9.24.2011

I feel as thought I've somewhat spun off a roller coaster and am sliding to a halt.  This past weekend was our office's annual Family Retreat which is the biggest event of the year that I am responsible for planning.  It was an amazing weekend of laughing, playing, learning from each other and spending time in God's Word together.  The theme for the weekend was "Thriving, Not Just Surviving" and God showed each one of us things about Himself and ourselves.  Many of the families in our office have made decisions to stay for longer terms here in Costa Rica, so it was a good point to discuss what it means to thrive on the mission field.  Although I was energized from being around people and the weekend was very fun, we are now two days out and I still feel as though I could sleep 3 more hours.  I know the Lord will regenerate me, but He has also taught me alot about resting in Him, and resting in general.  It feels good to be able to use what I feel are my gifts and things I love to do to serve the Lord through serving EMI.

In the dust of the rabbi...

¹³ Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him. ¹⁴ He appointed twelve that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach ¹⁵ and to have authority to drive out demons.

This past month, I’ve been attempting to lead our interns through a study called “The Dust of the Rabbi”.  In this study, Ray Vander Laan takes the listener (it’s a podcast) back in time to the days of Christ and explains, through the cultural lense of Judaism, exactly what Jesus meant when he called his disciples.  Standing in stark contrast to our typical ideals of discipleship: 30 minute devotionals in the mornings, Wednesday night Bible Study, sermons that barely reference the Word of God, and a cursory glance at prayer from time to time; Jesus’s understanding of discipleship was far more.  The very definition of the word “disciple” has been skewed over the years since Jesus’s teaching.  “Disciple” nowadays has come to be thought of as a mere student, someone who wants to know what the teacher knows.  However, “talmede” in a Jewish since (hence, a Jesus sense) meant someone who wants to be what the teacher is. 

In Mark, Chapter 3 (above), Jesus called his disciples, not to class or to a seminar or conference, but he called them “that they might be with him”.  Why is this?  Why couldn’t they just meet him in the synagogue for a few hours a week.....or better yet, a few hours a day?!  Very simply, in order to be like your rabbi, you must be with him every hour of the day; to see how he walks, to hear how he talks, how he reacts in every situation, to learn his routines, his quirks, what he values, what he despises, where he finds joy, peace, comfort, and most of all, who he worships.   To do this, you must be covered “in the dust of the Rabbi”; so close to him that you are covered in his dust. 

How can you and I rearrange our lives to give us more time to follow our Rabbi?  It’s not just a great suggestion...its a life commitment.  

Hogar de Vida

Along with working in the EMI office several days a week, I volunteer weekly at a children's home called Hogar de Vida, which means Home of Life.  When I started volunteering, I was helping out with physical therapy, doing early stimulation on the babies.  Last fall, I felt the Lord leading me to focus more on just being a helper in one of the three houses on campus....just be a "tia" which means aunt in Spanish, but is also what all the kids call the workers.  The model of care is set up as a home simulated environment.  Each home has a house mom that lives in the home along with 2-3 other ladies and up to 12 children in each home of varying ages and mixed genders.  So, I started working weekly in house 1.  Since starting there, 2 (soon to be 3) children have been adopted or returned back to their families, and I've seen children that were 1 when I met them turn 3 and grow right before my eyes.  The last two weeks have been such a blessing.  There are several of the younger children who I take care of on the mornings I am there that have just stolen my heart.  Today, as I walked into the house I heard them running from the back of the house with an exuberant "ALLI" and a big hug around my legs.  Then, as I was leaving today, my little sweetheart Brenda had my hands and asked if I was leaving.  I told her yes, and she said I couldn't go and held my arms around her in a hug.  It was so sweet and just melted my heart.  Sometimes I wonder if the Lord is going to use one of these children to show me it's time to adopt.  Josh and I have always talked about how it would be a possibility, but it would truly be a pleasure to bring one of these little precious ones into our family.  I feel sad when I see them growing up...years, going through the red-tape process of adoption in Costa Rica when they could be spending those years with a family who loves them.  It's just been such a blessing to spend time with those children, and the ladies that work in the home.  I consider them my friends and confidants.  I pray the Lord will continue to grow these relationships and work through them to show me more about Himself.

