Costa Rica Mission Journal

David’s Journal in Costa Rica Saturday, April

We arrived in Costa Rica…Warm sunshine…Nice breeze. Javier, our driver for our stay, picked us up at the airport, along with Ray Zerkle, the missionary we came to help. We stopped at a restaurant and the food was excellent!
On through the city, through the teaming traffic….the cars and trucks in Costa Rica must surely have awesome brakes, as they speed right next to one another and fly up to stop signs---never a squeal of tires though.

After settling in at the seminary we went along with Javier on the bus to an open-air shopping site, kind of like our flea markets…..Picked out some nice bargains for Jackie which took me about half an hour. ---then just settled in to watch and enjoy the local color.
As we were in the middle of the city Saturday it was very busy—people bustling—lots of busses weaving around parked vehicles and speeding up and down the streets….As I mentioned before, not a squeal of tires, horn honking, or accidents----REMARKABLE!!

After shopping everyone was ready for some chill time. Javier brought us back to the seminary and we straightened up and finished unpacking before going across the street for a delicious spaghetti dinner.
Back to the seminary…most everyone worked on completing the Bible School hand out packages that we are going to give the children with all the crafts for our lessons we are to present at Bible School.

I of course, having procrastinated on my “Prepare Your Heart” lesson…. book, worked on studying it until completed.----except for the journal part, which I will do each day. Of course Brian had to get a picture of my studious behavior (which is SO UNCHARACTERISTIC!!).

Ray had explained the operation of the heated shower…..however I don’t think the method will catch on at home!! An electrical heating element at the shower head….common sense tells me that 110 volts at the shower head doesn’t sound like a good plan, however, it’s either run the risk of a quick electrocution, or endure a cold shower----I elected to take a chance, but the water was only luke-warm…Oh well, at least I didn’t fry!!! Bedtime…..I slept like a log (as usual).


SUNDAY…….

Sunday morning up at 5:30…the sun was up….made coffee…everyone started rousting.
While waiting for breakfast at 8:30, we all gathered in the common area and sang several songs from the mission songbook that Clarence had put together.

Breakfast was great! It consisted of scrambled eggs, bacon, “All Inclusive Cereal”, black beans and rice (my staple when I was single and I still like it), orange juice and coffee.
Back to the seminary…..while we waited for Javier to pick us up for church we sang more songs. When Javier arrived, we all loaded up in the church van and headed to the southwestern part of San Jose to a small Methodist Church which is part of Ray Zirkel’s church team.

. The church was packed and had standing room only in the back---which lots of people were doing---standing. There were SO MANY kids there!! The praise and worship was awesome! There was a guitar, a keyboard, a drummer, three girls singing, and the song leader…WOW!! The energy that was created---NOW THAT WAS CHURCH!

People started dancing…Karen, Cathy, Becky, and Donna, all went to the front of the church and soon they were dancing with the children. The atmosphere was electric…I wished my Jackie were here so she could experience it with me.

The pastor preached the sermon in Spanish and Ray Zirkel, standing next to him, interpreted it in English for our team. The sermon was based on Ps. 45 and the growth of the church.

We visited after church for a while, and then we all went to an Oriental restaurant to eat. The food was very good. After we ate we loaded up with Javier and Ray came along and acted as our tour guide and our guest. We headed for the construction site for the returning members to see the progress made and for us first timers to get a glimpse of what we had in store for us Monday morning.

The ride took us up to a suburb of San Jose (Coronado)….very nice area---more affluent than most of the city of San Jose that I had experienced thus far. For me it was a welcome breath of fresh air to get out of the city and to see cattle, rolling hills and green grass. I looked down the road as far as I could see to the first curve and wondered what lay down the road….five miles, ten miles, twenty, and even thirty----guess I’ll just have to wait until Jackie and I are here next month. Maybe we’ll just rent a Harley and explore. However, with Jackie I think we could explore for years.

Standing on the site, we were almost at cloud level. I took some pictures of the volcano (mountain) that was to the north of us, and of the next-door neighbor’s strawberry patch. Rainy season is due to start any time, but as for now the construction site is very dusty.
The construction site is approximately 5200 feet above sea level. The temperature was between 60 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit---you almost needed a jacket when you were out in the wind. Ray says at that altitude you don’t need an air conditioner and a fire place is needed only to take the morning chill off.

