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
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
2 comments:
Great stuff, Eddie. Thanks for putting your thoughts and feelings into words for us. It's a beautiful thing! Blessings...
Sounds like a very fulfilling trip. I've been catching up on your posts and I'm happy to hear it's going well for you.
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