Our Journal: Moving on then going back to San Pablo de la Cruz, Costa Rica

back to Our Walk of Faith

Thursday, October 25th
We dropped a couple of cards and a package off at the post office, and headed out.

As we turned the corner in at a small crossroads, we saw Paola waving at us from across the street! She was at the English class that we spoke to on Tuesday night! We chatted with her for a few minutes and kept walking.

We’d been walking for a while when a man called out to us in English. He asked where we were from, and we told him North Carolina. He explained that he was from Alabama and quickly invited us in for coffee or some fruit juice. We decided that we should talk for a bit with this family because we had been praying for a bit. It looked like it was going to rain (again)…we knew it was God’s provision.

Max introduced us to his son, Steve, and we all sat down to chat for a bit. Max moved to Costa Rica full-time about 9 years ago after he retired. Steve is down to have some minor surgery on his ear and to have some dental work done. We had a really good conversation with them. Max is a recovering alcoholic (25 years) who’s done a little of everything in his life. He told story after story of how he has seen God at work in his life. Steve is a great artist…the style of pottery that he did for the past 15 years Raku…we’d never seen it before, but it’s beautiful. A few pictures of his pottery are at the end of the post. He’s a thinker (needless to say, I could relate), and he’s traveled the world!! (We hated to leave because we really felt like there was an open door there, but we also wanted to be true to our word to Karen who invited us to stay at her house, and we didn't have any way to get in touch with them.) We also met

Diandra (Max’s adopted daughter) and Katherine (the neighbor’s daughter) who were playing in Max’s VW van...it doubles as their playhouse. By the time we thought we should head on, it was dark and still raining. Max offered to take us up to the International Teams house, but he wanted to meet for breakfast the next day. We weren’t sure if that would work, but we knew it was an open door…so we wrote down Max’s phone number just in case.

We arrived a little later than Mark and Karen were expecting, but he invited us to set our packs down at his house.

The students up at the big house invited us to participate in the Lord’s Supper with them, so Mark told us that it would be fine for us to go on up.

Rick was leading the service that night…the Formation teachers take turns each week, so it’s a little different each time. Wow…we were touched…just thinking about what Christ did for us. It impacts me a lot every time. Just another way that God refreshed us as He was sending us back out.

After our time of sharing the Lord’s Supper, David shared a testimony of faith with us. He was scheduled to go on a mission trip, and he had paid for the hotel, food, etc. for while he was in country, but he didn’t have money for the airfare. The team had their final meeting on Friday, so he went to tell them that he couldn’t go. (They were scheduled to leave on Monday morning.) He prayed for them and went home. Yet he still believed that he was supposed to go. He tried everything he could think of all weekend, but nothing worked out. Sunday night, he packed his bags. His mom asked what he was doing, but he told her not to ask questions because he didn’t know how to answer her except that he believed that God wanted him to go on the trip, so he was preparing. Monday morning, he got up to go to the airport to see the team off and to pray for them again. When he was two blocks from the airport, he got a phone call asking where he was. He explained that he was on his way to the airport. The brother on the other end said…”Good, I hope you are packed and ready to go because I paid for your plane ticket!” Isn’t God amazing?!!

Karen came to get us at the big house, and we went back to have a little supper and talk a few minutes. They are early risers, so we headed to bed with plans to talk in the morning.

Friday, October 26th
We met

Mark and Karen’s daughter, MaryJo, at breakfast. Mark read the devotion…they pray for a different country each morning. So this morning, we prayed for open doors for the Gospel in Zambia. Then MaryJo had to head to school. Mark and Karen are super busy…they disciple about 70 men and women over the course of the week. We were extremely blessed to have a couple of hours of Mark’s time this morning especially considering that they were having company at lunch. On top of that, Mark leaves tomorrow morning for a huge meeting in the US. We were so thankful for their sacrifice and have been praying that God would multiply their time…especially their rest!

Mark shared from God’s Word and his experiences about the discipleship process that he uses. It’s modeled on what Jesus did! The best model to use if you ask me! He described it to us using 4 chairs…each chair has 4 steps. The first 3 chairs are based out of John 14:6 where Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.” The first chair represents the unbeliever (could look like and act like a Christian if they’ve been hanging around Christians). Here people learn that Jesus is the Way. The 2nd chair represents followers of Jesus (babies in Christ). People in this stage learn that Jesus is the truth. Chair 3 represents the disciple…people in this chair began making disciples, and they are surrendered to Jesus! Jesus is the Life!! He’s their Lord…their Boss. People generally move back and forth between chair 2 and 3 because it’s a moment by moment decision. Chair 4 is those who are sent out to help the church be effective in evangelizing, edifying the body, and equipping disciples. It’s much more in-depth than what I’m explaining right now, but I want to give you an idea. It was amazing…Chris and I have so much to think about, to study, and to pray about over the next 8-10 months as we continue walking. We’ve been saying for quite sometime that God has us in school right now…He continually sends teachers into our path…this is another example of that! Maybe we’ll be ready to disciple some teens or early twenty-somethings when we get home?!

We knew how limited Mark and Karen’s time was, so we knew that we needed to leave. We also remembered a lesson that Pastor Humberto (from La Tinaja, Mexico) taught us…finish the work God brought us into the city for before moving on. Well, there was still an open door with Max, so we decided to call him even though it was closer to lunch than to breakfast. We weren’t sure…but we were going to check. When we called, he told us that Hanny (Diandra’s mom) wanted to meet us too! So we walked down to San Isidro and Max picked us up in front of the church.

