Spreading the Seed

Friday came along and everyone had high hopes for the day.  We were going back to the village by the river in Cacao.  We had bible studies set up with Lisseth for that morning and then with Karen and her family in the afternoon.  Keith asked if I would be willing to lead the study with Lisseth, and I was very willing of course.  I was however very nervous since my Spanish is still a work in progress.  I had made some notes ahead of time that I hoped would help, and I prayed that the Lord would make sure that his message was understood in spite of my own shortcomings with the language.  Of course I did have Keith right there with me to help as needed so that helped a lot.  The thing that gave me the most comfort however was this verse: 1 Corinthians 3:5-7. Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.  I knew that I was not that important in what we were trying to accomplish.  The Gospel was the important part, we just needed to spread the seed and let the Word of God go to work.  Matthew chapter 13 contains a wonderful parable about spreading the seed of the gospel.  I love how this parable relates to us the simplicity of spreading the Gospel but also shows us how the growth of that seed can be so easily destroyed by the trials and cares of this life.  We had high hopes this day that we had found that good ground that Jesus speaks of in verses 8 and 23.  Only time will tell what sort of ground these people are rooted in, and what kind of heart they have for the truth.

More pictures of these peoples homes from the river side

As we arrived and found a place to sit, Lisseth rounded up Julio and Jorge.  She wanted to make sure that they were present for this study, and I took that as a good sign that this was important to her.  Lisseth's husband Jorge was at work, so unfortunately we was not able to attend.  Once we got started we led her through the gospel plan of salvation.  I simply read the verses and repeated or emphasized where appropriate and let the Word speak for itself.  There were a few spots where I felt some explanation was called for, and I called on Keith to help me out when my limited vocabulary failed me.  The longer we studied it was apparent that Lisseth had used that old Bible of hers and had not just left it on the shelf.  She listened very intently but she was also not afraid to jump in with a question or comment.  We were very encouraged by her open and honest spirit not only during the study but during the entire time we spent with her.  The study went very well and she seemed to understand everything we discussed.  We continue to pray that this study and future studies will help Lisseth and her family to obey the Gospel. 

The study lasted for a few hours and once it concluded Lisseth was kind enough to offer us lunch.  It always made me feel bad to eat their food when they had so little to give.  However it would have been rude to refuse such a selfless gift given with sincerity.  We enjoyed the homemade tortillas and fixings and then it was time to move on to the study at Karen's house.  I must admit that my own foolishness caused me to miss most of the study with Karen and her family and friends.  I had walked back to the car to get more water bottles and made the mistake of locking the keys in the car.  I had set them down in the back to pick up the water bottles and then locked it from the door.  I saw the keys sitting there as the door swung shut and I just about dislocated something trying to stop the door.  My hands were full so unfortunately I failed in that attempt.  I was obviously not very happy with myself but I stood there a minute considering my options.  My first thought was to try and call someone that could get someone down here to get in the car.  After checking the cell phone, there was no signal.  At this point Keith had already started the study and I knew I had to get this fixed or I would be useless with worry.  I trudged back up to Lisseth's house in frustration, explained the situation to Kalina and tried to explain to Lisseth what had happened.  I was marginally successful and was able to explain that I needed a hanger if she had one.  Now I have never had to break into a car before so I went looking for anyone that could help out.  I went looking for Jeremy, not because he is an expert car thief, but because he is a very handy guy and I figured if anyone could help it would be him.  Well my luck continued to hold out, he had no idea what to do.  But as always he was game to give it a shot.  Well after several minutes of hair brained ideas and failed attempts, we were about to get discouraged.  But thank the Lord that one of the locals wandered by about then.  I explained the problem and he quickly showed us how it was supposed to be done.  With his help it did not take long and we had the door open, problem solved.

We hurried back to Karen's house to find it packed to the gills.  Her house had a sizable back deck/balcony where everyone was gathered.  This deck was about 15 feet above the ground below and I was not convinced that it was structurally sound.  There were probably around 20 people crowded onto it so I just stood back and observed from the edge of the deck as the study was coming to an end.  It was wonderful to see the Gospel preached to such a large group of people.  Lord willing, the Word found some good ground to start growing in that day.  They finished studying and a few people drifted out, but someone wanted to sing some gospel songs.  They had a few copies of a paperback book with some songs in it.  I think they wanted us to teach them some new songs.  Keith was able to find a few that we were familiar with and we all chimed in the best we could.  There were very few books and there was not one close enough for me to see.  I knew the tune and the english words so I found myself humming the tune in an effort to contribute something.  I was eventually able to get to where I could see one of the books and that was a huge help.  There was a little girl there that was really getting into it, you could tell that she loved to sing.

