Julie's Recovery
Greetings from Costa Rica!

Thank you all for your prayers for Julie. Her surgery went very well and her recovery has also gone well. She has been limited in what she can do for the last month but yesterday the doctor gave her the "all clear." Before her surgery, Julie would wake up during the night with pain, tingling and numbness in her hand. She also dealt with pain issues during the day, depending upon her activity. We were very thankful to find that surgery provided an almost immediate relief from that pain. She continues to deal with some soreness from the surgery but she is slowly getting back into her routine.

Acts Class - Live/Virtual

I mentioned in our last update that we are exploring a new modality at ESEPA this fall in our Acts course. To give you a frame of reference, Acts is only a required course for
a couple of our programs and serves as a Bible Elective in most others. As a result, the course only averages about six students when we offer it each year. Live/Virtual is a way of including students who cannot make it to campus in our live course offerings. We do this through a video confererncing software called Zoom. This semester we have 18 students enrolled in the course!

Please pray as the course starts tonight at 8pm (EST). We have tried to keep the technology as simple as possible but there are a number places where things can go wrong. Currently, our biggest concern is the internet which isn't always as consistent as we might like or need.

If this course were to prove to be a viable option, I would consider offering a wider variety of our future courses in dual modality. I believe that this could effectively increase our enrollment without a huge increase in our expenses. As you can see, there is a lot riding on this course especially in the first few weeks. Please pray for all of us involved, for the general success of the course and for wisdom going forward.

Doug Gamble, our Acts professor, preparing our Live/Virtual classroom and testing Zoom.

Independence Day

This weekend we celebrate Costa Rica's independece from Spain. In reality, most of Central America was liberated on the same day, September 15, 1821. On the evening of the 14th, in Antigua, Guatemala, a group of legislators met to determine whether or not they should declare their independence. The townspeople came out that night with laterns to show support for the idea of independence and stayed in the square all night long waiting for the decision. Early in the morning on the 15th the decision was made to declare independence for all of Central America. The news did not reach Costa Rica until October 29 because it took that long to make the trip!

How you can pray this month...

Pray for Julie' continued recovery
Pray for ESEPA's Acts class
Continue to pray for our residency
Pray for Andrew as he travels to Brazil on the 21st for meetings with AETAL
Praise and Thanksgiving this month...
We are grateful that Julie's surgery was a success and that she is experiencing less pain
We are grateful for the students who have enrolled in the Acts course and the opportunity it provides

Andrew and Julie Halbert
United World Mission, Costa Rica