We had a wonderful day hanging out with Max, Hanny, Steve, and Diandra!

We even were able to play with Diandra for a bit! Max has some great stories and Steve thinks a lot, so between the two of them we had some really interesting conversations. We continue praying for discernment and direction.

Saturday, October 27th
We hung out most of the day with the family again…still lots of great conversations and good fun with Diandra.

Katherine came over again today with her mom, Jaquelin and her baby brother, Aaron. Chris wanted me to show them the salvation bracelets while they were all together. As I explained to the ladies, they listened intently. All four of them told me that they had made decisions to make Jesus their Savior. Pretty exciting…

Don Marco (one of Max’s friends) also stopped by…he wanted to take us to see his coffee fields…here are some pictures from there.

Remember that the berry goes from green, to yellow, and finally to red when they are ready to be picked.

We also met a guy who works for him who was spraying herbicide to kill the weeds near the coffee plants.

Hanny is training to be a beautician right now…she was willing to practice if we were interested in having our hair cut!

So Chris got a buzz and she gave me a much needed trim!

Sunday, October 28th
Today, we went to church at the International Baptist Church this morning. Max goes there because they have services in English…they also have English or Spanish Sunday school classes. Hanny and I went to the Spanish class, Max and Chris went to the English class for men, and Diandra and Katherine went to the children’s class. Then we all went to church together. The message was about repentance from Hosea 6…requirements of repentance: recognize our sin and return to God…and results of repentance: restoration and renewed (or new) relationship with God through Jesus.

From church, Max and Hanny took us into San Jose so that we could see the country’s capital.

We ate lunch and then Max and Hanny showed us around a little bit.

This is in front of the National Theater which was built by the coffee growers in Costa Rica in the early 1800s.

The

rest of the day, we rested and had some good conversations and of course, played with Diandra!!

Monday, October 29th
Today, we thought we were leaving, but Max wanted to talk to one of his friends who is going to Panama pretty soon. He wanted to know if he was going today or tomorrow so that we could ride with him. We don’t think it’s going to work out, but another of Max’s friends dropped by about mid-morning.

Ismael (black shirt) is a missionary from Guatemala who is working in Costa Rica and with the Kuna people in Panama. He worked on a Logos ship evangelizing in ports up and down the coast of South America. We are praying about getting together with him tomorrow or Wednesday. (His friend Odir was with him today…they own a business together that donates 35% of their profits to mission efforts and 10% to helping churches who don’t have the resources to build a church.)

We also hung out for a bit with the family again today…we are hoping to teach Diandra how to play spoons if we can get the adults to play with us!! Ha, ha, ha!

Tuesday, October 30th
Well, today we called Ismael and left a message...we'll see what happens. It's interesting...now we spend our time waiting on God to reveal our next step and learning more from and about Him. We're catching up on journaling and a few other odds and ends that I didn't finish while we were at the hotel working/resting. We have enjoyed our time here so much. Neither Chris nor I have any grandfathers who are still alive, so being with Max has been wonderful!!

Max loves to grill out, so he grills meat everyday! It's been like tasting home all week!! In the same way that being with the Wahl's in Lousiana made me want a bread maker (one day), Chris is now hoping that we will have a grill if God ever has us living in one place again! Hanny and Diandra are great to to talk with and play with! Steve has challenged us to think a little more...something we both like to do! He's also given up his bed for us to sleep in while we were here.

(A small aside…Chris and I have been in Romans 12 for quite some time now, and verse 13 says "Share with God's people in need. Practice hospitality." We have seen this so much. It's really overwhelming at times. Our continued prayer is that we are internalizing these lessons that we are learning right now...that we will show this kind of hospitality if we ever have a house again. I remember how busy we were when we were both teaching...and how I worried about everything being perfect before someone came over. We’ve seen that hospitality is different than this…it’s making someone authentically feel welcomed in your home regardless of the circumstances. Whether I was prepared for them or not…I have much to learn!! Part of my personality is planning ahead and taking care of details…this isn’t necessarily the most important thing!)

We'll have to see what the rest of the day holds...It appears we are heading up the mountain. Ismael is coming to get us tomorrow. We are excited to spend a little more time with him to hear his testimony! He's recently widowed...he was married to Nalu for 1 1/2, but she passed away in May from cancer, but he's got a certain joy about him. God is so amazing!

We were able to spend quite a bit of time with Max, Hanny, Diandra, and Steve again today. We're going to miss being here.

This afternoon, Marco came over again. We've seen him several times this week. Yesterday, he told us that he was collecting parts of the newspaper because every so often they were putting in parts of the Bible. When Chris heard that, he wanted to give him the Bible that we had. It was English/Spanish, so it was perfect for Marco. So we were praying that he would drop back by...when he came by today, we knew it was for him! We wrote him a note and pray that he will read it!!

We'll be in touch again soon! God is moving us again! Hope that you are all doing really well! God bless you and keep you! We love you tons! Keep seeking God first!! He'll take care of the rest!!

a) Steve whipped up a few things to eat as well...this day was omelettes...more delicious recipes!! b) Max and Chris did a little work around the house...