Thoughts of a missionary

So, we've been here in Costa Rica almost 80 days now.  Some days it's hard to believe that we've been gone that long, and other days it seems like forever.  But, through all the struggles, I've started to discover (only barely started, I'm sure!) the thought process that goes on in the mind of a new missionary.  It isn't always pretty, it isn't always fun, but it sure can be enlightening sometimes.  So, in a slightly different format than my typical post, here are some frequent thoughts of a newbie missionary on the field!

• "Did I just use an English word in that Spanish sentence?"
• "What did I just step in?  No, don't look down, it's better not knowing."
• "Are those gunshots, car backfires, or fireworks...?  Ok, good, definitely fireworks."
• "Who shoots off fireworks in the middle of FEBRUARY??"
• "Wait, what did I just say?  That's not what I was trying to say!!"
• "I came here to learn Spanish... why is my English so terrible now??"
• "I don't know this word in Spanish... If I just slap an 'o' on the end of the English word, what are the odds it'll work?"
• "I want to say this, but I think it's subjunctive... yeah, I'm just not gonna say it."
• "Why can I remember how to order in a resturaunt, but can't remember how to tell this man that Jesus loves him?!?"
• "If one more person tells me why we shouldn't be going to Mexico, I'm gonna freak out!"
• "Wow, I didn't know you could fit that many vehicles into 4 lanes of traffic..."
• "Was that a 'hurry up!' honk, a 'go ahead' honk, a 'hi, friend!' honk, a 'need a taxi?' honk, or a 'flirty' honk?  How long do I have to be here before I'm fluent in the honks??"
• "Wow, I can't believe we've already been at language school for 3 months!"
• "Wow, I can't believe we've only been at language school for 3 months!!"
• "What, they got a letter/package??  They just got one LAST week!!  Why don't I ever get mail??"
• "I wonder what the chances are that I can have this conversation simply through charades alone?"
• "Wow, I never really thought of the U.S. government as 'efficient' until I waited in line for a Costa Rican customs agent!"
• "He just asked me if I'm a missionary... I guess I am.  I mean, I know I am, but I sure don't feel like one right now... shouldn't a missionary be able to talk in the language before claiming the title??"

There are others as well, and I'm sure I'll add to this list over time, but hopefully that'll give you an idea of what goes through the mind of a 'missionary' who is new on the field!

Visitors!

We had a great week last week in the Johnson house: my parents came to visit!  We have been counting down the days to my mom's visit, and when March 5 finally arrived, I couldn't wait to go to the airport to pick her up.  However, I was blown away once I arrived there, because my DAD was there waiting, too!  For months we had been upset because he had a work project the week my mom was coming, and wouldn't be able to visit with us.  He was pretty upset, too, about not being able to come visit.  So, when he went to DIA to drop off my mom, he went in with her and asked, "I noticed this morning that the seat next to my wife is still available... what would it cost for me to fly standby in that seat?"  And, in a miracle from God, they said "$125 round trip!"  So, my dad got to visit, too!  What a blessing and surprise!  You should have seen the look on the kid's faces when we pulled up in the van, and I threw open the back door and they saw not only Mimaw, but also Pipaw! Zoe and Caitlynn were almost too surprised and excited to move, and Sara almost looked like she was in shock, trying to understand what was happening.  Gabe looked very confused for a minute, then got over the confusion as he realized that Mimaw and Pipaw were there and he wanted one of them to hold him!

So excited and blessed to have Pipaw with us for a few days!

Because Pipaw could only stay two days, we decided to take Tuesday off from school and visit some places with him; otherwise, he wasn't going to get to see much of Costa Rica.  So, we went downtown with the family.  First, we hit the artisan's market, so that they could find a few souviners to take home from CR.  My dad found a beautiful carved wood bowl that he loved.  He haggled, got the price lower, decided it wasn't low enough, walked away from the sale, then came back 5 minutes later realizing that he wasn't finding prices even close to what he haggled anywhere else. (If you know my dad, you know that he's pretty stubborn when it comes to haggling and finding the right prices.  Car shopping is an experience with my dad!)  Through it all, I got to translate it all, which was fun.

