The Journey to Mexico Via Narrowband

August 21, 2006 in Mexico, Progress by Dave | Permalink

I know that I finished my last short post with a more later promise, but circumstances precluded a rapid expansion of  the details of the journey, as we have found ourselves bouncing from home base to home base without a broadband Internet connection.  This post is an attempt at correcting this shortfall.  Forgive the low-tech listing nature of this update, but the frustrations of dealing with dail-up access can sap the creative and literary juices:

  • We arrived in the United States last Sunday after roughly a full day of airline travel.  We found the new restrictions a bit more challenging to meet, but the full breakfast on the Delta flight was a welcome surprise.
  • We were met at the airport with our new Speed the Light (STL) vehicle and the help of our friend John Morton  We received a 2005 Ford Expedition from Gail Mitchell, the STL project coordinator, who was able to find us a vehicle although the funds in Southern Missouri (our home district) did not permit us to purchase one.  Thanks Gail for your work, and thanks Southern Missouri District for approving the transfer.
  • We temporarily invaded the house of Dan and Lori Van Veen, raided their refrigerator and ransacked their basement in an attempt to organize our belongings and recoup from travels.  Thanks Van Veen’s for the landing pad. 
  • We travelled to Erie, PA on Friday in order to take care of some final details for our Visas and to see family.
  • We are planning our departure for Mexico this Thursday, leaving Erie for Springfield where Kelly and the kids will board an airplane for the journey to Merida, and I will begin the 6 day trip to Merida by car in our STL vehicle along with Kelly’s dad, David Yaple.  
  • We’ll be devoting the large majority of our web space for you to track this journey.  Hopefully with frequent updates and pictures, when available, to help you experience this journey with us.
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Graduation

August 13, 2006 in Language, Progress by Dave | Permalink

Yes, we have finally made it to the end of our language school experience. This Friday, Kelly and I, along with 15 other missionaries and university students graduated from the CINCEL program. More later, but we’ve got to get some sleep. We just finished packing and we leave for the airport at 4:30 AM tomorrow

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We’ve received our invitation

August 9, 2006 in Mexico, Prayer, Progress by Dave | 1 comment

We’d like to say thank you to all who had been praying for us as we travelled to Mexico for our meeting with the general presbytry there. Here are some things that did not happen:

  • We did not have trouble exiting Costa Rica or entering Mexico.
  • We did not find ourselves delayed or detained as a result of the protests that have gridlocked Mexico City following the July 2nd elections.
  • We did not have any problems on our return trip and arrived in Costa Rica, albeit tired, nearly on time yesterday.

Here are some things that did happen:

  • We have received an invitation from the Mexican Presbytry to work with missionaries Paul and Sandy Kazim in M�rida Mexico. (The picture above is of the municipal palace there.)
  • We have secured housing in M�rida, which mean we’ll be able to move right in when we arrive at the end of August.
  • We were able to leave a number of personal items in Mexico during the time we were there, making our move from Costa Rica that much easier.
  • We have benefitted from the strength of your support and prayers. Thank you!

We now are facing the task of packing up our apartment here in Costa Rica in order to prepare for our August 13th departure. Please continue to remember us as we go through this time of transition.

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Now that is a bug!

August 5, 2006 in CostaRica, Media, Nature by Dave | Permalink

We had the opportunity to travel to Tortuguero last weekend to celebrate Kelly’s 30 something birthday. While we were on the trip, we realized that, besides the green sea turtles, there are other natural wonders that grow to become quite large. Spiders were certainly in that category as was this elephant beetle. Take a look at Kelly’s hand in the video if you think this is just an extreme close up!


On our way to Mexico!

August 3, 2006 in Mexico, Prayer, Progress by Dave | 1 comment

As many of you read this post, we will be preparing for our first taste of Mexico this weekend as we prepare for our meeting with the national church leadership there in Mexico City. Please pray for the following:

  • The will of God to be accomplished as we ask permission from the Mexican A/G to work in Mexico.
  • Safety of the kids as they will be staying in Costa Rica as we travel.
  • Freedom from complication as we leave and re-enter Costa Rica, and as we spend time in Mexico. The tumultuous aftermath of the Mexican presidential elections has caused disruptions in transportation in the city and may extend to transportation methods into and out of the city.
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Final Exam

July 27, 2006 in Language, Prayer by Dave | Permalink

Keeping with our theme of lasts, we’d appreciate your prayers today (Friday) as we go through our “final exam” here at CINCEL. Kelly and I will each be sitting down with a professor for a “conversation” of sorts in order to plot our oral proficiency in Spanish. That’s the reason for the photo of Joseph’s mouth above. Please pray that we will be able to put into practice all that we have learned in the past year, and that the results of this exam will be an encouragement for the both of us to continue our learning even after we graduate from our program.

disciplemexico.org turns 100!

July 27, 2006 in SiteChanges by Dave | 3 comments

100 posts that is! We’ve crossed the 100 barrier, and to celebrate, we’ve changed our look. We’ve got what we believe is a much cleaner, much less “out of the box” look with more emphasis on Mexico, especially on the area of Merida where we are going to work. Of course, all of the features and content that you have enjoyed are still around. So if you’ve been enjoying our RSS feed or our updates by email, maybe it’s time to stop on by and give us another glance. By the way, thanks for your support and thanks for making us one of your stops on the web.

