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2005 News Archive
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12/27/05
We are trying to make each moment count as our two weeks with Nathan is already half over. We went to the beach last week & the mountains with Chinese friends yesterday. This morning we had dim sum ( a Cantonese style of breakfast featuring many different styles of seafood, meat, & sweet dumplings, breads, etc.) at a beautiful restaurant and will have a family picture taken later today.

Since we don't have any family nearby to celebrate holidays with, we invited other missionaries & friends to celebrate Christmas with us on the 25th. We had 15 for a late lunch & enjoyed it very much. We had been to a candlelight Christmas Eve service & our family had helped lead the carol singing at Faith Baptist Church. We attended an early morning church service at Crossroads on Christmas morning & had plenty of time to prepare for our company after we returned home.

We hope you have a chance to relax over the holidays. May God bless your new year in many, many ways. . .

Love,

Cheryl & John Mark

12/20/05
Hi! I've been finishing up my handwritten Christmas cards.

We enjoyed a supper tonight with the Spanish-speaking Chinese young people from the Monday night discipleship class led by John Mark's tutor. They are a very personable group of young adults & the languages exchanged between all of us & the restaurant help was quite interesting. We had the best Chinese food that I've had for a long time. Christine had a girlfriend over today & they baked & decorated ginger cookies. They tasted very good!

Nathan should arrive tomorrow at around 2 p.m. Of course we're excited about that! All for now. . .

Cheryl

12/12/05
Christine and her girlfriend Liza Chu did solos during the Christmas program at Crossroads Christian Academy last night. All the music was in English, but Pastor Steve shared a devotional in both Spanish and English. He was raised here in Panama, so he has excellent Spanish. Yes, it is still hot here!

We just got an e-mail from Mom and Dad Hansen that they will call us at 9 a.m. call on Christmas morning - we haven't decided yet what our church plans are for that morning as we are involved in several different churches in several different languages. We will have a group of 10 for a 2 p.m. Christmas dinner that day.

After Christine's performance in the Christmas cantata on Saturday, John Mark & I saw a movie at a mall near the huge auditorium where the cantata was held. We noticed that "Pride & Prejudice" will be coming soon. We always enjoy Jane Austin's work, as long as they don't tamper with it too much! The cantata was half in English and half in Spanish. Christine had a dancing part. The cantata will be shown on television here in the next couple of weeks.

Christine had her school Christmas program last night, Sunday. She nearly had laryngitis but managed to sing her solo on key.

Our "decorating" for Christmas consists of the Christmas tree, an advent calendar, an advent wreath, some garland & candles, the felt stockings that you made for us oh-so-many-years-ago, a nativity scene, a basket of ornaments, a red tablecloth with a candle-embroidered runner on top, and a Christmas centerpiece. Our walls are still pretty bare as we are waiting to see Nathan's artwork before buying other things for the walls. We're also still looking for curtains for the living rooms & dining room. You can't find ready made drapes of any quality or variety of size/style/fabric, which means that you have to involve a seamstress, which makes the whole process more complicated & expensive.(Since I don't have a sewing machine here)

Christine got the itch to make some dough ornaments for the Christmas tree, which we did, without cookie cutters or other patterns. They actually turned out pretty well except that the weather is so humid that they don't stay hard - they keep absorbing moisture from the air. I am re-baking them today just to firm them up. These will definitely not last more than one year!

We appreciate Aunt Jean's willingness to drive out & pick up our son Nathan. He enjoys the time with her. We are looking forward to seeing Nathan on the 20th of December for a couple of weeks.

John Mark & I are planning a trip to the expat grocery store to buy a Christmas turkey, foil baking pan & oven bag. Someone else is making the dressing & the group decided to skip the mashed potatoes. One of the ethnic Chinese men is bringing rice - that should be a nice touch!

John Mark and Cheryl are prayerfully looking at different Chinese churches to serve in the next year. We pray for wisdom in specific ministry opportunities. John Mark was just asked to play his saxophone for the praise band at the Spanish church in Eldorado.

Christine's solo in the program
Christine dancing in the Christmas program	John Mark after Christmas program
John Mark and Cheryl at Mall after Christmas program	Cheryl & girlfriend Tina Chu. Her family invited us to El Valle. She is a friend from church.

Merry Christmas!

Christine, Cheryl and John Mark Hansen

12/12/05
Thanks for the opportunity for prayer on our birthdays. We would continue to appreciate prayer for our children Nathan (20) and Christine (16). They are both great young people.

Christine is making the adjustment to her fifth school in the last 18 months – not an easy thing for a sophomore in high school. She attends a small Christian school called Crossroads Christian Academy. Most of her classmates have at least one Panamanian parent & speak Spanish at home. She began guitar lessons in the spring, is singing in the worship team at her youth group and is trying her hand at some dancing in a community Christmas cantata. She will be working with Spanish Vacation Bible school after Christmas. She has had a great attitude throughout all of the changes we've made & we give God credit for that blessing!

Our son, Nathan, spent time with us this summer in Costa Rica & is staying for 2 weeks over his Christmas break in Panama. He is a sophomore at the University of Nebraska at Kearney & continues to study Graphic Design. One of the benefits of having an art student in the family is that we get to keep the pottery & drawings when he finishes a class! A steady girlfriend has added interest to his life. We are glad that he is involved with Bible study on campus.

Pray for our language, we are still studying Spanish but for fewer hours a week and in a less formal setting. Lord willing, 2006 will see us begin to study another Chinese language, possibly either Cantonese or Hakka. A language & culture survey of the local Chinese is planned with Jim Slack in February & we hope to sponsor work teams from the States next year depending on the findings of the survey. You can pray that regardless of our human plans, God will accomplish His purposes in & through us.

May we all have worshipful hearts this Christmas season as we contemplate God's gift of salvation to mankind. Merry Christmas & a Blessed New Year!

Cheryl and John Mark Hansen

12/09/05
Hansen Orientation. Cheryl and I are "retreads" from East Asia having served with the IMB for 9 years in Taiwan. Several other missionaries have worked hard at introducing us to different churches, ministries and leaders in our Baptist work in Panama. We have also gotten to know the majority of the Chinese Christian leadership in Panama. We have attended associational meetings, the pastors' retreat, and we are taking Spanish lessons from leaders in our Baptist convention. We have enjoyed meals in homes of our neighbors and attended Panamanian birthdays and served in Mother's Day celebrations. We have been involved in visitation with both Spanish and Chinese pastors. I am attending a Spanish language Bible study which is lead by one of my Spanish teachers with ethnic Chinese college students. We are developing relationships with several ethnic Chinese families and have written articles for Spanish language magazines. Most of Christine's classmates speak Spanish as a first language, so she is included in our language/orientation experience.

We feel loved in Panama! Our phone number is 011-507-260-1870 if you want to call and talk.

Sincerely,

John Mark Hansen

12/08/05

But when the time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under law,
to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.
Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!
Galatians 4:4; 2 Corinthians 9:15 NIV

Thank you for praying ...

It is great to receive the many cards, letters and e-mails from friends around the world. We covet your prayers.

The latest here is an ethnic Chinese publisher we met at church who is very interested in giving us free advertising space in his bimonthly insert in the most prestigious national paper. He is also white hot about giving money for local human needs ministries. It seems like a golden opportunity so we have written some articles for his publication & are directing him to some people & ministries that we know about. Pray that God would give us discernment about how to best utilize this gentleman for kingdom work in Panama.

We have had a couple of nice experiences with a Latina family from church. They had us over for supper & then several days later for a birthday celebration. They are just very warm, encouraging people & we sure need experiences like that to keep us going!

Today is Mother's Day in Panama, which is a national holiday. Christine has the day off of school & the malls were in full swing yesterday as people shopped for mom. The mall was scheduled to stay open until 1:00 in the morning to accommodate last minute shoppers. Interestingly enough, my cab driver yesterday is on the Panamanian Olympic Commission & will be selecting the Panamanian softball teams. He is an accountant who also sells insurance & drives a cab on the side. Busy guy, huh?

2006 will see us begin to study another Chinese language, possibly either Cantonese or Hakka. A language & culture survey of the local Chinese is in the planning stages and we hope to sponsor work teams from the States next year. You can pray that, regardless of our human plans, God will accomplish His purposes in & through us. May we all have worshipful hearts this Christmas season as we contemplate God's gift of salvation to mankind.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our Southern Baptist friends for their sacrificial gifts through the Lottie Moon offering. Without their willingness to give, it would be so difficult for the missionaries throughout the world to be able to live and work in a foreign land. Mere words cannot express adequately our heartfelt gratitude for these gifts for our support. Thank you so much ... may God richly bless you.

Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people,
especially to those who belong to the family of believers.
Galatians 6:10 NIV

We wish you a very Merry Christmas and a blessed Happy New Year ...

John Mark, Cheryl & Christine Hansen <>-<
Mision Bautista de Pamana
Apartado 0843/00855
Panama, Republica de Pamana
011-507-260-1870

Merry Christmas & a Very Blessed New Year,

John Mark, Cheryl, Nathan & Christine

12/5/05
We are bumping along with our language study and trying to start in our Chinese ministry as much as possible without making everyone nervous.

We have had an excellent opportunity to get some free promotion in a newspaper insert for the Christmas season.

Christine is doing as well as can be expected after all her moves. The school here is much harder and keeps her busy with homework. She is in a Christmas program with singing and dance and is enjoying that. Tonight we are having the family of two of her girlfriends over for supper. They are ethnic Chinese and are probably the most mature Christian girls in the school. Crossroads has 10 in Christine's class. Four girls and 6 boys. Two of the girls may be leaving at Christmas time because of relationships and the cost of the school. Most of her classmates speak Spanish at home and are very Latin in worldview and habits. Its good for her long time, but harder in the short time.

Cheryl and Jennifer (left) who is a Florida State U. - Panama student and Franciso is a Chinese missionary that we are working with. We are enjoying Chinese dumplings (Jiow-Tze) near our house in Eldorado.


Please know we are praying for you!

