The sabbatical begins!

Judy and I have been in the US for two weeks now and are getting settled in for what we hope will be a wonderful time to refresh, re-energize, study, and prepare for our return after Labor Day. Our itinerary is still being developed but we anticipate some travel, much time in libraries, time away from the office in Costa Rica, and a break from my ProMETA emails (one of our staff members is monitoring and filtering all my EFCA emails and forwarding only those I must receive (like sales announcements - just kidding!) . As you may have noticed by our lack of entries in this blog for nearly three months, the schedule has been incredibly full, but these next few months should be incredibly refreshing. Would certainly appreciate your prayers.

Notice the picture (how can you miss it!). I thought I'd include this picture as an example of how important it is to make sure you are standing in the right spot in terms of the background! It reminds me of one of those costumes worn by the Carnival dancers in Rio de Janeiro! Judy is beautiful, but my headgear is something else!

I hope writing once every two months on this blog is not a chronic disease! Well, a New Year's resolution for next year will be to do the blog thing at least once a month. But, the lack of writing is not due to lack of things to write about! There's a lot...for example, this week I "enjoyed" some time in the hospital for what was to be an angiogram (as a follow- up to my annual physical exam) and turned out to include an angioplasty. These last few days have been spent resting at home and enjoying the Christmas season.

Since the robbery, insurance covered some of the loss and donations from individuals came close to cover the rest. The greatest losses were the personal items such as keepsake jewelry.

November was a rush of activities with a team spiritual retreat, a Church Planting Coach clinic, a Willow Creek Leadership Summit, and various meetings and planning sessions as we look to next year in ProMETA. And, it looks like we are going to have our largest enrollment ever in terms of students beginning a new quarter. God is so good!

Robbery, Strategy, Networking

Well, as you can see, the last entry was nearly two months ago. But, so much has been going on that I keep delaying uploading a post. We will be getting a prayer letter out the beginning of November but thought I'd just post a few things here.
On the 27th of September we were broken into here in Costa Rica. (Notice the new "razor wire" protection on the wall we recently installed!) Although the losses were not heavy, certainly not as bad as our colleagues in Peru who also lost musical instruments and passports, knowing that someone broke into our house while we were at church is rather unsettling. The hardest losses were the laptops.
The week before the robbery we spent five days in strategic planning meetings for ProMETA. Ted Kautzmann, ProMETA's academic dean flew down from Minnesota and the three of us who live in Costa Rica went over an agenda that, even with five days set aside for strategic planning, we still did not finish! Not sure what that means!
The week of October 12th, Ted and I met in Puebla, MEX for two reasons. We needed to meet with the vice-rector and the academic dean of a major university and we attended a four day conference on "spiritual formation in Christian universities and seminaries" for seminary and university presidents and academic deans. Other than catching a stomach virus (fortunately not the H1N1 type!), it was a great time. Now to recover!

Back in CR after two long months!

The summer was a metaphorical whirlwind of activities. We kept trying to get our summer prayer letter out between trips and as of today, it is still only half finished! Judy and I left Costa Rica together on June 24th and returned a week ago today. In between those dates we traveled from Miami to Chicago and then Keith went back to Costa Rica for nearly a week and then to Venezuela for nearly two weeks returning to Chicago to rejoin Judy and then go to a family reunion in Dubuque, IA for three days. That was followed by meetings in San Antonio, TX and then on to Florida where Alexandra and Gregory were (finally!) married. The picture to the right was taken a couple days before the wedding. Both are still in school and felt like it was time to tie the knot - they've known each other since the late 90's. Now Judy and I are back in San Jose, CR and are glad to be able to schedule a routine. Once again we realize the incredible value of prayer and how praying for one another is such a key to carrying out God's desires. We hope to have our next prayer letter out soon before the end of the week!

We begin two months of travels

These next two months, Judy and I will be doing a great deal of traveling. We will be visiting nearly a half dozen supporting churches while mixing in a four day trip back to Costa Rica for a very important meeting and then two weeks in Venezuela. So, this summer will be quite busy. We also plan to be at an Anderson family reunion the last week end of July prior to leaving for meetings in San Antonio, TX. Then, the summer will be capped with the wedding of our youngest son, Gregory, to his sweetheart of the last eight years, Alexandra. August 22nd is the big day. We return to CR on the 24th.

Teaching in Guatemala

Lately, I've not had much of an opportunity to travel, so last week end's trip to Guatemala was a special time for me as I traveled with Dr. Enrique (Quique) Fernández to Sumpango, just outside of Guatemala City. Ten churches were invited by the "Los Olivos" Free Church and nearly all of them responded by sending their pastors, elders, deacons, and deaconesses. It was very special to be in the home country of Dr. Fernández and to be given a special tour of the various areas where he did ministry prior to joining the EFCA. The teaching on leadership was shared by four of us with four different areas emphasized: Dr. Fernández taught on strategic planning, Dave Christianson focused on trust and empowerment, Oscar Chiquitó (an elder from the host church and recent recipient of a masters in International Economics) on leadership and community development, and my area was shepherd leadership. The response from the church leaders was quite positive and we sensed God's leading and presence during the entire week end.

Great spiritual retreat!

The final days of April the ProMETA team had two wonderful events, one of them being a spiritual retreat. Jim and Leta Van Meter led our three days with the theme "Come away and be with Me!" And, it was incredibly restful. Times of worship, prayer, bible study, personal reflection, and long periods of rest in the afternoons all were bundled together resulting in us returning to the office with renewed strength. In the picture you can see Judy participating in a late-afternoon event. We enjoyed moments where we gathered in smaller groups for games, study, prayer, etc. and relished one another's company! The retreat was held at a Catholic retreat center about a 30 minute drive from our house in San Jose. Because we were the only group there, it was very quiet and peaceful.