Festival de la Luz

Tonight begins the Fesitval de la Luz in San Jose, Costa Rica. This is the country’s largest annual Christmas event and begins with a parade featuring floats and high school marching bands.  The parade draws a million people!  It has been described as a cross between Mardi Gras and Christmas.  Although the parade begins at 6pm people begin to stake out their spots at 10am.  We are excited to experience this grand event…by watching it on TV from our home.

Catch-up #2: December Newsletter

A picture is worth a thousand words.

Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? Michelle gets a little help with her Spanish grammer homework from our 9 year old neightbor, Chantelle. Adam leading a weekly ESL class in the neighborhood. Crossing the bridge between Costa Rica and Panama.  We are required to leave Costa Rica every 90 days in order to renew our visas. Our newest teammate, Lyssa Melonakos studied at The Institute with us for 6 weeks before starting her internship in Honduras. Jacob played the part of Joseph in the school Christmas Pageant. Decorating the Christmas Tree as a family. Schedule Dec 5 - Placement Test for next Trimester Dec 13 - We finish our first Trimester Dec 21-26 - Michelle's sister and brother-in-law visit Dec 22 - Jacob's 4th Birthday Dec 31-Jan 8 Michelle's parents visit Prayer Requests Please pray against homesickness as we spend holidays away from friends, family and our church home. Please pray that Christmas would be an opporunity for us to share the Gospel in a country where most people celebrate Christmas but few know Jesus as Savior. Please pray for our spiritual growth as we worship in Spanish.

Our Blog | Email | forward to a friend  Copyright © 2012 Cains On A Mission, All rights reserved. Phone:   480-330-1936  (yes, call us on a U.S. phone number) Skype:  AZCainFamily Our mailing address is: Cain Family Instituto de Lengua Española Apartado 100 - 2350 San José, Costa Rica América Central  unsubscribe from this list | update subscription preferences

Catch-up: November Prayer Letter

Hey, Prayer Warrior!  Lift the Cains up for the next 30 Days.

Praise & Prayer 1.) Please pray that our Spanish vocabulary would grow rapidly. 2.) Please pray for increased communication and prayer within our marriage. 3.) Please pray that deep, long-lasting friendships would develop for our family during this year.   Mail Can Be Sent To: Adam Cain Instituto de Lengua Española Apartado 100 - 2350 San José, Costa Rica América Central Schedule 11/1 30 Days of Prayer Starts 11/15 Visa Renewal Trip to Panama 11/22-23 Thanksgiving Break How to Give Online: Click Here By Check: Please be sure to put#11369 in the memo line Mission to the World P.O. Box 116284 Atlanta, GA 30368-6284 Life Together by Michelle We go to an incredible school.  It is a school specifically geared toward missionaries learning the Spanish language.  It is an easy place to make a quick friend.  There are so many commonalities between students.  The person sitting beside you in class knows what it feels like to sell all their possessions, pray for support, leave friends, say goodbye to family, depart from a great church, and uproot their lives to a new land.  Friends from home have asked us what it is like to be mixed with so many people of different denominations and mission agencies but we seem to have a blind eye.  Our common thread with our fellow students is far greater than any other commonality that exists: a love for our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  It is a love so strong that all the other similarities as well as differences pale in comparison to the reason we are here.  It is one of my favorite things about knowing Christ: you have an instant family and unbreakable bond regardless of birthplace, color of your skin, occupation, likes, dislikes, and even theology. I was delighted to read the following passage a couple of weeks ago in my daily devotion because I feel it is the summation of my enjoyment of my school and classmates.  I also feel it is key in the unity of the church body and mission as believers so it also applies to you, our friend reading this.  The key is always the Gospel: the good news of Christ’s saving work on the cross.  Everything else is secondary: “The key to the missionary’s message is the propitiation of Christ Jesus— His sacrifice for us that completely satisfied the wrath of God. Look at any other aspect of Christ’s work, whether it is healing, saving, or sanctifying, and you will see that there is nothing limitless about those. But— “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”— that is limitless (John 1:29). The missionary’s message is the limitless importance of Jesus Christ as the propitiation for our sins, and a missionary is someone who is immersed in the truth of that revelation.” -My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers Michelle with her classmates. 30 Days of Prayer Each November is Mission To The World's official "Month of Prayer for Global Missions". Thousands of churches worldwide will be praying daily for missionaries.  Here is acalendar with specific prayer requests for our family and our work.  Will you please take a minute each day this month to pray for us?  Your prayers are powerful and we value them.  Also, will you please send us your prayer requests?  We pray for friends and family at dinner each night and would like to know how we can pray specifically for you. 30 Days of Prayer Calendar   School Supplies for Honduran Kids In Honduras, the government provides education only through the 6th grade Only 33% of the population has any education beyond 6th grade The average person makes under $4,000 per year Our team in Honduras helps to make school a reality for hundreds of kids by providing school supplies.  Will you please consider helping by sending school supplies? Mike & Erin Pettengill P.O. Box 1090 La Ceiba, Atlantida Honduras Central America Video of Students Receiving Supplies