Sincerely,

Cheryl and John Mark Hansen

12/1/05
Great to hear from all of you at Christmas time! Cheryl, Christine and I all "bonded" to Nebraska and miss the cool (Cold) weather. (Yes, we are sweating....) How can we pray for you?

During the Christmas season, we think of family and friends. We have friends and family members that need a growing, personal relationship with Jesus and that is hard sometimes. We continue to pray for them all.

I had a great meeting today with an ethnic Chinese gentlemen who owns a publishing company and is publishing articles about our ministry here in Latin America. He is starting a non profit foundation to promote evangelistic and human need projects in Panama. We continue to prepare for a major research project in February to try and discover the best ways to reach the multi-lingual, blended culture Chinese around us.

We are in a partnership with Summit Church in Springfield and enjoy a continued relationship with our many friends at Second. Hope that new job and another season of ministry is pleasing in God's sight!

Merry Christmas!

Cheryl and John Mark Hansen

11/24/05
E-Mail Received:

Hi John and Cheryl,

My name is Jeanie Anne and I am 9 years old. I am sending this using my mother's email address.

I got your name and email from the Mission Board. I am doing a project for AWANA at my Church and would like to ask you some questions.

• Where do you work as a missionary?
• What is your job as a missionary in that place?
• What are some ways you have helped people there?
• What countries have you been to?

Thank you for helping me with these questions.

From Jeanie Anne

Response:
Thank you for your letters! I hope you will use this email to remind yourself to pray for us often. My name is Cheryl Hansen and my husband's name is John Mark. We have and two kids. Our daughter, Christine, is 16yrs. old and is a 10th grader at Crossroads Christian Academy. Our son, Nathan, is 20 yrs. old & is a student at the University of Nebraska at Kearney.

We are missionaries in Panama City, Panama. Panama City is the capital of Panama & sits right next to the Panama Canal. Because our home is in a hilly area of the city, we can see the tall buildings of the downtown area & also the Pacific Ocean from our living room window. Our job as missionaries is to build a team of people & a strategy for sharing the good news about Jesus with the Chinese who live here in Panama. We served as missionaries in Taiwan for 9 yrs. so we already speak Mandarin, which is one of several Chinese languages. Language learning is always an important part of a missionary's training because we must use the language or languages of our people group in order to share the gospel effectively. The Chinese in Panama use a variety of languages including Spanish, Cantonese, Hakka, & Mandarin. We have spent the last year studying Spanish. Beginning this year, we may be studying another one of the Chinese languages.

Some of the things that we have been doing include:

- Praying for God to help Chinese people here to be interested in spiritual things & receptive to the gospel.

- Learning Spanish so that we can talk to Chinese who speak Spanish about Jesus.

- Visiting restaurants & stores owned by Chinese people in order to meet them & share the gospel.

- Building a team of people who are interested in sharing the gospel with Chinese people in Panama. For example: we know a Chinese publisher who will put Christian articles in his paper for free; we know a Chinese businessman who will let a new church meet in his business; we know churches in the United States who want to come share the gospel & pray for the Chinese here.

- Preparing to do a large survey of Chinese people to find out the best ways to reach them with the gospel.

You can help us by praying for these five things! You also asked where we have visited. In Latin America we have only been to Mexico, Costa Rica & Panama. In Asia, we have been to Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macao, Singapore, Thailand, Japan & South Korea.

Thank you for your interest & keep praying for missionaries! Who knows, maybe God will call YOU someday!!!

Cheryl & John Mark Hansen

11/22/05
Little more about Christina's situation. Her school is small enough that it doesn't have any extracurricular sports or music activities. There about 15 in the high school. This is the first year that they have had "live" teachers for all the classes, not videos. Her biggest outside activity is her youth group, which meets on Wednesdays nights & draws about 100-150 kids. It is a bilingual group so they do everything in both Spanish & English. They've done some fun things like see Christian movies, Christian concerts, served a supper at church & had a Fall retreat. She is looking forward to singing on the worship team. Her school is going to do some one act plays this spring so she wants to be in those. The church that sponsors her school is called Crossroads Bible Church and is a bilingual church. We try to attend there on Sunday nights. Christine is preparing for small singing & dancing parts in their Christmas program. On Sunday mornings we have been visiting different Spanish congregations in Panama City. We have pretty much settled on a church in our suburb called Primera Iglesia Bautista de El Dorado. They have a strong emphasis on personal discipleship and some in the church have a desire to reach out to the Chinese around them. Last week John Mark spoke in Spanish at a small church on Gamboa Lake about a half an hour from the city.

The biggest excitement in our lives this week is that I got my wallet stolen out of my purse. Unfortunately, I chose to shop with this missionary friend on a busy Saturday evening after a major payday, which means that the store was full of shoppers jostling each other. My second mistake was using a purse with a strap that was too long to hold securely under my arm. Between my first & second purchases at this one particular store someone had taken the wallet out of my purse & zipped it shut again. All of the cards had to be canceled & all of the ID has to be replaced. None of it is impossible to do but it all takes time & wading through government bureaucracy to accomplish. You can pray that it all goes as quickly & smoothly as possible. Our business manager, Mary Mangrum, & I will be spending the day tomorrow filing a police report so I can get my "carnet" or temporary residency ID replaced. I'm also working on replacing my Nebraska driver's license.

Last night John Mark had a special dinner with the Chinese college students he has been meeting with. They studied about the Holy Spirit and then ate northern Chinese food at the restaurant of a young Chinese guy who is studying Spanish. He is a Mandarin speaker and so John Mark can communicate with him easier than they can! John Mark will be back for a visit......and some more Chinese dumplings!

We're going to celebrate Thanksgiving with a group from Faith Baptist Church on Thursday evening. Faith Baptist is an English congregation that meets in a Spanish church. We don't attend there regularly but have been to a couple of their activities & have met some nice people there. Christine has a half day of school on Thanksgiving Day but will have Friday & Monday off. I'll be taking the green bean casserole to the Thanksgiving potluck - is that traditional food or what?

We're looking forward to putting up our new Christmas tree next weekend with all the trimmings! Joy to your family & we hope that you have a terrific Thanksgiving together. . .

Love,

Cheryl

11/18/05
Well, good news. The furniture came & the plumber has been here twice & is supposed to come again tomorrow. The tank in our back yard is still leaking so it needs something! It's always comical trying to communicate with this plumber. All of the missionaries say that he is almost impossible to understand so its not just us. I'm lucky to understand one word of every sentence he utters. That means I have to guess a lot about what he's talking about. We've learned that a big part of language study is making educated guesses! My tutor is still recovering from surgery so I read newspaper articles & look up all of the words I don't know, watch TV & look up all of the words I don't know, sit around & talk to the gal who comes once a week to clean my floors ( she's another person who is tough to understand ), practice conjugating my verbs, work on my scripture memorization in Spanish or write sentences with all of the words I don't know. Are you picking up a theme here? - there are lots of words that I don't know in Spanish!!

Christine auditioned for the praise & worship team at her youth group on Saturday. She felt terrible about her performance & was really embarrassed about it. On Wednesday she found out that she made the praise & worship team! She's happy. Sometimes I think that God wants to drive home the point that its not about our abilities but about His abilities. This has been a really long, hard week for Christine for homework. I think it will lighten up after this week.

You can pray that our paperwork moves forward for our residency in Panama. They are being stinkers right now with a lot of missionaries & being very nit picky about stuff & denying permanent residency to everyone, which just means that you have to keep applying for temporary ones. God is sovereign - even over civil servants!

We had three of our missionary colleagues over for lunch today. It was nice to be able to entertain in our new home (new to us, anyway) with our new dining room furniture & new dishes. We have a long list of people whom we want to invite over so this was the first of many meals with friends & coworkers.

God provided the opportunity to meet a Chinese man at church Sunday night who publishes a bimonthly insert in a leading newspaper here. He is offering our mission free space in this insert to write articles about our work, ministries, testimonies, upcoming events, gospel presentations, whatever we want to use it for. Isn't that a cool opportunity?

I'm starting to nod off so I'd better sign off for tonight.

Cheryl

11/16/05
Thanks so much for your desire to pray for us! Thursday was a national holiday here (celebrating the beginning of independence from Spain) & we were pleased to have been invited for supper to the home of a family that we met at church. This family is an interesting mix of cultures. The wife is a Latina Panamena and the husband is 3rd generation Chino Panameno. They have three children, the older two girls are friends of Christine's from school. The father attended a boarding school in the states for high school & has native English & no Chinese languages but also speaks fluent Spanish. The wife speaks Spanish & less fluent English. The girls are Spanish speakers who have learned English at school. The husband is an ophthalmologist and the wife is beginning a social ministries program at the church. Interestingly, the husband's father was also a doctor who received his medical training in Germany before & during WWII. This is a family with lots of interesting stories to tell.

Yesterday afternoon during a tropical rain storm, John Mark went to a community about 50 miles from of Panama City, Capira. He went with the two pastors from Iglesia Bautista del Coco (Cristo La Unica Esperanza). Gregorio Martinez is the pastor of the Spanish congregation and Pastor Lan Yun Jing is the pastor of the new Cantonese congregation. All three of these guys are in their late forties and have a great time trying to communicate in Hakka, Cantonese, Spanish, Mandarin and English at the same time! The Good News is that they were able to lead two young Hakka ladies to the Lord! Pray that they will become involved in the church in El Coco.

As the dust is beginning to settle I feel like I can take a deep breath, relax and catch you up on our lives. Thanks so much for your prayers for our move into the house. You are the reason that things went so well that day! It was no accident that our movers arrived at the house just in time to bail me out of a hopeless conversation with the local garbage men, or that the cable guys arrived an hour late so that another missionary was present to discuss the technicalities of the computer hookup, or that the movers finished just in time for the furniture store to deliver our new furniture, or that the previous gardener just happened to stop by our house that day & trimmed our grass. It is also amazing that the local furniture store was so committed to replacing two items that were marked with glue or ink that they made trips to our house three days in a row until everything was perfect. Lest I give you the idea that we live in some sort of utopia, we have been waiting for two weeks now for a couple of pieces of furniture from a different furniture store to be delivered and the plumber has stood us up twice now. November is a month of many national holidays & the service industry grinds to a halt during this time.

