So we’ve been working our tails off this trimester. Crystal’s been a little spanish studying fool and its paid off. Crystal has met all of her personal goals for Spanish learning for this trimester. We received our placements from our Spanish Oral Proficiency Interviews. Jeremy is an Advanced-Mid and has increased his vocabulary!! Good Job Jeremy!! Crystal has bumped up to Intermediate-mid (from novice low (”muy poco”). Which we are both super excited about!!!
This trimester we’ve also “played hard”. We’ve taken 4 weekend trips to different beaches and Jeremy’s gotten PADI scuba diving certified. Each trip has been such a blessing of good fellowship with new & old friends and a welcomed mental break from all our studies! Enjoy the pictures!!!
I just downloaded Starfield’s new album this week. “I will Go”. It is a MUST HAVE in my opinion…like go ahead click on itunes and download it right now :o). It’s some of the best praise & worship songs I’ve heard in a long time. So much emphasis on the Lord and our calling. It’s totally rockin’ my world. I’m lovin’ me some Starfield. FYI- pretty much all of the albums are rockin!!!!
Well Jon “face” or better known in Latin America as “Juan Cara” and our dearest friend Mindy came to visit us last week. They were such a blessing (they were a blessing emotionally as well as a blessing by all the loads of treats they brought us from friends in the states…which thank you to everyone that donated fun things to us!!!)
I think my highlight of their trip was a little excursion to the Caribbean side of Costa Rica for 3 days and 2 nights. The beach was amazing and the waves were prefect. It was a SUPER FUN mini-vacation. We enjoyed it so much that we all ended up a little sun burned…but those are the ropes I suppose. We experienced all kinds of fun including non-AC public bus ride back to San Jose, our first military check point in country, and switch hotels because the first one endorse internet deception (by falsly advertising clean, spacious rooms- which truly wasn’t the case- I’ve slept on trains in India that had more space that the hotel room…haha) It was also a Nelson first, to not just “grin & bare it” with the awful hotel but we were SO thankful in the end for Jonface’s encouragement. Thanks Jon…the second hotel was awesome. We hope to go back and visit the owners again before we leave Costa Rica.
It was so refreshing and fun to have friends visit. It also helped me reflect on just how much spanish I’ve learned in the last few months and it was encouraging.
So, as you may already know Jeremy and I signed up for a scuba course for our anniversary gift to each other.Well because of my history of sinus issues, I had to go see a specialist to sign off that I was “okay” to dive.As it turns out, I discovered a load of complications that I have with my nose and sinuses!!I feel like shaking my hands up in the air and shouting “I TOLD YOU SO” to all those family physician I’ve seen, in the States, for the last 10 years.They blew off my concern about my sinus problems as merely having multiple boughts of hay fever and nothing more.Why I didn’t just ignore them and go see an Ear, Nose & Throat Specialist before now, I don’t know.
Well here is the diagnosis.I have a deviated nasal septum (due to an injury- Hey Student Team: remember about 1 ½ years ago when I came into the office with a slightly black-eye because the lid to my Crockpot fell on my face when I was pulling it down off a top shelf….well that was most likely when I deviated my nasal septum).However, I also have a majorly anatomically incorrect middle turbinate in my left nostril ( a slight anatomically incorrect in my right) and enlarged interior turbinate on my right as well.I have to go for a CT Scan in the next few weeks and then we are going to put together a game plan for correcting all my issues (there were a few other things, but those were the biggest ones).
The good news: Swimming for all those years really did amazing things for postponing major breathing problems from all my nasal irregularities.I also apparently have a REALLY GOOD respiratory system and require a very small amount of air to sleep at night because I don’t snore.Which the doctor found absolutely amazing and I don’t think she would have believed me had Jeremy not been there to agree with me.Also, the doctor said any of my above issues would have been fine on its own but the combination of it all has been what has created havoc on my sinuses these past few years.All of these issues can be corrected with a minimal medication and/or with surgery.The doctor hasn’t decided if surgery is the best option for me or not.I’m going to be on a round of various sinus treatments for the next week and then we’ll see what the CT scan shows.The last bit of good news, is that Iquitos, should be an ideal environment for someone with sinus issues/allergies like me…hot & humid is good for my little “nariz” (Spanish for nose).
I really didn’t think that I would be this happy to hear such “not happy” news, but it’s the first time in several years of having sinus issues that I actually feel like there is hope!I almost cried in the office because the doctor just kept explaining the reasons behind all of my sinus pain.One- I have a pretty good amount of allergies, Two- my anatomically incorrect turbinates, Three- my deviated nasal septum.One and Two I can give a big thanks to my genetic pool and Three- to my lovely ability to attract accidents.
I’ll keep you all posted.
P.S. My “okay” to dive, has been postponed for a little while, but the doctor said that I should be able to dive in the future…once I have my issues corrected.
