There's No Place Like Home!

We spent this weekend in the mountains at Lake Arrowhead, CA where we both spent our Jr High and High School years and the first few years of our marriage. As we drove the oh so familiar roads and smelled the fresh pine-scented air, we were flooded with memories from all our years here and were reminded that no matter where you go...there's no place like home!


We spent Saturday with our good friends, Blaine and Elisa Vanderschuit and their two boys whom our two kids adore! Friends like this don't come along often, especially ones that last long distance. We always seem to pick up where we left off and we know that their friendship will be invaluable to our well being as we face what this adventure has to hold.
We love you guys!



On Sunday we had the honor of sharing about our ministry at Church of the Woods where there are so many familiar faces, some that go waaaay back! Pastor Rod was so uplifting as he prayed for us and once again we felt so much love and support that it was overwhelming. It's hard to be worried or scared about what lies ahead when you feel such a strong backing from so many people!



We also had the opportunity to share with the Sunday school kids about what Costa Rica is like and what it means to be a missionary! One definition was,"Somebody who tells everyone they see about Jesus!"

Thank you to all of you who blessed us with your encouragement, generosity, and fellowship! We'll miss you!

Our New Home!

Thanks to our good friends Douglas and Karen Johnston we have a house in Costa Rica!
The Johnstons (see their blog on the left) are an awesome couple and are fast becoming our allies in this whole adventure, as they have done, and are doing, the same thing just two years earlier. They attended the same language institute and have secured us a house to rent within walking distance, gave us tips on what to bring and paperwork for visas etc, and will be meeting us when we arrive! We feel so blessed to have them there for us.

Click here to check out the pics they took of our new house in San Jose!

Here is an aerial map from GoogleEarth of our house and school. You can see the path we will likely be walking every day. The big green square is Bosque Park with a playground and the Johnstons currently live on the north east corner! Cool huh!
Click on the map to enlarge it.

As luck would have it...

Early Monday morning we took one last look around our beautiful Sherwood home, loaded our sleepy kids in the car, and drove away following Jamie's parents in the Penske truck loaded with our possessions. How strange a feeling to be closing the chapter on this season of our lives and anticipating the start of the next, with this hang time in the middle.
Our first day was long, being that we had to go 50 mph to stay with the truck, but our kids did shockingly well! At about the 13th hour in the car, when they should have been completely spent, our kids started singing happily, "Da-ddy, Da-ddy, Mo-mmy, Mo-mmy, we love you so much! You're the best!" and we looked at each other thinking, "How did we get so lucky?"
The second day was light years better due to the very timely location of our good friends Arich and Syble Harrison (check out their blog to the left) and the long overdue visit with them. We only had a couple hours but it renewed our spirits and we left feeling yet again, "How did we get so lucky?" We love you guys and your friendship means the world to us!
By the time we got in to Southern California, Kendyl had finally melted down, which consisted of saying with duress, "It's like we live in the car now!" All in all, not bad for a 4 yr old.
We all made it safe and sound with sanity intact! Thank you all for your prayers!
The funny thing is, our trip to Costa Rica will likely be much easier!
How did we get so lucky? Thank you Lord!

It's Official!

Today is the first day we can officially call ourselves missionaries!
This morning we were commissioned by Countryside Community Church, a wonderful family of believers we have grown to love here in Sherwood. (check out the link to the left) It was so surreal watching our own video on the big projector screen, hearing the pastor talk about our ministry, having the church pray over us and realizing...this is really happening! Afterwords we realized that Nathan could no longer call himself a student or a contractor, I was no longer a nurse, and we didn't have to say we were going to be missionaries; we actually are missionaries! It's all so very exciting!
In the afternoon, our family and friends joined us at the park for an "Hasta la Vista" Party where we were totally blessed by the love and encouragement we received. It was a bitter-sweet day as we had to say goodbye to some of our closest friends that we have grown to love and were touched by hearing their prayers for us.
As if that wasn't enough, this evening we shared our last dinner with our Oregon family members...let's just say...there wasn't a dry eye in the house! We love you!

Shoutout to Spokane!

So at 5:30 am on Saturday, after a great 4th of July BBQ and fireworks at the Dominguez', we loaded up the kids in the car and headed out on a 6 hour road trip to Spokane, completely unaware of what God had in store for us there!
What we thought would be a whirlwind weekend of catching up with friends turned into a seriously enjoyable series of divine appointments. Each meeting touched us!
Not only were we overwhelmed by the amount of love and support we received from everyone but we were also humbled as God used us to minister to others as well. We left feeling so incredibly blessed to have lived in Spokane for that short season and to have made such wonderful connections there. If this is any indication of what our future "deputation" trips will be like... we will anticipate them with great excitement!

Thank you all so much for everything you've done for us! We'll miss you!
Wendy, Tom, Megan, Corey, Kim, Adrian, Shanni, Dave, and Heather!