Saying goodbye...

This morning we rode to San Jose to see off our friends who have been staying with us for the past week.  We will miss the friendship and help.  Tony and Belinda have a rare combination of organizational and mechanical skills that come in handy when moving in and fixing up.   The children, Caleb and Hannah, brought energy and musical talent to set the foundation for and cap off each day.  Last but not least, muscician Jon Nicholson bridged the gap between the parents and kids.  John often  lead worship during our devotional time and his ability to speak the universal language of music broke the ice when palabras (words) were lacking. This week was about getting organized and getting connected.

Wednesday the 23rd of July our  group drove 18 kilometers through the cane fields to a primary school at Haciende Oriente where we presented the Colors of the Gospel and handed out bracelets so the students could remember the Good News. The school has 37 students and is situated on the edge of a farm in the mountains of central Costa Rica.  The scenery is beautiful. Taking advantage of the rich soil, the cafeteria ladies have planted a successful garden next to the cafeteria.   The principal, Minor, welcomed our variety of personalities and abilities and taught us a few new songs.  Hazel cooked up some typical Tico soup and we refreshed the cafeteria  by repainting all the chairs with the same colors that were part of our Good News presentation.

Tony and Belinda start to work on the cafeteria chairs.

Minor and John talking  music.



Hannah getting some food from Hazel



Shea and a student jump rope while Tony twirls it.  



Tony and Hannah doing quality checks on the green chairs. 



School garden planted next to the cafeteria. 

The colors of the Gospel.

Hazel takes us to the top of the mountain community. 

Blessings....

  Blessings come in many forms. We were very blessed to host our first mission group.   It was a little crazy trying to organize a mission trip when we had only been here for 5 days.  Several of our plans fell through (which seems to be fairly typical of the area). So....we improvised. And as always God was faithful.

In March, Pat and Austin met a family that lives right down the street from our house. Austin was able to keep in touch with them via Skype until our move. Twenty minutes after we arrived in July, Valentina (5) rode her bike by our house and spotted us. She greeted us with the loudest, happiest scream I have ever heard.  She quickly ran home and returned with her siblings, Nahomy (12) and Gael (2).  We became very close to their family in just a few short days. Evelyn and Deiver ( the parents) hung out with us for 4-8 hours a day.  Our relationship has been much like that of long lost cousins. Deiver was laid off from the Rawlings Baseball plant. He has been out of work for about 3 months now and is having a hard time looking for work with no car, scoliosis, and a herniated disk in his lower back.  The night we were preparing for The Stephens and Jon Nicholson to arrive, the kids went to their house for dinner. Grandma was visiting and had promised Austin a home cooked meal. The kids had a great time and mentioned that floors of Evelyn and Deiver's house were all cement. Ok...they do things differently here. No big deal.

A few days later, Pat walked down to their house for the first time.  He noticed that they could use our help.  Here we were searching for ideas and projects in town and our very own neighbors (notice a theme here) could use some help. They had recently done an expansion on the house and ran out of concrete before finishing the kitchen.



Nahomy doing the dishes in the before picture.

Bags of concrete mix.




The floor after removing the sink.

View of the kitchen from the outside.  Notice there is no door.  They have 2 old doors that lean up against the opening.

Our Story

     I know the move seems random to many of you, but it really was pretty calculated.  Well...as calculated as the Sullivan family gets anyway.   The idea of a long term family mission trip sprouted many years ago, but as we all know these sort of things take much time and planning.  Over the past 17 years, Pat has poured his heart and soul into his company creating the means to make this all happen. The kids and I have been diligent at home to ensure that they were a year ahead academically so that we could take a year off and simply serve the Lord. I cannot tell you what an honor it is that God has made this possible for us.
      I love to look back and see his hand guiding us every step of the way. I regret that I can also look back and see us pushing him away and taking matters into our own hands. The most exciting part of this experience is that we realize we are now at a point where God is the only one who can be in control. The 5 of us are so far out of our comfort zone that we can only rely on him now.  It didn't start that way. I wanted to control where we would live (at the beach near people who speak English), how long we would be gone (3 months), and who would be over us (some experienced Godly family who has done the same thing we are doing and has kids the same ages as ours).   I had my list of ministries we could work with and their contact information. We spoke with friends who have a condo in Costa Rica along with ready made connections. Pat and I booked a flight to Costa Rica to check things out and make sure we (I) approved of them. By the time we boarded the plane, God had narrowed our list down to one place, Turrialba, Costa Rica with International Impact Ministries.
     Taking a step this big requires us to live out our faith. Being we are going on a mission trip, I figured we should just follow his calling and go where he leads us.  We read a great book a few years ago called, The Cause Within You by Matthew Barnett. The focus of the book is to find what God is doing and join him. We have friends that have been to Turrialba and loved it. I  was a bit giddy at the thought of going someplace others loved and created a picture in my head of what the town would look like and how comfortable I would be there. Why do we do that to ourselves?  Our driver was 2 hours late picking us up from the airport, the showers in the house didn't work, there was a group of about 20 musicians staying at the compound, no one spoke English. But... God is still faithful!  The first night Pat and I arrived we went for a walk to see the town. We found a neat little park with a creek. We headed over to a rock to sit and pray and this is what we saw.

     Yes, God's promise. Just for me. At that moment I gave up control of where I would be or what I would be doing. That was 7 months ago. We are now heading down to a rural inland town with no beach or English speaking people around for 12 months and God is over us. Our house rented for what we were asking before we put it on the market and the renters agreed to host our dog and fish while we are gone. God has gone down our "hanging over our head" list and wiped it clean.  While my "Missy is in control" list was very specific of our ministry works, God has just called us to love our neighbor. (Imagine that!). At first I felt inadequate when people would ask what we would be doing, but now I say with confidence that we are going to love our neighbor.