The past week has just been a whirlwind of activity. Praise the Lord, Josh returned safely from his 2-week disaster response trip to Chile. The 3-man team was able to perform structural assessments on close to 50 buildings, including churches, houses and even a jail. Josh was surprised and excited to see the desire of the Chilean government to work with EMI, as well as the government's response to the devastation of the earthquake. There seemed to be a desire to help their fellow Chileans, a stark contrast to what he experienced in Haiti: an "everyone-for-themselves" attitude. Overall, the team accomplished alot and was able to make a difference in the lives of the townspeople and pastors of the villages they visited. He will be posting pictures soon. So stay tuned!! We had a fun and interesting weekend of activity with our church here in Costa Rica. It was called "Un Dia para Conocernos Mejor" which means "a day to get to know ourselves better". We would call it "dinner on the grounds". This was like no homecoming or dinner on the grounds I've ever seen, though. The day started with worship, then in place of a sermon, there was a singing competition. Yes, a singing competition which was followed up by a "Reina Infantil" competition which is pretty much a child beauty pageant where the winner is named randomly. They had lunch catered which was delicious. We had a choice of tamales, rice and chicken, picadillo or a slice of pizza. Picadillo just means diced foods. It can be made any number of ways, but this one had diced potatoes, some kind of pork, garlic and other things that were indistinguishable, but very yummy! Josh and I both opted for the picadillo with soft corn tortillas. They also served granizados, which is kind of like a snowcone on steroids. It's sooo yummy and they top it off with a little sweetened condensed milk. It's a very typical treat for ticos. Often, there are guys pulling carts around town with granizado makings, like a portable ice cream shop. During the lunch portion of the day, they also had a sort of mechanical bull rigged up to the side for the kids to play on. They strapped 4 ropes to 4 corners of a big metal barrel and strung it off the ground with a hand-made bull's face on it. Anyone who dared could straddle the barrel as guys manned each of the 4 ropes and tugged and pulled as hard as they could to get you to fall off. With my clumsy nature, I thought it best not to attempt this attraction. After lunch, they had a bible trivia competition on the book of Romans. Overall, it was a really...interesting experience, but we had so much fun getting to know people in the church and enjoying some typical Tico (slang for Costa Rican) food. So, the event fulfilled its purpose of allowing the church to "get to know itself better"
Hogar de Vida
When the Lord called us to work with EMI in Latin America, we were sure of His call, but unsure of what doors He would open for me to minister. As a physical therapist, working in an office of engineers is a little outside of the norm for me. I had been praying that the Lord would direct me to a place of ministry here in Atenas. When we moved to Atenas in January 2010, I approached the directors of an orphanage called Hogar de Vida about volunteering. Hogar de Vida is a children's home run by Children of Promise ministries and works, in partnership with the Costa Rican government, to care for children who both are orphans or need to be removed from their home due to neglect or abuse. Most of the children that come into the orphanage are delayed somehow, whether in language, physically or socially. They were in need of someone to evaluate the children for developmental milestones and do follow-up treatments with those falling behind in various areas. Over the past month, I've had th
e chance to play with and get to know the cutest kids with the biggest smiles. To have one of them run up to me and want me to hold them as I'm walking into the house still makes me smile. I'm in the process right now of slowly going through each of 3 houses, with a total of 35 kids, performing evaluations that take about 2 hours per child. Even in this, the Lord is teaching me patience and I'm learning more about latin culture. Growing up in the U.S. culture, we are used to having a focus of productivity and efficiency. It's engrained deep in our thoughts and perspective of the world around us. So, to show up one afternoon, ready to jump into evaluations, and the kids have other activities planned, or the majority of the kids are sick with a virus or it takes almost an hour to round up the child and get them ready for the evaluation has been a challenge. The Lord has been showing me that my biggest call 
is to love on the children and show them HIS love. The evaluations that are completed are just on top of that. I look forward to so many more days of loving on these kids. Here are some pictures of some of the kids!
This is one of the little ones that have stolen my heart!
A Call to Fasting & Prayer - Haiti
February
I cannot believe how fast the past two months have passed. It seems like we have been doing so much. The house continues to feel more and more like home. Josh returned from Haiti on January 31st. Although it took a few days to get rested and have a normal level of energy, we praise the Lord for his protection of Josh's mind and heart during his time there. Since their return, there have been 5 more teams go to Haiti to continue EMI's response to the devastating earthquake, and there will be many more to come. Josh and the team were not only able to assist in designing Internally Displaced People (IDP) camps, but also train locals to perform simple structural assessments. Micah, a structural engineer who was also on the team to Haiti, and Josh worked hard in the weeks after their return to design a tool to be used for many years into the future to teach locals how to perform these assessments. Therefore, giving them power to help themselves and their community return to their homes whenever possible. Josh was actually interviewed for an article in World Magazine about the work he they had done. He also wrote an article on the IDP camp design for a quarterly newsletter that the Association of Christian Design Professionals distributes to its members. Needless to say, there has been alot of work for Josh to accomplish including the 4-5 projects that he is now project managing throughout Central America. It has been a very exciting time for us as we feel purpose in what we are doing each day and having opportunities to serve the Lord with our lives on a daily basis. We ask that you pray for us, especially over the next few weeks, as Josh is leaving this Thursday for two weeks in Chile. He is part of a disaster response team that will be working in the areas between Santiago and Concepcion, Chile performing structural assessments and setting up water filtration systems, partnering with several different ministries including Samaritan's Purse, Christian and Missionary Alliance and Campus Crusade. Pray that the Lord will give him strength, endurance and wisdom to know how best to use the skills of the team for His glory as well as for Allison while he is away.
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