Liberia update

If you haven’t been on a Work and Witness trip to Liberia, you should probably just skip this post.

We’ve had 4 teams in Liberia, so rather than try to email all of you, it’s easier to post some update pictures here!  Stephen ran up there to pick up tools, and so these are the pictures he took.

We’re hoping to have a team there this fall to finish up final details.

This is looking into the second floor from the current parsonage roof.

The inside of the second floor looking out.

The structure in the back isn’t the only thing changing.

The walkway beside the church is now paved up to the level of the sidewalk. No more mucking through the muck when it rains.

  Check out the sanctuary!

That’s a big hole where the back wall of the sanctuary used to be. It’s where we were storing a lot of the tools and supplies while the teams were there. Remember rummaging around in the dark looking for shovels? It is dark no more, and now guitars are where the shovels used to be. Good changes!

 We’ll continue to keep everyone updated on ongoing projects as we visit them and have more pictures.

Blessings!

Up on the roof

When this old world starts getting me down
And people are just too much for me to face
I climb way up to the top of the stairs
And all my cares just drift right into space
On the roof, it’s peaceful as can be
And there the world below can’t bother me
Let me tell you now . . .

The Drifters, “Up On the Roof”

Stephen’s world must have really been getting him down, because he chose a really high roof where the world below couldn’t bother him!

Yep, that’s his little head with the blue baseball cap sticking out over the edge. He was helping to pull up the metal channel that would cover the center peak and prevent water from dripping through the seam. That’s a good thing when rainy season is definitely upon us.

Some of you familiar with the projects here in Costa Rica will recognize that this is at La Finca. Progress continues at a steady pace there. It’s so exciting to be a part of it!

I just downloaded some of his pictures from up there, and it definitely is gorgeous. We are still amazed by the beauty of this country.

The unfinished wall is pretty dramatic from the top as well.

Don’t you love the curve? That will be the platform on the end of the building.

See, Mom? I stayed safely on the ground. I never do dangerous things. Ever.

Your eyes do not deceive you

That is definitely a phone booth right beside a thatched building.  Perhaps this is Clark Kent’s vacation home.

Kuna trip

It would be better if Stephen were to write this, and maybe he will at some point. It’s just that he’s off doing important things, like delivering a concrete mixer to a site and figuring out project stuff, so I’m the one left to the very important job of blog update. I life a rough life, you know?

We were in Panama for nearly two weeks doing a variety of work-related things, but during that time, Stephen accompanied the Central District Superintendent and two other people to an indigenous area populated by the Kuna.

During a hurricane, the building that they had been using as a church had been blown away and all that was left was a concrete slab.  Stephen and the other men who went along were invited by the leader of this community to present their thoughts on replacing the building. They also brought along the Jesus film backpack set since they were going in by canoe. We love the backpack set!!

A Kuna guy modeling the backpack set. He refused to let Stephen carry it in. What a good dude.

In this culture, the guys dress in a pretty modern fashion – pants and t-shirts – while the ladies still dress very traditionally. They have beautiful, hand embroidered cloths with which they make a lot of their brightly colored clothing. Women also cover their heads with red cloth and usually wear short hair.

All of the buildings are large and thatched.  Stephen said that even during the heat of the day, it was relatively cool and very dark inside these buildings.

They gathered up the kids for a service. Stephen said that the Kuna lady who led the service switched back and forth between Kuna and Spanish. The kids learn Spanish in school, and so anyone school aged is bilingual, and a lot of the littler ones are too since their older siblings and parents are.

Since it is so dark inside the buildings, most of the pictures turned out pretty blurry, but you can tell there are a lot of little ones!

They ended up having a very successful meeting with the  leader who will allow the church to have a new structure in the community. Their plan, since obviously their building methods require some skills that not many people possess, will be that they will decide how much the building will cost to build and communicate that information back to the district. When the district provides the funds, they will send word to outlying communities to gather the leaves and lumber necessary, and they will all meet together to build. It’s kind of like an old-fashioned barn raising. They said it will only take a few days for the whole thing to go up once the supplies are there. Incredible!

The empty spot in the foreground of the picture is where the old church building stood and where the new one will go.

God is at work in every corner of the world, even the ones that seem the most distant and cut off. We continue to be in awe of the way he works outside of the limits of language, culture and color. His message of hope and redemption cross any human boundaries. What a powerful God we serve!

