Mama Come Pan

Sam and Georgia have Spanish class every day. They really like it, and they amaze us with all the vocabulary they are learning. They taught us a song that they sing sometimes - it's really cute.

Georgia: Mama (insert any name) come pan en la casa de San Juan.
(Mama eats bread in the house of Saint John)

Mama: Quien yo?
(who me?)

Georgia: Si, tu!
(yes, you)

Mama: Yo no fui.
(It wasn't me)

Georgia: Entonces, quien?
(Then who?)

Mama: Sam come pan in la casa de San Juan.

Sam: Quien yo?

and so it continues......it's really quite catchy.

Bingo in Desamparados San Antonio

My phonetics teacher invited us to her neighborhood to play Bingo to raise money to make improvements to the playground in their community. On Friday, Gabriella (my teacher), described for us her neighborhood, she said it is very poor and that they want to improve the playground area to give them a place to fellowship as a community on a regular basis. She described how expensive it is to make improvements, one in particular being to add lights to the terraza so they can play Bingo at night. 200,000 colones she said to add lights. This is $400 USD, and I thought how this amount of money can be raised in minutes in the US...

So, I tried to rally a few friends to go with me but I found no takers, so I set out on my own on Sunday afternoon about 4:30 to make the 2.5 mile walk down to Desamparados San Antonio for Sunday night Bingo.

I found the street called Calle Trejos, looking for La Casa de Manuel Obando with the directions Gabriella gave me. The narrow tributary roads that feed Calle Trejos are nothing more than dirt paths, but small residences line them with their corrugated tin roofs hanging over small stoops where dogs lay and children sit on tricycles in front of darkened doorways.

After passing up and down the street at least twice, each time not finding la casa, I noticed a woman slipping down one of these narrow roads with a cooler in hand, so I followed her and then looking beyond her to the very end of the road, I could see out underneath a patio a small gathering of people sitting around a few picnic tables...this had to be the place.

So there was no turning back. I was no longer in our comfortable gringo outpost around our school. I was a true foreigner. I was nervous. I wondered how long I would have to stay...having to stay turned into wanting to stay and I did for three hours, playing game after game of Bingo, maiz (corn pieces for chips) and premios (prizes) included, elbow to elbow with Tico children, their padres (parents) and abuelos (grandparents) and tios and tias (uncles and aunts), hamburguesas and helado and calientes perros (hot dogs) and tres leches...Spanish numbers being thrown at me like major league fastballs...being the guest of honor as the Gringo in a strange land...

I think my first genuine cross-cultural experience, the beginnings of shaping my perspective on ministry in Latin America...

Monkeys and Milkshakes

We decided to explore downtown San Jose a bit this afternoon. It's only about a 15 minute bus ride from our house. We wandered through a few parks and up and down curious side streets of downtown, and then found a zoo. The kids had a great time! The tropical birds were a hit and so were the monkeys. We walked around the zoo for a couple hours, and then tired and hungry, found a "coffee shop" type place and had milkshakes and brownies. It was a great day! Enjoy the pictures.

iChat-video-support-team meeting

Check this out. Above in the picture are a few of our best friends from Charlottesville. These guys also make up part of our core support team. We met with them last night via iChat—like we were sitting down with them in Charlottesville, or Costa Rica, or "Costattesville', in whatever virtual world we imagined at the moment. Good to be an Apple user, heh?

We talked and laughed and prayed together last night with our friends. We shared our struggles, our successes, our hopes, our needs. This is one of the times I have been most thankful for cool technology.

I want to communicate!

I think a woman was telling me earlier this evening that she was robbed. But I couldn't tell if she was saying she was robbed, or someone else was robbed, or if it had just happened, or if it had happened another day. All I could do was to shake my head and make a face that I hope said "how terrible". Of course, after I came inside, I thought of 100 things I could have said or asked (okay so maybe only 10). That's where I am now in my language learning. I generally get a good idea of what people are saying to me, but the specific details get lost. And then on paper I know what to say and how to respond, but getting that information from my brain to my mouth doesn't seem to happen very quickly. I long to be able to communicate with people in Spanish! How can I tell people about their need for Jesus if I can't even ask them if they need help because they might have been robbed? Please pray for us and our ability to learn Spanish quickly and well. We are encouraged by how much we've already learned, but we realize how far we have to go.

