Happy Birthday!!!!

Joel Josiah Hubbard is 1 week old today. He was born on Thursday, November 23rd @ 2:36pm weighing 9 lbs and measuring 52 cms.
Joel is just precious with his dark brown hair and grey eyes.... will he change to Costa Rican brown eyes or Gringo Blue eyes called Gato here as the resemble a cat. He has a perfect nose like his Mommy and his mouth and chin look like Daddy. With his long fingers and long feet, he is going to be very tall like his daddy's grandpa who was 6'4"!!!!

Mommy and baby had their follow-up appointments today and both are doing great!!

Here he is......

Map of Costa Rica

Thought I should show you a picture of the country of Costa Rica. It is located below Nicaragua and above Panama in Central America.

In the center of the country are two of the largest cities, San Jose (the capital and where the Airport is) and Cartago (the original Capital and where Cynthia's parents live).

Palmar Norte (the town where the October Mission's team helped to rennovate a Church) can be seen in the south close to Panama.

Turrialba is just East of Cartago and is the largest town closest to Jicotea, where I live. Jictoea (which is too small to show up on any map on the Internet!!) would be south at about the level of the name Cartago on the map and below the 'a' in Turrialba. It is about 35 km east of Turrialba including about 7 km of dirt roads .

If you'd like a better look, check it out on GoogleEarth under Jicotea, Costa Rica.

Foursquare Missionary work in Costa Rica

Lewie & Linda Richey are FMI Missionaries and the Field Supervisors in Costa Rica. Both of them travel extensively around Latin America. Linda has a ministry directly to the children called Tia Linda Ministeries.






Bill & Debbie Boling are Missionary Associates in Quepos, on the Pacific Coast.

(they worked hard cooking and arranging for the first annual Missionary retreat in Quepos last weekend.)





Nathan & Kathy Heatherly are Missionary Associates to the Limon Province. Their family including their four children (Caleb, Alicia, Josiah and Krister) have just moved to Cartago become the Chirldren's pastors at the church where Cynthia's dad is pastor.






John & Debbie Overholt are from Vancouver Island and just arrived in Costa Rica two weeks ago. In January, they will begin a 8 month intense program learning Spanish and then they are moving to Liberia, the area near Nicoya, in the north of the country.




Missionary Interns include Josiah and Cynthia Hubbard who are ministering to the Cabecar Indians, Wyce Ghiacy who is working with Tia Linda Ministeries and then myself, helping Josiah and Cynthia.

Please check out the Missionaries section of FMI (of the International Church of the Foursqaure Gospel- ICFG) at: http://fmi.foursquare.org/ or Foursquare Canada at: http://foursquare.ca

Philip Jones Family

These are Philip and Saukeen's children Jakie (left), Emily (middle) and Christy(right). I spent Nov 4-8th living with Saukeen and the children while Philip and his brother Timothy were down south visiting some of the Guaymi Indigenous people. Timothy, Philip and another brother David plan to begin to translate the Bible into Guaymi. These are just 3 of the children of the original Jones family who were very well known Missionaries in Costa Rica. The family has spent many years translating the Bible into Cabecar (the largest indigenous group in Costa Rica).

Philip and his family live about 1.5 hours from where we live (even longer when it has been raining alot) and sometimes these roads even require chains in the rainy season. they have a gas stove and waterheater, a gas icebox and they use a generator from 5 till 9 when it gets dark at night. There are quite a few battery powered lights and kerosene lamps if necessary during the night or to read before bed.

It was amazing to see how they lived without all the North American conveniences (inlcuding tv) in yet days were even more busy and fulfilling. It very cool having to check to see how many eggs we would have for the next days breakfast. :)

I had a great time reading stories to the kids, attending a Cabecar church service, playing musical chairs in the living room on a day when it had rained all day and we couldn't get outside.

Sau and I spent many hours talking about her Missionary journey to China and then the combining of their ministries when they were married. She and her family have amazing dedication to live so far from other english speaking friends but their joy and contentment is infectious. It was a blessing to me to hear about their perserverance and their hearts for the Cabecars.

Quepos with the Canadians, eh?

This room is not only amazing for its beauty but what is the best is that my stay was a gift from our friends in Quepos, Annie and Paul. Thank you for your generosity...I had a great time!

Quepos sunset

Taken on Ocotber 26th (sorry, it took so long but I have had very little access to the internet). This is in the resort town of Quepos where I was very fortunate to join the Mission's team from Northside after they had worked really hard restorig and old church as well as adding an addition for the pastor and his family to live in. The church is in the south of the country in Palmar Norte (I think my next post will be a map of Costa Rica so you can see where all these places are). Oh and it was so great to have to only speak English for a while. :)

New baby has arrived

well....it' not Cynthia's baby yet as he hasn't decided to show his face yet. the due date was November 15th so we are awaiting his arrival anyday.

The baby I am talking about is my new little kitten who is yet to have a name. Seeing that Josiah and Cynthia will have a new little one, I guess I thought I should have one too (however much more furry I suspect)!

Tropical Spanish School