I am just now getting around to posting the blogs that I´ve been saving since we arrived, so this is the reason why the post dates below don´t match the dates marked in the titles. I´d now like to update you on some of the personal mission activities we´ve been working on over the past few weeks.
First, we have been tutoring two high school kids from Linda Vista. Linda Vista is the nearby town where I first got the call to learn Spanish, after forming a relationship with a family there for whom we helped build a house. There is a huge issue in Linda Vista where children don´t continue their education after the 6th grade because their families can´t afford the transportation costs into town, where all the high schools are located. Either that, or the families don’t value education and don´t make their kids go if they don´t want to. It is quite common for kids to start working in the sugar cane or coffee fields at the age of 12, to help support their families.
Mary Woods, who directs the camps activities with her husband Marion, is on the Board of a scholarship program in Linda Vista. The program pays for bus tickets into town, as well as uniforms and books if the family needs additional assistance. The family must pay for the first trimester of the 7th grade to prove they are invested in their child’s education as well as to prove the child can maintain an average above 70. Right now the Association supports 5 kids. One of the girls has a probationary status due to her poor grades in the 7th grade. They are allowing her to receive the scholarship on the condition that she receives tutoring, which is where Brett and I have stepped in. This is a huge blessing as well as a huge challenge to us both, but we feel this opportunity has allowed us to slowly make our way into this community.
Another kid is in the 7th grade, so he is not yet eligible to receive the scholarship, but his mother wants him to be prepared to receive the scholarship once he can. The primary school at Linda Vista does not properly prepare their students for high school. If families do decide to send their kids to high school, the transition from primary to secondary school is extremely tough. In primary school, students only stay at school for 3 or 4 hours a day. In high school, the day lasts for 8 or 9 hours. Also, they have to leave their homes at 5:30 am to catch the bus and don´t return home until 6pm. These new, grueling hours make the success rate for the scholarship program quite difficult. We have to force ourselves to stop complaining about the way things are done here, and give it all to God. Our job is to show these children God´s love, teach them about Jesus Christ, and tutor them when we can. We often wish we could change Costa Rica, but I believe Costa Rica is changing us.
Next, we are starting bible studies in Linda Vista for women on Wednesdays, for men on Fridays at 6pm, and for boys in an orphanage on Fridays at 4pm. A few months ago, a team from the language school did a door to door ministry, and 13 families accepted Christ. Mary suggested we start with these families to start the bible studies. We knocked on the doors of 7 of these families, and invited them to the bible studies. I had my first bible study yesterday with the women, and 3 of them came. I had to remind myself that 2 or 3 gathered in Christ´s name is sufficient for Him. We studied Judges 4 and 5, and focused on Deborah as an important woman of faith in the bible. I was mostly nervous, though, and stumbled through my Spanish as I tried to share with them all the information I had collected in the various commentaries I studied. I shared this with a woman who is with the group from Florida that is now at the camp. She suggested that maybe I should focus more on sharing my heart with them, rather than regurgitating Biblical facts. So this is what I shall do next time.
Despite my weaknesses as a leader, I know that relationships are being formed, and we are coming up with more ideas to bring more women to the study. Lidiath, the hostess that so kindly allowed us to hold the study at her house, is the mother of a deaf girl named Esmeralda. When Esmeralda was spelling her name for me in sign language, she told me her main characteristic was her long blonde hair. She asked what my main characteristic was, and I said that my name means ¨little river¨ in English, or ¨arroyo or quebrada¨ in Spanish. So we spent a lot of time learning different words in sign language, and I of course, sang her the 2 songs I know in sign language, ¨Wind beneath my Wings¨ by Bette Midler and ¨All day all nigh, angels watching over me my Lord.¨ Lidiath told me people have always told her that she needs to teach them sign language, so the people in the community can better communicate with Esmeralda. We are going to add a sign language lesson to our study every Wednesday.
After the study, God ¨wooed¨ me as I recently learned in the Sacred Romance by John Eldridge. Esmeralda and 2 other little girls from Linda Vista showed me the most beautiful point in all of Linda Vista, which I believe is the reason Linda Vista, or ¨Beautiful View¨ has its name. It is at the end of the road, at the top of the hill in Linda Vista, and looks out over Ciudad Quesada and Volcano Arenal. They told me it was public property, kind of like a park for the residents, but we had to climb a tree and jump a barbed wire fence to get there, so I somehow doubt it´s public. We played hide and seek, rolled down the hill, and spun like Julie Andrews in the Sound of Music until sunset.