It was a great day and we were all very encouraged by the reception that we were given. The Gospel was preached to 20-30 people and all of them showed a willingness to listen and learn.  There were no heated arguments or confrontations about differences in belief.  I think everyone already understood that the Word of God was the truth and they were just eager to learn more about what it says.  There is a heavy Catholic influence in Costa Rica and even the devoted Catholics tend to be uneducated about what the Bible really says.  The good news is that there is an inherent respect for God.  The challenge going forward will be to help them see what God really wants from them. 

One other thing of note happened before we left for the day.  Keith talked to Lisseth and she agreed to allow us to hold our Sunday worship service in her home or outside weather permitting.  We set up a time for the coming Sunday afternoon and then headed back to Atenas with joy and thanks in our hearts for the many blessings of the day.

The next day was Saturday and we had another potential contact to follow up with.  Until next time....

Dios les bendiga,
David

Return to the River

Thursday, the day had finally come when we could go back to see the wonderful people we had met on our last trip down to the river.  I finally found out that this was in between the towns of Cacao and Carrillos.  Everyone was very excited about going back to see these people that had touched our hearts so deeply.  The newcomers were all excited as well since they had heard so much about this place.

We had set up a time to meet everyone at the park in Atenas.  We were the first ones there, and while we waited I walked over to the bank to restock on colones.  When I got back to the car I discovered that Kalina and Keith had ventured into the park to observe some kind of children's activity that was going on.  They were doing some kind of presentation about nutrition.  He had started up a conversation with a man and wife that was watching the children and had their phone numbers and names.  I was so glad that Keith was able to come with us, he has so much that he can teach us about spreading the gospel.  He was constantly talking to people we came across and he made contacts and connections with people and made it look so easy.

Once everyone was ready to go we made the 30 minute drive to Cacao.  This was a bit of a challenge since I had a little trouble remembering how to get there.  We got to one point and I was not sure which way to go so we asked directions from a local that was walking down the road.  Keith talked to him and in no time he just jumped in the car with us.  Now the problem with trying to tell someone where you are going is that you need to know where you want to go.  While I knew where I wanted to go I did not have any good way to explain it to him.  I knew it was by Cacao so I asked him to get us to Cacao and I hoped that things would look more familiar once we got there.  Praise the lord, everything started looking very familiar and before long we dropped off our guide and I was able to get us the rest of the way there based on my memory from the last trip. 

Getting ready to walk across the bridge to the left.

We parked the cars and walked across the rickety bridge, it all looked mostly the same.  There was a house now where there had only been a wood frame before.  One or two of the lower lying homes were not there anymore, probably victims of the fast rising river.  The older couple that had been here before was no longer around; they may have found a better place to live.  Overall not much had changed but there were a few people that we remembered from the last trip that did not live there anymore.  We slowly worked our way from house to house, talking to everyone that was willing.  Everyone seemed to remember us and it was nice to see how the children had all grown in the last 10 months.  We had heard that the electric company had sold this land and it was not clear what would happen to these people and their homes.  So it was nice to see that they still had places to live and had not been kicked out.

We had a few things with us for the children that we had brought along with us and we handed out little toys, crayons, and coloring books as we visited with everyone.  As we worked our way to each house we came to Karen's house.  Karen is the mother of Jaxsonia, the 13 year old girl that stuck in the hearts of John and Heather on the last trip.  John and Heather have a daughter that is the same age and it really touched their hearts to see this girl and how she and her family lived.  Well, Karen remembered us and she asked me where our daughter was?  She remembered our youngest daughter Leia that had come with us on the last trip.  We told her she was doing well and that she was staying with her grandparents.  She was delighted to meet our oldest two, Olivia and Logan.  I think she was a little surprised that we had 4 children all together.  One thing that I have really noticed is that our children have helped us connect with several of these people.  There is something about a child that brings us all together.  Anyone that has children, rich, poor, or anywhere in between has stories to share that we all deal with.  We all have the same stories of fun, frustration, struggles, and joys that is part of raising children.  It is just another example that no matter where we live or how much money we have, we all deal with the same problems and joys in life.
Roman 2:10-12 says,   But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile: For there is no respect of persons with God. For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law.

After we all spent quite a bit of time talking to Karen, she invited us back at 2:00 for homemade tortillas.  We gladly accepted the invitation and then it was time to go eat lunch at Bohemia's house.  Bohemia is Kathia's sister, and she lives right up the hill from the river.  In case you don't remember you can read about the first time we visited her on the last trip by going back and reading the older posts from last year.  She made all of us a very good casado, but she made way too much and stuffed us all.  Logan was exhausted and he just leaned over against my leg and took a nap during lunch.  Then once we were done with lunch it was time to go back to Karen's house and eat tortillas!!