CainsOnAMission.blogspot.com | AdamOnAMission@gmail.com | forward to a friend Copyright © *2012 Cains On A Mission, All rights reserved. Phone:  480-330-1936 (yes, call us on a U.S. phone number!) Skype: AZCainFamily Mailing Address: 16240 SW Falcon Drive Beaverton, OR 97007  unsubscribe from this list | update subscription preferences

Earthquake Experiences

God is our refuge and strength,

    an ever-present help in trouble.

Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way

    and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea.

Psalm 46: 1-2

September 5: Our second day of class, our family got to experience God's refuge and strength first hand.  At 8:42 a.m, a 7.6 magnitude earthquake shook Costa Rica as well as bordering countries.

Adam and I were sitting in our second session of grammar for the day; my mind wandering after a rough drop-off for Jacob at preschool. Small tremors started to shake the room. The teacher stopped mid-sentence and then mumbled something along the lines of, "everybody out!"  Our class poured out into the breeze way and Adam pulled me close to him in the large doorway.  Then the ground really began to shake. Our teacher just kept repeating “¡tranquilo!” over and over again.  As calming as she was, it didn’t stop silent tears from dripping down my face.  Jacob is on campus with us and we could see the children in the school yard but Asher is at home (a 15 minute walk) with our nanny, Marita. As the earthquake continued more and more hands were being placed on my back and shoulders . . . other moms knowing my stress. Now the teacher looks at me and says, “¡Tranquilo!” “My babies!” I mutter back at her. 

Staff starts shuffling adults towards the parking lot.  Probably safer than the doorway but the opposite end of campus from the preschool. Our teacher says, “go to them.” So with permission, Adam headed toward the preschool and got the thumbs up from Jacob’s teacher.  He was doing well.  Adam and I made our way toward the parking lot and started the attempt to make contact with our nanny.  No cell phone service.  All phone lines are down.  Panic is rising inside of me.  I am just repeating a prayer over and over again. “Lord, please calm my heart. You are in control.”  I want to run back to our house but we are being warned about aftershocks.  We also have no idea the conditions outside of these walls.  Our school chaplain and his wife ask us how we are doing.  I express my concern for our baby boy at our house with his nanny and the chaplain immediately responds with an offer to drive us there.  I send Adam with him because he tends to stay calmer than me and I know that our boys are sensitive to my emotional state.

The students gather in the chapel and our director opens our time of prayer with the above Psalm.  Staff and students pray.  I only hear murmuring. Words evade my ears.  I sit by myself while the director relays information about aftershocks and tsunami warnings.  I am fighting back the need to bawl.  Without my husband beside me, I only have the Lord to rely on.  The school did a great job of keeping everyone calm and informed.  What seems like years later, Adam shows up by my side and says the house, our nanny, and Asher are just fine.  I finally feel some twinge of relief.

October 23: We have now experienced multiple earthquakes since then but tonight’s was strong and long.  Our family was together this time and we gathered in the doorway donning our pajamas.  Fear immediately strikes me but quickly disappears.  The disappearance of my fear is solely the Holy Spirit calming me because I am certain there is no other way to feel peace when all your lights are swaying and your bodies shaking.  I can’t say earthquakes are anything that even crossed my radar before moving here but have definitely had an effect on my faith and understanding of God’s character.  Every day I choose to believe that God loves me, God is for me, God is sovereign, God commands His creation, all creation will bow down to Him one day, God is omnipotent and His power is shown through rainstorms, earthquakes, and everyday happenings.

Looks Like Fun!

