A new land, a new language, a new home...and homework!

My dear friends and partners in prayer. Pura Vida! This means life is an adventure...live well...live fully...enjoy.

You who know me so well, know how much fun I can have, and at the same time how serious I can be sometimes.

Since January 2nd, when I arrived at 10 pm. This has been a full head-on adventure. God is so good.

Jennifer Dahlager picked me up from the "Aeropuerto Nacional de Juan Santamaria" on Tuesday evening. We arrived about 20 minutes late, and I was so excited. I had two students arriving with me. They were Leslie, who I have nicknamed "Le," and LaDawn, who I nicknamed "La." They are my two songnotes and they have both been an incredible blessing so far already. Leslie was a Missionary Associate in Colombia for 7 years and she is now going as a fully appointed missionary to continue working with the street children there. LaDawn was a MK who grew up in a mixture of the United States and El Salvador. She love El Salvador, but is returning to work now in the Dominican Republic with some missionaries in translation and children's ministry (I believe) She is going to be a MIT or Missionary in Training there.
Leslie and Ladawn both knew each other from a previous time when they roomed together at school.

The Dahlagers started their school for "Hijos de Pastores" (Pastor's Kids) on Tuesday the 1st. They had a great time at camp. They hosted 6 guys from Argentina who gave special workshops and spoke in the evening service. Because I had the day off on Friday, I was able to go and be a part of their camp activities. The guy who spoke from Argentina was very powerful and the presence of God was strong. I also saw that God was moving on the behalf of the students. One teenage girl fell under the power of the Holy Spirit right as she was exiting the sanctuary.

Back to Wednesday night, I met my "new" mama. She sends greeting to all my family and says she is taking care of me. She is very nice, and she has three sons and one daughter. She also has three grandchildren. Her daughter is going to be moving in with us soon. I talked with Cecilia (Mama Ceci) until 1 am on the night of my arrival. Since then, we have become great friends.

On Saturday, I met all of the new students of CINCEL and we had a tour with a young man from the school whose name is Pablo. We didn't tour the city so much because even though Pablo was showing us so many things, we were all talking and getting acquainted. It was pretty hard to pay attention. We returned around 1 pm, and we enjoyed a very American picnic with hamburgers, hot dogs, potato salad and baked beans. We had an orientation of sorts as well where we were introduced to all the students who were already here and the teachers. We had another orientation on Monday.

On Sunday, I visited "Centro de Excelencia" with my Mama Ceci. She really loves her church, and the pastor is Pastor Luis Apuye. The whole service was very refreshing and enriching. The pastor spoke a very appropriate message for me about life. He spoke on how everything in life is a process. He talked about learning to be patient with ourselves and not "over-achieving." It was very good.

Mama Ceci and I had prepared a room also for a girl who came on Sunday. Angela came to stay with us for one week and she is studying one week's worth of Spanish. She came without knowing any Spanish and she has learned so much!

This has been a huge transition for me, and I am enjoying everything and hope to take it all in. Definitely this is the biggest adventure of my life, and there have been many challenges.

I was up late doing homework last night, and I suspect I will be again. I could tell you so many stories, but here I will cut it short.

Suffice is to say, there have been many new words, people and adventures in this past week.

I miss you all and love you dearly. Please stay in touch.

Joanna Joy