Week 10 Update

Dan here:

You may have noticed these past two weeks that our updates have not been coming out on our normal Sunday night schedule. We apologize for this and hope to be back on schedule this coming weekend. Life, as it does, got away from us for a bit.

This past week has been much fun and we are constantly amazed and thankful for the blessings in our lives. We are privileged to serve in a fantastic ministry with amazing staff members and friends. We are blessed with an amazingly beautiful world filled with fun people with whom we get to enjoy life.

This past week we had the opportunity to spend time with our dear friends Veronica and Carolina (fierce competitors in game night - alas, never the victors). Carolina and Veronica are patiently teaching us Spanish in between their losing game sessions...

Carolina and Veronica - Game night

We also enjoyed an evening with our long time friends Robert & Maria. There is never a dull moment when these two are around.

More of our favorite people in Costa Rica are the Campos family who came over to our house one evening for dinner and games. We met the Campos family when leading an English class here several years ago and instantly fell in love with them.

We continue to serve in our various roles throughout the ministry as well. But this weekend was our once a month weekend of travel and rest. We timed this weekend well in that we were trying to pick a weekend in the rainy season near a new moon so that we could visit the northwestern peninsula of Costa Rica called the Nicoya peninsula. On this peninsula there is a protected turtle nesting beach called Playa Ostional where millions of turtles come to lay their eggs. We were fortunate enough to see one of these “Arribadas” which has been a life-long dream of Karen’s (not going to lie - I was enjoying finally getting to use my 4 wheel drive as much as seeing the turtles). The area where we stayed was quite remote and the roads were barely passable with a good 4-wheel drive vehicle (we had to cross a few streams and a few ponds in the road). But seeing the turtles struggle onto the beach, lay their eggs and struggle back to the ocean was amazing and made the trip worth it. Over 20,000 turtles nested that evening (the before and after views of the beach were amazing. All those turtle tracks turned the beach from smooth sand to a trampled mess). We also found a beautiful B&B near the beach to rest and relax for the rest of the long weekend.

Our evening with the turtles

Here is a google story of the turtles: https://goo.gl/photos/X2umRWY8jxebzEkY8

And here is a Facebook album: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10153699918392287&type=1&l=a4c5c32fcd

Our view from the B&B - look close - there are monkeys in the trees!

Karen found her happy place

The beach near the B&B

It was almost completely deserted - just the way we like it!

This really is an amazing world in which we live.

Interesting tidbit - even though we live in a tropical country with an extremely abundant rainy season (normally) we are now under water restrictions here in the San Jose valley.  Yep, every once in a while, for no apparent reason, they shut off the water at our house for 4-6 hours.   Actually, we are lucky.  Our friends that live up the mountain (Robert & Maria) lose water several times a week for 12 hours a day.  We try to avoid them on those days as we imagine they will be fairly grumpy...

Prayer focus:
Karen and I start teaching English class this week. Please pray for wisdom as we lead these folks in learning and special blessing as we develop new relationships and new discipleship opportunities.

Week 9 Update

Karen here:

Where do I begin? God is so good. He is stretching us…by trusting Him and living outside our normal comfort zone He is doing mighty things.

We have been so blessed to spend time with dear friends down here. I know Dan has mentioned this before but I’ll say it again. We know the locals can be so much more effective in ministry than us. Our prayer is that we can work alongside locals to develop new ministries in the community. We are praying for like-minded friends to share our vision…God’s vision…and grow it with us.

This week we were able to finally take the next step toward residency by going to San Jose to complete the fingerprinting process. Now it is all a waiting game. For those of you who know what a planner I am, you know this is an area where God is stretching me. I’ve had to learn to take things in stride and accept “Tico Time”. I have a poster in my classroom that reminds me “Life is all about how you handle Plan B.” Plan B seems to happen more than Plan A down here. However, I’m constantly reminded that God’s plan is always better than my plan:)

One of my major prayer requests this week is for our Spanish skills. We are blessed to have such wonderful teachers. Now we have classes 2 nights a week with 2 different teachers. One night a week we have class with Veronica while Allan is teaching us on another night. Their teaching styles are very different from each other but exactly what we need! Dan is doing a wonderful job as usual. He’s my gifted husband:) My knowledge on the other hand is more limited, I understand much more than I speak. Please pray that I can just relax and not be afraid to try to speak Spanish. While I don’t worry about sounding like an idiot in front of kids in Verbena or at the orphanage, its a little bit harder when I am practicing with friends or attempting to communicate with parents at school. Learning Spanish is critical to our ministry down here so your prayers are very much appreciated!

