audorffs

Spring has sprung and flown on by!!

2010-04-22T19:38:00.000-07:00

In February, we had a team arrive from Farville, Va for their 1st time of Evangelism with us. Clint Dalton was the leader, and has always come with men for construction only. When they arrived, we took them to Saltillo (about 1 from Monterrey) and stayed and worked with Pastor Tony with the church La Roca. He took us to a new area on the edge of the city where they want to begin a work, and when we arrived, the people just started showing up! We didn't even go out to invite them! So we gave away bags of food and shared the Gospel and sang to them....many received Christ into their hearts that day! They live in a very rough area, in mud & slat shacks, on the edge of a clay hill, where they made bricks by hand. Later when the team was praying, they felt that the Lord was calling them to buy a truck for the pastor, so he could continue the work there (his vehicle had been totaled in an accident). So the team went back to Farmville after the week was over, and God provided a Nissan truck for Pastor Tony!!!

Clint & a few different men decided to come back in April to work with a construction team from Conroe, TX with Pastor Lloyd Maddoux, and they drove the truck down. Now we need God to do another miracle so we can get the finances needed to nationalize the truck, so Pastor Tony can drive it in Mexico. Please pray with us for this.

As I just mentioned, we also had a construction team come in April, and we worked hard on the roof of the multipurpose section of the church we have been working on for the past few years. This church and social service center is being worked on in steps, with the goal of not only serving the people in this poor garbage dump area, but also to be able to provide food, medical & dental needs and water. God has connected us with a pastor that has a heart to serve the people in both Word and deed. We had a wonderful time with this combined team of men from Conroe, TX and Farmville, VA with one man from Boston, MA, and everyone had a fun time teasing him about his accent (they all had accents to me, ha!).

I can't get my camera to download photos at this moment, but when I can, I will post them, so make sure to check back here occasionally!

Christmas vacation & Latin American Missions Retreat

2010-01-17T11:11:00.000-08:00

December was a month away from home (Monterrey), but we were with family, so all was well!! While Roger stayed in San Antonio with the boys for a week, Debbi flew (free with Charity's benefits) to Salt Lake City to spend time with her before Christmas. We baked cookies, fudge, all the goodies for Christmas...just like old times! It was alot of fun just to hang out together! The following week Roger, Jeremy, Josh & Albessa and her parents all drove out to be with us for Christmas! It was such a fun week in the snow together...we ended up in Park City for skiing & snowboarding. We also drove by a small street taco stand one night when it was snowing, so we all stopped and ate Mexican tacos in the snow! Even Zacky came along with his new doggie wheelchair.
Then we drove back to San Antonio and Roger & I flew from there to Orlando, FL to attend the LACC Retreat with missionaries from all over Latin America! It was so good to renew friendships and listen to God's Word as the theme was from Jeremiah 29:11...and allowing ourselves to just receive & be renewed in the services.
The week after the Retreat, a good friend of ours Harlan & Jane gave us their condo to use there in Orlando. We invited my (Debbi) brothers and sisters to come and spend the week with us...it was the 1st time in 15 years (since we left for the mission field)..that all of our brothers & sisters were together (except for my mothers funeral). Even Charity flew over for a few days to reunite with her aunts and uncles! However, the night that my family arrived, Roger came down with the flu (most believe it was the swine flu due to the symptoms). He ended up in bed the entire week with high fever and chills, so only had 1 day of vacation before my family left, poor thing.
We are now back in Monterrey, and are back to work again...lots to do this year for the Lord in Monterrey and outlying areas. Please keep us in your prayers.

Exploratory trip to visit Indigenous Villages in Veracruz

2009-09-22T11:04:00.000-07:00

After Debbi returning from spending 3 great fun filled weeks in Salt Lake City with Charity, and helping her move into a new apartment in August, I had 2 days at home to unpack, wash clothes and repack for an Exploratory trip in southern Veracruz Mexico.

We were 7 people in all (us; Jerry from Monterrey; Abby (who we met in Costa Rica Lang. School) and her parents (pastors from Xalapa) and a pastor from Minatitlan, Veracruz for most of the trip, and then a young Mexican missionary joied us 1 day (8 people in a 7 passenger Ford Explorer and all our luggage on top!). It was pretty cramped, but so much fun and beautiful country!

We went to a couple villages high in the mountains, where they have their own dialect, so we had to have a local translate from Spanish to their languages...Popoluca & Nahuatl. While there we had an opportunity to share Christ with some local men who called us over to the cantina (bar), as they had been watching us and were very interested in who we were (esp. Roger)! We had an opportunity to use the village We were above the clouds high in the mountains with a beautiful view during the day, but the drive back down the mountain at night was very dangerous in the rain, but God kept us safe.