God is good. All the time.
_Brooke
4.03.2008
March 17-24, Semana Santa
The week before Easter is known as Semana Santa, or Holy Week, in Latin America. Most Costa Ricans take the week off and most businesses are closed from Thursday until Sunday. In the center of towns, the Catholic Church hosts processions in the streets, to remember the events leading up to Jesus’ death and Resurrection. The people dress up as Biblical Figures and carry huge statues of Mary, Jesus, and the disciples. We didn’t get to witness any processions in Ciudad Quesada this year, but we witnessed a few in San Jose last year.
The beginning of the week involved much preparation and cabin cleaning for a group from a Pentecostal Church in San Jose, who hosted a youth retreat from Thursday to Saturday. Brett was able to spend most of his time in the woodshop, since there were no groups from the States. He built two twin beds for the spare bedroom in the guesthouse. I (Brooke) helped prepare the Souvenir Shop for the teams that were in Coquital and Los Angeles. While there were no teams staying at the camp, there were however, three teams from Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas working on churches in other parts of Costa Rica. A few of the camp’s employees, Juanita, Pedro, and Giovani, went to Coquital to help the Texas team during Semana Santa. The teams from Texas and Kansas came to the camp to visit the Souvenir Shop on their way back down to San Jose to catch their flight. The camp sells crafts made from Costa Ricans in the shop to help support the local artist community. Mary and Marion would eventually like Brett to make some items for the souvenir shop, so as to be an addition source of financial funding to the camp´s needs.
March 21 was my dad’s birthday, and I spent all afternoon Monday making him a card, in an effort to get it in the mail, so it could at least arrive close to his birthday. I have never been very good with timing. But despite my efforts, I didn’t make it to the post office until Wednesday afternoon, and it was already closed for Semana Santa. Perhaps the next birthday that comes up, I can try and plan a month in advance, to ensure my card arrives prior. I talked to him on his birthday, though, and I was pleased to hear he had taken the day off, which I’m not sure I’ve ever heard of him doing such a thing. Looks to me like someone must be teaching him to relax a little these days.
On Easter, we attended church at Santa Rosa, and the reading was from Daniel 9. The sermon focused on Daniel as a great intercessor, who prayed for those too weak to pray, and therefore told us we have the same calling, to not only pray for ourselves, but for those around us who need prayer. Giovanny then related the story to how Jesus is the great Intercessor, “la Puente por Dios“, the bridge to God. Through His life, His death, and His Resurrection, He became our bridge to knowing God in the intimate way He always intended.
Celebrating Easter in a different country is so different because we aren’t consumed by Easter bunnies and eggs and candy and chocolate. Also the fact that the sermon wasn’t focused primarily on the Resurrection story was surprising..
The rest of the day, I had to rest since I picked up a cold and rested, and Brett helped Mary clean cabins at the camp to help prepare for a group of Mennonites that were to arrive on Tuesday, March 25.
The beginning of the week involved much preparation and cabin cleaning for a group from a Pentecostal Church in San Jose, who hosted a youth retreat from Thursday to Saturday. Brett was able to spend most of his time in the woodshop, since there were no groups from the States. He built two twin beds for the spare bedroom in the guesthouse. I (Brooke) helped prepare the Souvenir Shop for the teams that were in Coquital and Los Angeles. While there were no teams staying at the camp, there were however, three teams from Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas working on churches in other parts of Costa Rica. A few of the camp’s employees, Juanita, Pedro, and Giovani, went to Coquital to help the Texas team during Semana Santa. The teams from Texas and Kansas came to the camp to visit the Souvenir Shop on their way back down to San Jose to catch their flight. The camp sells crafts made from Costa Ricans in the shop to help support the local artist community. Mary and Marion would eventually like Brett to make some items for the souvenir shop, so as to be an addition source of financial funding to the camp´s needs.
