Building Relationships

The next day (Tuesday) we had the first part of the day free because Myra had to work.  We had arranged to be back at her house later that afternoon because she wanted to introduce us to some of her neighbors.  Hopefully we would gather up a few people and then have a church service that evening.

Earlier that week we had met another Nica, housekeeper, named Maria and we called her that morning and arranged to go to her house in Atenas.  We arrived at her house that morning and met her husband Rider.  Maria asked us if we would like something to drink and asked if we liked Coca Cola.  We all agreed that would be wonderful and she said something to her husband and then proceeded to walk out the front door.  I could not see her once she went outside but Kalina could and once she was a few steps past the edge of the door, she took off running down the road!  Kalina did not know why until she came running back a couple minutes later with a 1 liter bottle of coke in her hand.  There was a little store down the road from her house and she had run to buy us something to drink.  I was constantly amazed how these people that had so little to give would go out of their way to give food and hospitality to a bunch of strange Americans. 

We had a very good conversation with Maria and Rider, telling them about ourselves and why we were in Costa Rica.  They told us about themselves as well and Rider showed us a Bible that someone had given him.  He liked reading the Bible but unknown to him, his Bible was not the correct word of God.  It was a version that had been twisted away from the truth by Man.  We gave him a Spanish Reina Valera Bible and explained to him the difference.  He was grateful for the Bible, and we were very encouraged by their interest.  We told them about Myra and her family and  where they lived, thinking that they might know each other.  They did not know each other, however, we found out that their daughter lived a few miles from Altos de Naranjo.  Maria was planning to take the bus to go see her that afternoon so we offered to drive her there instead.  She gladly accepted and wanted us to meet her daughter and family.  They had some things to do before then so we agreed to come back to pick her up after lunch.  We drove back into town to get something to eat, very encouraged that we had made another promising contact.

After lunch we arrived back at Maria's house to pick her up.  It turned out that her other younger daughter and son were coming along too.  We barely had enough room but they are small people, so we made it work.  The place we were going was on the road to Altos de Naranjo where Myra lived.  When she told us to turn I was amazed because it was down a very small road that I had never seen before because it was almost hidden in the vegetation.  It never failed that we thought we were getting to know a certain area pretty well and then we go down a little road that looks like it goes nowhere and find more small country communities.  There are a lot of people living in the most unlikely places in this country.  What looked at first to be a small country road turned out to be a private driveway for a very big expensive house hidden away in the jungle.  It turns out that Maria's son in law was the grounds keeper for the house and several acres of property surrounding it.  He and his family had a nice little house (rustic cabin by US standards) not far from the main house that the owners had provided for them to live in.  We did not get to meet him since he was out working somewhere but we did meet Maria's daughter.  She wanted to show us around so we followed her as she guided us through the amazing landscaped grounds that her husband took care of.  It was easily the most beautiful tropical landscape I had ever witnessed.  We did not stay long but we invited Maria and her family to come to the church service we planned to have that night.  We gave her our number and asked her to call us and we would come pick them up if they wanted to attend.