The next day we went to an afro-mexican village (Yanga) and prayed for a new church being planted and ate pig on a spit, yum! and prayed for the missionaries that are starting that work, and had an opportunity to share Christ with a young lady there.
We then drove south to a village called Sayula where the women were wearing their traditional dresses and they shared with Debbi how they only recently started wearing tops (no wonder, its soooo hot there!). There were lots of laughs as we talked about the possibiblities of when we return that they are going to dress her up in one of their traditional outfits (but she agreed only as long as they have a blouse to wear:). We felt a real connection with that group of believers and are pretty sure we will be returning to that village next year. They also fed us "carne de chango", which is monkey meat.

The next few days we ended up in a couple of jungle villages by the Gulf of Mexico (Soteapan & Pajapan) that are only a couple miles apart, but speak 2 different dialects. We had a great opportunity to share Christ with a drunken man who came out of the cantina to talk to us and then took us to his home, and while there his mother and wife and children all asked Christ into their hearts and he also cleared up from being drunk and asked the Lord to forgive him and then took time to speak to his family and mother to ask forgiveness. This was all so orchestrated from God, its hard to even believe it ourselves! They have opened their home for weekly bible studies and discipleship for the village to begin. The last village was deep in the jungle and we had an opportunity to speak in a little church at night where they also speak a different dialect. There Debbi got tons of bites on her legs (50 on one leg alone!), and is still scratching!

We ended the trip in Minatitlan, Vc speaking in the church of the pastor that accompanied us on this outreach. They treated us so well, feeding us lots of great foods from the south, as most of the people in this area are from the Oaxaca region. It is very hot there, as its much more humid than Monterrey, so we were melting most of the time! On Sunday when we showed up at the church to speak, all of the ladies were wearing their traditional dresses, and the pastor's wife took Debbi in a small room and gave her a beautiful traditional dress to wear that day, and to keep!!

We left on Monday morning and dropped Abby off in Cardel, where she took a bus back home (her parents had left us on Friday night as they had other engagements). We then headed to Cerro Azul and spent a couple days with some of our old staff (Dan & new wife Wendy Spurling; and David & Leah Teran and their kids! We enjoyed the Sept. 16 Festival with them and reminiscing of old times in Monterrey over the past years together!

Enjoy the photos and I'll be putting more up on Facebook soon! Also, please pray for the people in these villages, that they would all hear the message of Christ in their own language someday!

Finally! A summer update!!

2009-08-02T09:37:00.000-07:00

This has been a very hot summer....most of the days have been over 100 degrees! We are so thankful for our home equipped with mini-splits in each room, however the electric bill shows it (electricity is very expensive in Mexico).

We've had an unusual summer this year, with most (but not all!) of our short-term missions teams cancelling, 1st due to the violence (which the gov. here is working hard to get rid of):
Ok, there have been road blocks, and arrests of drug lords here, and we see the army trucks driving around the city filled with rifle carrying, black masked soldiers...but they are doing a great job of protecting us so far! We've really never felt in danger, but of course we are always more careful than ever in what we do here.
Swine flu...well they Mx. gov closed all the schools and public places for 2+weeks, so that really helped to reduce the spread of the flu, and now it seems like its more in the US and other countries than ever was here.

BUT... God is good, because no matter how many or how little people come for missions, God always shows up! We've been continuing ministering in many churches here and have seen many people come to the saving grace of God's salvation, along with feeding over 100 kids at a soup kitchen, loving on kids at the Celebral Palsy Orphanage and shared tacos & a cold drink and prayed with people waiting at the central zone Hospital emergency waiting area (mostly outside). Many of these people come from the mountains and stay on the floor of the waiting room for days or even weeks.

Back in June, Roger was voted in as the Coordinator of Ethnic People in Mexico at the District Conference for the National Assemblies of God. What that basically means is that he gets to promote going on missions trips to the Indigenous people groups in Mexico to all 200+ of the A/G churches in our area. We just returned from a National Missions Conference in Guadalajara, Mx last week and are now planning 4 outreaches for the Mexican church to Oaxaca, Veracruz & Chihuahua for next year.

We had a bittersweet trip to Orlando, FL at the end of June to attend the funeral of a good friend and former pioneer of the YWAM Monterrey base with us....Theresa Henkel. She had been fighting breast cancer which had finally took over the better part of her body and she resigned to go home with the Lord. It was a difficult time to see her husband Jeff and children Adam, Heather & Brianna but it was a wonderful time to reunite with some of our former staff and reunite with Zenaida Cevallos (formerly from Mazatlan who used to live with us) and meet her new husband! We also had the opportunity to meet Charity's boyfriend for the 1st time (they both flew there from Utah), and we also visited my (Debbi's) brother his wife in Lakeland. The Lord provided the finances for this trip through wonderful friends who were obedient to the Lord and gave willingly...thank you!!

