Sorry this update is coming to you a little later than usual. November and December were very busy months for us and I wanted to put it all in one update. I will use the bullet approach so that I can include as much information as possible without going over 2 pages. So here we go:
• Ava graduated kindergarten and Zoe completed her class for the year as well. Both kids have come away from the school with a good grasp on Spanish, and they made some good friends that we hope to stay in contact with.
• For the last few months we have been looking for a house to buy. We have found one that would be perfect for having studies in and it has 2 bathrooms (a big deal when you have 5 women in your family). We are just waiting on paperwork to be fixed. We are hoping and praying that we would be able to buy it and move in by March..
• We had our Pastor and his son come down to visit us for Thanksgiving and look at some properties. It is always nice to see familiar faces from our old home
• We shared Thanksgiving with lots of ‘gringo’ friends at a restaurant my friend owns in Ojochal. There were about 60 people so it was great for our whole family.
• In December we had our friend Alex come back to visit his girlfriend, Yendri. While here he stayed with us until my (Curtis’) parents flew in on the 13th.
• My parents stayed with us from the 14th until the 31st. We were able to drive around and explore the country a little more while they were here. At times it is very hard to be away from family, so this was a great time for Chelly, the girls, and I.
• While my parents were here we were also able to participate in a gift exchange at the Salvation Army, cook Tamales with Gustavo’s family, have a Christmas dinner for those that have been coming to the Bible study, and visit Adriana and her boys in Rivas.
So there you are, 2 months of fun in 7 short bullets. We had some really neat things happen these last 2 1/2 months that I would like to be a little more detailed on. First of all we had a young man come to us and ask if I would disciple him. His name is Joel and he is only 15 years old. At times I forget that he is that young because of his concentration on the Word. There are very few teenagers here that want to be sold out for Christ. So as of the first of the year we have been meeting together 2 times a week. During our ‘meetings’ we have been memorizing verses together each week, and going through the Word. It has been great for the both of us, Joel is learning more about what it means to die to self and I have been learning a lot more Spanish from him. Please be praying for Joel and his family life.
Another person that we ask that you be praying for is Adriana. Adriana is the young widow with the 3 sons in Rivas. As I said above, we were able to go visit her before Christmas. While we were there we were talking to her about her future plans. We wanted to know if she had any ideas on what to do for work.
She told us that the family in the States that she used to work for asked that she would come back to work for them. They would take care of her visa and the money to get her there. The catch is that she would have to leave her 3 sons here with her mom. As you can see she is desperate. We ask that you would pray that the Lord would give her another option and she would take it. It would be really hard on the boys losing their father and having their mother leave them for more than half a year.
One more real quick update about the study we have been having on Tuesday nights. I am sure that some of you remember Yendri, Andrea, and their mom Sonya. Well we have all been praying for about 7 months that Carlos, their father/husband, would come to the study. We are happy to say that Carlos has now been coming to the studies since the first of the year! Every time I talked to Carlos about coming to the study he would tell me that he was too bad of a person, and that he had already read the Bible. However, it looks like he has listened to the Holy Spirit for now. Please pray that he would continue to come to the studies and that he would understand what it means to be a new creation in Christ.
Thank you so much for reading this and praying for us and the people here. Please write us when you have the time and let us know how we can be praying for you.
In our Savior,
Curtis, Chelly, Ava, Zoe, Ali, and Rya