March 21 was my dad’s birthday, and I spent all afternoon Monday making him a card, in an effort to get it in the mail, so it could at least arrive close to his birthday. I have never been very good with timing. But despite my efforts, I didn’t make it to the post office until Wednesday afternoon, and it was already closed for Semana Santa. Perhaps the next birthday that comes up, I can try and plan a month in advance, to ensure my card arrives prior. I talked to him on his birthday, though, and I was pleased to hear he had taken the day off, which I’m not sure I’ve ever heard of him doing such a thing. Looks to me like someone must be teaching him to relax a little these days.
On Easter, we attended church at Santa Rosa, and the reading was from Daniel 9. The sermon focused on Daniel as a great intercessor, who prayed for those too weak to pray, and therefore told us we have the same calling, to not only pray for ourselves, but for those around us who need prayer. Giovanny then related the story to how Jesus is the great Intercessor, “la Puente por Dios“, the bridge to God. Through His life, His death, and His Resurrection, He became our bridge to knowing God in the intimate way He always intended.
Celebrating Easter in a different country is so different because we aren’t consumed by Easter bunnies and eggs and candy and chocolate. Also the fact that the sermon wasn’t focused primarily on the Resurrection story was surprising..
The rest of the day, I had to rest since I picked up a cold and rested, and Brett helped Mary clean cabins at the camp to help prepare for a group of Mennonites that were to arrive on Tuesday, March 25.
March 8-16, 2008; Athens and Language School Teams
During the weekend of March 8-11, the camp hosted a team from the Language Institute in San Jose, a.k.a. ILE (Instituto de Lengua Espanola), where Brooke learned Spanish the previous year. ILE is primarily for missionaries headed to various countries in Latin America. Every trimester since Steve Semler was a student at ILE, a group from the school has come on a weekend-long mission trip. There is usually so much to learn from this group of career missionaries. This year they hosted a Vacation Bible School at the school in Linda Vista and included kids form the local orphanage as well as had a construction team at the new cabin at the camp. Lalo from the La Carpio mission brought 5 kids from his 12 year old soccer team to participate in the mission trip. This was the second time these boys had been on a mission trip to San Carlos. A few months earlier, they worked with the kids from the Linda Vista orphanage and formed an amazing relationship with these boys. Kids can relate better to other kids, right?
On Saturday, a team from Athens, GA arrived at the camp. We didn’t hook up with them until the Language School left on Sunday. We attended church with them on Sunday in Santa Rosa, and were asked to help translate the sermon. This was the first time we had done such a thing, but I think we made a good team. When Brooke lacked understanding, Brett was able to jump in and vice versa… When neither of us understood, Pastor Giovanny tried to dumb it down into the simplest form of the Spanish language as possible.
Throughout the week, the team continued on construction projects in Santa Rosa and the new cabin. They also started a house across the street from the camp for Pedro, Juanita and their kids, Kimberly and Beto.
An introduction to some other missionaries and employees at the camp:
Pedro and Juanita are both missionaries and employees at the camp. As missionaries, Pedro has a calling to preach, which he was involved in when they lived in Los Chiles, and Juanita has a clown ministry, which she has started in El Mirador since they moved to the camp. As employees, Pedro is the construction foreman for all the construction projects for the camp (the towns with buildings under construction include: Santa Rosa, the New Cabin at the camp, Los Chiles, Pital, and Coquital). Juanita cooks her delicious Costa Rican meals for the teams as well as helps Mary take care of her father at times.
Mary’s 94 year old father has lived with them at the camp since 2002. Two years ago, another missionary, Peggy, came to live in Costa Rica, to help Mary take care of Papa. Peggy’s parents founded the Central Rural Metodista in the 1950s, so Peggy grew up at the camp, and now is a huge help with her bilingual and caretaking gifts.
Wolf, or in Spanish, Lobo, came to stay at the camp for 6 weeks to help with the mission teams. I believe his specialty was working in construction, but God changed that his second week at the camp, when he twisted his knee. So he was forced to take it easy and relax a bit, something I don’t believe he was used to doing. By the time the Athens group came, he restored enough strength to help build some cabinets at the home of the new pastor in El Mirador. We were blessed to have him as a dinner companion during the weeks that teams weren’t here.
