Linda Vista Ministry

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