Costa Rica 2009 – Day 1

What a wonderful first day in Costa Rica!  It started at 2:00 a.m.
for the 15 of us as we took the last warm showers for 10 days. 
Everyone then met at 3:00 a.m. at the church to drive to Charlotte to
pick up a 6:45 a.m. flight.  Everything worked smoothly as we got our
boarding passes, checked our bags and made it to the proper gate.  Even
though some were close, none of the 30 bags were over 50 lbs.  In
addition to our personal bags, we brought things we are donating to the
church as well as school supplies, VBS supplies and several bags that
Valerie Fulton had collected for her senior project, which was spurred
from last year's mission trip.  The layover in Dallas was met with
breakfast and last phone calls before entering the "dead zone" of Costa
Rica.  Landing in Liberia, Costa Rica at 1:20 p.m. was perfect (though
there is a 2 hour difference in time zones).  Then standing in customs
for an hour, getting our bags and meeting Lanny, our project leader who
quickly took us to our first Costa Rican experience, Burger King.  It
seemed a bit surreal to be eating a Whopper Jr with fries and a coke in
Costa Rica while looking at Transformer toys that were in the kids
meals.  Along the way, we were able to stop at Pastor Carlo's church
where we had worked 2 years ago laying the concrete for the floor of
their new sanctuary to catch up with life and see the improvements in
both facility and growth in membership.  He said they now have over 500
in attendance each Sunday.  It is great to see the fruit of work
started years ago.  The rain started soon after (it is rainy season) as we drove the 90 minutes to Las Juntas, the town in which we are
living and ministering.  Everyone got their first sight of the Costa
Rican countryside.  The trees and birds are different than the US.  The
sun's rays filtered through the clouds on the horizon.  The many rivers
that we crossed.  It is beautiful.  We also got to connect with our new
pastor, his 17 year old daughter and one of our interpreters – all
three expressed how they felt God was going to work through our team. 
After arriving in Las Juntas, we got settled in our hostel which is
much more in the "urban area" than we have been in previous years. We
unpacked, played a little soccer among ourselves and then went to
dinner at a local pizza place which was incredible.  The Mexicana
pizza, a blend of queso, taco meat, pepperoni, sauce and cheese, was
delicious and combined things I never would have thought of in the
States.  By this time it was 8:00 p.m. here (10:00 p.m. at home) and we
were getting very sleepy.  We've been going for 16 hours straight.  We
took time to tell each other first impressions and go over the schedule
for tomorrow before heading to bed. 

Here's how you can be praying for us:  1) Against sickness.  As our
bodies adjust to different food in a different country.  Also, flu is
on the rise here.  2) Against fatigue.  We are very tired after a long
travel day.  3) For Jesus to be glorified.  We start tomorrow meeting
those to whom others have ministered and we may continue to connect
with.  Plus there is a 4 hour church service in the morning.  I can't
wait. Documented by Joel Tassie

Costa Rica – Day 2

Morning came early at 7:15 a.m. when everyone woke up to get ready
for church.  8:00 a.m. was breakfast of cereal, milk and juice. Then
our first personal devotion time, followed by our first Concert of
Prayer, led by Joel and Ashley who each brought their guitars to lead
musical worship.  Lanny then divided us up into pairs where we shared
what our major strengths are and then prayed that God would make them
our weakness so we would rely on Him this week.  By 9:30 a.m. we were
off to church - Iglesia Metodista Fuente de Vida.  It was a 2 ½ hour
service full of Jesus and full of life.  The music was amazing and even
songs we sing at our own contemporary service (Forever, From the Inside
Out, Mighty to Save – though each in Spanish) and the sermon given by
Lanny (a 50 minute amazing piece of preaching).  Everyone hugged at the
end of the service. We then changed into our shorts, ate a luncheon
meat buffet lunch, divided into our 2 work teams and went out to prayer
walk for a couple of hours.  Read what Jennie wrote about her Prayer
Walk experience:

"Prayer walking is a completely foreign concept to me...so when Lanny
sent us out on our first prayer walk today, the butterflies filled my
stomach. As we started, the first few houses were quite nice: clean
porch and yard, nice furniture, bright colors, etc; however, as we
continued down the gravel road, the houses gradually became more
impoverished. At one house, we met a man named Roberto.  He was
friendlier than I expected and welcomed our entire team into his mining
shop and home with open arms, along with his 14 dogs. Without
assaulting the man with questions about his faith and practice of
religion, we simply wanted him to feel comfortable talking with
us...Roberto seemed very enthused to give us a tour of his property.
Using 200 year old tools, he fixes mining tools. Furthermore, he breeds
African and Italian bees...The resulting hybrid(aka Formula 1) is
downright evil- just kidding-they just sting really hard...and could
potentially kill you but other than that, harmless. He then showed us
his house- 80 years old. On the second floor, the top floor, he had a
stand at the far end of the room where he had busts of a pygmy and King
Tut from Egypt. On the table next to it were many types of rocks and
supposedly ancient shells. When we got back to his shop, Roberto gave
us rocks from the abandoned gold mine as a thank you. Before leaving we
asked if there was anything he wanted us to pray for him: Roberto
admitted alcoholism, which keeps him from continually attending the
church.  I believe that part of the reason why Roberto was so open to
the ministry team was because, like many of the Costa Ricans, he had a
genuine curiosity about us - he had seen a previous group by the mines
a week or so ago. (Many of the local folk here check us out or just
stare.) But I think the major reason why he opened up to us about the
alcohol problem was because he felt comfortable with us. We talked to
him with genuine curiosity about his home and life...not diving right
into an interrogation. Roberto is a good man and I pray that he
overcomes alcoholism using God as a support instead of feeling ashamed
to be in His presence."

