Rewind Summary

Well in light of the latest trip and the need to catch up, this post is going to combine the last two days of our trip in May.  I know everyone is probably really wanting to know more about the current trip but I need to get this done or I will never get around to it.  It is also important because I have not yet told you how we met Myra and her family.

On Saturday we planned to go visit a lady named Myra.  She was the housekeeper of the house we had rented on the first and second trip to Costa Rica.  Dora, the owner of the house had introduced us to her and we intended to go see her and see what happened.  We all met up at Dora's house and after the introductions we all headed over to Myra's house which was about 20 minutes from Atenas in a town called Altos de Naranjo.  As we came to find out this is a somewhat remote little town. It is basically at the end of the pavement and you don't go there unless you live there or you get lost.  It is a beautiful place on the side of some very steep mountains.  We arrived at Myra's home and met her children Neyci, Deybin, and Xotchi.  They were all well behaved and shy when we first arrived but they opened up more, the longer we were there.  We simply talked and got to know one another at first but before long Deybin wanted to show us the river.  The river was a short hike (or shorter fall) straight down a very steep hill.  The trail we were following really looked like a rainwater gully and it happened to make a clear path to the river.  John tried grabbing hold of a branch as we were going down but he grabbed hold of more than he wanted since it had 1"-3" long thorns covering every last inch of it.  So, we made it down safely and only slightly scratched and explored the river.  Deybin also showed us one of the swimming holes that the locals use for bathing.  After the hike back up we talked a little more and Myra gladly allowed us to come back the next morning to study with her.  We were supposed to have church services at Jorge and Lisseth's house Sunday afternoon at 2:00 so it would work out well to study with Myra Sunday morning.

We headed back to Myra's house in the morning and studied the gospel with her.  As we went thru the study it was apparent that she already had a good understanding of the Bible.  She was very adamant in her belief in the Reina Valera bible that we use as the true word of God.  She told us stories of Jehovah's Witness and Mormons coming to talk to her and trying to convince her to use their Bibles but she refused.  She also told us how her whole family was Catholic and she was raised a Catholic.  When she was 9 years old she had seen enough that she decided that she was not going to be a Catholic.  She went against her family and made a stand for what she believed.  She was able to quote several verses including the entire chapter of Psalms 91 without hesitation.  She agreed and understood everything we studied, and when we left we had high hopes that she could become a potential convert. 

It was time to head over to Cacao for the church service but most of the group needed to eat lunch and we were running a little behind.  Kalina and I along with Sherry and our two kids agreed to go ahead and go meet Jorge and Lisseth at the agreed time and keep them occupied until everyone else arrived.  When we arrived the kids were asleep in the back so I walked over to let Jorge and Lisseth know we had arrived.  I had planned to go back to the car in about 20 minutes to check on everyone.  This was actually the first time we had met Jorge; he had always been at work every other time we had visited.  His friend Norman was also there and we immediately started up a very animated conversation.  He was very nice and excited to finally meet us since he had heard so much about us.  We talked about a lot of things and I was trying so hard to keep up that I must have lost track of time.  Kalina and Sherry and the kids walked in and I said, wow that was a short nap.  Kalina just looked at me, and said, short?  It had been almost an hour and a half......I was completely shocked, it had felt like 30 minutes at the most.  Time flies when you are trying to have a conversation in another language.  My brain is really fried by the end of the day after all the mental gymnastics.  I was glad I was able to spend that time getting to know Jorge, he is a very kind soft spoken person and you could tell he loves his wife and children very much.

The rest of the group arrived and it had started to rain so we would not be able to do the service outside as planned.  So we crammed about 25 people into Jorge and Lisseth's little house, it was very cozy.  We had several of the neighbors attend as well so we had a nice sized group of people in attendance.  The singing went very well and Keith gave a very powerful lesson on the Gospel.  We did not have any responses at that time but we are encouraged by the interest and the sincerity of the people at Cacao.  After the service Kalina and I had to head back since we were both getting sick.  The rest of the group stayed and visited with everyone for a few more hours.  We all enjoyed the time we spent meeting and making relationships with the good people of this little hidden community.

We continue to have high hopes that we will find individuals that want to obey the Gospel and serve the Lord in this area and we will continue to pursue that goal.  As you will see soon, we visited this area again on the recent trip in July.  This concludes my summary of our Costa Rica work in May.  The next post will get started on the trip in July.

Dios les bendiga,
David