Rich in Faith

Youth Camp 2012 an Astounding Success!

2012-01-10T16:58:00.006-06:00

In the last month leading up to camp, we literally felt that we were receiving emotional and spiritual punches right and left. We now know why the enemy was so determined to put obstacles in our way: God showed Himself so faithful and did so much more than we even imagined or hoped for in the lives of the kids we took to camp this past week, that every minute of the frustrations and doubting was worth it!

Here’s a sample of the frustrations and conflicts leading up to camp:
· serious interpersonal conflict on the team that just about kept several leaders from going to camp at all,
· difficulties in getting camp invitations out to many of the boys and worries that we’d have a low number of boys able to go to camp,
· working straight through the holidays to resolve said problems, and
· a last minute car problem that left Andrea and our kids + Michelle (our fourth child right now) plus all their luggage stranded on the side of the road on the way in to La Carpio to board the camp buses. Instead of making it in time to help check in kids and organize the departure, they arrived barely in time to hop the buses after waiting for a tow and a ride to La Carpio!

After loading 135 kids and 24 leaders on the 3 buses, we got on frazzled and tired and wondering what the next disaster would be (one of the three buses almost didn’t even make it over the hill to get out of La Carpio, it was so ancient!), but prayed to God that He would complete His purposes in this camp and move us and all of these logistical problems out of the way.

And BOY DID HE! We arrived at the camp safe and sound, checked in smoothly, and saw the kids begin to let down their guard and open up during the first recreation time of roller-blading, which many of them had never done before. Next followed a time of rockin’ worship and excellent teaching in chapel on moving from the darkness into light (the theme of the camp this year—Ephesians 5:8) and what it means to be a light in the world. We were overwhelmed when the preacher made a call to come forward at the end of the evening and 35 KIDS AND 20 TEENAGERS CAME FORWARD TO ACCEPT CHRIST AS THEIR SAVIOR OR REDEDICATE THEIR LIVES TO CHRIST. We prayed over them, and many were weeping and repentant, clinging to their leaders for support and encouragement.

We were left without words to describe how the Spirit of God moved in those moments. Even now it’s difficult to summon adequate words. Let me say that these are not typical church-youth-group kids from suburbia. These are kids who live in utter and desolate darkness, in families where abuse of every type is the norm, who steal, cuss, lie, threaten, push and take what they want because they’ve learned that they’ll get nothing if they don’t. They’re kids who’ve been on drugs, having sex, in gangs, and living every other type of nightmare you can imagine. We had what we thought were “reasonably” low expectations for the kind of change that would come about in their lives during camp, until God blew us away and showed us that He can do ANYTHING in ANYONE at ANY TIME!

After that first night, kids began to let their burdens go and confide in their leaders as they did things they’d never done before and never thought they could, including obstacle courses, jungle challenges, high ropes courses, a rock-climbing wall, and lake fun that included the most intimidating water slide ever created and a “blob,” as well as several other challenges. They studied the Bible in small groups and learned how to move from darkness to light, what our identity is according to God, and how to stay on the path that God has for us when we go back into our daily lives. Stories like these came out:

· “I was raped by my cousin when I was 9.”
· “I need to move from the darkness into light, but I don’t know how to take the first steps.”
· “My dad held a knife to my mom’s throat when he was drunk and asked me if he should kill her.”
· "My parents say that I'm worthless."
· “I’ve stolen since I was 7 and been taking drugs, but I’m tired of who I am and want to change.”
· “I’ve known Christ and have all the right information, but have wandered in my heart and sought fulfillment elsewhere, but I want to come back.”
· “My mom wanted to sell me into the sex trade, but now I’ve seen a different way to live and want something more for my life.”

Imagine the misconceptions that these kids have about God living in this community! We had opportunities to identify fallacies about who God is and what He wants from us at every turn, and it was a healing balm for these kids that are so deeply wounded. About 15 more kids went forward on the third night to make a commitment to return to La Carpio as a light in that community and be set apart as an agent of change.

The last day, one of the female leaders indicated that Jessica, one of the gals in Andrea’s weekly bible study, indicated a desire to be baptized during a discussion about how we can identify with Christ. This was not a part of the agenda, but after the teens went through the jungle challenge (a completely nasty, wet, and muddy obstacle course) and were washing off in the lake, we just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to do the baptism right then. It was a precious moment to symbolize to the kids that washing off the filth of our sin and being washed clean in Christ is what faith and the act of baptism is about. We had only a fraction of the teens with us in that moment (probably 25), and 4 others came forward after Jessica to make their declaration public and be baptized as well! Lesson learned: ALWAYS finish camp with a baptism celebration for those who have made decisions to follow Christ and are ready to take that step!!

The crazy thing about that special time was that Jessica nearly didn’t make it to camp because she didn’t have anyone to watch her 3 year-old daughter and her husband had to work. Until the night before, she was lamenting that she couldn’t go. When I showed up to get on the bus, there she was! When I asked how she had worked it out, she said her husband got time off work at the last minute and told her to go ahead and go. So we saw once again that God ordained every detail of the camp and what He wanted to accomplish there: if Jessica hadn’t taken the initiative to be baptized, the others wouldn’t have had the chance either and we wouldn’t have learned what a beautiful end to the camp it could be. Even the camp staff was surprised and excited at this new idea and may begin to mention it as an idea for the other groups that come through their camp all year.

To wrap up this post, we are praising God for His surpassing grace and ability to move any obstacle (including us!) out of His way when He has something to accomplish. He filled us with energy and positivity during the camp that we simply didn’t have going into it and we know didn’t come from inside of us! We saw specific growth in Jessica, Yendry, Michelle, Wilbert and Cristian, who participate in our weekly discipleship groups and for whom we have been praying and into whom we have been investing for months and months. We saw very high walls of rebellion, pride and isolation come down. Now we pray that God will give us the wisdom and resources to shepherd these kids all year long and help them to grow and not lose the momentum that they found during camp.

P.S. An encouraging exchange and a confirmation from the Lord that yes, these kids CAN hold on to what they learned at camp once they’re back at home:

Yendry texts Andrea today: "Oh, it’s so hard for me to stay quiet when they yell at me." (referring to her parents - this was not a thing she would have been trying before camp)

Andrea: "Pray to God to ask for patience, humility and an attitude of obedience and respect toward them. Remember that God has changed YOU, but not them yet, and He wants to reflect His light to them through you. God justifies you and sees every injustice and you don’t have to defend yourself, just trust in Him to do it. I am praying for you, too – you don’t know how proud I am of you seeing the steps that you are taking toward the light and your hard work! Keep at it and God will produce fruit in your life and in your relationship with them. And keep confiding in me and relying on your other Christian friends for support! You don’t know how much I have begged God on your behalf this year and how much joy it gives me to see you receiving so much blessing and comfort from Him."

Yendry: "Thanks. I know it’s hard but I am not alone. I know that God is with me and I will push forward whatever it costs, because I am not darkness but light. How beautiful are your words that give me encouragement to keep fighting. I never imagined knowing a person like you. May God bless you because you are of great blessing to me and you don’t know how much I love you."

(Honestly, out of a desire to not boast or be self-aggrandizing, we debated whether to include Yendry's last statements about Andrea, but decided not to edit her sentiments. We remember Paul's words in 2 Corinthians about not boasting about ourselves, but boasting about Christ. We know that what kids like Yendry see is Christ living in us, and HE is who they are falling in love with when He works through us and gives us the privilege of being His instruments.)

My Torrid Love/Hate Relationship with Costa Rica

2011-12-28T15:34:00.002-06:00

At times I struggle to adequately communicate and contextualize our lives here to the folks back "home." How to explain the joy of bringing a smile to a child in poverty, alongside the seething frustration of waiting in 4 lines at the post office for 2 hours to receive a simple care package? How to share kingdom advances next to the daily perils of driving in absolute chaos? How to adequately summarize a calling where we'd rather be no where else than a slum filled with violence and gangbangers eyeing you every time you pass by, wondering if this might be the time they choose to take issue with your presence?

Sometimes I wonder how I can complain about a country with nearly perfect weather year round, and some of the world's most beautiful beaches within a few hours of driving. Other times, I wonder if I can spend one more second in a country where I am ripped off at every turn because of the color of my skin. Seriously, we can't make this stuff up. If you think I'm exaggerating, even the socialized GOVERNMENT sets health care prices that are double for foreigners what they are for Costa Ricans. How to explain to THEM that there are some gringos who AREN'T rich, and that missionaries are some of them?

Then there are relationships: we love some Costa Ricans and fellow missionaries that we've met here, but we hate that some of our best friends and families are so far away. We love getting to know new missionaries passing through, but we hate seeing them go. We still love homeschooling the kids, but we hate the social isolation that it causes here for the kids and our family. Are you getting the idea?

Most times we are reluctant to share the negative aspects of life on the mission field, because we don't want to complain or perpetuate some self-aggrandizing idea that we're martyrs, unless of course we can make it into a funny story afterward. But the bottom line is that sometimes it's hard. And more importantly, no matter how hard it feels, we're always 110% sure that we're where God wants us, which is what gets us through the discouragements and frustrations of day-to-day life in Central America.

Seeing Jessica come to Christ, baptizing Walter at a leader's retreat a couple weeks ago, providing a place for Michelle to live after her mom decided to sell her into the sex trade, being available to counsel a family in crisis, THAT is why we are here. In one short week, we'll be taking 120 kids to camp and bombarding them with love and messages from Jesus for three straight days. Satan wants to distract us with a million tiny irritations, alongside a generous dose of relational dysfunction. But God wants to show us that our comfort is not what's important in this life, and that His kingdom purpose is worth any risk or sacrifice. Who will we listen to?