Ray was talking about the orphanage and Clarence brought up the fact that most orphans would have it better right there in the orphanage than outside the orphanage if they were adopted. Ray then committed on the Methodist High School (which he is the director of) and the fact that the college has a 100% college attendee rate. He is hoping to be able to offer scholarships for some of the orphans to go to the Methodist High School. I think this sounds like a goal Jackie and I would like to work and prosper to help fulfill.

After walking around the site for a while, we drove back to the seminary and changed into relaxing clothes and kicked back and relaxed for a while.


MONDAY MORNING

We ate breakfast and then headed out to the work site. When we arrived we did some stretching exercises and then teamed up for a couple of different jobs…..one job Donna, and I (Karen, part time) sanded and spackled in the orphanage building. The other crew worked on cementing a ditch for rain water control.

We broke for lunch, which consisted of spaghetti, salad, and watermelon. We were hungry and the food was outstanding! We worked until 2:30 and then loaded up and headed for a church on the south side of San Jose. This church was in the poor section of town, surrounded by tin shanties, packed together on the side of a hill, reported to be a haven for gangs. We met the minister who was extremely personable and friendly…he and his family made us feel at home. When they introduced us to a gathering of over eighty children, the children began cheering and made us feel like celebrities.

Ray made us aware of the fact that the pastor and his church feed all the children of the surrounding neighborhood two meals a day, Monday through Friday. On Saturday, because of the fact that some parents would not allow their children to come to church, they feel them at another site. This could possibly be the only good meal the children get all week long.

The experience of the Bible School with the children was priceless. They swarmed us, asking questions (in Spanish), wanted their pictures taken, and pronouncing our names off our nametags…to find favor with us. We sang and danced with the children. We then started our program…we sang songs to them in Spanish, and then presented five different Bible stories to them, in the form of a puppet show.
Then we set down in small groups of about ten and worked with them on the crafts. We attempted to have a couple of games---however with the number of children, it was almost impossible---we had a good time!

When the minister told them to line up to get their piece of candy. Once again, order was restored and they formed their lines to receive their candy as they made their way out the door.

After a long day, we headed home. Supper was waiting for us at the seminary. We had lasagna, avocados, lettuce, tomatoes, and mangos. After we ate we went back to our compound and worked on tomorrow’s crafts---get to bed early---what a great day, I MISS JACKIE!!!

