Our friend Amanda visited us...
The last week in August, our friend Amanda moved to Costa Rica to attend the Spanish Language Institute, where Steve Semler (one of our co-workers), and I learned Spanish. Amanda stayed with us the week before her classes started. Since she had been leading the youth at Rockville Presbyterian Church in South Carolina, she was very effective in assisting us with the youth we work with at Santa Rosa. She also gave us ideas for our English classes and encouragement for the work we are doing.
Papa Russell passed away...
Shortly after we dropped Amanda off in San Jose for, Mary’s father, Mark Russell, passed away. He had come to live with Mary and Marion over the past several years, and we were blessed to have the opportunity spend time with him over these past several months of working at the camp. He was a Methodist pastor, but he liked to tell people that his claim to fame was that he was in Ripley’s Believe it or Not. This was because wherever he was pastor, no member of his congregation ever died during his tenure. His other accomplishment of which he was quite proud was that he wrote the state song for Pennsylvania. He had a wonderful sense of humor, and was a man of great faith. Up until the week before he died, he was very clever in how he convinced people to stick around a little longer to visit with him. He’d say, “wait a minute, wait just a minute…are your parents still livin'?” or “wait a minute, wait just a minute…do you know who I am?” We will miss him greatly, and we are confident he is resting in Heaven.
Working in the Shop...
After spending several months cleaning up the shop, Brett was able to crank out some projects. He finished the first section of the cabinets for the kitchen in Jerry Russell’s house where we have been living. He built a door to replace a rotting one in Cabin 3. He also re-built the Methodist cross and flame on the chapel that had deteriorated due to years of exposure to the elements. He also started one of the cabinets for the kitchen in the guesthouse.
Architecture...
As part of our effort to assist the churches in the northern zone with the upgrades required to bring their buildings up to code, we measured the church at Guatuso and the multipurpose building in El Mirador, and drew them up in CAD. We also measured the church in El Molino, to help both with the code upgrade, but also to help them think of different ways to expand their worship space. El Molino is extremely hot, and the current building was not designed to alleviate the heat. Additionally the congregation has expanded to about 100 members, who now have to stand up in the back and outside to hear the sermon on Sundays. El Molino is a blip on the map, 20 minutes from Volcano Arenal, so it’s quite amazing that the church is one of the largest congregations in the northern zone. As part of new regulations in the building code, all the churches are required to present a drawing of their worship space to demonstrate an exit plan in cases of emergency. The deadline for bringing their buildings up to code, including having exit doors that swing outward, sound mitigation, and handicap accessible restrooms and walkways, is June of next year. If the churches are to avoid the risk of being closed they will need to demonstrate that they are making progress in making these changes. Please help us pray that these churches would find the financial means to meet the new code requirements.
Tutoring...
One of the students that we’d been tutoring, Adiel, unfortunately dropped out of colegio this month. This was his second year in the seventh grade, and despite our working with for several months, he just couldn’t seem to make it. Adiel had a government scholarship, where he received about $60 a semester for transportation, uniforms, and books. Through him, we learned that any child in Costa Rica could have access to this kind of scholarship, no matter what their grades are. It just required that parents be persistent in fighting for their child’s needs. In Adiel, we learned that parental support isn’t the only thing necessary for a child’s success in school, because he came from what appeared to be a very loving and supportive family. His older brother didn’t continue in school, and has a good job as a mechanic. His parents also didn’t complete high school. We imagine it must be difficult to be motivated to study when the people in your family are able to survive without a high school education.
One of our other students, Katheryn, unfortunately lost her scholarship due to a failing Math grade. After coming back to Costa Rica in November, we learned the scholarship program in Linda Vista is likely going to die out soon. Their only financial support is from the community itself, as one of the goals of the CRM is to allow communities and churches to be self sustaining. The issue is that the community is not motivated to do the work required to get the funding necessary. Perhaps it’s the same issue in getting their kids motivated to stay in school. I am continuing to work with Katheryn because she wants to succeed in school. She is facing some issues at home that contribute to her struggles in academics, but I believe she has the self-drive and faith in Christ to get her through it.
Some exciting news to report on the tutoring front, is that my friend, Eylin, whom I befriended on my first short term mission trip to Costa Rica, is going to go back to school by way of a homeschooling program. The Ministry of Education, in an effort to encourage adults who couldn’t continue in their education, has a program called “Maestro en Casa,” that allows students to study material at home, and take a series of tests in order to receive their High School Diploma. Eylin is now 15 years old, which is the minimum age necessary to matriculate in the program. After spending some time with her through the sewing course and the girls’ movie night, which I organized a few months back, she told me she was ready to go back to school. One of her cousins was participating in a study-at-home program, so she was interested in doing the same. I will be attempting to coach her through the program with tutoring.
Please pray for all our tutoring efforts, for all the kids we are working with now, and have worked with in the past, and for the Lord’s wisdom in how to present education to them in a way they understand. Mostly we pray that we would be able to communicate beyond cultural barriers, and to show Christ’s love to all He places in our lives.
Youth Group…
Friday evenings and Sunday mornings, we lead the youth at the church we attend in Santa Rosa de la Palmera. Friday evenings is usually a more active evening of games and fellowship with prayer and a short bible lesson. The kids are mostly middle school aged, and do not have parents that are members. We made pizza one week while studying the Parable of the Sower in Matthew 13. Another week we roasted marshmellows and sang songs around a camp fire, despite the warm Costa Rican climate. Another week we prayed for each of the youth and asked for the Lord to give a verse particular to every child.
On Sundays the age demographic is a little older, so we are able to have a more in-depth bible discussion. The month of September, they acted out the story of Ruth, while discussing the application of the story in their daily lives.
We are honestly frustrated in trying to get the youth to pay attention during our meetings, as they mostly want to flirt with the opposite sex or play games. We could use some prayer in how to reach out to the youth we’re working with.
Cross stitch…
I was training a small group of women in cross stitch, so as to allow them to teach others in a larger class. Hopefully a combination cross stitch/Bible study will start in November in Linda Vista, with the help of Peggy, another North American that works at the camp, and the women I trained. Please help us pray for a location to meet, and for active leadership from the women I trained, and that the women in the community would find a deeper relationship to Christ through our meetings.
English
At the Linda Vista School, I was blessed with some assistance in teaching English from some volunteers from Germany and Russia. They came just when I was about to have a nervous breakdown, from dealing with discipline issues in the classes. We each taught a separate class, and assisted the one in charge in each class. I taught 4th grade, Olga, from Russia, taught 5th grade, and Charlotte, from Germany, taught 6th grade. I am sad they will no longer be teaching when I return in November, but it was a blessing to have them while they were here.
I am still teaching a small group of women in Linda Vista on Tuesday evenings. These lessons have been more like meetings with friends, rather than classes. I have gotten to know these women quite well, so our classes are fun and filled with laugher, food, talking, and prayer. The women were so kind to throw me a surprise party for my 30th birthday.
Brett and I were team teaching some workers at the camp and some residents from El Mirador on Monday evenings. There are new people that come and go constantly, which makes it difficult ot flow from one class to the next, but they are always eager to learn. When we start again in November, we will meet on a different night of the week, and will hopefully have more workers from the camp participating.
While at home in the US, I ordered some more ESL books, to help us in teaching Bible-based English classes. If any of you could recommend more sources like this, please pass on the names to us. We always start or end in prayer, or we have our students translate a Bible verse, but it is difficult in knowing how to evangelize while teaching English. We believe forming relationships is the first step in teaching Christ, but we often struggle in knowing the right balance for evangelizing. Your advice and prayers for this English ministry are most appreciated as well.
