Budgeting and Bed Bugs

Hi All!  Sorry for the delay in posting.  It’s been a busy few weeks with a LOT of stuff going on.  We have been doing a lot of moving, working, training and hanging out with each other after being apart for so long.

Bed bug ridden feet

Since I arrived at the beginning of August, Jake and I have moved around the base 4 times.  We are finally settled in the room we will be in until we leave for outreach in a little over a month.  About a week into me being here, I woke up in the middle of the night with an incessant itch on my hand.  I got up and put some cortisone cream on my hand and went back to bed not thinking much of it.  The next morning I inspected more thoroughly and noticed many small bites on my hand.  Then I remembered that Karen let me know they had bed bug issues in the room we were staying in.  They had fumigated once and had changed mattress and thought that would have taken care of things.  However, those creepy little bugs had taken up residence in the wooden bed from and wood baseboards in the room.   Throughout the day more and more bites started to surface on me (Jake got bitten a little, but not nearly as bad as me).  I had bites all over my body, including my neck and even my eye lids. 

As soon as we discovered the bites and how bad they were (Jake and I counted 75 just on my hands.  I had 10 bites on one thumb!!), we were moved into one of the rooms they put their really important guests.  It was like getting a night in a hotel!  The next day we took all of our clothes (except the clothes we were wearing) to the only laundromat in town that uses hot water since they don’t have hot water running to the washers on base.  We bagged up all shoes, suitcases, etc. into black garbage bags and took them to our friends’ house to sit in the sun for a few days to “cook” the stuff inside.  We each spent the next 4 days in 1 pair of clothes and I spent the next week on Benadryl 24 hours a day because it was the best thing to help me not itch. 

Home

After one night in the “hotel” we were moved into another room, then again into another room after that.  Now we are settled and have a great little set up.    

Home

Last week we hosted all Costa Rica YWAM staff at this base for staff training.  We had worship together every day, heard presentations from seasoned YWAMers and had workshops on a variety of topics.  A few days before the training I was asked to do a workshop on budgeting for people.  I obliged and put together a training to help missionaries create a budget, how to stick to it and how to use it for helping to raise support.  It was actually fun even though teaching is not my forte.   

The most exciting thing that happened last week was that God started revealing to Jake and I His vision for ministry and what He wants us to do.  We aren’t yet released to share what that is with the general public, but as soon as we are we will share it. What I can say is that it’s HUGE (for that I am thankful because knowing that it is so much bigger than we are makes it so much easier to remember that God has to own this…not us) and that God has been generous enough to let us know that it’s an Abraham vision, meaning that we will not get to see “the promised land”, but we can trust that the things that God uses us in will be completed by Him in His time.  

For now, we are praying and letting God speak to us about the ways that He wants to move in this.  We are also making sure we lay down that vision every day because we want to make sure that we never take it up as our own.   Please be praying for us.  We want to be hearing God clearly about His timing until He releases us to begin and we want to be able to hear what the next step is.

We love and miss you all,

Jake and Michelle

P.S. I love the sound of the rain here.  It rains almost every afternoon and when it rains, it pours.  The great thing is that we have tin roofs.  It is the most beautiful sound, even though sometimes it is so loud you can't hear people talk.  But it is beautiful because it sings of God's power.  It sings of His sovereignty.  And it sings of His greatness.  I can't think of a more beautiful sound!