John Mark & I are continuing to study Spanish with tutors. Continue to pray for our language study. Studying a language is a long, often frustrating process with setbacks, plateaus and lots of emotional pitfalls. We need your prayers to keep us encouraged throughout the process. My tutor, Eleiza de Montes, is recovering from the gall bladder surgery that she had on Wednesday. She is a retired university professor who still teaches a class on child wellness & takes her students to inner-city community centers to teach mothers there how to care for their children. She is also very active in missions education in the churches here and is doing evangelism training for young girls in one of the local mission churches in a poor area. She is a wonderful lady & a great role model. John Mark is studying with Amilcar Fernandez of Iglesia Bautistade Eldorado. He is 21 and has been doing ethnic Chinese discipleship training with Chinese university students in Panama City. John Mark is able to attend this outreach. John Mark is also working with Hidalgo Fernandez (no relation) he is based out of the community of San Miguelito and is a missionary to the indigenous people of the Darien near the Columbian border. Both of these men are great people for John Mark to bounce ideas off of and he is enjoying their Christian fellowship.

John Mark continues to meet local Chinese people, inside & outside of churches. He does some evangelistic visiting with both a local Chinese pastor& with another missionary who works in the inner city. Chinese are often the owners of small convenience stores as well as restaurants and other businesses. He just had another experience today with a Chinese couple in San Miguelito. The Chinese in Panama are a very diverse group as far as the languages they speak, their education levels, occupations, cultural identity, etc. Reaching them is truly an assignment that only God can accomplish. Pray that God will break down language barriers,create spiritual hunger, convict of sin and open their hearts to a relationship with Him. Also pray that God will call out people who will reach the Chinese & be willing to disciple & train them. Only your prayers will remove the barriers that keep God's spirit from working freely here.

Christine is beginning to see some light at the end of the "new kid" tunnel. She is beginning to be included in more social activities and is preparing for singing & dancing in upcoming Christmas programs. Next semester promises some additional opportunities in one act plays & perhaps singing with the praise band. Christine is feeling more confident all the time in her geometry class & her grades are showing it. Thank you for your prayers for Christine's adjustment to life in Panama. Keep praying for close Christian friends.

After chatting with Nathan on the phone Sunday it seems that his semester is going well: he is making good choices academically, spiritually & relationally. It's probably just as well that we don't see his hair & clothes regularly - it's too easy to get distracted by the unimportant stuff! He will be seeing grandparents over Thanksgiving and will spend a couple weeks with us at Christmas break.

Cheryl & John Mark

10/20/05
Thanks for your e-mails! We are had a group Cheryl and I worked with from Gainesville, Texas here yesterday. They are lead by Mark Fuller, a former missionary from here in Panama. They will be working with a Pastors' Families Retreat at the Baptist camp in Santa Clara. The response of the pastors has been great!

Two days ago I went door-to-door in a very poor section of the city of Panama. Allison Holman (veteran missionary) and I were looking for Chinese families in the area. We found several Chinese families and will be back to follow up these leads. Praise God that though I was attacked by a drunk looking for money. I came away only shaken and he was unable to get any money or my cell phone

I am using a borrowed computer, so I will keep this short for today. Thanks so much for your prayers for our ministry!

Cheryl & John Mark

10/13/05
Cheryl and I were both using Spanish and Mandarin in a conversation with a Chinese family yesterday. Most of the time we both have trouble understanding Panamanians Spanish....Oh well it will come time. We are trying to decide whether take Hakka or Cantonese next.

I had a kidney stone on Sunday.... Both missionary doctors agreed that was what it was. Boy, did that hurt! I am drinking lots of water. I was better by bedtime, but missed three worship services in three different languages.

Thanks for concern,

John Mark

9/10/05
Christine has started her classes are Crossroads Christine Academy about 10 minutes from the guest apartment where we are staying until our house in Bethania is finished. (Mary, the business manager as been wonderful to work with). Christine has 10 sophomores in her class. She is one of three girls and the rest are boys. (Hopefully, Christine will like the odds). We had a parent-teacher conference yesterday afternoon with all of her different teachers. The school has an excellent facility and is just finishing a beautiful education facility behind the church. She is planning on attending youth group at Crossroad next Wednesday night. She will need tutoring to get caught up in geometry, but has a good attitude towards the whole experience. The school is starting team sports and will play other private schools in the metro area. After the U. S. military left five years ago, many school building were freed up and many have been turned into private schools for different language and religious populations. For example, one school is just for Mandarin-speaking students. In the Spanish paper this week, one of the legislators proposed that Mandarin be required for all students in the country because of the rising Chinese population and the growing importance of China in world trade.

There are about 50 junior high and high school students in Crossroads and the school under the direction of Dr. Marten, is working to get full accreditation with the New England Association of Schools and Colleges. This is the first year that high school has teachers for every class rather than video teaching for some as in previous years. Christine will also have the opportunity to attend the Florida State University campus about 10 minutes walk from where we are now in their Institute for Advanced Students program.

The city is wonderful with many malls and a great infrastructure. We have bought almost ALL our furniture at a couple of different stores on the Via Espanol and El Dorado. Selecta and Furniture City are the names of the stores.

We have been involved in Spanish meetings and Cantonese meetings. The IMB people have been just wonderful. Our supervisor is helping us to continue our Spanish study ............WELL, got to go. More later.......We have got to go the beach at Santa Clara......................... (Just for orientation purposes........we promise to have a bad time........................)

John Mark

8/29/05
Hi Everybody! The big news is that we are moving to Panama City, Panama next Sunday, September 4th! Let me share some excerpts of a letter we got from Ken Sorrell of our regional office:

"This week you requested that we allow you guys to exit language school after two trimesters and go ahead and make your transition to Panama. I have consulted a wide variety of folks who need to have input into this decision. A key person, of course, is Wilma Mann, who gives you a positive recommendation to go ahead and go. Panama, although not expecting to see you for another several months, is willing to work with us on this as well. Therefore, since no one that I have spoken with has raised any objection to this idea, you are approved to go ahead and make your move to Panama as soon as all of the logistical arrangements can be made. Congratulations on your excellent language study efforts in Costa Rica. You guys have done extremely well for two trimesters and we are all proud and excited for you. We continue to pray that God will use you in a mighty way among the Chinese speaking population of Panama and that through your efforts, a ripple effect will indeed touch the entire world. Based upon when you can get out, I may or may not see you in a couple of weeks. In the event that I don't, God speed as you travel and move. It was a joy to get to see you a while back and to get to know you better."

We will continue Spanish language learning with Dave Clines, as our immediate supervisor to overseeing and holding us accountable during this extended language study time.

Our e-mail will be john.hansen@macregion.org , though we will be without e-mail service for a while this next week. Let me give you some addresses and some phone numbers:

800X Julio Linares
Balboa, Ancón
Panamá
507-228-0836

Mailing address:
Misión Bautista de Panamá
John Mark Hansen
Apartado E
Balboa, Ancón
Panamá

Business Manager's phone # 507-228-0798
Office: 507-228-4613
Cell: 507-6614-9924

The morning after we found out about the move Cheryl's parents came for a visit. We have enjoyed having them here. They will be leaving in the morning for their return to Nebraska. We have sold most of the things we had for sale so we are our preparations are on way. We are to pick up travel documents later this morning from the Panamanian Embassy. Please keep us in your prayers this week!

The Hansens

8/7/05
Things are winding down here for this trimester. We still technically have two weeks of classes left this trimester but the final week is broken up by a holiday on Monday & graduation ceremonies on Friday. John Mark & I have both had our Oral Proficiency Interviews for this trimester and will get the results back within several weeks. John Mark will continue his tutoring at home next trimester and I will still be studying at the Instituto de Lengua Espanola, however, with a significant change. Instead of a group conversation class, I will be meeting with a conversation teacher one-on-one. I requested this change in order to get more intensive conversation practice. Pray that God will arrange teachers that are just right for our needs.

Nathan left on a GO Project this morning that will keep him busy in the province of Liberia for 6 days. He is joining a volunteer team from Michigan. You can pray for fruitful ministry this week, good relationships with the other workers, safety, good health, & good weather. He has not been mooning constantly over Amanda, at least not aloud, but we know he is looking forward to seeing her again. His time with us is winding down fast. By the time he comes back from this mission trip he will only have about 5 more days with us. We have enjoyed having him around.

My parent's visit is coming up soon. The tour guide whom we will be using while her mom & dad are here finalized most of our plans this week. Lord willing, we will take them to the Pacific coast for a couple days and then take some shorter trips to sites around San Jose. Since we don't have a car at our disposal & my mom can't walk for long periods of time, we are trying to keep from over booking our time together. Since this will be the first time that my mom has been outside of the United States, you can pray for good health & safety during their visit as well as for their adjustment to experiencing life outside of the "norm".

We language students had a conference on Friday evening & Saturday morning sponsored by our regional leadership. The topic was "Healthy Families". We appreciate that they care about us & are trying to prevent problems. Christine had a youth group function, called a "Fun Night", on Friday night & then stayed overnight with one of the other girls. She is singing up front with the praise team on Saturday nights now. She is already experiencing some of the highs & lows that accompany that kind of ministry!

That's about all for us. Here a picture about what we did earlier this week.

Love,

John Mark & Cheryl Hansen

6/12/05
We will be picking Christine up at the airport in about an hour. Her friends on MSN have been hearing more about her trip than we have! Actually we're glad that she isn't clingy & homesick when she's away from us. It will be fun to hear about her trip.

Rainy season being what it is, it has rained every day this week. How do you combat the blahs after the 2nd or 3rd week of rain? You take a trip to the "used" book store in downtown San Jose & stock up on some books. ( Por supuesto, I only read after my homework is done!)