Stolen Keys

Well, it has been an eventful weekend, to say the least. On Friday night, we were about to go to bed around 10:30 when I decided to make sure all the sets of keys were hanging up. I usually don't do this, but I was the last one to go out (to get some ice cream to bring home:) I realized the keys I had used to get in and out of our house and gate were missing. I couldn't find them anywhere and became obsessed with finding them. Bubba and I thought maybe one of the kids had been playing with them before bed, but I couldn't let go of trying to find them. We looked all over the house and outside a few times. It was a little unnerving to say the least when we found the keychain, minus the keys, lying on the ground beside our gate. I freaked out and couldn't stop sobbing - out of fear, responsibility, etc..... Someone had the keys to our gate and our house! Everyone here has tall gates with multiple locks, razor wire, street guards, and guard dogs for a reason. And now someone had the ability to use our keys and walk right in our house. We were able to find the guard for our street and communicate with him what had happened. Our neighbors heard us and came out, and between the two of them, we got a few different locks for our gate for the night. Our guard, Jose, said he'd look out for our house. But the fear was still there that someone could jump our gate and walk right in. Needless to say, we spent a sleepless night, with Bubba on guard sleeping on the living room couch. On Saturday, we were able to get a locksmith here in the afternoon (after going to friends' house for lunch and carting all our valuables with us - passports, laptop, camera). We got 3 locks changed, including soldering one on our gate, for only $60! WOW. We realize how much we have to be thankful for, how even though it was scary and surreal, that the Lord had his hand in it. We're so thankful that we continued to look for the keys and weren't content to go to bed without finding them...that whoever took the keys left the keychain for whatever reason because then we knew the keys were gone...that we have a kind guard on our street who helped us and watched our house extra carefully...for neighbors who prayed with and for us when I was terrified....for safety that night....and for being able to get the locks changed quickly and cheaply.

"I lift my eyes up, to the heavens, where does my help come from. My help comes from You, maker of Heaven and Earth."

Nosotros tenemos una empleada, pero no tengo agua!

One of the many blessings we are enjoying here in Costa Rica is being able to have an empleada help us out at home. Empleadas domestica, as they are called, are basically housekeepers. Almost everyone here has one - it is very cultural and very very affordable. We have a sweet woman named Marina who comes to our house 3 mornings a week. She is a huge blessing to us for many reasons. By having her come do laundry, clean, and iron, it frees us up to have more time to study. Plus, we get to practice our Spanish with her, as she eats lunch with us on the days she's here. She speaks faster and with a little different accent then our teachers, so it gives us good practice.

So today when we got home from school, we clearly understood her when she said "No agua". Apparently we didn't pay our water bill - because we never received it - so they shut off our water today without any notice. Marina told us the man said that if we paid it today, they'd turn it back on tomorrow afternoon. Well, after a frustrating few hours, with lots of Spanish practice for Bubba, our water is back on! Nosotros tenemos agua! Gracias a Dios! (We have water. Thanks be to God!)

The Mornings, Finding Us Alive

Our alarm rings at 5am each morning. We have not been awakened to the day this early, this regularly, well, for our entire marriage (10 years). We stumble out of bed (usually two snoozes later), and into the kitchen first to turn on the coffee. One of the simple pleasures we enjoy here each night before bed is choosing which Costa Rican coffee to prepare for the next day. I think right now we have five different brands in our freezer.

While the coffee brews, Angela and I sit together in our living room and begin to journal, read the Bible and pray together. The kids still sleeping, the street outside not yet sounding off with commuter buses and motorcycles delivering papers, this quiet time is an indispensable component to our days.

After 30 minutes or so, half-awake then with caffeine in our blood, Angela will shower, and I have gotten in the groove of listening to music and singing—one song in particular has become my favorite. This song is helping to shape a perspective on God that has been lacking in my life. Here are the lyrics (by Bebo Norman):

Am I unfit for You
Remember me, the one who turned from You
I come in rags tattered by the Fall
And all the earth, a witness to my crime

Mercy, weep over me
Let Your tears wash me clean
Majesty, be merciful with me
For my eyes have seen Holy

Hear my prayer at night
Let the morning find me alive
For I am tired and weakened by the Fall
Let all the earth bear witness to my cry

Let the Amen sound from Heaven as You lift my soul
Let the Amen sound from Heaven as You lift my soul
Let the Angels sound from Heaven, Holy is the Lord

My children ARE teaching me Spanish

Everyone said our children would be teaching us Spanish, since kids learn so much quicker than adults, so here's a funny story. I (Angela) walked to the bakery with all 3 kids the other evening to get bread to go with supper. Here, everyone has iron gates around their houses/yards and most have some type of "guard" dog. As we were walking home, a dog started barking at us (not unusual) but it came right out through the iron bars. It was only a small poodle, but Ty reacted like it was a pit bull - screaming and climbing up me as fast as he could. This only excited the dog more. Sam was holding the bag of bread over his head and Georgia was clinging to my other leg. (I'm sure we were a gringo sight!). I start saying to the dog...go home, go home. And then I realized, this dog doesn't speak English. So we started walking, only to have the dog follow us for a long time. Every now and then I'd stop and snap at it and tell it to go home. Nothing worked. Finally Georgia looked at the dog and said "Adios doggie" and with that he turned around and trotted home!

Ephesians 3 14-21

My good friend Mary wrote that she was praying this scripture for us. It has been meaningful to me, so I thought I'd share it. God is teaching us a lot about Him and a lot about ourselves, as we trust Him everyday in new ways.

"For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father.....that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us,to HIM be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen."

This is our prayer for all of you as well.