Jones' empleada, minus the Wallace children and Ben)

For the first time ever, the World Harvest Mission Chile team met together this past week in Costa Rica!  Chip and Meredith Jones, our teammates, came to the language institute only 3 months after us.   Brad Wallace and his family have been in the States this past year raising support and preparing to make the transition from being the only WHM missionaries in Chile the past 10 or 15 years to being the leader of our team. Although each couple had met the other two couples at one time or another through the past years, we have never been together at the same time.  We felt it was a great idea when Brad and his wife, Margarita, decided to join the Jones’ and us here this past week to visit together as a team and discuss our vision. 

We enjoyed taking them to one of Costa Rica’s lovely beaches on the Pacific coast.  We all benefited from the time spent getting to know each other and learning how we might function best as a team. After 7 years of praying, discussing, raising support, nearly giving up, going to language school,  wanting to give up, etc. it was only by the grace of God that this team finally came together.  It was a momentous occasion and one we will  look back on with thankfulness.

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MTI Reunion in C.R.

Last summer when we went to Missionary Training International in Colorada, we were amazed at how closely bonded we became to total strangers in just 3 weeks.  We were happy to meet the Janzens who were planning on attending the same language institute as we were  in Costa Rica and at the same time that we were. We also enjoyed getting to know Nancy who had returned from a term in the Dominican Republic to teach in a small public school in Colorado.

Who would have known then  that Nancy’s school would send her to Costa Rica this summer for a 4 week course at a  language school with a campus just an hour or two away from us? The Janzens had finished their studies at our school in April, but since Costa Rica is the country where they are working, they had moved only 15 min. away from us. What a treat to have these wonderful friends in our home for a meal last week.  Their faith has been a encouragement to us and we have been blessed to know them.

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