That afternoon we arrived back at Myra's house and spent a little bit of time talking and we met one of her neighbors, Jose, for the first time.  Yes this was the same Jose that I have already mentioned.  After a short time we started walking up the hill to visit the neighbors and everyone came along with us.  The first house we came to actually ended up being the only home we had time to visit that night.  The homeowner was an older man named Victor that owned several houses and a some land in the area and had lived there for most of his life.  He also had a daughter and her two teenage children living there with him.  He invited everyone to sit down on his porch and it was not very long before we were talking about the Bible with him.  We quickly learned that he was very passionate and knowledgeable about the Bible.  I must admit that I only caught bits and pieces of what he was saying because he talked very fast and ran his words together.  Some people are easier to understand because of how they talk and this was one of the hardest to understand that I had come across.  I found out afterwards that even Keith was having a hard time, but he was able to keep up with him enough using the scriptures as a mediator.  This guy was a very eager talker and it did not take much from us for him to launch into a speech about his beliefs on certain topics.  When Keith started talking about baptism he immediately got excited talking about the love and grace of God and how wonderful he is to save us from our sins and that baptism is not required for Salvation.  Our ears perked up when he said that and I just smiled to see that Keith was already turning to a verse he wanted to read.  Once Victor finished his point Keith simply pointed him to 1 Peter 3:21.  Keith did not comment he just asked Victor to read the verses and it was amazing to see how quickly Victor quieted down and did not say anything.  Again Keith asked him to read Mark 16:15-16.  Again as Victor read you could just see his mind churning, this was new information, these verses did not agree with what he had been taught.  He also had him read Acts 2:38 and Romans 6.  We could tell that we had someone with a good heart sitting before us.  He did not try to argue with the scriptures, he was just speechless as he absorbed something that had been there all along.  This was a man that already had faith in God and in his word.  He had just been taught incorrectly and had never been exposed to the whole truth of the bible.  Another thing that we had discovered part way through the study is that Victor's eye sight was not good enough to read his bible anymore, he had simply been quoting verses to us.  We had run into this problem before and we had brought a few pairs of reading glasses with us.  We had a pair that worked for him and he was so excited that he was able to read his own Bible again.  It was wonderful to see the joy in his face about something that we take for granted.  I don't know how long it had been since he had not been able to read. Once we gave him those glasses he rarely looked up.  We gave him a lot to think about and did not want to overwhelm him. So, we left soon after that thanking them for the hospitality and hoping to talk to them again in the future.

One other thing that I need to mention is about Jose.  He had come with us and as we were studying with Victor, he had his Bible out that we had given him and he was listening intently and following along the best he could.  I kept an eye on him the whole time and could not help but be impressed by his attention.  When we left Victor's house I talked to Keith about it and he agreed that we needed to spend some time studying with this young man.  Keith had spent a few minutes on the walk to Victor's house talking to Jose and he had a good feeling about him as well.  It was getting late and Jose needed to get back home since he had to be at work early in the morning.  So we headed back to Myra's house for the planned worship service.

We had a good service that night and everyone really enjoyed the singing and fellowship.  We got to bed pretty late that night but it was a very fruitful day.  We continued to be encouraged by the responses and interest we were receiving in our efforts to teach the gospel.

FYI, Keith, John and Jordan just got back from Costa Rica yesterday and I will try to post something summarizing their trip soon.

Dios les bendiga,
David

The Power of the Gospel

Well now that we are caught up to the beginning of our July trip I am going to do another Star Treky time warp on you.  Because of the circumstances I am going to tell you about the second half of the trip first.  The reason for that is because we spent the first 4 days in the Cacao area because we had high hopes for Jorge and Lisseth.  Even though those 4 days did not bear the kind of fruit we had hoped, it was still a beneficial use of our time.  We became even closer and more connected to this family and also ended up meeting all their immediate family members in the area as well.  But I will tell you about that later.  For now I want to tell you the story of our new brother and sisters in Christ.

This was on day 5 of the trip and we had planned to go spend more time with Myra and see if we could make more contacts in the town where she lives.  Altos de Naranjo is the name of the place which I just told you a little bit about in the previous post.  We called Myra that morning and she was home and very eager for us to come visit her.  Altos de Naranjo is only about 10 kilometers from Atenas but it is on a very curvy, steep, pot-holed road, so it takes about 20 minutes to get there.  It is just one of countless beautiful drives in a country that is busting at the seams with God's creation.

