Well we’re back online.  The entire town of Puerto Viejo has been without internet for the past 4 days and it has been frustrating.  We’ve had emails we needed to send and family to talk to using skype and even bills we needed to pay online and we couldn’t do a thing.  That is just one of the frustrating things about living in a place like this that is so remote and the infrastructure is just not very solid and comes and goes regularly.

Things are going well for us here though.  We are definetely getting more comfortable with the everyday living conditions here and are able to function fairly efficiently as a family.  Things still aren’t quite a piece of cake though.  We still get homesick quite often and it is harder to keep the kids entertained here than back at home.  Especially when it is raining and we don’t have a yard for them to play in or a playroom for them to hang out in.  We are starting to be more a part of the ministry here which has been a big help for our morale.  Carol has been enjoying helping with kids church on sundays and helping with the girls skate session on tuesdays, where she gets to help the girls learn to skate and hang out with some of the moms and build some relationships there.  Allen has been helping run the wednesday, friday and saturday skate sessions and has been enjoying getting to know some of the youth boys who come to skate.  The friday skate session is for older youth and we have a bible study after the kids have skated for a couple of hours. 

This past friday, the bible study topic was on premarital sex and being sexually pure in the eyes of God.  The kids answered some questions about premarital sex and were asked to answer them according to how the world (and themselves) would answer them and then after we read some scripture, they were asked the same questions and they had to answere them according to what God’s word says about them.  Their answers were interesting and eyeopening to say the least.  These kids have never been remotely tought what God’s intensions were for sex and marriage.  At one point, Barrett asked them to define what commitment meant, and not one of them could give an answer.  They were also asked to define what marriage is and nobody gave us the correct answer.  One of them said that marriage is when two people love each other and live together.  That is what happens after marriage but that doesn’t make you married.  It is so sad that these kids have never had anyone model to them what a real marriage is and what it means to be commited to one person in marriage for your entire life.  In the states, people get divorced but at least when they initially get married, the idea is to be with that person for the rest of their lives.  Here they don’t get divorced much, they just don’t actually get married.  It’s amazing to think that just us coming down here and living life as a healthy/real family, where the kids have a truly married and commited mom and dad, can make an impact on the youth just by them watching us.  People are difinetely watching us, which really makes us concious of our actions and how we conduct ourselves as a family and as parents.

We are sorry that we haven’t been able to post very often.  Things here take much longer to accomplish than they do back in the states, so it has been hard to find the time to sit down and type out a post.  We have been trying to get some photos on our photo page, so check back there often as well as we will add more as we get the chances to do so.

Thank all of you for your prayers and support.  We couldn’t be here functioning as a family and reaching this community for Christ without your faithful prayers, support, and encouragement.  Thank you to all of you who have emailed us with encouraging words.  That helps us tremendously and we appreciate each one we get.

Blessing to you all!