In Costa Rica

Have been in Latin America for 13 days. Spent the first 4 days in Guatemala, the next 3 in Nicaragua, arrived in Costa Rica last Saturday. Have spent the time meeting/getting to know pastors, District Superintendents, doctors, community leaders, and visiting projects.

In Guatemala: a Nazarene hospital that is being designed to serve pastors and their families as well as the poorest of the poor, 3 child development centers, communities in need of clean water, a goat project that has almost 80 goats now in 6 communities, a World Vision office to learn about their ministry, and a Catholic center that has a residential program for severely malnourished children as well as elementary and high schools that serve about 800.

In Nicaragua: communities in need of clean water and reforestation, microenterprise loan projects, and a church engaged in ministry to alcoholics and drug addicts as well as the elderly, patients in a local hospital, and a prison. So much need, but God’s church is alive and well and at work being His hands and His feet in our world….

One of the things that has impacted me the most strongly is how much pastors/DS’es here struggle…. not only do they often live in communities where they are surrounded by poverty and tremendous physical needs (and they have few resources with which to respond), but they often live on so little themselves. I have yet to meet a DS who isn’t also pastoring a church; some of them don’t have computers, and some of them don’t even have vehicles. A DS I met the other day told me that only 25% of his pastors receive a salary from their churches; his salary is $80/month, which certainly goes much further than it would in the US, but still is poverty level here…..I am amazed at their faith, at their trust in God to provide their needs, and I feel so humbled in their presence, so grateful to be used by God to encourage them, and to sometimes find people and churches and individuals who will partner with them, to be the hands, feet, and words of Christ alongside them….

My apt here is nicer than the one I was in last fall, and I have it to myself, which is nice, since I am much busier this time than before. The first night I went up to the bedroom (it has 2 floors) and started to make the bed, and went to pull the curtains aside to see if the window was open -- and there on the curtain was a huge spider…. It’s body wasn’t as big as a tarantula, but it was hairy and the leg span was bigger than my hand… I almost had a heart attack! I booked it over to the Webbs (missionaries who live on campus here) and David came over with bug spray and a shoe…. I couldn’t even stay in the bedroom while he killed it…. Ugh -- he says it is the largest one he’s seen in the 3 years he’s been here…. right next door is where they’re building a new building, and I imagine they’ve stirred up the creatures with their activity. After he left, I walked through the apt praying and moving furniture, trying to let any other creatures know that I was here and that it was time for them to move on……

Home again

Can't believe I haven't posted since Nov... just getting back from 2 weeks in sunny FL with David and his folks -- was very relaxing! Much has been happening since arriving back from Costa Rica in mid- Dec -- took me about 3 weeks to get used to the winter temps!

Have continued my Spanish lessons at a much reduced pace, with my CR professor, using skype.  Has been difficult to focus on it, though, without the daily contact.... have been working to set up some infrastructure for the partnership, as well as talking with pastors and others about potential specific partnerships.  Hopefully by June we will have a website up, and begin a monthly e-newsletter this summer.

In May I will travel back to Central America -- but only for 3 weeks this time!  I will visit projects in Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, and also have a couple of weeks in Costa Rica for language study and meetings.  It will be a whirlwind, but I'm very excited!!

God is good, and I am trying to be patient to work within his leading and time-frame!  Not sure yet what life holds at the end of this year long volunteer commitment, but am trusting.... would dearly love to continue with this ministry...  muchas bendiciones!

thankfulness

Have been spending the last 4 days at the Webbs' house here on the Seminary campus.  Shelley is the Coordinator of the CALL program, which I am involved in for language study, and David coordinates evangelism for the South Area, which is Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama.  They are on vacation at the beach, so I am hear taking care of their dog and enjoying the privacy!

Thursday afternoon Estaban, Anna (my companeros in language study) and I were invited to the Armstrong's house.  Scott and Emily are also American missionaries here (there are 3 American families), but live outside the campus.  Scott's mom and brother are here visiting, and they invited us over for the afternoon and evening, and we enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner!  It was great fun, and, of course I ate too much.

Saturday some of us were going to go hikng at a national park (yes, my ankle is fine now!), but ended up not going for various reasons, and it turned out to be a wonderful day of prayer for me.... I am so thankful for God's Spirit who moves within me and transforms me and makes me anew.....