The quote of this month about being content with what happens has challenged me greatly to trust that whatever happens is from the hand of the Lord. If I really believe that, shouldn't I be willing to let go of my own plans and whatever kind of life that I think is fair for me to lead here, and trust that it is better than what I would choose? So I will challenge myself to allow God to do the hard work of forming me more and more into the likeness of Christ, be it through temporary sufferings or immeasurable and eternal joys.

Happy New Year, friends, Andrea

What is poverty?

2011-10-28T07:43:00.005-05:00

It's interesting to see the reactions various people have when they first visit La Carpio, the slum we work in. Besides commenting on the fetid, rotting-diaper smell wafting over the property from the dump across the street, most responses fall into two categories.

The typical response (common for youth groups) is that there should be a sign hung over the entrance that says something like, "Abandon all hope ye who enter here!" These individuals usually leave with a romanticized image of the people they meet, thinking, "wow, what amazing people that can endure living in such a place without adequate food, water and financial resources. They must have great faith!"

The other group is comprised of the worldly travelers, the people that confidently state that they've witnessed firsthand much worse suffering in the squalid slums of Brazil, the refugee camps of Sudan or any number of hellish places tucked into the dark corners of the earth. I can't argue; in fact, I agree, there are worse slums here in San Jose, Costa Rica.

However, the interesting thing for me is that both viewpoints are primarily based in the evaluation of a place and the suffering of the inhabitants--that is, the level of poverty--primarily from the viewpoint of the severity of lack of money and the things that it can buy. Sometimes it feels like the people are on display in a dehumanizing "poverty zoo" for North Americans to observe and photograph.

I've begun to challenge our missionary team and volunteers at New Horizons, where I serve as director, that the lack of material goods, while severe, isn't the real poverty we are confronting. The real poverty is lack of relationships--especially healthy, life-giving relationships that are based on trust.

This relational and emotional poverty stands evident all around us. To a girl, the participants in Andrea's Bible study all confessed that they don't have a single family member or close friend in whom they can trust to share what's in their heart, or what they're struggling with. To a man, the participants of my study fear sharing weakness or need, knowing that the usual response to these things in their community is mockery and attack. So, people live in a mentality of "wound others before they wound you," be it with words, casual indifference or outright lies. This creates a cycle of relational aggression.

The apostle Paul addresses this behavior in more than half of his letters. When he calls people to holy living, to live as "children of the light," or to live righteously, he addresses this poverty of relationship. He calls out the sexual immorality, idolatry, anger, hatred, envy and covetousnous of the world and encourages his readers that "in other times" or in the past "you USED TO practice these things."

Typically we read these verses and feel chastised. I know I do when I read about anger or selfish ambition and I feel convicted. But Paul wasn't writing these things only to chastise and reprove, he wrote to ENCOURAGE that there is another way to live. If we live according to the flesh, we'll live in a poverty of relationships, in the horrible poverty of estrangement from our Father, and alienation from those around us. But if we live according to His spirit, we'll have a new way to live, we'll have the option to live in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

Isn't this what we all desire at the core of our being? Isn't this the universal poverty that strikes at the heart of our common, shared existence regardless of our financial situation? Aren't we really the same inside with respect to the poverty inside of us? This is the heart of the Good News: that we can be reconciled, forgiven and restored--replacing our poverty with the abundant life Jesus promised.

Lord give us eyes to see past the dirt, the worn clothing, and the tiny shacks to the suffering and poverty inside: lack of a voice, broken families, feeling like a spectacle, oppression, loneliness and isolation, feeling that there is no one to trust or turn to for compassion. These are the primary things the Lord wants to address in their lives, and the things we strive to work with Him in.

Peace and grace,
Seth

Praise God -- Jessica Comes to Christ This Morning!

2011-09-13T10:27:00.003-05:00

I write today with a heart brimming over with joy, because another stray sheep has found its way home and joined the flock!

One of my first memories of Jessica, 19-year-old mother of 2-year old Brianna, is walking in on a conversation between her and Callie, a short-term missionary that spent a year with us. Jessica was new to the Institute and explaining that she didn't want anything to do with "church" because she obviously had baggage about past experiences, but that she was interested in God. It was a good moment to encourage her to seek God, separate Him from the church which is made up of messed up people, and that congregating with other believers nonetheless is an important part of one's spiritual growth and journey.

In that moment, I thought, "Wow, she's hungry, but she just doesn't know where to get fed." I immediately felt an affinity for her refreshing honesty about her feelings about spiritual things, her wounds that I could identify with, and her refusal to give up on God by maintaing a seeking and humble spirit.

For those reasons, she was one of the first girls that I invited to participate in my discipleship group when we started in April, and I prayed and prayed that she would come. She has participated faithfully, taking notes, sharing and asking questions and growing in leaps and bounds. She's begun to share about changes she needs to make in her life, obviously feeling conviction in some areas. At last week's bible study, she shared that she'd been experiencing temptations like never before, strange things that she's never wanted before, like going out to the bars to dance. Chio, my Costa Rican discipleship partner in crime, and I encouraged her that Satan was obviously ticked off about her growing near to God and throwing her extra stumbling blocks to try to keep her from Him.

This week during our regular morning devotionals at the Institute, I spoke yesterday about the perfect love of God versus the broken love we humans can give, and Chio talked this morning about the story of Nicodemus and the "rebirth" requirements of gaining entrance to heaven. After the devotional, Jessica went to Chio and said she was ready to be reborn! They prayed together and Chio texted me right away with the good news.

God has done an amazing work in Jessica's heart, and I thank him for the chance to be a small part of it. I share the process as I know it just to share Jessica's story and her steps in coming to the Lord and things He may have used to draw her to Him. But the reality is that it was not our conversations, our friendship, our bible studies or devotionals, or our wise words that brought her to this place, it was all God! We can plant and water, but only He can make the seed of faith grow. Why I don't know, but He deigns to use lamed and weak gardeners to accomplish His purposes, and I am so grateful to be included in His plan for this special girl. Ministry in this context is sometimes brutally discouraging, but fruit like this makes it all worthwhile!

I praise God for Jessica's salvation and for the impact that I know she will have as a believer in her family, the Institute, and the community of La Carpio. She is a beautiful, fun, and outgoing person and will radiate the sweet fragrance of Jesus. Please join me in praying that she will continue to grow to maturity in Christ and glorify Him, and that God will protect her during this vulnerable time from the enemy's attacks, in which I'm sure he will be trying to convince her that it didn't count, that it doesn't make any difference, and that her decision will not change anything for her. But we know different...

Joyful, Andrea

The Sweet Aroma at the Entrance to the Garbage Dump

2011-08-23T11:18:00.005-05:00

I'd like to tell you a little bit about A., a troubled young man in La Carpio. He joined Seth's carpentry program last year, but had to be suspended because he couldn't get along with the other students, to the point that things culminated in a fist fight with another student. After that, he made himself scarce for a while, but then returned regularly to play soccer.

Several items were stolen from other kids who played with him, and he soon got the reputation of being particularly untrustworthy, which is saying something in a community where most people already trust no one. He has recently told Seth that his parents trained him at age 8 to pickpocket with them downtown, and regularly invite him to partake in drug use with them.

A. has begun to see that living a life of theft and aggression, isolated from others, doesn't taste good. Despite having had no positive parental or moral instruction, he wants to try to change his life. He's starting finding reasons not to hang out at home so that he doesn't smell like drugs, and to stop having such sticky fingers. Not surprisingly, the other kids are finding it difficult to believe and are slow in accepting that he's turning over a new leaf.

Recently, he told Seth what a hard time he's having in trying to change his life. Seth was able to share with him that it's too difficult when we try to do it on our own, but that God can change our lives FOR us if we will trust and allow him to remake us in the image of Christ. It seems that A. has made an earnest appeal to Christ in the past, but felt afterward that "it didn't take" and nothing changed. It reminds me of the seed from Matthew 13 that was immediately eaten by birds, scorched by the sun, or choked by thorns. Without anyone around to encourage and disciple him in his new faith, and with Satan whispering in his ear that none of that would do him any good, and with a hostile environment actively sucking him back down into the mire, is it any wonder?

So now I get around to the connection to the title of this blog. A. recently asked Seth, as they sat on the grass at New Horizons, "Have you ever noticed how it feels different here?"

Seth asked, not sure of his meaning, "Compared to where?"

A. responded, "Compared to the rest of La Carpio. It just feels really heavy and dark walking through the third and fourth bus stops to get here from my house, but once I come in, things feel different, lighter and better."

This is an amazing answer to prayer that brings tears to my eyes as I write it. We have been praying that our mission's property would be just that, a beacon on a hill, a safe and nurturing place among so much dysfunction and violence, an oasis of peace, and a place filled with and protected by the spirit of God. And A., a youth who needs all these things more than many, is noticing!

Interestingly, not long before this conversation, I received a special verse from a group of women who came to do a retreat for missionary women serving in Costa Rica. They spoiled us, ministered to us, and blessed us in so many ways! One way was in giving each participant (there were 50 of us) a special verse from the Lord that was meant for her. These women didn't know me at all, so this wasn't any sort of a compliment or anything that they would have observed about me, but this was the verse that I received:

"But thanks be to God, who always leads us in His triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place." 2 Corinthians 2:14

How beautiful is that? I prayed over the verse, asking God to make it true in La Carpio and everywhere else we have the ability to exhibit the "aroma." It makes me laugh, but God is powerful enough to put his sweet aroma right at the entrance to a foul garbage dump (in case you've forgotten, that's where our ministry property resides)! He is great, indeed!

Peace, Andrea

Missionary Kids Make an Impact, Too!