Once we arrived we noticed there was a new little girl around the house named Franci.  She was Myra's granddaughter and we would meet Myra's oldest daughter and husband later that day.  Once we settled in and started talking to Myra we were amazed.  We had only spent a short amount of time with her and her children.  We had studied the Gospel with her in May but we had expected to spend more time studying with her in the hopes of reinforcing how she needed to obey the Gospel.  What we found before us now 2 months later was a woman that was convicted.  She had been talking to her neighbors about us and about the Gospel.  She had obviously been studying with her children as well.  Her daughter Neyci wanted to be baptized and she had talked to 2 more of her neighbors that had expressed interest as well.  We were floored.  Here was a woman who had been convicted by the Gospel and with no urging from us had already been talking to her neighbors about the Gospel as well.  She had already been laying some of the groundwork for us to continue preaching the Gospel in this area.  You will probably notice that we did not baptize Mrya yet, but make no mistake she is ready and willing.  She explained her reasons for waiting and she assured us that she would have removed any roadblocks and that she would be ready to be baptized the next time we came to Costa Rica. 

We were really blown away by Mrya's spirit the more we talked to her.  She told us about something her daughter Neyci had dealt with recently that was really awesome.  She told us about how Neyci's school required the children to go to a religious class about the Catholic religion.  At one point they demanded that they all bow before the statue of the virgin mary.  Neyci refused and said that she was not Catholic and would never bow down to the virgin mary.  Myra was very proud of Neyci because she had grown up in a Catholic family and had decided when she was 9 years old that she was not going to be  a Catholic.  Myra had been raised with something that she recognized was not the truth and she had rejected it.  She had been looking for the truth of God her whole life and praise the Lord she recognized His truth and power through the Gospel.  I was just so amazed by the abundant harvest that the Lord had set before us.  All the modest expectations we had were blown away by the sincere heart of this woman who saw the truth and grabbed on with both hands.

Neyci was at school at that time but Myra assured us that she was ready to be baptized this afternoon.  So we talked to her about a possible place to baptize her and it turns out there was a perfect spot down at the river below her house.  We hiked down the narrow muddy trial to the river to see how it looked and she was right, you could not ask for a better place for a baptism.

After talking to Mrya for a few hours we decided to leave for a little while and come back around 3:00 when Neyci came home from school.  Well we decided that this would be a good time to do some more exploring of the surrounding areas.  As we drove around we found more and more steep, narrow scary roads and breathtaking views.  In this area of the country you find more people and small communities down every road.  Another thing that is different from the US is that there are always people walking around and there is always people out and about.  The people are very friendly and easy to approach and talk.  The sense of community and friendliness we have encountered most places we go is very encouraging for us.  It is much easier to meet and talk to people when they are already out in a public place and you don't have to feel like you are intruding into their homes.

We arrived back at Myra's house about 3:30 in accordance with "Tico Time".  We heard about "Tico Time" before we ever came to Costa Rica but we have been repeatedly exposed to this method of always arriving late for appointments.  It is just another example of how their way of life is much more relaxed and unscheduled.  Sometimes it can be annoying for those of us (myself included) that like to be on time (aka a few minutes early) however you really have no choice but to adapt.  Once you slow down you start to realize that sometimes we are probably to structured and schedule oriented in the US.  It seems to leave us no time to "stop and smell the roses" as the saying goes.  How many times have we all passed someone by that may have needed help but we were running "late" for work and felt like we could not take the time.  Seems like we need to figure out the real priorities in life.

When we got back to Myra's house we met Myra's daughter Lorena and her husband Edwin.  They were here visting during the week. Their daughter Franci was 5 and they also had a 8 month old little girl.  Edwin was very quiet and reserved at first but after a couple days he was much more comfortable and talkative around us.  It did not take long and we were ready to Baptize Neyci.  We all headed down to the river where we had been earlier that day.  As we were walking hiking down the trail I was a little nervous and working over and over in my head to memorize what I needed to say in Spanish.  I was still a little bit in shock that we were about to welcome a new Christian into the world in Costa Rica.  I always had high hopes but I try to temper my optimism with realism so that I am not crushed by defeat.  I guess that is what I get for underestimating the power of the gospel!  I could tell that Neyci was very nervous and excited as I took her confession then led her into the water but other than that I was oblivious to the world around me.  I must admit that I was so worried about messing up the words, and I was so focused on the task at hand, that it did not hit me until it was done what had just occured.  As Neyci stood up out of the water, she was laughing and smiling, and I realized that she was my sister now.  We were connected by a bond stronger than blood, she was my sister in Christ!  I knew the words that I wanted to say this time without much thought, "Bienvenidos mi hermana en Cristo" (Welcome my sister in Christ). 