Jennie's story was one of several shared this day. 

At 4:00 p.m., the pastor came back to the church to pick us up and
take us to a place where he said "there is a great problem that breaks
up families and harms the children of the area."  We didn't really know
where we were going, but we ended up in a field with large covered vats
and bags of rocks.  Read what Charlotte Barr had to say about this
experience:

"On our first full day here, we were taken to a site where gold ore
is processed. While there we were told about the history of the area. I
was truly astonished to hear about the hardships the people of Las
Juntas have faced. Most of these difficulties are a result of being
exploited by large mining companies from various foreign countries such
as Great Britain, the US, and Canada, who use labor to mine extremely
dangerous mines located near the city. Once these companies have
obtained as much gold as they desire, they leave the destroyed earth
for the locals to scavenge. Young children are some of the many miners
that attempt to obtain gold from these mines in order to help
economically support their families. We were told of the many dangers
that the miners face. Some are subjected to poisonous vapors, lung
disease, cave-ins and the chemicals, cyanide and mercury, used to
excrete the gold from the ore.  Because the miners are uneducated on
how to properly handle these extremely chemicals, they have to deal
with the side effects of these chemicals and are unsure of where to
place the byproducts. Many boil off into the air while others get
dumped into the river.  This in itself creates other hazards for the
community. Someone in our group made the point of saying how pleasantly
surprised she was to see that the people of this town weren't bitter
against Americans even though large US mining companies had done great
harm to their town and its community. I think this is a true depiction
of the kind and open people who reside in this town."

The whole experience was eye-opening and made us appreciate even
more what the people of this area have faced for the last 200 years and
more.

After the walk/ride back to the church, we had an hour to relax
before an Oriental dinner (it seems so strange that we come to Costa
Rica to eat Oriental.)  During this time, some went to the Pastor's
house to meet the family and send in this blog, others went to a local
soccer field and played a pick up game of soccer (I was surprised to
find out they actually won.) and others stayed back and rested.  By
6:30 p.m., we were eating dinner (which was amazing!). Then it was back
to the church to debrief the day and share God stories with each
other.  Then back to the hostel for an hour or so of Kid's ministry
prep.  Then to sleep by 11:00 p.m..  (Or 12:45 a.m. for me.)  Documented by Joel Tassie

Costa Rica - Day 3

So here it is around midnight and finally the day's blog can be put
together.  This was our first full day of ministry and God was
amazing.  We had our first traditional Costa Rican breakfast – beans
and rice, eggs scrambled with meat, orange juice, unrefrigerated milk
in a box, coffee that is so good you know you're in Costa Rica.  The
meal was followed with musical worship, daily personal devotions and
then out by 10:00 a.m. to do house visits.  This is where the day gets
interesting and where God begins to manifest in powerful, supernatural
ways.  I've had 3 members of the team: Edward Couvillion, Valerie
Fulton and Gina Simmons write about the morning from their perspective.

Edward's Story

"Today, God called our group to participate in a covering prayer
session for the other group and the family they were about to visit.
Before the other group had left we had heard a few words on the
condition of the family and the situation that they were in. What we
gathered from these words was that this family had an elderly man that
had just been diagnosed with cancer and his wife was attempting to get
a type of social security pension so that they could solely survive.
With this information in mind our group sat down and began to pray and
listen to the information that God had for us. During this time God
spoke to many people and let them know what He had in store. Joel was
pointed by God to a specific verse, Ephesians 3:20, which talks about
how God can do more for us than we could ever imagine, then to another
verse about healing, then to another verse about thankfulness. Another
person in our group kept seeing a picture of a young girl. God was
consistently telling members of our group to keep Him at the center and
to let Him lead us and the other group in the correct direction. For
about 30 minutes we continued to pray for the family so that God could
lead them in the right direction. Throughout this time our group had a
very powerful and intense prayer time that, I think, allowed our whole
group to get closer to God and have a closer relationship with Jesus."