2011-07-24T18:42:00.002-05:00

OK, we apologize for being so lame and not posting in so long. Many times I have had a profound thought about our ministry and thought, "Hey, I should write a blog about that," and then just not gotten around to it. This summer has been crazy busy with short-term teams visiting from the States and keeping them busy in La Carpio, so we've been mostly surviving instead of reflecting. ;-) Sadly, I've forgotten most of my profound thoughts, but I have hope that they'll come around again one day and I'll scribble them down before they escape again!

I did want to share some special comments that have been made in the past few months about how our family works, made by folks from La Carpio. So many times we think of the kids of missionaries as people that get toted along by mom and dad, but don't have a specific role in the ministry themselves. Annabel has helped me for a year every Saturday ministering to 8-11 year-old girls, and those girls look up to her and imitate her and want to know where she is if she can't make it one week. She's an obvious example of how missionary kids can serve alongside their parents.

But I think ALL missionary kids have a profound role in the ministry of their parents, regardless of their age or ability to engage in formal "ministry," and here is the proof: when you spend a lot of time with people as a couple or as a family and they come into your home, they notice how your relationships work and begin to comment on them. Several times in the past months, I have heard things like:

"Your kids don't really fight with each other, do they?"

"So, your husband helps you around the house?"

"So, you don't think you'll ever get a divorce?"

Now, let me say that the first isn't entirely true. Of course, our kids have their moments of irritation with each other. But to people who come out of a community where siblings view each other as competition for VERY limited resources (of love, food, attention, toys, etc.) and they have to fight and scrap for every ounce of those things that they feel they are entitled to, our kids' relationship is nothing short of revolutionary.

We are being watched very closely to see how husband and wife respect or tease each other, how parents respond when their children do something they don't like, and how children react to each other in varied situations. These things are as important as anything else in our ministry, because they give testimony to the love of God that unites us as a family, and show what we preach to be real. Please don't interpret this as bragging about how we've got the perfect family and have it all together, because that's not at all my implication. It's just that we as a family have a unique ability to witness with our relationships and be an example to others of how God intended a family to function, and how it can be different from the dysfuntional situation that they may be in.

Missionary kids also heroically make sacrifices so that their parents can help others. Our kids give up some of the time they should get with their parents without complaint so that we can be in La Carpio helping other kids. They've made themselves meals when we've been delayed or both of us have had to be somewhere together. They've shown maturity and grace in having kids in their home that can be difficult to manage, destructive, or hard to get along with at times. I hope never to abuse this generous disposition and make them feel that "they lost their parents to the Lord," and pray that we will always carve out time for our own family and not let ministry take precedence over the well-being of our own kids (a struggle, I might add). But for now I think they understand that doing the work God has called us to is worth some hardships.

So you see, our kids have an integral role in our ministry, and I'm proud of the impact that they are having on families in the community through their behavior and their own pursuit of God and desire to serve others. When other kids see them and want to have what they have inside of them that makes their life so much more peaceful, they've done a great job for the Lord!

The Weak Prey on the Weaker

2011-03-17T13:53:00.002-05:00

This past month has been a good illustration of the roller coaster highs and lows of our ministry. We've seen depravity and sin, but in the midst of it, glimmers of hope and joy as well.

This past month brought sad and discouraging news to the community of La Carpio:

A new student at the Institute of Life, where Andrea teaches Monday and Friday afternoons, made a serious attempt at suicide when she jumped from a 300 ft tall railroad bridge that spans a nearly dry river full of huge rocks and boulders. Angie had made at least one previous attempt in November before coming to us. The socialized health care system gave her a psychiatric appointment in April. After spending three weeks talking in my class about the tongue and how we use our language to reflect the beauty or ugliness we have inside of us, some of my students threatened her after school one day and told her never to come back because she was different and they didn't like her. She obviously has other problems going on as well, but cited this as one reason she made the attempt that day. Miraculously, she survived, though her lower right leg was injured so badly that they had to amputate it at mid-shin.
Two days ago, a woman was shot and died in the street in front of at least one of her daughters. A neighbor woman had been jailed as a result of this woman's complaints to the authorities. As revenge, the jailed woman's son made a homemade gun, waited for the neighbor woman to come home, and shot her in the head in cold blood. This woman leaves behind three daughters, now motherless and even more vulnerable. The daughter who witnessed the shooting and death had just heard a message earlier that day from another of our missionaries about how to have the peace of God rule in your heart.

It's so hard at times to see up close and personal that the normal human reaction of people (without the intervention of Jesus in their lives) is to hurt, steal, be selfish, kill, and when one feels poor and oppressed, find ways to impoverish and oppress others. It's stark and ugly, but it's the truth. In a community this hardened, it's much harder to put on the rose-colored glasses and imagine that we can be "good people" without God. You see 2 types of people: those who want to drag everyone down with them into destruction, and those who have found God and the strength to fight what's happening around them. There isn't a lot of in-between.

It's also evident that Satan oppresses these people by trying to invalidate the very truths of God that are coming to them from the mouths of missionaries, to steal them away like the birds who steal away seed from the fertile soil so that nothing can grow in the parable. "Say what you want to hurt others, it really doesn't matter...," "There can be no peace in your life in these circumstances..." It's a very real form of spiritual warfare intended to keep this community in darkness and chaos, and it can be discouraging at times to those of us who are trying to keep throwing out the seeds.

Thank God that He gives us glimmers of hope that enable the people in the community, and those of us serving them, to keep putting one foot in front of the other, like these highlights:

A team of friends from KC came on a short-term missions trip with Perception Funding. They spent a week loving on kids by distributing 200 pairs of shoes, toothpaste, toothbrushes and Beany Babies; painting; building a skateboarding 1/4 pipe for our skateboarding ministry; making lunch for 30-40 boys each day; repairing rundown nets and fencing that was damaged in a landslide earlier this year; and beading and playing soccer and other games with the kids that participate in our ministries. They blessed us as a family, and our ministry "kids", tremendously with their energy, hard work, and commitment to serve in the name of Christ.
Kids "earned" a pair of shoes by collecting a bag of trash from the property (trash blows in off the garbage trucks and from the landfill next to our property, and the kids throw trash down too). I got misty seeing some of the kids first pick out shoes for their parents or siblings before they found some for themselves.
A very hard-hearted young man in Seth's discipleship time admitted after participating in a devotional that he didn't want to be there before, but that God had touched his heart about his motivations for serving and where his heart is right now.

Please pray with us that these glimmers would grow into strong midday rays, mighty works of God that transform this community from the inside out. Because when He gets inside people, there's always change on the outside for the better. Only He can make things like mercy, forgiveness, compassion, generosity, and kindness rule in La Carpio, or anywhere else in the world.

Peace, Andrea

Unjust or cruel exercise of authority or power

2011-02-10T21:02:00.007-06:00

On Monday, January 31st our family waited in line for about an hour and a half to pick up our "cedulas", or resident visa ID cards, from immigration. In some ways, this was a momentous occasion for our family and a significant milestone in our journey as missionaries--the culmination of more than two years work gathering documents, having them translated into Spanish, chasing down stamps from various government offices across San Jose, all at the cost of several thousand dollars (thank you to all who gave!).

We could've hired a lawyer to shepherd us through the process, but I guess we were itching for a fight and thought we'd be good stewards and save two or three thousand dollars by going it alone.

As we left immigration that day, I didn't feel as exuberant as I'd hoped. Something was bothering me. You see, we turned in all of our documents back in April of 2010 and were told that we could expect our visas within a month. We had completed all of the requirements to gain residency, but during the next seven months we were lied to, ignored and mistreated.

Twice I had to take the chairman of the board of directors for Christ for the City in San Jose with me to immigration to get past an imaginary hurdle. Eventually, a Costa Rican friend of ours intervened and talked to a friend of his at immigration. Within a week, we received formal notification of the approval of our request for residency. Three more mysterious, maddening months would go by before we received our visas.

Reviewing all that had happened in my mind, I realized that what was bothering me and had taken the joy out of us finally receiving the cedulas was the fact that I felt totally devalued by the entire process. I was treated as less than human because I am a foreigner, and they had the power and I did not (the title of this post is Webster's definition of oppression). For someone growing up in one of the richest counties in North America, this was not easy to swallow.

But gratefully, I realized what a gift it was. That fleeting bitter taste of injustice in my mouth didn't taste so bad when I compared it to the cruel exercise of power that the young people in La Carpio live under daily. I realized that it was a gift--that temporal taste of oppression, was a glimpse into what it must be like for people in poverty.

I believe the root cause of poverty is spiritual. The non-poor oppress the poor for monetary gain, taking advantage of their lack of power or resources to subjugate them, which is sinful and unjust. Likewise, the poor often manipulate, lie and cheat their peers in order to try and survive. There is very little romantic or holy about poverty in a slum like La Carpio.

An eight-year-old girl told Andrea and I this weekend how her mother locks her in a small room for hours so the mother can go out and drink. This young girl loves to go to school, to flee her mother. She wanted to spend the night with us, but without her mother's permission, we had to refuse her.

Through the prophet Amos, God told the people of Israel that they would be exiled for oppressing the righteous and depriving the poor of justice. He rejected their sacrifices and ceremonies, saying he preferred that "justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a swift-moving stream."

We know there's no hope for the people of La Carpio except the kingdom of God. Please pray with us that the kingdom of God, and justice and righteousness, would roll on like a river through this slum.

With hope in Him,
Seth

Girls Going Against the Grain

2010-11-28T18:48:00.004-06:00

Did you know that approximately 25% of girls in developing countries are not in school, and that of the world's 130 million youth not in school who should be, 70% of them are girls?