Now we are ready to send out our Summer issue of our newsletter...if you are interested, please let us know and we will send one to you! Debbi is going to spend some time in Utah with Charity in August, but Roger has lots to do here! Please keep us in your prayers!

Whirlwind tour to return to Mexico..hitting the floor running

2009-03-09T19:37:00.000-07:00

We finally made it back to Monterrey, Mexico at the beginning of Feb. We left Costa Rica after graduating on Dec. 13, then flew with our luggage bulging to Minneapolis, MN to visit our families with temps. of -30 degrees, and no coats and Debbi already had bronchitis when we left Costa Rica!! We had a whirlwind tour of visiting 4 of Debbi's sisters/brother, Roger's brother and good friends along with Pastor Kim of Harvestime Church, E.C., WI!

On Dec. 16, we flew to Springfield, MO and our good friend Jim Wellborn picked us up at the aiport in our new Speed The Light Ford Explorer! How exciting for us (esp. Roger) to finally be able to put all of our luggage in it and drive again! We then drove to San Antonio, Tx, where we stayed with Josh & Albessa (son & daughter in law) and our little daschund Zacky! We spent Christmas with them and Jeremy & Charity arrived for the day too.

At the beginning of January, Roger & I flew out to Salt Lake City, UT to visit with Charity. While there, we went through a tough time as her roommate had just informed her she was moving back to her parents, which meant Charity was left without a roommate in a new apartment with a 6 mo. lease, and very hurt. But we know that God had us there for such a time as that.

We finally made it down to see Jeremy in McAllen after speaking in a couple churches in the Houston area (FLAG, Katy & Grace Chapel, Magnolia, TX), and even got to sort through some of our furniture and belongings in our storage area. Debbi ended up sick on her birthday (Jan. 21)...maybe it was just the thought of getting older:0

At the end of Jan. we finally crossed the Mexico border again after tooooo long...and immediately Roger got pulled over by the police! It was frustating to be asked for a bribe so soon, but we almost felt happy, as it was like being home again!! We stayed at the YWAM base while we looked for a home, and found one just 3 days after arriving...so then began the long process of moving in boxes from the border (just enough so that they don't get upset or hassle you too much).

While trying to move into our home, hook up the utilities, etc. we also had to prepare for 2 short-term missions teams that were arriving on Feb. 14 (Siren Assembly of God, Siren, WI) and on the 21st (Kingdom Expansion, Farmville, VA) We also had times of reconnecting with old friends, tacos out (YUM!!), meeting with pastors and setting up ministry and then the teams arrived. After working with the teams, up at 5am, out in the sun all day (and heavy construction the 2nd week...putting a roof on a missions church)....home super late for 14 days straight we were pretty exhausted, but loving being back and ministering to the people here (Debbi got sick with the stomach flu for a couple days too). We also had our good friend, Shauna Booth arrive to work with us from Canada for 3 weeks, and Abi Rodriquez came from Veracruz, MX (we met her in Costa Rica) come to translate for a couple months. God is so good, He always sends us those that we need in the right time. We also have felt so welcomed by the YWAM staff here. While ministering to the people, we also distributed 27 quilts to needy families that were beautifully hand made by people through the WWIB Radio Quilt Distribution...this is the 18th year of this wonderful ministry with them. Roger also had the honor of preciding over Clint & Lynnie's renewal of their wedding vows at Cola de Caballo falls while on our free day with the team.

A couple more incredible things happened recently: 1)Debbi got her prayer answered...she got a MacBook laptop, as a gift from the team from Virginia. What a blessing to have the right equipment to do your job with...thank you!! 2)Roger preached in a church here in Spanish (and Debbi translated into English for the team:)!!

On a prayer note: 1)Recently as many of you have heard, the violence in Mexico has increased and also on the border and in Monterrey a bit. Please pray for the city of Monterrey, our ministry and safety for all who come to minister and those who are concerned and decide to cancel their missions trips...
2)Zacky our 12-/12 year old daschund, is having trouble walking. His back legs aren't working at all, so he is on medication and wearing diapers. He needs prayer, as God loves the animals too, and we know he was sent to us by God. Anyone who knows our family, knows how much he means to us. Please pray for our little guy.

We finished Language School and are back in the USA till Jan.

2008-12-19T13:33:00.000-08:00

On Dec. 12, we graduated from a year at language school in Costa Rica! What a week its been...on Monday, Debbi did her final report, both written (20 pages) and oral(20minutes), in front of the entire school body.
Tuesday, Debbi went to see the doctor, and found out she has bronchitis again (doctor said due to the mold and humidity there)! Not a good thing to have with a busy schedule ahead, and traveling.

