Colegio Fun Day

Last Saturday, the Colegio Metodista hosted its annual Fun Day in order to celebrate one of the last weekends of summer. Here in Costa Rica the dry season is “summer” and the rainy season is “winter.” During the winter, it rains every day. Without fail. Therefore, to celebrate one of the last clear sky days of the year, the Methodist School threw their version of a carnival.

There was karaoke, worship music, a high-school band, blow up bouncy thingymabobbers, tons of food, mechanical surfing, a dunk-tank, puppet shows, caricatures, and even mechanical bull-riding. It was quite the action-packed afternoon.

I was blessed with the opportunity to talk to many of the Methodist School students and teachers, as well as spend time with Ray and his girls. The picture above is of Sarah at the cardboard-box-sledding station. She loved it.

Pandas in Costa Rica?

I helped to dig up some bamboo shoots in the middle of a bamboo forest the other day. It was breathtaking.

The last team that was here, from Cape Coral, Florida, had the task of digging post-holes for the property-line fence down by the river at the Children’s Home. And wouldn’t you know, but we were digging in the middle of bamboo. Lots of it. With a river running below us, about 10 feet away. Everywhere you looked—bamboo. It was surreal.

I wish I had a picture of it, but that will have to come later. Even still, the picture won’t do justice for the beautifully clear blue skies, the running river, and the lush green bamboo forest that was surrounding us as we dug.

I praise the Lord that the Children’s Home kids will be able to grow up in an environment like this. And no, there are no pandas in Costa Rica.

Happy Resurrection Sunday!

If you find yourself with a lack of things to do or say on Easter, just say three words, "Thank you, Jesus."

Because as it says in Romans 5:18-19, one man lit a spark and caused an insurmountable bonfire of sin to erupt throughout the world. Then One man came and put out that wildfire, giving us freedom from previously inescapable disaster.

"Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life." Romans 6:4

"Thank you, Jesus. For my new life."

Back in high school

Well, I'm back in high school. But, thankfully, not as a student.

I've recently been blessed with the opportunity to help out at the Colegio Metodista, or Methodist School, as a Christian counselor. I have been giving messages at the chapel, sharing the Good News, speaking with students individually, and even helping teach Christian education classes.

I'm incredibly excited by the opportunity, as my heart is being drawn more and more into youth ministry here in Costa Rica. With the opportunity to serve the Llano Grande youth (see my previous blog entry) and the opportunity to serve at the Methodist School, I feel like I'm finally carving out my own niche in our ministry down here. And it feels great.

While at school, I spend most of my time with the secondary/high school students (grades 7-11). However, two weeks ago I was able to take my native Texan skills to the primary school. Check out my awesome 4th graders as they perform in front of over 1,000 students at the Methodist School's 88th Anniversary: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1nM0GCsX-0

I promise they asked me to do that, it wasn't my idea :-)

Late-night youth retreat

A couple of weekends ago, I had the tremendous pleasure of joining the youth group of Llano Grande on a one-night retreat to the mountains, outside the town of Birricito, Cartago. It was 27 youth (ranging from ages 7-22), 2 sweet yet incredibly strong women from the church, 1 wild and crazy youth pastor, and me.

The passion for the Lord that I witnessed amongst that youth group was absolutely incredible. They danced and sang and praised and worshiped the Lord with unrelenting and unashamed spirits.

As our one night drew to a close, the guys were getting ready for bed on the bottom floor of our retreat house, and the girls were getting ready for bed on the top floor. Yet the time for worshiping the Lord was not over. So, at 1:20am, the music was turned on and the dance party began.

After the dancing there was solitary prayer, there was group prayer, and there was more prayer. The youth rallied around one another, shared their burdens with each other, and prayed each other’s burdens away. Spiritual warfare was taking place in many of the youth, but their friends simply rallied around them with love, support, and the name of Jesus. It was awe-inspiring.

At 4:30am, the bedtime call was made. I was positioned in the middle of two mattresses on the floor, surrounded by some of my best friends from that youth group. I woke up to yelling, running, cooking, a shining sun and chants of “dormilón! dormilón!” which means big sleepy head (more or less). I felt worthless for having slept so long, until I asked what time it was . . . 7:10am.

I’m still not certain if that day had just begun or if the previous day had never ended, because more than half the members of the retreat didn’t get even a wink of sleep. And they still praised the Lord all day at the retreat house and then attended a church service until 6:00pm that night.

The Tico youth are nuts. I love ‘em.