We are so pleased to announce that the church, Nuevo Amor, in Tejar has started advertising for our English classes. Dan and I will officially start teaching this class on October 15th. Pray for guidance and new friendships. We met some of our best friends down here when we taught English classes down here in the past.

My precious Elizabeth turned 2 this past week. I have mentioned that the locals know how to throw parties down here. Well they had a huge party for Elizabeth. They truly celebrated the miracle that she is still with us and also thriving! Each time I see her I am absolutely amazed at her progress:)

God has big things in store for Alajuelita! I know this because of the trials some of our local friends/partners are going through at the moment. Satan is trying to take their eyes off the ministry and put them on other obstacles but our precious friends are determined. Pray for God’s abundant blessings on all of the locals that are working with us to build God’s Kingdom. One specific prayer request is for a couple that is looking for a new affordable place to live. The husband did a week’s worth of work and then the employer never paid him. While our friend has a great attitude about it we want him to have that financial blessing that he deserves. Pray that they find a house, better jobs, and that the former employer finally pays him.

We love and miss you guys! You are in our thoughts and prayers each and every day:)

Week 8 Update

Two of our favorite people in the world back in the States are Art and Mary Martinaeu. Over the years it was amazing to watch these two people sacrifice themselves to show love to others. Their legacy is unstoppable. Karen and I have tried to live our lives in a similar manner - following their example to us. It is sometimes an exhausting way to live but it is always fulfilling in the end. This past week we have been focusing on building relationships while we work and do ministry with the ticos. 

We invited people over for game night...

Game night (Mexican train) with friends

We went to a birthday party for a friend's 9 year old daughter...

The birthday girl (Jimena)

And her wonderful party with family and friends

And we had several dinners with different families and friends (no photos). This is church - sharing our lives together to glorify God.

Our staff also led a team from Mission way church in Jacksonville. It is always exciting to see how God works in people’s lives as they experience the people of Costa Rica. This team mostly spent their time at the children’s ranch. They blessed this ministry with their service. They blessed the people of Costa Rica with their love. They blessed the kingdom of God with their sacrifice and I find this beautiful! It is so easy for us to forget that we are blessed in the United States (almost beyond measure). We are blessed to be a blessing to others. Meditate on Luke 14 sometime when you get a chance.

Here is the team video for Mission Way Church:

The only real constant here at 6:8 Ministries is change. Sadly, we had to say goodbye to one of our part-time staff today. 

Kayle Shoals has been working with us the past month or so and has been a tremendous blessing to this ministry. Not only did she give several of the staff haircuts but she also gave free haircuts to some of the locals.  She especially was a blessing to Josh and Alli as she helped to care for their three boys at times. Karen and I took Kayle out to the Taco bar last night to give her one last new experience in CR before she left. We are going to miss her down here.

Fun story:

Karen and I finally had a chance to go to a different open air market that we have been wanting to try. This market is near Alajuelita but is much bigger with more variety of fruits and vegetables. Today we tried a new (to us) fruit called mangosteen (or mangostan down here). It was super delicious! This has become a new favorite for us. 

We are constantly amazed at how small this country really seems at times. We almost always run into people we know in the most unexpected places. Today was no exception - at the market today we ran into the Campos family (who we have not seen in over a year). We have been wanting to get together with this beautiful family for literally weeks but have not been able to contact them. God took care of that for us I guess.

Another fun story:

Costa Rican culture is slightly different! Sometimes you have to let some things people say to you roll off your back. This week Karen had picture day at school. When the photographer was finished taking pictures of Karen’s class, it was her turn. But the photographer stopped and said to her, “Do you just want to wait and take your picture another day?” When she said, “No, why?”, the photographer proceeded to give her a look and pulled out some makeup to put on Karen. Apparently she did not look good enough for picture day (anyone who knows Karen will know how ridiculous this thought is!).

Week 7 Update

What an exciting week we have had down here!

Tuesday was Costa Rica’s Independence Day. Monday the students at Country Day School celebrated together. Each grade level in the Elementary School learned a song and dance. They all performed together at the celebration in front of their peers, parents, and staff. Of course we celebrated afterwards with plenty of yummy typical Costa Rican food. I am attaching the video of second grade’s performance. You can also see a picture of my students dressed in the traditional Costa Rican attire.

