Preparing for our Trip to Costa Rica

    The Gendreaus have arrived in Costa Rica. After several months of planning, organizing, and praying, it definitely feels surreal to finally be here. We want to take this opportunity to give all our partners updates on all the details on the preparations for this trip.

     After my last day working at Glidewell on July 16, the process began immediately for our sorting, packing, and de-cluttering.  We needed to distinguish the things we just needed to give away, and to identify which things would go with us on our trip to Costa Rica and to El Salvador. Our flight to Costa Rica was scheduled for September 2nd, but we needed to have our house empty by August 15 to allow our renters to move in. Phil and I also planned our family vacations during the end of August, so we had to arrange our things for all our separate trips prior to the big trip to Costa Rica. 

Selah and Shiloh having fun at our Garage Sale

We will miss our home at Lake Forest, CA

     In the midst of all this preparation,  we found out that  my mom was diagnosed with early stages of breast cancer. This definitely has been a heavy burden on my heart. Not only are we leaving our familes, but it is hard to leave knowing that my mom will be going through a difficult stage in her life. However the surgeon has reassured us that my mom has a good prognosis, and that everything will be ok. 

Our photo with my mom during our visit to Vancouver, Canada

     We are  thankful to our church family and friends for sending us off and for covering us with prayer and encouragement. We realized despite the fears, trials, negative doctor reports, and relational  challenges, we knew that something great was waiting for us here in Central America. 

     After we spent some time saying goodbye to all our family and friends, Phil left to go visit his grandfather and cousins in France, while I took the girls and my mom to visit my oldest brother in Vancouver. Although it was great to visit family, we definitely missed not being together as a family. We were apart for a week, and then we reunited in Dana Point, CA and stayed with Phil's dad who has graciously opened his home to us for a few days. The kids were definitely struggling with all the travelling and different changes. We were very excited to take a family vacation to San Diego. It was nice to just get away and enjoy each other's company after all the stress of finalizing everything for our big trip to Costa Rica. During our family time, we were able to visit some of our partners and friends, and we were also able to go to Sea World and Disneyland. It  was a great mini vacation for Phil and I to just focus on our marriage and spend some quality time with our children before finally leaving for Costa Rica.

          Here are more photos of our last few days with family and friends.

In Vancouver with my mom and relatives

The girls enjoyed our visit

Together again as a family at Dana Point, CA

At Sea World in San Diego

And on our fun-filled family trip to Disneyland

We are just so grateful for all these opportunities to spend time with friends and family. I will be posting more about Costa Rica soon!

Costa Rica Update

Hello Family and Friends!

     It's been a long time since we last gave everyone an update about our journey to El Salvador...I am sure most of you have thought "Are they really going to leave?" Well to tell you the truth, I personally was starting to question if it was ever going to happen. The great news is that we have finally sold our share of the dental practice.  Phil was able to find a worthy successor to take over the position of delivering the highest level of dental care to all his existing and loyal patients. After several attempts to close the deal to sell the practice, Phil met Dr. Pham through a neighbor's manicurist's sister...now doesn't that sound like a true divine appointment? God has a funny way of just bringing the right people in your path. The manicurist mentioned to our neighbor that her sister's husband was interested in purchasing a dental practice in Orange County. When Phil mentioned it to our neighbor that we were still trying to sell the practice,  Voila, truly a match made in heaven! It really helps that Phil has taken time to get to know all of our neighbors personally.  My mom always jokes that Phil is such a social butterfly, he could almost run for President. It seems like God had a special time for us to go, and that day will be on September 2nd. He was showing us how he took care of all the details and that we just needed to wait for His perfect timing.

     The next answered prayer was finding the right people to rent our home. It was not a coincidence for us to meet a lovely family that lives around our community who were searching for a home to rent by the lake, and who were also willing to move in at the right time before we have to leave.  This family were the only people we felt at peace knowing our home will be left in good hands. Selling the practice and finding renters were the 2 major elements that needed to be set in place so that our family can move forward to our next step which is to attend language school in Costa Rica for 8 months.