The Athens group had vacation bible school at the church in Santa Rosa and the school in San Rafael. Pastor Martha broke up the lesson into 3 days with 3 rotating groups each day. The first lesson taught about Jesus as a child, when his family left Him in the temple (Luke 2:41-52). The 3 stations were the kitchen station, where the kids were served healthy snacks to teach that Jesus ate healthy food, the drama station, where the kids acted out the story, so as to visualize the events of Mary, Joseph, and Mary traveling to Jerusalem, leaving Jesus behind, and then returning to find him preaching in the temple at such a young age. The last station was the craft station, where the kids made cards for the people they appreciated in their life, such as their teachers, their pastors, or their parents. I (Brooke) was blessed to receive a card from a few of the kids, one of them thanked me for all I had done for them, which was quite special to see their appreciation after having both worked with them in bible school and painted their classrooms. The next day, the kids were taught about how Jesus healed people in Matthew 8, and the final day taught about the Feeding of the 5000, (Luke 9:10-17). When Martha was explaining the lesson for the day to Giovanny, she humorously mixed up her Spanish to say that Jesus ate everybody ¨Jesus comió todo¨, instead of ¨Jesus dió comida a todo¨ or ¨Jesus fed everybody.¨ Giovanny was sure to preach that lesson to ensure the kids understood that Jesus was not into eating his followers.
I (Brooke)put a lot of stress on myself trying to make everything perfect for the Athens team, trying to organize their day, where they were going, who was going where, etc…There was a lot of learning that I don’t need to plan so much. The whole mystery of the mission field was what attracted me to it in the first place, because God is always the leader, and the day is always filled with surprises. But there I went anyway, acting the gringa that I am, trying to organize and pre-plan everything. I was left exhausted by the end of the week, but the Athens group recognized this. They were so kind to show Mary, Marion, Wolf, Brett, and I the love of Jesus by washing our feet during their last devotional. It is hard to be served when it is so engrained in me that I should serve others. But this is what Jesus does always to restore us, if we just let Him.
On Saturday, a team from Athens, GA arrived at the camp. We didn’t hook up with them until the Language School left on Sunday. We attended church with them on Sunday in Santa Rosa, and were asked to help translate the sermon. This was the first time we had done such a thing, but I think we made a good team. When Brooke lacked understanding, Brett was able to jump in and vice versa… When neither of us understood, Pastor Giovanny tried to dumb it down into the simplest form of the Spanish language as possible.
Throughout the week, the team continued on construction projects in Santa Rosa and the new cabin. They also started a house across the street from the camp for Pedro, Juanita and their kids, Kimberly and Beto.
An introduction to some other missionaries and employees at the camp:
Pedro and Juanita are both missionaries and employees at the camp. As missionaries, Pedro has a calling to preach, which he was involved in when they lived in Los Chiles, and Juanita has a clown ministry, which she has started in El Mirador since they moved to the camp. As employees, Pedro is the construction foreman for all the construction projects for the camp (the towns with buildings under construction include: Santa Rosa, the New Cabin at the camp, Los Chiles, Pital, and Coquital). Juanita cooks her delicious Costa Rican meals for the teams as well as helps Mary take care of her father at times.
Mary’s 94 year old father has lived with them at the camp since 2002. Two years ago, another missionary, Peggy, came to live in Costa Rica, to help Mary take care of Papa. Peggy’s parents founded the Central Rural Metodista in the 1950s, so Peggy grew up at the camp, and now is a huge help with her bilingual and caretaking gifts.
Wolf, or in Spanish, Lobo, came to stay at the camp for 6 weeks to help with the mission teams. I believe his specialty was working in construction, but God changed that his second week at the camp, when he twisted his knee. So he was forced to take it easy and relax a bit, something I don’t believe he was used to doing. By the time the Athens group came, he restored enough strength to help build some cabinets at the home of the new pastor in El Mirador. We were blessed to have him as a dinner companion during the weeks that teams weren’t here.
