Hard but Good

Hey guys,

Awesome to see your comments. I love that you are praying and thinking of us.

I´m not gonna lie...the last few days have been hard but really good. I will try to start the day I left off with you. I can´t put everything but I will try to put alot so you can know more and pray.

That night, July fourth, we had about everything go wrong that could go wrong. All of our sound equipment cables had gotten lost and we were doing music, dramas, and sharing the gospel that night in an open air meeting with about 300 people. I grabbed some cables from my guitars and patched it together so we could have sound at least. Then, it started thundering and began to rain...we started to pray and the rain stopped but it continued to thunder and threaten to rain for 2 1/2 hours...until we just finished. What a coincidence huh! After the music, we did our drama King of Hearts. Alyssa H., Abby, Grant, Laura and Ross were doing an awesome job. All the people were watching intently and just at the part where Ross come in and portrays Jesus as the Healer of wounded hearts, I hear some little kid yell, "Un coral! Un coral!" and the whole crowd scattered...."un coral" means a coral snake! It had slithered in through the crowd right where Ross and Grant were. My heart sank...everyone screamed and ran. Everyone except Carlos that is...Carlos is on of the guys on our team from San Jose. He took off his sandal and ran right at the snake and started beating it! We all kinda stood there and thought, "Is this guy really beating a deadly snake with his sandal?" After he killed it, Alejandro took it away, and we asked the crowd if they wanted to see the rest of the drama and they did. So we started it over at the part we left off on, and then Josue came and preached and many people prayed to recieve Jesus that night. It was incredible!

It has been hard working at two locations with out my own car. I am used to going where I want when I need to. That has been challenging because I don´t have a car...so one day I borrow a bike from a 10 year old girl and rode that back and fourth between the two sites (almost two miles) numerous times during the day. If you can a imagine a 6 foot 3 inch man riding a girls bike with a basket...I´m sure they are still talking about it! The next day, Mike and I had to get the food from one site to the other. I thought about borrowing a horse, but Mike is really scared of them, so I borrowed a motorcycle and Mike had three 2 gallon buckets of food on his lap behind me. I think we hit every pot hole in the road. But we made it there with the food.

One day, the family across the street was butchering a hog, so many from our group went to watch them do it. After we were done, I asked him if he would sell me some...so I ended up buying 13 kilos of that hog...lets just say dinner was yummy! Although Ali Bohlke wasn´t sure she could eat it after seeing what she saw.

We are working hard on the construction. Our kids are doing such a great job. They are so tired so please pray! We have two more days of work before we go back to Manuel Antonio and then on to San Jose.

We busted out the trampoline last night! Oh yeah, we brought one with us...Thanks walmart. None of them have ever seen one so you can be assured that Ross and Jayk are heroes here. Doing backflips with twists...the kids are lining up!

Andrew and Richard are doing thier magic trick. Last night we did a trick were the bowl is empty and we say the magic word and poof...a little duck appeared. They love it so much!

Hannah, Melissa, Anna Denell, Jackson and I did a drama last night. People were moved to tears. It was amazing to see them respond when I began to preach afterward about a hole that everyone has in their heart. Many try to fill it with money, sex, drugs, friends, work....but nothing fills that hole except Jesus. After I preached and prayed with them, I saw Josue and others talking and praying with the people of Upala. God is moving!

I haven´t really talked about the kids programs but they are going well. David, one of the Costa Ricans members of our team is famous here. He is 17 years old and has his own tv show for kids. So all the kids come running when he shows up. He is gifted with children and there are about 100 kids that come every day to do crafts, games, jump on the trampoline and ofcourse hear about Jesus.

All of the leaders from Lincoln are doing great too. Kathy is helping buy our food at the store...all she can say is "Hello, my name is Kathy" but she is such a blessing. I just bought food with her for our team and put her in a taxi all by herself with a guy that doesn´t speak any English. The trip will take her 45 minutes to get back to our team site. I told the taxi driver I would pay him $20 extra to leave her in Nicaragua and let her find her own way back. He laughed really hard and thought it was funny.

Jill is running one of our sites and her spanish is a big help. But more than that she is doing a great job helping the kids go deep in their quiet times each morning. She is great to have here.

Lyndi has been great at getting in with the kids and just encouraging them. She has asked me to pick up a white chocolate moca from Starbucks when I go to town....I always ask...what size? and promise to be right back with it:)

Josh has been doing a great job of working and getting lots of video from the trip. We will make a video for each team member when we return. They call him "skinny white boy"...at least I think they were saying that to him and not me.

Mike is probably the hardest worker on our team. He has endless engery and is gifted with our kids and at meeting the Costa Ricans. I think he knows 10 Spanish words and he uses them all! But even without the language he has a way of putting people at ease, and somehow is the center of attention. When I hear a crowd of kids yell..."ooooohhhh!" I know he is close by.

I wish I could write more. We miss you all. Thanks for praying!

Allison, I love you alot and wish you were here. Kiss the kids for me and I will call you in 3 days.

Thanks and God Bless!