Home

I was once told, “Your home is here.” And, in a way, they were right. Yet, in a way, they were wrong. My home, as they thought it, was a place: a small town, pretty street-lamp decorations at Christmas time, small country stores, where everybody knows my name, Wal-Mart, Friday night lights, the smell of freshly mowed grass, peach cobbler, Waffle House, sweet tea, the sound of wooden bats, a Border burrito, red clay, dirt roads, honeysuckle, and red, orange, and yellow leaves. What I’ve come to learn, through following Christ to this place, is that “home” is not a place at all, a grouping of things, experiences, or even memories. Home is the place where we find love: love for ourselves, love for others, and love from others. Did I find those things in a small town in Georgia? Certainly! Yet, for now, God has blessed us with that love here, in San Francisco de Dos Rios, Costa Rica. We’ve come to realize in the last few days that God, seemingly behind the scenes, has been slowly building the four walls of home around us. He’s been steady at work growing those warm arms of love and acceptance from thin air to homely embrace. We find ourselves in this current state, oddly at home; in a culture not like our own, speaking a language not like our own, loving those not like our own, and being loved by those not our own. This strange land has magically become our home.

Allison and I have recently found “home” with a few unlikely people. We’ve slowly begun to use my influence with the football team to introduce the love of Christ to the young Costa Ricans. Recently, we were able to show “Facing the Giants” in Spanish to our players after a team meeting. There were 41 young men there that night and the reception was stunning. Even more stunning was the fact that one of the players’ mothers is my grammar teacher at the language school. Today, we had our mid-term evaluations and during my interview with her, she, with teary eyes, commenced to explain her son’s history and how thankful she was that God had called people like me to their corner of the world to share with them the Christ that so radically changed us. She could not stop thanking God for providing a mouth to speak to her son in ways that she never could. In an instant, in that small concrete classroom, I found home.

Allison had the opportunity to help with a ministry to a poor neighborhood called Los Guizaros. A local Costa Rican woman, in a call to meet a need in the neighborhood, opened “El Comedor” (The Dining Room), to help feed the dozens of hungry children in this small, dirty, barrio. The ministry has quickly grown from a feeding center to a daily vacation bible school (given to the kids as they eat) to a day care facility; all of which happen in a small hut built of bamboo measuring only 25 feet by 25 feet! Allison has been able to help with whatever needs they have. Saturday, Allison visited El Comedor to hang out with the kids and help with the Bible lesson and food. Unexpectedly, she found home as well. In a small, bamboo shed, Allison found home in the dozens of kids to love, in the smiles filled with food, and smiles missing teeth. Below are some photos of that time.

Cultural Day

We just celebrated Columbus Day here in Costa Rica. Because there are people from all over the world studying here at the Institute and people will be going to places throughout Central and South America to serve, we call it Cultural Day. The day itself celebrates when Christopher Columbus landed in Central America in 1492, thinking he had reached the coast of India. But, in reality, he had discovered a new continent. The Institute celebrated in grand fashion. Two teachers paired up to turn their classroom into a festival about a certain country in central or south america. There were people dressed in typical clothing from that country, they served typical food from that country and had lots of information concerning the country. It was fun and interesting to try food from the different places represented. A highlight of the day was a pinata for the kids. It was fun for the kids, but also highlighted the fact that there is no way this would happen back in the States. I am thoroughly surprised that a child didn't get wacked in the head with the bat. The pinata was pretty strong, so it took many hits to actually break. And, of course, mayhem ensued afterwards. An interesting twist of pinata games here in Costa Rica is that it's on a string and the person holding it is actually moving it up and down so that the child has to work harder to hit it. It was pretty amusing.

We also took advantage of the long weekend to spends some time with some other families at the beach. It was a very relaxing time and God used it to refesh us and give us a renewed energy for school and learning the language. We are glad to be back in San Jose now and back at school. We cannot believe that the semester is half over already and the Christmas break is quicky approaching. Please be in prayer that these last 8 weeks will be a great time of learning. We realize there will probably never be another time in our lives like this where our focus is on language learning only, so we pray for focus and discipline to finish strong. Thank you so much for your prayers! You are the support and prayer warrior for our family and we couldn't do this without you!