4.29.2011

This past week was a week of firsts for Josh and I.  It was our first Easter celebrated at a Spanish-speaking church as well as our first Costa Rican wedding, both of which happened to be the same day.  Easter here is definitely under-celebrated among the evangelical community.  Evangelical Christians tend to lean toward the opposite extreme as Catholics.  Catholicism is the most prevalent religion in Central America.  Because of the deeply entrenched rituals of Catholicism, Christians tend to oppose things that are very "Catholic".  For example, many Christians do not have Christmas trees or display nativity scenes.  Also, Easter Sunday is almost non-existent in the evangelical church.  Their reasoning is that we celebrate the resurrection of Christ every Sunday.  Needless to say, It was not emphasized last Sunday.  We did have a Easter breakfast with another EMI family, and it was great to be able to celebrate the resurrection of our Savior with pancakes and bacon:)  In all seriousness, it was neat to start the day focused on the Lord and what He did for us.  I did come to an interesting conclusion last week that the death of Christ is celebrated during Semana Santa than the resurrection of Christ.  People have most of the week off and everything is completely shut down on Good Friday, but Sunday is like any other Sunday in evangelical churches and all the grocery stores are open.  It was just very interesting.

That afternoon, the son of our pastor was married.  It was the first Costa Rican wedding we've attended, and it was such a great experience.  It was beautifully decorated, and one of the most formal weddings I've been to.  It was the first wedding I've attended where I had a table/seating assignment in the reception.  Of course, the 4 p.m. wedding started at more like 4:30 and guests were still walking in at 5:15.  One thing that was interesting was that they had an MC type person.  She give instructions before the ceremony about how to use the chocolate fountain, etc as well as announcing the wedding party as they walk down the aisle.  For example, "And now, we have the groom Javier Gonzalez...accompanied by his parents Javier Gonzalez and Cecilia Quesada."  Also, there were no real bridesmaids or groomsmen.  The parents of the bride and groom sat in special seats up front along with people that accompanied them.  The bride's parents had the mother's sister and her husband.  The groom's parents had the sister of the groom.  The night was culminated in a fire show.  You know, where a guy lights two things on first at the end of ropes and does cool twirls.  Yes, the fire show happenned INSIDE the church, but was a very cool experience.  Most of all, we have enjoyed getting to know the Pastor's extended family which made it alot of fun.  They remind me of my family, and it's so nice to feel as if we are being accepted into a community of believers here.

William Cornelius Vocational School, Guatemala

I was fortunate enough to run across the website for the project in Guatemala that I almost exclusively worked on while I interned with EMI back in 2004!  Check it out!  Brings back fond memories!!!

http://www.wcvtc.com/photos_beginning_to_end.html

More Pictures from Peru

I am finally getting around to posting some pictures from our trip to Peru.

Market day

Live guinea pig

 Everybody working hard     
 The train to Macchu Picchu

Josh and I at Macchu Picchu

March 29

The past week has been intense, but great.  I feel as though I hit the ground running after landing back in Costa Rica.  Josh and I spent the last two weeks of February in Peru working with a seminary there, and then the first two weeks of March in Georgia.  We attended the Global Missions Conference at our home church in Georgia, Johnson Ferry Baptist Church.  The conference was a great opportunity to meet other missionaries and the Lord really opened our eyes to further ways we can spread the Gospel here in Costa Rica.  We have had several visitors in the week since being back including the President of EMI as well as Kyle Collins and his wife Lolly, one of the missions pastors from JFBC.  The time with them was a great time of connecting, learning about how the Lord is working through them, and an awesome time of encouragement also.  They were definitely a blessing for the 2 days they were with us.  From our time with visitors, we jumped right into several meetings and things planned over the weekend with EMI and our church.  Sunday was El Dia para Conocernos Mejor which means "The Day to Get to Know Ourselves Better".  It's a sort of dinner on the grounds/carnival.  It was amazing to see how our relationship with our church has changed in the past year.  I remember this same day last year was one of stress and worry.  Feeling less than confident about my Spanish, trying to get to know people by sitting down at a table and starting a conversation was something that felt awkward and brought some level of fear.  This year, however, was a different experience.  It was great to feel like you're there with family.  I blogged last year about having a granizado at this event, and this year Josh and I actually MADE the granizados.  Josh was the ice crusher and I was the assembler along with a man from our church named Macho.  There were lots of games to play.  Josh and I helped with a fooseball tournament as well as participated.  Needless to say, Josh didn't have the best partner, and we were out the first round.  It was a great, but exhausting day.  It's been so good to get back to "normal" life.  The time away was so wonderful and the time with our family was so great, but I have felt a renewed sense of thanksgiving for the relationships and ministry that we have here in Costa Rica.  On a side now, after 3 days of intense heat, it started raining and has rained every afternoon for the last 3 days.  I guess rainy season is starting up, and I couldn't be more ready!

Picture from Peru

Urubamba is in the Andes mountains.  Even though it's the rainy season and much of the days have been cloudy and rainy, it really is a spectacular view.  The Lord's creation is so great!

We are staying at the present seminary campus for which we are designing a new, expanded campus.  There are several pastoral students and families that live on campus.  These little girls live on campus.  