Hanging out in the Plaza in front of El Teatro National on our way to the Museo

After the market, we grabbed some lunch, then went to "Le Museo de los Niños" (The Children's Museum).  The museum was pretty interesting.  The costs were very low (about $2.20 for an adult), and there was a ton to do there.  The first few rooms weren't that great, and I was starting to wonder if we'd made a mistake, but the further we went into the museum, the more there was to do, and we ended up being impressed with the size of the place, the number of exhibits, and the number of things we could do.  If we had older children, we could have easily spent all day there, but because our kids were small (with small attention spans, sometimes), we ended up spending about 4 hours there before heading home.  The kids loved the rooms with the games, digging in the sand like archaeologists, playing on the train, playing with water, seeing the animals, and going in the optical illusion building.  We had a great day with everyone, and spent some wonderful time with Pipaw before he had to leave the next morning.  It was really hard to take Pipaw to the airport and say goodbye on Wednesday, but we were so blessed to unexpectedly get to spend time with him while he was here!

Playing with some of the exhibits with Pipaw

Dressing up like different professions in the Museo

Playing in the hall of electricity (my favorite part of the Museo!)

Exploring the train at the Museo

Tiny baby or giant chess set?  You be the judge!

Playing in the optical illusion building

Because we had been slackers the rest of the week, Sara and I had to attend school Wednesday through Friday.  So, Mimaw stayed home Wed and Fri to watch the kids for us, and enjoyed her time with the grand kids.  Wednesday, Sara and I got to go on a date together (our first one since we arrived here over 2 months ago!) while my mom kept the kids.  We didn't really do anything fancy, but it was nice to be able to eat a meal, walk around, and watch a movie with my wife without having to worry about 3 kids at the same time.  Thanks Mimaw!


Thursday, Mimaw came to the school with us to see what a normal day of classes is like for us.  A lot of people are kind of surprised when they hear that we ONLY have class from 7:30-12:00 every day, but, like my mom found out, it's a pretty intense day, and by the time classes are over, you're mentally exhausted as you head home contemplating all the homework and studying you have to do that afternoon.  When you throw 3 kids into the mix, it makes for some very exciting, long, tiring and overwhelming days!

Saturday, for her last day in Costa Rica, we took my mom to La Paz Waterfall Gardens with our friends and fellow Global Outreach missionaries, John and Emily Darnell.  This was our first chance to really get outside the great valley in Costa Rica and see what the country looks like away from the 2+ million people that are in the area.  Simply put, Costa Rica is pretty when you're IN San José; when you're out of the city, it's GORGEOUS!  We had such a great time at the park.  We got to see a huge variety of tropical birds (including holding toucans!), butterflies, sloths, monkeys, jungle cats, tree frogs and snakes.  Then, after lunch, we hiked down about 10,000 stairs to get to the 5 waterfalls that pass through the valley below.  It was a gorgeous trip, and I'm so glad we got to see all of it and share it with my mom.

The toucans really liked Zoe, and Caitlynn thought they were pretty cool, too.

My mom really enjoyed the toucans

Everyone held a bird except Gabe and Caitlynn (she was a little scared to try it, but she did pet one!)

Gabriel really enjoyed getting close to the birds.

Just a few of the parrots that we saw while we were at La Paz

The butterflies would sometimes land right on you for a few minutes!

Gabe loved to touch whatever he could at La Paz

Some of the butterflies were beautiful!  This is the most famous type of Costa Rican butterfly (don't remember the name)

Holding a monkey's hand (now I know what my wife feels like with me all the time!)

The monkeys were very interested in us while we were there.

The largest jungle cat we saw moving around while we were there (the jaguar slept the whole time)

Gabe's favorite part was the cats

We actually got to ride in this!  The oxen pulled us around the circle for a few minutes.





At the first waterfall, before the camera died.

Our group for the day!



The final waterfall, called 'La Paz'



John and I (also known as 'Los Guapos', or 'The Handsome Ones') at the final falls.

