Hello All!!
Things are definitely busy here and still going great! I can't believe we are half-way through June already. Josh and I are continuing to see progress in our speaking ability and owe a lot of that to the family that we live with. They have invited us to attend family birthday parties, baby showers, and church events with them and it has been so much fun to really feel like we are a part of the family.
I cleared a huge hurdle today in class and am sending up prayers of thanksgiving. Each student in my class has to prepare and present an hour-long Bible study in Spanish, and I delivered mine today. I was beyond stressed this week as I prepared - Josh can attest to that ;-) - and I spent hours researching, revising, and reviewing my notes.
My topic was the ways in which God speaks to His people. I started out speaking about the more unique ways that God made contact with his followers in Biblical times (burning bush, angels, donkeys, dreams, etc.) but then made the point that in Old Testament times, it was actually far more common for God to speak directly to his chosen people. Regardless of the means of communication however, it is obvious that God was extremely purposeful in the ways that he spoke in the past. We often feel like God doesn't try as hard to speak to us now, but in reality, he has just altered his methods. The Bible is filled with verses explaining that scripture and the Holy Spirit are more than sufficient to communicate God's will directly to us. In the Old Testament, they knew nothing of Jesus Christ, the cross, the Holy Spirit, or the Bible (as we know it) and so perhaps God was a bit stronger in the way that he reached out to his followers. Now, however, God has sent his son as our savior and redeemer and it is our responsibility to take advantage of this grace by spending time in scripture and listening to the Holy Spirit within us.
Now, my delivery today wasn't perfect - there were a few stumbles and some grammatical mistakes - but I am so happy that I was able to coherently convey a message to the class AND I was able to fill the entire hour!
Josh and I have also begun to tackle another project: being a "Big Brother" to a family coming to the school! During our preparations to come to language school here, we requested a "Big Brother" or in our case, a "Big Sister" and a woman already attending school here helped us find our Tica family to live with and answered any and ALL questions that we had about Costa Rica and the school. In requesting this help, we also agreed to BE a "Big Brother" for someone coming to start school in August. We were recently assigned our family and we have begun looking at houses for them. This is awesome Spanish practice for us and also great practice for when we look for a house in Ecuador because we have to call Costa Rican landlords and talk to them about what we are looking for and what the family needs in a house, as well as go visit the houses and take pictures to send to the family. We have seen 3 houses so far and we hope to see several more so that we can give them a few choices. We are very excited to get to meet them when they arrive in a couple of months!
Other than that, it has pretty much been business as usual for us for the past few weeks. Thank you so much for your prayers and love! We miss you!
Love and God Bless,
Steph and Josh
Monday, June 14, 2010
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Becoming a Part of the Community
We have officially been in Costa Rica for a month - and what a month it's been!
Since we've been here we have tried to take advantage of every opportunity to get involved and learn more about the language and the culture. We are really enjoying the church that we are attending with our Tica Family, and this past Sunday they held a Walk/Run to increase their presence in the community. We were hesitant to commit to running the 5k, but we eagerly signed up to walk the 2k with our Tica sister. There was a great turnout and it was a ton of fun. Once everyone arrived at the finish line, we had a church service at the local park and heard the testimony of a former professional soccer player. At the end of the event, Josh claimed the prize for the second fastest gringo in the race, but I didn't have the heart to tell him there were only two of us ;-).
I am thrilled to say that I have been able to combine my love of dance with my language learning! In July, the school celebrates Costa Rican Culture Day and every Monday a group of girls meets with one of the Spanish professors to learn traditional Costa Rican dances to perform for the school. It has been so much fun getting to merge my passions and I can't wait to perform!
On Thursday, Josh and I visited a local Nicaraguan community called La Carpio. This is an extremely poor area and the Spanish Language Institute has set up a ministry providing computer classes for the men, jewelry-making classes for the women, and childcare for the kids. It was a very moving experience taking part in this ministry and is one of the poorest areas I've ever seen. Our host family has explained to us that the government tries to help this area continually but there are huge problems with alcoholism and crime so it hasn't done much good. They told us that ambulances can't even go into the area because while the paramedics are helping the victim, people steal things from the vehicle. We are praying that God will show us if and how we can help with this ministry.
