Dr. Spiros Zodhiates

I recently found an entry in Wikipedia on Dr. Zodhiates and thought you might be interested in reading about him and his work with AMG. It's a nice recap of his life: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiros_Zodhiates

Today's Devotional

In my morning devotion time I read from Oswald Chambers' My Utmost for His Highest. Today's reading was excellent. I encourage you to read it: http://www.rbc.org/utmost/index.php?month=10&day=27&year=07

2 Months to Go!

We have had a busy week working out details for our upcoming move to Central America... getting quotes on international health insurance, acquiring information for our student visas, ordering school supplies/books and trying to figure out what else we need for our year in Costa Rica. We are beginning to plan out our next two months and time to spend with our family and friends to say goodbye. The holidays are going to be so important for this! We know this will be a hard time for us and our loved ones.

We have been following the blogs of several families already studying at the Language School and are both encouraged and a bit scared as a result! We know this is going to be a huge cultural change for our family and will result in quite a bit of discomfort...something most of us do not purposely pursue in life! While this is a bit frightening to contemplate we know that it will be so good for our family. God has so much to teach us this coming year and we are anxious to learn from Him!

God has really been working on my heart during this entire process. Our work with the children of Guatemala is going to reflect the Heart of Christ. James 1:27 puts it so beautifully, "Pure and undefiled religion is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world" All through scripture we see the heart of God reaching out to those who are oppressed, the poor and the downtrodden. What a privelege to carry out that which is so pleasing to our Lord! Interestingly, the thing that keeps most of us from fulfilling James 1:27 is exactly what the last words caution us: keeping oneself unspotted from the world! I know that I have been plenty "spotted" during my life thus far. I pray that our family can walk through the rest of our lives without falling victim to the world's temptations! What a challenge. Isaiah 58 has been very thought-provoking this week. I encourage you to read it. Israel is found "going through the motions" and acting out more pretense than the Heart of God. How many of us spend most days simply going through the motions?

I pray that God speaks to you today and that you will decide to abandon absolutely to Him. It is in our abandon to Him that He is most able to speak to us. If we are shutting out the spirit by living to please ourselves, then how can the spirit work on our behalf?

Moving Ahead!

  • We took the plunge this afternoon and booked our 7 tickets on Spirit Airlines for San Jose, Costa Rica! This will truly be a New Years trip, as we are travelling on January 1! This will be a very interesting way to ring in the New Year! We have already begun working out details with the language school "Instituto de Lengua Espagnol" for housing and covet your prayers for a good home for our year there.

  • I have been busy wrapping things up at work and Mary has been focused on homeschooling Abbie, Jordan and Aaron. She is using the ABEKA curriculum, which is what Sojourn Academy in Costa Rica uses, so they should be able to slide right in to their new school. We will all be in school together and probably doing homework around the diningroom table in the afternoons! I wonder if we'll have recess together?!!

  • First Baptist Church in Portland http://www.firstbaptistportland.org/ starts their Missions Conference next Friday and we are looking forward to our part in all of the different events. One we are really looking forward to is called "Passports Around the World". We will be with different missionaries from around the world, explaining our work to all attendees in round-robin type sessions.

Old Orchard Beach

We enjoyed a wonderful weekend with our good friends, the Paulls and their 9 kids at our temporary home in Old Orchard Beach. Here are some photos from the weekend:



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