Saying goodbye to mom was very difficult for all of us.  Everyone cried, and it made us really miss home.  While we're so blessed to be in Costa Rica, it's hard being away from everyone that we love.  We're so blessed to follow God in this way, and we wouldn't trade it for anything, but there are times where our hearts are heavy with the distance between us and our loved ones.  Keep praying for us, would you?  Pray that Christ will be our first love, our strength and our comfort.  Pray for ways to remain connected with those that we love and care about, and that through the strength of our God and the love of His people, we will persevere here in Costa Rica as we set our eyes on what the Lord has for us afterwards as we head into Mexico!  God bless!

Because it's been too long...

Wow, it has taken me way too long to update everyone on here!  Sometimes here in Costa Rica, it feels like we're in a good rhythm of school, studying, keeping the refrigerator stocked, resting on the weekends, and church.  While it's great to be in our rhythm down here now, sometimes it makes it hard to know what to say!  However, looking back, a lot of things happen even in the rhythm of daily life, so we'll update you just a little on how things are going here in San José.

The past few weeks here have been great.  On the 21st, I celebrated my 30th birthday.  Now, as a general rule, I don't like my birthday that much, but Sara did a great job of inviting some friends from the Institute over to our house and made an awesome cake that looked like a La Liga jersey.  We had a great time, and I felt so blessed to have such great friends here already after leaving behind so many other friends in Casper.  I'm not thrilled about being 30, but I guess I'll survive!

Liga!  Liga!  Liga!

What?  Three whole candles???  I didn't train for this!

Some of the friends that we over for my birthday.  We fit more people and kids in our house than should have fit in a reasonable world, but we had a great time!

School has been going well also.  The learning is hard at times (like finding out how to correctly use 'caer bein' in a sentence!!) but we really do feel like we're making great progress!  This past week was Spiritual Emphasis week at ILE.  Every trimester, they shorten the classes slightly for a week, and have a longer chapel every morning plus another chapel service in the afternoons, along with activities for the children.  This trimester, Jim Keena came from Bozeman, Montana, and preached about Elijah all week.  He did a fantastic job, and we were so blessed by the time in the Word!  We also had a few chances to have lunch with some friends, or to have friends over to our house for some food and fellowship.  We continue to be blown away by how God is blessing us spiritually and with great friends while we're here.

Sara teaching ESL on Wednesday nights

We've also started getting more connected to ministry here as well.  Sara teaches ESL every Wednesday night at a local Christian ministry, and is really loving getting to share her life with local Ticos through this ministry.  I'll be helping with the worship and technology team at the church we're attending here, and the pastor has asked me to take the young worship leader under my wing and teach him, which I'm excited to do (though interested in seeing how that'll work with my limited Spanish at this point).  And, as our Spanish has advanced, I've had more opportunities to share my life and testimony with those around us.  Specifically, I'd love for you to pray for:

• Hector and Margarita: they own a little shop across the street from us, and I've really been trying to know them and find ways to be a blessing to them and their son, Brian, who also lives across the street.
• The other Hector: He lives around the corner, and everyone calls him "the other Hector" or "the older Hector."  He has a barbecue across the street a few times a week, and I'm hoping to get to know better him as well.
• Other random people we encounter:  People like Carlos, who was my cab driver on Thursday that I had a great conversation with, or people like Benjamin, who is from Mexico City, but now lives a few miles south of us here in San José.  I met Benjamin at a soccer match this past Thursday evening, and was so blessed to talk with him for a while.  I don't know if I'll cross paths with either of these men again, but I know that every day I encounter people like them, and we want to be faithful to love them and share Christ at every opportunity.

More teaching on Wednesdays

Other than those things right now, we feel sometimes like we're just working day to day on very small parts of the big picture.  One day, we learn how to use complemento directos correctly, the next day we practice reading the scriptures in Spanish out loud, and then we talk about how to order in a restaurant in Spanish.  Sometimes, it's hard to realize that each of these things, in the future, will be tools that we'll take for granted as we share the Gospel with the people of Mexico.  So, this is a time of preparing, refining, equipping, and sometimes, silence, as we seek to be made ready vessels of God, eager to be poured out for His glory wherever He may send us.  I hope to write more later this week about some of the spiritual battles we're facing here, but for now, it's just a joy to know that God is working in various ways, and that the end result will be His glory and His renown among the nations!

One of the geckos that live in our house sometimes.

The kids are still as cute as ever!