This is family emphasis month at Primera Iglesia Bautista San Jose & we played a "Hollywood Squares"-type game on Thursday night, with two teams answering the pastor's questions about families in the Bible. I am pleased to report that in the first round, John Mark was the only person on his team who correctly answered a question & proudly took his seat on the platform. (His team ultimately lost but that's beside the point!) We observed a vigorous spirit of competition in the crowd, one might even say cutthroat, despite the admonitions of the mothers & grandmothers that "it's only a game". This, in spite of the fact that we have been told repeatedly how uncompetitive the Ticos are. This theory obviously needs more thorough research! We continue to enjoy our time there. They are a fun-loving bunch & seem to be very caring. Pastor Amaya is a very sharp guy, a good preacher/teacher and loves his "flock". Thank you for praying for us as we come & go on Thursday nights.

Please continue to pray also for our Sunday school class on Sunday mornings. John Mark & I gave our testimonies last Sunday and a very clear gospel presentation. Pray for clear understanding of the gospel, conviction, and a growing relationship with the students. We are hoping to grow some of the older students into possible leaders. You can pray also for their boldness & willingness to step forward when the time is ripe.

One of my two oral exams in conversation class this trimester was on Wednesday. I had to talk about myself for 20 minutes. I started with meeting John Mark in college & just kept talking until I was out of time. I made it through our dating, marriage, first jobs & house, our move to Texas for seminary, & part of our experience in Taiwan. That was the longest 20 minutes of my life! One down, one to go. . .

We finally broke down & called Christine in the States. She has been having a great time - she arrives back in Costa Rica on Sunday night. The next day she will jump into her summer intensive Spanish course.

Friday evening we enjoyed a potluck cookout with other IMB language students in the Middle America/Caribbean Basin area. Our regional trainer, Ken Sorrel, was here for some training sessions on Saturday. It was refreshing to take a little time out from language study to look ahead & think again about our target group, church planting movements, and the process of forming strategies to reach them. It gives meaning & clarity to why we struggle with the verb conjugations every day!!

Thanks again for keeping us in your prayers. Our perseverance now will pay big dividends in the years to come. . .

Cheryl & John Mark

6/6/05
Hi friends! Believe it or not, we miss Christine's perky face around the house. She keeps us from getting too obsessive in our studies. My conversation teacher, who is a 50-something yr. old divorced woman & a fine ( if sometimes a bit prissy) Christian layperson in an Assemblies of God church here, explained to us the proper care of a ceramic tile floor in this culture. It requires two sweepings, one wet mopping with a disinfectant, & an application of a paste wax followed by buffing ( for a high shine!). This is done as often as needed in order to have continually spotless floors. This is one cultural pressure that I'm happy not to succumb to!

I know our lives probably sound a bit exotic from your end but believe me, they don't seem very exciting from this end! Our school & study schedule is the same day after day and we've fallen into the habit of frequenting the same stores, malls, & restaurants. It's not bad; in fact, the movies are pretty inexpensive here & have become our main weekend entertainment. With our student discount it costs us a little less than $3.00 each to see a movie & on Wednesdays, its half price! (You see why its a favorite with the missionaries here?!)

I'm casting about for exercise ideas. Now that we're officially in "rainy season" or winter (invierno), the weather pattern every day is pretty predictable. It's usually pretty decent in the mornings, sometimes downright hot, when we are in Spanish classes and anytime after 11:00 am it begins to cloud up & rain. Depending on the day, it may rain the rest of the day or stop after a couple of hours. It gets dark at about 5:30 pm here. The nice thing about the rain is that it cools everything down. The bad thing is that it makes going anywhere a soggy affair & is a bit depressing after awhile. I think it will seem less oppressive in Panama when we have a vehicle so we don't have to get soaked in order to go anywhere. In May a group of missionaries just graduated from language school & moved on to their fields of service. The good news for us is that many of them sold stuff that they didn't want to take with them, stuff like muffin mixes(!), and other food items that are either hard to find or very expensive here. Right now I must have the world's largest collection of muffin mixes outside Sam's Club! (Maybe this will not be good for my weight!)

Saturday we went on a day trip with a group of language students to the La Paz Waterfall & Butterfly Gardens. The place is 25 miles away but it took about an hour & 15 minutes to get there on the windy mountain roads. (Dramamine is a travel staple here!) We stopped first at the town of Sarchi, which is known for its hand painted ox cart replicas, which are favorite souvenirs from Costa Rica. However, since John Mark & I have seen them before, we skipped the souvenir shops & headed, instead, for the furniture store across the street. It had beautiful custom made hard wood furniture. Some of the dining table tops were made from single planks of wood, obviously from a huge tree! We asked about that & were told that furniture was made in Nicaragua because Costa Rica has laws against cutting down virgin wood in the rain forests but Nicaragua does not. Costa Rica's economy is based on its tourism so it guards its natural resources very carefully. We're hoping for furniture as pretty as that in Panama. The La Paz Waterfall(s) were another half hour down the road. It is a lovely development with a couple of restaurants, a huge butterfly garden & education area, a garden filled with hummingbird feeders and hundreds of darting hummingbirds, a display of lizards, snakes, & frogs and a very well done series of steps that take you down the mountain following the Rio Paz ( Peace River) where you stop at a number of scenic spots to view the series of waterfalls as the river makes its way down the mountain. Even though it rained the entire time that we were there (thankfully not a downpour), in many ways it heightened the sense of being in the rain forest & added to the ambiance. John Mark & I enjoyed watching the hummingbirds from a distance of only 2 feet and discovered some colors that we don't see in the hummingbirds in Nebraska. Our neighbors next door have a hummingbird nest in their bush & we enjoy checking on it & watching the mother bird come & go.La Paz is a beautiful place & good exercise to boot!

Sunday morning John Mark & I had our Sunday school class for the high school and college crowd at the Chinese church. John Mark did I full gospel presentation and we both did our testimonies in Chinese and English with some Spanish mixed in. Please pray for Rocio (Xie Lan Xi) as she seems like she was searching spiritually today. We will follow up with the group this week.

WE APPRECIATE YOU!

Cheryl and John Mark

5-31-05
How can we pray for your ministry and family? Language school-wise, this has been a pretty uneventful week. I heard an interesting fact in conversation class, however. Did you know that in Costa Rica, by law you must be Catholic in order to be president? Interesting! This is how my week in conversation class is scheduled :

Mon.- describe my weekend
Tues. - present a magazine or newspaper article to the class & discuss
Wed.- prepare to discuss an assigned topic
Thur. - present a 25 minute bible study/devotional
Friday - interview people in the community about a topic & report their answers to the class

The part of language study that I don't like is being in a group class. For me, it brings out emotions like competition & comparison that I don't like & that detract from the joy of learning the language. When we studied Mandarin in Taipei, we had individual tutors so I never had those kinds of feelings. I was on my own learning schedule & it was just me & the teacher. In a group class there is the temptation to compare yourself to other people & get worried if they speak a little faster, remember words that you've forgotten, or use a sentence pattern that you screw up regularly! You can walk away feeling defeated when there's really no good reason to. Also, I'm enough of an introvert that I prefer talking to another individual rather than giving a report in front of a class. But. . . since I'm making good progress in Spanish I can't really justify an individual tutor. That's an ongoing thing that you can pray for me about!

We have a fair number of robberies & armed street thefts in the neighborhood we live in. We try to be careful but there really isn't much we can do besides pray for God's protection. This stuff happens in broad daylight, to groups of people, sometimes with a weapon, sometimes without, so its very hard to guess how to avoid it. Our language school is supposed to be arranging for some training for the students as far as security issues are concerned. Fortunately, for our peace of mind, its hard to imagine it happening to you so you don't think about it alot!

Stress: We all feel stressed at times. God is gracious in that we don't all get super stressed at the same time over the same things! Usually one or two of us are doing well when number three is stressing out so we can pull them back in & let them vent a little. Our lives have a familiar pattern to them again now - which relieves a little stress. We choose our adventures when we're up for it & follow our routine, ie. going to certain restaurants, movie theaters, malls, etc. the rest of the time. Having Nathan here for around 6 weeks this summer will be somewhat stressful but we are looking forward to it regardless. My parents are coming for 10 days in August ( after Nathan leaves) which will also be stressful in its own way. We'd appreciate it if you kept us in your prayers during those times, especially!

Nathan will finish his summer school classes by June 30 so we finalized plans for Nathan to come from July 4 - August 17. We're not sure how much "stuff" he wants to do while he's here but we are exploring options for missions trips, language study, traveling, & of course, just hanging out! John Mark & I will still be in language study Monday - Friday so we will not have the freedom to travel, except on weekends. We are looking forward to his visit.

We put Christine & her girlfriend, Kaitlyn, on an airplane for the States on Friday morning. She felt completely confident even though this was her first time flying without us. I admit we were not nearly as confident & plied her with lots of last minute advice on how to hang on to a passport for 12 hours! Needless to say, the trip went well & she is now in the care of her grandparents for a few days. She returns on June 12, which means that we are childless for two weeks. Hmmmm. . .

John Mark is planning a 6 day trip to Panama from June 23 - 28. He will be traveling with his tutor, Harold Mendoza, and Harold's mother & adult sister. John Mark will be poking around Panama City meeting with a variety of strategic people while Harold & his family will be attending a family wedding. You can be praying that John Mark has discernment as he talks with people & gains much valuable information. We want this to be a valuable language learning activity as well.

The Thursday night service that John Mark & I attend at Primera Iglesia Bautista - San Jose is fun because most of the people are from the Limon area & have a Carribbean background. They rarely use their English with us but when they do, it has a fun Jamaican lilt to it! The part of the service when we partner with others & pray is always terrifying for me - lots of unusual tenses & pronouns. Pray for me!

That's about all of the news from here for now. . .please include us in your prayers, its what keeps us going.

John Mark & Cheryl

5-22-05
NEWSFLASH - the Hansens are alive & well in Costa Rica! I talked to Nathan Saturday morning. He was going to host Amanda Morse's parents at Kearney yesterday. Nathan has been dating Amanda for a couple of months. They continue to enjoy talking on the phone each evening while Nathan is in Kearney and Amanda is working at a Greek restaurant in Omaha. He is half done with two classes this short semster as the first session of summer school only lasts for 4 weeks. I think he enjoys his music class, but finds the astonomy class really challenging. His teacher is from Nicaragua. As I understand it, Nathan's first session ends on Friday, June 3rd. I believe he has May 30th off, but I don't know how busy he will be with studies that weekend. I will let him speak for himself. Nathan is thinking about coming down to Costa Rica in August.

