photos from Mission Trip: Pura Vida

Helping to make tamales for the Azofeifa Family Reunion/our first night in Costa Rica.

Me "helping" to make tamales for the Azofeifa Family Reunion/our first night in Costa Rica.

Matt, and the awesome city workers who lent us their cement mixer.

Me makin' it look goood. (not sure why the picture came in sideways...)

The Higuito Team: Kerry, Daniel Azofeifa(our host), Alberto (the most awesome sidewalk-maker ever), me, Pastor Fernando, Matt, really good cook lady whose name I forgot, Emily.

The children's shelter in Higuito.

Kerry playing with some kids in the shelter, and apparently being very confused.

The team painting the roof of the shelter.

The view from the roof of the shelter; a.k.a. "part of why it took so long to paint."

Our host checkin' out his gorgeous country.

The 10ft concrete walls with electric fencing on top that surrounds the shelter, or "part of why I feel sad for the kids who live there."

A night view of the valley of San Jose Province from one of its many mountains.

One of the clouds we drove through in the mountains to get to Boca de Arenal and Eden.

The church at Boca de Arenal. Not far from the community center where we helped them put on a Christmas gathering for over 200 local kids.

Our girls and the pastor of Boca learning to dance from Sylvia, a 20-something from FBC Desamparados and one of our new Tica friends.

The church at Eden.

Some of the li'l neenyos in Eden, whom we did a Christmas gathering for as well.

Me playing some football americano with a cute kid from Eden.

Me surfing on Jaco Beach.

The team seeing Jaco while I surfed (there is a bit more to the city than you see here).

Going in to dowtown San Jose behind tons of people, our wonderful guide and host and friend, Lilly Azofeifa(Daniel's daughter), and a goofy-looking Matt.

Me and the lady-friend in front of one of the oldest buildings in San Jose, the Teatro Nacional.

Me half posing, half actually explaining TOMS to my friend Lilly while in the park in front of the Catholic cathedral in downtown San Jose. Every city in Costa Rica has a Catholic church and a park at its center.

Crazy Christmas lights in the park in front of the cathedral in downtown San Jose.

This has been an awesome trip. We were able to do so much work, and play! We felt welcomed, and even needed. A good combo for a mission trip. I hope you have all enjoyed these posts. I plan to write one more about the trip that will let you know about some of the things I enjoyed most. After that, I hope you continue to read what I write here. Dios le vendigan (I think that means "God bless you"...).

the weekend in San Carlos, Costa Rica

the weekend was long. we worked with children at two different missions in northern Cost Rica. sweet kids at both. looove the people here, and the country is more beautiful than any picture can tell. but alas, i am tired. i'm going to go to sleep.

tomorrow we will be going back up north, but for a little "sight-seeing" this time. i think the plan is to float down a river in a boat and look at some waterfalls somewhere. should be frikkin cool. it would be even cooler if my camera was working, so i could take pictures. oh well, i will just have to remember it.

on tuesday we will continue painting the roof of the children's shelter in higuito. then, we return on wednesday. i will miss this place.

mas Costa Rica!

So for this post, I originally intended to tell you all about the beauty I have seen here in just two days.

I was going to tell you about the first night, when we had the privilege of joining what would amount to a family reunion. We made, and devoured, tamales with about 10 Costa Ricans in their fruitful backyard. The back of the house opened into a patio area, which then opened into a yard full of tangerine trees, sweet lemon trees, mango trees, banana trees, cas trees (cas is a very sour, and delicious, fruit), and trees with pink bananas used for decoration. I could tell you how wonderful the tamales were, and I don’t even like tamales. I could tell you of the coffee, agua dulce and welcoming family members.

I was going to tell you more about the other family who has welcomed me, and my friend Matt, into their home (the girls are staying at the pastor’s house and hanging out with his daughter). I could tell you of the fantastic breakfasts and the son who told us “I speak English, but I don’t like to. But I will speak it with you.”

I could go on forever about the neighborhood we worked in yesterday and today, with its dilapidated but colorful homes. I could tell you about the surrounding mountains that stop you in your tracks every time you look up and realize “I’m in freakin’ Costa Rica!” Or I could tell you all about why my stomach is trying to find new places to put food because I have had so much savory fare put in front of me that I don’t know what to do, other than chow down.

