A very happy fall to all of you in the US. We hope that your back to school season has been blessed. Here in Costa Rica we are about to start a new phase as well. Our Bible school is about to start up again, this time we are expecting 11 students from the US, Canada, the Netherlands, Colombia, Bolivia and of course our beloved Costa Rica. We are looking forward to another great school and are excited to see what God will do in the lives of the students as they study His word. We are blessed yet again with an excellent group of staff members without whom we could not run this school. The students start arriving this next week and we start orientation on Saturday morning. This is our classroom last week, obviously with a lot of work to go. We are repainting and adding lighting and windows. Lost of work but the end result will be very worth it.

It is such a privilege to be able to share in what God is doing in this school. A good part of our YWAM staff has now taken the school and it has been an excellent discipleship tool. Karen and I often find ourselves swamped with individuals (and couples) that what to sit with us and continue the discipleship process. Since this is the passion that God has given both of us it has been wonderful to have opportunity to walk with so many people. 

Alongside the Bible school we have been part of another development that we have been waiting years to see. This last month Karen and I traveled to Guatemala for 2 days to meet with YWAM representatives from every country in Central America to discuss our role in reaching un-reached peoples throughout the world. It was a great time to see and hear what God is doing in and through YWAM Central America and to strategize  together as a region. We are developing a 2-3 year missions training program to equip and mobilize Central Americans into full-time missions and to send them into some of the neediest and least evangelized areas in the world. This has been a vision of ours since 2005 when God spoke to us during our Discipleship Training School about sending out Latinos into world mission and it is very thrilling to see our part in it really begin to take off.

While we were in Guatemala we took advantage of our time and took a day and a night in the beautiful town of Antigua to celebrate or ninth anniversary. It was wonderfully relaxing with incredible views of the volcanoes, great coffee shops and more than anything just time together as a couple. God has been so good to us over these last 9years giving us a vision of reaching the nations and the ability to follow him to Central America and serve him working in the area where he has give us talent and passion.

 Another exciting recent development is that Karen has finally been able to begin to pass off some of the more logistical jobs that she has been carrying which will give her more time to focus on discipleship which is her true passion. We have been praying for this for a long time and it has been a challenge but we are happy that she will be able to walk more in her gifting. This Monday she is going to be teaching a full day course on Spiritual Gifts for the YWAM staff. She loves more than anything watching people as they begin to understand and use the individual giftings.  It is her highest desire for people to understand there true identity in Christ and live in that reality.

The boys are doing well. Today Gabriel had his 8^th birthday party although his real birthday isn’t until Monday. He is reading pretty well now although we are still working pretty hard on speeding him up. We are both enjoying homeschooling but it is really hard to find the time to do it well. We will see next year if we are able to keep it up. Riah is growing up fast and has lost FOUR teeth in the last two weeks! He is hoping for his two front teeth for Christmas!

Thank you all for your love and support. We miss home more than ever especially during the fall season.  We appreciate your prayers for our continued health and support and everything else that comes along with serving in missions. May God bless you all richly.

Douglas, Karen, Gabriel and Zachariah