Two down, One to go.

This week has been a busy one. On Monday we had our ECO, an oral conversation/exam. It was a 30 minute conversation with a teacher we never had before to test what level we communicate. I think it went well and that the conversation I had with the teacher was pretty representative of my ability to speak in Spanish. On Tuesday we had the ECG, which is a written grammar exam that tests everything that is Spanish grammar. We had three hours to finish (of which I used about two). I tend to do really well on paper and I think that I did well on this test. I think we will get our scores back sometime next week. in reality, the scores are not what is important to me, it is more about knowing what I know and what I still need to work on. 

Also, I am going to be preaching on Sunday, so I have been working a lot on writing a sermon and translating it into Spanish. This is not an easy process for me since I have never written a sermon before. I feel pretty confident at this point that the Lord will give me the words to say. I have had some help from a friend who has been a pastor for a number of years and also from my teachers here for the Spanish aspect. 

So, its been a lot of Spanish this week! Which is a really good thing, but we are getting very much excited to move to Honduras so it is hard to keep our minds here. Our teammates have started looking for a place for us to live and have sent us some pictures, so that makes us want to be there even more. We fly to Honduras is 13 days!

Christmas in Costa Rica

Ok, so it is not actually Christmas, but the season is upon us here in San Jose. Thanksgiving is not a holiday here, so there is nothing holding back people and stores from putting up and out Christmas supplies (not that Thanksgiving stops many places any more in the US...).

Today at our school we had a special chapel put on by our teachers. They explained to us some of the Christmas traditions here in Costa Rica (like getting together as a family and making tamales), sang some traditional Christmas songs, and even gave us some homemade Christmas cookies! It was a great time.

The teachers at our school singing Christmas Carols.

The only negative was that it made me think a little more about this upcoming Christmas and I realized that Ashley and I will not be spending Christmas with any of our family. This I think is going to be hard since I have always had a chance to spend time around the holidays with my family.

We are so excited that we are going to be moving to Honduras is less than a month and we are looking forward to getting to know our teammates and learning some of their Christmas traditions, but we know that we will miss seeing our parents and siblings and nieces and nephews and all our other relatives and friends as well.

One month until Honduras!

One month from today, we will move to Honduras. 30 days!

That is not very long, but we still have lots to do here before we can begin the next phase of our lives and begin a new ministry in Honduras.

1. School:
   -4 weeks of classes,
   -2 grammar topics (so that we will finish the book our school uses to teach Spanish grammar!),
   -2 grammar exams,
   -1 language exam (presentation),
   -the ECO - an oral conversation test that will show us what level of Spanish we have achieved in conversation,
   -the school's (3 hour) written grammar exam that tests our knowledge of all things Spanish grammar.

2. Other Stuff:
   -Thanksgiving Lunch with our entire school - a chance for us to share some USA culture with teachers,
   -Christmas party for a local orphanage that the students of our school Host,
   -Packing,
   -Saying goodbye to friends we have made.

Also, I have been asked by the church we are attending to preach a sermon on Sunday, December 4th. This will be the first time I ever preach a full sermon, and it will be in Spanish! This means that I have a lot of work ahead of me over the next 3 weeks to write a sermon, then 'translate' it into Spanish. Please pray that the Lord will give me the words to share with the congregation and that I will trust Him in my Spanish ability. I am so excited to have the privilege to share God's Word with a group of people and I praise HIm for giving me the ability to do this in another language!