TUESDAY

Tuesday morning I woke up to a beautiful morning. The sun was shining and the birds were singing. I had set up a plan with Clarence the night before. I would prepare the coffee and have it ready for him to turn on when he got up at 5:00 am…..GOOD PLAN…when I woke up at 5:30 the coffee was ready hot and waiting for me to drink and to help me come to life…Great way to start a Tico day!
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Will had translated our breakfast prayer song we had been singing every morning as our breakfast prayer into Spanish for us so This Morning we sang Gracious Cristo (Thank You Jesus).
Breakfast was good as usual, eggs, bacon, all inclusive cereal, and orange juice for me.
We headed on out to the job site right from breakfast as we had decided the day before that in order to save time and help insure an early start we would load the van before we ate. When we pulled into the job site we immediately unloaded and lined up for stretching exercises, much to the amusement of the Costa Rican (Tico) workers there. After feeling a little foolish the first morning, the second day, It became clear that the stretching led by Becky was surely a pain prevention exercise and I got right in the groove of things.After our stretching we went right to work, I started out sanding and spackling inside, then taped door frames and did some painting. After lunch we then worked at digging out the rest of the soon to be Concrete water drainage ditch.
When work day was done, we headed for the same church in which Sunday we had been blessed with attending services. On the way as we were weaving through traffic at a seemingly high rate of speed, Motorcycles passing us on the white line, between traffic, and on our outside, I commented to Clarence that sometimes I felt like grabbing the handhold on the seat in front of me with my left hand, putting my right hand in the air and shouting OK OPEN THE GATE--- Rodeo style. Javier is indeed a skillful driver.
When we pulled into the Church I saw the Pastor outside visiting with Ray. Now was my chance to ask him to repeat something he had said the proceeding Sunday. It seems that in his sermon, he had referenced a Quote from Martin Luther, I remembered that it really hit home and that it was good, but I needed to hear it again to burn the exact words into my memory. Martin Luther said” I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God's hands, that I still possess. Martin Luther
Bible School was great, we had about thirty kids, enough for a couple groups for crafts. This gave the photographers in the group (According to John) the opportunity for a good photo shoot, and video opportunity.
Yerlon (an intern who works at the seminary) also a real sweetheart, helped us tonight, and what a help she was. We all felt so blessed to have Will and Yerlon helping us. They both bridged the language barrier for us, explaining in Spanish to the Children what the crafts were all about, telling the bible stories behind our puppet skits, and above all singing and leading the children in songs and worship. They were great.
After bible school we headed back to the Hacienda, had supper, Pork chops, carrots and green beans, pineapple and lemonade---good as usual.
After supper we all settled in for some relax time with no Dyramas to fold everything all prepared for the next day done— just share time tonight---Probably a short one I’m tired. I have devotions tomorrow,hmmmmmmm. I wanted to call Jackie tonight but thought maybe Just wait one more day. My devotions are going to be on Psalms 37 1-4 I guess it goes with what we are experiencing here and goes with the Martin Luther quote pretty well.
Wed Morning
I led devotions using the Martin Luther Quote and Psalms 37 1-4. We talked about how it not only means material things but also relationships children etc.
We ate breakfast, then out to the work site for the roughest physically demanding day of our mission thus far. John Brian and I wheeled wheelbarrows full of concrete from the mixer approx 100 yards to a formed up storm drain box they were building. Loaded we were going downhill, and were digging in our heals to keep the wheelbarrow fro becoming a runaway. then the return trip empty was up the hill. It seemed to get longer and steeper every trip. We were also supplying Clarence and Jose with concrete for the concrete water drainage ditch, the opposite direction of the storm drain. As they progressed the distance to haul the concrete increased. Their job was no piece of cake by any means. virtually on their knees all day, standing on their heads trawling smooth the concrete to transfer a dumped pile of concrete into a smooth on three side drainage ditch. The work was nonstop.
The work place was constant all day long and by 2:30 we were all sore and dragging.
We loaded into the van and Javier drove us to the top of a mountain to a church for bible school. On the drive up the mountain we drove past Dairy farms, a couple ranches that had Brahma cattle, and as we reached the top of the mountain a giant cross, that we could see from the orphanage site. The scenery was beautiful, nothing like we had experiences thus far.
The Church was a very small church, but the kids made up for the smallness in size by their enthusiasm. The pastor was very nice and served us up some fresh ground Costa Rican coffee and some sweet pancakes. I had never had sweet pancakes before, kind of tasted like my Moms strawberry shortcake cake .Since it reminded me of my Moms Cooking I don’t need to tell you, it was good!
