Eve & Toby

Here's some cute video Mary took yesterday of our little sweetie, Eve. She just loves our cat Toby!

El Dia de Independencia en Costa Rica

Our family and several others from the school left early Monday morning and attended ceremonies that included the President of Costa Rica and ambassadors from all over the world. We were surprised how close we were able to get to the President without any frisking or checking of any kind. We spoke with several ambassadors and left a note for Peter Ciancette (Costa Rica's new ambassador from the USA and from Maine) inside the event program on his deputy abasador's chair. We were told that "Peter" was standing right over there...so went to him and said "wait, you're not Peter!" He answered, "actually I am Peter but obviously not the one your looking for. The Deputy Ambassador is Peter Brennan and was number 2 in the embassy here. Afterwards, we walked around San Jose and enjoyed some of the MANY parades they have all over the city...all day long and into the night! They really know how to celebrate!

My Dad & Mom

My sister posted this picture of my Dad and Mom, Barry and Judy Dennett, on her blog regarding the sale of their camp in Maine. They created the most special childhood that anyone could dream of at this special place that my grandfather and great-grandfather built in 1928. We will miss it greatly. Visit my sisters blog to read about it and see some great pictures she took.... a peak into a bit of my childhood! I love you Dad and Mom!

La Fraternidad de Los Hombres de Negocios

A few people have asked how my meetings have been going with the Costa Rican Businessmen's group, so I thought I would share a few brief clips of one of my most recent meetings... a chance to see me speak a bit of spanish!

Eat Your Heart Out, John Deere

I had to mow the lawn this Saturday and my neighbor kindly offered their "lawnmower". It actually did an amazingly good job and helped me get the yard done much quicker than the normal "machete-cut" that most use. My family thought I looked very funny cutting with this in place of the John Deere rider I used to have (complete with cup holders) so took these pictures. I've traded in my John Deere for a Fisher Price!

In the Final Stretch

Thank you Bridget (My Sis) for sending along the pictures, as we had no camera with us.

We have returned from 2+ marvelous weeks of vacation in New Hampshire (a last minute surprise trip), a visit to our home-church (First Baptist of Portland, Maine) and simply a wonderful time at Alton Bay with our parents, siblings and friends. What a blessing! My parents Barry & Judy stayed for a week in the motel and my sister Bridget and her family stayed in a cottage along with my neice Haley and her 2 beautiful children, just up the street from us. We also enjoyed time with Mary's mom and sister, Debra. Mary struggled with a stomach bug and then bronchitus during our trip and the kids and I also enjoyed stomach problems. (How interesting given that we have been perfectly healthy here in the 3rd world for the last 7 + months) On our way to New Hampshire I prayed for opportunities to speak spanish while on vacation and we were surprised to find a group of people from Honduras and Puerto Rico at the Conference Center when we arrived. One asked for directions in very bad english and I surprised him by answering him in spanish. They then invited me to join in their worship service....must have been a coincidence. :)

The weather could not have been more perfect with sun every day and plenty of time to swim, boat and share our adventures. Ed Bates, my former boss and great friend, visited us for a day and hired another friend of ours, Jim Paull to take 22 of us on a boat ride to Wolfboro. He then took us all to lunch. Thank you soooo much Ed! Our children enjoyed the freedom to run around and play with friends and we all were thrilled to speak english in public and be understood. We really needed the break and are so thankful for it!

We left Boston Monday morning early and had many travel blessings. The first came as Continental Airlines disregarded the fact that we had too many check-in bags and did not charge us for the overweight ones. (This is our 3rd trip with such a blessing...God is so good) Next we went to get coffee at Dunkin Donuts and the only other 4 people there (at 3:45 in the morning) were 4 human rights activists from Guatemala. I got to speak spanish after 2 weeks with very little and met some potential future allies and friends in Guatemala.... this must have been a coincidence too. :)

Our flights back to Costa Rica were on-time, without incident and very comfortable. We arrived and our bags were of the first to come off, we breezed through customs with no bags checked, had our passports stamped, and then our friend Eduardo was right there waiting for us. How easy could it get? Thank you Lord.

We are now back and settled and actually felt like we were coming home. We had our second day of classes and we all like our teachers (kids included) and are anxious to wrap things up and head to Guatemala in January.

AMG Guatemala - The Hastings

Bob Hastings, my ministry partner in Guatemala, has an excellent blog post that shows off some of the wonderful children and part of what we do at AMG. Simply click the link to see it:

http://hastingsinguatemala.blogspot.com/2008/08/more-news.html Enjoy!