This is the outside pila where most of the dishes are washed.  The two cooks have had to be told several times about our "weak" American stomachs.....that they can't just rinse stuff off and reuse them because we'll get the parasites in the water.  

This is the Catholic church on the little park in the center of town.  It's currently under renovation and is not having mass services.

Yesterday was the birthday of one of the team members.  In Peru (and in Costa Rica), they have a tradition of the birthday boy taking the first bite out of the cake with your mouth.  Normally, they push your head down into the cake at this point, but they refrained.

Please continue to pray for our work here in Peru.  The final presentation of the design is Friday evening.  Also, please be praying because there have been alot of rain here, and landslides are becoming a problem.  People have lost some of their corn crop already, which is their livelihood.  

First Impressions

      First Impressions can sometimes have a great impact, and it has been no different here.  There have been so many new sights and sounds since landing here in Peru.  This is my attempt to share some of those.  Just as they are somewhat unprocessed in my mind right now, this is how I will share it...a string of thoughts and observations so that you can get an idea of what we are encountering. 

       I find that I try to categorize new things that I’ve experienced into something I’ve seen or experience before.  This place has been an exception.  It’s truly like nothing I’ve seen before both culturally and topographically.  Urubamba is set in the middle of this valley which large green mountains springing up on all sides.  Today the sun is shining a little bit and to see the light shining on the mountains is brilliant and beautiful.  Praise the Lord for his amazing creation!

      The people here are very indigenous-looking.  This means their skin, hair and eyes are dark.  They tend to be shorter, and you can tell that they’ve lived a life of labor and physical work.  I’ve seen pictures of indigenous women from Peru, but it’s so amazing to see it with my own eyes.  Our camera went dead at Christmas so we are relying on other people to take pictures, so I will post some as soon as I receive them.  But, walking around town this morning, so many women had top hats or cowboy-looking hats, all ragged and worn.  We’ve been told they usually tell either what their position in society is or what they are selling.  They wear thick sweaters with knee-length non-matching skirts with little fringe underneath.  They seem very no-nonsense so I’m not sure where the detailing on the petticoat comes in, but it does bring femininity and beauty.  They wear sweater leg warmers with stirrups on them, socks that again don’t match with thick brown or black shoes.   They are normally carrying large loads on their backs with colorful hand-made cloth.   Sometimes it is their goods to sell, sometimes it’s their children.  So, you see them walking around town hunched over, carrying their heavy loads on their way to wherever their daily life happens. 

     The majority of the construction is adobe.  I’ve never seen adobe up close.  It is literally whole buildings made of bricks that are made out of dirt.  It’s amazing that it actually stands, but it does.  The room in which Josh and I are sleeping is actually even on the second floor of an adobe building.  They put stucco on the outside so it doesn’t look like dirt but almost every wall is 1.5 feet wide and you know it is adobe construction.  It seems like a hodgepodge of  paint color, colored tin roofs, hundred-year old doors of buildings that are all different colors, worn and used. 

     Peru is known for it’s hand-made alpaca wool items.  Each night we are sleeping in 40-degree weather without heat, and the 2 alpaca blankets on our bed keep us incredibly toasty.  It’s amazing how soft and warm it is.  Alpaca is a South American animal that looks kinda like a llama.  I am excited to see the market where they are selling these hand-made goods. 

     Yesterday, we attended the church for which the group will be designing a new building.  There is both a Quechua service and a Spanish service.  Almost 100 people squeeze into a little building where there is only one hymnal for each pew to share.  You’re so much closer to your neighbor that you fully know whether he has taken a shower that day or not.  To hear all the Lord is doing in that church was so exciting and I bring glory to Him for his work there.  The young man leading the music just two years ago was a drunk and came to know the Lord through the ministry of this church.  The people seemed to be pursuing the Lord and, in all of Peru, the national church seems to be taking the reigns of evangelism and spreading the Gospel.  This means that Peruvians are spreading the Gospel in place of outside missionaries coming in and the ministry being dependent on them.  