I see this inequality in the education of girls in La Carpio. It seems to be more important for parents that their boys go to school and get their education, but that their girls stay home and help them around the house and raise younger siblings. One of my 11-year-old girls yesterday told me that she came here from Nicaragua 2 years ago, and she didn't get enrolled in school until this year. Most of the primary-school-aged girls I know have repeated multiple primary grades, and most of the secondary-school-aged girls I know have dropped out of the system. They're just too far behind, the broken system hasn't served them well, they can't afford to go anymore, and it's just too humbling to be a 7th grader when you're 19 years old.

That is why I am so impressed with the girls that come to the Institute of Life at the Christ For the City facility in La Carpio where I've been teaching. Their male counterparts are spending the day sleeping, doing drugs, hanging with their gang buddies, stealing, or playing soccer. But while the government system doesn't serve these girls, they are willing to try our alternate system and continue their education. They WANT to learn, in a community where girls are not encouraged to do so. They are persistent in their studies, taking tests 2 and 3 times before passing a grade, in a community where others give up and figure "what's the point?" They will not accept that they are dumb, in a community where those around them literally tell them so and treat them as objects. I have realized how much courage it takes them to live a life that is so out of sync with their surroundings, and it makes me love them fiercely and feel more proud of them than probably most of their own mothers do.

It is with this pride that I share with you that all 5 of the girls that took the government tests from my math class last semester passed their exams!!!!!!!!! Why is this such a big deal? What does helping some girls pass one more year of math have to do with sharing the gospel as a missionary?

First of all, math is what holds all of them back. They have holes in their past education that bars the path forward in this subject and it's the big, scary monster for most of them. Most of them have tried and failed in the past. They are learning some important character lessons about perseverance, diligence, honesty, and prayer, and I get to be there to encourage them in it. By helping them with this very practical need that they have, I earn the right to be a part of their lives and share spiritual truths with them as well. And THAT'S what I'm really in it for!

Secondly, Jesus taught about meeting practical needs in Matthew 25 when he said that when we feed the hungry, clothe the poor, visit those in prison, and show mercy to the needy, we do it to HIM. He commands us to help the poor, and warns that he takes it personally if we don't.

Finally, according to studies of the developing world, here are some of the amazing consequences for impoverished girls when we minister to them:

An extra year of secondary school raises a girl's eventual wages by 15 to 25 percent.
When a girl in the developing world receives 7 or more years of education, she marries 4 years later and has 2.2 fewer children.
Medical complications from pregnancy are the leading cause of death among girls ages 15 to 19 worldwide.
Girls who marry before age 18 are twice as likely to report being physically abused by their spouse as girls married later.

So you see, this victory for these truly extraordinary girls has a ripple effect through their whole lives: their physical health, their ability to make good choices about who they marry, when and how many children they should have, and their ability to provide for their families one day. But it's not just the girls themselves who are affected:

Research in developing countries shows that there is a consistent relationship between higher levels of education among mothers, and better infant and child health.
When women earn income, they reinvest 90% of it into their families, compared to 30-40% for men.

Are you getting the idea? These girls' decisions to push forward affect the future generations of their children, making it more likely that they can stop the cycles of poverty and abuse that are so rampant in their community. Don't we think this is what Jesus wants for them?

I share this not out of a desire to show how "important" the work we are doing is, but to connect the dots for people far away from our work on why we bother doing it and how we think it impacts the kingdom of God. To show how truly great the victory is for these girls when they do something seemingly insignificant like pass a math exam and move on to the next grade level. And to tell you how admirable each of my students is for going against the grain in La Carpio.

For each girl who sticks with it, though, there will be 3-5 others who drop out and give up. Please join us in praying that God would strengthen the resolve, educationally and spiritually, of the girls of La Carpio, give them success and confidence, and the encouragement and power to go forth and change their world!

Peace, Andrea

Why don't I feel you, God?

2010-10-16T19:15:00.004-05:00

This was one of the responses last Saturday when some of my girls, aged 8-11, were challenged to write down their questions for God. Each week, the girls at The Refuge journal a response to a question of my choosing. It helps me to get to know them better individually (because I read each entry and give stickers and comments of encouragement each week), and it is good for them to practice writing and spelling, which can be a challenge for many of them. They wanted to know why they couldn't see or feel him, why their parents or bad people act in certain ways, and why Jesus died on the cross for them, among other things. Man, this is my sweet spot -- I saw a great opportunity to share the gospel with them in a way that answered their questions at the same time!

This was not in my lesson plan, but reading their questions touched me and led me to create a series of studies called "Questions for God." Many of the girls don't even realize that the answers to their questions are in the Bible if they just search for them. Many of them are from nominal Catholic families who see the Bible as something the priest reads, not them. Some of them see it as a boring book of commands and rules, not as a source of life and wisdom. I wanted to show them that the Bible is accessible and full of truly useful information to begin to grow a love for God's word in them.

Today, we studied verses that tackled the nature of God. We answered the questions "What does God look like?", "Where does God's power come from?", "When/where was God born?" and "How did He create the world?" I think their attention was as rapt as I've ever seen it during the lesson today, because these were answers to questions that they themselves had posed, so of course they were interested!

Next week, we'll tackle how to know God, why Jesus died on the cross for us, and how we can feel his presence. And the final week, we'll talk about evil and why bad things happen. Each week, the girls memorize a verse to earn points toward going to camp in January, and I'm thrilled that they are cataloguing God's word in their hearts and minds in this way so that the Holy Spirit may use it to reach them, convict them, and encourage them in moments when they desperately need it.

Please join me in praying that this series will be a rich time of study for us together and that the girls will develop a thirst for God's truth that will drive them to search out all of the answers to their questions in the Bible.

The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever. Isaiah 40:8

Peace, Andrea

Learned helplessness

2010-09-06T19:45:00.008-05:00

One of the hardest things for me to understand in the lives of the young men I'm working with in La Carpio is their fatalistic worldview. Nearly all of the boys I encounter on a daily basis have little or no desire to work, to learn or to improve their lot. Most eat maybe one meal a day. Besides a shower, the only other activity they have day after day, is playing pick-up games of soccer. A psychologist would likely diagnose a majority of them with "learned helplessness."

Learned helplessness is (from the Encyclopedia Britannica): "A model of depression in which exposure to unforeseen and adverse situations gives rise to a sense of helplessness or an inability to cope with or devise ways to escape such situations, even when escape is possible. Learned helplessness often occurs in children who are raised in harsh social environments where success is difficult to achieve. They suffer motivational losses and are very resistant to training."

Ironically, Andrea and I are both engaged with trying to instill training and discipline of one type or another (be it academic studies, vocational preparation, pursuing God, following rules, etc.). We have definitely noticed these characteristics strongly present in the youth of La Carpio.

Two sad examples of those "unforeseen and adverse" situations occurred last week. Alex (one of the young men in the carpentry program) was the neighbor of 9-year-old Stuart. Last Monday night, Stuart was playing in the street with a group of kids when a gang fight broke out. Stuart was shot in the eye and died shortly thereafter in the hospital. A woman, also an innocent bystander, was wounded. Later in the week, around noon on Friday, a 12-year-old girl was shot by a boy a year or two older than her.

When I talked to Alex about what happened, he told me the details matter-of-factly, almost as if he was reporting something on the news. His face was impassive and blank. I couldn't get a read on his emotions. Besides wrestling with anger, the combination of the randomness of the violence, its senselessness and the young age of the victims made me feel sorrow. It dawned on me that being raised in such an environment, would inevitably lead to feelings of despair and a fatalistic worldview. These kinds of events happen with regularity in Alex's world. It must be so easy to conclude that it's really not worth trying or persevering in life when it can all end in a random, harsh moment.

However, despite the sorrow I feel over these two recent killings, I know there's hope for the boys in the carpentry program, the girls in Andrea's classes and other young people in the community. Besides the growth I've seen in the boys as they've learned to work and devote themselves to something, and begin to take pride in the work they do, I've also seen them grow in the knowledge of Him in whom we place our hope.

Peace,
Seth

A Day in La Carpio

2010-08-07T20:08:00.004-05:00

Hi there, sorry we haven't written in so long. After illness, moving house and entertaining visitors from the States, we're finally getting back in the writing saddle! Thought I'd write some detailed images/reflections of what it's like to work in La Carpio, where I teach math to teenage girls on Mondays and help run a girl's club on Saturday afternoons...

Driving across a land bridge to an outcropping of earth in the middle of a rock quarry/garbage dump, you notice piles of garbage on the sides of the road and charred spots in the grass. You realize what these are for when you see people jump on the garbage truck right in front of you (smells terrible!) and start pulling out bags to scavenge. Some of these people are kids. I once saw a kid of no more than 12 do a stunt that involved jumping on the moving truck, climbing up the back and walking across the top of the truck, all while the truck continued moving. They pull bags open on the side of the road and look for useful items or (among other things) metals that they can extract by burning. They can sell copper, aluminum, etc. for pennies per pound.

Gangbangers stand at each bus stop and stare at you with hard faces as you pass by. They don't threaten you, but rather stare through you. It's hard to tell what they're thinking and if they would want to harm you. There are 5 gangs in La Carpio, one for each bus stop. The bus stop you live closest to is by default your gang.