The Athens group had vacation bible school at the church in Santa Rosa and the school in San Rafael. Pastor Martha broke up the lesson into 3 days with 3 rotating groups each day. The first lesson taught about Jesus as a child, when his family left Him in the temple (Luke 2:41-52). The 3 stations were the kitchen station, where the kids were served healthy snacks to teach that Jesus ate healthy food, the drama station, where the kids acted out the story, so as to visualize the events of Mary, Joseph, and Mary traveling to Jerusalem, leaving Jesus behind, and then returning to find him preaching in the temple at such a young age. The last station was the craft station, where the kids made cards for the people they appreciated in their life, such as their teachers, their pastors, or their parents. I (Brooke) was blessed to receive a card from a few of the kids, one of them thanked me for all I had done for them, which was quite special to see their appreciation after having both worked with them in bible school and painted their classrooms. The next day, the kids were taught about how Jesus healed people in Matthew 8, and the final day taught about the Feeding of the 5000, (Luke 9:10-17). When Martha was explaining the lesson for the day to Giovanny, she humorously mixed up her Spanish to say that Jesus ate everybody ¨Jesus comió todo¨, instead of ¨Jesus dió comida a todo¨ or ¨Jesus fed everybody.¨ Giovanny was sure to preach that lesson to ensure the kids understood that Jesus was not into eating his followers.
I (Brooke)put a lot of stress on myself trying to make everything perfect for the Athens team, trying to organize their day, where they were going, who was going where, etc…There was a lot of learning that I don’t need to plan so much. The whole mystery of the mission field was what attracted me to it in the first place, because God is always the leader, and the day is always filled with surprises. But there I went anyway, acting the gringa that I am, trying to organize and pre-plan everything. I was left exhausted by the end of the week, but the Athens group recognized this. They were so kind to show Mary, Marion, Wolf, Brett, and I the love of Jesus by washing our feet during their last devotional. It is hard to be served when it is so engrained in me that I should serve others. But this is what Jesus does always to restore us, if we just let Him.
March 1-7, 2008; Getting Settled
After the Charleston team left, we moved into our new home just up the road from the camp. It is the future retirement home of Pastor Jerry Russell from Maryville, TN. Jerry has been bringing teams from his church to the camp since the early 1990s. We were so blessed to discover we had housing arranged for us when we arrived, thanks to Jerry, who also is involved with the nonprofit organization, Samaritan Hands, through whom we send the majority of our financial support.
Amanda from Rockville stayed with us until Wednesday of this week and continued working as a missionary on the construction sites at the new cabin and in Santa Rosa. Amanda will be returning to the camp in May to search her heart to see if this is the place where God might be calling her next. She feels the same peace and sense of calling here that I felt when I first arrived in Costa Rica over 3 years ago. Please pray for her as she searches her heart for her next step on her walk with Christ.
Part of Brooke’s responsibilities this week was to help clean cabins to prepare for the next group of teams, as well as tend to some dogs. The camp is an animal shelter to a certain degree, in that locals drop their dogs off when they don’t want them anymore. This means the camp has to care for about 15 dogs at any one time. A girl from the Charleston group adopted one of the dogs, known as Mamacíta, but she had to get all the dog’s rabies shots and certificate of good health a month before she could take it to the U.S.. Luckily, there is no quarantine once the dog arrives in the States, so after all the paperwork in Costa Rica is done, the process is fairly simple. If Brett and I decide to come home in May to visit, we will bring Mama with us, and she will be a bilingual, US citizen. Brooke had to get Mama’s rabies shots as well as take another dog, Sunshine, to get medication for mange. Since we have been at the camp, 3 puppies have been abandoned at the camp. Thanks to God, we found homes for all 3 of them. Although they do bring a lot of joy to the camp, it is a weekly task to find homes and properly care for these dogs.
We have been going to church in Santa Rosa, and Pastor Giovanny has already put us in his books as members, so I guess God has already provided us with a church home here!
Amanda from Rockville stayed with us until Wednesday of this week and continued working as a missionary on the construction sites at the new cabin and in Santa Rosa. Amanda will be returning to the camp in May to search her heart to see if this is the place where God might be calling her next. She feels the same peace and sense of calling here that I felt when I first arrived in Costa Rica over 3 years ago. Please pray for her as she searches her heart for her next step on her walk with Christ.