So you may be thinking the Cains are having tons of fun from all the great pictures we post.  Well, we are BUT we are also working our tooshies off to learn a new language.  Not a ton of pictures being taken in class as we fumble through sorting out "ser" and "estar" or are chanting vowels like monks of old.  I was delighted to see a friend capture a picture of what we have been doing in Fonetica (Phonetics) this week and I thought I would share it with you.

photo credit to Angie Crawford

This is what we like to call "la union de los sonidos."  Yup, you got it, the linking of the sounds.  ". . .it was explained that Spanish rhythm may be characterized as syllabic.  In English the pronunciation of words is emphasized while in Spanish the pronunciation of syllables is emphasized."  Hence your red slashes between syllables.  And those rainbow looking markings?  That's where you mash words together so you sound like  a Spanish speaker and not a five year old reading word-word-word-word.  So there is the technical side of what we do for 5 hours every morning!  I will say, at least they are using great texts to dissect! :)

The Same in Every Language

Today marks a month of residing in Costa Rica.  We started our fourth week of class yesterday. We have been very busy learning Spanish little by little (or “poco a poco” as they say here).  In my grammar class this week, we’ve been working on our understanding of the verbs “ser,” “estar,” and “tener”­ (three of the five “to be” verbs).  In order to gain a better grasp on their usage, we’ve been describing people.  We started with our families and moved onto famous persons: Hitler, Miss Piggy, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bert and Ernie and the like.  When we neared the end of our class today, our teacher said, “Now describe Jesus.”

Él es bueno. 
Él es amable.                                                                                                                                                                              
Él es simpático.                                                                                                                                                                                        
Él es agradable.                                                                                                                                                                                               
Él es generoso.                                                                                                                                                                                             
Él es sincero.                                                                                                                                                                                                 
Él es amoroso.                                                                                                                                                                                       
Él está furioso en el temple.                                                                                                                                                         
Él está hambriento y sediento en el desierto.                                                                                                                       
Él tiene paciencia.                                                                                                                                                                            
Él tiene dolor por todos en la cruz.

I felt overwhelmed.  I felt like I was falling in love all over again.  My heart softened.  Tears started streaming down my face.  Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever.  Jesus has the same attributes in any language. His love is the same and applies to every culture, people, and nation.  I am grateful to serve such an amazing God.

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name.  I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.     –Ephesians 3:14-19

Differences in Daily Living

Costa Rica is different.  No surprise – we knew it would be.  We have been in the country for a week now and have noticed plenty of differences.  Here is an incomplete list of things that are different in our home and daily life.

• We have no clothes dryer in the home so everything is hung on a line in our empty carport.  However, we are told we should be careful about leaving things on the line because there is the possibility of thieves using poles to snatch things through the gate.
• We do not have air-conditioning so windows and doors are constantly open.  Temperatures generally range from 85-65 so it is usually quite comfortable.
•  Many people have asked about the water.  It is potable and safe for us here in Costa Rica.  In Honduras this will not be the case.  We will have to drink bottled water there.

 

• There is no dishwasher in our home so all dishes are washed by hand.  Michelle loves the dish soap here (really)!  In Honduras, we will have to add a bleach solution rinse at the end of our dish washing because of the water.
• There is no water heater in our home.  The only hot water in the house is from the “widow maker” in the shower.
• Power isn’t as reliable.  We have had 2 power outages already.
• Sugar ants.  They sit and wait.  If you leave ANY food item on the counter for longer than 15 seconds, they attack in the hundreds.
• Holidays.  Costa Rican Labor Day was May 1^st of this year.  The US’s is today.  We missed both.  But Costa Rica celebrates their Independence Day on September 15^th while the US’s is July 4^th.  We’ll catch both this year! 

• There is a large gate across the front of our home.  As one staff woman at our school explained it, “We (Costa Ricans) don’t have large salaries for property insurance.  We simply try to make our homes appear more secure than the one next door.  The fences and bars are to dissuade potential thieves.” 
•  We do not own a car.  We walk just under a mile each way to school.  And yes, it IS uphill both ways!  But so far there is no snow.  The grocery store is also just under a mile away.  For longer distances we use the bus and taxis. 
•  They speak Spanish here.  This is an obvious but significant difference.  It is amazing how much time and effort it takes for us to do simple things around town because of our limited language.  People have been very gracious and patient with us as we murder their language. 
•  Costs: some things are cheaper here; restaurants=$3-4 per person, public transportation – bus=50cents, cab=$3+, movies theater=$4 per person.  Some are more expensive and difficult to find (groceries, clothing, household items, toys, electronics). 
•  Culture:  This deserves a dozen blog posts all by itself.  Just know that every time we are offended by something different or we offend the locals with our American ways, we learn more about this beautiful culture.

-Adam