Everything seems broken in La Carpio. Ramshackle houses look like they are sliding downhill into the ravines on both sides of the encampment. Walls made out of corrugated tin sheets, bars everywhere (but this part is normal for Costa Rica), foam mats to sleep on inside houses. Mud walkways are the only way to get to many of the houses. If there IS a road, it's full of potholes. You don't see policemen or taxis. The small of garbage permeates everything and the lack of greenery to hold down the dirt makes it fly up and stick on your body. "Palsy dog" welcomes me as I enter the CFCI gate. Goats eat out of the trash dumpster outside. The bathrooms may be out of order, the water may be off, the internet for the computer lab may be down, your cell phone may not get reception, the ladder may be broken, your things may be stolen if you're not careful about locking them up, the whiteboard markers may be missing -- no telling what kinds of obstacles may fill your day today, but they certainly have a mysterious way of multiplying in La Carpio. Sometimes each day seems like a battle just to do the simplest things that we would take for granted in the plentiful U.S.

You work with kids that are so different from you in some ways that you may as well be from different planets. This is a place where kids are not like the ones you know: eight-year-olds who don't know their own birthdays, 10-year-olds who still can't spell their names, girls who have babies themselves, sisters who take care of their siblings and keep the house clean for their moms, brothers dead or in jail, young men with no motivation to do anything because they have no hope for a better life. Ages of students don't match up to grade levels due to multiple dropouts for jobs, babies, sibling care, illness, etc. Abuse of all kinds is normative. Girls are taught that they exist to take care of kids, clean, cook, and satisfy men. Boys are quickly ground down by the lack of opportunity, and fall prey to a mass learned helplessness, believing "it doesn't matter what I do, so I may as well _________."

Here are some of your students:

While other students doodle boyfriends' names in their notebooks, Nazareth doodles "Jeremy" with a heart around the name. Jeremy is her 3-month old son. Sometimes I get to hold him during class so that Nazareth can work. Tania and Surjen, other children of students, also hang out and occasionally demand the attention of their mothers or others. I won't forget the first time that Karen started breastfeeding her baby in the front row of my class without covering herself, though now I'm used to it!

Kassandra has to leave now at lunchtime to care for her 3 younger siblings in the afternoon. She misses study time and the valuable opportunity to have a hot lunch (which we provide every day for our students), when most of the kids in Carpio get only one meal per day. Her head is always down like she's waiting for me to yell at her.

Dayana has trouble concentrating because she is hungry in the mornings from not eating breakfast. I've taken to bringing birthday snacks and food prizes to have an excuse to give them something to eat during class.

Marjorie has recurrent headaches that make her miserable and send her home from class every now and then. I think she suffers from migraines, but doesn't have access to medication. She also frequently sleeps during breaks, leading me to believe she doesn't get much rest at home.

Ana Cecilia had to drop out of my class because she found a job in a hotel to help support her 4-year-old daughter Tania. She is 21 and was in my 7th grade math class.

Jareth stares off into space during break times and cites "problems at home" as the reason she looks so sad so often. I hope one day she'll confide in me what those problems are.

These are just a few of the girls I work with and a sampling of the problems they have. I love each of them, and I'm amazed at how they all do 2 things at the same time: (1) mess around, laugh, sing, dance, giggle, and have fun like the kids they should be, and so desperately want to be, and (2) be hard, grown up beyond their years, and pessimistic in their outlook.

I know that many of you have been wanting some specifics about what our life/work is like here, so I thought that describing the smells, sights and people would be an interesting way to share part of it with you. Am I complaining about how hard it is to work in La Carpio? Not at all. Just trying to describe the facts of the matter. I love what I'm doing, and I know that God has me there to be an agent in the process of bringing earthly hope and eternal hope to the girls and young women in this community. I also know that I am learning as much as my students are! Perseverance, patience, contentment, generosity, and thankfulness are just a few of the lessons that they teach me every day.

Humbly, Andrea

Divine encouragement

2010-06-25T14:56:00.003-05:00

This morning I went to visit the Abraham Project, an orphanage outside of San Jose that's run by a missionary couple I've been wanting to meet. Unfortunately, the couple had just left on furlough, but I sought out the foreman of the construction project they have going on because I heard they might be willing to donate some wood for the carpentry program in La Carpio.

I approached Orucu and introduced myself. I asked him if they had any leftover wood. He said no. He explained that most of the campus had been built using recycled wood from pallets. I began to think the entire trip had been a waste of time. Then he told me that they were going to give us some wood from what they had in order to be a blessing to us. I was encouraged, and he and I began to pull some pine and douglas fir scraps from an immense pile of wood, taking care to avoid the multitude of rusty nails.

Before becoming the construction foreman for the Abraham Project, Orucu had been a pastor in the South of Costa Rica. He began to question me about the youth I'm working with in La Carpio and what kind of challenges they face. I confided in him that oftentimes it's difficult work because the young men in La Carpio have little or no desire to work, and trying to motivate them and build character is a difficult, lonely endeavor.

Just as I finished talking, I saw a man walk out of their woodshop, about 50 feet away. He walked right up to me and without introducing himself, began to talk. He told me, "Everything you do in ministry for the glory of God is known. It is written down in heaven. The work you do is for the glory of God and it is known to Him."

I thanked him and we shook hands, and then he turned and walked back to the shed where he'd been working. I turned and looked at Orucu. He'd taken off his hat and was cradling it in his hands. He said, "This is from God." He smiled and blinked back tears. "This is from God. Years ago this man came and prophesied about what would come to be here at this location, what we see now, what he's working on."

I replied that I was in need of encouragement and marveled at how this man who didn't know me came and gave me what I needed. Orucu just smiled and praised God. Praise God that He knows us intimately, knows our very needs and wants to meet them in practical, unexpected ways.

Encouraged,
Seth

Pray, for peace

2010-05-29T11:52:00.003-05:00

On a recent trip into La Carpio, I stopped at Rener's house to pick him up to take him with me to the workshop. He beckoned me inside and I could tell from the look on his face, something was wrong. I went inside to find his mother, Claudia, sprawled on the couch and his grandmother pacing nervously.

Claudia had a heart attack three days prior to my visit. Her heart had stopped. The paramedics revived her on the way to the hospital. After two days in ICU, she was discharged. She has no insurance and I guess they figured she was stable. Clearly, Rener, Claudia and grandma were hoping I could do something.

I pulled a chair next to the couch and placed my hand on her shoulder and we prayed together. I prayed for healing. I prayed for provision for the family. I prayed for peace and comfort. Rener and I left a little later and we continued onto the workshop in silence. Throughout the day, I thought of Claudia's situation, and also the lives of some loved ones near and far who are going through tough times. I began to feel angry and impotent, wishing there was something I could do practically, immediately and see some results. I didn't want prayer to be my first and only response in the face of a lot of suffering.

In his letter to the church in Philippi, Paul exhorted the saints to, "... not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

God has really been challenging me to turn to Him in prayer, with thanks, as my first option, rather than when I've exhausted all my futile efforts. So selfishly, I'm trying to pray, for peace, and to honor Him as the giver of all good.

Peace,
Seth

A Glimpse of the Puzzle

2010-04-15T19:34:00.003-05:00

Isn't it a beautiful thing to see pieces of a puzzle fit together when you didn't even realize they were pieces to the same puzzle?

Recently, we have focused our teaching at The Refuge in La Carpio on preventing drug and alcohol addiction. These girls are at-risk of abuse, addictions, early pregnancy, you name it. I realized that some of the women at the addict home I visit for Bible study might be an encouragement to them. These women have powerful testimonies of what it is to make mistakes and lose everything, but to be found and loved by Jesus and learn that He is enough. The past 2 Saturdays of the program, I have taken my friends Maria-Eugenia and Clara to share their testimonies with the girls.

It was a special time for both groups. The first Saturday, Maria-Eugenia shared the pain and disappointment that her alcoholism and life on the street has caused her and her family. She poured out her broken heart after having fallen again into temptation after 9 years of sobriety. She wept as a mother would and pleaded with the girls not to destroy themselves and make their situation worse by abusing substances as an escape.

The second Saturday, Clara echoed many of Maria-Eugenia's exhortations. She shared her estrangement from her entire family even now after her battle with drugs. She warned the girls that it all begins with one little cigarette, one little drink at a party, a friend or boyfriend who pressures you to try something. Most importantly, both women testified to the power of God and the love of Christ in their lives, to their dependence on Him in every moment to see them through.

Our girls, about 30 each Saturday, ages 12-18, sat transfixed and taking to heart every word that they said. We were able to discuss some concerns that some of their girls have for their friends that are beginning to get into drugs. We shared and discussed several bible verses about how to resist temptation and the tools that God gives us to do so.

The beauty of seeing this unfold was witnessing the mutual blessing that they were to each other. The women were touched by the youth and potential of the girls, and by the knowledge that many of them would see or are already seeing many trials and pain due to substance abuse. Maria-Eugenia and Clara saw that they had something to offer in ministry because of their life experiences, not in spite of them, and that God could use even those painful memories to declare his glory to others and show them victory in Christ. The Holy Spirit used them in a way that He could not have used me because of where they've been, and He gave them words to minister to those hurting girls.

The girls were supportive of the recovering addicts and encouraging, one of them even giving Clara her craft for the day as a gift (if you knew how much these girls treasure their crafts, you would understand how special that is!). I know that they will not quickly forget the genuine love and compassion that was shown for them by these amazing women, and that they will remember the hope and forgiveness that Christ offers them even when they do fall and make mistakes.

It was awesome to see God put together people in 2 completely unrelated ministries in a way that was used for the mutual edification of each. His ways are mysterious and beyond understanding, but perfect in every way!

Thankful to be a part of it,
Andrea

Ever wonder what missionaries do on the field?

2010-03-20T11:06:00.003-05:00

We come to tell people about Jesus and serve them in their areas of need, but sometimes we get to do other things to assure that we get to continue to do that. In case you've never experienced the bureaucracy of Central America, you will get a flavor for it if you can actually get through this whole post. We've tried to make it worthwhile by also making it entertaining.

