A taste of Paradise is what we experienced as we visited the Manuel Antonio National Park yesterday. We had a wonderful time and were privledged to have Jesus (pronounced Hey-suess), a Bethelite from Brooklyn, NY join us for the whole day. WOW! He was such an encouragement to us and he loved the kids. Just what we all needed at the right time. He taught us that we always needed to have JOY in our lives and told us the meaning of the word...
J = Jehovah first
O= Others next
Y= Yourselves last
I now will never forget the meaning of the word and when the kids start bickering...Nate just says...JOY and they get the point! I would have never thought such a simple word would mean something so powerful. We're so glad to now have a friend in NY who's invited us come stay and wants to make all the plans for us. We started at 7am with breakfast at our place and making lunches. We then left left and caught the 8am bus for the park and that's when our adventure began.
If this is just a little of what Paradise will be....I can only imagine! We had monkeys hanging over our heads and lizards walking the paths with us. We hiked up hills and rode the waves of the ocean. Nate even got us to swing like Tarzan from a vine (and for us girls..Jane) . We saw some of the largest bamboo trees and scariest spiders ( I was told that they weren't poisoness, but didn't take any chances either). At the end of our day, we stopped and visited the family we are studying with and bought a few souveinirs from the vendors. It was then dinner time at a Fantastic BBQ place called 'Chicken on the Run' and then across the street for an icecream bar to top it off. We headed back to our place and Jesus came over and shared an amazing talk with us....It was a talk from a brother in Egypt where they are under ban and very very encouraging! It is incredible how Jehovah uses ones to teach others about His purpose for the Earth...even in areas where Jehovah's Witnesses are under ban. I hope we can get a copy of the talk to share with others...we will see
We had a very full day enjoying Jehovah's creation and taking many sooo many pictures that it was very hard to decide which ones to post. Here are some we've selected and hope you enjoy them too!!!
J = Jehovah first
O= Others next
Y= Yourselves last
I now will never forget the meaning of the word and when the kids start bickering...Nate just says...JOY and they get the point! I would have never thought such a simple word would mean something so powerful. We're so glad to now have a friend in NY who's invited us come stay and wants to make all the plans for us. We started at 7am with breakfast at our place and making lunches. We then left left and caught the 8am bus for the park and that's when our adventure began.
If this is just a little of what Paradise will be....I can only imagine! We had monkeys hanging over our heads and lizards walking the paths with us. We hiked up hills and rode the waves of the ocean. Nate even got us to swing like Tarzan from a vine (and for us girls..Jane) . We saw some of the largest bamboo trees and scariest spiders ( I was told that they weren't poisoness, but didn't take any chances either). At the end of our day, we stopped and visited the family we are studying with and bought a few souveinirs from the vendors. It was then dinner time at a Fantastic BBQ place called 'Chicken on the Run' and then across the street for an icecream bar to top it off. We headed back to our place and Jesus came over and shared an amazing talk with us....It was a talk from a brother in Egypt where they are under ban and very very encouraging! It is incredible how Jehovah uses ones to teach others about His purpose for the Earth...even in areas where Jehovah's Witnesses are under ban. I hope we can get a copy of the talk to share with others...we will see
We had a very full day enjoying Jehovah's creation and taking many sooo many pictures that it was very hard to decide which ones to post. Here are some we've selected and hope you enjoy them too!!!
One of the views from our hike...
"What's up there, Logan?"...
It's a sloth and he moves sooo slowwwwww
These guys were everywhere...on rocks, in the sand, on trees and even on the paths. We saw some from 2" to about 2' long
We can't forget my favoite critter...NOT! This one was the size of a baseball. That's HUGE!!! (Don't worry...I zoomed my camera in on him) Too close even for my comfort!
Do we look hot and sweaty???? Because we are!
And the kids look cool as can be....that's because we just got done riding the waves and cooling off. Sooo glad there was water to play in. I wish the Oregon coast was as warm as here....
We can't forget these cute guys! They were about 3' from us looking the opposite way when I made little monkey sounds (eee eee) and they turned around for this pose....They probably were wondering who the crazy monkey was?
Later...we all had to try acting like monkeys...it was hillarious!
Don't let go Logan....
Elesia seemed like a natural! ....
and Miss Erika made it seem sooo easy that even Nate and I had to try....(we left those out till later...haha,)
We can't forget why we are here...... Nate placing a Bible Teach book while informal witnessing to a tour guide passing by. (Informal witnessing is awesome here! People are sooo nice and willing to listen to the Bible. It was a great conversation!
Dinner on our way home...It was if we had never ate before...we'll actually, I think the kids were just glad that we didn't make them eat rice and beans again. We had ribs, chicken, salad, plantains, tortillas and soda...all six of us ate for a little over 11,000 colones, which is about $20.00. A great deal and we were full...except for the room we left for an icecream bar... yummy!
That was our incredible day and there is more to come later. Hope you are enjoying our trip. We send all our loves....Hugs, The Olvera fam xoxo