I wish I could explain the feelings that went through me the rest of that day, and as I sit here looking at this picture they all come flooding back.  I don't think that I can really explain it but if a picture can truly say a thousand words than this one says the most to me. 
Luke 15:10 says Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.
After the baptism we spent several more hours talking and getting to know these wonderful people better.  As we were walking back up the hill to the car that night Keith and I talked about how greatly God had blessed us and how this was no longer a dream but a reality.  Neyci was only the first of a bountiful harvest that the Lord provided and we are now committed more than ever.  The Church of our Lord Jesus Christ is alive and well in Costa Rica, Praise the Lord!

I apologize for the delay in getting this post out but I hope it was worth the wait.  I will try and get the next one ready a little faster Lord willing.

Dios les Bendiga,
David

We planted, we watered, God provided the Miracle Grow

We just returned from Costa Rica last night and I am still in awe.  I am in awe of the power and the glory of God.  I know the verses, I understood the concept, but I did not fully comprehend it until now. 
1Corinthians 3:5-9Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? (6) I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. (7) So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase. (8) Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour. (9) For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building.
John 4:35-36 Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. (36) And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal: that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together.
Now I understand it a whole lot better because I have seen it and felt it.  I have seen the power of the Gospel work even though I was unable to "explain" it like I wanted to.  My limits with the Spanish language does not mean that the message of the Gospel was not heard and understood.  I think that the biggest thing that hit home from this trip is that I need to spread the seed and then get out of the way and let the word of God convict the honest heart.
Luke 8:15But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience.
I think when you have faced a long period of un-interest, failure, and rejection you can start to think that you are not doing something right.  You are not explaining it right, you think you need to spend a large amount of time explaining what the Bible means.  Don't get me wrong, I think that a lot of times we are doing it wrong and making it more complicated than it is.  However we need to realize that we are going to spend a lot of time on people that in the end do not care and their heart is hardened.  When the Gospel finds a good heart, the word of God is sufficient on it's own. 
Heb 4:12-13For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. (13) Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
I apologize for the mini sermon but my brain and my heart are just about to explode with thoughts and emotions and I needed to let some of it out.

Well for those of you that have not heard, the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ is alive and well in Costa Rica!  Praise the Lord!

I will go into more detail in the coming days and weeks and tell their stories more fully but I could not wait to let you know how God has provided a bountiful harvest in Costa Rica.

This is Neyci, she is 13 years old.

Neyci was very nervous before the baptism and very excited afterwards!

This is Jose, he is 21 years old.  This picture was after his Baptism but we all noticed that he had worn his best clothes for this important event.  He is smiling about his new Bible.

Jose is an awesome guy, can't wait to tell you more about him.

This is Lorena, she is 20 years old and has two little girls.

Lorena was also very nervous before but I think the water was a little cold.

I will fill you in on all the details later but I could not wait to introduce you to your new Brother and Sisters in Christ in Costa Rica.  Please remember them and their family in your prayers, this is a very important and fragile time for them.  We are of course worried for them since we could not stick around longer.  However they now have God on their side and they all know each other so they will be good support for each other in the trials ahead.  Praise the Lord.

-Dios les Bendiga,

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)

Orphans, Crocodiles, and Beaches oh My!!

I know, I know the title for this post seems completely random and silly right?  I know but do you realize how hard it is to come up with a Title for these posts sometimes?  Not as easy as it looks. Sometimes it is harder to come up with those few words for a title than it is to type the whole post!!!

