Immediate Responses

Since I've been in Costa Rica, I haven't had a chance yet to teach or preach, so there's a little bit in me that feels like a pressure cooker that's ready to blow and let some things out!  I can't believe how much I miss teaching and sharing, and I pray that the Lord gives me a chance soon here to share the Word with others.  Until then, I'll occasionally be posting blogs that aren't necessarily related to Costa Rica, but are about what the Lord is doing in my life, what He's said to me in His Word, or thoughts I've had during other situations.  Most of these will be taken from my journal that I keep so that years from now my children will be able to read them and see what the Lord did in the life of their father.  Hope you enjoy them!

As a parent, one of the things that makes me most upset is when Sara or I give the girls a clear instruction or command, and they take their time to respond.  Often, I'll hear Sara tell the girls to come into the living room, or to clean something up, but the girls will just keep playing, or will stop along the way to do something else that they want to do first.  They may have a heart to obey (eventually), but first they want to gratify their own desires, or finish something that is important to them that they're being asked to stop.  Of all the little acts of rebellion that the girls do, this delay to obey is one that gets them into the most trouble.  I expect the kids to always immediately respond to the commands they are given by their parents, and to fulfill what is expected and required of them quickly.

However, in my own life, I often find a deep hypocrisy in this area.  I hear the Lord give me a command to, 'Go here,' or 'Tell this person about me,' or 'It's time to stop doing this...,' etc, and I presume that my heavenly father will allow me to take my time in obeying.  "Just a while longer, Lord, I'm not quite done here yet," is a common delaying tactic, or, "I'm not ready to tell them about you yet, Lord, but I'll be better prepared tomorrow."  Even, "Just a few more minutes with my sin, Lord, and then I'll be done enjoying it," makes a frequent appearance in my conversations with the Lord (maybe not vocally, but definitely behaviorally).  What a terrible truth this reflects on my heart!

In my house, there is punishment for such disobedience from my daughters.  Sometimes it is simply a strong rebuke; othertimes, they will lose something dear to them for a time; in more serious times of rebellion, the punishment may grow even more severe (I'll let you decide what that means).  During these times of consequences, my desire is to show grace and mercy to my children, and my heart towards them is one of love, but I cannot allow the disobedience to go uncorrected and unchallenged, either.  Because I want my children to live and walk and grow up in a right and Godly way, I must take action!  I would be an unloving and uncaring father if I didn't! (Parents, just think of the children that you know whose parents do NOT show dicipline in their lives.... see the problem??)

How much more should the response of the Lord be to rebellion in my life!?  Should I not expect to suffer rebuke, loss, and shame because of my sin and disobedience?  Even if I claim that I'm going to obey Him eventually, the fact is that I'm still sinning NOW!  The Lord would not be good, loving, or kind to leave my rebellious, self-serving heart unchecked.  Jesus Himself said, "And everyone who hears these words and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.  And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it." (Mt. 7:26-27 ESV)

Lord, please change my heart!  Give me a heart that desires You and Your will, the first time, and every time, because I know that you are a loving Father, and you know and desire what is best for me, now and in the long term!

The Great Airport Adventure!

This past Saturday, I got to go on my first decent-sized 'adventure' in San José: find my way to the airport and back by bus!  Our missions agency, Global Outreach, have several missionaries here in Costa Rica.  One missionary couple is Frank and Evelyn Turner, who serve about an hour and a half outside of San José.  They're a wonderful couple, and we're hoping to go spend a weekend with them and their ministry sometime soon.  Anyways, they had a missions team coming in to work with them, and the team was bringing some things for us from the states (our new debit cards, which were MUCH needed!).  So, I had to make it to the airport to meet the team there when their flight arrived at 12:55.

I was a little nervous about trekking across a city of 1.7 million by myself with my broken Spanish, but the Lord is good to me!  A friend of mine here at the school, Cody Whittaker, wanted to go with me, so not only would I have someone to spend the day with, but I'd have someone to help with the translating (Cody's wife, Maria, is from Puerto Rico, so his Spanish is quite a bit better than mine at this point.)  It was also incredibly humbling to have Cody go with me, because honestly, Cody has been a hero of mine for a few years now, even before I met him!  Cody and Maria are also a part of Global Outreach, and they originally served in Haiti before deciding to serve in a Spanish speaking country.  I don't have time to go into all the details at this time (though you can check out more about Cody and Maria here, then read through their blogs beginning in late 2010, though I warn you, it's not for the faint of faith!).  Cody and Maria in just a few years as missionaries have been through more than most life-long career missionaries, and have been through heartbreak that I've never been sure that I'd be able to withstand myself, yet they still have such a deep love for the Lord and for others.  I have been blessed to pray for the Whittakers for a few years now, and I'm even more blessed to call them friends now, and it was a huge joy to have Cody with me all day Saturday, just sharing our lives and talking about how God has worked in us.