One thing I feel like the school is missing is God’s presence. I felt the urge to see if I could start leading a Bible study, with any interested staff, once a week before school. Of course it has to be approved and I haven’t heard anything back yet. Please join me in praying for that situation.

Tuesday the skyline was absolutely incredible. It made international news. Even non-Christians were stopping, taking photos and commenting that the sky looked like Jesus should be coming through the clouds any minute!

Mission Way Church sent a team down on Thursday. They went straight to the Ranch which meant the team house was empty. So Dan and I spent the night at the team house Thursday and Friday night to make sure that no one broke in while everyone else was away. All was calm…and we were very thankful!

Of course we went to the orphanage as usual this week. Friday night they didn’t have a lot of help so we stayed later than usual to help get everyone fed, changed, and ready for bed. I finally had the chance to hold Elizabeth. I can’t get over how much she has grown! It was such a blessing to be able to hold her again. Her bandages are all off. She is doing fantastic! Thanks for all of your prayers.

Saturday morning we went to Verbena to play with the kids and help with the feeding center. We were blessed to have Robert & Maria, and Allan & Laine help us out this weekend. I wish I had a video of the kids jumping up and down with excitement as they hugged Allan. They were thrilled to have him around again! Words cannot express what an incredible sight it was to witness their love for him. He is such a great example for these kids…especially the boys. These children, boys and girls, need more local examples of godly men. Allan has been and continues to be a great role model for these children. We had a huge turnout at the feeding center this week. There were over 70 kids in attendance.

When we returned from the feeding center I had the privilege of spending some time with Miriam. She is such a blessing to us. Saturday she surprised me with a beautiful gerber daisy plant! I don’t know how she knew but I had just been admiring that exact plant at the market earlier in the day. I am so thankful that I was able to sit down and talk to her for a little while. Her love for God is so evident in everything that she does. God has to smile every time he thinks of Miriam because she is a true example of a godly woman. When I think of the heroes in Hebrews 11, I think Miriam should be added to that list!

Saturday afternoon we showered and headed up to the Ranch. We were able to have dinner with the team and Dan spoke at Chapel. He reminded us of our purpose on Earth to build God’s Kingdom. I am blessed beyond belief to be married to such a wonderful man!

We enjoyed spending some quality time with the team, staff, and Wutka family at the Ranch. They are making some excellent progress on the buildings. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to stay too long today. However, the team is coming to Alajuelita tomorrow afternoon so we will spend more time with them soon.

For more information about the 6:8 Children's Ranch, go to our Dream with us! and our Mission & Vision

Or you can look at the Ranch Design & Pictures.

Fun story:
As I was stepping into the shower this morning, I looked down to make sure there were no tarantulas in the shower with me. I was thrilled to be showering alone with no unwanted creatures. Then, I realized that was something I would never even consider back home in the States….just one of those moments where I realized my outlook on some things has definitely changed lately:)

Week 6 Update

God is so good! Most of you know that Karen’s little girl from the orphanage, Elizabeth, has been fighting for her life since her last surgery. She developed infections near or in the brain that were causing her brain to swell. This caused her to be paralyzed. Once we found out about this infection, Karen immediately started contacting you all to pray. Well, Elizabeth has gone from “we don’t think she will make it through the night” to being back home in the orphanage recovering nicely. She is not paralyzed and the infection is gone. Please continue praying for her healing.

Karen loves going to the orphanage. She is there at least two days out of the week and soon we are adding another day. The nuns are really starting to trust Karen and are teaching her how to better care for the orphans. They have been teaching her how to feed the kids through the feeding tubes and how best to care for those with trach tubes. Please continue to pray that God will bring more volunteers/workers to the orphanage. The nuns have so many kids to love on and only two hands each.

Fun fact - we’ve learned that Karen needs to travel to the orphanage with a change of clothes. Every day this week she was peed on and once covered with food that Kristal apparently didn’t like!

Feeding centers update - this week I met with a new (to me) church pastor in Aurora to discuss starting a children’s feeding center. This is such an amazing opportunity to help this church in building the kingdom of God. When I asked how many kids should we expect, the pastor responded that for other kids programs they have done in the past they had between 100-250 children between the ages of 3 and 12. That’s quite a range and quite a few kids! Initially we are going to have to limit the number of kids that can attend the feeding center to a list of 70 children and let it grow slowly from there.