In January we were able to experience a very interesting Costa Rican cultural/religious ceremony.A few days before that, our Tico mom asked if we would like to attend a prayer service. It was going to be for taking down their manger scene from Christmas.She said that it would be a time of prayer and a few friends.Well- when the Mariachi band was warming up in the living room an hour before the prayer service, that was our first clue that this was a little bit bigger of a deal than we had previously expected.
Through the prayer service and days following we came to learn that our family holds to the Costa Rican Catholic belief that if you say prayers to “baby Jesus” in the manger scene and keep the manger scene up until February 2, then Jesus will bless your home for the year to come.Also during the service some of the prayers were praising Mary for forgiving sins, being prefect, holy and being sinless.
This event really reconfirmed in our minds, the need for others to know and understand that it is byChrist’s deed on the cross that we are saved. We deeply desire others (including our wonderful & loving Tico family) to know and understand the freedom and grace that the Lord provides through Christ.
From what we’ve been able to research and ask around- we think this is just a Costa Rican Catholic belief, but we are not 100% sure on that. Thoughts?
We have totally enjoyed Bullfighting in Costa Rica. It is a tradition here, to Bull fight between Christmas and New Years. Every night from Christmas until January 7th, there are fireworks, a fair and bullfighting! They don’t kill the bulls here, in fact if a person kills the bull they go to jail! Here loads of men (and one brave woman thus far) stand out in the ring and chase the bull. At the end of the round who ever gets the most “WOWs” at the end, wins a prize…like a crock pot, or $20 gift card to the supermarket. Its been very entertaining. Enjoy the clip we found on You Tube.
So Jeremy and I decided to be brave this afternoon and we cut each other’s hair!!! We watched a video on U-Tube on cutting hair and thought, Why Not? Jeremy did a great job! Check out the Before and Afters:
My parents came shortly after our classes ended for Christmas break. It was a wonderful 10 days with them! My parents had a blast experiencing a new culture and new places. We were able to find a pretty good blend of sight seeing, shopping and rest periods. I was really proud of parents attitude towards their physical limitations from their car wreck. I knew that it bothered them that we couldn’t do all that Costa Rica has to offer or that they were not able to walk far distances, but we were able to find many alternative routes (i.e. a “handicap” friendly volcano…Irazu has a paved walk way up to the crest of the volcano and its a short distance from the parking lot)…So my folks were able to see a volcano for the first time!! We also went to the beach for 4 days, visited a butterfly farm and a hummingbird gallery (with almost 100 hummingbirds buzzing around our heads!). Enjoy the pictures on our “Fun times” sidebar! Also our “header” photo up top is from Irazu.
Mom’s Top Ten First Eperiences:
10. Staying in a Hostel
9. Eating Peruvian Food
8. Eating Tico Food.
7. Eating Yuka Chips & Plantanos Chips
6. Trying a fresh Pipa Drink (fresh coconut juice served still in the coconut shell).
I know the bridge diagram, the Roman Roads, and the Four Spiritual Laws. But I think I learned a new one that makes pretty good sense to me. Picture in your mind a Scale. You have on one side of the scale your sin. On the other you side of the scale you have the payment for that sin. When they even out there is justice. This center line where the Sin and Justice meet up is the place of God’s perfection. If there is perfection in your life there is zero sin, on the one side and zero payment for that sin. You have a scale with nothing on it. But if there is any Sin on the one side there must be something on the other. This is where the important part is. There are two possible things to put on the opposite side. There is your own payment, the payment of eternal death and separation from God, an eternity of pain, agony and regret. Or there is the payment of Christ’s pain, agony and separation from God while on the cross. They will both provide justice and make the scale come back to equal levels. And the question could be asked, “doesn’t an eternity of pain, agony and separation from God seem a bit of an overkill?” But the answer is no. You have to think of the eternal aspects of God. He is eternally holy, pure, powerful, righteous, and he cannot allow there to be any Justice not rendered. The sins that we commit are not just sins, they are sins that offend an eternal God. Because they are sins against an eternal God they are therefore Eternal Sins. There is no mercy without Justice. If there was, God would not be just. He displays his mercy the only way that he can without working contrary to his Justice and Holiness. An Eternal Sin can only be covered by Eternal Payment, and this we cannot provide for ourselves. Our eternal separation from God does not have enough weight to balance out the Eternal Sins that we commit. We are finite, and we only provide a Finite Payment. That is why hell is eternal. An Eternal Payment would have to fit three different criteria in order to qualify for begin an Eternal Payment. One, there would have to be death. There is no redemption for sins without the shedding of blood. Two, this being that would die would have to be eternal. Three, in order for this being to redeem others there would have to be perfection. If there was a being that was eternal, mortal, and sinful, when they died they could only pay the price for themselves. There is one and only one person that lives up to these three criteria, his name is Jesus Christ. It is Jesus Christ that can balance out the sin in our lives and bring the Justice that saves. Our own Death Payment will never tip the scale, there is not enough eternal weight to our lives. Only the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus carries enough weight to balance the scale.
