Nosotros Vamos! We are Going!

Nosotros vamos!  We are going...to Costa Rica and Panama and the Dominican Republic, and we are living it in Espanol! 

You have been following our mission/travel blog since 2012 when we received our first Mission Corps assignment and started packing for Riobamba, Ecuador.  That was an unforgettable experience, teaching in grades 1-12 in a Nazarene school up in the Andes.   There were few Gringos in Riobamba, but we didn't mind.  From there each week, the two of us welcomed the spirit of adventure.  Fueled daily with pollo y Arroz, we escaped wild dogs on a biking tour in the Andes and traveled by canoe down the Curaray River with the Auca Indians. We walked 40 miles a week, and we struggled to understand and be understood.  It was an amazing adventure where we made life-long friendships, experienced a world of acceptance and protection and saw Jesus unashamedly exalted in a way that we Gringos had never before seen or felt.

Then, we went to Germany/Switzerland for three months, a civilization far away from the drizzling cold Andes and burning hot jungles of Ecuador.  We lived on a college campus located on the banks of the Rhein River and met professors, missionaries, pastors and lay people dedicated to sharing the gospel.  This was a fourth-soil, storybook environment.  And, we learned and we worked.   A lot.  The world's history surrounded us in the form of age-old castles, magnificent cathedrals, a rail system that beckons the wayfarer to come and see and go and tell.   And, we learned to come and see and go and tell.  Jesus is alive and thrives there, but moves in quieter and more gentler ways.  Oh, Christ is there; He has to be introduced differently.

Now, we are packing again - this time, for several assignments.  First, our love for the Spanish culture and people has invited us to learn more, to go a little deeper.  And, so we are...in June. We have enrolled in a Spanish Immersion Program and will sit in a classroom for 5 weeks...on a seminary campus in San Jose, Costa Rica. We have a teacher,  textbooks, and assignments!

This is a new kind of adventure for us, but we are good for each other in this way.  We have taken Spanish classes and private Spanish instruction and have been in Spanish Bible studies.  Nosotros practicamos (We practice) our Spanish with a Spanish conversation group.  God has warmed our hearts, so we know that He will open our right brains to creative patterns that will help our left brains receive and retain the Spanish language.   Operation Immersion!


Then in September, we go to the Dominican Republic to play a small role in missionary training.  Here is where our classes bump into reality as every responsibility there has to be fulfilled in Spanish.
Life is an adventure, and Jesus is in the driver's seat - and we are along for the ride. Possibilities are like a heart and soul endorphin for us.

Finally, we invite you to follow our blog and wade on steppingstones into fresh water with us.  We will blog every ounce of our newest journey.
 
Keep Looking Up!
                                                                                               J:m and L:nda