We are looking forward to jumping into June with enthusiasm and continuing to learn more of the language. We will keep you updated!
Love and God Bless,
Since we've been here we have tried to take advantage of every opportunity to get involved and learn more about the language and the culture. We are really enjoying the church that we are attending with our Tica Family, and this past Sunday they held a Walk/Run to increase their presence in the community. We were hesitant to commit to running the 5k, but we eagerly signed up to walk the 2k with our Tica sister. There was a great turnout and it was a ton of fun. Once everyone arrived at the finish line, we had a church service at the local park and heard the testimony of a former professional soccer player. At the end of the event, Josh claimed the prize for the second fastest gringo in the race, but I didn't have the heart to tell him there were only two of us ;-).
I am thrilled to say that I have been able to combine my love of dance with my language learning! In July, the school celebrates Costa Rican Culture Day and every Monday a group of girls meets with one of the Spanish professors to learn traditional Costa Rican dances to perform for the school. It has been so much fun getting to merge my passions and I can't wait to perform!
On Thursday, Josh and I visited a local Nicaraguan community called La Carpio. This is an extremely poor area and the Spanish Language Institute has set up a ministry providing computer classes for the men, jewelry-making classes for the women, and childcare for the kids. It was a very moving experience taking part in this ministry and is one of the poorest areas I've ever seen. Our host family has explained to us that the government tries to help this area continually but there are huge problems with alcoholism and crime so it hasn't done much good. They told us that ambulances can't even go into the area because while the paramedics are helping the victim, people steal things from the vehicle. We are praying that God will show us if and how we can help with this ministry.
We are looking forward to jumping into June with enthusiasm and continuing to learn more of the language. We will keep you updated!
Love and God Bless,
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Costa Rica Update
School is really ramping up and we are working hard! The professors are very encouraging and do a great job teaching, but it can definitely get overwhelming. We are so blessed to have each other and also to have such a great Tica family that is willing to help us any time we have questions.
This past weekend was crazy, but very fun. Early Saturday morning, we went with Flor (our Tica mom) to la feria (outdoor market) to buy fruits and veggies. It was fascinating and a great learning experience. Our family thought that we needed a little break from school so after la feria they took us on a surprise trip to Irazu Volcano about 30 minutes from San Jose. Since we arrived here I have been talking about how much I wanted to see a volcano, and I was so excited to have the opportunity! Here are some pictures of our trip:
On Sunday, I had the opportunity to go to a real tica baby shower for one of the teachers at the school where Flor works. What an experience! There was food, games, more food, presents, and more food. I got a LOT of practice on my Spanish talking to all of the wonderful women there.
This week has been going well so far. Each Monday, I have to give a 20 minute devotion in Spanish for my language class and this week I focused on the parallel that exists between the homesickness that I feel being away from my family, and the homesickness that Christians experience being here on earth. 2 Corinthians 5 talks about our heavenly dwelling and says:
"Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling. . . Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come."
It is comforting to know that just as I have the very real hope of seeing my family and friends again here on earth, we also have the very real hope of the return of Jesus Christ to take us to our permanent home with God the Father. What a comfort!
Joshua and I would ask that you would pray for us as we continue to work hard to learn this language. We are so grateful for your continued encouragement and love.
Love and God Bless
This past weekend was crazy, but very fun. Early Saturday morning, we went with Flor (our Tica mom) to la feria (outdoor market) to buy fruits and veggies. It was fascinating and a great learning experience. Our family thought that we needed a little break from school so after la feria they took us on a surprise trip to Irazu Volcano about 30 minutes from San Jose. Since we arrived here I have been talking about how much I wanted to see a volcano, and I was so excited to have the opportunity! Here are some pictures of our trip:
On Sunday, I had the opportunity to go to a real tica baby shower for one of the teachers at the school where Flor works. What an experience! There was food, games, more food, presents, and more food. I got a LOT of practice on my Spanish talking to all of the wonderful women there.
This week has been going well so far. Each Monday, I have to give a 20 minute devotion in Spanish for my language class and this week I focused on the parallel that exists between the homesickness that I feel being away from my family, and the homesickness that Christians experience being here on earth. 2 Corinthians 5 talks about our heavenly dwelling and says:
"Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling. . . Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come."