Part of Brooke’s responsibilities this week was to help clean cabins to prepare for the next group of teams, as well as tend to some dogs. The camp is an animal shelter to a certain degree, in that locals drop their dogs off when they don’t want them anymore. This means the camp has to care for about 15 dogs at any one time. A girl from the Charleston group adopted one of the dogs, known as Mamacíta, but she had to get all the dog’s rabies shots and certificate of good health a month before she could take it to the U.S.. Luckily, there is no quarantine once the dog arrives in the States, so after all the paperwork in Costa Rica is done, the process is fairly simple. If Brett and I decide to come home in May to visit, we will bring Mama with us, and she will be a bilingual, US citizen. Brooke had to get Mama’s rabies shots as well as take another dog, Sunshine, to get medication for mange. Since we have been at the camp, 3 puppies have been abandoned at the camp. Thanks to God, we found homes for all 3 of them. Although they do bring a lot of joy to the camp, it is a weekly task to find homes and properly care for these dogs.
We have been going to church in Santa Rosa, and Pastor Giovanny has already put us in his books as members, so I guess God has already provided us with a church home here!
Feb 23-March 1, 2008; First week at the CRM
We met up with our home mission team from Charleston, SC at the airport on Saturday, Feb 23, so as to ride up to the Central Rural Metodista with them. This is a team led by Rockville Church on Wadmalaw Island, just outside Charleston. Brooke started going on mission trips with them to the Central Rural Metodista in 2005, and Brett started in 2006. The team has participants that represent several different churches every year. Trinity UMC, our home church, was connected with them via Steve Semler. Steve is another missionary at the Central Rural Metodista whose home church is Trinity, and he got the call to become a missionary in Costa Rica through his relationship with Micah LaRoche with the Rockville group. Steve was a fisherman before he became a missionary, and worked on Micah’s dock at Cherry Point Seafood on Wadmalaw. You can check out more information about Steve by visiting the Central Rural Metodista website.
Our first week at the camp, we participated in the Rockville team’s mission trip as ordinary short term missionaries would. The group always starts out the week by going to church on Sunday at one of the local churches. This year we went to Santa Rosa, where the cam,p with the help of teams from the US, is in the process of building a parsonage for the pastor, Giovanny, and his family. Later in the day on Sunday, we took a soak at the Hot Springs just up the road from the camp, where you can relax and get a good body pruning for a group rate of $5 per person.
The projects we participated in throughout the week were construction projects in Santa Rosa and a new cabin at the camp, painting in El Mirador ( precario close to the camp), and at a school in a village nearby called San Rafael. We later had vacation bible schools for the students at the school in San Rafael and at a school in Linda Vista. Since the national religion of Costa Rica is Catholic, schools have no problems hosting bible studies during the school day.
The week the Charleston crew was here, I (Brooke) got news that my Uncle Tom, also known as Uncle Moo, had passed away. I wanted to go home to be with my family and mourn and reminisce. But we had just gotten here, and I somehow knew that I was to stay here. The support from my husband and the Charleston crew was just what I needed, so I knew God had planned it that way, that when he died, I’d be surrounded by my family in Christ. My cousin Katie sent me the eulogy my Uncle Puc wrote for Moo. He ended the eulogy with the Robert Frost poem that ends, “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the road less traveled, and that made all the difference.” I had just read that poem a few weeks before we came to Costa Rica, and it gave me the hope and encouragement I needed to come with my husband and leave my family, friends, job and security back home. Brett and I visited Moo a few weeks before we came to Costa Rica, and Moo gave us the encouragement we needed to come here as well. He was in full support of following a dream, a Calling from God, to live life to its fullest, and not just according to what seems safe. Moo was one of the people in my life that God used to speak to me. He not only was my uncle, but also my Godfather, a title which I seldom acknowledged growing up. But looking back, and remembering all the times I spent with him over the years, God was always speaking through him to me, showing his unconditional love.
Our first week at the camp, we participated in the Rockville team’s mission trip as ordinary short term missionaries would. The group always starts out the week by going to church on Sunday at one of the local churches. This year we went to Santa Rosa, where the cam,p with the help of teams from the US, is in the process of building a parsonage for the pastor, Giovanny, and his family. Later in the day on Sunday, we took a soak at the Hot Springs just up the road from the camp, where you can relax and get a good body pruning for a group rate of $5 per person.
The projects we participated in throughout the week were construction projects in Santa Rosa and a new cabin at the camp, painting in El Mirador ( precario close to the camp), and at a school in a village nearby called San Rafael. We later had vacation bible schools for the students at the school in San Rafael and at a school in Linda Vista. Since the national religion of Costa Rica is Catholic, schools have no problems hosting bible studies during the school day.