Travel

To start, we left Costa Rica on Friday afternoon for Lima.  Josh, myself, Micah (another EMI staff member), his wife Beth and two interns, Jeff and Tripp landed in Lima without problem around 8:30 Friday evening.  Our plan was to stay at the airport until the last plane landed at 11:55 and head to a hotel for the night.  Well, just as things don’t turn out the way you planned, the last 3 flights of volunteers were delayed.  The last volunteer was rescheduled to arrive at 3 AM.  Yes, 3 AM.  I was surprised to see that at midnight, the airport was still busy and going strong.  Every airport I’ve ever been in is a ghost town by midnight.  So, to see every restaurant open and hoards of families waiting for their loved ones to arrive at 2 AM and later was interesting.  So, Josh, our fearless leader, took the team of 16 people to the hotel by 2 AM, laid down for 20 minutes and then headed back to the airport for the 3AM flight.  His head finally hit the pillow at 4:30. 6:30 AM came really early that morning, especially for Josh.  We took the hour-long flight from Lima to Cuzco, Peru that morning, then drove 1.5 hours to Urubamba, Peru.  Needless to say, our entire group was pretty tired.  Most of the group used the rest of the day to recover and to adjust to the altitude difference.  Cuzco is about 11,000 feet above sea level and Urubamba is just over 9,000 feet so altitude sickness can definitely be a problem.  Josh, Micah and the architects spent the rest of the day riding around Cuzco looking at current construction and landscaping practices.  So, by the time Josh got to bed that night, he had slept about 2 hours in 48 hours and was exhausted.  I think by this morning, Monday, he finally feels fully recovered.  It was encouraging to hear from the ministry that we are working with, SEBIC seminary and Nueva Vida Iglesia Bautista.  They are so excited that we are here and are excited about what the Lord is going to do through the new seminary campus and church the group is designing.  Their words were inspiring and a good start to the week of hard and long hours of work.

February 2011

The past two weeks have just been a whirlwind of activity.  So much has been accomplished, and it has been really cool to see the Lord work.  The first week of February was our office's Staff Week where we spent time analyzing and discussing almost every aspect of our office, talking about things the Lord has done and ways we can change our policies and activities to better serve our partner ministries.  Then last week was Member Care week.  Our office has brought on board a Christians counselor/psychologist from Florida to assist us in member care which has many different facets.  She is coming alongside us and doing things to help the team members in our office stay healthy emotionally, mentally and physically.  It was a really great week where the Lord really moved.  I know personally He revealed some things to me about how I view myself and operate that need to be changed if I am going to be healthy in the long-term on the field...or even in life in general, not just on the field.  I will say it was probably one of the most fatiguing two weeks I've had in a while, but I praise the Lord and give him the glory for all that has been accomplished both office-wide and in the heart of each individual on our team.  Doors have been opened for a deeper sense of community amongst our team which I do feel like is a crucial part of life here as well.

After the past two weeks, we finally have a chance to focus on preparation for the trip to Peru.  Josh has been working for months on recruiting and planning for this project.  I am so excited to what the Lord is going to do, and I am praying fervently for the hearts of the people that will come to know the Lord through the work of the ministry.  The team will be designing and master planning a seminary campus and Peruvian church.  The seminary will teach Quechua pastors to preach the gospel to the Quechua people.  Please keep us in your prayers over the next few weeks as we travel to Peru. We leave this Friday, February 18 and return on Sunday, February 27.  Things you can be praying for specifically are:

-the hearts of the volunteers, that they will be open to whatever the Lord wants to teach and show them

-health and energy as the days of work and design are usually very long ones

-wisdom for one of the other EMI staff member's wife and little baby who have been planning to go.  The baby has had very mild congestion and they are deciding if it would be best to bring him to the cold weather we will be experiencing.  The doctor has said he thought it would be okay, but they are looking to the Lord for wisdom in what to do

-the harvest of souls that will come to know the Lord through the work of this ministry

Thank you so much for supporting us in prayer. I look forward to sharing what God does on the trip with you in the future.  When we return to Costa Rica from Peru, we will have one day to wash our clothes and pack for a trip to Georgia.  Our home church in Georgia, Johnson Ferry in Atlanta, is having a Global Missions Conference and are funding our return for us to be a part of.  We are so excited to share all that the Lord is doing through EMI.  There will be several open activities at the church, and we would love to talk with anyone who is interested in connecting with us during our time back.  Those dates are March 2-6. We look forward to seeing you while we are back!

Academia Estruria

So, Josh surprised me by taking me to a night at an Italian cooking school for Valentine's day.  I wish we had gotten a picture of us, because we were a pair!  He was told we needed to have aprons, hair covers and closed-toed shoes.  So, the only things we could find were short little aprons worn by cleaning people here where it covers the front and the back down to your waist and has little ties on the sides.  And I was definitely sporting a hair net.  We walk in and the other two people in the class look like professional chefs with nice cooking aprons and chef's hats.  Besides feeling a bit out of place in the way we looked, it was an absolutely amazing night.  The instructor was an Italian man from Florence who looked exactly like the old chef on the movie Ratatouille.  He also had this sidekick who just fluttered around the room teaching us all kinds of cool things about Italian cooking and throwing out Italian words as if he was straight off the boat from Italy.  Come to find out, he is actually Costa Rican.  The whole class together made 3 different things, and I can't remember a single name because they were in Italian.  The first was a meat dish which in Spanish was called Roll of Meat.  It was layered pork, then ham, then beef then bacon with a mushroom tomato sauce thrown in the middle somewhere, rolled and baked.  The second was a delicious vegetarian tomato sauce with pasta.  It was the first fresh sauce I have ever made which was exciting.  The third was fried cheese balls which were AMAZING!!!  The best part was at the end of the night, everybody sat down to eat the food we'd prepared together.  We got to try proscuitto made right in his kitchen and everything.   It was really such a great experience, and Josh and I had so much fun together!  It was a great way to spend Valentine's Day.  And the best part was, he let us join his class for the night without charge!

