You Can't Run Away

So the thing is, my friend Steve @http://www.elchupacabrawrites.com/ in Costa Rica asked people to help fill in for him with his blog. He's so busy being a Missionary, Facility Manager, National Champion Football Player / Coach, Dad, Husband and facial hair impresario that he sometimes falls behind on his writing.

I've ragged on him enough times for not being timely with messages (like return emails) that when he asked for help I felt like I just had to offer.

I didn't really realize (OK, maybe I did) that it had been so long since I posted my own inaugural message. And now that someone like Steve linked to me, I'd better start keeping it moving. I mean, if someone actually took the time to look or set up an alert or follow me and they never saw anything new that would be as douchey as not answering your friends when they try to keep in touch - wouldn't it? I get it - I started this thing and I shouldn't run away from it.

I hope there are other Dad's, Husbands, business professionals, motorcyclists, and Christ followers out there who will be able to relate.

Thanks for checking out my feeble first attempts at a blog.

Where From Here?

We're grateful to have arrived safely home and for our dear friend Jeff who picked us up at the airport - complete with cold drinks and door-to-door service. As always, your servants heart was an example. Thanks, Jeff!

We'll be following up with Steve Wright to start planning next steps and will seek guidance on God's will as we proceed. There are some outstanding facility needs to be addressed...from the visibly sagging roof in the Casa Grande, to enhancements for the Training Center building (mainly A/V related), to the need to increase and improve the lodging capacity for missionary students.

Here are a few final photos. I suspect we have over 500 between us...but these stuck with me.

"sign-off" on the section of driveway we installed

local volcano going off - last morning

croc about 10 feet long

we watched this bird stun the fish before tossing it up and swallowing it in one gulp

cool Iguana

It is finished!

After a long week of work of getting ready for the big pour…we did it! The section of the driveway is now complete.

This morning we got up extra early to get every last thing ready before the cement truck showed up at 8am. “When the truck shows up, it’s go time,” as Steve put it. And boy was he right. When the cement started to pour out of the truck we had to act fast and work hard before it dried. We had some challenges due to the slope of the driveway but we pushed through and we were finished at about noon. I don’t remember the last time I have worked this hard doing manual labor. I honestly don’t think I would have survived this week with out these other guys…Kirk, John and Alvin worked so hard that it pushed me to keep going.

Tonight we went to the Espinoza’s house for dinner and to hear about how they are serving in the mission field. Andres, Adriana and their 2 year old son Daniel are planning to go to France later this year to serve among Muslim immigrants and refugees. Adriana cooked us wonderful Costa Rican dinner. Andres shared with us their passion to reach Muslims in France in the hopes that they can return to their home countries to spread the Gospel. It was very encouraging to spend time with a family that is so committed to being obedient to God’s call!

Tomorrow is our fun day! And then it’s time to head home.

Paul

This Will Shock You...

Mixed it up today…

Breakfast and morning devotionals, followed by a trip to the Precario.

If you follow JamieTheVeryWorstMissionary you’ve heard of the Precario – one of the toughest, poorest neighborhoods in Costa Rica.

We made some benches or the kids and wanted to go out there to deliver them and see the ministry there. No amount of prior preparation gets you ready for what you see. Corrugated tin walls and roofs…water (at least you hope it's just water) running through the dirt road you are walking down. Electric wires jury-rigged to each “house” and a PVC pipe for the collective water supply.

The kids were very happy to see us. A number of them came up and said “hello” to show me their English. One asked me to say something in English and I said “it’s a beautiful day – I’m very happy to see you” – he picked out the word “happy”.

I can’t possibly describe the level of abject poverty in ways that will be meaningful to our dear ones back home. I’m reminded of Nancy from Powerhouse talking about kids whose lives have gone terribly wrong showing back up there years later because they remember that it was a place where someone showed them love. I hope those kids in the Precario always remember the love they are receiving from the people involved in that ministry – and that the love comes from Jesus.

On the way back from the Precario, Steve offered us the following deal – if we got the road pad ready to be poured by the end of the day today he would take us to the beach tomorrow. So…after lunch, we went after it - HARD.

Just when it looked like we had it licked, it started to rain - a steady, heavy rain. Now, the Tico’s (Costa Ricans) believe that if you exert yourself in the rain, it will hurt you or make you sick. We didn’t care – we really wanted to “win” a trip to the beach. But it rained so hard we had to stop. So – tomorrow morning we’ll finish up the rest of the pad prep and since we won’t be going to the beach, we decided as a team that what we’d really like to do with the time we have left is make more benches for the kids.

This has been a fantastic week. Tonight we heard from Ernesto, who leads a number of youth ministries here in the local area, around Costa Rica and even in new countries like Venezuala. He's an amzing guy to talk to and a great servant.

Hopefully we'll have photos of the pad ready to pour tomorrow.

Doggies

Work Day

Hola followers, friends and family,

Monday (dia cuatro)

We had a very productive day on the property today. We worked very hard! We all have something to show for our labor. Sore backs, bug bites, scrapes and calluses. The weather held out so we could accomplish our goal of moving the forms for the driveway to the tree. The tree was nice for shade but was a point of frustration due to the roots. What a root system it was! We attacked the roots with all the picks and axes we could throw at them With a team of seven taking turns at chopping them out. I am very impressed with the work ethic of the Wright's 16 year old son working as hard as all of us ( if not harder).

We had a very nice visit with David and Esther a young married couple. We got to hear their heart and their passion to go on mission to the middle east.

As some of you may know I have a passion for biking and dogs and I couldn't help myself to get some shots of each on our trip. (See below)

Vaya con Dios,

Juan

Culture Day

Today our day started with a wake up call to see an active volcano, Volcan Turrialba (see pictures below). It was pretty amazing to wake up to see a volcano smoking like that right off the back of the campus. We had another great breakfast cooked by Jamie, and then headed off to experience our culture day. Steve wanted us to spend the day like we were missionaries just starting out in a new country, new to the language and challenge to get around town.

To fully experience being in a new to a culture, we skipped the luxury of jumping in the car and heading off to church. Rather, we started out by walking a mile down the hill from the campus to catch a bus. After a long ride we made it to church, a little late but we made it! We then experience a great Costa Rican worship service. It was a challenge to understand the message without a translator (again, part of Steve’s master plan), but we were able to read along with the passage the pastor was teaching from. We were all amazed at how much passion the pastor had in giving his message as well as how warm we were welcomed by the congregation. After Church we went to Lunch at a local restaurant then headed to Britt coffee followed by a trip to San Jose. The weather was great today, it barely rained and we actually saw some blue skies. It was great experience to the local culture of Costa Rica, especially through the eyes of what it would be like to be a missionary in a new country. It was also great to have a day for our bodies to rest after a hard day of work on Saturday.

Tomorrow it’s back to work…

Paul