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:



Fall Fun




The kids had a great visit to Butternut Farm Orchards on Tuesday with the Paull family... our great friends at Alton, NH. Here are some photos...

Temporary Residence Found

We went to look at a very reasonable rental for 10/1 to 12/31 in Old Orchard Beach today and liked it so much that we signed up on the spot... so, we'll be moving in the end of the month and have a place to stay until we leave for Costa Rica on the 29th of December. We needed something furnished, as we no longer own furniture, and it was indeed a challenge to find something for just 3 months. Thank you for all your prayers and we look forward to seeing you at OOB. The owners were extremely nice people and even invited the kids in with us to have cookies.

A New Chapter in our Lives

It's finally behind us. The house is sold... signed, sealed and delivered! We thought it would never be over! We left the closing this morning and reflected on how God so faithfully provided that home during a difficult time in our life and how it has served our family so well. Four of our five children were born there and all five considered it their only home. It helped us to host family, friends, bible studies, lots of kids, neighbors and generally had a "revolving door"! We now give this home up for our Lord and look forward to serving Him full-time the rest of our days. What a privilege.


Thus begins a new chapter in our life. We will spend the next three and a half months continuing to finish up our support raising, making preparations for our year at the Spanish Language Institute in Costa Rica, and preparing spiritually for our new life. We really need prayer for the following items:
  • A place for our family to live in the Portland area from mid-September to the last week of December.
  • Monthly supporters to finish up the last 10 - 15% of our support needs.
  • Supporters to help us reach our goal of nearly $32,000 in set-up expenses. (we have currently raised $11,000) This amount includes all of our schooling in Costa Rica, travel expenses, moving expenses and housing set-up after moving.

What a Week!

Last week was moving week and what a week it was! As of Saturday night, we were about 95% out of our home. It was alot of work but God provided us with so much help. We especially want to thank both of our parents for being willing to come down and help several times during the week and the Ulmer's, Malcolm and Betty for their willingness to be with us throughout the week, lifting and packing and keeping us company during such an overwhelming process. We could not have done it without our friends and family. Thank you Steve Turner and Ethan Smith for your help lugging out all our big items and to all our friends who helped us out by purchasing our stuff!!

We now have our only remaining posessions categorized by what is going to end up in Guatemala, what is going to remain in storage and what we need for the next few months before we leave for language school. We will be staying in New Hampshire for a few more weeks and then will be looking for housing in the Portland area until the end of December.

We spent the last 20 years accumulating things and have reflected all week on what a freeing experience it has been to give most of it up! Our posessions really don't provide any lasting satisfaction and we are happy to be "light" and ready to go where God is leading us. We spoke to the teens at First Baptist on Sunday morning and finished up by encouraging them not to spend their life accumlating things that would weigh them down.

Tim and Carre Gardner ~ Mission Moscow
Sunday night we were so blessed to hear our friends Tim and Carre Gardner's presentation on their mission to Russia. We were touched by their heart for the orphans and street children of Russia and excited for them as they prepare to leave in late October. We would encourage you to visit their website at: http://www.missionmoscow.com/ for more information on their ministry. Please pray for their safety in travel and for God's provision for all the details of their mission.

An Answer to Prayer

As you may have noticed, one of the items on our prayer list was a place to keep our belongings while we're at language school in Cost Rica. This past Friday afternoon I thought of our nurse, Julie from Gray Family Health, who had mentioned they owned a storage center near our house... only a couple of miles away. I called her and explained what we needed and we worked out a price for the year.

Julie called me on Saturday morning and asked if I could meet her at the storage center to sign the one year contract and have a quick tour. After showing me the storage units she told me that her daughter had been to Guatemala several times and had adopted a girl from there.... and that she had paid our bill for storage for the entire year... I was stunned. Thank you so much for this generous gift to our family!...

...and people think there is no God! This is just another of many examples of how God is confirming and meeting our needs in miraculous ways.

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