Battle for Haiti

I was forwarded this link video from a friend:

Here we are

Okay, can I please just say I struggle with the title situation.  It seems very hard just to tell what's been going on in life and have to give a TITLE to it.  Just a sidebar:)  So, we have for a while now been back into full swing at the office and in life here in Atenas after our short time in Georgia at Christmas.  It's definitely dry season which means a couple of things.  It means the clothes on the line dry in less than 2 hours which has made laundry oh so much more manageable.  It means that you can actually PLAN to do things in the afternoon.  It means the children at the orphanage can play outside in the afternoon instead of being cooped up in the house because of the rain.  It means that I actually have to WATER my growing little hibiscus plants which I haven't seemed to kill yet.  It means the air is dryer, the wind is much stronger and dust abounds...i.e. having to sweep my house every single day is a very real possibility.  Josh has been working for over 4 months recruiting and planning for his upcoming project trip to Urubamba, Peru.  I am so very excited that I have the opportunity to go with him on this trip.  It is a blessing to work for an organization who sees the importance in the non-engineer spouse feeling a part of EMI, our mission and work.  The group will be designing a seminary campus and a local church who have the purpose of training quechua pastors to spread the gospel among the quechua people.  Quechua is the name of a people group living in the central Andes mountains in South America as well as the name of the languages they speak.  Please be praying for our hearts as Josh prepares to help lead this group of architects and engineers, for God to do a mighty work in the volunteers that are going and for the fruit and harvest that will come through the gospel and truth spread by this ministry.

We continue to adapt and integrate into the culture and community.  Admittedly, it has been and will continue to be a much longer process than I thought.  I thought we'd come to Costa Rica and immediately fit right in and have ticos as best friends.  The Lord had other plans.  It's a day-by-day process..."poco a poco" is a phrase I have come to know well.  It has been incredible to see, however, tremendous growth in this area over the past 5 months.  We have been accepted as family by a church here.  Our pastor's wife even shared with the entire church what I had shared with her about the people in that church being our "family" here in Costa Rica.  She encouraged the people of the church to get to know us, invite us over to their house, etc.  We have found a place that we feel at home with and where we can grow spiritually with strong biblical teaching.  When we left Costa Rica, I had in my mind that we had one "home church", and that would be our main church support.  What I have found here is that, although it doesn't in any way take the place of our "home church" in the States who we believe is so important and incredibly supportive of our ministry, Iglesia Valle de Beraca here in Costa Rica has become a body of believers that wants to come alongside us in prayer and is truly interested in our life and ministry.  A big step for me was going to my pastor's house and having "cafesito" with his wife and children.  Number one, I don't drink coffee so my "cafesito" (which is a coffee break that is taken pretty much every afternoon around 3 by Ticos) was really warm milk with a little coffee and lots of sugar.  Number two, and more importantly, it felt normal.  It felt like friends just getting together to chat.  She and her son took me to see some land their family purchased where there are lots for the parents and both children to build a house.  It was an incredibly rich time of building relationships of which I look forward to doing much more.

"Next"

"Next."  This word is such a prominent part of our vocabulary as North Americans.  "Who's next?"  "What's next?"  "Where do we go next?"  


"Next" carries with it a very linear thought process.  After this, then this is "next".  Here in Latin America, exactly zero consideration is given to this concept of "next".  There is no "next" here; only an infinite abyss of possibility.  There are no schedules, no plans, no forethought...only the here and now.  What happened a year ago, or a minute ago, was incredibly memorable.  What is happening right now is monumental, the notion of thinking about tomorrow is completely off the radar screen.  


This morning, before office prayer time, this slight frustration with the local culture instantly and beautifully morphed into a Biblical truth.  


"Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” At once they left their nets and followed him.Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him."

For their entire lives, Peter, James, John and Andrew had been constantly living and working with one thing in mind...."next".  Mending their nets for the next day.  Fishing for the next meal.  Rowing over to the next hot fishing spot.  How many fish would be in the next haul?  Would there be enough to eat the next day?  