Part one of the trip was easy: catch a bus from San Francisco de Dos Rios (The neighborhood that we live in) to San José Central.  Cost us about 200 colones (around 40 cents), and about 20 minutes on a bus.  We then asked a few people for directions, and got pointed towards the next bus (which ended up being about 8 blocks away).  On the way, we passed a nice little plaza, and even grabbed a burger at a Carl's Jr. (first burger in 3 weeks + sharing testimonies about how God gave us our wives and how we were called into missions = a great lunch!)  After a bit more asking, we caught the next bus, the one that was to take us to the aeropuerto!

The church at the plaza in San José Central

About an hour and a half later (and 50 minutes after the missions team landed), we realized that there's a big difference between asking for the bus to the airport, and the DIRECT bus to the airport!  That bus ride would NEVER end!  We wound through several neighborhoods (including every single road in Heredia and Alajuela (towns surrounding San José central), I think!)  The bus was incredibly hot, and got more and more crowded as we went, and my patience was tried every time the bus stopped.  We were most concerned that the team was waiting on us to show up, or, even worse, that they WEREN'T waiting, and maybe they just left!

Another view of the plaza, from the south this time, with the flag of Costa Rica featured.

Finally, we arrived... and found out that the team wasn't even through customs yet!  Praise God!  We got to talk with Frank and Evelyn for a bit, found out how to make sure we got a direct bus back, and met with the team.  They were a wonderful team, who seemed just as happy to see us as they were just to be in Costa Rica, and they couldn't have been more of a blessing.  We said our goodbyes, and made our way (direct!) back to San Francisco de 2 Rios!

Another Catholic church across from the depot for the Tuasa buses
that (eventually!) take you to the airport.

It was a blessed time of sharing and fellowshipping with Cody, and seeing more of San José, as well as meeting Frank and Evelyn face to face.  I'm pretty sure I got heat stroke (I was NOT well the next 36 hours after I got home), and the trip ended up being way longer than I expected, but it was still a great day... and now, if you ever get the urge to come see us here in Costa Rica... I know how to get to the airport!

Getting used to San José

Sorry it took a week to post again, it's been so crazy around here with our first week of school (I'll be posting what school is like next week so you can get an idea of what we're doing down here!)

A statue of Mary at the Catholic Church about half a mile from our house.

So we've been in Costa Rica for 14 days now!  This is officially the longest that I've ever been out of Wyoming at any one time, and it's still hard to believe sometimes that we won't be back for quite a while.  However, we're getting settled in here better now, and we're really enjoying the area.

This is the main street that we live next to, just around the corner to the left from here.  Behind us about 5 blocks is the school, and just ahead on the right is Parque el Bosque.

We live in a part of San José that is actually to the south east of San José Central, in a neighborhood known as San Francisco de Dos Rios (though it's usually written out as 'de 2 Rios).  A lot of people around here, including the signs on the bus, simply call this area "El Bosque," referring to the park that we live directly across the street from. (For those of you wondering, 'Parque el Bosque" means "The Forrest Park.")  It's a nice neighborhood, with many nice parks within a mile of our house (Parque el Bosque, Parque Copa, Parque Sauces, and Parque Okayama, which is called by the locals "Parque China," even though it's actually a Japanese park!)  There are gorgeous mountains to the south of us, and if you get up high enough, you can actually see mountains on practically all sides.

A view of the mountains to the south from Parque Copa.

I've been walking a lot through our neighborhood, and have been finding lots of small grocery stores, bakeries, mom and pop diners (called 'Sodas' in Costa Rica), and other shops.  Earlier today, I had to find a small bathroom and glass shop called 'Alfa' to replace a small pane of glass that Caitlynn accidently broke the other day.  It was exciting to be able to ask "I need to find the store called 'Alfa' to replace a windowpane," (Turns out I was standing across the street from it :) ) and "I need to buy a new pane like this one," in Spanish and actually be understood! (Though I'm sure there was a lot wrong with each sentence, but hey, at least it was somewhat comprehensible!)

