Thursday, February 7, 2008

Escuela, ...y errores culturales... School,...and cultural errors.

Bueno.

"This is the confidence that we have in him(Christ Jesus), that if we ask anything according to his will, He hears us." 1 John 5:4

My dear friends,

I am learning so much Spanish...but my speech is so SLOW!!! Thank you all for your prayers. I am hoping that I will be able to communicate the gospel and for this I need the language.

So many of you have been in my thoughts and prayers lately, and I hope you are doing wonderful.

OK...so there is this REALLY strange icecream here. It is like a popsicle but it is really icecream...and it has all kinds of ingredients...but a mild sweet flavor.

I ate one yesterday that was called "Fresa y Natilla." That means Sour cream Strawberry. It was so strange. It included all kinds of ingredients like peaches, chocolate-covered toasted rice, chocolate cookies, bananas, coconut, milk, pineapple, caramel... basically it just tasted like a very light strawberry shake, but I was greatly amused by the amount of ingredients it has.

Right now, I am part of a team of 8 people who are working at Renacer to develop the children's ministry. We will be putting on a "black theatre" at the end of this month and also separating everyone into 4 teams. My team is the yellow one and we are going to win! :) We are committed to helping mentor these children in life. We will provide them opportunities to grow socially, spiritually, mentally, and emotionally.

I am having to be careful about how much I get involved yet because I am still working on the language alot. I am also studying with this wonderful women, Aida, who is learning English. I usually tutor her for about an hour and then she works with me on my Spanish. There is this wonderful girl, Katherine, who is also helping me with my Spanish. She is a good friend.

I miss all of you and pray God's blessing on you. Thank you for your friendship and your faithful support. You are helping me to be able to pour my love on others.

The people of Costa Rica are friendly and helpful, but I have made cultural errors. I am constantly learning about things I should or should not do. Many things are involved just in the tone of voice that you use. Please remember to pray that God will help me with the language so that I can communicate correctly what my heart is saying.

There are lots of southerners here... so ...

Talk to y'all later, and love y'all!

yours for him.
Joanna Joy