We went through our songs and our puppet skits, then Will and Yerlon spoke to the Children in Spanish, describing all about the crafts and how to do them, did I mention how in valuable those two were to our mission effort? Once again the bible school with the kids completely revitalized us from somewhere, only God could be in charge. A rousing game of Duck Goose, and Brian getting the boys to Huuu Huuu made the night just one more Costa Rican bible school an unforgettable experience.
We arrived back at the seminary about twenty minutes later than planned, after dropping the pastor and his son off close to their home in San Marcus. At 9:30 after supper we had sharing time , and Karen was awarded the orange towel award for throwing her body in front of a spraying water hose to save John and Brian from certain Wet. A good laugh was enjoyed by all. My bed really looked good after a long day. Good night.
Thursday
Our last workday, we were up ate breakfast, and headed out to the job site. When we left yesterday afternoon we only lacked about 100ft from completing the drainage ditch about two mixer loads. We had all figured that as our project for the morning. Father Abraham (The construction foreman) had other plans.
At the rear of the property lies a deep ravine with a small stream running along its border. To keep squatters from crossing the creek and erecting a tin shack on orphanage property, it was necessary to build a fence. In Costa Rica when they build a fence they use Concrete posts and concrete them into the ground. (Ours is not to teach—but to serve)
That was our job for our last morning at the job site. So armed with shovels,(No post hole diggers)even though they had one, again we were not there to teach we were there to serve. We carried (John and Brian) two one hundred pound bags of Cement down the almost straight up and down ravine, the sand and gravel were already down, we would use the water in the stream to mix up concrete.
Jose made a trail with his machete through the bamboo along the stream, and marked the post sites, that I was elected to dig. I had made the mistake of telling Clarence my credentials. I went to College at Heidelberg college mainly to play football*** Well anyway after my first year I Joined the Marine Corps and went to Viet Nam. Someone asked me why I would do a stupid thing like that and I told them that at College they told me if I would stick with it I could earn a PHD. Well—I grew up on a farm and I knew that stood for Post Hole Digger And I had enough of that growing up I didn’t want anything to do with that so I just Joined The Marine Corps.
So I ended up with a PhD anyway.
John Brian and Clarence worked at getting the cement all mixed up using water from the stream, carried up in buckets. Costa Rica style cement mixing---shovel sand and gravel in a pile then add cement , hollow out a hole in the middle then fill the hole full of water and mix with a shovel. It works pretty well. Good enough for us for sure because we got the Job done.
After digging all the post holes we started setting posts, Clarence while traversing through the strand of Bamboo, grabbed an old concrete post from the old fence and It gave way .Just like the Viet Cong Punji stick, a piece of bamboo entered his arm like a needle. I watched as he pulled it out over an inch .Un daunted Clarence just went right back to work. A prime example of Gods healing power at work.
Jose pointed out two concrete posts a part of the old fence and told me to go dig them out so that we could use them at the very bottom, next to the stream. I ended up getting into a little barbed wire getting the posts out, got a little bloody ,but no worse than I’m used too, good thing it was mandated we have Tetanus shots before leaving home.
We got all the post in and Cemented then headed up the hill for dinner. The hill was quite a climb, carrying all our equipment we used and I for one was extremely winded when we got to the top. We were at over five thousand feet; the air is a little thinner than at sea level back home in Florida. I am sure glad I run on a regular basis. After dinner I was feeling pretty sore and stiff and generally used up and looking after crawling around in the bamboo swamp all morning. I figured we would call it an early day as I knew we were suppose to go to the Methodist High school to tour it that afternoon. Father Abraham had other Ideas, as we had an unfinished concrete ditch on our immediate agenda.
We brought out the wheelbarrows, water hose, extension cords for the mixer, and four bags of cement, and started mixing concrete once more.Karen,Kathy,Becky and Donna started filling the bucket brigade up with 6-4-2 Six buckets gravel, four buckets of sand and two bags of cement. Javier began mixing more cement and we lined up the wheelbarrow to haul it to the end of the ditch. We made two batches, wheel barrowed those about fifty yards, then dumped them in the ditch. Clarence Brian and Jose would then use their trowels to form a nice u shaped concrete ditch out of the dirt ditch we had dug a couple days earlier this week. When the ditch was completed, I believe everyone was dragging .We cleaned and put all the tools away then said our goodbyes to the workers we had worked beside and become friends with this week.
We pulled out of the parking lot of the orphanage tired and a little sad for leaving newly found friends but also a feeling of satisfaction for jobs completed, a job well done.
Ray led the way and Javier followed as we made our way to the Methodist High School.
We were all pleased at what an impressive facility it is. The grounds were impeccable and between classrooms they even had caged parakeets.
The school is THE SCHOOL for the future Doctors, lawyers and Political leaders of Costa Rica. It was an impressive afternoon to put it mildly.
FRIDAY