It is comforting to know that just as I have the very real hope of seeing my family and friends again here on earth, we also have the very real hope of the return of Jesus Christ to take us to our permanent home with God the Father. What a comfort!
Joshua and I would ask that you would pray for us as we continue to work hard to learn this language. We are so grateful for your continued encouragement and love.
Love and God Bless
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
School Days
We have officially been in classes for a week today! And what a week . . .
Josh and I are in different classes (which is probably a good thing!) and we are both learning a ton. The classes typically only have 4-6 people in them which means we get a lot of one-on-one attention, and with our Tica family at home, we are getting plenty of practice speaking. In the morning, we each have a language (conversation) class mixed with some phonetics. Then, we have two hours of grammar class. We come home and eat lunch and then do our homework and practice with our Tica family. The school does a great job of encouraging us to get out into the community to learn. For example, each week I have to come up with at least 4 questions on a topic of my choice and then find 2-4 people out the community and ask them the questions. Today Josh and I went to a local park and talked to a woman watching her grandchild for about 30 minutes. It's definitely nerve-wracking to just walk up to some one and start asking questions in a foreign language, but it is really good practice and she was SO nice! She even gave me two mangos to take home :). We are treating this as our full-time job right now and so we tend to spend about 8 hours per day working on our Spanish. We can already tell a difference - even if it's a small difference - in the way we communicate!
We are eager to learn more about the Latin culture as this will be very important when we get to Ecuador. Our Tica mom was nice enough to volunteer to take us to see the inauguration (or "la toma de posecion") of the new Costa Rican president who also happens to be the first female president of Costa Rica. It was an inspiring experience and a real celebration of Costa Rican culture. The heads of state from countries all over the world were there - Georgia, Colombia, Honduras, Spain, Panama, Nicaragua, Bolivia, and lots more. Plus, there were performances of traditional dances and songs and every one was more than willing to help the "gringos" understand what was going on. It was another great opportunity to practice our Spanish. Here are a few pictures:
The new president
Josh and I taking it all in
It was great to see the national pride
A true patriot
Once again, we are so grateful for all of your prayers and support - please pass our website on to anyone who might be interested in our ministry. Feel free to email us at jrtucker8503@gmail.com. We will keep you updated!
Love and God Bless!
Josh and I are in different classes (which is probably a good thing!) and we are both learning a ton. The classes typically only have 4-6 people in them which means we get a lot of one-on-one attention, and with our Tica family at home, we are getting plenty of practice speaking. In the morning, we each have a language (conversation) class mixed with some phonetics. Then, we have two hours of grammar class. We come home and eat lunch and then do our homework and practice with our Tica family. The school does a great job of encouraging us to get out into the community to learn. For example, each week I have to come up with at least 4 questions on a topic of my choice and then find 2-4 people out the community and ask them the questions. Today Josh and I went to a local park and talked to a woman watching her grandchild for about 30 minutes. It's definitely nerve-wracking to just walk up to some one and start asking questions in a foreign language, but it is really good practice and she was SO nice! She even gave me two mangos to take home :). We are treating this as our full-time job right now and so we tend to spend about 8 hours per day working on our Spanish. We can already tell a difference - even if it's a small difference - in the way we communicate!
We are eager to learn more about the Latin culture as this will be very important when we get to Ecuador. Our Tica mom was nice enough to volunteer to take us to see the inauguration (or "la toma de posecion") of the new Costa Rican president who also happens to be the first female president of Costa Rica. It was an inspiring experience and a real celebration of Costa Rican culture. The heads of state from countries all over the world were there - Georgia, Colombia, Honduras, Spain, Panama, Nicaragua, Bolivia, and lots more. Plus, there were performances of traditional dances and songs and every one was more than willing to help the "gringos" understand what was going on. It was another great opportunity to practice our Spanish. Here are a few pictures:
The new president
Josh and I taking it all in
It was great to see the national pride
A true patriot
Once again, we are so grateful for all of your prayers and support - please pass our website on to anyone who might be interested in our ministry. Feel free to email us at jrtucker8503@gmail.com. We will keep you updated!
Love and God Bless!