Then on Wednesday evening, our next door neighbors (Pat & Mike Henningsen) invited us for a going away supper at their apt., and while there, a bunch of students from the school showed up for a surprise party for our 32nd Anniversary! Then they all suprised us with a Mariachi Band who came to play for us! Both Roger & I wept with joy, as it reminded us so much of Mexico!!

On Friday, we received our diplomas at graduation....what a feeling of relief..no more studying, no more tests, etc! The next morning, our good Canadian friends who lived upstairs (Scott & Melissa Williams)drove us to the aiport in their rental car (thanks!!)..and we flew into Minneapolis, MN and stayed with Debbi's family. The next 2 days were spent visiting family in a whirlwind trip with temperatures of -18 and wind chills of -30 below zero! We had to just layer our clothing, as our winter clothes are in storage in Texas!

Then on Tuesday, we flew into Springfield, MO and were met at the airport by Jim Wellborn with our new Speed The Light vehicle (thank you So. Tx Youth)! Roger was so excited to be able to drive again, after a year of walking or taking bus or taxi! We then drove to JOsh & Albessa's in San Antonio, where we will be basing ourselves out of, while we drive to the Valley to visit Jeremy and some of our friends, and to Utah to visit Charity.

This Christmas will be the 1st time our family will all be together in 6 years...even though Charity will only be here for 10 hours (and is actually working a flight overnight here)...but together is together, no matter how long, we're just thankful to all be together (including Zacky..who by the way is very old now).

Almost finished here!!

2008-12-01T14:34:00.000-08:00

We are almost finished with this year of spanish language school here in San Jose, Costa Rica. We have been very busy this last semester of school, trying to learn all that we can here. As we are getting ready to graduate, we are required to either preach in Spanish and/or do a final project in Spanish in front of the entire school body. Roger was able to accomplish preaching his 1st sermon in Spanish 2 weeks ago and did a wonderful job! Our great techy neighbor (thanks Scott!) video taped it for us, and we have posted it on our new Facebook group called: Audorffs Missions in Monterrey (in case you want to join this group, contact us).
Next week Debbi & Leslie (missionary to Colombia) will be presenting their project "La Cumbia" to the school.
We've experienced lots of things this year, including waking up at 1:00am from a tremor from a 6.5 earthquake that was just south of us 3 weeks ago! We've heard gunshots both around our apartment and close to the school this year, we've really improved our spanish, we've met lots of wonderful new friends (both students and teachers and others) and something that was very special to us both this past month, was attending the International YWAM DNA Conference here in San Jose, CR. While there we had a chance to sit and chat with Loren Cunningham, the founder of YWAM, and share what God has been doing in our lives in this change of ministries...and with that he blessed us to do whatever God is calling us to do. We also met with our former National and Regional leaders in YWAM and had a wonderful time with them. We pray that God reveals His plan in this change, and we are believing that He knows best, and has both our and His best in mind.

August update...

2008-08-31T08:52:00.000-07:00

We are almost ready to start our last Trimester of Language School, and we'll be graduating on Dec. 12 , can't wait (to graduate, that is)!

In the meantime, we've had 2 weeks off, and our daughter Charity came to visit us. We rented a car during this time (which makes Roger feel like a real man to drive again:) The day after Charity arrived, we took a drive to the Caribbean coast and visited some friends at the Painted Beach & drove south almost to the Panaman border to Puerto Viejo and saw some monkeys in the wild. Then on Fri, we went to the rainforest and a bird santuary, where Charity petted a Toucan, and a blue Macaw licked Debbi's face and neck, all the while trying to trick her into slealing her glasses off her face!! On Sat, Sun, Mon we drove to the northern Pacific coast to Guanacaste and stayed at Flamingo beach. It was a beautiful drive through the mountains and we had lots of laughs, with Charity and Leslie (a fellow student going back to Colombia). We swam, got burned and ate fish and had lots of fun and saw beautiful sunsets! Then on Monday, Charity talked Leslie and I into white water rafting with her (Roger waited in the car)!! Only these weren't big rafts, they were like canoes with just one person and a guide in each raft! We all got dumped on the waterfalls, and Debbi also got dumped on one of the bigger rapids. We then started driving back south, and found a little "cabina" to sleep in (cost was $12/person!)...filled with gecos and bugs galore, cold showers, etc., but we had a bed (even though Debbi's bed was 1/2 full of water due to raqin pouring in through the wall:)...its all an adventure:) Then Tues., we stopped and saw the huge crocodiles before heading back home to San Jose. We laughed every day almost all day long (Poor Roger), and really enjoyed this time with Charity....memories we'll never forget. Thank you Lord for providing this time of a lifetime with our daughter.