Suddenly, along comes a man named Jesus....and the journey and struggle to rid these men's minds of the very concept of "next" and replace it with the concept of "follow" or "obey" begins.  For the next 3 years, Jesus works diligently to renew their minds and implant in them a desire to follow and obey, and to extract the selfish and prideful notion that we must always know what's "next".  The very concept of obedience does not allow us the convenience of knowing or caring what comes "next".  


“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

   “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

In many ways, despite the frustration, I have much to learn from my latino neighbors, from Peter, from James, from John, from Andrew, and even from Zebedee.  

It's Beginning to Look Alot Like Christmas

When thinking about how we wanted to celebrate Christmas, Josh and I purposefully decided to try to spend more of the Christmas season here in Costa Rica this year.  Christmas is actually a pretty big deal here.   Because Thanksgiving is an American holiday, the Christmas season is into full swing by early November.  People put up lights on their houses and have christmas trees.  I was so excited about being a part of the Christmas celebrations here in Atenas before we head back to the States to celebrate Christmas with our families for a week and a half.  Now, you have to understand that our family  has so many Christmas traditions and we all make an effort to be purposeful about  making memories together which is something I have come to love.  So, although I didn't realize it, I had a lot of expectations about how Christmas would be "done" here.  And let me just tell you, it's been a journey of the Lord showing me things about myself and also of discovering the joy of birth of our Savior.  I was so looking forward to having a Christmas tree.  Although they only have cypress trees, I've learned that cypress have an incredible and strong christmas tree smell that just fills a room.  Well,  I went to the fresh market on Friday morning to buy one and they said "it'll be next week."  So, I went back the next week and they said "well, our dad was sick so we won't have them til next week" and by then it didn't make sense to buy one for just two weeks.  So, my dreams of having our first costa rican Christmas tree didn't come to fruition, and since we didn't really have very many other decorations, I felt a little sad.  One of my closest friends here, however, invited us to decorate their families' Christmas tree.  So, Josh and I took our ornamens over to their house and helped to decorate their Christmas tree, complete with hot chocolate and christmas music playing in the background.  It was a very special memory! And we ended up hanging our stockings and getting a cypress wreath, so we still have a little bit of the smell of Christmas at the house.  A week ago, I helped to decorate our church which was so much fun.  Our pastor's wife, Cecilia, was the "jefe" (which means boss).  She had the vision and we all worked together to get it done.  It was so fun to listen to spanish Christmas carols and laugh together as we decorated.  And it turned out just beautifully!  I also had a realization about some christmas carols, both in Spanish and English.  Some of them have nothing to do with Christmas.  There's a Spanish one that is called "Pez en el Rio" which means fish in the river, and the song talks about fish drinking on their way to see the birth of Jesus.  It's pretty funny.  I guess I have never though so much about christmas sons and what they're actually saying.  Tomorrow is the big day of Christmas celebrations at the church.  In the morning is a Christmas party for the kids, and tomorrow evening is a Christmas concert.  Can I please just tell you how fun it would be to be a kid at this church.  Each child gets a gift, a legit gift! and they're going to have games and food.  It's going to be like a carnival, but it's a Christmas party.  I'm really excited about helping out!  So, all this to say, at first I felt disappointed about how I was able to celebrate the birth of our Savior here, but he taught me that deepening relationships and learning new ways to worship Him brings glory to Him and to the birth of His son as much as the other family traditions and celebrations we have.

"I had no idea..."

"I had no idea."  For many of us, this phrase marks with distinction many of our most shocking, devastating, life-altering, and meaningful moments in our lives.  When suddenly faced with a harsh reality or minute details of a previously unconsidered or unstudied thing, the scales fall from our eyes and we see for the first time in stunning, beautiful and sometimes painful clarity.  For some of us, these are personal revelations about ourselves and our own depravity or ignorance.  For others, we're shocked to learn that conditions previously considered unthinkable or impossible are precisely possible, even likely.  This phenomenon for some marks the beginning of a deeper walk with Christ and higher calling on their lives.  "I had no idea" can mark a painful moment of revelation that the life we'd been living was but a shadow of the "abundance" Christ wants for us.  "I had no idea" can also demarcate the line between ignorance, apathy, ambivalence, empathy, or action.  The natural question that arises then is this:  Is ignorance truly bliss?  Or is ignorance unacceptable when viewed in the light of what Christ has called us to be?