Aurora is a very large and very dangerous area. The drug gangs have pretty much completely overtaken this area and their leadership no longer cares for the people in the neighborhoods. It is not unusual for them to rob or assault the people who live in this community. This church in Aurora has done its best to fight this change but unfortunately it has lost its influence among the younger generation of the area. Hopefully this feeding center will be a great influence tool for the church and its pastor.

Saturday has quickly become one of our favorite days of the week. Every Saturday morning we get to serve the community and church in Verbena at the children’s feeding center we host in that community. We usually walk to the community, call the kids in the neighborhood out, spend an hour or so playing with and loving on them in the square, and then we take them to the local church for the feeding center. Jorge leads the kids in a time of praise and worship and then gives a short teaching before we feed them. Karen noticed a little boy who was trying to feed himself. He was really struggling so Karen went over to help him. The child was so hungry that he was inhaling the food as fast as Karen could scoop it out. His friends told him to slow down but he was so hungry that he wanted to gobble it up immediately. That just reminds us that sometimes these kids are just waiting for God to provide their next meal.

Fun story - Our Spanish is definitely improving (though we have a very long way to go). This week one of the older kids asked Karen if I was Tico because my Spanish was so good (I have no idea what I said but it must have been good!). Also, when Karen told the kids that we were living down here now for the next two years (at least), they started cheering and jumping up and down (the little kids love Karen).

Hopefully we will remember to take more pictures next time - sorry, it just is not something I think about very often.

Another fun story - This past Friday we were able to visit with our friends Raquel and Rocio. Raquel just had her baby a few days ago (a little boy, 9 lbs. 11oz - big boy!). His name is Gianni. Both mom and baby are doing great! Grandma Rocio and great-grandma M are also doing great and loving having a baby in the house again. Once again, I failed at getting a photo of us all. Someday I’ll think about these things!

Week 5 Update

This is Karen -

Oh what a week this has been! I survived my first Open House in Costa Rica. Let me just say it is VERY different from what I experienced last year in the States. There were so many parents in attendance that they filled up every single chair in my room and then the remaining parents stood around the edge of the room and in the doorway. They seem very appreciative & supportive. I think this is going to be a wonderful year! Afterwards the teachers on my grade level went out together with the principal for dinner and drinks. Several parents came over to our table and ordered drinks with us. Did I mention how different things are down here? :)

Things at the orphanage are going well. I volunteer typically two afternoons/evenings a week. The head nun is really beginning to trust me. This week she taught me where she keeps all the clothes for each child. Now she lets me feed them, change their diapers, choose their pajamas and get them ready for bed before I leave. God always amazes me! I originally started volunteering at the orphanage because scripture teaches us to take care of the widows and orphans. I’ve truly realized that I get more joy from serving that being served. Seeing the smiles and hearing the laughter from these orphans when I love on them each day is such a blessing. Oh how I wish I could show you pictures of their precious faces or send a video of them laughing when we play together. You’ll just have to come visit and experience it for yourself. Another miracle took place this week…Elizabeth is doing so much better that they went back in and operated again. It seems like just yesterday that they told me she might not make it through the night. Keep praying!

Dan here -
One of the current focuses of 6:8 Ministries is to expand its children feeding centers using the Verbena feeding center as a model. The Verbena feeding center is basically run by a Tico named Jorge. Each week Jorge gets the children excited about praising and worshipping God. He also delivers a wonderful brief 10-15 minute lesson each week that is incredibly appropriate for the kids in attendance.

Jorge and I have started meeting with church pastors around in the area. This past week we met with the pastor of a church called Nuevo Amor in Tejar (some of you may remember this church and its feeding center). We are rebuilding our relationship with this church and, with the help of its leadership, expanding the feeding center to include more Bible lessons.

Jorge and I have other meetings scheduled and been dreaming and praying together to see what God has in mind for this ministry. Please pray for wisdom for Jorge and I to hear from and understand God’s will in for His kingdom in this area. Also, please pray for Jorge specifically who has already started being attacked in his life because of this ministry.

One of the other positive things that came out of this first ministry is a request from the church for us to start teaching English classes to its members and the community. This has been a very effective way for Karen and I to build relationships within the community and with the church leadership. Please pray that we will be able to get this organized and will get the needed help in leading these classes.

Karen here with a fun story:
Dan and I are trying to balance work with our jobs and work with the ministry. While most people have their afternoons and evenings to relax and get typical chores/errands taken care of, that is the time that we do all of our mission work. We recently realized that we hadn’t really had a true sabbath, where we rest and spend the day worshipping God, since we arrived here. So we decided we need to take one weekend a month to take a break from ministry and work. For us that involves traveling and exploring God’s magnificent creation down here.