Now its back to real life and studying, studying, studying....and the countdown to Dec. 12 begins!! Lets see....mmm...103 days left!

July blog...

2008-07-27T18:12:00.000-07:00

We are almost finished with the 2nd Trimester here at the language school Costa Rica, which means we're 2/3 of the way done! This semester has been a whirlwind, as Debbi got moved to a higher level class only after weeks into the semester, and so has had to do extra classes to catch up to the new level. But after 3 weeks of tutoring and tons of extra homework every day, she now is where she is supposed to be. Other than that, we really haven't done anything other than walk a mile to and from school each day...and it rains practically every afternoon!

We are now looking forward to our upcoming break in August, as our daughter Charity will be coming to visit for 10 days. We miss our kids so much, but are very thankful for our Vonage phone which has a Texas number, so we can talk to them each day for practically free! If you want to ever call us, our number is: (956)242-7305...its just a call to Texas for you and you can reach us in Costa Rica!!

2nd Trimester!

2008-05-08T19:02:00.000-07:00

Lots has happened since I last wrote on here. First of all, we finished our 1st Trimester of Language School, which meant that there was a graduation for some, and then a couple weeks off.

Our good friends & next door neighbors, Dave & Debbie Amsler, graduated after a year here, and then left for Guatemala. We really miss then alot. We had many good times, meals, and laughs together (we would leave our apt. doors open, and eat together often), but we are excited for them as they get started on the work that God has called them to in Guatemala. It was with mixed feelings, as they packed up and said goodbye as they left for the airport that early morning a week ago.

Also, 2 of our former staff (and good friends:), Gina and Sarah Rose, came to visit us for a week. We rented a car and took them to Manual Antonio beach..where we saw monkeys, iguanas, crocodiles and various birds in the jungle. We returned and just enjoyed their company and doing some "catching up" with people from back home!

Now we have started our 2nd Trimester of Spanish, but this week we are taking a course on Missiology (in English) before starting language again next week...!

Semana Santa

2008-03-20T12:42:00.000-07:00

We are in the middle of Semana Santa (Holy Week), which is celebrated in Latin America with most people off of work and school, to celebrate the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, which brings us salvation.

On Thursday and Friday, the city of San Jose was almost empty...apparently the buses and taxis don't even go during this time. We are off of school this week, so have been catching up on rest, doing our newsletter and preparing for a 5 page report on "Ethno-Centric Mono-Culturalistic" counseling, due in April for Global University (in English).

Even though, we've still managed to have a few fun days this week so far. We went with our friends to Sarchi, where they are famous for their painted oxcarts and souveniers, and we also took a trip to Jaco Beach on the Pacific Ocean and spent the day in the sun with them. This was our 1st time to the beach, even though its only 2hours from here. Today, we went to see the Volcano Poas, which has a sulfuric lake with gases spewing out...its at about 2400 meters. We also found out today that some other students were robbed a couple nights ago while on vacation at a beach, so we feel that we are blessed to not have encountered any problems, and are also feeling that its a warning to be more careful in all that we do. These 2 young couples and their little ones had someone come into their beachhome at 1am and rob their car keys, wallets, money, credit cards and ID. We are awaiting for their arrival back here (they are about 10 hours from here), as they may need to stay at our home tonight..they are both really great young missionaries heading to the field. We also had another friend here get very sick overnight and went to the hospital this am, he had a bacterial infection from traveling...he was so dehydrated, they had to give him 10 liters of fluid. Please pray for all of these servants of God.

Our spanish classes have been going well, and we can tell that we have both been learning alot, and filling in those gaps and structuring our sentences better. We feel so fortunate to already speak the language, as we see those that are at the very beginning, struggling so hard to make it. Also, for us, since we've lived in Latin America,we aren't facing the cultural shock as others are. We feel at home here, but dearly miss our Monterrey friends and can't wait to get back "home"!

4 Angels appeared from under the bridge

2008-03-09T15:25:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, we went with some friends high in the rainforest/mountains to visit 5 waterfalls and a bird/butterfly santuary. We had a fun trip with them there, and took our time going through the santuary. We saw many different kinds of animals and birds that are regional here like Toucans, parrots, hummingbirds, monkeys and butterflies (there were snakes too, but I didn't go look at them, yuk!). Then we hiked down a long trail, and many, many, many steps...and went to 5 different waterfalls! They were incredible....

While we were hiking, we got the entire experience of being in the rainforest, as the rain began to fall, but it just made it more beautiful! How can anyone go to an area as beautiful as that, and see those birds with beaks and feathers that blend into the forest, and not see that God created it all, with a stroke of his hand!?!