Jeremy and Sarah playing with the kids

Karen making tortillas

As everyone walked down the road to Karen's house, I realized I had forgotten something at the car so I went back while everyone else continued on.  As I was walking back I noticed that someone had come home while we had been eating lunch.  This was the woman that had asked us to pray for her husband the last time we were here.  I recognized her two sons, I could see them through the open door.  I called to them and asked if their parents were home.  The oldest son jumped up and called to his mother as I stood waiting by the door.  As she came to the door, I could tell by her expression that she remembered me.  It was a good feeling to know that these people remembered us from a short visit almost a year ago.  Well we talked and I made sure and got her name burned in my brain this time.  I am bad about forgetting names so I made sure to do better this time about remembering everyone's name.  Her name was Lisseth and her oldest son was Julio (9) and younger son Jorge jr. (7).  Her husband Jorge was at work and thankfully we were able to meet him eventually.  Lisseth invited me into her modest home and we talked some more.  After a little while, Kalina came looking for me and found me talking to Lisseth.  Well Lisette evidently remembered my wife even more because she greeted her with a hug and kiss on the cheek, she was very happy to see her.  One thing that I loved about Kalina is that she was not scared to try talking to people in Spanish even though she had not progressed as far as I had.  She had a very limited vocabulary but it was amazing to see how she was still able to communicate with a little bit of Spanish and some creative use of her hands and expressions.  Kalina and I talked to her for a couple hours and we ended up looking at pictures of her and her family and listening to all the stories about each picture. 

From left: Jorge, Lisseth, Logan, Kalina, Olivia, and Julio

We also ended up talking about her Bible, she had showed it to us last year and it was in bad shape.  Thanks to a generous donation from a Church in the US we had brought a lot of bibles with us.  So I brought her a new bible to replace her extremely water damaged one.  I also gave one to each of her boys and you should have seen how excited they were.  Lisseth had told us how her boys loved to read and they would read their Bibles all the time.  She showed us the little Gideon New Testament Bibles that they had protected with a small leather wallet.  I gave the Bibles to Lisseth and she called the boys in and gave them the Bibles.  They just looked at them with a confused look on their face until she explained to them that it was a new Bible just for them.  Julio literally started jumping up and down with excitement, I could not help but laugh with joy to see how happy he was.  Keith eventually made his way there and we finished up by setting up a Bible study with her for the next day.  We ended up completely missing Karen's tortillas but spent valuable time strengthening a relationship with a woman with a good heart.  Lord willing that relationship will bear spiritual fruit in the future.  It turns out that we also had a study date set up with Karen and her family for the next day as well.  I was not present to know how that came about but I will see if John can post something about it.

Language barriers did not stop Jonah, Olivia and Logan from making friends

It was another great trip and we were able to strengthen relationships that look very promising and willing to learn the Gospel.  I will talk about the Bible studies that we had in the next post.  Stay tuned and God bless.

-David

Hogar de Vida

Wednesday morning came along with all of us ready to get busy and put the past mishaps behind us.  We had to be up and going early this morning to be at the children's, home Hogar de Vida, at 8:30.  The sun comes up at 5:00-5:30 every day in Costa Rica and those piercing rays of light make it a challenge to sleep in anyway.

There are 3 "homes" on the property that house the children.  Each home has a Tia (Aunt) that lives with them and basically serves as a foster mom for the kids.  I did not get all the details but I am pretty sure that at least some of these woman have husbands that live there as well, but have other jobs during the day. 

The girls were going to do some cleaning and laundry while Keith and I worked on picking up mango's and mowing the grass.  I will have to get Kalina to do a post about her experience with her time at Hogar de Vida because I have no idea what she was doing inside while I was outside.  Well we had only been working on the mango's for about 30 minutes when Tim (Hogar de Vida boss man) decided that he had something else he wanted us to do.  He called us over to where he and his grounds keeper were looking at some sewer lines.  To make a long story short, we needed to reroute some of the sewer lines because they were backing up the leech field.  There was an existing tank that had been abandoned at some time in the past and now they wanted to use it again to alleviate the problem.  Now I can probably guess what you are thinking.....Wow, you got promoted from lawn guy to sewer guy.  Some might look at that as a demotion, and I was not sure at first, but I can't say I was disappointed.  I don't even like mowing my own grass...  It turns out that it was only grey water lines we would be working on so that was a plus.  We spent a little time figuring out how everything would tie together and we realized that we needed some pipe fittings and glue.  I was given the job of picking up the parts at the local hardware store since I needed to go into town anyway.  John, Heather, Micheala, Jeremy, Sarah, Jonah, and Merilene had arrived that morning.  They did not know how to get to the Orphanage so I needed to meet them in town so they could follow me.

