What's Going On
This page was last modified on Wednesday, November 23, 2011
8/23/11 - It's official! We are now residents of San Salvador, El Salvador. We are in the process of getting settled in and learning our way around the city.
2/16/11 - God has clearly directed us to relocate to the capital city of San Salvador. God is already preparing the way ahead of us as He has provided a great school for our girls to attend there. Projected move date is June of 2011.
12/17/10 - We just returned from a month-long visit to the states. Had a great time. We are looking forward to what God has for us in the coming year.
8/17/10 - Celebrated our three year anniversary of when we left Kansas City to move to Costa Rica. Hard to believe it has been three years already. Praise God!
6/2/10 - Keeley and I celebrated 9 years of marriage. God blessed me with an awesome wife!
5/15/10 - We started three new Listening Groups up on the mountains using the Proclaimer audio Bible provided by the ministry called Faith Comes by Hearing.
3/22/10 - The School for Pastors and Leaders is going great. Our girls turned a year older in February. New Bible Study for men on Tuesday mornings.
2/2/10 - Our girls are back in school, the temperature is climbing, and the School for Pastors and Leaders is back in session as of January 30th.
12/19/09 - We had a fantastic visit to the states this past month. It was great to visit with family and friends. We enjoyed being cold for a change, although it wasn't nearly as great as I thought it would be. :-)
10/24/09 - Just a few more days until we leave for our visit to the states! We are looking forward to visiting face to face.
8/14/09 - Bought our tickets for our visit to the states in November. Can't wait to see friends and family!
7/14/09 - We are planning a visit back to the States for this November. More details to come!
7/6/09 - Enjoyed a great visit from a good friend from Colorado. The time went by way too quickly.
6/2/09 - Had a great time at the youth conference and pastors workshop taught by our very own Pastor Jeff Adams.
4/25/09 - We officially launched the new School for Pastors and Leaders! Things are moving forward well with the classes each Saturday. We have almost 60 students enrolled for this first year.
3/30/09 - We obtained a 90 day extension of our Tourist Visas in order to give us enough time to apply for residency here in El Salvador. Had a great visit with fellow KCBT missionaries Jim & Kathy Mehl too. Launch date for the new Pastors School is April 25th.
2/3/09 - We got moved into our new house! It is great to have our own space again. Now the joy of unpacking all of the suitcases.
1/7/09 - We made it to El Salvador safe and sound! We found a house to rent here that is brand new and not quite finished. We will need to wait until the first of February to move in, but we believe it will be worth the wait. Until then we are staying with a wonderful family from the church. God is knitting our hearts with the pastors and leaders, and we are excited to begin ministering with them.
12/12/08 - Packing, packing, and more packing.
11/11/08 - God has given us clear confirmation that He wants us to minister in Gotera, El Salvador next. We are very excited! The move is scheduled for December 26th, 2008.
11/1/08 - We are putting our house in Kansas City, MO back on the market to sell. Being landlords from another country is not what we would like to do. You can see the listing online by clicking here.
10/2/08 - Ryan will be taking a trip to Gotera, El Salvador to check out a possible next step in ministry on October 31st. Please pray for clarity in what God wants us to do next.
9/10/08 - After a great visit in the States, we are back in Costa Rica. Our current challenge is to figure out what our new normal looks like. Our routine will consist of tutoring, and speaking lots of Spanish while drinking some of the best coffee on the planet. We are going to be homeschooling Avigail during this stage while we are considering what the Lord would have for us next. Please continue to pray that God gives us clear direction for where He would have us to serve.
8/15/08 - We are in the states for a three week whirlwind tour. Our time begins with a week in Denver, Colorado with family and friends. The remainder of our time will be spent in Kansas City, Missouri with family and our sending church, the Kansas City Baptist Temple. We hope to be able to visit with many of you in person!
8/14/08 - We graduated!!! Wooo hooo!! The ceremony went great and we are immensely grateful for the year of language school. Thanks for all of your support this year.
7/6/08 - We just enjoyed a wonderful week long visit from my Mom (Ryan's mom) and my brother. It was great to see them in person and show them a little about our new life here in Costa Rica. Tomorrow marks the beginning 6 weeks of Language School remaining. It continues to go well, but we are sure looking forward to graduating on August 14th!
6/14/08 - 9 weeks left and counting. Finishing Language School strong is our desire as there is much to be gleaned from the remaining weeks. The school has noticed a pattern with students that around the 9 months mark their brains begin showing strong signs of fatigue. We are approaching the 10 month mark and can testify to the truth of this pattern. :-)
5/21/08 - We are well into our 3rd and final trimester of Language School. Our classes are going well and we are continuing to learn more and more every day. Our graduation will be on August 14th, and we are really looking forward to it!
4/9/08 - The rainy season has unofficially begun!
Although the official start of the rainy season isn't until later this month, it would seem that it has started a bit early this year. We received some seriously strong rains this past Sunday. It was the first strong rain we have experienced in our new house and it exposed some areas that are lacking in the gutter and drainage department. After a call to the landlord, hopefully our indoor swimming pool will be a thing of the past. :-)
3/27/08 - Our first official visitor from the states!
Keeley's Mom came and spent two weeks with us here in Costa Rica. We had a great visit with here and our girls loved having Grandma Sue stay with us.
2/23/08 - Half way through Language School
We just had our mid-term evaluations which mark the half way mark in our 2nd Trimester, but it also marks our half way mark for the whole course. We have learned so much in 6 short months.