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The first last

July 22, 2006 in Progress by Dave | 2 comments

When we arrived in Costa Rica last August, one year seemed to be such a long time. We had images in our mind of how we would become almost natives, learning the language perfectly, and knowing every corner of this country. On the contrary, we have found that one year is only adequate to get your feet wet in the culture of a country. At no time is this more clear than when you begin to say goodbye.

This past Sunday, we said our first goodbye to our “home” church during the time that we have lived in Costa Rica. It is the place that we first learned to worship God in Spanish, and it has also been a place where we have felt God move in significant ways. This is a picture of the back wall of the church called Centro Evangelistico. The Bible verse in Spanish, although maybe a bit difficult to make out, was a confirmation of the hand of God on our lives when we arrived. It reads “Lift up your eyes and look to the fields because they are white for the harvest –John 4:35”

As we were itinerating last year, I had felt in April that God had given me this verse in order to encourage us to reach the field as soon as possible. Thankfully, many individuals and churches responded to help us reach our budget goal and leave on time. When we arrived at the church Centro Evangelistico, we received this confirmation that we were on schedule. Now as we depart, I feel that this verse is sending us out. Telling us that now is the time to put our hands to the work.

And so, as we begin to wrap up our time here, we look toward the near future which includes packing, planning, and preparing ourselves mentally and spiritually, but we also look back, remembering the hand of God upon us here and the relationships built, and how each has affected us greatly.

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Giving Back

July 16, 2006 in Language, Ministry, Progress by Dave | Permalink

As language school students for the past year, we’ve had the benefit of taking a lot from the people around us. We’ve received 4 hours a day of lessons, we’ve stopped people along the street, in shopping malls, and in church in order to have conversations, and we’ve received advice and insight into the latin culture, but we’ve not often had the opportunity to give back. That’s why, when we have the opportunity to contribute, we feel that it is blogworthy.

This month Kelly headed up a program at CINCEL to help seniors in high school (colegio in Spanish) prepare for their math exit exams. She did interviews at the colegio in order to asses their areas of need and then was available for the past 4 weeks in order to give them the help that they needed. I also got a chance to contribute to the English program that fellow missionary Ron Marcotte has been offering to the community, I translated from English into Spanish for the beginning students during the teaching sessions and then helped as a conversation partner as each student worked on their alphabet, their numbers and various simple phrases.

I think that the most special opportunity that we had this past month was the birthday that we celebrated with our friend Mayra (pictured with the cake above). She was celebrating her 60th birthday, but with her children in Florida she was looking to spend her day completly alone. Kelly planned a small celebration with several students who knew Mayra, and Mayra was touched deeply.

It’s interesting. We’ve grown up in a consumer culture and have been bombarded with commercials about the things that we need to acquire, but the older I get (32 years and counting), the more I realize that we have been created to give. Nothing creates a better feeling of satisfaction, and nothing more positively reflects the image of Christ that so many others in our society need to see.

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Just what is RSS and why do I care?

July 8, 2006 in SiteChanges by Dave | Permalink

If you have been on the web reading blogs for any length of time, then you probably have been seeing icons like the above, or perhaps little “chicklets” with the letters “RSS” on them, and perhaps you’ve wondered to yourself, just what is RSS anyway? Well, wonder no more, this missionary has taken it upon himself to let you into the RSS secret.

RSS or Really Simple Syndication is for people who want to stay on the cutting edge of information, but don’t have time to browse to several sites in order to get it. RSS, allows that person, probably a person much like yourself, to “subcribe” to a “site feed” or special file of information that is coded especially for news readers. The news reader is set up in such a way that you can receive and organize information from several sources all in one interface, usually web-based. The reader also shows which feeds have been upated recently, so you can tell at a glance what you need to pay attention to.

Are you sold on the technology? Do you want to know where to get a newsreader? Well, Google offers a one as does Yahoo, but I am especially partial to Bloglines as their reader works both on browsers and handhelds.

Why do I spend such time talking about RSS? Because we’ve spent such time making this site thoroughly accessable via RSS.

  • Want to get all of the latest information that is generated from disciplemexico.org? Click on the feed icon on the sidebar of this page in order to or here in order to add this site to your list of feeds (The feed icon is the orange symbol displayed on this post.)
  • Want to track a certain topic that peaks your interest like Prayer or Mexico? Click on a category on the sidebar and then the feed icon at the top of the following page in order to subscribe to that specific theme.
  • Are you a commenter but hate loosing track of your conversation? Subscribe to the comments individual posts that you comment on by clicking on the link that is available at the bottom of every post page in order to keep up with what’s being said. (Just click on the “Read more” link in order to reach the post page.)

Sure the setup may take a few extra minutes, but once you’ve started using RSS and newsreaders, you’ll wonder how you ever stayed informed without them! Go ahead give it a try, and of course add disciplemexico.org in the process.

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