So I made my list and headed into town to meet the other half of our group.  I successfully located their vehicle at the park, it was so good to see that they had made it without any problems.  They all looked very tired and probably felt like we did that first day after we arrived.  They had not had much sleep for the last 24 hours but they were ready to get right to work, no rest for the weary.  We headed from there to the hardware store, Vargas and Sons.  I was kind of excited to see what a full fledged Costa Rican hardware store looked like.  I had been in a very small one during the last trip but this one was much larger.  I was impressed, the place had a very good selection.  This was not anything like a Home Depot or Lowes but it was similar to a local hardware store you would find in the US.  I was able to find the parts we needed and we headed back to the Orphanage.

When we arrived back at Hogar de Vida, all of the new arrivals were put to work.  The girls went off to clean and Jeremy and John joined Keith and I as we dug ditches for the new sewer lines.  We only had about an hour until lunch time at this point but we got quite a bit accomplished.  From 12:00 until 2:00 is quiet time, so the kids can take naps so we left for lunch.
Between our group of 14 and Kathia's group of 5 we had a lot of people to fit into any of the local restaurants.  The place we picked ended up having pretty good food but I think we overwhelmed their kitchen and staff.  It took the full 2 hours and then some for everyone to eat, then we headed back to Hogar de Vida.  The heat and lack of sleep was getting to our latest group of arrivals so they decided that they needed to rest so they would be ready to go the next day.

Keith and I spent the rest of the afternoon finishing up the sewer lines while the girls had the opportunity to spend some time with the kids once they were done cleaning.  Logan and Olivia had a great time playing with all the children.  I wish that I had a chance to spend some time with the kids as well, but we wanted to make sure we did not leave them with a half completed job. 

The day we spent at Hogar de Vida was time well spent.  For the children that lack parents to love them and take care of them, this place is a wonderful alternative.  They have plenty of room to live and play outside, and they have some very loving people watching over them.  In my estimation Hogar de Vida is a place that is deserving of any help that we can give them and Lord willing we can continue to help them in the future.

Dios les bendiga,
David

Trial by Fire

Bang!!!  I sat straight up in bed immediately awake.  It was still Monday night and later when I had time to look this would have been around 3:30 in the morning.  My first thought was that someone had ran into the gate.  The house we were renting was at the end of a road and it had a gate across the road before the house.  As I was rushing over to the closest window that looked towards the gate, I could see light coming from outside.  This only confirmed it in my mind, Someone had ran over the gate with their vehicle and they were trying to rob the house!!!  Once I got to the window I looked outside and I could see the gate was still shut and the light was not coming from headlights.  The light was coming from the opposite direction from the gate.  But there was nothing over there that should have been making light.....I hurried over to the window on the back side of the house in the bathroom and that is when I saw it, fire was coming from somewhere on the outside of the wall and it was starting to lick at the underside of the roof.  From the time the Bang had woken me up until this point had only been maybe 10 seconds.  I guess Kalina had gotten up to go to the bathroom but did not realize why I was up.  She walked into the bathroom about the same time I said "Oh no, it's on Fire!"  I did not realize she was behind me and when she heard me say that she sleepily asked "What?".  I repeated, The House is on FIRE!!  I took off running towards the front part of the house where everyone else was sleeping.  I guess Kalina looked out the window for herself and a couple seconds later she was screaming FIRE, FIRE!  At this point I had reached the bedroom where Sherry, Lindsey, Olivia and Logan where sleeping.  Thankfully Sherry had been woke up by the bang us well but did not know what it was.  I yelled that the house was on Fire, get everyone out!!  I threw open the door across the hall and yelled the same at Keith.  Everyone was heading out, so I started dragging suitcases away from the burning end of the house towards the front.  I checked on the fire again and it was still just barely flaming.  I knew the walls of the house were solid concrete so I figured I had a few more minutes to grab our clothes so if the worst happened we would not have to run around in way too tight clothing.  These people are a lot shorter than we are!!  As I was throwing clothes into a suitcase, and Kalina was trying to grab some essentials in the bathroom, the second explosion happened.  I have never seen my wife move so fast, screaming at the same time!  She was headed out the door in a flash, and I was right behind her dragging what I had thrown into a suitcase.  As we came out the other end of the house we looked back and saw a huge 10-15 foot long jet of flame shooting out of the side of the house.  I really wish someone had thought to take a picture of it, but all things considered I doubt anyone was even contemplating pictures.  (Well, Kalina informs me when everyone was outside the house up the hill, she pulled her camera out and then realized the battery was in the burning bathroom on the charger.)

