. . . pressing on . . . .

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Phlippians 3:12

Our first trimester of language school is officially finished! Today was our last day of class and tomorrow is graduation for the leaving students. We both made it out with A's in all of our classes and are so proud of all we have accomplished. When we arrived in Costa Rica, we could only speak in the present tense with little vocabulary. Now, we know the present, past, imperfect, and how to say things we are going to do in the future! We are now able to say our testimonies in Spanish and to quote the Roman Road as well! Thanks for all of you who have prayed for us as we have worked hard this trimester. We enjoyed so much our classes and the new friends we have made. Here is a picture with me and my classmates baking cookies for a fun respite from studying! Our school, teachers, and new friends were such a blessing to us as we worked to learn the Spanish language!

Tomorrow begins our almost two week break between trimesters and a much needed time of rest. Travis' parents are flying in tomorrow for a visit and we are so excited to see them. Next Friday, Travis is traveling with a group down river to do ministry for a few days. He is very excited about this opportunity.

Please pray for us this week as we have visitors and as we have to say goodbye to our newly made friends tomorrow as they travel home or to their country of mission work.

* Side note, to those who have asked we can receive packages here in Costa Rica - look down on the right hand side of our blog and you can see our address and note on packages.

Blessings . . . .

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ." Ephesians 1:3


We had the wonderful blessing and pleasure this past week of having a visit from our very dear friends Nathan and Amber. We were out of school for Holy Week and so we were able to enjoy a fun time in the nearby towns of Manuel Antonio and Punta Leona.

We had lots of fun hanging out in the rainforest with the monkeys and swinging on zipline cables, laying under the palm trees on the beach - Enjoying God's amazingly beautiful creation.

We were also blessed with so many things from home sent from various friends, family, and church members ! We cannot tell everyone enough how much we appreciate your prayers, support, cards, phone calls, emails and the special treats from home - you can see Travis' huge grin because he his holding some of his Little Debbies. It does our hearts so much good when we hear from each of you and know that you are praying for us!

We were also wonderfully surprised with beautiful cards made by Mrs. Stromberg's and Mrs. Hernandez's classes at Brainerd Baptist School! Thank you so much students for your beautiful and encouraging cards! They meant SO much to us!

In other news, Monday is the beginning of our last week of our first trimester in school. We are halfway there and we cannot believe it! It is so awesome to see how far we have come in our Spanish skills in just 4 short months. God has been so good to us!

Please continue to pray for us to have endurance as we finish out this last week of school and for our studies next trimester. Also pray for us as we begin to recruit teams to come to Mexico for next year. Our goal is to have, at minimum , 32 teams for 2010. Is your Sunday School class, youth group, church, etc. going to be one of them?

Thank you so much for your prayers! Dios los bendiga!

Travis y Daniela

Update on Peter...

Well, Danielle and I were walking to school for a play that the kids were doing on Saturday night. As we came down the hill from our house we saw Peter. I was excited to see him. We hadn't seen him since I wrote the last blog. Anyway, we were walking the direction that he was in but he still crossed the steet to meet us. He asked us how we were and if anyone had tried to bother us. And then here it came, he asked for money. I was crushed. I had thought that there was a chance to really build this retlationship into something. But with that one question it was revealed to me what his intentions were. I know that God can still use this relationship and I pray that we still have opportunities to talk to Peter. But as we walked off we talked about how we felt that this was all a plan. We felt like that he had been talking to us to befriend us for this very purpose. Just pray for us that God will still use this "relationship" for His glory. Thank you all so much for the prayers that you have already voiced for Peter.

Travis

The voice from the bar....

Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, Ephesians 6:19

We were walking to the mall the other day and as we passed the bar around the corner from our house a man hollered across the street at us as he exited the bar. He asked in fairly good English if we were the ones that got robbed in the neighborhood. He then proceeded to explain that he lived near where we were robbed. He said that the mechanics that has helped us that day had told him what had happened. It turns out it was almost directly in front of his house that we were robbed. He talked to us for a little while and told us if we had any trouble to let him know. This was two Saturdays ago.

Monday of this week, on our way home from school, as we walked by the mechanics shop a shirtless man started talking to us. We quickly realized that it was the same man. It was hard recognize him because the other day he had his hair fixed and was in nicer clothes. This day, he was in dirty blue jeans and no shirt. He asked us how we were and talked to us briefly. He told us that he was working on the roof of his neighbors house. We ended our conversation and walked on home.

The next day we saw him again. This time he with cut off blue jeans, (it was very hot tuesday). We talked a little longer this time and he asked how our Spanish was going and where we were going after we left Costa Rica. He asks questions in English and we respond in Spanish.

Today, on our way home we saw him on the roof of the house working with his brother. We made sure to holler up to him and say "Buenas". He told us to make sure and watch the Costa Rican futbol game (soccer) tonight. It is a qualifying match for the World Cup next year.

I feel like God has brought this man into our path for some reason. I am asking that people pray that God will continue to create opportunities to talk to him. We plan to watch the game so that when we see him we can talk about it. The man's name is Peter. I really feel like this man might be an answer to prayer, I have really been looking for an opportunity to do something other than just be a student. Please pray with me that this will be the start of a relationship that God can use for His purpose.

Travis