Two weeks ago, we were blessed to see some friends and supporters from the States who came down on a vacation. On the last day of their trip, Sean and Jenny Evans (and their two girls) hung out with us for a day. In the morning, we went up to a slum on the North side of San Jose, named La Carpio, and took a tour of several of Christ For the City International's outreaches there (including a health clinic, school and home for abused girls). Andrea and I had visited these sites about a year ago on a vision trip to Costa Rica. It was exciting to see how much progress had been made in such a short time! They have a new computer lab set up with a ton of donated computers from the States, to teach kids and adults how to use computers and equip them with this skill that is more and more necessary to secure work.
In the basement of the school for boys, there's a shop with donated power tools (table saws, routers, belt sanders, etc). Delhy, the gentleman giving us the tour, explained that they had a man who was going to teach the boys job skills, but he left after all the equipment was donated without getting the program started. He explained that they've been praying for God to send a man who wants to be more than a teacher, but a mentor and a discipler. At this point, I had to interrupt Delhy and tell him that I'm the guy! We had a good laugh about this and as we were leaving, he told me that they'd be waiting for me to come back soon and clean and oil the tools. It was exciting to meet Delhy and several of the young men whose lives have been changed by CFCI's outreach in this impoverished area (click on the photos link above to see photos of the shop and some young men building a kitchen off of the main office at the school).
I feel an added impetus to finish language training soon and get to work, but I also want to be well-equipped to share my life and faith with young men and to do it fluently. Please pray for my progress this trimester in language school!
Later, Sean and I took the kids to a park near our home while Andrea and Jenny went with another CFCI missionary up into the mountains to a place called Renacer (meaning "rebirth" in English). This facility is a CFCI outreach to girls who've been involved in drugs and prostitution, living on the streets. The first thing they heard when the pulled up was the girls singing worship songs to the Lord; they had arrived right at chapel time for one of the four cohort groups! They were getting ready for a graduation ceremony the next day, in which 6 of the girls would graduate from the program. One of the girls who was about to graduate (also named Andrea) gave the women a tour and explained how things operate. There was a real tug on Andrea's and Jenny's hearts after hearing how this young girl's life had been rescued and changed! She'd clearly received good counsel, come to faith in Jesus, and had good boundaries with her family and a strategy for going forward in life. What else can one need when those basics are in place?
Another ministry opportunity that has been plopped in my lap has been in time spent with our neighbor Juan. He's a retired electrician and now works part-time as a handyman for neighbors on our block. This past Friday, he and I pulled the alternator from our car and had it rebuilt with new diodes and ball-bearings. Yesterday, he put it back in for us while we were on a trip to a park with other students and their kids. Through time working on the car together and through interviewing him for homework for class, I've gotten to know him quite well. He doesn't believe in a personal God and doesn't pray. However, I can see that he's eager to "do good" and serve people, as if there's a celestial supervisor reviewing his behavior. He's really been turned off by the hypocritical behavior of family members who claim to be Christians (in fact, one is a pastor).
Please pray with us that our friendship with Juan will continue to develop and the Lord would give me the right words at the right time to help move him a step or two closer to faith!
Thank you for all of your prayers, support and encouragement!
Seth
OK, the title of this post refers to the fact that this morning I woke up to a centipede (3-4 inches long) crawling on my face! We have purchased mosquito nets to protect us from bug bites at night, but unfortunately ours fell on us in the night and we were too lazy to get up and replace it. I won't make the same mistake again!
What a week we've had! Here are some highlights:
- We bought a car: a white 1999 Isuzu Rodeo. It seems to be in good condition and should serve us well. The rules of the road in Costa Rica are: whoever has the biggest vehicle has the right of way, and you don't hesitate, just GO and expect people to get our of your way! We won't use the car often, but it will help us get across town to friends' houses or on trips outside of San Jose for now, and later to get to work. The car buying process was quite an ordeal (added bureaucracy), and we're very thankful that we had Edwin (a Tico friend) to help us through it!
- We ALL started school! We learned after our arrival that the kids and I didn't HAVE to wait for August to start as we had previously thought, so we turned on a dime and enrolled me in the language school and the kids in Sojourn Academy on the first day of orientation. It's been a shift in expectations, but a very good one. It will shorten our time at the school, Seth and I were placed in the same class so we can learn together (we really enjoy competing with each other), and gives the kids something to plug into right away to find new friends and have something to do besides bounce off the walls in our cozy house!
- Our spanish classes started on Wednesday, and we can already tell we'll be learning SO MUCH. Please pray that we'll be able to learn quickly, eliminate our bad habits (and Mexican words that we picked up in KC that aren't the same in Costa Rica), and that the kids will adjust to going to school every day instead of one day a week. We're trying to get used to homework, schoolteacher expectations, etc. and it's quite a hustle to get the whole family up, dressed, through the one bathroom that we share, eat breakfast, pack lunches and walk to school by 7:30 am!
- Seth and I are experiencing our first bout of "mal estomago" (intestinal unhappiness). Please pray that it will pass quickly (figuratively speaking, of course).
- Sean and Jenny Evans arrived in Costa Rica yesterday, bringing four boxes of stuff that I left with them before we came. What a help they are to us in getting settled and having what we need from home to make a life here! They will spend some vacation time near Arenal (an awesome continuously erupting volcano to the north) and then we'll get to spend some time with them next Thursday before they go back to KC. We're excited to see people from home already!
"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has give us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ through the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade -- kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time." 1 Peter 1:3-5
Blessings,
Andrea
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