Monday morning came along, and Kalina and I headed over to Hogar de Vida while Sherry and Lindsey stayed at the house with the kids.  We spent several hours talking to Tim and Dina, they are the couple that started the Hogar de Vida children's home over 10 years ago.  We talked about a lot of different things that we might be able to help with while we were there.  They were very cautious and made sure we knew all the rules before any of us could come to help.  They had a whole list of rules that we heartily agreed to, such as no immodest clothing, no piercings besides earrings, no cursing, etc.  This place was structured around providing a Christian atmosphere for these kids, and they were very serious about it.  They have had a lot of struggles lately with financial support because of the economic situation in Costa Rica and in the USA.  They don't have any large supporters. They mostly depend on a lot of small donations from lots of places.  So while they obviously needed help, they wanted to make sure we were not just wanting to come for a photo op with the kids or that we would cause more problems.  They explained several problems they have had in the past with groups that have come to help but ended up causing more problems than they fixed. 

























This was the view from just inside the gate of Hogar de Vida.

We were looking for something we could do for them in a day or two but we also had Kathia with us.  She is one of our Costa Rican friends that has helped us so much.  She was interested in getting involved in a continual effort to help the orphanage.  She has several of her friends and family that could help with making clothes for the kids or even just yard work.

So when we were done we had agreed to come back the next day and Kalina, Sherry, Lindsey, and Olivia along with Kathia's group would work on cleaning windows and folding laundry.  I planned on taking Logan with me to go buy supplies for the orphanage and hopefully be back by lunch time.

Well it was lunch time and we had the rest of the day free.  This was the only time we would have for just "fun" and it was time to fulfill a promise we had made to Logan and Olivia.  It was time to go see the Crocodiles and then the Beach.  We headed west toward the pacific coast and in about 40 minutes we arrived at what we have started calling the Crocodile Bridge.  The kids were both absolutely amazed to see crocodiles that were not in a cage.  I think before this they had only seen one small crocodile at the Memphis zoo and in pictures.  There was one of them laying in the sun that was at least 15 feet long.  There was probably 15-20 of them swimming or laying right below us.  Most of them were just laying there soaking up the sun and Logan just could not stand it.  He kept yelling at them, "CROCODILES WAKE UP" over and over again.  He was very disappointed that none of them seemed to notice his wake up calls.

From the Crocodile Bridge we headed a little farther south to a beach that we had heard about from Kathia's husband Jason.  It was not a place you could get to unless you knew where you were going, luckily we had the inside info.  You had to take a right off the highway at an unmarked dirt road and drive about 10 minutes until you entered into the back gate of some kind of Resort community.  Then you drive thru the middle of the compound of condos until you get to another dirt road that goes another 300 feet where you have to park and then walk the last little bit thru the trees and over a very treacherous looking bridge over a small creek and there you are.  Easy right?  I am sure you can find it now all on your own.....Anyway it was a nice quiet beach, there were only 4 other people there besides us.  The kids had a great time playing in the water and the girls had a blast sifting thru tons of pieces of coral reef.

We stayed a few hours at the beach then we had to head back so we could fix something to eat and I had to be at the Airport to pick up Keith at 8:15.
I arrived at the airport right on time and wonder of wonders Keith's flight was on time.  I was even able to stake out a good spot to wait on him to get outside and I was able to swoop in and save him from the mob of taxi and shuttle drivers eagerly waiting to devour unsuspecting tourists.  I was excited about the possibilities of Keith being along for this trip especially since he is much more fluent than myself with Spanish.  I have gotten a lot better but it takes time.
Once we got back to the house we all spent some time talking about Costa Rica and the days ahead but we all went to bed pretty early so we would be rested for a hard days work at Hogar de

-David

The Lords Day in Costa Rica

So once we actually made it to the airport the flights all went fine, including a 9 hour layover in Denver.  Luckily my Aunt and Uncle live in Denver and they came and picked us up.  It just happened to be the same night of my cousins graduation party so we got to see everyone for a little while which was nice.

This was the view from the house we were staying in.  This was still the beginning of the rainy season and everything was still pretty brown.