I could go on and on about how wrong you are if you are saying to yourself “but you just told me about all of those things.”

Instead, I am going to tell you about a sidewalk, a roof, and the might of God.
The pastor of the church in Lince, which is a smaller neighborhood within the larger neighborhood of Higuito(or maybe it’s a city itself, I don’t know), which is where we have been working, took some time today to tell us about his church. They began in a house as a mission from FBC Desamparados in 1999, and have since grown into having an actual building. The pastor and the members of his church have a real heart for the people in the neighborhoods surrounding theirs.

And I have been wondering about my heart.

I mentioned in the last post how humbled I have been by just being allowed to do something this amazing, although I am such a crummy sinner. Another thing that was bothering me was my heart for this trip. I was not completely certain of the call to come here. It mostly felt like a selfish “I want to see a cool country” trip.

And that’s how it began. However, I decided to see if it could be a mission trip for my Sunday school class instead, after feeling like God was leading me to do so. As our departure came closer and closer, though, I began feeling like it was just selfish again and wondering if I could even consider it a mission trip. I wasn’t sure if we would be doing enough, or if they even needed us to come.

Then Pastor Fernando spoke to us, through Daniel (the missions pastor at FBCD who we are doing all of the work with and who is housing the chicas). He told us the history, which I briefly mentioned, and he told us how grateful he was that we had come to work with them.
You see (I love the use of that phrase when telling a story), the church recently decided to build a handicap ramp at their entrance (they are on a hill, so the front is like a one-story building, but the back goes up on a hill almost like a two-story) and a sidewalk to make the city/government people happy. They thought they’d raised enough money for this, but after making the handicap ramp they had no more left to finish the work. Then we came. And, through the kindness of some well-placed and awesome construction workers who leant us their cement mixer, and the guidance of one amazing, Nicaraguan foreman, we finished what was supposed to take about a week (and be completed by members of the church after we left) in one day. This then gave us time to put a protective layer of paint on the roof of a children’s shelter so it doesn’t rot.

This has shown me how mighty God is. I wasn’t sure of His will in this, and he showed me that it is exactly what the people here, His people, needed. It was what he wanted to happen. He brought His purpose about through some crazy details and seemingly coincidental connections. He has led me, and three other Texans, to this beautiful country because He wants us here for some specific reasons. We may not even know the full extent of those reasons. We may never understand all of them, but they are there, and He is in control. Our God is so big, so mighty, that he can take care of the small things.

Ok, this is too much reading for you lot (not that you can’t do it, you just shouldn’t have to), so I am going to stop now.

Much love,
Eddie

and now, Costa Rica

We’re in the airport now. We have coffee, food, and time to relax before our plane takes off for Costa Rica! Well, Houston, then…Costa Rica! Our team consists of my lovely girlfriend, Matty McGee, li’l Emily, and yours truly. (Kerry Bankhead, Matt McGee, Emily Bennett, Eddie Looper) We are making our way down to San Jose to work with First Baptist Church of Desamparados.

Our church, FBC Arlington, has a long-standing relationship with them, but this is a new trip. Typically, a team goes during our summer, their rainy season (which I hear just means that it rains harder than it is right now), and works with their more rural missions around the country. For this trip, we will be hitting their “summer” (it’s kind of always summer in Costa Rica) and doing most of our work in their more urban mission/shelter, “Higuito.” That will be roughly half of the trip, the other half will be divided between two of their missions in the north, Morazán and Boca Arenal, and seeing a little bit of their beautiful country.

The countryside will be gorgeous, but I’m excited about Higuito. We were given a couple pictures of the mission. The first thing I noticed about the place was the large rolls of razor-wire strung across the top. Awesome. I’m looking forward to giving them a sidewalk, and spending some quality time with the kids there.

[Commercial break/we had to go get on our flight]

We are now on the plane headed out of Houston and down to Costa Rica. There was a bit of a scare on the last flight. Nothing to do with safety, we just weren’t sure if we would make this one due to delays on the last one.

But we are now on our way! We even got to do a little running through the terminal, movie style, to catch our flight. (As you may be able to tell, I am not a seasoned traveller) While that was exhilarating, I’m hoping, and quite sure, it will not compare to doing the work our King calls us to do. I’m really being humbled by this trip. Just the way everything has worked, the way we are being taken care of, is such a blessing.