Well, the adventure continues...when we left there, we were going up and down the mountains (we were at over 4,000 ft) and the clutch went out while we were crossing a bridge. While we were pushing the vehicle off of the road, we began to pray. (It is dangerous to be out on the roads, esp. being gringos...we could've been robbed or who knows?). Well, God answers prayer! Up from under the bridge came 4 guys (we called them angels), who had been swimming, and all 4 were mecanics! They offered to hook us up to their 4x4 SUV and pulled us all the way back to the city, and to their shop, where they will work on it this week. It was a 5-6 hour trip back...being pulled up and down the steep mountains. What a blessing they were! Then they got a van and drove us another hour to our apartments. God sent us 4 angels!!

busy February in Costa Rica

2008-02-24T20:20:00.000-08:00

We are now halfway through our 1st Trimester of language school here in San Jose, C.R. For me (Debbi), its been like filling in the cracks in a road with a solid foundation, and Roger says for him its been like repairing the missing parts of the road after a disaster!! Every Friday in our Conversation Class (2 hours/day with a crazy fun teacher:), we have to do a 5 minute oral presentation on a different subject that we must investigate (i.e., provinces in Costa Rica, a family member, a scripture devotional, etc). They really stretch us, but its been really good to do.

We have met some really nice friends at the language school here and even our next door neighbors in our apartment (students also). We have lots of laughs with them and other friends...laughter takes away the stress of learning!

Last Friday, the entire school body and teachers went to Cartago (a city near to San Jose), where we visited the Catholic church and learned about their beliefs here....very interesting. We then went to the top of Volcano Irazu, which last erupted the day that President Kennedy arrived to visit Costa Rica, in 1963. There are approx. 35 volcanoes in Costa Rica, as its the area where the plates meet from the Pacific Ocean and the Carribean. When we got to the top of the volcano, we could see down into the crater where there is now a lake of green sulfuric water. We arrived a bit too late in the day, however they say that if you arrive early, before the clouds roll in, you can see both the Carribean and the Pacific Oceans from there. I think we'll go again sometime!

After the volcano, we went to a coffee plantation and had lunch. The coffee here is absolutely incredible, due to the fertile ground from volcanic ash and very high mountains (and pretty cheap here too:). They have little "personal coffee makers" (can't remember what its called, but its a wooden frame with a "sock"...small bag of material, where the coffee goes, then you fill it with hot water and the coffee seeps through the "sock" into your cup underneath. Very tasty! I'll download a photo of it soon.

Lots happening in the last few weeks! Josh is safe!

2008-02-04T18:18:00.000-08:00

I (Debbi) had a wonderful birthday surprise a couple weeks ago...our daughter Charity came to visit for a few days. We had a Packer/birthday party and celebrated both of our birthdays (Debbi...1/21 and Charity...1/29) together with some of our fellow students! We had classes while she was here, so couldn't go too far, but it was just good to have here with us! Shes making plans to come during our Trimester break in April, so we can go experience Costa Rica with her then (and hopefully Jeremy, Josh and Albessa can come then too). With her being a flight attendant, its almost free to come here (cost more for the airport exit fee than her flight!).

The week after Charity left, we moved to another apartment, where we are much more comfortable. We live a little closer to school, and next to some fellow students (so its alot more fun), but most of all, we have a bed that we can sleep all night on (we'd wake up at 4am due to such a hard bed in the other place), and a really comfortable couch (the other one was shot...wood with a little material covering it). The first night at our new apartment, both Roger and fell asleep watching tv on the couch (one of my favorite things to do:).

Last night we had a "SuperBowl" party! (Too bad the Packers weren't in it, but oh well, can't win them all!) We opened up our apartment along with the one next door (with the Amslers) and one upstairs (with the Knoodles). Lots of students came over and we had tons of food, and lots of fun with people going from apt. to apt.

Now the best news....Josh is back from Iraq! Thank you so much for praying for him! We know that God's hand of protection was upon him...and he arrived back with his wife in San Antonio on Sat. pm for a month of R & R. He will then go back to his base in Germany for 2 months, then muster out of the military as he's finishes 6 years active duty in April.

Back in school again!

2008-01-19T14:14:00.001-08:00

We just finished our 2nd full week of language school here in San Jose, Costa Rica. We live about a mile from the school, so we take a taxi part way and walk the rest of the way (I can't walk all the way with my bad knees).

We've already learned alot, and our heads are full by the end of the night! We have been given tons of homework every night from the 1st day of school, plus we have to go out and meet with 10 Tican's (as they call the locals here) that we meet away from the school (same people every week if possible) and practice with them as our Interaction class. We have to fill out a journal on our times with these people and report them to our teacher weekly. On Friday, our Conversation teacher taught us to make the traditional Costa Rican dish, called "Gallo Pinto"...which is basically black beans and rice mixed together with cilantro, garlic, celery, onion and a sause. Its ok, but it's definitely NOT Mexican...or as good:).