I am also thankful for the team here.  Wednesday I had a meeting with Dr. Helmer Juarez, Partnership Liason for the MAC Region (so my boss), and we talked for almost 2 hours about projects and plans for the future -- and almost completely in Spanish!!  It was amazing -- when we got stuck, one of us would say a few words in English, and then when understanding dawned, return to Spanish....I'm also having meetings with others on the leadership team here so that they will understand better what partnerships are, and so that I will understand more clearly what their roles are.  Good stuff!

It's kind of weird -- I still have 2 weeks to go here, but find myself preparing for leaving in many ways.....

El clima

I love the weather here -- today is the first time it has dipped below 70 degrees in my apartment -- and it's never been hotter than 78.  Everyone is walking around in coats today.... Often (the rainy season isn't over yet), like today, it is misty much of the day, but it is still bright when it's cloudy.  It's also often windy, you can hear it whistling around the windows, but when you go outside it's still fairly warm.

Everything grows so fast -- 2 weeks ago one of the groundskeepers cut down the brush around a certain tree, and today it is already almost a foot high..... this is a 12 acre campus, and there are 2 f-t people who spend the whole day mowing, weeding, and raking -- and they do it rain or shine!  I have seen one of them mowing while holding an umbrella.....

Nicaragua

La clinica

OK, so each day I fill up at least one notecard with vocab words - 20 per card.  Some I get from my lesson, others from my reading, etc.  Came across a list of words related to hospitals/illness/body parts -- since one of my friends here was in the hospital last week with kidney stones, I thought they'd be good to learn.  Sure did come in handy....
Thurs eve coming from the laundry room, I fell, and injured my 'bad' ankle.  Pain was severe enough at first that I lost consciousness briefly and everyone (1/2 of the seminary campus population!!) thought I'd hit my head.  When I came to, I realized I was holding unmentionables that I'd gotten  out of the washing machine, so had to discreetly pass them off to my roommate... Because everyone thought I might have a concussion, they wanted me to go  to the hospital.  By the time la ambulancia arrived, I was doing fine, and trying to get out of going -- but Dr. Saenz (the boss) said he thought I should go, so I did.  The ambulance guys were very nice, and Shelley went with me.
Both of my doctors (generalist and orthopedist) seemed happy to practice their English with me, and I was very psyched that I remembered Spanish words for ankle, knee, etc. They wanted me to have a head CAT scan, so after the xrays, wheeled me to the scanning room -- only it was locked!!  There was much puzzlement and scurrying around, and finally they took me back -- apparently the machine was broken..... so at least I didn't have to have a CAT scan! 
Today the ankle is doing well -- the inflammation is less, and there is very little pain.  I have an apt tomorrow eve with the orthopedist, and hopefully he will tell me that I can start walking without the crutches.
Scheduled to fly to Nicaragua on Thurs with Dr. Juarez to check out the ENC MicrEnterprise project -- and we will meet Prof. Bill Driscoll there -- so I want to be healthy enough to be able to get around!!
I'm hoping and praying that during the 8 weeks here there will be no more excitement like this to report....
On a more up note, today at church I really think I was understanding more...gracias a Dios!

La Cumbre Santidad

Just finished 2 days of a holiness conference with people from all over Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean -- 400 pastors and other church leaders. It was very encouraging to see so many young leaders, in early and mid-20's. Times of worship here are very loud and engaging -- wonderful music!! The keyboard player made the keyboard sound like a grand piano -- everything from very contemporary worship music to the Hallelujah chorus....
One of the wonderful surprises of this conference is that I saw so many people I know, including my friend Vicky from Guatemala (we stayed with Vicky and her family when we adoped Charissa 22 years ago!) and Eliezel from the Dominican Republic -- did a missions trip with ENC students there in 2000, and Eliezel was one of our leaders!  He is now a volunteer missionary on the campus here.
 
The speakers were very good, and I practised my Spanish a lot -- though I still found it difficult to understand a lot.  During the first plenary session it started pouring -- all the roofs here are made of metal, and what a racket!  Even with a decent sound system, it was difficult to hear anything at all!  We've now had 2 absolutely gorgeous days of sunshine, though -- and even though it seems to me that it rains a lot here, people are concerned that it hasn't rained enough, and that it may be jeopardizing the water supply.
 
On a more mundane level, went to the little building next door to do my laundry yesterday, and surpised a foot long-or-so lizard who was sunning himself just inside the doorway. He was un poco 'gordo', but had no trouble getting away from me very quickly!!