1/16/08 - 2nd Trimester has begun!
School has begun again and is in full swing. Our classes are challenging, but we are learning alot and enjoying the process. We have been in our new house for about one month now. It is more like a home than the other house, we are very grateful for it.
11/18/07 - One month to go!
We have one month left in our first trimester of Language School. Hard to believe that three months have passed since we arrived here in Costa Rica. Our three week Christmas break begins on December 14th and we will be spending Christmas in Costa Rica this year. It has been a great three months and we are looking forward to what the Lord has for us in the future.
10/8/07 - We have a car!
We bought the car from the missionary who is returning to the states for his furlough. It is a great car and we are blessed to have it. Now we can reserve taxi and bus rides as cultural experiences for people who come to visit. :-)
9/21/07 - Found a car to buy
There is a missionary here who is returning to the States next month for a year furlough and needs to sell his car before he leaves. It is a Toyota Corolla that is in great shape for a good price. We are in the process of transferring the money and completing the paperwork. Having our own car will give us a lot more flexibility and allow us to better use our time.
9/15/07 - Language School has begun
We started our classes on September 4th and things are going well. Keeley and I are getting used to having homework again. It is a daily activity that we have not had in our lives for quite a while. Our girls are getting used to their classes and being at school during the week. They are crying "less" when we drop them off in the morning now. After two weeks of classes my teachers recommended that I be moved up to more advanced classes, so that is good.
8/18/07 - We made it to Costa Rica!
We got to our house around 2:00 am on Sunday morning and went right to sleep. We are getting unpacked and settled in. Things are going great.
7/13/07 - Airline Tickets purchased
We now have our tickets for flying to Costa Rica on Delta Airlines. My friend and boss has allowed us to use Delta Skymiles that he had accumulated for our tickets, so we were able to get all of them for just the amount of the tax! Praise God! The only catch (if you want to call it that) is we had to fly on August 18th instead of August 11th. The house we are renting is also not available until the 18th, so that will work out well too.
7/2/07 - House in Costa Rica Secured
We now have a rental house secured in San Jose, Costa Rica. It is near the school (walking distance) and should work out great. We will post some pictures when we get them.
5/15/07 - Acceptance Letter Received
We have now been officially enrolled in the Language Institute. They have a great program for welcoming new students to Costa Rica and helping them get established.
4/28/07 - The passports for our two girls came in the mail today.
So now all four of us have our papers to travel. With the United States requiring everyone who travels out of the country to have a passport, it is slowing down the processing of applications. I am glad we didn't have any issues with cutting it close.
4/5/07 - Language School is paid for!
An anonymous donor contributed a generous monitary gift that will completely pay for the Language School tuition for Keeley and I. What a great God we serve.
3/26/07 - Thanks God for the hail!
On February 28th we had a big hail strom come through Kansas City. It damaged the roof of the house we are needing to sell. Our insurance is going to pay for a complete replacement!! What a blessing.
3/11/07 - It's Official! Our house is for sale.
Our house is officially up for sale now. The for sale sign went in the yard last Tuesday around 11:00 am. Please join us in praying that the right buyer comes to look at the house and loves it.
Click Here to see the listing
1/27/07 - We moved into the house that will be our home until we depart for Costa Rica in August.
In case you hadn't heard, a wonderful couple in our church is letting us live in their empty house until we leave. Why is their house empty you ask? His mother is away from her house for many months while she travels, so while they house sit for her, we get to house sit for them. It is a huge blessing! God is already beginning to part the waters so we can go across on dry ground. Joshua 3
We are doing some final touch ups to our house before we put it up for sale. Please pray that God brings just the right buyer at just the right time.
November 4th - 12th, 2006 - Our family had the opportunity to take a road trip to Texas and New Mexico to visit friends.
Our first stop was Borger, Texas, which is just North of Amarillo in the Texas panhandle. My good friends Chris & Jennifer Ruzicka live there. Chris is the associate pastor of Friendship Baptist Church in Borger. Bill Sizemore is the Senior Pastor. It was great to visit with them and see what God is doing in their church. They have a growing Spanish ministry there as well.
Our next stop was Lovington, New Mexico. Three years ago we had a chance to share discipleship with a Spanish speaking church there called Primera Iglesia Bautista. Juan Carlos Soto is the pastor there. The pastor's daughter, Karla, turned 15 years old and had her quincienera (kind of like a sweet 16 party in the USA, except much more elaborate). I had the priviledge of preaching at her party. We had a wonderful time fellowshipping with the people there. It is a growing church that is faithfully taking what they have received and are sharing it with others.
We had a great time during our recent trip to San Jose, Costa Rica! While were there, we were able to accomplish our 3 primary goals for the trip. (We traveled from October 7th to the 13th)
1. Spend time getting to know KCBT missionaries Greg & Sue Kedrovsky. What a great time we had fellowshipping, laughing, and playing with the kids. Good coffee too....
2. See the city of San Jose and experience some of the "daily life" that goes on there. We were able to visit grocery stores, banks, the post office, and the mall. Many similarities to what we are used to, but lots of differences too. There will be time to hit the tourist traps after we move.... :-)
3. Tour the Spanish Language Institute where we will study Spanish during our first year in Costa Rica. We had the opportunity to meet the director of the school, and she gave us a wonderful tour of their facility. It is a nice school that has been around for a long time. Our two girls will be going to classes at the same school where we will be studying. Avigail is especially excited to go to school since this will be her first experience with it!