So we arrived in Costa Rica on time and made it to the house we were renting in Atenas and got settled in.  We ventured into town and found a gem of a restaraunt that we did not know about the last time we were here.  Kay's is the only place that we have found in Costa Rica that you can find american style breakfast.  She serves just about anything you could find at a Ihop, Waffle House or from your Mom's kitchen.  Kay has apparently been a waitress for over 40 years and you could tell, she was a real pleasure to be around.

After we refueled we went back to the house and had our Sunday worship service.  It was another beautiful day in Costa Rica to worship the lord.  It is impossible to not be in awe of his creation when you are surrounded by some of the most beautiful landscape you have ever seen.
























This was on the way to Escazu, A big mud slide had covered the road and they had only cleared it enough for the adventurous that did not mind doing some off roading.

I made several phone calls to our contacts in Costa Rica while the kids took a much needed nap.  Once that was all taken care of we took a 30 minute drive to Gringoville, Costa Rica (aka Escazu).  This town is probably home to the most rich, affluent and upper class of Costa Rica.  It does not at all resemble the rest of Costa Rica, in fact it looks mostly like a city in the USA.  Our reason for visiting Escazu is because they had the closest Walmart, yes that is right, Walmart.  This was a new developement that had just occured in the last couple weeks, and there are only a handlful of them in the whole country.  So the questions to ask would be is this a good thing that Walmart has set it's sights on Costa Rica?  I hope so, but only time will tell.  Anyway we had some supplies to buy and this would be one of the cheapest places to buy the things we needed.  Well this was a Sunday night and if any of you shop at Walmart on the weekend you know that is usually the busiest and worst time to go.  Well I don't know if it was because of the weekend or because it was new but this place was jam packed.  This was a supercenter and it was probably larger than some in the USA, but there was still not enough room for the masses.  I don't know for sure how many people were their but it had to be somewhere between 2000 - 5000.  It looked like a crowd you would see packed into a stadium for a sold out concert except for the shelves and shopping carts.  It was insane, I am not really sure how we made it out alive.

We did make it out in one piece and we did not even lose either of the kids!!  That is about all there is to tell about Sunday but we were a bit exhausted and everyone went to bed pretty early to be ready for the next day.  Kalina and I were scheduled to meet with the Director of Hogar de Vida in the morning.  Hogar de Vita is a childrens home in Atenas and we wanted to talk to them to see what we could do to help.

-David

What a trip!!!

Well since I have some time while I wait for our delayed flight from Denver to Dallas I wanted to give everyone a brief update.

We are halfway back to Arkansas, so far so good. I am ready to get back and see Carson and Leia and I already miss Costa Rica.

For anyone who has not heard already, we had a bit of a hiccup on the road to Costa Rica. Well lets put aside the metaphors and tell it like it is, or was.... It was actually a small log that was in the middle of the Interstate. We were driving from Benton to Dallas to get on the first flight that would take us to Denver. Yes I did say Denver, you thought we were going to Costa Rica? Well that's what we thought too and we are still a bit confused by the logic of it all. Somewhere there is a guy that sits behind his computer comes up with these crazy flight plans. While the rest of us would assume a direct flight from Dallas to Costa Rica would be cheaper, he has other ideas. Silly mortals, don't you know that there is some kind of law of Aeronautics that dictates that a straight line is not always the best or most economical way to get somewhere. While 2 wrongs don't make a right, 3 lefts do.....Such is the logic of commercial airlines.

But anyway, I digress. We were a few miles past Sulpher Springs Texas when we came over a hill and there was a log right in the middle of my lane. I had nowhere to go with an 18 wheeler beside me in the right lane, so in the split second I had, I centered up over the log hoping we would clear it. The very loud bang and the alarming noises and smoke coming from the engine told me that was false hope on my part. Well we pulled over and after several frantic phone calls to friends in the area as well as tow trucks, car rental agencies, even a couple limosine companies, we were able to get back on the road. Thank the Lord that we had a brother in Christ and a friend of his that lived sort of close by that were able to help us get to the airport without missing our flight!!! God bless you for sacrificing your Saturday to come help us.

