It is always exciting to see God´s leading in your life. I was excited to see God leading me to service in Costa Rica, working with the Baptist Federation and Pastoral Care for Women ministry. 

However, following that leading can be a bumpy ride since it involves moving from one country to another. Nevertheless, God is always with us as Katy and I have seen over the past few weeks. 

We moved out of our U.S. apartment with a lot of help, especially from family who were visiting for a reunion. I believe God sent them!  Many others helped us, including getting us to the airport by 4:30 a.m. 

We arrived in Costa Rica on Wednesday, July 25, to be met by my colleague Ruth Mooney and by Rebeca Cascante, who directs the Costa Rican Pastoral Care for Women ministry. Ruth graciously has housed and fed us and driven us all over to run errands of all kinds. She also did a lot of legwork on housing options so that we actually found the apartment we wanted the day after we arrived, although we didn´t sign a lease until a week later. The Pastoral Care for Women ladies have also helped me get the apartment ready for moving in.

Katy started sixth grade on August 6 at the English-language Marian Baker School. So far she is really enjoying the classes as well as learning basketball and her drama elective. She is looking forward to an overnight class trip at the end of the month. God provided two new American students in her class so she is not the only new kid! 

We are finding a lot of bureaucracy here, mostly set in place to prevent drug money laundering, but it does make the banking system cumbersome (I need a list of certain documents in order to set up a bank account).  In addition, without having residency you cannot set up a phone line for your house.  All of this makes what I have gotten in such short time miraculous:  a loan of a stove and refrigerator, loan of access to phone and internet, loan of table and chairs, plus used furniture bought at reasonable prices. God´s hand is in all of this! All this setting up house is necessary in order to begin work. 

We have been establishing relationships with our work partners in the meantime. This is always an on-going process but crucial to ministry.   Ruth has taken us to several of the Baptist churches, which I´ll share about in a future journal. We´ve also attended the funeral of a woman dear to members of the Pastoral Care for Women leadership team, which has become a bonding experience. In addition, they held a special activity where over 60 graduates from the Pastoral Care for Women classes met to talk about the past, present and future of this ministry. It was a beautiful program (combining worship, fun, fellowship, food and a challenging message), ending with a call to the women to commit themselves to serve in a number of ways.

We thank our partners who have supported us financially and with prayer.  We continue to count on you as we settle in and get started on this new ministry direction.  We also praise God for being present at all times and for God´s wonderful provision.