We had a Cowboys get-together last Sat. and a Packer's get-together at our house last Sunday, which was fun. As you know, the Cowboys lost...so all of our fellow Cowboy friends have now switched over to Back the Pack with us! Can't wait till tomorrow to see how the Packers do!

Beautiful Costa Rica!

2008-01-04T16:36:00.000-08:00

This is a beautiful country! So much green and the mountains are georgous. We have a one bedroom apartment, fully furnished with "grandma's deco's", and a nice landlord who lives next door. He is from N.York but has lived here with his Costa Rican wife for 47 years. Her mother also lives with them, and will turn 101 next week!

The city really reminds us of Monterrey, except the streets are all hilly (we're high in the mountains), and there are no...no street names! We took a taxi to the store today, and to get home we had to tell the taxi driver that we are "300 meters south of the bank and 50 meters east"...then you just look till you find your street and house! We live about 1-1/2 miles from the school, so will be taking taxis everyday since I (Debbi) can't walk that far with my knees. The weather is absolutely wonderful....just a bit windy from the downdrafts of the mountains (makes the windows rattle all night:), and even a bit chilly at night!

Today we'll take a tour of the city with the school, then start orientation & classes on Monday (took our placement tests yesterday). I'll take photos of our house and post them soon.

Sure miss our kids and dog....and all of our friends, but soon we'll have our Vonage phone hooked up (about a week) and we'll be using our old cell number, so it'll be a call to McAllen, TX!

;

"I'm leaving, on a jet plane..don't know when I'll be back again"

2008-01-01T20:48:00.001-08:00

We have been busy, busy, busy! Roger and I got all of our stuff loaded in a U-Haul and put in a storage unit in the RGV this past weekend, then drove to Corpus to do a service in a new church plant...had lunch on the causeway to Padre Island with the Pastor and family and fun friends (great place to eat fish at...called Snoopys). Then we drove back to McAllen to pick up Jeremy and he drove to Alice with us to drop us off at Bifferts, then he took our car back with him. We are staying here with our friends until tomorrow morning...getting up at 3am to dressand leave for Corpus airport)...then we're flying off to Costa Rica, finally! We are all packed and finally having a chance to get excited about it. You know,,,,we love the good ole USA, but we're outta here anyway! Now its on to our next adventure with God...language study!
I will be posting photos soon and updating you on how things are going. So, stay tuned!

Early bird sale

2007-12-22T13:45:00.000-08:00

So my garage sale....yes, believe it or not...its doing great...even the weekend before Christmas! We got home from dropping Charity off at the airport at 5:30 this am, and while we were putting out our signs we had a guy following us (I was a bit worried, but had Jeremy with me:). When we got back home, he pulled in the driveway and asked if we were open yet (remember, this is 5:35am by now!)....so I opened up the garage and he bought $45 worth of stuff, and the people started coming and coming, through the rain this am, the sun this pm and now the wind. I guess its true what they say..."the early birds get the ladder, the grill, the good stuff"!

I even got to see our favorite friends here in Katy, Pastor Al and Rebekah and their son, Taylor stopped by this afternoon, lots of laughs (as always with them:). You know, you can make anything into a good time, even a garage sale. (P.S. if you're interested, I have stuff left)

We made it!!

2007-12-22T11:53:00.000-08:00

It was our 31st Anniversary this month, and while we were having a meal out to celebrate it, we received "the phone call"....da da da da.....we got our clearance to leave for the mission field, as we have made our goal of raising 100% of our monthly pledges!! thanks to you who pledged.....we are grateful! We've enoyed our time here in the USA for the past year and half, but to be honest with you, we need "to be about our Fathers business", and to where he has called us to...the mission field!
So, we will be leaving Jan. 2... (after packing our things up and putting them in storage in McAllen, TX, then we'll stay at our friends Paul & Colleen Bifferts house in Alice, TX then flying out to San Jose, Costa Rica on Jan. 2 for a year of further language study. We will have a 1 bdroom apt there, and will be taking taxis and buses to school and back every day. I'm sure it will be challenging, but I can't wait till I hear Roger preach in Spanish the first time, it will be worth everything!!
We have also purchased a Vonage telephone system, so we are going to hook that up with our current cell phone number, so friends and family can call us (visa versa).
Please keep us in your prayers!

