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I turned sixty-two this year.  Wow, hearing that sounds old but seeing it in writing seems even older.  Strange thing though, and I am sure others my age say the same thing, in my mind I am still in my early forties.

In my mind I can still do all the things I did in my forties.  I even have times, in my mind, when I can do things I did in my twenties.

While I can still do a few things, I know they are not as well as I use to.

I am not just talking about physical things.  Not just all those physical things I could do when I was young that I thought I would always be able to do; but also the mental.  I use to be able to remember so much more.  Now I forget why I walked from the bedroom to the living room. LOL

For me, the addiction to sports that I developed in my twenties kept me in rather good shape well into my forties.  My addiction to sports, like many addictions, came at a high cost.

Praise God I found Christ at thirty-five.  Turned out that what I strove for in the evermore riskier sports I was getting into was, in truth, a search for contentment in my soul.

So when my addiction to sports resulted in bringing my life into a total mess, God put someone in my life that He used to bring me to His truth.  Not just saving my soul but giving me His Word that I can study and learn the true meaning of contentment.

The truth is that only through Christ can I find what my true longing. I believe every human has this same longing; which is to have a contented soul.

Now I understand what God means when He gave us Philippians Chapter 4.

Reading God’s Word always lifts me.  It refocuses me when I am tempted to stray and/or when I stumble.

Do I sometimes miss the physical shape I was once in?  Truth is, yes.

But then God reminds me of Philippians Chapter 3.

I give the chapters to avoid taking His Word out of context.

In closing, I simply say “Praise God, the savior of my soul and the author of my contentment”.

Ron

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Fulfillment doesn’t always looks like what we expect, but it always comes. Our anchor of hope is in the Lord, and o how faithful of a Father we serve.

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A sweet note from our students today.

AND, wow it has been pouring rain the last week.  We literally had a waterfall coming down the steps today. Thankfully no water inside the school it was just really loud so we crafted =).

My kids love to craft so today we made snowmen from clothespins and tomorrow we will make our gifts from toilet paper rolls for our Christmas presentation. (sorry for the run on sentence). We decorate toilet paper rolls and fill them with candy and give them as gifts =). This is like the 4th time we have made them and the kids still love doing it!!  December 2nd is our Christmas presentation.  Please be in prayer with me that this will actually turn out nice and parents will be happy to see their children participate and that the Lords word will not go void (He promises it won’t).

May all of you have a blessed Thanksgiving!!

From our side of the world here is a little humor from the local/most popular Chicken place (Bojangles).  Ex-pats live on the island and they know we celebrate Thanksgiving so they have made a meal for our special day. BTW 99.00=$5

Happy Thanksgiving,

Ronnie and Jamie

Viviendo el Sueno

 

October Newsletter

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Dear C4C Supporters,
Praise God, Jamie is back from the language school in Costa Rica.  It was a long time for me here in Roatan, but a really short time for Jamie to try and learn a language.  We did not expect Jamie to ‘know’ Spanish when she got back to Roatan.  She went to get a better understanding of the language; specifically the various forms of verbs.  In Spanish, the verb is often first in the sentence.  Knowing what tense the word is spoken in goes a long way to understanding what is said, or how to say it.
It was a lot of Spanish in a short time.  Five and a half hours of class each day followed by two to three hours of homework.  Everyone says that, as time goes on, what she learned will ‘click-in’.
Ms.  Ivonne did a wonderful job teaching on her own while Jamie was gone.  Teaching with no helper(s) can be a little overwhelming at times, so we are very grateful for Ms. Ivonne.
Currently Jamie is planning a Christmas Program with the kids at school, they are working on the singing abilities =). She plans on having the parents come to watch their children sing and tell about the birth of Christ…
Also, (as of this month) Jamie and the girls are not going to be continuing their “crafting” business.  Jamie has tried to give the girls this business for a while now but they aren’t interested.  Jamie will be donating whatever supplies she has left to someone on the island in need of them.

While Jamie was in Costa Rica we were able to complete some of the small projects on the ‘to-do’ list.  Here are just a couple that were completed:
•       Robert, G, Hector and a few of the court boys help me rebuild the stands on the court.  Very happy with how the project turned out.
•       Hector, the court boys and I cut a two foot by two foot hole in the block wall in the peak of the north wall of the school, right bellow the roof.  We installed a cheap fan to pull the hot air out of the classroom.  I could not find an exhaust fan big enough here on the island, but the house fan we are ‘temporarily’ using is way better than nothing.  Hopefully we can acquire a real exhaust fan before next spring.

Team Colorado completed the first half of the season with 1 win, 1 tie and 5 loses.  Ugh, that hurts.  All but one were really close, hard played games.  The last game of the first half the guys still played hard but we lost 2 to 6! That really hurt.  The guys are playing great.  I have told the guys from the beginning of the first season we played that whether we win or lose, is by God’s will.  If we can’t find praise for Him when we lose, praise for Him when we win doesn’t mean much.  I praise God that the guys understand this and continue to pray to and praise our Lord.

Concerning prayer requests:
1.      Please continue to pray about our finances.  By my calculations we are running roughly $100 short each month.
2.      The Casa de Luz school year ends in December.   We will be doing repairs and improvements on the school and preparing for the start of the next school year.  This involves testing of applicants for the open spots.  Pray that we choose according to the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Ron McDonald/Jamie Rich-McDonald

Viviendo el sueno

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Hi All –  Thank you for reading our blog today. I haven’t blogged in a bit so I am going to catch you up on some things that have been going on.  First of all (as I say super happily…)the weather is getting cooler. PRAISE GOD!!! if you survive September here you know you can survive almost anywhere…

While I was at language school my husband kept busy at the court and school. He installed an exhaust fan at school. elec6 elec7 and the bleachers were completed.  A big thanks to our friend Robert for doing this. elec8

I was in language school in Costa Rica for a  bit and here are some pictures of me completing my course and receiving my certificate.  I am bilingual now? (as I am asked daily…) well no, but I did learn a lot and I think within time I will remember all I learned.  For probably 1.5 weeks I had no idea what I was learning but I just kept at it doing my homework daily and doing pretty well.  I have a bunch of material and still have homework to complete while at home.  So, please join me in prayer that I will remember and retain all I have learned. My goal is to be able to speak fluently with all the parents of the children at school.

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Hope you have a great rest of the week and weekend.  Also if you give to non-profit organizations at the end of the year please prayerfully consider giving to CARE4COMMUNITIES.  Thank you!

Amazon Smile – C4C’s

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Do a lot of shopping on Amazon? Consider also donating through Amazon Smile. Choose Care4Communities as your supporting organization and 0.5% of your purchase will go directly to support C4C

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Well, we (Chris and Ronnie and helpers) have been hard at work this week improving the perimeter of the school and court. Chris is here for two weeks staying with us working hard to complete this job. It looks beautiful!! I will post for pictures when it is completed.  We had to close school for a few days this week due to the construction.  It is really hot so the kids didn’t mind. Robert and G,our friends, will be completing the bleachers in a few weeks…We have more visitors coming on Monday from West Virginia and on the 23rd a small group from California.  Summer is busy here on the island since it is summer break for those that live in the states and they normally do their mission trips then. Here are some pictures of what has been happening this week. thanks for readingconstruction7 construction6 construction5 construction4 construction3 construction2 construction1

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Arlyn was baptized today!!

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