For Alli and I, 2010 has been a year of 'I had no idea.'  Coming into our first year of work on the mission field, we had a certain idea of the "immense" need in the world and what our part in it would be.  However, after dirtying our hands a bit, we soon realized, as Washington did in 1774 and American soldiers encountering Nazi camps in the 1940s, that the conditions, extent of the need and the frequency with which tragedy strikes this world was so far beyond our wildest imaginations.  Committing to disaster response with EMI has served to open Pandora's box for our understanding of disasters in the world, the frequency with which they happen and the conditions they impose on the affected populations.  In a prior world, unless CNN or Channel 2 reported on it and we happened to be watching that particular news broadcast, we wouldn't have had a clue that tragedies were striking people around the world almost constantly. 


I chuckle when I think about the Costa Ricans that I coach in american football and their reactions to the violence of the game when they're rudely introduced to it for the first time.  The new guys seem so excited to strap on shoulder pads and a helmet and finally do what they've seen their idols do for years on the NFL Network.  But, that dream world is abruptly shattered by the shock of snot on their facemask.  2010 has served as a bit of shock for us in our work in disaster response.

According to the Annual Disaster Statistical Review 2009, published by the International Disaster Database (EM-DAT), between 2000 and 2008 there have been 392 natural disasters around the world each year, on average. Every year, natural disasters’ victims amount to 230.8 million people.  Worse yet, the conditions that affect these populations are beyond anything one can imagine.  And yet this is exactly why we feel so called, so compelled, to do what we do.

Rather than discouragement, this cruel education has served to only strengthen our resolve to follow Christ in his calls to love others, to serve the poor, the widow, and the orphan.  For to love and serve the least of those affected populations is to love and serve Christ.  Often, we are asked what motivates us as missionaries to continue on in the face of adversity.  I believe that the Lord has a way of using these shocking experiences to take us by the shoulders and shake us out of our slumber of comfort and ignorance.  Perhaps this is why most Christians find it so difficult to find a motivating passion.  Perhaps it is because we have not experienced the true depravity of this world and the misery it causes.  Perhaps we have not seen it because we are focused on our own corner of the room.  Perhaps we are unwilling or lack the courage to turn around and see the rest of the room in all its gruesome need.

I would say that those in the world who have caught that passion for the lost have either made the choice to turn and see, or they've been ripped from their existence by the very hands of God and forced to see the depravity.  For us, it seems the Lord has done the latter.  And, we are forever changed because of it; gloriously changed; forever changed.  In the face of this depravity, God not only shows you, but gives you the courage and the faith to carry on within it, to fight back the darkness, and to win but a few in His name.  


I had no idea.  We pray this phrase, surprisingly, for all of us.  

A day at the cabin

Last Tuesday, our pastor and his wife invited us to their cabin for the day.  They visit there every Tuesday as a way of relaxing and getting away.  The moment it was brought up, I already started getting nervous.  Josh was of course his cool, collected self, but I on the other hand was just plain nervous.  Okay, i can carry on a conversation fairly well, but imagine an entire day of trying to put thoughts from an English brain into Spanish.  My brain gets tired.  Plus, it was our PASTOR.  We have loved getting to know the people in our church and are feeling more and more like we have a church home here also, not just back in the States.  So, needless to say, I wanted it to go well.  My prayer was for the Lord's peace and that He would give me words to say even when my brain was tired.  The day ended up being just wonderful.  We drove up there on a very precarious road which kinda reminded me of the roads in Haiti.  We drove up on this rustic, little cabin that they built themselves surrounded by dozens of fruit trees...lemon trees, mandarin orange trees, cas trees.  It was a very neat atmosphere.  We ended up just sitting most of the day and talking about everything we could think of.  We talked about the church in Costa Rica, about our desire to really take root in the church, about parenting and about life in general.  It was such a neat thing.  Pastor Javier is not only a pastor but also a psychologist (he volunteers at the orphanage where I also help out), so it was interesting to hear his perspective on things.  By the end of the day, somehow Josh was asked to consider being a part of the leadership of our church and to to give a presentation/devotional at the next meeting.  This is both exciting, and I'm sure a little scary for him.  So, you can be praying for him in the coming weeks.

There has also been a ton going on in our ministry.  Josh is currently at the Association of Christian Design Professionals volunteer conference.  He is teaching 4 courses on disaster response.  He spent alot of time in preparation for this conference, and I am praying that the Lord will bless his work.  I am also excited because some of our family and friends gets to meet some of our "family" from here in Costa Rica at the end of the conference.  Josh and the 3 guys from here in Costa Rica are meeting up with some of our family and friends for dinner before they fly out.  I'm so excited for the two worlds to intermingle.  Josh will be home for 4 days, and then leaves on a project trip here in Costa Rica.  They will be designing cabins and doing some master planning for a seminary/pastoral retreat center that prepares and equips pastors that will be working in Latin America.  Please keep him in your prayers.