So our vehicle has not been fixed yet and there is a chance it may be totalled by the insurance company. I did not think the damage was that substantial, but the insurance company only cares about how much the damage costs based on how much the vehicle is worth. We have a rental car waiting in Dallas that will get us home. Keep us in your prayers that something will work out to resolve that problem. We were so busy in Costa Rica that we did not have time to even think about it but now we have no choice. Oh well, such is life.

That one thing was but the first of many memorable things that happened on this trip. If I was a pessimist then all the things that happened to us would have been disasterous. However, God is good and he watched over us and protected us through all the trials and tribulations and he also blessed us beyond all expectation.

1 Corinthians 10:13 says; There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. Did he ever give us a way to escape and bear it all with ease. The people we met and snuck into our hearts made it all worth it.

I better wrap up this so called brief update, our airplane is finally here. I will fill you in on more details later. Hasta Luego and Dios les Bendiga!!

-David

Prayers for Costa Rica

Well it is getting close. It is now 4 weeks until we go to Costa Rica and everyone is excited and ready to go. The lord has blessed us beyond measure and he has provided us with the means to make this a fruitful trip. We pray that we are able to make good use of those blessings and bring the light of the gospel to the people of Costa Rica. This post is really all about asking for your prayers for our upcoming trip. Philippians 4:6 says; Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. 7. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. We cannot succeed in this work without the Lord on our side. We ask that you would please remember us in your prayers. I ask that you pray that God's will be done in Costa Rica and that he watches over us to keep us out of harms way. We are only his servants in this work and we want him to be Glorified in everything we do. All we want to do in Costa Rica is spread the seeds of the Gospel, provide a little water and then let God provide the increase. So please remember all of us in your prayers and also remember to pray for the people of Costa Rica. We hope and pray that we will find open and willing hearts that are ready to receive the Gospel.

If we have time we will try to post some updates on the blog while we are in Costa Rica. If we don't have time we will make sure to fill you in once we get home. Thank you for your loving support and prayers.

Dios les bendiga
David

Costa Rica in 2011

Happy New Year to everyone. I hope you have all had a blessed year in 2010. 2010 was an awesome year for us and Lord willing we are looking forward to another year of blessings beyond measure. It has been a while since we posted anything so I thought it would be nice to give everyone an update. We have been doing some research on possible travel dates to return to Costa Rica. Prices for flight will more than likely determine the time we travel since they fluctuate so much and we obviously want to get the cheapest rates. Right now it looks like the cheapest tickets we can find are during the first 2 weeks of May. The best we can find is around 300 per person from Dallas to Costa Rica those first 2 weeks of May. If anyone out there knows of any way to obtain cheaper tickets please let us know. Between now and then we are going to be talking to our contacts in Costa Rica and working on possible plans while we are there. As we know from our last trip, God has a way of changing our plans and we will be more than happy to be flexible as needed. A couple things that we would like to do is visit the community in Alajuela that we visited during our last trip as well as visit the Orphanage in Atenas that we did not get to the last time. We are going to be looking at some things that we could do to provide for the needy and let you know what we have planned so that anyone that wants to donate to help has a good idea of where the money will be going. We would like to have some "projects" planned and you will be able to specify what you would like to donate for and 100% of your donation will go directly to the needs of the people. We still have a lot of planning and praying to do but I thought everyone might like to know what is coming up. Please keep us in your prayers and Dios les bendiga.

-David

Lord Give Me Neither Poverty Nor Riches

One of the verses that comes to mind when I think about what happened to us while we were in Costa Rica is this.

Isa 42:16. And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them.

We have explained to everyone the sequence of events that led up to this point and I still get goose bumps thinking about how God works in our lives. Our plans made sure we made it to Costa Rica but from that point all those plans went awry. But he took our misfortune and turned it into a blessing. He took this group of blind people with good intentions and showed us a better path. He showed us possibilities and gave us hope in a very powerful way. He led us down paths that we did not know. He made a seemingly complicated task simple. He just laid it all out there right in front of us ready for us to grab hold.