Friday…Wow…Where did the week go?! I can’t say I miss going to work this morning. We had a trip planned to view a volcano, so after breakfast we loaded up in the van. Javier’s wife, Shirley, and his brother-in-law, as our special guest, joined us on our “FUN DAY”!
We drove out of the city and in to the country past some dairy farms. A few of the dairy farms had Jersey milk cows, which caused me to reminiscing about my Jersey Dairy farm that I had in Missouri.
We passed several strawberry farms, which they call, “Fresa”, and quite a few onion farms, with workers out in the fields harvesting.
As we got closer to the top of the mountain, the clouds closed in, making it almost a rainy fog…the temperature was dropping and I believe when we got to the top it was close to 60 degrees—and rainy.
We walked to the edge of the volcanic crater and the wind was strong, fog was thick and visibility was nil.
In the gift store Karen met a girl from another group who volunteered to do a little interpreting for us with Javier. We then decided to leave the volcano and visit a couple historic Costa Rica churches on our way to the canopy tour.
The large Catholic Church which was the Costa Rica National Church was busy with a funeral….but we walked in anyway. The entrance was huge arches so we walked right in. The service was going on and no-one even noticed us as we did the tourist thing just glanced around and moved on. We went outside and found a fountain which was supposed to be holy healing water. People were putting it in Jugs, drinking it---So I stooped down and got a little to rub on my sore tooth. I guess that and some Ibuprofen kept my tooth from hurting the rest of the day. We loaded up and drove by the original church which was destroyed by earthquakes several times.
We then proceeded to the Canopy tour restaurant and had lunch. It was pretty much a consensus we wouldn’t be making that mistake again. The food was a disappointment and the service was slow.
Time for our canopy tour. ---We loaded up in a vintage four wheel drive Chevrolet Suburban. A real testimonial for Chevy builds tough trucks commercial. We headed up the mountain on a very skinny dirt road. It turned into a very skinny rough concrete washboard for awhile then back to dirt. The suburban just roared onward and upward at a seemingly high rate of speed ----of course it just felt that way as we were twisting and churning almost straight up the mountain. We went across a very narrow bridge and scraped a tree on the other side to make the turn. We finally got to the end of our motorized trek up the mountain I was only glad I wasn’t going to go back down in that ride.
We all grabbed our gear and started walking up a dirt path. After awhile we came upon a couple Tico’s with two pack horses, they were using to haul concrete up the mountain to build steps making it easier for the gringo’s to climb the mountain. I had forgotten again about the thinner air as we got higher and higher I was huffing and puffing like a steam locomotive climbing a grade by the time we reached the top platform. When the entire team made it to the top the guides (Three in all plus a photographer) started harnessing everyone up. The Five (old timers) had zip lined last year and were eager to go. Brian, Donna, and I had never Zip lined and even though I am ok with Altitudes, and have always liked speed, and was always considered a risk taker I’ll have to admit I was a little apprehensive ---that is until I took off the first time---then WOW What a blast. I don’t know how fast we were going but I do know we were covering some territory quickly.
I imagine how the neighboring Nicaraguan freedom fighters might have used the zip lines to move men and supplies from mountain to the valley below in minutes where otherwise it would take days.
Our only close call was on the last platform landing area. Karen came to the end and something happened with the brake and Karen ended up taking a blow to the head her right shin and her arm. She was a little bruised and sore but otherwise visually ok.
We finished by repelling about 40 feet to the ground and then walking down to the Restaurant where the photographer had already made a CD of our ride down the Mountain. We bought a copy of the cd and once home will copy it and send it to all the team. After the canopy tour we headed back to the seminary for a short thirty minute freshen up then in the van to Ray’s house for a cookout.
Ray and Lidia welcomed us with a BBQ supper and combination birthday party for Abel (Javier’s son) second birthday. We had a nice time visiting and learning, and getting motivated for a return trip next year.
I know Jackie and I want to be here next year. Just waiting for what God has for us as a determining factor of whether we will be here or not.
I do know that the prayers of my friends and family praying for me while here, protected me, gave me strength, and gave me focus. I also know that I have been given a whole new perspective. We leave in the morning---I will be so glad to see Jackie’s face.
Home Now

What did I learn---What did I see.
I saw a church that feed the children in it’s poverty stricken community five days a week two meals a day
I saw a church where the holy spirit is so alive that his children dance in worship.
I saw a school that teaches the love of the lord and ministers to the future leaders of Costa Rica.
I worked with a group of people who humble me,and make me want to walk closer with the holy spirit, So that my life will shine.
I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God's hands, that I still possess. Martin Luther