Curbing the curiosity: Day of action of giving thanks

'El dia de accion de gracias' is how they translate into Spanish, Thanksgiving Day, although it's not celebrated here. In order to prepare all the food in time and for it to feel more like Thanksgiving, we took the day off of school. All of our team collaborated and made all the traditional Thanksgiving foods. However, chicken was made in place of turkey because turkey is REALLY expensive here. It was similar, though, they are like cousins, right? ; ) So, we got together that evening with the Dixons and Janzens and had an amazing Thanksgiving fiesta and hang out time! It was also rough, though, not being at home with my own family and missing hanging out with them. I'm definitely looking forward to when they get to come and visit me here!!!

We had to go back to school on Friday, which wasn't very Thanksgivingy feeling and we were kind of exhausted, but the teachers were very understanding. Language school is going pretty well, for the most part. There are definitely those rules and exceptions to the rules that exist in every language which cause plenty of frustrations, but overall I think we're moving along pretty well. There are 3 levels of books in our language school- beginner, intermediate and advanced (imagine that!) and each level has a number of books. Last week, we actually got moved on to the Advanced 1 book! Exciting! But also tiring and confusing trying to keep all that we've learned straight. Please continue to pray for us in this area of understanding and being able to speak what we know.

Saturday we got to go and pick out our very own Christmas tree to make our apartment feel more homey during the holiday season. We weren't exactly sure how we were going to get the tree back to our apartment, not having a car and all. So, we just went hoping that we'd figure it out there. After we picked out the tree we wanted, we asked one of the taxi drivers if it would be possible for one of them to help us get our tree home. So, the guy started asking around and found another guy with a mini van taxi that was willing to take us and the tree. So, he helped us strap it to the top of the mini van taxi and helped to unload it and everything and it wasn't even really expensive! We had found some lights and ornaments at the Costa Rican equivalent of a Dollar Store and decorated it all up. Its very cute and makes us super happy every time we see it!

Soooooo, Monday was really exciting, as we got to go to the office of Food For The Hungry, meet the staff and talk with the director. It was good to here more from him about their vision and to be able to see their facility. They seem to have a lot in common with the vision that SI has, so we may be able to partner with them in some form in the future. They even offered to help us with anything that we may need, which was encouraging to know that we have someone to call if a need arises.

Well, I feel like things have been picking up a little bit, but I know that it'll be nothing compared to when we begin working in intentional ministry in January. Please pray that God would continue to prepare our hearts and even emotions for that time, as I still feel that I'm in a semi-fragile state. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for diving into full on ministry, but I want my heart to be right and full, so that I can really pour into others when the time comes. And, oh, it will come! So, please continue to keep me in your prayers for that and for my finances, as well. Thank you to many of you, my support has come in leaps and bounds, but I've still got a little to go before I am fully funded. Thanks again for being faithful and God bless!

Con cariño,

Cailah

Our whole team at Thanksgiving: Erin Janzen, Jeff Dixon, Jeremy Janzen, Tracey Dixon, Krysta Williams, Judah Janzen, Sawyer Dixon, Ella Janzen and Olivia Dixon