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Stephanie does not let me write much on the blog so while she is in the bathroom I decided to post this picture. This is me and our wonderful Tica mom (Tica is what most Costa Ricans call themselves). While we were sitting around the dinner table talking, in spanish of course, we noticed that she is either really short or I am really tall. Thank you all for your support. Please keep in touch. If you want to, you can also send us mail at:
Joshua and Stephanie Tucker
Spanish Language Institute
SJO-8609
P.O. Box 025240
Miami, FL 33102
This is a forwarding address to our school in Costa Rica.
I have to go Stephanie is back in the room!!! :)
Monday, May 3, 2010
Settling in
I can't believe 6 days have passed!
We are starting to get into a rhythm here as we understand more about the culture and how things work. For instance, you never leave a room where people are talking without excusing yourself, you have huge lunches and small dinners, and you take your umbrella with you every time you leave the house. Plus, each day we are able to speak Spanish with our family for at least a couple of hours, and we've had the chance to label almost everything in our room with its Spanish name. As eager as we are to start classes on Wednesday, it is probably good to have this time to adjust and prepare.
This weekend was great! On Saturday a group of students from the school got together to learn the bus system and go into downtown San Jose. We were planning on going to the National Museum to learn some Costa Rican history, but Saturday was Labor Day for them and so it was closed. We did get to see some performers and the major park in the area. I bought a small map of Costa Rica to put in our room to learn a bit about the geography of the country. It was a great time!
On Sunday, we got to attend church with our Tico Family and it was such an awesome experience. The church was very contemporary and had a praise band - the worship music was a great way to practice our Spanish! I can definitely see us going to this church regularly.
Today during orientation we had a program about security that was very eye-opening. The leader had been a SWAT team member in the states and has been in Costa Rica for 4 years training the police force here and evangelizing. He explained that since 1) we are obviously foreigners 2) most of us don't know the language and 3) we aren't familiar with the city, we are big targets for crimes. He said that just by doing a few things (i.e. don't go out after dark, travel with other people, lock your windows and doors, etc.) you can significantly reduce the likelihood of a crime being committed against you. We feel very safe in our home and we feel that the more we can get to know the neighborhood (during the day!) the better off we'll be.
Our pictures will be posted on our facebook page since I am unable to post them here - I'll keep trying.
Love and God Bless!
We are starting to get into a rhythm here as we understand more about the culture and how things work. For instance, you never leave a room where people are talking without excusing yourself, you have huge lunches and small dinners, and you take your umbrella with you every time you leave the house. Plus, each day we are able to speak Spanish with our family for at least a couple of hours, and we've had the chance to label almost everything in our room with its Spanish name. As eager as we are to start classes on Wednesday, it is probably good to have this time to adjust and prepare.
This weekend was great! On Saturday a group of students from the school got together to learn the bus system and go into downtown San Jose. We were planning on going to the National Museum to learn some Costa Rican history, but Saturday was Labor Day for them and so it was closed. We did get to see some performers and the major park in the area. I bought a small map of Costa Rica to put in our room to learn a bit about the geography of the country. It was a great time!
On Sunday, we got to attend church with our Tico Family and it was such an awesome experience. The church was very contemporary and had a praise band - the worship music was a great way to practice our Spanish! I can definitely see us going to this church regularly.
Today during orientation we had a program about security that was very eye-opening. The leader had been a SWAT team member in the states and has been in Costa Rica for 4 years training the police force here and evangelizing. He explained that since 1) we are obviously foreigners 2) most of us don't know the language and 3) we aren't familiar with the city, we are big targets for crimes. He said that just by doing a few things (i.e. don't go out after dark, travel with other people, lock your windows and doors, etc.) you can significantly reduce the likelihood of a crime being committed against you. We feel very safe in our home and we feel that the more we can get to know the neighborhood (during the day!) the better off we'll be.
Our pictures will be posted on our facebook page since I am unable to post them here - I'll keep trying.
Love and God Bless!
Friday, April 30, 2010
Estamos en Costa Rica!!!
We are in Costa Rica!!
We arrived on Wednesday, April 28th around noon and our "Big Sister" from the school, Nina, was there to pick us up with our Tica (Costa Rican) Mom. It was definitely a little bit hectic finding them in the crowd as we left the airport, but soon we were in our Tico family's pick-up and headed to their house.