Hey, Guido!

We were driving the other day with another missionary couple headed to a project. We were in San Jose in typical terrible traffic.  There were about 4 lanes of cars trying to fit into two lanes. We were one lane over from the right turn lane we needed to be in, and we had about half a block to get over. There was a box truck beside us, and we were blinking for all we were worth. It was pretty obvious that he had no intention of letting us in.

Frequently if you put your hand out the window and wave a little, folks will let you over, so Stephen (in the passenger seat) started rolling down his window. The next thing I know, he’s yelling, “Hey! Guido!”

My first thought was, “This is a thing?! We call people Guido now?! I have never heard of this! What the heck is he doing!”  Later I found out that the two other people in the car were thinking pretty much the same thing. “Guido?! This might not end well.”

Actually, the driver’s name WAS Guido, which Stephen knew because Guido is married to a pastor and we had been at his church about a week before! At that point they high-fived out the window and he waved us over.

We were not anywhere near the house, and so the odds of us running into someone we know in a city of 2 million are not particularly good.

Anyway, “Hey Guido!” is our new catchphrase.

Culture clash – coconut vs. caffeine

For those of you who may have missed the memo, I am “great with child” (as a team member told me yesterday). In a side-note, he meant it nicely, so I tried to take it that way. 

That’s been pretty straightforward here so far since the private healthcare in this country is excellent. 

That also means I’m getting to see a whole new side of Costa Rican culture!

Stephen cut open a coconut the other day to share with some new folks. The district superintendent’s wife happened to be walking by and warned me very seriously that I shouldn’t eat the coconut or drink the coconut milk because it’s dangerous for pregnant people. “What?!” “Yes, it can have an abortive effect.”

This was absolutely news to me, and I’ve been reading lists of things I should / shouldn’t be eating for several months now. 

I decided that this was a local thing, but one I wasn’t going to stress about. I just won’t drink coconut milk in front of a Tico!

The very next day the same lady and her husband came to our house for dinner. After dinner we had brownies and I started pouring everyone coffee. I announced, “It’s decaf since, you know, I’m pregnant and all.” I looked at her and smiled, and she looked at me like I was a crazy person.

“What are you talking about? I drank coffee 3 times a day the whole time I was pregnant with my boys. They turned out just fine. I have never heard of ANYONE not drinking coffee when they are pregnant.” 

Have I mentioned that Ticos take their coffee drinking very seriously? In fact, some people still mix coffee with warm milk and give it to their babies in their bottles before they go to bed!

I explained to her that, at least in the States, caffeine consumption was really discouraged during pregnancy. She thinks gringos are ridiculous.  

This is an old pic. Bethany B., you took this one in Sighisoara. Memories. 

Getaway and semi-related nonsense

We spur-of-the-moment ended up at the beach not too long ago. I am fairly certain that’s what most people think we do all the time anyway. In reading back over the last few entries, it’s starting to look like we really are on vacation all the time. Not so, dear reader! It’s just that lately we’ve been doing a lot of prep, so our day to day summaries would sound something like, “Went to work; answered emails; made a phone call; reserved transportation for team . . .” Not thrilling.

Enough of the defensiveness, right?

Let’s move on to the beach! Some of our friends scored an amazing deal on a 3 bedroom condo last minute for their annual family vacation during Semana Santa.

Side note: Semana Santa is Holy Week in Spanish. In Costa Rica that pretty much equals week-long-vacation for most people.  Trips to the beach are de rigueur around here.

Stephen and I spent two days along with our friends (2 for-real adults, 2 fun teenagers, and us holding down the middle ground) and were the complete definition of beach slugs. I don’t know if there is even a definition for a beach slug, as I’m pretty sure I made that up on the spot. I guess if people start googling “beach slug” and land here, we’ll know it’s something that exists.

Sunsets are nice when you are a beach slug.

The pay isn’t great though. We only made five dollars.

One of the more amusing parts of this little jaunt was that we had to drive across the “runway” to get to the beach. By runway, don’t be silly and think I mean something paved and lined with lights. It was a dirt road a little wider than an ordinary dirt road. It also had this sign at the end as a nod to safety.

Your eyes do not deceive you. It certainly does say “Stop. Little planes.”  I think the graphics are pretty helpful. Don’t you?