Here is the newsletter Cheryl put together yesterday:

The last few weeks have been a blur of finishing up the last trimester of language school, traveling & "hanging out" with John Mark's parents for 10 days, attending a 2- day storying conference, helping a new family of missionaries get settled in, jumping into our second trimester of school, and going on a weekend missions trip to Barranca. We could write an entire letter about any one of those events ( & probably should have) but we seriously doubt that your "trasero" (bottom) would last through that lengthy a newsletter in one sitting. Therefore, it will have to suffice to hit a few high points to bring you up to date.

We were pleased with our classroom grades and the results of our oral testing after our first trimester & feel like we are well on our way toward our language goals. John Mark is working privately now with his language teacher, Harold, at home for 3 hours every morning. It is intense but John Mark is making good progress. Cheryl likes her new teachers very much. They are very well trained & prepared for class each day and have lots of creative ideas. Cheryl feels like her conversational skills will really grow this trimester.

John Mark's parents are extensive travelers so they probably didn't see much that they hadn't seen before but they were game for about anything we suggested. They tried the ocean waves at Christine's insistence and waited around in the dark to get a glimpse of the lava from Volcan Arenal glowing red. Grandpa even tried the water slide at the pool! Not bad for a 72 yr. old! Grandma survived 3 stitches to the chin and a marathon session at the local beauty shop. They attended both Spanish & Mandarin
church services with us. Christine ventured out a couple of times as tour guide for her grandparents & discovered that she CAN do it.

We had five new IMB families arrive in Costa Rica to begin language study this trimester. Those of us who were already here were assigned as Big Brothers & Sisters and helped them set up housekeeping, find their way to the grocery store, hire maids, etc. Hooray! We are no longer the "greenest" missionaries on the block. In addition, Christine is enjoying a new girl, Keverly Dyson, who has just arrived.

Several of our long term missionaries in Costa Rica put together an abbreviated missions trip for we language students. Since we can't miss language school, they fit it into a Saturday-Sunday schedule. We left early on Saturday morning for the town of Barranca, which is near the west coast port city of Puntarenas. Together with the youth & some adults from Iglesia Bautista Barranca, we prayer walked during the morning and distributed gospels of John in the afternoon, inviting people to a showing of the "Jesus" movie that evening. We saw some decisions for Christ that weekend, enjoyed praying with people, were encouraged to see a number of people reading their gospels of John in the neighborhoods, enjoyed meeting & fellowshipping with the people at Iglesia Bautista Barranca, and got an "up close & personal" look at living conditions & the hurts in peoples lives. It was time well spent.

Nathan had another great semester at Kearney & decided to hang around Kearney & take 9 hours of summer school. It may work out to fly him down here for a bit sometime this summer- we're still seeing what will work best. A young lady from Omaha who is a recent Christian is occupying much of Nathan's attention this summer. We are happy for him & praying HARD! We understand that he is meeting her parents this weekend. . .

We met the pastor of Primera Iglesia Bautista-San Jose through a mutual contact & discovered that he is from Panama & has an interest in work with Chinese in Panama City. We have begun attending their Thursday night service in central San Jose. He has been the pastor of this church for only a short time but we like his vision for the church and his understanding of the neighborhood that the church is in. It is a business district during the day but has low income housing & is considered a dangerous place after dark. Pray for our safety as we (John Mark & Cheryl) take taxis to & from the church on Thursday nights. Also, we are teaching a Sunday school class for youth at the Chinese church on Sunday mornings. It is an interesting mix of cultures & languages. They come from Taiwanese homes or Tica homes and most use three languages in varying degrees of proficiency. We generally use Mandarin, Spanish, &
English during the lesson, depending on which kids are there, to make sure everyone understands the lesson. Its pretty wild! Pray for good communication & building relationships with these kids. Not all are
Christians.

Last but not least, Christine is going to be spending 16 days in the States. She leaves for the States on May 27 and will spend some time with each set of grandparents and some time with her friends in Norfolk as well. She will fly with another missionary family who is returning to the States for their daughter's wedding. Besides spending time with friends & family, Christine is hoping to do some clothes shopping. She will fly back on June 12. The rest of the summer she'll be in a kids' intensive Spanish program each morning.

That about brings you up to date with us. Thank you for praying for us & for lifting up our language study. There is no way around it, its just a long hard process! Our love to all. . .

John Mark & Cheryl Hansen

5/12/05
Today I want to contact Chang Siu Mui who served as a short term missionary in Taiwan is working in South America with Chinese and we are hoping to get insight from her and Paul & Aurore Trinh on how to best reach the Chinese in our region for Christ. The Trinhs like Siu Mui are multi-lingual and have been based out of the Dominican Republic. We would love to work on a team with them in the future. I am hoping to go to Panama City next month with my language teacher.

Cheryl and I started teaching a Chinese high school/college class at the Mandarin church here in San Jose, Costa Rica. We prepare our lesson in Spanish, English and Mandarin. We don't know from week to week whether language will be the best to use in the class as some of these folks have lived here all their lives and others have been here for just months. I have three hours of private tutoring in the morning and your mother has 4 hours of group classes at the school. Tonight we will visit at First Baptist of San Jose. It is a downtown and the pastor came to our house and invited us to come and join them.

We are joining a weekend outreach in Barranca, Puntarenas, Costa Rica, May 14-15. This is a busy port city on the west coast of Costa Rica. The national pastor/church planter with whom we will work is recuperating from his heart attack and still wants us to come. He’s got a big heart.

We have training at fellow missionaries' (Mark and Pam Grumbles) house Friday at 1-2:15 pm (except for those in school – teenagers). Christine and several other teenage MKs will join us for this outreach. Leave El Parque del Bosque (the big park west of our house) at 7:30 a.m. Saturday, May 14. We will saturate with prayerwalk and gospel tract distribution all day Saturday and also invite to an outreach movie that night. This area has already been saturated previously with the Gospel of John. We are the “SECOND WAVE.”

Christine is doing well considering she is in the fourth school in year! She has made friends here in Costa Rica, but sometimes is "odd man out." A new girl just came a few days ago and Christine and she hit it off well. This is great news. She still enjoys Annie Grumbles, also. Christine is taking guitar and is doing very well! She has started to grow and is 5'4" now, she may get as tall as Cheryl yet. I am glad that she and her girl friends are going on this GO project.

John Mark

4/10/05
Today we had a wonderful service at the Mandarin Baptist Church here in San Jose. Pastor Leung was dressed in a bright red robe and baptized two adults as an outward sign on the inward relationship that they have with Jesus Christ. Is this important? You bet! Pastor Stephen wanted use to understand that Christianity is a relationship not a religion, so he proceed to drive it home in THREE languages besides his native Cantonese! Why baptize people wearing a RED robe? Because red in the happy, joyous color of blessing in Chinese culture. Pastor baptizes people "face first" rather than backwards as I have done it in the United States. As our son Nathan says, "It's all good!"

We are now in the last two weeks before the end of this, our first trimester. Our little "mentes" are full to bursting with all of the sentence patterns & verb conjugations that we have been learning. Its a little strange to be back in the mind set of final exams/tests at our age. We are weary & ready for the two week break between trimesters. We have Monday off for a national holiday. If you're interested in the history behind the holiday just do a little research on a dude by the name of Walker who tried, unsuccessfully, to lead a rebellion in Costa Rica with a bunch of mercenaries. At any rate, we are happy to have an extra day off of language study!

NOTE: Juan Santamaría Day. The 11th of April is the day Ticos commemorate the death of their national hero, Juan Santamaria who heroically died in the Battle of Rivas against William Walker's troops in 1856. The week-long celebrations include band parades, concerts and dancing. And of course, there is much food and drink, including all the typical favorites.

All of the IMB missionaries at the language institute have an oral exam at the end of each trimester. They are affectionately known as "opies", which stands for OPI (oral proficiency interviews). I had mine yesterday, Friday, & am happy to have it over with. It is always a little intimidating to speak into a tape recorder. The interviewer asks lots of open-ended questions & wants you to elaborate on the question, using as much vocabulary & sentence structure variation as you are able to. They last for about half an hour. John Mark will have his on Tuesday afternoon. I know he would appreciate your prayer support on that. As I type, someone in the neighborhood has their stereo system cranked up & is listening to "How Deep Is Your Love" by the Bee gees. How odd!

John Mark's parents are coming to visit during our two week break. So far, we have a trip to the beach at Punta Leona & a trip to Volcan Arenal planned. I'm sure we will make some additional day trips & jaunts around the San Jose area while they are here.

A cultural aside: Our roof is made of tin, like many other peoples' and therefore, it makes quite a loud racket when the neighborhood cats wander across it in the middle of the night. We pretty much ignore the noise now but we had some pretty nerve-wracking moments during our first few nights in San Jose, imagining that burglars were scaling our roof.

We are pleased that Christine is enjoying her guitar lessons and is practicing faithfully. She did some baby sitting this week & had two sleep overs this weekend so life is good! She had a term paper due on Friday so she is relieved to have that chore over with. Nathan's freshman year at Kearney is drawing (no pun intended) to a close as well and he is seriously considering taking a full load during summer school if he can find enough applicable classes. We shall see. . .

That's about all of our news from San Jose for now. Take care & keep in touch. . .

Cheryl & John Mark Hansen

4/2/05

Hi Everyone! Both John Mark's family and my family spent time with our son Nathan is the last two weeks. We loved some pictures of him & of course, hearing about how Nathan is doing. We are very proud of him & feel like he is well-grounded in his thinking & just a really nice young man! We look forward to seeing what God will do with him and what type of work he ends up doing. We know that Nathan is the kind of guy that would like to have a friend/companion to go through life with so we are praying hard that he will be patient until God brings along the right type of person for him.

