Costa Rica!!!

In March we headed to Costa Rica! Gary had been invited to preach and it was Visa run time as well. He happily told me that he had booked us flights on Wingo airlines. Everyone who knows me knows that I have a genuine fear of flying and the thought of getting on a plane that belonged to an unknown airline called Wingo did not inspire convidence for me! I confess, I half expected it to look like this:

However I was very pleasantly surprised to find a modern and very comfortable airplane with plenty of leg room and a very tasty affordable lunch menu.❤

We arrived safely and to be honest, I LOVED everything about Costa Rica! 

    The Food:

                                                               The people:

          ...who even surprised us with a beautiful Anniversary cake and sang us songs to celebrate!❤

                                                     

                                                                  The cities:

                         

      San Jose

                                                                         Herredia

                                                           and even the birds! 

                                Of course Gary manages to get a perfect bird picture👌

                                            And then there is me with my usual grace...👀

                                                      Did I mention the food? 😋

                          Yes, our whole trip was wonderful...I can't wait to go back!❤

          We interrupt our regularly scheduled program to celebrate this guy:

We've been celebrating his birthday together since 1983 so we've seen a few! This picture is from around 2000. 

We've moved from young people, to middle aged and now are entering the old goat years together! What a blessing to have had SO many years together!❤

              Yesterday, we celebrated with a birthday party at church.

We also received a surprise from our Katie and Cris. They drove out from the city with fixins for dinner and we had a wonderful visit!

                            

                                                           Happy Birthday my love! ❤❤❤❤❤

                  May the Lord grant us many more birthday celebrations together!

 Here is a catch-up post on one of our travels outside of Panama in the last several months. 

In July of 2022 we traveled to Belize. We needed to make a Visa trip - where you leave your base country for a few days and return to have your visa renewed.  We have several churches and friends in Belize so that became our destination. We enjoyed lots of tasty food and fellowship while there and Gary got in some good preaching as well.  It's always such a blessing to be able to spend time with other co-laborers.❤

My first impression of Belize was when we landed at the little airport. It was like going back in time. I felt like I was in an Agatha Christie Poirot novel (sans the murder thankfully), when the plane door opened and a ladder was wheeled up to the plane for us to disembark and walk across the tarmac to the immigration office. The path was lined with smiling employees welcoming us to Belize - and assuring we didn't run off into the jungle I guess instead of going into immigration. 😆

 

Belize is a beautiful country and we enjoyed our slightly working holiday exploring Belize City, San Ignacio, Dangriga and Belmopan cities. Being a small country, all of these cities were conveniently in driving distance over mostly well maintained roads and the occasional ferry.

                                                         Having fun on the suspension bridge. 

                 San Ignacio was my favorite town...it felt like a combination of British colonial and Mexico. 

At some point during our visit, Gary was convinced to join the local Pastor's gang of Cocobolos (baldheads). He went into this fine establishment and for $2 got his head shaved! He looks so good with it that he's kept it ever since!❤

My ONE request while we were in Belize was to visit one of the pyramids. Somehow 'somebody' decided I'd be happy with a fake tourist pyramid. I was not... but the next visit I'll try to be more specific.😝

The view was gorgeous though!😊

That's about it for Belize...next stop will be our trip to Costa Rica. Stay tuned!❤

Nine Years Later!!!

 So time for a quick catch up on the old blog that I just ran across again! Nine long years have past and A LOT has happened in that time. I'm not sure I'll even remember it all for this post but I'll give it a go none the less. 

Gary and I stayed and ministered in Tokyo until Spring of 2019,  I have wonderful memories of our stay in Japan, though as far as sharing the Gospel, it was the most challenging country in which we have ever ministered. When we left, another couple took over the work and are still there laboring and they are not alone! There are now 4 churches in Japan in the Tokyo/ Yokohama and surrounding areas. We established a beach head thanks to Gary being half Japanese and having legal means to establish a missionary organization in Japan. It's so exciting to see what God is doing there! ❤

After Japan we returned to our home base in New Mexico and Gary was just getting his evangelist work going when the whole world was shut down because of the Covid 19 virus. What a mess that was! We lost several friends and co-laborers over the next year.  

Personally, I was several years into dealing with herniated discs in my back that had left me pretty much disabled in many ways. God had a surprise blessing for me though and when an evangelist prayed for me I was instantly healed...a healing that has continued all these years later ...thank you Lord!  I also ended up having some major surgery in 2020 with a long recovery but came through with flying colors and feel SO much better!

In October 2020 we hit the road again! We left behind my favorite rental ever...such a comfortable home that was a true joy to live in, even though some would have considered it definitely '70's dated but I loved it!

We headed out and took over the church in Cativa Panama, exchanging our spacious house for a tiny but cozy place in Panama.

We slipped in during an opening in the covid crisis and the country promptly shut down again.  We labored through curfews and protocols which were very strict here in Panama.  You don't know suffering until having to wear masks in the stifling humidity and heat of a rainforest! 😷 Our area is a bit rural with only about 35,000 population but unfortunately it is full of cartels and gangs and the violence associated with those things. The need here is great though and we have adapted. 

The biggest joy though about being in Panama is being able to visit our daughter who lives here with her husband in Panama City.  She stayed behind the last time we ministered here and we didn't see her for 13 years! It's such a blessing to have her nearby again. ❤

In January of 2021 I received word that both my brother Shaun and my Mother had terminal cancers. Shaun had quite advanced kidney cancer and he would pass away May 30th at only 59 years old.  I went home to Wisconsin to help my sister in Mom's end of life care from June until September. Mom passed in October. It was an especially dark and difficult chapter in my life but God is good and He carried me through and brought healing.  I sure miss them both terribly but I look forward to seeing them again in heaven someday.❤

Today, we continue our labors here in Panama and enjoy God's blessings. He has been so good to us! I have missed some of our travels while here, including visits to Belize and Costa Rica but I'll try to do some retro posts of those and anything else I realize I've forgotten later. For now that's about it! Laters!😊