     What is language school going to be like? Cincel is a school specifically designed for missionaries who are under the Assemblies of God church, to help us learn Spanish and to have the opportunity to immerse ourselves into the Spanish culture. This is an important requirement in our program because it will help us interact with the people of El Salvador, and will also help us adapt easily to the new environment. Although I lived in a third world country for 20 years, it will still be a new culture and new language that will make everything challenging but also exciting. All we are required to do is to go to school Mondays to Fridays to speak, think, and interact in Spanish. 

     There is also the Sojourn Academy, a school designed for children from kindergarten to elementary school, that does an excellent job in assisting in the transition of missionary kids from English to the Spanish language. We have friends who have young children,  who are currently going through the Cincel and Sojourn program. They have had nothing but awesome stories to share about how fast the kids have adapted to the culture. Selah and Shiloh, being younger than the minimum age when we get there, will be at a day care facility in the same campus that Phil and I will be attending.  

Cincel and its graduates
Photos from www.cincel.org

The students at the Sojourn Academy
Photos from the Sojourn Academy Website

     The next few weeks will be focused on packing and sorting things that we will need to bring for our trip. I guess you can say the long anticipation of this trip has now brought an increased excitement to just finally get things moving. Our hearts are prepared, and our hands are ready for the task involved.  Please keep us in your prayers as we settle the final details such as selling our car, making sure my mom will find a good place to settle down, and to make sure we make the best decisions for our future. We would like to thank all our partners for believing in us, and would love to connect with you before we leave for fellowship and prayer.

     Looking forward to starting this chapter of our lives by obeying God's voice and trusting that God is leading us every step of the way!

Costa Rica...here we come!

A Big "Thank You"

    I would just like to share this post from one of the newsletters that we sent out last year, before we even started this blog. It's just our way of thanking those who have supported us and felt that it would be great to include it here again.

     We want to take this time to thank all our prayer and financial partners. In a short period of time, we were able to raise 90% of our goal! Currently, we are still looking for 13 people who can commit to $50/month to help us complete our fundraising for this trip.  We are so grateful to all our partners who have encouraged us through this process.  This amazing response has been an answered prayer that God is blessing this journey.

      

     Our first step to this journey was to complete our Pre-Missionary Training in Springfield, Missouri last June 2014.  Although we were there for only 2 weeks, we were able to connect with other missionary families, and we were also able to create friendships that will last for a very long time.  The training had an incredible program for the kids called” ISMK,” International School for Missionary Kids. The children learned that they are not only “Missionary’s Kids”, but that they are also Missionaries!   We were all excited to be commissioned as official “Missionaries.”  As the Great Commission states in Matthew 27:19 “Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.”

Our 1st Church Visit

AMIGOSENCRISTO

      We are also thankful to Edward Vega who invited us to speak at their church AmigosEnCristo.  It was a wonderful experience to be a part of a Spanish Christian Church, and also to meet people who were so excited to hear about what our family is doing.  This was definitely a wake- up call for us to start immersing ourselves in the Spanish Language.  Selah is now watching Dora and the “Frozen” movie in Spanish!

MVP'S (MOST VALUABLE PARTNERS)

*JULIAN RUIZ

      Currently, we have our fundraiser shirt program by Booster.com.  The first time we launched the fundraiser, we were able to raise $450.  By popular demand, we decided to re-launch the fundraiser program till August 31, 2014. Our designer, Julian  helped us create shirts that will help “Give Smiles, Change Lives!”  Thank you to all our partners who joined in the “Wear it and Share it” program!

Our fundraiser shirt

*GRACE CHRISTIAN SCHOOL

      We would like to thank Grace Christian School for raising $100 during the Clubhouse Summer Camps and for supporting our family to our trip to El Salvador. During the summer camps, they passed an offering collection for their special mission project,  Phil and Mia Gendreau, Evangelism and Dentistry Missionaries. They asked the kids to look around the house for tubes of toothpaste and dental floss, and to bring a quarter for each one they had. We were so blessed by having our daughter’s school spread the word about our mission trip to El Salvador.