They live right across the street from the school in San Jose, and we are thrilled with the location as it is the rainy season and, like clock-work, around 1 or 2pm it begins to rain and continues for most of the evening. Our family includes three kids (ages 15, 17, and 20), their parents, and the maternal grandmother. We were incredibly hungry when we arrived and we realized immediately that we are in for a treat when it comes to our food! The grandmother, "Mayu", is an amazing chef and we are getting to sample fantastic Costa Rican cuisine at each meal. Most students are not living with a Tico family, but we are extremely happy with our decision. This is one of the fastest ways to jump right into the culture and the language.
During our meal, we heard screaming outside and at first, we thought it was just some kids being let out of school, but it turned out that a bus was on fire right outside our house! Our Tica mom called 911 and the bomberos (firefighters) came quickly and put out the fire. Luckily, everyone had gotten off the bus and no one was hurt. What an introduction to the public transportation system!
After we finished lunch, we got settled in our room and bathroom:
and then we headed to check out the school with our Big Sister. Nina showed us where we would have chapel, take classes, and study. It was great to get an idea of everything before orientation began yesterday.
The orientation has been great and is helping to introduce us to the school and to the Costa Rican culture. We are finding out how vital our time in Colorado was as we put into practice the language-learning techniques that we learned in PILAT. Josh and I are having a great time using the Spanish that we know with our family here and we can't wait to get into classes next week to learn more.
Yesterday after orientation, we went with Nina to Costa Rica's Wal-Mart - what an experience! Most things are more expensive there, but it is nice to know that if there is something from the states that we need, there is a way to get it.
We have warm water for showers, consistent electricity, and pretty reliable internet, but we have been having trouble posting on blogspot since we've been here. We have more pictures that we would like to post, but for some reason it won't allow us to post them right now. If you would like to see them, we are also posting all of our pictures on Facebook on the profile of our group: Support Josh and Stephanie in Ecuador. They are in the photo album "Costa Rica".
Thank you all for all of your prayers and we will keep you updated on our progress in school!!!
Love and God Bless!
We arrived on Wednesday, April 28th around noon and our "Big Sister" from the school, Nina, was there to pick us up with our Tica (Costa Rican) Mom. It was definitely a little bit hectic finding them in the crowd as we left the airport, but soon we were in our Tico family's pick-up and headed to their house.
They live right across the street from the school in San Jose, and we are thrilled with the location as it is the rainy season and, like clock-work, around 1 or 2pm it begins to rain and continues for most of the evening. Our family includes three kids (ages 15, 17, and 20), their parents, and the maternal grandmother. We were incredibly hungry when we arrived and we realized immediately that we are in for a treat when it comes to our food! The grandmother, "Mayu", is an amazing chef and we are getting to sample fantastic Costa Rican cuisine at each meal. Most students are not living with a Tico family, but we are extremely happy with our decision. This is one of the fastest ways to jump right into the culture and the language.
During our meal, we heard screaming outside and at first, we thought it was just some kids being let out of school, but it turned out that a bus was on fire right outside our house! Our Tica mom called 911 and the bomberos (firefighters) came quickly and put out the fire. Luckily, everyone had gotten off the bus and no one was hurt. What an introduction to the public transportation system!
After we finished lunch, we got settled in our room and bathroom:
and then we headed to check out the school with our Big Sister. Nina showed us where we would have chapel, take classes, and study. It was great to get an idea of everything before orientation began yesterday.
The orientation has been great and is helping to introduce us to the school and to the Costa Rican culture. We are finding out how vital our time in Colorado was as we put into practice the language-learning techniques that we learned in PILAT. Josh and I are having a great time using the Spanish that we know with our family here and we can't wait to get into classes next week to learn more.
Yesterday after orientation, we went with Nina to Costa Rica's Wal-Mart - what an experience! Most things are more expensive there, but it is nice to know that if there is something from the states that we need, there is a way to get it.
We have warm water for showers, consistent electricity, and pretty reliable internet, but we have been having trouble posting on blogspot since we've been here. We have more pictures that we would like to post, but for some reason it won't allow us to post them right now. If you would like to see them, we are also posting all of our pictures on Facebook on the profile of our group: Support Josh and Stephanie in Ecuador. They are in the photo album "Costa Rica".
Thank you all for all of your prayers and we will keep you updated on our progress in school!!!
Love and God Bless!
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