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

Culture Day Pictures

"Remember, You Always Gotta Go Left"

Long trip - we got here about 14 hours after we left my house. But we're grateful to be here and to show John and Alvin the Multiplication Center.

Somehow its different when people get to see in person what you have tried to describe sight unseen. Sustained heavy afternoon thunder showers, followed by a tour of nearby San Ysidro to try some of the wonderful local coffee and tour the Catholic church ad its beautiful stained glass (imported from Austria). We also ran into our friend Ernesto, who is a local youth Pastor and who has visited Lakeside

Fantastic dinner courtesy the Very Worst Missionary. Wonderful to see her pleased by the love gifts sent down by our Lakeside friends. El Chupacabras is already knee-deep wearing multiple hats as tour guide, interpreter, job foreman and small group worship leader this week.

One of the things we've been told to do is to never complain - just follow direction. Evidently, Steve is concerned that when we go to church, the local ladies might greet us somewhat more enthusiastically than we're used to back in Folsom. You see the Tico's (that's what the locals call each other - its not a perjorative) tend to greet each other enthusiastically. If they go in for a neighborly Christian kiss of greeting, we need to make sure we duck to the left (to avoid meeting in the middle). :) Anything to blend in...

We're pouring a cement driveway tomorrow. We'll post more photo's later

It's so awesome to be here!!!!

This Is Only A Test

What a process...prayer, meetings, lists, excitement, forms, worry... Grace. Just a few things left to do now.

We're heading to the airport from our house around 10:00 p.m. tomorrow night.

Thanks so much to our Tuesday night small group for all you've done to support our team..and to the Lakeside on Mission staff for all your hard work.

Stay tuned for photo's and commentary from Costa Rica.

Pura Vida!