On a side note, please pray for me as I have been sick for the last few days.  On Monday, I spent the day at the orphanage loving on the kids.  It's an absolute joy for me, but the con side is that I pick up whatever they have.  This time, I guess it's a stomach virus.  I think I'm on the mend, but your prayers would be appreciated.

Celebrating the Steps

Allison spends time volunteering each week at an orphanage in town.  We have both gotten to know several of the families that work and live at the orphanage, and it has been an amazing blessing.  One of the families attends our church, and is the tica family we are probably closest to here.  The daughter of this family is named Wendy.  She is 17, and she wants to be an architect.  She has been spending time in the EMI office, learning from the architects there.  In order to get into the university here, a person has to pass up to 3 exams.  She has taken two of them, with the last one coming up the end of this month.  In honor of finishing two of the exams, we had a girls get-together at our house.  It was so fun.  We sat around talking....in Spanish of course, enjoying brownies and making tostadas.  I think sometimes I get carried away with pressing on towards the next accomplishment and finish line, but this past weekend was a great reminder to celebrate the steps, the process.  It was great to laugh alot and share Christian fellowship.  Please continue to pray for us as we deepen relationships with the tico community here in Atenas.

day one & day two

day one:

Boarding the plane in San Jose, Costa Rica for what would only be the second time I’ve flown out of Costa Rica destined for somewhere other the US, I was caught off-guard by an altogether unexpected sensation:  anxiety.  Of all the feelings, emotions or thoughts that I’d expected to encounter, anxiety was one I’d written off.  After all, I’ve been to Guatemala, lived there, and it had once felt like home.  I suddenly realized, about 30,000 feet above the ground, that the anxiety wasn’t about Guatemala at all.  It was something else, something human.  I realized that the fear of the unexpected had crept upon me.  I feared that the team members, who were descending upon Guatemala City in their own respective airplanes like vultures on a hot desert highway, would be difficult to deal with, coming from another world; perhaps the Northwest, or the Northeast.  I was afraid that somehow, this unknown group of people would somehow tint or change altogether the lens through which I’d always viewed my precious Guatemala.  And, honestly, deep down I feared that somehow Guatemala had changed herself. 

But, the Lord is good. He is faithful.  He has certainly pulled together a team of brilliant engineering and architecture minds from various parts of the US: Nashville, Oregon, Minnesota, Atlanta, and Washington State.  Through this team, I can already sense that the Lord has great plans for this hospital here in Chichicastenango. 

We spent the night at a hotel in Guatemala City.  We all had dinner together and we were able to share in one of the team member’s burden for his family.  God certainly ordained that dinner and the subsequent conversations to begin welding together our separate paths and bring our hearts closer together.  I wouldn’t have said it a year ago, but the arts of engineering and architecture take on a distinctively different light when viewed as an act of love and service.  There is fellowship and brotherhood in sharing the gifts the Lord has blessed us with, though they be technical. 

I went to bed that night giddy, noticing that my anxiety had melted away into the cool, reassuring breeze of promise, hope, and expectation.

day two: 

I awoke this morning well rested and went down to breakfast.  There was certainly a more expectant attitude among the team this morning as the exhaustion of travel had been slept away and the new morning was established with Guatemala City as the backdrop.  Waking up in the destination country has a way of resetting the baseline, of washing away the grit and grime of travel and setting the purpose for your arrival on level ground.  We talked at breakfast about plans and schedules and the exciting reason we’d all arrived:  to serve with our gifts.  Who knew that specifics could be so refreshing.  After months of planning and preparation, we’d finally reached the tipping point, the point where the rubber met the road. 

We all piled into the van and made out for Chichicastenango.  Expecting a 3 to 4 hour ride, we settled in for a journey into the “wilderness” of Guatemalan hillside.  We made a few stops along the way to tour an existing hospital, drop off some materials to a missionary we’d served on a previous trip, expose the volunteers to a real Guatemalan construction project, and to use the restroom.  We encountered “derrumbes” or landslides along the way; some of them containing pine trees as thick as 55-gallon barrels.  In some places, the hillside roads had been washed away from underneath.  We made it safely to Chichi in the late afternoon. 

After getting settled in, we had a quick tour of the hospital we’d come to serve and were whisked away to church.  Church was like a twisted match of dueling banjos with Spanish and Quiche (a local dialect of the old Mayan language) pitted against each other. 

We retired to our rooms after dinner and the feeling was somewhat like the hush that comes over the crowd at the first home game of the regular season after the first play for a gain of 2 yards is over.  After the hysteria and excitement of a new season is gone, there is a comfort that comes flooding in; a comfort that the first play of the game wasn’t a fumble return for a touchdown.   There was an overwhelming peace that we could take a deep breath and get settled in for the full 60 minutes; we could settle in and begin chipping away at the design one day at a time for the next 8 days.