Big Events

Hello to All,

Two exciting and big events happened in the last couple of weeks.  The first being the 40th Anniversary/Graduation Celebration at the Seminary.  Shelley worked in planning this event which included an evening chapel service/graduation and a dinner.  One hundred and fifty people attended the dinner!  Wow!  What a night!

This year I have had the blessing of having a student assistant with me in the office.  Mercedez has been a life saver this year, helping with Communications and whatever else I need.  She will finish her master's degree in the Spring and return to Guatemala and I am already sad about that!

The other big event was the arrival of some of the Hill clan from Iowa for the Thanksgiving holiday. David's sister, Tina, and her son, Ryan and his family joined us.  We love to go to the beach at Thanksgiving, basically because no one else is there! 

We had the beach to ourselves and it was wonderful.  But first, before the beach, we had a HUGE Thanksgiving meal with 15 people in attendance.  The Armstrong family (missionaries here with us), Alvaro and Monica (long time Columbian friends of the Webb family who live in San Jose) as well as the 9 Webbs/Hills.  Great food and great fun!

We had wonderful weather the entire time and it only rained when we were driving somewhere.  Amazing!  Here we are on a tour of Manuel Antonio National Park.  Do you like sloths?  They are the ugliest things that God made (that's Shelley's opinion!). 

We also attended church on Sunday in San Pedro de Poas, one of our favorite churches to visit.  It is an outside sanctuary and we were there on the day of the ground breaking for a new building that has been a dream of the church for years now.  Want to bring down a team to work in the construction of the multipurpose building???  We can help you with that!!!  Here is the group, along with Roberto Hodgson, Coordinator of Hispanic Ministries in USA/Canada, all eating ice cream.  Yummy!

Oh, and then we got to visit the World's Largest Oxcart (the national symbol of Costa Rica), which I liken to seeing the largest ball of twine in Kansas.  VERY EXCITING!

 

David is with a team this week near Jaco, Costa Rica, with a group from Texas who are doing evangelism ministry.  We look forward to his return next week when I am sure he will have lots to write about to keep you all updated. 

Oh, I forgot to mention the wonderful tour day I had with Dr. Douglas Hardy (from the Seminary in KC) and Glynda Wesley (from Global Mission Headquarters).  We had the absolutely WORST day for tour, but they made it a blast anyway.  I show you this photo to prove just what a rotten day it was for viewing Volcan Poas....yep, it is right behind them...somewhere!  Thanks guys, for a fun day!


We want to say a special HELLO to our new LINKS district in Kansas City.  We have enjoyed getting to know many of you and look forward to seeing you next year in June. 

God bless you all.  Until next time,

Shelley, David, Joshua and Kayley