Janelle Visits

Thanks Janelle!

Janelle Sievert, resource room and curriculum director at Zeeland Christian, came down to spend a week helping us organize our curriculum, train teachers, and do year end assessments. It was a joy to have her! Our kids fell in love with her at once! It was a huge blessing to have someone helping us organize and "finish well"... Can't wait to have you back Janelle!

The kids made a thank you book for Janelle with all their handprints :)

Group Hug!!

India

Friday Culture Day:India

Last week, for our culture day, we talked about the people and culture in India. Aleasha, who traveled to India through YWAM (Youth With A Mission) shared a little bit about the people, the language, the traditions, and the poverty she experienced while she was there. The kids had the chance to taste Chai- a typical hot tea drink that many Indians drink on a daily basis.

Ryan and Valeria looking at a picture of a student in India

A couple of weeks later, we were also blessed to have newly-weds Chad & Leanna Grindstaff visit us while on their honeymoon to share about their recent mission trip to India and their hopes to return there long-term.

Every Friday we take about 20 min. to talk about a different country. Because Quepos is filled with ex-pats, we often get guest speakers to come in and share about their home country and culture. I myself love the presentations, but love even more watching our students. They are fascinated by the pictures. They ask smart questions. They are engaged! They ask when we will learn Japanese, or share their desires to visit France to see the Eiffle Tower.

Students huddled around the computer to see pictures (a projector is on our wish list!)

Watching the students brings tears to my eyes. They look forward to Fridays. They know it is a day we talk about God's people all around the world. They locate all the countries we have talked about on the map, and they speak endearingly about the information they remember. They try to eat with chopsticks. They ask about the languages and clothing. They taste new foods and talk about how different isn't bad.

Christopher and Emily praying for children in India

Then at the end of each lesson, we go around the room and each student prays. They pray for the orphans in China. For the poverty in India. They thank God for Anacondas and piranas and they pray that they won't hurt anyone.

And they pray that all the kids in each country will know Jesus as their friend.

It is a little part of God's kingdom, and I am so humbled to see it in our students.

It is my continual prayer that these students will have an open heart for people around the world, able to embody the great commission-living a life that reflects the belief that their God gave his son for each and every person on earth and praying that people around the world would know the fullness of HIS love.

GO and make disciples of ALL nations...

Tropical Storm Hits Quepos

Last night a tropical storm swept through Quepos and hit most of the Central Pacific coast last night leaving most neighborhoods without power and closing many roads due to fallen trees and light posts. Because Quepos is below sea level, it is especially prone to flooding. Many homes were under water after hours of heavy rains.



Please pray for our community as they are predicting a storm of equal intensity to pass through in the next 48 hours. Homes have been ruined and we are just starting to dry out- pray that the rain holds off allowing the community to pick up again before it is hit again.









Power lines are down throughout the city. The road to Manuel Antonio beach is completely blocked by fallen trees and the whole mountain is without electricity.









Another fallen light post.









Fallen signs.





At the school, we are thankful that all we had was minimal flooding (even though water rose to about a foot outside of our doors!). We are in one of the few neighborhoods that still has power.



Below, you can see how high the water was in our school room (remember, we are in a new building and we still had this much water! imagine the homes that are older and have less protection)









Below, almost clean- just getting the last layer of water out of the classroom.







Below our library and reading corner out in the sun to dry. Disappointed that we may have lost quite a few books, but realize that this is minimal loss compared to many families and individuals in our community.







Thank you to my Costa Rican family and community here who has called and stopped by, concerned and checking in on me. We hope that we will be back in classes tomorrow if there is not another storm. Many of our students were without electricity and unable to leave their homes due to road blockages. Pray that everything gets cleared up safely and that no one was hurt!

Thank you Spruce Pine, NC Rotary!

Thank you Sprice Pine, NC Rotary for your donations that went towards buying dictionaries for our classroom! The 2nd graders are working on alphabetizing and learning about all the uses for a dictionary. (They love the pictures :) ) And a few of our kids have read the book FRINDLE... and are getting crazy ideas... calling Aleasha Mrs. Granger (the teacher in the book who is renown for her love of the dictionary and making her kids study vocabulary)

The Spruce Pine Rotary also donated maps, dictionaries and other classroom resources to the small school in Cerros! Below a group of Cerros students, some of our students, and the teacher in Cerros.

Reading Pairs

Every day we have a little down time after recess to sit and read. This is usually when the teacher reads aloud to the class. However, once in a while, the kids get together and read in pairs. They love it! It is one of those times when I am SO thankful to have a multi-age classroom! It is such a blessing to see the kids engaging in literature with their peers and with a joy for reading! They come in from recess now and ask "Can we read en parejas hoy?" (In pairs today!?!) THANK YOU again to the Spruce Pine Rotary Club for donating new books to our school library!

THANK you Marge!

Marge came to Costa Rica for the first time with a work team in January, and came back this March to help out in the classroom! And we put her to work! Along with teaching the kids a little bit about French culture, she was a HUGE help in organizing all of our curriculum and paperwork that has been accumulating over the past few months! She spent hours setting up folders and filing papers! Not a fun job, but was a big blessing to me and our teachers!

Marge is also known for carrying around her camera and getting great shots of nature and the kids! Check out some of her photos below- isn't this flower a rare find?! And she got some beautiful shots of the kids!

Thanks again Marge for sharing your time and your heart with us at the school! We are so thankful for all that you have done!

Friday Culture Class

Every Friday, we take a few minutes out of the morning to talk about a different country. We locate it on the map, discuss the elements of culture (food, language, typical dress, etc), and pray for the people who live there.

We have been excited to have "experts" from each of the countries, come in and share a little bit about the specific cultures.

Misoko, Kai's mom, is from Japan, and was able to teach us a little about the cultural differences between rural and urban cities in Japan.

Kai (which means sea in Japanese)
is already bilingual in Japanese and Spanish,
and English will be his third language!

Jody, from Belgium, shared her knowledge of four languages, and the fact the french fries actually originated in Belgium.



(above, Nathan with his colored Belgium flag)

Marge, a former French professor, share details about French cuisine and important architecture structures found in French.





Our kids have loved learning about the places around the world (and practicing words in other languages)! An important asset for those who live in Quepos- a city that attracts people from all over the world!


Alisson asked me the other day when we were going to start learning Japanese. We love that they want to learn languages!


This is just one of the small things we try to incorporate into our education, to help foster a love for different cultures, equipping our students to show Christ's love not only to people who live, look, and speak like them, but with people from all different ethnic backgrounds and geographic locations!

"So that the WORLD may know" Jesus!