Last Weekend

We had a great weekend and I'm just now getting around to writing about it. On Friday Rodolfo and Rocio picked us up at 3:30 and we drove to Moravia. Our first stop was at the artisan market (a nice way of saying they have typical Costa Rican souvenirs.) For those of you who have been in the "gringo market" in El Salvador, it was definitely a step up.

We left the market and drove to Rebeca's "first" birthday party. She is the daughter of Luis David, the worship pastor at Vida Nueva, and Carolina. As you might expect, there was a pinata and the guests who were older than Rebeca had a great time. Luis David and Carolina provided dinner for all of us.

Sunday was the first anniversary of the church, so there was another "party." The co-pastors, Rodolfo and Edwin, and their wives, Rocio and Veronica, have done a great job growing the church. Last February they started meeting in Rodolfo's home. Sunday more than 80 people came to celebrate the anniversary. There was special music, a slide show, Lord's Supper and a guest pastor. Stephen sang Revelation Song. We all had lunch together after the service: arroz con pollo, frijoles, salad, bread, and then cake for dessert. It was a great day of worship and fellowship.

Sunday afternoon it was back to the books to study for the test on Monday. (Now that it's Tuesday as I write this, I'm not exactly sure how successful we were with the studying. I can't even imagine how hard this would be if friends and family weren't praying for us on a daily basis.)

Sunday evening I made popcorn (sweet for Jose, David and Fernanda; regular for Stephen and me) to eat while we watched Avatar. Only Stephen and David had seen it before. It was pretty amazing and I like movies that have happy endings!

We are realizing that our time in Costa Rica is growing short--two more weeks of classes, but only one more weekend. We're going to miss the people here, but we are ready to go home and get back to work in El Salvador.