Are we vacationaries? Well maybe, today, we were just a little bit.

We are kind of lame and predictable.  When I was booking our travel for Markham Family Missions Costa Rica Take 2, I noticed that the connection city choices, were Miami, Charlotte, and Houston.  Charlotte is a nice airport, but for international travel, you have to pick up your bags and recheck them in a short time, which is more stressful than starting Caleb Hanie.  Miami is an incredible city, but the airport food is as bland as  a Mason City, Iowa Lawrence Welk convention.  Having been proud Houstonians for well over 10 years, I checked the IAH menu, and discovered our terminal was "E" and, lo and behold, Pappasitos Cantina was also in Terminal E.  Paydirt!  We arrived at 09:20 and wolfed down fajitas and enchilidas like we hadn't eaten in weeks.  So yes, we are Americans, we do love the Lord, but there is a vacationary somewhere near the center of every short term missionary, is there not?  Admit it, we will.

Our first day, thankfully, is coming to a well deserved ending.  Well deserved because it started at 3 am in Oak Forest, IL, and ended up 10 pm in San Antonio de Belen, Costa Rica.  It was longer than a Tiger Wood two iron at Castle Pines.  But it was great.  We got to see some great friends in Houston who were arriving just as we were leaving.  The Pendletons are faithful friends and awesome Christ followers.

We arrived in Costa Rica at 3:30 pm and immediately began amusing the locals with our bad Spanish.  But Ticos are the self proclaimed "friendliest country in the world," and at least for today, it rang true.


Our residence is suitable, as is our vehicle.  Our host family, Matt and Lisa Befus and their four lovely daughters are busier than Joe Biden's dentist.  They fed us and chatted with us till this family was almost asleep in their chairs.  Not from boredom, just exhaustion from our day's journey.

Tomorrow, we've got a few questions for our landlord, we'll eat our first gallo pinto of our trip, and head to La Palabra de Vida to learn more about the English tutoring we'll do next month.

I've tried to explain to them that this Okie teaching English is a little like Newt Gingrich teaching humility.  Might be a touch of genius from time to time but it's mostly just bad grammar.

So we're here, we're happy, and we're so blessed.  Adios y Dios lo bendega.