El parque+ tres hijos+dos mujeres= God's Perfect Timing

Today started out as a normal school day. Mark and I woke up and headed out the door for school around 7:15 this morning with Josiah in tow. After school we headed home and had some lunch. I wanted to relax a little because I had just taken a grammar test but Mark suggested that we go to the park ( el parque) before it rained. So, with sombrillas, bolas y hijos ready to go ( that is umbrellas, balls and kids) we headed to the park. However, today we decided to go to the park near the ferria where we buy our fruits and veggies on Saturday. Normally, we go to the park closer to the house. Anyway, we head to the park and Mark and the kids shoot a little basketball while I play with Josiah on the playground. Taylor and I with Josiah in the stroller decide to take a walk around the track. Now, at this point everyone is ready to go home. So, we start to head for the gate. We notice that 2 mujeres ( ladies) are walking towards us so we greet them with the few Spanish words that we know....Hola, Buenos Tardes, ?Como esta? The ladies stop and actually want to carry on a conversation with us. We chat for about 10-15 minutes in the entrance of the park. We discuss in Spanish of coarse why we are here, where we live and how long we plan on staying among other things. We get ready to go and then it starts to sprinkle. (by the way...the 2 ladies had just eaten and came to walk around the track for some excerise) As we start to walk away the ladies change their minds about walking and offer us a ride in their car...by this time it is really starting to rain. We insist that we are fine because we have sombrillas(umbrellas) with us and we live close. We start to head home and as we turn down one of the main streets to our house guess who is in the car in front of us and driving towards us.....?You guessed it those two ladies. They toot the horn and wave. We smile and wave back and proceed to walk home. But wait  that is not the end....they pull up into their driveway and wave us up. They want us to get out of the rain and so they invite us inside. So, we go on up the driveway and begin to chat and then we are motioned inside for cafe and te (coffee and tea) which is so funny because we don’t drink either....However, we did not want to offend our new friends so we all chose to drink hot tea. We get the tour of the house and the inside scoop on both ladies.

 Anna the lady who owns the house is the mother of 3 children and her husband has passed away. Margarita is her friend and her father passed away about the same time as Anna's husband. Margarita is visiting from Mexico. (so far only the Lord could have put us in this place...) We sit and drink tea and eat cookies and just chat around the kitchen table like we have known these 2 ladies for every. Actually, Anna kind of reminds me of my grandma Mathie in North Carolina. She is a very sweet lady who fell in love with our kids.

She was already trying to spoil Josiah.....:). We talked about many things and again yes it was all in Spanish. Anna told us that she was a teacher before she retired and she helped us a bunch with some words that we were unsure of in our conversation. Margarita is also a teacher that helps children who have specific learning disabilities and struggles in class. As we are talking we get started on church. We explain where we go to church and what we believe. While this is still a hard area to really get into because of the language barrier we did our best and conveyed our beliefs. In Costa Rica as for almost all of Latin America almost all claim to be Catholic. We chat and talk about Jesus Christ and how he is the only way to Heaven and he is the only one that can forgive us of our sins. You can tell that the ladies are holding on to something and also there is something else there...a deep feeling in their hearts...maybe they had been misguided or confronted in the wrong way about their beliefs.

Josiah giving kisses to Ms. Anna

We chat more and more and then we start talking about struggles in life and how they affect your life and your spiritual life and  how some people react differently to trials and sorrow. I begin to share with them that, I myself have had some hard trials in my life and the ladies are eagerly listening as I explain the Lord taking my babies to Heaven. In the middle of the 3rd story of losing Uriah the phone rang. You can hear Anna say Hola and then it is silent and she returns with the phone in hand and tears streaming down her face. It was the hospital; they had called to tell her that her sister in law had just died. (Wow) Here we are in a house of a stranger and we are currently talking about struggles and trials and then she receives this news........now you can say ONLY GOD! We hug her and tell her how sorry we are and then we offer to pray with her. As Mark is praying she starts to cry. God knew where we needed to be, who we needed to encounter and what needed to be said. We pray for Anna, Margarita and their families tonight not only for comfort from God almighty but that this will be a door that we can use to share the love of Jesus Christ with them. After all that is why we are here....to learn the language so that we can share the gospel. Please help us by praying for these 2 ladies and that the Lord will continue to soften their hearts for us to be able to share our faith. We have been invited to stop in at anytime again another gift from the Lord. Pray that we speak only the words that the Lord would have us to speak to help these two ladies.

Margarita, Anna, Taylor and me

"To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:"
Ecclesiastes 3:1