*MEDSEND

      Thank you to MedSend for approving the grant to pay for our student loans! Phil received an email about this while he was at a lecture taught by a professor who is a part of the MedSend board.  God is so good!

      This is the new medical rural clinic where Phil will be serving alongside Dr. Boris, Abbey Richardson, RN, and Tammy, RN.  The building was dedicated on August 22, 2014. Don Triplett, Founder of the King’s Castle Ministries gave an inspiring message during the dedication. The medical building is in the center of an area where there is a great need of medical and dental attention.  The area is surrounded by a city of poor people that have no access to any hospitals or clinics.  We are excited to be there to help these people take care of their physical needs, and to share to them the Good News about Jesus Christ.

Training in Virginia…

   Phil just came back from his dental missionary training in Abingdon,Virginia. The training was held at the Jubilee Retreat Center August 13-17, 2014. He had the privilege to train with around 30 other medical professionals.  He learned many things about how to treat patients in a different country and how to maintain balance with his family at home.  Phil also was able to spend quality time with our Aunt Hazel and Uncle Richard who happens to own a lovely bed and breakfast in Abingdon, Virginia.  

Stay tuned for the next post as we prepare for our trip to Costa Rica...


Your missionaries,
Phil, Mia, Selah, and Shiloh

First Step: Pre-Missionary Training in Springfield, Missouri

     

Our family at Springfield, Missouri

     Our first step to this amazing journey was to complete our Pre-Missionary Training in Springfield, Missouri last June 2014.  Although we were there for only 2 weeks, we were able to connect with other missionary families, and we were also able to create friendships that will last for a very long time.  We were able to spend an  entire week training with all the missionaries from the Latin America/ Caribbean Region. It was vital to meet all these families because these are the same families that would be going to language school with us in Costa Rica.  It was nice to spend some quality time with people that have the same heart to serve Jesus in another country.  There were 100 missionaries from all over the world present during this training. Each day was filled with classes from 9am to 5pm with amazing speakers that focused on different subjects such as adapting to a different culture, raising our children in a different nation, building connection with other missionaries, and knowing how to use available resources for healthcare and financial budgets.  It was very inspiring to be a part of a group of people that all had wonderful testimonies of how the Lord called them to serve on the field. 

We are officially in training

    In addition, the training had an incredible program for the kids called” ISMK,” International School for Missionary Kids. The children learned that they are not only “Missionary’s Kids”, but that they are also considered “Missionaries!”  Selah did so well with this program. As a mom, my biggest fear was that our children would have a hard time dealing with changes.  But one thing that we learned during this whole training is that children are super resilient.  Selah loved her teachers, and she enjoyed participating in all the activities. It impressed me how she handled being away from mommy and daddy for the whole day and not feel any separation anxiety.  This was another God-answered prayer!

Mommy duties in between training sessions.
This is Selah, our eldest and her younger sister Shiloh.

       

Making friends!

Selah enjoyed her time at ISMK

   On the last day of training, we were all excited to be commissioned as official “Missionaries.”  As the Great Commission states in Matthew 27:19 “Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.”

A map of America.
The rays show different destinations for God's Missionaries.
For our family, it is El Salvador.

About the Gendreaus

     Before we continue on with the unfolding of the rest of our journey, I thought it would be good for you to get to know us better. Do read on to get more acquainted with us, the Gendreau family.

     

     The passion for culture and missions is not a surprise to the Gendreau Family. From the day Phil and Mia met, not only were they connected by their love for teeth, but they were also connected by their love to help and serve people for God’s Kingdom.  Both are similarly called to evangelize and share about Jesus. Their experience and background in different cultures helped them become great candidates to serve on the mission field.

     Phil was born in Montreau, France, a small town outside of Paris in 1979. He moved to Southern California when he was four years old with his family. Phil knew he had a heart for missions at an early age of 8 years old.  Phil graduated with a Biology degree at UC San Diego. Realizing that becoming a veterinarian was not his cup of tea, Phil decided to go to USC to become a dentist. With his extensive skills in art and surf board-making, becoming a dentist was a perfect fit for a person who loves to work with his hands! Through dental school, Phil participated in short-term dental mission trips to Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and El Salvador.