The week the Charleston crew was here, I (Brooke) got news that my Uncle Tom, also known as Uncle Moo, had passed away. I wanted to go home to be with my family and mourn and reminisce. But we had just gotten here, and I somehow knew that I was to stay here. The support from my husband and the Charleston crew was just what I needed, so I knew God had planned it that way, that when he died, I’d be surrounded by my family in Christ. My cousin Katie sent me the eulogy my Uncle Puc wrote for Moo. He ended the eulogy with the Robert Frost poem that ends, “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the road less traveled, and that made all the difference.” I had just read that poem a few weeks before we came to Costa Rica, and it gave me the hope and encouragement I needed to come with my husband and leave my family, friends, job and security back home. Brett and I visited Moo a few weeks before we came to Costa Rica, and Moo gave us the encouragement we needed to come here as well. He was in full support of following a dream, a Calling from God, to live life to its fullest, and not just according to what seems safe. Moo was one of the people in my life that God used to speak to me. He not only was my uncle, but also my Godfather, a title which I seldom acknowledged growing up. But looking back, and remembering all the times I spent with him over the years, God was always speaking through him to me, showing his unconditional love.
Feb 21-23, 2008: San Jose
We arrived in Costa Rica on Thursday, Feb 21, and stayed at a mission house in San Jose known as the AMCA house. This mission house is sponsored by Latin American Mission and houses mission teams, provides a place for meetings and Bible Studies, as well as hosts English Classes for Costa Ricans. Since Brooke taught English here last year, we had a connection with this place, and therefore decided to start our journey here.
While in San Jose, we visited friends we had connected with the previous year, such as our host family and former tutor. We also caught up with a couple of the missions we were involved with in La Carpio and Casa Café.
La Carpio is a precario, or shanty town, which is known as one of the most dangerous squaters villages in San Jose. Brooke helped establish a kids ministry with fellow language school students back in the Fall of 2006. There are still groups from the language school that bring Christ’s love to these kids every Thursday. The missionaries that run a church/community center in the area of La Carpio known as La Cueva, or “the cave,” are Steve “Lalo” Edwards and Antonio Yervis with Community of Faith Mission based out of Houston, TX. Throughout the year they coach a championship soccer team for a little league of 12 year olds as well as a team for high school kids. They also host short term medical missions with their sponsoring churches from Texas.
We also caught up with Keith Britton, a missionary with Commission to Every Nation. Brett worked with him last year in another precario in San Jose known as Los Guido and also at a men’s rehab center known as casa C.A.F.E., which stands for “Casa de Amor, Fe, y Esperanza,” or “house of love, faith, and hope.” We visited C.A.F.E. to see about helping them design a bathroom addition. Brett had helped design and oversee part of the construction of a bedroom addition last year, when there were about 24 residents at the center. Now there are only 4 residents because of some issues with their facilities…they have to build more bathrooms in order to host more residents.
While in San Jose, we visited friends we had connected with the previous year, such as our host family and former tutor. We also caught up with a couple of the missions we were involved with in La Carpio and Casa Café.
La Carpio is a precario, or shanty town, which is known as one of the most dangerous squaters villages in San Jose. Brooke helped establish a kids ministry with fellow language school students back in the Fall of 2006. There are still groups from the language school that bring Christ’s love to these kids every Thursday. The missionaries that run a church/community center in the area of La Carpio known as La Cueva, or “the cave,” are Steve “Lalo” Edwards and Antonio Yervis with Community of Faith Mission based out of Houston, TX. Throughout the year they coach a championship soccer team for a little league of 12 year olds as well as a team for high school kids. They also host short term medical missions with their sponsoring churches from Texas.
We also caught up with Keith Britton, a missionary with Commission to Every Nation. Brett worked with him last year in another precario in San Jose known as Los Guido and also at a men’s rehab center known as casa C.A.F.E., which stands for “Casa de Amor, Fe, y Esperanza,” or “house of love, faith, and hope.” We visited C.A.F.E. to see about helping them design a bathroom addition. Brett had helped design and oversee part of the construction of a bedroom addition last year, when there were about 24 residents at the center. Now there are only 4 residents because of some issues with their facilities…they have to build more bathrooms in order to host more residents.
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