What happened to the Sun?

Hello again from Costa Rica! As Douglas mentioned in our last post, the rainy season is hitting us hard the last two weeks we have had tons of rain and grey skies with almost no sun which makes us feel like we are back in Oregon. But we are very use to the sun at this point and miss it very much.

The Bible school is in full swing with it's 8 students and only 2 staff.  Douglas' parents were here as his dad was teaching the week on Hebrews in the school. It was great to have them here but as always we felt very busy with not much time to just hang out and enjoy them. The school has been going well. We have a great group of students and they all seem to really be learning a lot. As always it is a ton of work for Douglas and his one other staff person. He has been getting to bed late most nights and he always looks forward to the weekend to catch up on much needed rest.  As for me I have been trying to keep on top of all of my responsibilities at the base and at home, some weeks I do better than others.  I still love the work I do but most days I feel like I do not have the time to do it as well as I would like.  I have been really encouraged recently though as God has given me the opportunity to sit and talk with some of my staff and help them think through some fairly big decisions.

The boys are both doing very well. They loved having there grandparents here for a visit and enjoyed receiving the fishing poles that they brought as belated birthday gifts.  We went on a little adventure to try and find a fishing spot but due to rain and not being able to find any beach at the lake we went to, we ended up at a little fish farm kind of place were you catch fish from a little pond and they cook it for you right there. It was great fun and the boys loved that they each got to catch two fish and then we took the hooks off and they practiced casting. They both are pretty great fishermen and got the hang of it very quickly.

Gabriel also celebrated his 7th Birthday back on Sept.24 which was the first day of the BCC and Douglas and I celebrated our 8th anniversary 10 days earlier.  We took a little trip to Jaco, which is a town on the coast, to visit friends and celebrate Gabriel's B-day right before the school started.  The boys both got to try surfing and did very well especially Zachariah he stood up and road  the board like a pro. Gabriel also did great. He just has a little harder time standing still. : )

We wanted to ask you to be praying for us as we are feeling it may be time to look for a different house here in CR. As many of you know we were able to purchase the house that we now live in due to an inheritance we received.  We love our little house and our neighborhood but it is a good distance from the YWAM base. We are wanting to look for some place closer mainly so we can be more available for disciplining our staff and students. The problem with this is that the cost of housing is about double from where we are now to most places near the base. I also personally feel like God has said he would put us in a place we could stay until we leave some day and a place that has a little more space for having people over and for ministry.  We have no idea at this point how we would come up with the extra money we need but we trust God has a way if it is truly his desire. We are sharing this because we covet your prayers specifically on the timing of when to try and sell our house and making a wise decision about buying another.  

We also want to thank all of you that gave to us over the last few months we had a lot of extra expenses and were able to meet them all.  We feel very blessed to have so many people behind us and our ministries.

Blessings,
The Johnston family