Seth and I started the day out yesterday taking our applications for our religious worker resident visas to immigration. We had an optimistic outlook after months of document preparation, authentication, seals and translations, advice from a lawyer, and the whole sha-bang. We prayed while walking in that God would give us grace and favor with those with whom we would need it. It went like this:

We arrive at immigration and ask where the bank is to complete step one of the process: pay our fees. The sheet we had printed off said $30 per person, so we showed up with $150 for all 5 of us. Ready, set go!
We wait in line for 30 minutes, to be told by the teller that the amounts are variable and that we need to ask at information first to see what the right amount is, and then come back.
We wait in line at information for another 30 minutes. We decide to divide and conquer. Seth tries another source of information while Andrea stays in line.
Seth is patently rejected by the person who accepts the religious worker visa applications, who assumes that we can't possibly have all the documents we need (without looking at them) and refuses to give him any information. "We need to pay our application fees, but how much do we pay?" "Go away and come back when you've paid." "I know, but how much do we pay?" "Come back when you've paid." Gee, thanks for your help.
Little ringlets of smoke begin to come out of Seth's ears. We now know why SHE is assigned to the religious worker desk: those of us who are filled with the spirit of Christ are the only ones who can engage with her without homicide being the result.
Seth returns to find Andrea at the information desk, and the man who is trying to help her has disappeared. He looked at her blankly when she explained her question, and left to ask someone what the heck to tell her. The elderly ticos behind her ask if he's taking his coffee break.
Info man returns to explain that the law just changed. $30 was the old amount. $250 is the new amount. Over 800% increase in the fee overnight? Sure, that makes sense. We leave knowing that we're not submitting our applications that day, because we don't have the money and have to submit another advance to CFCI for the rest of the money.
We begin to suspect there are other things that have probably changed that would affect this process, so we do some searching on the internet. We learn that we now have to register for voluntary insurance with the socialized medicine system (La Caja) to apply for visas. We decide to try to accomplish SOMETHING today, so we try to figure out what we need for this, make copies of everything required according to their website, and head out again.
We find the building that the Caja's web site directed us to for this and wait in line for an hour. We begin discussing the merits of ripping people's arms off and stuffing them down their throats as a way of getting things done in developing countries. Very Christ-like, huh?
The man at the window that we explain our situation to has no idea what to do or tell us. He finds a superior, who explains to us that we have to go to another building 2 blocks away for this. We explain that we already have insurance and that we're hoping to get an exemption when we show them our insurance cards, past bills paid by them, etc. and assure them that we will not be a burden to their health care system. Their response: it is now obligatory to participate in the Caja regardless of your insurance status.
The light bulb goes on: this is a new way for Costa Rica to make money off of foreigners and get us to help fund their medical system that is bankrupt. Maybe our money will help people get their medical care after a 4-month wait instead of after an 8-month-one.
We find the next building and sit in chairs for 30 minutes until someone can help us. He tells us that we need to somehow prove our income and expenses so that he can calculate our premium based on our "extra" (net) money. We have a letter on hand from CFCI stating our income (which was not required, but we suspected it might come in handy). He is confounded that we do not receive our income in Costa Rica (we are paid in the U.S.) or pay taxes here, and has no idea what to do with us. He tells us to go home and bring him copies of our bills, something the web site said nothing about. It is clear we are the guinea pigs and he is making this up as he goes along.
We go home and do this, and go back freaking out that most of our monthly expenses are in cash and we don't have "bills" to show him to account for what we spend each month, so it will appear that we have plenty of extra money to hand over to them.
We go back and sit in chairs for another 30, listening to other Americans in front of us flip their lids when he tells them they owe $400 per month. We begin sweating profusely. The others leave without enrolling and promise to return with more bills showing a more accurate reflection of their expenses. Seth threatens under his breath to deliver a Chuck Norris roundhouse kick to the man's solar plexis if he tries that highway robbery with us.
When it's our turn again, the man kindly explains that the bottom line is that the Caja wants 10% of our leftover income after our bills. As we hand him our "bills," which don't nearly reflect the total of our mandatory monthly expenses, we explain that we don't have EXTRA money. We get x amount per month, and we spend it all on necessities of life. Period. He is worn out after his conversation with the previous Americans and explains that the minimum amount he can calculate a premium off of is about $200. We say great. He tells us our premium is $15 per month.
Andrea asks if there's a document outlining the coverage we will receive if we use the government health plan's services. He looks at her blankly and says, "You get health care, we pay for it." "There's no co-pay or deductible?" "No, we pay for it all." Gee, I wonder why they're bankrupt and people don't get care in a timely fashion.
He cannot remove the pension aspect of our premium due to a computer glitch (without that the premium should have been $8 per month), even though we explain that we don't expect to still be living here when it's time for retirement. I guess Seth now gets a Costa Rican pension in about 25 years.
All of this only enrolled Seth in the plan, since he is technically the wage earner in the family. We now have to go to the nearest health clinic to our home and register the rest of the family on his policy to get cards for all of us to show to immigration that we've fulfilled this requirement.
We hit the clinic on the way home (it looks like Hannibal Lector's prison cell from the outside), and it's locked up tight. They've closed for the day by 4:30.
We head home, and remember to thank God that we made progress today and did get the much-needed favor from the gentleman at the Caja at the end of the day who gave us the benefit of the doubt and took our word for it on our finances, a favorable low premium that does minimal damage to our monthly budget, and an opportunity to take our lives into our hands by getting treatment at the government health clinic free of charge. We can't wait to taste that government cheese!

Sooo, we started the day setting out to apply for residency, and ended it by participating in the socialized health care system. I guess you just never know, huh?

Maybe we'll actually get to leave our application files with immigration when we try again. Then again, maybe it will take 5 more trips to even begin the process...

We know that it's worth it, and despite the frustration we really did laugh at times,

Andrea

After the lull ... the big Mo.

2010-03-12T14:05:00.003-06:00

After a slow start to the carpentry program, we've really got some momentum. Five young men showed up this week each day and participated in the program--we studied the first chapter of the gospel of John, worked our way through a couple of pages of a carpentry book, built some cabinets, did some painting and even studied a little English, too.

This week I really felt like we turned a corner relationally, too. Alex is almost 16 years-old and was assaulted by a group of boys last year. His mother told us that he quit going to school and rarely left the house due to fear of the same happening again. Somehow, he overcame these fears to show up the last two weeks and participate. Although very timid the first week, during Bible study Wednesday, he responded to a question about how God has blessed him by saying the carpentry program and our growing relationships have been a real blessing to him!

Two other exciting bits of news this week are that Gustavo, the director of New Horizons, the outreach that the carpentry program is a part of, found some money in the budget so we can buy some wood to begin creating some pilot products to sell in the neighborhood. This will be an initial effort to determine what we want to begin building and how it might sell in La Carpio.

In addition, Andrea and I have been invited to co-lead a couples' Bible study in La Carpio with Cesar and his wife, Carmen, two residents of La Carpio that are volunteers with Christ For the City and are involved in starting a church in the neighborhood. The second week that Cesar and Carmen and others gathered for Sunday morning Bible studies, nearly 150 people showed up. Clearly there is a real hunger for the Lord in this desperate place!

Please pray with us that we'd have wisdom and discernment to determine which additional ministry opportunities to become involved in as they present themselves as we try to be good stewards of our time and energy. Please also continue to pray for Alex, Rener, Harold, Mychall and Jonathan to continue to be consistent and respond to what the Lord is doing in their hearts through the carpentry program.

Peace,
Seth

Dedication, part 2

2010-02-22T15:19:00.002-06:00

In my last post I'd optimistically estimated starting class with eight interested young men. The designated Tuesday for starting, one young man named Harold showed up. The next day, we had two more young, but eager-to-learn boys.

Over the last couple of weeks, we've done repair work around the property, salvaging wood from discarded pallets, and I've begun to build a relationship with some of these young men. After another week, a 17-year-old named, Micah showed up. He liked what we did and brought a friend with him the next day.

Last Friday we sat in the shade and talked for awhile and I shared my vision for the program with them. I also asked them what they hoped to learn and achieve. Later, one boy went out to the street and bought a couple bags of Tamarindo-flavored ice (about 10-cents a pop). We bit the tip off the bags and sucked the flavored water and hung out. It was good to be accepted on their turf.

Later that afternoon, I visited a wood-crafting factory and thanks to a conversation I struck up with a resident artist, I was shown into the office. I spoke with the owner's son about my vision for the program in La Carpio and told him I'd like to supply him with trained workers if he could put them to work. He was eager to see such young men and provide employment.

Please pray with me that God would bring more interested young men and that we'd come together and form the right team to launch this program at the right time!

Expectantly,
Seth

Dedication

2010-01-28T16:55:00.002-06:00

I found this used book recently, that's titled, "Duty, Honor, Vietnam." It's about 12 men who graduated from West Point and then served our country during the Vietnam War. Howard Boone, who retired as a colonel, described the value of the military college in this way, "West Point turns out a very dedicated product, but the difficulty is that he's not only seen very little of the world, but he's so controlled that he's emotionally and socially insecure."

I've been thinking of this statement as it pertains to the young men of La Carpio, the slum where I'll be teaching carpentry, and much more, in a week. Right now, these boys are dedicated to nothing more than finding something to eat and playing soccer. In addition, most of them are emotionally and socially insecure, not because of too much control in their lives, but from the complete absence of any authority or controlling/guiding influence, such as a father.

Can I teach and inspire these kids to be dedicated enough to learn a skill and become responsible enough to hold a job and provide for themselves? More importantly, will they recognize me as an ambassador for Christ, teaching reconciliation, restoration and hope--words that right now might hold as much meaning to them as duty and honor?