Christmas celebration

2007-12-22T11:36:00.000-08:00

With us leaving for Costa Rica on Jan. 2, and Charity being "on reserve status" as a new flight attendant, we planned to celebrate Christmas early with hte kids. So Charity and Jeremy both arrived here in Katy this week, and we had a few fun filled days along with having Christmas! We did a little shopping, baked sweets and then on Thursday, Dec. 21, had a wonderful ham and fixings...opened up gifts and Jeremy read the Christmas story to us all.
I hadn't wanted to put away tons of decorations this year, so I decorated the tree with the Christmas cards that we received from family and friends, so if you sent one, you were a part of our tree, and thank you, it was beautiful!
Of course, you can't have Charity here without having some kind of drama, and yes, we did...with her trip home to Salt Lake City..but it all ended up ok! We took her to the Houston airport at 3am today, and then Roger headed out with Jeremy to pick up his car 4 hours south of here, then he's heading on back to McAllen.
I on the other hand, am having a garage sale (yes the weekend before Christmas, can you imagine that?!?)...and selling tons of stuff! If I can sell it, its less to pack!

Let it snow....

2007-12-09T20:43:00.000-08:00

Well I (Debbi) just got back from Salt Lake City yesterday! Charity and I spent a fun few days together, in her tiny apartment and shopping a bit too! Then the last day, we got a snowstorm!! It was so beautiful...the kind of snow thats really wet, so it sticks to the branches and is so pretty coming straight down (no wind). I went out at night and took some photos, as I really miss the snow!
Then Roger picked me up at the Houston airport (using Charity's flight attendant bene's:), and we drove to San Antonio area to speak on Sunday. We had a good service, and are ALMOST finished with our itineration!
God is so faithful in all He does...and we love to see how He makes a way with our lives when we can't see past the day in front of us! I'll keep you posted on our next few busy weeks before we leave for Costa Rica!

Its already December!!

2007-12-04T10:00:00.000-08:00

I can't believe its already December! We leave for Costa Rica in less than a month....crazy...tons of stuff to do, but so exciting! Yesterday I sent off a box of baked goods and Wisconsin cheese to Josh in Iraq, hopefully to get there in time for Christmas.

Charity has a couple days off from work this week, so she's wanting me (Debbi) to come and visit her, so I guess I'm heading to Salt Lake tomorrow and returning on Sat. (the blessings of a parent of a Flight Attendant..for those that know Charity well, those years of her and Dolly are finally paying off!:) She says there's tons of snow there...and I really miss the snow, so it should be a fun time...we'll probably go Christmas shopping too and some baking.

In the meantime, I'm starting to sort stuff to have a garage sale (yes, for those of you in the north, we still can have garage sales here in Texas!).

Thanksgiving

2007-11-27T19:29:00.000-08:00

None of our 3 kids could make it home for Thanksgiving, but we did have our daughter in law Albessa (she drove from San Antonio) and the Bifferts (who came from Alice, TX). We had a ham, pie and lots of fun playing games (esp. the girls) and watching movies, and just hanging out together. Wow, Roger even played a few games with us!

Charity came home for a few days the week before and we made a Turkey meal with her and lots of laughs (she had to work on the holiday). Jeremy couldn't make it either, so he made his own turkey meal in McAllen for him and someone special (he loves to cook!).

We are so thankful for family and friends...and hopefully someday in the future, we'll all be able to be together as a family once again, in the same country...at the same time! lol

Congrats Josh!

2007-11-19T22:03:00.000-08:00

We just found out that our oldest son Josh, who is serving in Iraq as an Army M.P. , was given an accomadation for a Medal of Valor today for pulling some guys out of a building that was burning due to being hit by a mortar, which saved their lives! We are thankful for God's protection on his life so far and continue to pray for him daily (Psalms 91). He will be finishing his tour there at the end of January, so the countdown is on!

We've finally gotten updated online!!

2007-11-15T18:57:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone.....well we finally got a Blog and made it into the New Millenium!!
We just got back from one of our staff's wedding...Dan Spurling in Ohio. It was a great time, and ended up being a YWAM Monterrey reunion. I (Debbi) had a fun time and was amazed to look at all the staff there and think how God allowed Roger and I to impart in each one of their lives through the ministry in Monterrey, Mexico. Congrats Dan and Wendy!
We then headed to Monterrey to speak in the DTS there the next week. It took me (Debbi) 2 days to get there through planes, buses, hotels and taxis (thats the new movie I'm making:). We had a really great time as we gathered with all the staff there and had a vision and prayer time. The tacos were so good (Tacos Fedes, of course!), and papas asadas....(fun with Alex y Velia)...flautas, guacamole, etc.! There is nothing like REAL Mexican food! Not to mention the great staff and students as Roger taught "the Cup" (and yes, Shauna was there!) LOL
We got back to Katy, TX and Charity flew home for a few days as we had a small Thanksgiving Dinner with her (she'll be working on Thanksgiving), and laughed and laughed together (esp about my error on facebook, for those of you who heard what I did...lol).
Well, gotta go for now, I'll try to update you next week!