This has been a pretty ordinary week. My head is full of past tense conjugations in both preterito & imperfecto. It'll be amazing if I can remember them with any speed & use them correctly! Christine left on Thursday afternoon for a weekend camp. It is quiet around here without her but she will be back Sunday afternoon. After having our Friday night & Saturday morning meetings, John Mark & I headed to the mall for a little shopping (sandals for rainy season) and saw "Spanglish". We were pleasantly surprised by the theme & the decisions made by the main characters.

John Mark & I have decided that we need to get serious again about a little more weight loss. We have been eating out more frequently, especially for lunch, and that, combined with fewer low fat choices & sugar free foods, snacking between meals, & a bit less aerobic exercise than before have all taken their toll. It's always tough to cut back because food is such an easy & relatively cheap source of entertainment! You can pray for our self discipline.

John Mark writing:

I started with another Spanish teacher for phonetics on Tuesday. My classmates range from a Chinese girl who is nineteen to a volunteer coordinator who is in his late fifties, so anybody would fit into these classes!

I found out that an old researcher friend from the IMB is available to come to Panama to help do interviewing of the Chinese, so as to understand their world view. He sounds honestly excited about this project, which is amazing considering how many of these he has done through the years. Hopefully, that project will help us to develop an appropriate Church Planting Movement strategy.

Last week we had a great visit from a retirement age couple from the Denver area. They are Vern and Doris Olson. Vern has started over 40 churches in the mountain states and is originally from Aurora, Nebraska. He and Doris have been married for only two years. She spent many years in Hong Kong doing Cantonese ministry. They have just finished a short term ministry in Panama with the Cantonese Chinese community there.

They shared many interesting and informative stories about their time in Panama City. The first weekend they were in Panama City they joined the Chinese church for several activities. The group gathering Friday evening eventually grew to 30, waiting about an hour for the good Chinese meal while the Olsons mingled among them, visiting, answering questions, and getting acquainted. Most were young people. Not all were Christians. Most are “displaced people”, with complex problems. A young fellow Vern counseled had quit his job 3 months ago wanting to go to Bible school to train to serve the Lord, hoping someone would support him! His wife is not with him in this and their marriage is in crisis.

Unemployment in Panama is high, leading to much thieving and robberies. Chinese businesses get targeted most because they are known to work hard and save their cash. In contrast, if given a raise, a Panamanian worker may stay home from work until he’s spent the extra money! The robbers know where there is likely to be money! A young Chinese mother came to church a couple of days later with her lower face covered. Robbers had burst into her shop for money. Though she held a baby in her arms, they shot away her jaw with a rifle so she couldn't call the police! Now, 7 years and 19 surgeries later, she is still embarrassed to show what is left of her face!

After some radio interviews in Chinese, the Olsons and several of the Chinese believers went out visiting in the Chinese community. One young mother had come to a relationship with Christ through the loss of her husband two years ago to cancer. As a single mom she supports her two daughters by working in a beauty salon. She has to give half of her pay to the owner of the shop and business is poor. Doris and some of the Chinese ladies went to give her some business--$6.00 US for a haircut! One of her daughters, 8 years old, has a rare blood disease so needs a blood transfusion every month to stay alive! So many heartaches! Life in Panama is tough for many. The Olsons and the church talked and prayed with her boss who wants to be a Christian and has prayed to receive Christ but feels he can't go to church because of shady business he’s involved in—a massage parlor to give work to single moms abandoned by their husbands, who still have children to support. Prostitution is involved. They make half. For a year he has tried to sell this business to pay off his mortgage on the place! He feels his reputation is too bad to come to church until he can get rid of this business. The Chinese community here knows his connections and “my coming to church would hurt the reputation of the church”, he said. “I will come to church and make known my desire to follow Jesus when I can get rid of this business”. Heartaches!

I know this prayer request is a bit unusual but would you please pray that this seeker can quickly sell his prostitution business? He is also divorced—his Chinese wife didn't like Panama so returned to China. What should he do about the Panamanian woman he’s living with, has a child by, and is his partner in the salon business? Sin weaves a tangled web but Jesus CAME to set captives FREE!

As a side story, our favorite Chinese restaurant, located a few blocks from our home here in San Jose, is run by a family named Tan. We had gently witnessed to them and left Spanish/Chinese tracts at their place. Last Saturday afternoon our missionary friends in San Jose prayer walked the area and we stopped and asked if we could pray for them. Surprisingly they were excited to have us pray. On Easter morning we were talking to our Chinese pastor about the family and he said, "Oh, I know that family, the Cantonese church led them to a relation with Jesus last week!" Stephen Leung, our Chinese pastor, is planning a study furlough at seminary in Louisville, KY next year and is hoping to do more research on reaching Latin Chinese for Christ. He has been a wonderful encouragement to us. Pastor Stephen suggests that we consider trying to start a Mandarin work in Panama City, as all of the existing Chinese churches are Cantonese.

Thanks for your prayer support,

John Mark

3/29/05
Yesterday as part of our IMB missionaries observance of Easter weekday we prayed and walked around the neighborhoods where our different missionaries lived. As we prayed, different neighbors came and asked for prayer over their homes and it was a joy to pray for them also.

A special treat for Cheryl and I was to lead the group in prayer at the Chinese restaurant near our home where we often eat. Please be in prayer for the Tan family and the Chen family as we continue to witness to them. Hope this finds all of you wonderful prayer supporters enjoying a blessed Resurrection Sunday for He HAS risen!

John Mark

3-27-05
Why do we call it "Good Friday"? Shouldn't we call it "Sad Friday" and "Good Sunday"? Anyway, we attended the Good Friday procession of the large Catholic church in our suburb of San Jose. It is unlike any parade in the U.S. where you mark your spot and park your lawn chair and sit and wait. Here the parade was to start at 9:00, but started instead at 9:55 (technically within the 9:00 hour). It started with a drama in front of the church and the whole crowd walked WITH the actors portraying Christ's crucifixion for 2 hours. They stopped at determined lengths and dramatized different "stations of the cross". (Stations of the Cross are a part of Catholic tradition.)

Note:

Costa Rica is different from other Latin American countries, because it practices a "lukewarm" Catholicism that causes a strange mixture of partying and religious celebration during these holidays. Ever since colonial times, the Catholic Institution hasn't exerted a powerful influence either politically or culturally. Most Costa Rican Catholics view their religion more as a tradition than as a practice or even a faith. Also, the Indian population is so small, that religious events don't offer a mixture of Catholic and Indian practices; thus, Costa Rican processions, for example, aren't as colorful as in Mexico or Guatemala. Even though some Costa Ricans decide to party during religious celebrations, they still prefer to do it in the company of their family, thus maintaining cultural and family unity. Ticos are extremely friendly to foreigners, and once they've gotten to know you they'll invite you to family gatherings and celebrations. After all, hospitality is probably the most widespread tradition in Costa Rica. http://www.costarica.net/features/culture.htm, http://www.forovial.com/costarica/culture_overview.asp

Here in San Jose, it was surprising when the audience clapping as they took the dead Jesus off the cross. Here, Friday is the most sacred and revered day, whereas Sunday is just any other day. This is in contrast to the joy we see in the Scripture that the day of resurrection is the most important, because we serve a risen Savior, not a dead corpse.

Thanks,

John Mark

3/19/05
Today we visited Volcano Irazu at 3432 meters (11,080 feet) above sea level. It was a beautiful day above the clouds. The landscape is like the moon around the volcano. Below us was a sea of clouds.

We also visited The Lankester Gardens. There are more than 1,400 varieties of orchids in Cost Rica, and no fewer than 800 species are on display at this 27-acre botanical garden in Cartago province.

We also went to the ruins of the oldest church in Costa Rica, built in 1693 and destroyed by an earthquake in 1831.

John Mark

3/18/05
After talking to friends and family in upper midwest of the U. S. A., I sure don't miss Nebraska's strange weather. I think we have turned a corner, seasonally speaking. It is consistently warmer now so sleeveless feels good & we don't have much rain. None of our houses here have air conditioning so during the warmest part of the day we run our fans. As long as the air is moving it feels pretty decent.

Several of you have asked about John Mark's dyslexia. As he has studied about it, it becomes clear that he probably has always had it. He remembers how frustrating it was for him to read aloud all through grade school, switching letters in words, or substituting entire words, mispronouncing some things for years, etc. He was blessed to have a mother who read to him ALOT - which helped him to draw on his strength, which was & is his oral skills. It explained why he could do so well in written French, yet be unable to pronounce the words. More recently he experienced the same issues when learning Mandarin and Taiwanese. We are very grateful that our mission is allowing John Mark the freedom to create a learning situation that specifically addresses his learning needs. Please pray that we will have wisdom & discernment in choosing materials for him to use & that God will bring to our attention those people who will make great teachers & language helpers for John Mark.

Nathan has been spending his spring break with his grandparents in Omaha. He really enjoyed his week with them.

Christine had a good report card this week. . .she struggles with the word problems in algebra ( as do I when I try to help her) so this has been a trying unit for her. Even so, she managed a high "B" in algebra - one that represents a lot of hard work for her. She has been frustrated with her placement in Spanish. Because she is the only beginning Spanish student in high school, they don't really have a class specifically for her level & they can't justify a teacher just for her. Therefore, they threw her in with some other high schoolers who are quite a bit more advanced than she & she has been struggling in that class for the last two months. She managed to get a "B" in that class also so we are quite proud of her. This summer she will get to be in an intensive Spanish program for three months - we're hopeful that it will be geared more to her needs & that it will help pull together other things that she has been exposed to already. All of her other grades were "A"s. This weekend Christine is at one of the beaches on the Pacific coast with 3 other girls (& the family of one of the girl's) to celebrate the girl's birthday. We had to make an emergency trip to the closest mall last night to buy a present for her. She left this afternoon & will be back on Sunday afternoon - hopefully without a nasty burn. The newest thing in her life is guitar lessons, which are scheduled to begin the week after Easter. She will have a one hour lesson once a week. We will be borrowing a guitar for a couple of months to see if she has any long-term interest in the guitar before investing in one for her. One of our long-term missionaries in Costa Rica took John Mark to a guitar factory a couple of months ago where he watched them hand-make custom guitars for very reasonable prices. We would like to get one made for Christine if she shows some commitment to the idea.

