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Just a quick update on what's going on in Puerto this week. My truck is back and in good working order (for at least a few months until the roads take their toll again). We also have 5 helpers in to assist with the visiting mission team that arrived yesterday evening. One of our interns is a girl that worked with us last summer hosting teams. Her name is April Woods and she is from the Santa Barbara, CA area. She will be with us for the next 10 days coordinating the mission team's outreach. AJ Rhodes will be with us for the remainder of the summer...until mid-August. He is from Tallahassee, FL and will be assisting us with our summer mission teams and a variety of other responsibilities. We are also fortunate to have the help of Whit, Mike and Melissa, from the Horizon School of Evangelism, for the next few weeks. They are completing a 3 week internship as part of their schooling and we are happy to have them serving with us during that time.

The visiting mission team, from St. Andrews Presbyterian Church in Tucson, AZ, will be working at the local public school this week doing a variety of things. They will be assisting a local contractor in the re-construction of a classroom at the school. They will also be improving the living conditions for the kindergarten teacher who lives on the school grounds during the week. Finally, half of the team will host a Vacation Bible School for the children next week on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. It is exciting work and we are really looking forward to the opportunity to show people in a very real way that God loves them and is concerned about their well-being...physically as well as spiritually. Please pray for this team and their outreach.

Finally, after 4 years of waiting, 2 lost applications and one denial...we were notified late last week that we had been granted residency. Our lawyer told us that we are the first people in the history of Costa Rica to be granted residency on the basis of our missions work. We originally applied as "rentistas" which meant that we needed to prove we had an income from outside of the country so that we wouldn't be taking jobs from locals. This was denied almost two years ago which meant that we had to try another route. Many missionaries have applied for residency over the years and have been denied but for whatever reason, we were granted residency. It is exciting and means that we will not be required to leave the country for three days every three months. That means a savings of money and of time. Thank God!

More to come...