This weekend we traveled to Manuel Antonio, one of the popular tourist beach spots. It is known for all of the wildlife that surrounds people on the beaches. We had a chance to experience the wildlife firsthand. Saturday night as we were leaving the beach we saw monkeys all around us. They were climbing on the telephone wires to get to the nearby fruit trees. Then, they would pick the fruit off the trees and eat it.

Think Marcel from Friends!

The "Ring of Fire" has been very active lately

Today, we found a beautiful secluded area under a tree in the Manuel Antonio National Park. We learned the hard way, that the tide was a bit higher than normal. I’m sure all of the other tourists had a great laugh as we had just pulled out our picnic on the beach towel when a huge wave came in and soaked our food and towel and threatened to carry our sandals away. Thankfully, I was able to save our sandals and we learned a valuable lesson! Looking back, Dan and I expect that the reason the tide was so abnormally high was due to all of the recent earthquake activity around the "Ring of Fire"


We also saw plenty of raccoons and iguanas. They are quite bold. Before we pulled out our food, the raccoons ran over and tried to get into my insulated cooler bag. Once we scared them off, we watched as they went up and down the beach searching other people’s bags and carrying off whatever food they could steal.


Additionally, under the tree where we were laying was a nest/hole that an iguana was using to rest. When he woke he poked his head out and started eyeballing Dan. For most of the morning this iguana was mad dogging Dan and would occasionally try to sneak up on him while he was reading. Dan would scare him off and all would be good for an hour or so. At one point, Dan was laying on his back, reading his book and eating his pizza bread (unaware that the iguana was creeping up on him). Suddenly the iguana charged, jumped on Dan’s chest and tried to grab the bread. Dan threw him off and chased him away but learned not eat pizza bread while laying on his back in Manuel Antonio!

This is the iguana that was mad dogging Dan all day.  Look on the log if you can't see him...

Week 4 Update

It has been a month already! We feel like we are just starting to get settled into life down here in Costa Rica (I have a feeling we’ll be saying that for awhile). Thank you all so much for the prayers, phone calls and emails - it has made this first month much easier to bear.

We had the pleasure of attending church at Iglesia Christiana Alajuelita with Miguel and Karina. This church is our church home away from home. It was wonderful to talk to many of our old friends and to see how God has been blessing the church and the community through this church. It truly is amazing to see how much our church has changed over the past year. We had just a few minutes to talk to Miguel and find out how he has been growing new leaders and programs within the church. Hopefully, in the very near future we will be able to sit down with him and Karina for dinner or coffee and get a more complete picture.

We started our Spanish classes this week. One of our friends down here in Costa is a language teacher. She has agreed to tutor us and another missionary family. Its hard to describe how bad we are at speaking Spanish, but I think you can imagine how hard we laughed that night.

Yesterday, we went to the Verbena feeding center. I held a little boy, Amelio, who was maybe two years old. The food was incredibly hot when they brought it out. However, poor little Amelio was so hungry that he didn’t want to wait for it to cool off. As soon as he took the first bite his entire little body shuddered. So then we both started blowing on it as fast as possible so he could eat it sooner.

We also experienced our first water outage. Dan’s still not exactly sure why the water was out for most of the day. However, it came back on hours later. Thankfully, the people who had lived here before us, left us several 6 liter jugs of water. When the water came back on it was very cloudy. With my stomach issues, we had to use bottled water to prevent any possible infections. After 48 hours, the water was finally back to normal. We’re so thankful for clean water!

As you know, Elizabeth is not doing well. We’re headed back to the orphanage tomorrow so I will give you an update then. The last we heard is that she’s not doing well and they’re not sure if she’s going to make it or not. However, we know God is the ultimate healer and he’s going to take care of her!

I survived another week of school! My class size is now up to 18. Its amazing to me how different the system is here. Earlier this week the school realized they had maxed out their special education slots. In other words, the resource teachers don’t have any time left to help new students. Therefore, the administrators tell the parents that the child can enroll but the family will have to hire a private tutor to come in the school to help the child. So 2 of my students now have private tutors that come in during normal school hours to pull them out for extra assistance. Tuesday night is Open House. All of the parents in my class will come in to hear all about our school year. Say a prayer that everything goes smoothly!