     On the other side of the world, Mia was born in Davao, Philippines in 1976. Her family relocated to Manila after a few days and lived there for 20 years.  Afterward, she moved to California to finish her college education at Cal State University, Fullerton. Mia graduated in 2002 majoring in  Marketing with a focus in Business Administration.  Mia works full-time as a dental technical advisor for Glidewell Laboratories, the biggest  dental company in the United States. Mia joined KSOM( Kingdom School of Ministry) in 2007 through Vineyard at Laguna Niguel, and she also went to a few short-term mission trips to Mexico and India. 

     Phil and Mia met at a home group bible study.  They fell in love and got married in August of 2008.  They were able to visit their homelands, France and Philippines, before they had their first daughter, Selah Gisele, on July 2010.  Their youngest daughter, Shiloh Grace, was born on July 2013.  As a family, they love to hang out with their friends and engage in outdoor activities such as swimming and paddle boarding. Phil loves to surf whenever he can, and Mia loves to plan parties.  Selah goes to preschool 3 times a week at Grace Christian School, and Shiloh loves to play with her big sister, Selah.

In the Beginning

Meeting the Tripletts…My first visit to El Salvador

Outside the Dental Operatory at Coatapeque

     Some of you may be asking why we chose El Salvador? Phil has been to El Salvador a few times on short-term dental mission trips.  Three years ago, God spoke to Phil clearly while he was serving on a short term mission trip in El Salvador that He wanted him to move there with his entire family to serve as missionaries.  At that time, there were no openings for a dentist available, so the desire was kind of pushed under the carpet until it re-surfaced again around July 2013.  We barely just had delivered our newborn baby girl, Shiloh, when Phil broke the news that he wanted to move to El Salvador.  All you mommies out there can probably agree that after having a baby, the thought of moving to another country is the last thing you would be thinking about.  Phil knew his calling, on the other hand, I needed to go to El Salvador  to see for myself what life would be like living over there. Some of you may know that Phil practically had to drag my feet to get there, but after some serious counseling (thank you Sheneau Stanley), I finally decided to go  check it out with an open mind.

     When we arrived at the Monsenor Oscar Arnulfo Romero International Airport, Don Triplett and his wife, Terri, welcomed us at the entrance. Don Triplett, Founder of King’s Castles ministries  opened his home to me and Phil, and gave us an overview of what it would be like serving the people of El Salvador. He raised his entire family there for 25 years, and has become well-loved by the community. 

      As we drove around the cities of San Salvador and Coatapeque, I felt right at home because the area reminded me of how life was growing up in the Philippines. Seeing the busy streets filled with cars trying to make a two lane road into a four lane road was very familiar.  Seeing the city also reminded me a lot of what Manila is like: small little shops, food stands in every corner, and people selling everything and anything in the middle of the road. The Tripletts were so amazing to show us the preschools, gated villages, and clinics in a span of less than twenty-four hours. It was definitely a productive trip.  

     The place that made the biggest impact was visiting the clinics that Phil would be working in, and also a 24-hr House of Prayer located in the main grounds of Castillo Del Rey. The view of the prayer house was breathtaking, and the highlight of my entire visit. I knew living there would not be a surprise, but I needed to know why God was calling our family to live there. To tell you honestly, I did not hear any clear answers during this trip.  However, the cool thing about going to El Salvador at that time was that I got to witness how Phil was energized by the opportunity to serve.  It did bless my heart to see how much the people were so excited to meet a dentist who was willing to give up everything he had to serve them. This was a stepping stone for me to trust God, and to seek signs and confirmations that this is His will for our family.  I left El Salvador not as resistant, but with an open heart to receive whatever the Lord has for our family.

At the Dental Operatory in Coatapeque with the Tripletts.
This is where Phil worked as a missionary 3 years ago.

A church next to the Dental Operatory

At King's Castle 24 Hour House of Prayer

The beautiful view from the top of the 24 Hr House of Prayer

La Libertad

At a resort in La Libertad with Don and Terri Triplett