While this prayer time was happening at the church with Edward's
group, Valerie's group was experiencing something very different from
what they were expecting.  Here's what she has to say:

Valerie's Story

"Today my group had an amazingly intense experience when we were
least expecting it.  A woman, Myra, came to the church and asked us to
pray over forms asking for a social security pension for her husband
suffering from cancer.  We did so and then followed her to her home to
pray over her husband in person.  After talking, laughing, and praying
over this man, we went to talk to the rest of his family.  This family,
we soon learned, was in need of much more than just physical healing of
the man's cancer.  His wife told her story of her abusive marriage that
had just changed this year after her husband received his cancer
diagnosis.  Her faith, story, and comparisons of herself to Mary
Magdalene were moving and vivid.  We then spoke to her youngest
daughter, a woman with children of her own.  Her broken relationship
with her abusive father and her mother's legalistic approach to church
had tainted her relationship with God.  Upon hearing that her father
had recently accepted Christ, she asked how he could still be so full
of hate and abuse if he had truly become a man of God.  She wanted to
love him, but did not know how to trust. She said, word for word, that
she was confused. All of us in the group were deeply moved and our
hearts tugged us in different directions.  This experience of hurt,
though, provided a healing moment for my faith, and we as a group can
now be God's healing love for this family.  So, as we attempt to "be"
and not "do" in Christ Jesus, I pray- and ask all of you back home to
do so as well- that we may be like stained glass windows, letting
Christ's light shine through us to color this family's life with joy
instead of discouragement and love instead of bitterness. If you can't
tell....it was an intense day!  We were exactly where we needed to be,
and I am so thankful to have been so powerfully led by God."

Everyone in Valerie's group was intensely moved by their visit and
feel called by God to return to this family's house tomorrow to
continue the conversation.  Please pray for them.

After Edwards' group felt finished with what God needed to do with
covering prayer, we went on our own house visit that was also
powerful.  I'll let Gina explain...

Gina's Story

"Today, team one was given an opportunity to visit a home in Las
Juntas where a home-bound 56 year old woman lives with her mother.  Her
name is Yadida and she suffers from epilepsy.  Yadida has suffered
severe brain damage due to repeated seizures since she was young. 
Yadida's mother takes very good care of her along with some other
family members.  However, in order to be able to care for Yadida at
home, officials from the mental hospital required a special room be
built in order to protect her.  Since her brain damage is so severe, at
times Yadida can lash out violently.  Unfortunately, this special room
resembles nothing more than a cage.  It starts with a cold steel wall
of bars with a very small door way of bars as an entrance.  Even the
shortest person has to crouch down in order to get into the room.  The
bottom of the door is covered with wire and screen to keep her from
putting her hands and feet through the bars.  In this very small room
is only a rocking chair next to a window.  That's all.  Attached to
this cage like room is a doorway to a bedroom and bathroom where Yadida
spends her nights.

Where we greeted Yadida was in her rocking chair.  She seemed
frightened of us as we filed in.  I was somewhat shocked and mostly
felt compassion for her.  I could see there was a full life behind her
eyes locked away.  She made the only noise she could, perhaps out of
fear.  It sounded like a shriek.  Nobody took notice or acted
frightened.  We just asked if we could sing, since we heard that while
she was young, Yadida liked to listen to music in church.  We started
to sing and I crouched down to the floor.  I wanted to be lower, to
look up at her so there weren't so many people looking down at her.  I
guess I didn't want her to be overwhelmed.  While Joel was just outside
the room playing the guitar, a few of us were in the small room with
Yadida, a few were with Joel and Ricardo (our translator) and Yadida's
mother was  in the bedroom.  It was cramped, but we sang and sang. 
Yadida slowly turned from her agitated look to one of peace.  She
started to rock in her chair at times, and other times she seemed to
fall asleep.  It was amazing and very powerful to witness this
transformation.  If only for a moment, this child of God had been given
a moment of peace.  At least, I hope that is what she felt, for we will
never know...

We then asked Yadida's mother if we could pray.  She agreed and we
prayed for the family and for Yadida.  We then asked if we could speak
to Yadida's mother so we went into her kitchen and spoke with her about
God.  I asked her if she believed that our prayer would reach God.  She
said she did, and that she believes in God.  We asked more questions
and learned that she is Catholic and attends church occasionally.  We
still needed to know more.  We asked if there was anything we could do
for her but she said her family helps out.  She even went jogging this
morning.  A mother of a 56 year old jogging! But she also let us know
that her two sons are struggling with alcohol.  We did pray for them as
well.  It is an all too familiar problem in this area.  What a strong
woman she must be, dealing with such troubles, yet she goes on.

Our group still feels like there is unfinished business at this
home.  We plan to visit again, if only to bring a little more music
into Yadida's life and a little more comfort and compassion into her
mother's life."

We knew coming into this trip that it would be unlike others we
have done.  That God would use us in ways different from past trips. 
We're beginning to get the picture of what this looks like.  No wonder
we have this exact team with us this week.

Now comes lunch