More than I Could Imagine

Miss Jana's room downstairs was a favorite hang out.

     I know God answers my prayers.  But very often I forget that He answers by giving me more than I asked for or even imagined was possible. 

     Mark and I signed up for our last trimester of school wondering who would be with the children during their school break.  Sojourn Academy offered a summer camp, but our oldest daughter requested slower, summer like mornings and more time at home.  This was a reasonble request since she had just finished her first year of traditional schooling and was tired from the constant demands of tests and projects.  All the kids wanted to spend more time with each other, too.

     I prayed, asking God to provide a Costa Rican to care for them at home in the mornings and help them with their Spanish.  I thought it was a reasonable request, but I should have known better.  I should have prayed much bigger.

     I should have prayed for someone bilingual, someone who grew up knowing both Spanish and English, a young woman old enough to be a leader and fun enough to goof off with the kids, a 3rd culture kind of person who faced the trials of growing up on the mission field and yet persevered and conquered in God's strength, someone who could sing and play the guitar, a lovely Christian who could teach by both Word and deed, and someone who was so beautiful on the outside and inside that the kids would instantly fall in love with her.

     I should have prayed bigger, but I praise God that he loves to give us more than we could ask for or imagine, and he generously gave our family OP Missionary Jana Crum.  After a rather speedy introduction to Costa Rica, she got right to work organizing a daily routine for the children.  They were on summer break, but a little structure goes a long way.  Each morning they read their Bibles and prayed individually and then discussed what they learned.  They straightened their rooms and cleaned up after breakfast.

It's almost time for church to start.

 

     And then the real fun started.  They were all enrolled in the Crum boot camp and did sit ups, push ups, planks, wall sits, lunges, they jogged around the block, and enjoyed plenty of park time.  They also memorized verses in Spanish.  We all enjoyed lunch together in Spanish.  And if one of us mistakenly used English, we had to repeat the Spanish translation three times. 

     Jana also volunteered during VBS week at the Presbyterian and Reformed Church in Cartago.  She went with the children each day and helped with the music ministry. 

     She stayed at the house with the kids in the afternoons when Mark and I had Spanish conversation appointments, walked with Sabrina to dance class, washed dishes, cooked for us, and helped us in countless other ways.  Mark and I could not have completed FARO with our sanity intact without Miss Jana.

at the fruit market with a crazy Richline kid