I'm now going to be spending every Saturday night with the Llano Grande youth. Last weekend I shared a message and then led a foot-washing ceremony in remembrance of Jesus. It was incredibly moving, to say the least.

P.T.P.ers - Prime Time Puppeteers

Last week we had the pleasure of hosting the Christ In Action puppet and black theater team from Madison, Alabama. The team consisted of 13 high school and middle school youth and 5 adults, and they had a wonderful ministry to share with the people of Costa Rica.

They performed 19 shows in 3 different provinces of Costa Rica, for a total of close to 3,000 people. It was a sight to be seen (just check out these videos). This team’s ministry even affected a young boy to start crying at one of the churches, because the Spirit was moving through the performance of the team.

Unity was the name of the game amongst the youth from Madison, and it was a joy to watch them grow and stay close together throughout the week. Praise the Lord for that.

I even got to help puppet for one of the songs they performed . . . I would have never guessed that puppeteering for Jesus could be so fun.

*P.T.P.ers (Prime Time Players) is a copyrighted trademark of Dick Vitale during March Madness . . . since this team showed up during the first week of Madness, I found it appropriate to modify Dicky V’s slang when describing this great team.

Flor, Sergio, and whitewater

As I mentioned in my last blog, life-long, Christ-bonded, friendships can be created in two primary locales: (1) small groups and (2) mission trips.

Well, Mike Roseberry and I have one of those Christ-bonded friendships that was birthed in our first-year small group at UVa. And the week after I had that amazing team from UVa come to work with me down here, Mike came to Costa Rica to hang out.

The two of us got to work construction for 3 days (1 at the Children’s Home in Coronado and 2 at the Children’s Community Center in Puerto Viejo), as well as hit the road to see the sights. And boy did we see. We were blessed with the chance to take an overnight rafting trip on the Pacuare River, full of 30 km of rafting and one afternoon of zip-lining. It was sweet. And the lodging we had, on an old coffee/chocolate farm over looking the rapids, was on priceless property.

But here’s the funniest part from Mike’s visit: from Puerto Viejo we took a bus to Guapiles, and then Siquirres, and then Turrialba (the base camp for our rafting trip). While at the bus station in Siquirres, we met an elderly couple from Turrialba. I started chatting it up with the lady, and Mike just sat there as we talked for a good 20 minutes or so. Then, at the end of the conversation, Mike saw me pull out my cell phone, and the lady, Flor, also pulled hers out.

“What are you doing?” asked Mike, with that half-curious half-scared tone of voice.

“We’re going to their house today, maybe for dinner, maybe just to hang out. We’ll see . . .” I answered. Mike thought I was nuts.

However, our trip to Flor and Sergio’s house in El Mora, just 3 km outside of Turrialba, was one of the highlights of our trip. We spent 3 hours at their house talking with them, their daughters and their grandkids, just chatting it up about life in Turrialba, Costa Rica, and the States.

They offered us coffee and arepas (my favorite Costa Rican food) and we sat there just talking away. One of the coolest parts of the evening: the Bible was probably quoted at least 15 times during our 3 hour stay at their house. They were a beautiful family, and they stayed strong in their belief in Jesus, even with all the unfortunate things they had seen in different churches over the years.

One of their daughters, Cynthia, who had two adorable little kids, Josua and Maria Celeste, would just not stop talking. It was hilarious. She just kept going. I’m still surprised Mike stayed awake (he has sleeping problems) for the Spanish conversation. But a funny side note about Cynthia’s husband: he works at a Rawlings baseball manufacturing plant/sweatshop in Turrialba and sews together 200 baseballs a week in only 3 days (he’s won numerous prizes as the best worker in the factory, too). So think about that next time you pick up a Rawlings baseball . . .

Mike and I probably could have stayed at their house for another 3 hours, but we had to take a bus back to Turrialba. So out the door we went, exchanging warm goodbyes that ended with Mike giving his UVa hat to Josua, the little grandkid of Flor and Sergio (so if you see a UVa hat wandering around Turrialba, you know where it came from).

We then stood on a dark street by an unlit bus stop for a good 25 minutes, being approached only once by a rather drunk man asking for money. When we got back to our hotel and mentioned to Oscar, our hotel employee and Christian buddy, where we had been, he said: “El Mora? You’re lucky. That’s an incredibly dangerous area!”

Mike and I just laughed. It’s not like we randomly met some couple at a bus stop and then went to their house for 3 hours without knowing anything about them. Or did we?

And it was awesome.