It was a very scary night for everyone, but praise the Lord that we woke up as soon as it started and everyone got out.  The lady that manages the house we were in, graciously took us to a different house that she also managed, and that is where we would end up staying the rest of the week.  As soon as I knew everyone was ok, Keith and I headed back to see what had happened to the house. 

We knew that it was a gas fire and the neighbors told us there was no shut off valve, so I was wondering if the fire fighters would be able to put it out.  More prayers were answered when we got back and saw the fire was already out and had only damaged the bathroom and master bedroom we were staying in.  We soon found out the the source of the fire was the water heater and propane tank attached to it.  Whoever had worked on our hot water earlier that day had messed up something and the gas line had a slow leak that eventually started the fire from the water heater pilot light (First bang).  The heat built up enough that it blew the gas line completely open (second bang) which caused the gigantic blow torch.  The combination of the concrete walls and relatively fast response of the Fire Fighters limited the damage.  It was also a small propane tank, probably about 20 gallons, and it probably burned up the fuel quickly.

The fire fighters let us go back in and get everything out that we could salvage.  Once again the Lord was looking out for us, and we were able to get just about everything out except some things that were in the bathroom closest to the fire.  After collecting everything we headed back to the new house.

It was still early in the morning at this point and while we were all tired, no one was in the least bit sleepy at that point.....  After the adrenaline wore off Kalina noticed that she had jammed her toe really bad during the screaming sprint to safety.  It was swelling up and pressure was building under her toenail.  Immediate action was needed.  We went by the local clinic and quickly decided that would take all day and cost a fortune.  So my wife is a nurse, and she decides that she will just operate on herself (she is such a tough lass!!)  We went by a pharmacy, and she bought the supplies she needed, then we went back to the house.  After a failed attempt to inject a pain numbing medicine in her toe, she decided to turn to a wise and vastly intelligent entity that we all know as Google..... if Google says it, it must be true right?  Anyway she found a DIYS (all the handy guys out there will know what that means) article on the subject to confirm what she thought she would need to do.  Using a paper clip heated to a molten red consistency she was able to slowly drill a hole (2 holes actually) in her toenail and successfully relieve the pressure.

As I mentioned earlier, we were supposed to be at the Orphanage today but the fire changed things.  We did decide to go ahead and go buy supplies for them, and we would bring them with us when we went on Wednesday.  We ventured into Escazu again and bought the supplies then headed back to the house.  We were supposed to be meeting another one of our contacts for dinner.
Tim and Cindy are friends of Kathia.  We had not met them yet but I had talked to Cindy over email.  I had read her blog and Tim's as well, so it was kind of weird just meeting them but knowing a lot about them.  Cindy is a Nurse, and Tim is an architect, so we had something in common there.  The main thing we wanted to do was talk to them and get to know each other a little better, as well as talk to them about Chirripo.  Chirripo is the tallest mountain in Costa Rica, at over 12,500 feet, but it is also where a Natural Park is located.  This is also what we would call in the US an Indian reservation.  It is home to pretty much the entire population of the Indigenous tribes of Costa Rica.  We wanted to get some more information about these people thinking that this may be another opportunity to spread the gospel.  We had a good meal and conversation together, and hopefully, we will have the opportunity to continue this new relationship in the future.

It was a long day that started out in a scary, frantic, no need for coffee wake up call.  But in the big picture of life, it was just another bump in the road.  It may have just been a coincidence that we just happened to be in the right place at the wrong time but it could have also been something more.  1 Peter 5:8-9 says;  Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.  Satan is always looking for ways to make the lives of Christians miserable, ways to make us discouraged and give up.  Well, it will take more than a log in the road and a house fire to slow us down.  Phillipians 4:13 says I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.  When we are doing the Lords work it is hard to get discouraged when you recognize that Christ is your strength.
We did in fact get to go to Hogar de Vida the next day without any more houses catching on fire.  I will cover Wednesday in the next post.  Here is a closing verse to leave you with.  It is amazing to think of all the things that God can accomplish when we serve him.  And he can do things far beyond the best we can think of!  The important thing is that we have to work for his glory, not our own.

Ephesians 3:19-21: And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.  Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.

Dios les bendiga
-David

(Note:  I will post more pictures of the fire damage later, I have to get the pictures from Keith)