The 12 Days of Christmas (our Costa Rican version)

The 12 Days of Christmas  (our Costa Rican version)

On the first day of Christmas

My true love sent to me

A cockroach in a pear tree

On the second day of Christmas

My true love sent to me

Two geckos chirping

And a cockroach in a pear tree

On the third day of Christmas

My true love sent to me

Three guards a whistling

Two geckos chirping

And a cockroach in a pear tree

On the fourth day of Christmas

My true love sent to me

Four hungry monkeys, etc.

And a cockroach in a pear tree

On the fifth day of Christmas

My true love sent to me

Five grammar classes!

Four hungry monkeys, etc.

And a cockroach in a pear tree

On the [sixth - twelfth] day of Christmas

My true love sent to me

Six ants a working

Seven snakes a swimming

Eight days of gayo pinto (rice & beans)

Nine Tico’s laughing (at our spanish)

10 red poisonious frogs a-leaping

11 peddlers calling

12 drummers drumming

Five grammar classes!

Four hungry monkeys, etc.

And a cockroach in a pear tree

What does it mean to be REJECTED!!!!!!!!

Well....that is the word of the day for the Kliewer's:  Rejected, yup you got it!!  So I went up to the office (Nathan) at the school to talk with the person who handles the immigration stuff and she said, "Tengo algunas noticias malas para usted, Natan," or "I have some bad news for you Nathan....you have been rejected, you are now considered illegal tourists.  Life is never ordinary with the Kliewer's you should know that.  So as it stands, the immigration office had 20 families that they were to approve for extensions and at the last minute they decided they were not going to accept three and for no legal reason; (at least from my standpoint)....... and yes, we were one of those three.  So what this simply means is that we to have to leave Costa Rica at some point.  And in order to reapply for student visas we have to have legal status and to get "legal" again we have to leave the country for at least 72 hours.   Now that we are illegal we were told that it doesn't really matter when we leave, so it looks like we may go to Panama sometime in January.  Anyway, please pray that down the road after we apply for another student visa that we wont be rejected and we can stay in Costa Rica instead of having keep leaving....quite the pain!

I felt the earth move!

Well today I felt my first earthquake! It was very small and the only way I knew that we were having an earthquake is because my tutor asked me if I was feeling it, I was getting dizzy while I was reading to her so I guess that is what I was experiencing.  Apparently Costa Rica experiences earthquakes all the time some are big and some are small but the majority  are small THANK YOU LORD!  We have two weeks left in this trimester I don't know if that is exciting or a scarey reality that we are 1/3 done our language study here in Costa Rica.  We are getting very excited about our families that are coming in for Christmas!  Less then two weeks till our first visitors arrive.  One request I can post on here is that I have really been trying to connect with Mauren our empleada's daughter who is around my age.  We had plans to get together with them last weekend but Carmela had a fever (still does) so we weren't able to get together with them.  But I would love the opportunity to get to know her and experience life with a Tica friend and learn the culture and share life with her!  Lorena also has another daughter named LLorli that we have tentative plans to get together with her this weekend so please pray that we are able to meet with Lorena's family and build a authentic relationship with them and as well as practice our spanish maybe God would bless us with the opportunity to ministry to a family who does not know him.  

oh ya the picture is of Carmela holding a bug, she loves bugs! oh I forgot to mention the bug I saw today!! it was a centipede 8 inches long I found him in the bathroom.  Yes it was a scared visit. :)

love always ME

Sandra

And the Angels were present....

It hasn't been but 2 full days and your prayers for our protection have come into play....big time!!!!!! I am so excited to tell you about this experience I had yesterday.  So I (Nathan) went to downtown San Jose yesterday to find some Christmas presents and had a real good time with some friends, tasting coffee and bartering with the tico's.  As we were making our way toward the opposite end of avenida central our friends bumped into some tico friends of theirs.  As we were talking with them they said to us, "um ok, you guys are about to be robbed and you have been followed by these three guys for a while now.  I want you to turn around a look directly at them and wait for a few minutes."  So we all (about 9 of us, including the tico friends) turned around and just stared them down for a few minutes until our tico friend said, "ok you guys continue walking and I will keep staring these three down and will have 'some words' with them if they start following you again."  So we continued to walk and they the three "thiefs" took off some other direction.  Hhhmmm you ask why would I be so excited to tell you that?  Well, just think about it for a minute....We have been praying for God's protection around us and have asked you to pray with us and now here is ANOTHER answer to that prayer.  And on one of the busiest days of the year in San Jose, we just "happen" to bump into some tico friends who were able to use their well accustomed "sense" and realized we had been stalked.  Happenstance....I think not.   Keep in mind that there may come a time when I actually get robbed but that doesn't mean that God "forgot" to protect me.  It is just a simple reminder that sometimes our protection doesn't always look like God's protection does it????  

Entonces (anyway), thanks for your prayers...much appreciated!!!  By the way, this picture is taken from our house and is sitting on top of a mountain peak nearby.