Ministering the Gospel of Jesus Christ in Costa Rica with Praying Pelican Missions, networking with local churches,  serving in our community,  and connecting mission teams to  life- changing ministry opportunities.
Refreshed in Florida
April has become a pivotal month in the life of us Normans.  It's the month where we get to go spend a week together with Praying Pelican Staff from all over the world.  Every April in Florida, the full-time staff, missionaries, international staff and pastors gather together to be encouraged, built up in our faith, trained, commissioned and sent out again.

Having lived in Costa Rica for almost two years now, this week is truly a refreshing week.  We love being with our Praying Pelican Family and love that our kids can see that we are not alone in Costa Rica, but we have a huge family praying for us all over the world.  
Nathan was honored to be the opening speaker for the weekend Missions Conference.  God truly used him to set the stage for the conference, presenting the vision of Praying Pelican Missions. PPM's goal is to work together to unite the local church where we are serving with the partnering church that comes to serve.  With these three entities working together, we become a three stranded cord to bring in a huge harvest this year.  To view Nathan sharing at the conference, click here to watch the Facebook livestream.(Nathan starts speaking around the 47 minute mark).
This year there was a huge shift in the week of meetings.  The shift was focusing on the children of the Full-Time Missionaries.  Our incredible staff care team helped set up "Date Nights" for each of our kids, treating them to different things like ice cream, dinner, pedicures and gifts.  On top of that they also ran a VBS program for them.  I heard our kids even ask if they could have more of that next year.  It's such a blessing to be part of a ministry that values our little missionaries as well!
Our Webpage has been updated!  Check it out:
Passing off the Keys
While we were in Florida, a historic moment took place for us.  We had a team serving from North Pole, Alaska here in Costa Rica.  This is the first team that served while we were out of the country.  There are many teams that serve here in Costa Rica without a North American staff member on that week's staff, but never with us out of the country.  This may not seem like a big deal to you, but this is all setting the stage to see PPM in Costa Rica running with only oversight from us in the USA.  We have amazing staff that are totally capable of ministering and organizing our amazing partnership trips.  This is just the beginning!  You can see what God did through the team from Alaska serving in Filadelfia here.
Family in Florida
Another huge part of the joy of going to Florida every April is that we are able to see some family and friends!  We were able to extend our stay to do some visiting this year.


This year were were able to visit with Nate's Aunt Lori and her family at their home.  She even jumped in the pool to save Isaiah when he accidentally fell in.  Unfortunately for Aunt Lori, Isaiah knows how to swim to get to the edge of the pool!  It was a very funny sight watching her "rescue" Isaiah.


We were able to visit with Laura's grandparents and celebrated Grandad's 86th birthday together!  We spent three nights with them, moments we will never forget.


Our other Florida visit was to Jamie Green, an amazing college student that grew up in our youth group in Delaware.   Each of our visits were precious and warmed our hearts!  


A dditionally, while we were in meetings all week long, Nate's parents and brother, Jason, came to watch the kids.  We were so blessed to be able to spend time with them and for them to be able to love on our kids.  

Thank you to each of them for taking the time to be with us!


Love,
Nathan, Laura, Darrell (in the USA), Reagan, Abigail,  Malachi,  & Isaiah