Next week, of course, is Holy Week here also, which is called "Santa Semana" or "Semana Santa", depending on who is talking. It is vacation time from school for the local kids & a time for families to leave town for beaches, etc. Easter is not as big a spiritual holiday here as it is in the states but there are certain kinds of activities at the Catholic churches that are very traditional. John Mark & I are participating in a field trip tomorrow that will visit the basilica in Cartago to tour it & observe some of the traditions. We'll tell you more about our experience afterward. We will also get to visit one of the nearer volcanoes, Irazu. We're hoping for a clear day so we can see something.

I volunteered to bring one of the "finger foods" for bible study at church on Thursday evening this week. I asked my conversation teacher what would be a good thing to take, something that everyone would like. She suggested tuna salad with Ritz crackers to eat it on. That's exactly what I did & they ate all of it! I guess that's a good sign. We had a guest pastor who led the study on Genesis. We are slowly understanding more & are more able to make conversation with people. Its a slow, almost imperceptible process but if you look back a month or two you can really see progress. John Mark got to help take up the offering last Sunday. It is a little thing but it helps us feel more like real people who can participate in normal ways.

The grammar structure continues to get more complicated. Its true that you learn a lot about your own language as you study another. We have been studying direct & indirect objects & their pronouns, reflexive verbs, & now intransitive verbs. Some of these things will take a lot of time & exposure to understand well & use correctly but you have to start somewhere! I am enjoying both my friend, Vanesa, whom I spend time with once a week, and my language tutor, Harold, whom I work with three days a week. Vanesa & I have taken to going shopping together & usually end up sitting somewhere at the mall, talking. I usually review whatever I'm working on in gramatica with Harold. John Mark works with Harold five days a week. Next "term" John Mark is probably going to switch completely to private tutoring & skip the language school altogether. He learns much better with lots of oral repetition rather than reading off the page. We are thrilled that he has the option to study this way.

We have Thursday & Friday off for Easter but don't have any special plans to do anything. Some folks in my language classes are planning a potluck for Good Friday - we will probably go to that. The next weekend Christine will go to "camp" for three days with her youth group while John Mark & I have a required regional meeting. Do you think she'd trade with us?

All for now. . .

Cheryl & all
 
2/27/05
With fear & trepidation we invited our Spanish pastor & his family to our home for supper on Friday night. My plan was to spend Friday afternoon cleaning & cooking for company. However. . . . . .God had different ideas. As I was beginning to cook, my neighbor dropped in to say "hi". Entertaining someone in Costa Rica is not a quickie affair - it requires drinks & snacks & lots of conversation, after all, maintaining relationships is more important than anything else you could be doing, right? I actually gained a couple of important bits of information during her visit. One was a suggestion for the type of salad I should fix for my company and the other was her instructions on how to properly entertain drop-in guests! As she was leaving (after about an hour & a half) John Mark's language helper arrived late, after renewing his relationship with an old friend across the street from us (there's that relationship "thing" again). He was still at the house when our company arrived so we invited him to stay also. (Did I mention that the language helper already knows our pastor?) At any rate, we had a wonderful evening, they enjoyed the salad that my neighbor had suggested, John Mark's language helper was a godsend in helping him communicate effectively with our pastor, and the pastor's wife was a delightfully encouraging person to communicate with. Their daughter attends a bilingual school, so she speaks English very well and had no problem communicating with Christine. By the way, John Mark ended up ordering pizza over the phone & we got what we thought we ordered - a real success story!

Christine is fasting for 36 hours to raise money for World Vision's hunger relief efforts. This is a first time experience for her - she seems to be doing well. The youth group is also raising some additional money by washing cars today, so she is keeping busy.

John Mark & I had an evangelism workshop sponsored by our regional leadership team these last two days. It was good review of some other materials that we've been exposed to plus some good video clips of some animistic/folk religion practices here. The syncretistic mix of religion here is mind boggling. For us, the workshop underscored how important it is to know exactly what people believe & practice before trying to speak to their spiritual needs.

We continue to plod along in language study. John Mark is thrilled to be exchanging one of his group classes for private tutoring. It would be glorious if we could do one-on-one for all of our studies but that isn't one of our options, so we make do with what we have & trust that God will use it well. We have been encouraged by our comprehension at some of the services at church recently. However, others leave us completely in the dark! Its amazing how variable the experiences can be. This morning we decided on a whim to attend the morning service at our Spanish church. We were bewildered when it appeared that a wedding ceremony was being performed instead of the usual service. The "bride & groom" were seated up front in a nice suit, cocktail dress, & black hat! A unity candle was centered on the table on the platform & a wedding cake, complete with little figures of the bride & groom on top, was arranged on a serving table up front. There were no adult attendants standing with them but several preschoolers served as flower girls, ring bearer, and bible bearer. One of our deacons did the homily & we were all served a plate of food in our chairs afterward. We felt a little foolish being there when we didn't know the couple or their family but I guess it was a congregational affair. At least we had an opportunity to give an offering for the new couple at the end of the service! Our understanding was that this was not a typical wedding but a religious ceremony uniting a couple who have been living together out of wedlock & have several children already. They have recently become believers & wanted to do the right thing in God's eyes.

We were blessed when a friend from our Chinese congregation dropped off some onion cakes for us this week - they are really quite good. In fact, the food here is so good that we are struggling to keep our weight constant. Pray for our self discipline & for our wisdom in choosing well!

All for now. . .

Cheryl & John Mark

2-13-05
Is this one of those stages of adjustment? I'm critical of everything around me - the sidewalks that aren't big enough for two, the potholes in the streets, the broken sidewalks that make staring at the ground as you walk a necessity, store clerks who don't know anything, unpredictable weather that leaves you chilled or hot alternatively through the day, another odd grammar construction that seems unnecessarily complicated, teachers telling you "Tranquil" while giving you another 50 verbs to memorize - the list could go on & on. If I remember right, I felt this way about Taiwan at times too. Apart from my emotions, let me tell you what God has done for me this week.

I had been earnestly praying for a language helper/exchange situation in order to get more practice in normal conversation. In my heart I was wishing for someone near my age who shares some of the same interests/concerns that I do, but I had resigned myself to the idea of using a college student because they are typically the ones who are wanting to practice their English. I checked the bulletin board at school one day & found a name & number of someone who wanted to help me practice my Spanish (no mention of English exchange). I worked up a few sentences in Spanish (& a lot of nerve) and made the phone call. Vanessa is a 40 yr. old mother of two, ages 23 & 18, (yes, she got married at 17) who did this kind of language practice 15 yrs. ago with a single woman missionary & had a great experience. She wants to do it again & I'm the happy recipient! Isn't it ridiculous how quickly we assume things are just too difficult for God and then how quickly our emotions gain the upper hand and we forget what God has just done for us! I don't think its an accident that just this week I've been reading about Elijah & his confrontation with the prophets of Baal & Elijah's subsequent emotional turmoil.

Part of the fun of being at the Instituto de Lengua Espanola is getting to know the other students. We had the pleasure of spending time with another couple, the Aldriges, this week. Simon & Laurel hail from Canada, well actually Laurel hails from New Brunswick & Simon is British. They met at a bible college in England where they fell in love. Simon has recently become a Canadian citizen and they will be running a Christian camp up in the mountains of Costa Rica. Simon has a wonderful ear for language and can imitate accents from many places in England & Canada and thus kept us in stitches. Lots of fascinating people here!

Christine has become quite a devoted viewer of the home & garden channel. Between that & the cooking channel, she has lots of ideas about how things should be done. We're very limited in space & motivation to decorate right now but we'll see what happens when we get to Panama! She wanted to try a recipe on the cooking channel so we got all of the ingredients that she needed. Other than forgetting to grease the muffin tins (so it came out in chunks & crumbs) and the whipping cream turning to cottage cheese when she beat it (we suspect it may have been old but we're still not sure what happened) it turned out well! I'm all for sticking with the tried & true recipes that turn out well every time but that's the difference between she & I. She is doing well in school even though she is playing a little bit of catch up here & there. She is also still sizing up her teachers & learning how they do things, their habits, expectations, etc. There is an art to doing well in school and part of it is understanding your teachers.

By the way, all weekend we've been watching how they make different kinds of candy/chocolate, its been interesting...

Cheryl & John Mark

2-6-05
Sunday afternoons seem to be my longest stretch of "down" time so I usually use this time to catch up on my e-mail. This was a pretty uneventful week for me although John Mark sweat BBs over two tests he had on Friday. He had about 200 verbs that he needed to memorize how to conjugate, plus some stirring vocabulary including vegetables/fruits with descriptive adjectives to talk about them! Christine's youth group had a lock-in on Friday night at their meeting place and John Mark & I volunteered to help as sponsors. I thought staying up all night would be harder than it was. As a group, we watched all three "Lord of the Ring" movies back to back, which took a loooooong time. Lots of pizza, chips, two cups of coffee & 3 glasses of diet Coke all helped keep me going through the night. I still don't think my mind is fully functional but its getting better! John Mark managed to find a quiet corner of a room & slept, (a generous word) from 9:30 PM until 5:30 AM. He claims he did that so he'd be fresh in the morning to help with breakfast. . . . . .

On a cultural note. . .our street guard put up a grape trellis on which he is growing chaiyote, a vining plant that produces lots of shade as well as a vegetable. My conversation teacher, Eugenia, told us that the chaiyote vegetable is used to make a casserole dish called "chancleta". Chancleta also happens to be the word that is used for flip-flops, you know, those rubber sandals. Don't ask me how that footwear is related to the veggie casserole, but isn't that interesting?

We attended a Thursday night bible study at our Spanish church for additional language practice & listening comprehension. Unfortunately, after about an hour & 15 minutes of lecture on Romans my eyes were seriously glazing over. In faith we are believing, like Kevin Costner, that "if we listen, it will come"!!