A few of our teachers at ILE doing some traditional Costa Rican ('costarricenses') dances for the students at the New Students Welcome today at ILE.

One of the interesting things about moving to another country is figuring out all the things that we know and take for granted back in the States, such as: How do I take out the trash? (Answer: put it on the street on Wednesday and Saturday mornings, and they'll pick it up... but DON'T put it out the night before, because people might tear into your bags and throw trash everywhere as they check to see if you threw away any metal they can take and recycle).  Or: There are no addresses or street names, so how do I receive my utility bills, and how do I pay them?  (Answer: they MIGHT stick your bill in your gate (but, then again, you may not get a bill), and you can pay all your utilities at pretty much any store while you buy your groceries.) Or, what do we do about water? (Answer: San José has one of the best water treatment plants in Latin America, and the water is supposed to be clean to drink... but, we think there's an issue with our pipes here, so we're buying large 5 gal. jugs of water each week for drinking and cooking).  All these sorts of issues and more keep us our our feet, but we're loving every minute of it.

That being said, pray for me this weekend!  On Saturday, I'll be leaving the comfortable confines of San Francisco de Dos Rios, and I'll be making my way to the airport via bus to meet up with a missions team that's coming into CR to work with another group of Global Outreach missionaries in CR, the Turners.  The team is bringing a few things for Sara and I from the states, so it'll be quite an adventure to set out on my own with my little bit of Spanish across this city of 1.7 million, but I can't wait to try it!  I'll take some pictures, and tell you all about it next time!  Thanks for your prayers!

First day of school

Wednesday, we started our orientation at ILE (Institudo de Lengua Española, the school we'll be attending).  It's a beautiful campus, with a great facility.  On the same piece of property they have classes for all the students (close to 100 students will be on campus this upcoming trimester), and their children who are enrolled at either the Sojourn Academy (for students who are K-12th grade), or at Rayitos de Sol, their preschool.  You can see how large the campus is here, and how close we are to it.

Even though their actual classes broken up by age won't start until Monday, the kids were still excited for their first day at school while we went through orientation.  Even Caitlynn, who is usually shy, was very excited to go to class, and has bonded quickly with her teacher.

Gabe was also pretty excited, though he doesn't always like it when mommy and daddy leave him behind for a while.  It was such a blessing to drop him off, and before we were even out of the building hear his teacher singing songs about God to him in Spanish.

The campus of ILE is gorgeous, with some great views of the mountains south of us.  I'll try to get more pictures of the campus for you all to see later, but here's one last look at the campus for now.  Keep us in your prayers, as every day at orientation we find out more things that we need to be thinking about and working on!

Our new home: San José

Well, we've had a few days to get settled in here in San José, and while there's still a TON that we need to discover and find out here, it's been fun figuring some things out.  It's beautiful here, and we're going to love living in San José.  I wanted to take a minute and show you in pictures what it looks like where we'll be living for the next 8 months.

These murals are on a wall right around the corner from our house... they're very beautiful, and the girls keep asking me to take their pictures in front of them :)

We live right next to Parque el Bosque in the part of San José known as San Francisco de dos Rios.  Parque el Bosque means "Forrest Park," and the park lives up to the name.  It's a full city-block square, and is full of trees.  It's beautiful, and even has some places for the kids to play when we have the time.

This is the street we live on.  I'd tell you what street it is, but the streets here have no name! (That's right, U2 fans, those places do exist :) )  The street is nice, but it's fairly busy, and VERY noisy at all hours, which is taking some getting used to.

San José is a beautiful city, with gorgeous mountains nearby, and green EVERYwhere! (and, Casper readers, it's handy for us to keep our sense of direction here, since the mountains are to the south, just like in Casper).

There are lots of shops and restaurants in the neighborhood, which is great...the one thing that surprised me is the number of Chinese places around... these are just 3 of what have to be 6-8 different ones within a mile of our house!

And this is our house!  We live here (everything from the driveway to the left, the right side is another house).  We love the house, and will hopefully show you more of it in posts to come!