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.