Christine & I made some chocolate chip cookie bars to take to a Super Bowl party at another missionary's home tonight. We have Spanish church at 6:00PM so we'll miss a little bit of the game - ah shucks!

All for now. . .

Cheryl & John Mark

1/30/05
I had an interesting experience Friday. My neighbor, a Tica who heads a volunteer organization called "Recycling Hopes", asked if I would like to make a visit with her to one of her "girls". Her "girls" are anywhere from age 9 to about 22, are unwed & pregnant (about 20% of the time as victims of incest), are extremely poor & pregnant, or are from an abusive situation, or homeless. She told me that this girl was married but extremely poor and had recently given birth to triplets, one of whom had just died. We were visiting the home to see what supplies she needed most.

"Recycling Hopes" is operated on a shoestring budget, everyone unpaid & totally dependent on gifts & donated supplies. That being said, she had been promised a ride from a well-known model, who is a believer & anonymously gives generously to this organization. The model also has a weekly television program & seems to be quite famous locally. It was a bit intimidating to ride in her car & try to make conversation in my poor Spanish! Driving during rush hour is a work of art here & she has it down to a fine art. We arrived at the home of the "girl" & joined a room full of milling people, all there to comfort & help the family. The household included "the girl", her husband, four siblings of the "girl", the "girl's" mother & father, and one of the surviving triplets (one triplet is still in the hospital ). The family live in a corrugated metal addition on the roof of a one story home. The addition is about 800 sq. ft. & is divided into several rooms with wallboard. The ceiling is the metal roof of the addition & there is about 6" of daylight between the walls & roof.

When we arrived, the "girl" & her husband were at the hospital reclaiming the body of the baby, preparing it for placement in the casket ( which was donated by "Recycling Hopes"), and bringing the baby home until the funeral the next day. Within about 30 minutes they arrived at home and the open casket was placed on a small table surrounded with flowers so that relatives & friends could come by & offer their condolences. The custom is for people to come & STAY as long as they are able, preferably all night. My neighbor explained that most people will bring either coffee, sugar, or bread to the family during this time. Many teenagers and grade school children came and spent much time viewing the body - they didn't appear shocked or traumatized in any way by the experience. In fact, they seemed much more comfortable with the situation than most would in the States. As the room grew more crowded, one young neighbor woman fainted. I learned that she had lost a 6 month old baby recently & had been diagnosed with schizophrenia. As they attempted to revive her, my friend asked if I would take the woman's 4 yr. old girl outside & entertain her. I spent about an hour with the child, who was wonderfully talkative (not that I understood but about a fourth of what she said), showing me around the neighborhood, introducing me to her friends, and roller blading. I was glad that I could be of some help & I was especially grateful that she was such a friendly child!

This has been a tumultuous two weeks in language school. The school reshuffled students & decided to bump me upwards by two sections. I struggled in my new grammar class for several days before telling the director that I thought I was in over my head. She was very encouraging & suggested that I give it another week. I suffered through another week before returning to her office & pleading to be returned to my previous class. I appreciated the compliment but it was just too stressful. She allowed me to change back & I have been soooooo much happier these last couple of days! I feel like someone who has been dog paddling as hard as they can for hours & then returns to water where they can get their feet
on solid ground.

Christine had a break from school on Friday so she lobbied for a trip to the beach with the families of two of her friends last weekend so we found ourselves at Junquillal Beach on the Pacific coast in northwest Costa Rica. Not being much of a beach bunny myself, I spent most of the time in a hammock in the shade with either my homework or a book. The view was beautiful though, the weather mild, and the food great. John Mark & I had our "beach time" at about 6 am, before the sun was so intense, and enjoyed looking for shells & investigating the area beaches.

That's about all of the excitement in our lives right now. Thanks for your e-mails and letters. . .

Cheryl & John Mark

1/16/05
My head is full to bursting with all of the Spanish I am trying to listen to & absorb at school. My day goes like this:

7:30am - 8:30am Phonetica
8:30am - 9:30am Lenguaje (conversation)
9:30am - 10:15am Either culture classes, chapel, or free time depending on the day of the week
10:15am - 12:00am Gramatica, with a 5 minute break after the first hour

The clase de Phonetica is all about producing the correct sounds for Spanish. We have been working on all of the sounds of the alphabet & in different combinations. We play fun games like hangman & bingo (the cards have letters of the alphabet on them) for practice. We also repeat after our teacher alot. The clase de Lenguaje gives us a chance to talk in bigger pieces. We don't have tons of verbs yet so our sentences are pretty simple. We have been practicing numbers & now adjectives. We have dozens of adjectives that we are trying to get familiar with. Some are very similar to the English equivalent & some are not. The least fun & most tedious class is Gramatica. We are learning the nuts & bolts of gender & number, and different articles. All of our classes are conducted in Spanish. At first, its a little overwhelming because you can't understand alot of it. Slowly, you begin to pick up pieces. You just have to accept the fact that you're not going to get everything & go for the main point! We've been listening to alot of Spanish radio & TV at home, which slowly is helping with our listening comprehension. I am also slowly slugging my way through a Reader's Digest in Spanish. I have four other students with me en las clases de Phoneticas y Lenguaje. En la clase de Gramatica, there are nine other students. I think I can safely say that I am the oldest student in any of my classes! John Mark & I are not in any of the same classes.

Nathan had a pretty uneventful trip back to Nebraska. John Mark's parents & sister met him at the airport & drove him out to Kearney. He missed the first day of classes (he had e-mailed his teachers ahead of time about it) but says it was no big deal. He is taking three art classes (Drawing II, Intro to Graphic Design, & Ceramics I), Phil. (Ethics), and an English class (expository writing). Surprisingly, he is liking his philosopy class.

The local Ticos (what Costa Ricans call themselves) tell us that the weather has been uncharacteristically cool but it hasn't been cool enough yet for us to shut any of our windows! The weather changes throughout the day from rainy (some days), to overcast, to sunny & back again so it is always a trick to know how to dress & whether or not you'll need a light jacket. I surely wouldn't change this for Nebraska's winter weather though. Our lives are less interesting now as we are sticking pretty close to home. Christine also starts school at 7:30am & we return to the school at 2:30pm to walk her home. One afternoon we had a local foods seminar where we learned about unfamiliar foods & what to do with them. Many of the vegetables that are unfamiliar to us are tubular starches, to which they add lots of butter, cream, sour cream, or cream cheese to make tasty. Unfortunately, John Mark & I are trying to watch our fat intake so fixing these starches in that manner is not a good idea for us. As the lady was showing us different citrus fruits, she often remarked how sour they are, so they are best made into fruit juices. That sounds good but its a bit time consuming & there are lots of juices available at the grocery store. Otherwise, I enjoyed sampling the different fresh products, as well as some processed foods and noting the different dry goods available for baking.

On Thursday evening we were invited to a home fellowship group connected with our Chinese Baptist Church. It began with a meal prepared by our hostess for all twenty people, followed by a time of sharing and group singing. We had some specialized food there that we hadn't seen since Taiwan ( & really hadn't missed!). Most was quite tasty & I really enjoyed the sticky rice dessert. Their home is just huge, especially by local standards. It is three stories and has a large yard area that is beautifully landscaped. It was a real treat just to be there!

We tried to see a movie on Wednesday evening, with another family, since Wednesday is 1/2 price day at the theaters here. Unfortunately the website for the local theaters is not updated regularly so we did not find the movie that we wanted to see. However, John Mark & I tried a different theater on Friday night & enjoyed seeing a movie with another couple while Christine & their daughter did some joint babysitting with another family from the language institute. After babysitting, Christine had the girl spend the night with her.

That's about all of the news from here. The Instituto de Lengua Espanolahas added some new sections of classes so all of my classes will be changing on Monday. I will have all different teachers than the ones that I started with last week. I'm a little nervous because I was just beginning to get used to the last teachers but I'm sure that my new teachers will all be nice people too.

All for now. . .

Cheryl & John Mark

1/5/05
On Christmas eve at the Chinese worship service we heard the personal story of a young man from Taiwan. His name is Chang Kai Nan. I say he is a young man, in fact he is 41 years old. He was divorced a number of years ago and has no children. He is a physician and was educated here in Costa Rica. He speaks English, Mandarin, and did most of his education in Spanish. He speaks a little Hokkien, too! His parents now live in Houston, Texas.

We sat by he and Brother Wang during church and adult Bible study time this last Sunday. As you remember, Brother Wang took us to the beach last week. Dr. Chang spent three years in Mainland China and really grew to love the small Christian fellowship groups there. Right now he is searching as to what the Lord would have him to do. He is not excited about practicing medicine, and will be visiting extended family in Taiwan next month for Chinese New Years.

I challenged him to consider starting Christian home fellowship groups here in Costa Rica. There are around 30,000 Chinese people in Costa Rica. At most about 1000 are Christians. Please be in prayer for this need and that our new friend Chang Kai Nan will be use this opportunity to share the love of Christ.

John Mark

1/04/05
We went to the local "bull fights" on Sunday night. It's not quite what you'd think, though. We started with some trick riding by a father & son duo. Afterward, we watched three different "matadors" in the ring with bulls for awhile. None of them carry any kind of a weapon so no harm comes to the bull. One of the professional matadors got trampled on a bit but we didn't see any blood and he limped out of the ring. After that we had a ring full of regular guys, like about 150 people, all of whom are hoping for their moment of fame in the ring with the bull. They release a bull into the ring & all of this mob of people run around trying to attract the bull's attention & then make a mad run for the wall & jump over it if the bull actually comes after them. Three people actually got trampled on a bit or thrown around by the bull - it's hard to tell how seriously anyone gets hurt because they get carried off to the medical room immediately. One of those three lost his pants to the bull's horns - I couldn't see it myself. Its a strange form of entertainment but they never lack for willing participants. We went through a series of seven bulls before we tired of it & left. Definitely unique!

School starts for us on Monday & that's also when Nathan returns to the States. Its been fun but now its time for the work to begin! More later.

Have a great New Year's!

Love,

John Mark

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