Tuesday, we expect that eight boys will start this program with us. I've been asking God to give me at least three boys that will stick with the program (and me) so that I can become a friend, mentor and discipler to them. I'm really excited to begin the process of building into their lives and seeing what God has in store for them. And I look forward to sharing more about His grace and faithfulness during this season.

Prayerfully,

Seth

Add to the Beauty

2010-01-06T14:07:00.002-06:00

Happy New Year! I happened to be listening to Sara Groves' song Add to the Beauty on New Year's Day as I was thinking about what this year has in store for us, and what I'd like to accomplish.

For those of you who aren't familiar with it, here are some of the lyrics:

It comes in small inspirations
It brings redemption to life and work
To our lives and our work

It comes in loving community
It comes in helping a soul find its worth

Redemption comes in strange places, small spaces
Calling out the best of who we are

And I want to add to the beauty
I want to tell a better story
Shine with a light, that's burning up inside

I admit that sometimes the messed up nature of the world weighs me down and makes being a part of God's plan to redeem it seem like an impossible and unwieldy task. Where to begin?

This song reminded me of the small and beautiful things that we see each day that are part of the process of redemption. It struck me that "adding to the beauty" should be the sum total of my New Year's resolution this year. If I am blessed enough to help one soul find its worth this year by reflecting Christ's beauty, that will be enough. No matter how small my contributions, if I've added to the beauty accounts and helped to tell a better story to some who need to hear it, it will be enough. Here's to New Year's perspective!

Reflectively,
Andrea

The Blessing of Friends

2009-11-19T17:52:00.003-06:00

Wow, it's been over a month since we updated our blog! It's been a great one, filled with visits from friends in the States who have been a tremendous blessing to us and to our missionary student community at language school.

First, David Beisiegel, a chiropractor friend of ours, came down for a medical mission to Costa Rica and Nicaragua. He offered to do free chiropractic adjustments for fellow missionary students, and 35 people took him up on it! We hadn't really thought about it, but lugging books back and forth to school, sitting in hard desks all day, sleeping on strange beds, and being stressed out about language and culture shock can take it's toll on one's spine. There were many happy students around campus after David came by!

Next, Jonathan and Joy Klee arrived to do a ministry check-in and help us make a video to capture our lives and ministry here in Costa Rica. Jonathan has his own fundraising ministry in Kansas City, and was a great help to us in preparing financially to come to the field. He has generously offered to be an ongoing support to us on the field by making this video. We took advantage of Jonathan's visit to bless the missionary student body again with a fundraising workshop. It was a great encouragement to about 25 missionaries who participated, all of whom are faced with raising financial support during a time of unprecedented financial strain in the U.S. and needed some fresh assurance that God continues to provide for all of our needs in his own creative ways.

Anyway, Jonathan and Joy have shadowed us for the better part of a week, filming as we go. We are very excited to share the final product with you all soon, and hope that it will be a good visual summary of our lives here so that you can see with your own eyes what we're up to!

Blessings,
Andrea

Hearts, Minds and Spirits Being Restored

2009-10-06T15:32:00.002-05:00

I thought I'd write a bit about my experiences so far at Restoration House, a recovery home for women with addictions who have been living on the street.

What an amazing and receptive group of women! They are strong -- they've seen horrible circumstances and survived them. They are spiritually hungry -- they have no illusions about their "goodness" and are seeking God because they are desperate for Him. They are welcoming -- willing to share and invite myself and other women from the language school into their lives. There are about 15 to 20 of them living in the house at any given time, and they are wide-ranging in age (ranging from high teens to over 50). I had apprehensively wondered if they would be sullen or unfriendly because of their life situation, but have found that most of them want to learn about the Bible, read it and contribute to the discussions. Thank God that their terrible circumstances have gotten them focused on what's important!

Isabel's story is a common one in the house. She did drugs when she was younger, but stopped when she got married and had children. She had 3 children, and then her husband left her. In the ensuing depression, she again turned to drugs to relieve the pain. She was out of control, lost her kids, and ended up living on the street. She now knows that her lifestyle did nothing to ease the pain, but rather caused her more and more pain. She is putting her life back together and looks forward to getting her kids back, and now knows that Christ is the only thing that will fill her and sustain her when she has problems to deal with.

We are alternating between studying through the book of Romans to go over a sound and progressive presentation of the gospel, and studying themes of interest to the group. We have covered the first 3 chapters of Romans and this week will be studying on the topic of Self-Esteem: Who Does the Bible Say We Are? Understandably, many of these woman feel worthless and used up. I pray that they will be encouraged and equipped to fight the lies of Satan and rely on God for their worth when we discuss that they are the bride of Christ, friends of God, adopted daughters given an inheritance, wives pursued by her lover even when they are faithless, and conquerors with the power of the Holy Spirit. Please join me in praying that they will grab hold of these identities and claim the love that Christ has for them each day.

Since my time with these ladies, I've seen and felt (and been somewhat surprised by the strength of) very real spiritual warfare. First, I was prevented from visiting them to start the bible study for nearly a month when I was ill. Ironically, Paul starts the book of Romans by talking about how many times he has been prevented from visiting Rome despite his heart's desire: "I planned many times to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now) in order that I might have a harvest among you." Romans 1:13 I don't think that's a coincidence. I believe God plans to make a harvest among these women who are so thirsty for his Word, and He WILL change their lives!

Next, a new resident shared a chilling dream she had on her second night in the home. In the dream, she could see a small group of believers worshipping God, and a large group of people worshipping Satan. She was in a neverland between the two groups of people, and knew she had a choice to make. She felt that she wanted to join the smaller group of Christians, but felt the strong pull of "the known" with the group of worldly people who followed Satan. When she tried to move in the direction of the Christians, she was confronted by Satan, who told her, "You must worship ME! We had a deal, you can't be with them! You won't be accepted!" She expressed a desire to leave him and he taunted her, saying, "I'll be waiting for you on the street; I know you'll be back." I believe these woman are regularly fighting these types of mental and emotional persecutions as they attempt to break the oppression and bondage in their lives. And how brave they are for persevering!

Finally, I've felt personally attacked this week. As I've prepared a study on self-esteem, I've experienced unexplained feelings of worthlessness myself, and found myself taking comments made by others to reinforce this view. This is not a normal preoccupation for me, and finally I realized on Sunday (at church during worship) that it is the enemy trying to distract and disable me from teaching strongly on the subject! After praying and asking God to bind these efforts, the feelings have begun to subside. I'm not one to "over-spiritualize" things (if that is really possible, that's for another blog post), but it's been made clear to me that the source of this oppression was not natural.

Please join me in praying that God would heal all of the many wounds that these women have accumulated in their lives, and specifically for the following women:

Lorlly, who went home to return to her 8-year-old daughter after only one month in the home. This is a short time, and she was anxious about the strength of her ability to withstand temptation, but had to resume care of her daughter. We prayed fervently together before she left the home that God would protect her and strengthen her, and enable her to be a good parent to her daughter.
Mari-Paz, who is young and lively and always contributes to the discussions. She has been in the home for about 9 months, so she is preparing to evaluate her readiness for the outside world as well.
Jerilyn, who shows interest in learning about God's Word and actively participates in the study, but is shy about it and seems unsure of her faith.
Isabel, mentioned above, that God would heal her wounds from divorce and life on the street and continue to grow her as she walks steadily while leaning on Him.
Maria, who is young, pregnant, and so wants her child to be healthy and not affected by her former habits.

And please lift up all of us, including my co-teachers Helen, Sandra, and Tiffany, and ask for protection as we fight this battle (spiritual and earthly) together!

For the King,

Andrea

Back in action!

2009-09-19T16:00:00.002-05:00

The title of this post has several layers of meaning for Andrea and I. She's back in action after more than two weeks sick with flu, and the pneumonia that landed her in the hospital for four days. While she was on her "vacation" as the kids and I jokingly referred to it, we had a ton of support from the States and also from our new community here. Our church, La Iglesia Berea, lifted her up in prayer throughout the illness. And our friends and fellow missionaries at the language institute fixed us meals, cared for the kids, visited her in the hospital and prayed for us, too.

All of this love and support really demonstrated the love of God for us and confirmed that He is, "... the Father of compassion, and the God of all comfort," (2 Corinthians 1:3). So, thank you for all of your love and prayer and support of us!

Andrea also had another "back in action" moment, when she and our new good friend Helen (she and her husband Steve, and daughter Nisha, are missionaries from England) went to the "Restoration House" and led the women there in a Bible Study. The women in this house are voluntarily living in a home together as they try and overcome drug addiction and life on the street. Andrea reports that all of the women were very eager to participate in the study and engage. It was a real encouragement to her to be back in the game and feeling better physically and spiritually by sharing scripture and discipling women who've known real hardship.

Finally, I've been able to go up to La Carpio several times a week and begun to engage in ministry there. While I've been making some cabinets for the offices above the shop, several young men wandered in and began hanging out, asking if they could help. What a blessing it has been to be back in action in ministry and beginning relational outreach with these young men. Please join me in praying for William, Jeffrey and Ricardo. I'm praying that we'll connect relationally and that by God's grace I'll be able to share my skills, but more importantly my faith and love for Jesus.

Another round of goodbyes

2009-08-15T15:41:00.002-05:00

Many people told us that one of the fringe "benefits" of being a missionary is how many times you say goodbye to good friends. That's been the theme this week, as the trimester in language school concluded and many of our new friends are heading to the field. Today, we grabbed some pizza and met our friends Anders and Jessica at a park nearby to say goodbye to them and their kids, Addie and Boden. Anders and Jessica became fast friends these past few months and will really be missed. They're off to Chile to serve the Mapuche, an indiginous group South of Santiago.