What I’ve really been thinking about is God’s forgiveness. Even though our entire religion is based on the sacrifice our God made to pay for our sins, we still find ourselves getting caught up in worrying about “being good enough.” I was worried about it all the way up to the airport. I was focused on my sins, recent and past, and found myself worried about God’s willingness to provide for us because of them. I found myself wondering if he would make me unable to lead this trip, because I haven’t “earned” the rite. I’d forgotten what He did for me, for all of us, and about the finality of that act. Our sins were forgiven, once and for all, and we are now freed by the blood of Christ. Now, that doesn’t mean it’s okay. I have to stop. We have to stop. Not only have we Christians been freed from the penalty of our sins, but we have also been freed from bondage to those sins. That means we are free to stop sinning! Continuing on in those sins is a slap in the face of the One Who Loves Us. He calls us to believe, and repent, so we should honour Him and do so. Alone, this is impossible, but through Him “all things are possible.” Contrary to popular belief, that verse does not mean we can hit the ball farther, throw it farther, or dunk it harder. It does, however, mean we can overcome our sin nature, not alone, but through the power of Christ.

I am hoping this trip will be a permanent reminder of that for me, and for all involved. I am looking forward to these next few days, and I ask that all of you pray for us, the people of Costa Rica, and for your own hearts. I will keep this updated as often as possible, and I would love to hear what you think in the comments section.

Peace, love and soul train. Until next time,
Eddie

barbecue, blisters and buds

Before you begin with the cannabis comments (Bryan), I mean “buds” as in the great company I enjoyed tonight. I sat at a table surrounded by some really cool people, and me. To my right were the Crumbies. I enjoy them because they are one of the funniest couples I know, and Steve rocks a sweet beard. Further round, and mostly across from me, were Jake and Sarah. They are a couple of the most open people I know, two of the funniest people I know, and they have voices and talents that would make most jealous. Coming ‘round them and nearing my left side was a dude named Beau. This was my second encounter with him, and he still seems pretty cool. Then there was the infamous Liz Lemmon to my direct left. She has a Masters’ degree from good ol’ UTofA (my alma mater), and she ran a half-marathon this morning (and apparently had to use the restroom afterwards).

I really enjoyed this night with these people because I enjoy my friends. I like the people God has placed in my life. I’ve been rather blessed with an overwhelming amount of cool individuals to surround me, which has somehow allowed me to attain at least a hint of a “mildly-interesting” social status myself. One of these cool folk is my good buddy, Daniel. And it is for him that I received my blisters today. I ran 8 miles, without stopping, without company, and without music. Win. But why would I do that to myself? Well, the last two (wc and wm) were optional, but the first two (8m and ws) were to train my bereft body to handle a 13.1 mile run with Daniel in February. He asked me to do it with him, and I said yes. I said yes because I love him like a brother and I like doing stuff with him.

I also like doing stuff at church. Today, at church, I ate the most amazing barbecue I have ever tasted. Bill Baker, a man at my church (First Baptist Church of Arlington) spent hours cooking the most tender, juicy, delectable meats I have ever had the privilege of consuming. I like food; this was something more. It even tasted great when I burped up a little on my 8 mile run.

Before all of this, though, I heard a sermon about our God. A sermon about the new covenant created by the blood of Christ. Our Savior, our King, our Lord came down and bled so that we can be cleansed of all our faults. And even though we continue to turn our backs on Him, He continues to bless us. He blesses us with food, with health and with friends. All of us here in America have each of these to some degree. Some have more than others, but we all have some. That same God wants us to share it. He wants us to take His name and proclaim it to the nations. He wants us to help those in need. He wants us to be love.

I’m going to do this for the first time in another country on Wednesday. That’s when I and three others leave for Costa Rica. As far as Mission trips go, it could very well be considered an easy one, but we still need prayer. And we can still be used. My hope is that it will be the beginning of many more international trips for me, and that I will get yet another way to draw closer to God.

I will be taking my laptop with me and updating on here as often as I can. I ask that all you buds of mine pray for us, and for the people of Costa Rica. Also, check your heart and see where God is leading you. (I feel I could have said so much more, but I’ve already written for way too long.)