A Day of Celebrations

Saturday was a busy day. When I left my home at 8am it was cloudy and drizzling but I could see that the sun was shining ever so brightly just on the other side of the valley, where I would be spending my day. (It had been over a week since I had seen the sun.) It was going to be a great day of celebrations.

I went with my tica family and two other gringas to Santa Ana (a town only 30 minutes away) to celebrate my tico dad’s (Willy) 60th birthday and also to celebrate my tico parents (Willy and Cecilia) getting married. I had no clue until a week ago that they weren’t even married; imagine my surprised when they told me of their plans. We helped decorating, food preparations and serving the food to about 35 family members. It was a sweet and fun afternoon and it was made perfect by the perfect weather we had.

Since Latinos have a different concept of time, Abbey, Mary and myself were able to enjoy several hours just chilling out in the sun. The party was said to start at noon and then the wedding at 12:30pm and the eating at 1pm. Now, I knew it was going to be a little later than that but I had no clue. The last people, Willy’s parents, arrived a little after 2pm. Then the festivities began.

After the party and tearing down, Willy and Cecilia dropped Abbey, Mary and me at the Festival de la Luz (Festival of Light) Parade downtown. We had no clue how that was going to turn out since most of the city was downtown. It ended up we were dropped off at almost the beginning of the parade route and we got a perfect spot to stand.

Again the culture of the slow paced life showed up. Although there weren’t too many floats it took several hours for them to pass us. Unlike the states, we had plenty of time to study each float and really enjoy them, sometimes too much time. I believe the parade route was only close to 2 miles but it took over 5 hours for the parade to go the entire length. We were able to be home by 8:45pm whereas our friends who were closer to the end of the route left the parade early at 10:30pm and hadn’t seen all the floats.

There were some really cool floats and it was fun to see. It was something I’m glad I got to see and experience. Overall it was a great day with both summer and Christmas mixed into one day. To see more pictures of the day check them out at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=229434&id=1208485417&l=84829d4537

Abbey, Mary and I - the gringa daughters of Willy and Cecilia.

After the wedding meal we celebrated Willy's birthday with dessert. The two boys are their grandsons.

Me at the parade and yes it is that chilly out there.

Part of one of the many floats.

Another fun float.

I Am Moving!!!

Some of you may know that I have been planning on moving out of my studio apartment and moving in with my friend, Rachel at the end of December. At the beginning of November it looked as if I was going to have to wait until at least February, which I was admittedly sad about. But I found out a week ago that I will be able to move in in just a few short weeks!

This is such a blessing for me. I never thought I would want another roommate again but I'm so excited to have a roommate again. First, Rachel is a sweet friend of mine here who is from Canada. Second, we get along well. Third, we both love people and having people over (which I will finally get to do for the first time!).

The house I will be moving into is just down the road from where I live now and it's a nice size house according to tico standards. It's a 3 bedroom and 2 floor house. There is a little backyard with some flowers and a couple of the chair like hammocks. At the side of the driveway is a little yard with 2 orange trees. My rent, even with the bills I don´t pay now, will still be a lot cheaper that what I do pay right now. Yea!

My room will be about the size of what my studio apartment is now! That means no more living life on my bed. Seriously, I watch TV on my bed, eat my meals on my bed, read on my bed, if anyone does come over they sit on my bed, I work on my bed and finally I try to sleep on my bed. I can't wait to have a couch and be able to be out of one room. I'm very excited that I will have an actual closet for the first time in over 2 years! I will actually get to use hangers and hide my clothes…uh oh…which then means I have a closet floor to throw everything on.

I´m just excited to be able to move and share life with people again. It gets hard going home after work and then just sitting in the same room and spot all night. A year and half of that will be coming to an end! I can't wait to cook in an oven as well as cook for people, although it is a tico stove but better than just a tiny toaster oven (which I do love it’s so convenient for little things, but not for cookies and tis' the season for cookies.) Yea!! Now it´s getting close to time to pack up everything, clean my apartment really good and before you know it moving!

OH and I will have a Christmas tree up for Christmas this year since Rachel already has her's up! Merry Christmas to me! Pictures to come in a few weeks.

Need a Tax-deduction?

It's that time of the year, time to make sure you have reached your tax deductible goal for the tax season. Maybe you aren't quite there yet and are trying to figure out how to meet it. Well I know of one great way of meeting that goal.

How about supporting the girls of Renacer as they trade in their ashes for God's amazing beauty? You can help transform the lives of girls through supporting me. You are my hands and feet that keep me here in Costa Rica and working with these amazing girls. If it wasn't for the sacrificial gifts of my team members back in the states I could not be sharing Christ's love to them.

If you want to give a one-time donation to meet that tax deduction your donation needs to be in the office of Christ For the City International by the 31st of December. There are several ways in which you can give your tax-deductible gift which you will find at the end of this post. Also, I am still in need of $400 more a month to reach my "no less than" goal of $1500 per month. Perhaps you can give a monthly gift? Thank you for taking the time to pray over this. Thank you for partnering with me through your support of my girls and their on-going transformation into God's beauty!

Send financial donations to:

Christ For the City International/PO Box 390395/Omaha, NE 68139 write "for Sunshine Loveland" in the memo line

Make automatic withdrawals by contacting CFCI at 1.888.526.7551 or by email at finance@cfci.org

Donate online at the CFCI website www.cfci.org

They Loved It!

Over the past 8 months, Tiffany (my co-worker) and I have been working on a program for Formación Cristiana (Christian Training). When I started working here, I saw a need to make the Formación Cristiana program look like the rest of the programs here at Renacer. The goal is that when the girls leave Reancer they will have a solid base in Christianity, understanding of who Jesus is and to know how to study the Bible on their own. Also we want to put together a book in which has all the teachings and activities to give to each girl so they can personally have it in hand and take it home with them once they leave Renacer.

We started with developing the goal for each cabin. Which are; Rut: that they may learn the basics of Jesus' life and that He can change them. Ester: that they may know the plan of salvation and know who they are in the eyes of God. Debora: that they will develop tools to use in their personal walk with Christ. Tamara: that they will learn how to live daily as a woman of God.

After we had the basics goals of each cabin we began to list what are the most important things for the girls to learn during their year here. Also, in what order should they be learned and in what cabin. After this was done we asked to talk with Cindy, coordinator/psychologist, to see if we could implement this program.

As with anything here, the key word is flexibility and patience. It took almost 2 months before we could even talk with Cindy about it. It actually was the week before I returned to the states. During the time I was home in the states, Tiffany talked through each lesson with Cindy and over about 2 months approved it. After I returned back to Renacer, Cindy gave us two and a half weeks to develop each lesson so that we could present it to Don Sergio, the director.

Over two and a half weeks we went through each lesson and wrote the goal for each lesson, the main Bible verses that we would use, the memory verse and the life applications points of the lesson. Of course I am a procrastinator and did it all on Monday for ten hours when it was due that Wednesday.

We presented it to both Don Sergio and Cindy, last Wednesday and they were very impressed with the work. Don Sergio repeated to me several times of how good of work that we did. He wants to put it in next year's manual and we will begin the program as of January.

I'm very excited to see this get under way and I can't wait to see how the book will eventually turn out but that is probably at least 6-9 months away. This week I have begun special Bible studies on the true meaning of Christmas with each cabin.