Later this afternoon, we're going to visit Ronnie and Amanda (and kids) and say so long. They're off to San Juan, Puerto Rico, to plant a church there. They were our "Big Brother and Sister" who welcomed us to Costa Rica by finding us a place to live and stocking our fridge with food. They too, became close friends here and will be missed. So long also to David and Carol, and Darlene, classmates at ILE and close friends. David and Carol work as missionaries in Newark, NJ with World Impact. They serve a large population of Ecuadorians there. Darlene is returning to Mexico City where she's served for more than four years, supporting a church plant there and doing outreach to the poor.

What a blessing it's been to see God's will and call on other's lives and enjoy fellowship with them for a time. We're really excited to hear from these folks and receive reports from how God is using them in their different countries. And at the same time, our hearts ache somewhat to know that they're gone and we may never share the same time and experiences again.

Grace and peace,
Seth (and the gang)

Small Victories!

2009-07-23T15:25:00.002-05:00

Wow, we have overcome in the last two days two major bureaucratic hurdles of being strangers in a strange land!

Number One: Getting a Costa Rican driver's license yesterday. What an adventure! We went with a friend from school who also needed to do this. After she was pursued by a suspected robber in the morning before we set out, a taxi driver ditched us, an interesting medical exam, lots of waiting at the driver's license bureau, different rules at different desks from the people that helped the three of us (Andrea got a difficult person who made up new requirements that she didn't meet), more waiting, and Seth's name being misspelled on the first shot at his license, we FINALLY achieved a victory. Despite the many hurdles, God was with us: He protected Amy in escaping her pursuer (and had her meet a great "tough guy" protector in our new neighborhood -- they call him "the Russian"), gave Andrea favor with a different worker at the bureau, and got things done and us home safely in the end. Lessons in patience, you think?

Number Two: Getting extensions on our tourist visas today. We had hoped to get this done yesterday as well, but showed up just a few minutes too late to get a number in the line for that day after the ordeal with the licenses. SO, back at it first thing this morning, we were number 5 in line. Woohoo! This was a great experience in feeling like an outsider among other people who have a better idea of what's going on than you do, and don't want to tell you the secret rules of society, or don't understand that you don't know them: where should you wait, when do you know that it's your turn, where do you get the mysterious stamps that we didn't know we had to have, etc.? How humbling! After only and hour and half, we were on our way and hit the worst traffic jam we've been in here. Something was on fire on the highway, the police had close the on ramp where we (and apparently 1/2 of San Jose) needed to get on, and we fought traffic for over an hour to leave the area we were stuck in. After all that, we still made it back to school in time for grammar class!

Praise God for small victories! We're looking forward to a three day weekend, as we don't have school on Monday due to a holiday to celebrate the annexation of the Guanacaste region of Costa Rica. More good news: schools here will reopen next week after being closed this week due to the swine flu. No more kid juggling and hopefully the flu risk is subsiding!

Blessings,
Andrea (and the Gang)

Making plans for August

2009-07-11T16:14:00.002-05:00

Dear friends and family,

It seems like July suddenly crept up on us, along with decisions about what to do at the end of this trimester of language school. This terms ends August 14 (Alden's b-day). We'd been planning on leaving language school and hiring a tutor to help us continue the journey toward fluency in Spanish. However, when we sat down and crunched the numbers, we realized it would be less expensive to enroll half-time at the institute. In addition, we've really wanted to complete the grammar curriculum at the language school, which we won't be able to by this August.

So, we'll be starting a new trimester of language school on Sept. 1. We'll take two hours of classes each day. Once we finish the grammar curriculum, which we expect to take another month, we'll begin focusing on translating. We've heard it's an excellent way to uncover weak spots in your language acquisition and correct them. Apparently, you really can't "fake it" in this class, or use circumlocution to describe what you're translating.

Andrea and I will be in class with one other fellow student from our grammar class now, Amy Lineburg, who is here with Wycliffe Bible Translators. We hope that class will begin at 7:30 am so Andrea can come back home and dive into homeschooling with the kids, while I head North through the city to La Carpio and get started in ministry! The kids will be home during these two hours or so with a maid/nanny. Andrea is really excited to get back to homeschooling the kids soon, and I'm anxious to feel productive in ministry again.

In addition, we're hoping to move to another home in the area that has another bedroom, and more importantly, two bathrooms (5 people + 1 bathroom = frequent emergencies)! In November, friends from the states are coming to stay with us and help us put together a fundraising video. Then, we hope in Dec. Seth's folks are going to come down and spend some time with us to avoid the ice and snow back home and volunteer in ministry here. So, the extra bedroom will be a blessing, too. We meet with the landlord of the other home on Tuesday.

Please pray for us that God would bless and direct our endeavours to find a loving "empleada" to care for the kids and do some cleaning or cooking while were in school. Please also pray that God will bless our move to the other home we've found and that everything would come together.

Don't forget, we love to receive updates from all of you on your lives!

Peace,
Seth (and Andrea and the kids)

2009-06-12T18:14:00.002-05:00

June highlights (so far):

A trip to a park in the city called InBIOParque, a place to educate people on preserving nature and wildlife. See our slide show above with pix! Alden got to hold a Boa Constrictor at its 1st birthday party.
A trip to Manuel Antonio national park and beach, and Alden petting a white-faced monkey in the wild. Seeing a trend? I think Alden is in heaven. Pictures (and video) coming on that later!
Staying healthy; I can't tell you how many missionary families at our school are facing sickness and trips to the emergency room on a regular basis! So far, we've been untouched by physical sickness.
Seth and I celebrating our 15th wedding anniversary on June 4. A fellow student babysat for us so we could have a date. Our gift to each other is learning to scuba dive (there's a very reasonable certification program being taught at our language school for interested students). We can't wait to take our dives on the July 4 weekend!
Having our class of 7 students over to our place this past Tuesday for a fiesta. We cooked out burgers on the grill and just enjoyed each other's company in English for a change!
Alden turning around his school performance. Yay for him, and thanks for your prayers! God has taught him much in the last few weeks about working through your problems, being disciplined, not giving up, and forgiving folks when you feel wronged.

Lowlights:

Having the gas cap to the car stolen right out of the garage (the car barely fits into the garage, so I guess someone reached through the gate and could reach the gas door). Who knew we'd have to have a gas cap with a lock on it -- who knew they even had those?
Other car problems involving the battery/alternator/radio. We hope they didn't sell us a lemon! If so, we pretty much have no recourse down here.
Sunburns at Manuel Antonio (we apparently didn't re-apply the sunblock in a timely enough fashion)!
Nearly getting hit in a car accident yesterday when some crazy driver cut us off in a roundabout.

Check out the new pictures (bigger on the photos page now), and please note that I now have a Facebook account (Andrea Reynolds Sears). It's a kind of fun way to share tidbits and snapshots of what's going on with us, so send me a friend request if you're on Facebook and I haven't established contact yet! Seth also has a new email address, which is seth.r.sears@gmail.com.

Blessings,

Andrea

Ministry opportunities

2009-05-31T09:47:00.002-05:00

Two weeks ago, we were blessed to see some friends and supporters from the States who came down on a vacation. On the last day of their trip, Sean and Jenny Evans (and their two girls) hung out with us for a day. In the morning, we went up to a slum on the North side of San Jose, named La Carpio, and took a tour of several of Christ For the City International's outreaches there (including a health clinic, school and home for abused girls). Andrea and I had visited these sites about a year ago on a vision trip to Costa Rica. It was exciting to see how much progress had been made in such a short time! They have a new computer lab set up with a ton of donated computers from the States, to teach kids and adults how to use computers and equip them with this skill that is more and more necessary to secure work.

In the basement of the school for boys, there's a shop with donated power tools (table saws, routers, belt sanders, etc). Delhy, the gentleman giving us the tour, explained that they had a man who was going to teach the boys job skills, but he left after all the equipment was donated without getting the program started. He explained that they've been praying for God to send a man who wants to be more than a teacher, but a mentor and a discipler. At this point, I had to interrupt Delhy and tell him that I'm the guy! We had a good laugh about this and as we were leaving, he told me that they'd be waiting for me to come back soon and clean and oil the tools. It was exciting to meet Delhy and several of the young men whose lives have been changed by CFCI's outreach in this impoverished area (click on the photos link above to see photos of the shop and some young men building a kitchen off of the main office at the school).

I feel an added impetus to finish language training soon and get to work, but I also want to be well-equipped to share my life and faith with young men and to do it fluently. Please pray for my progress this trimester in language school!

Later, Sean and I took the kids to a park near our home while Andrea and Jenny went with another CFCI missionary up into the mountains to a place called Renacer (meaning "rebirth" in English). This facility is a CFCI outreach to girls who've been involved in drugs and prostitution, living on the streets. The first thing they heard when the pulled up was the girls singing worship songs to the Lord; they had arrived right at chapel time for one of the four cohort groups! They were getting ready for a graduation ceremony the next day, in which 6 of the girls would graduate from the program. One of the girls who was about to graduate (also named Andrea) gave the women a tour and explained how things operate. There was a real tug on Andrea's and Jenny's hearts after hearing how this young girl's life had been rescued and changed! She'd clearly received good counsel, come to faith in Jesus, and had good boundaries with her family and a strategy for going forward in life. What else can one need when those basics are in place?

Another ministry opportunity that has been plopped in my lap has been in time spent with our neighbor Juan. He's a retired electrician and now works part-time as a handyman for neighbors on our block. This past Friday, he and I pulled the alternator from our car and had it rebuilt with new diodes and ball-bearings. Yesterday, he put it back in for us while we were on a trip to a park with other students and their kids. Through time working on the car together and through interviewing him for homework for class, I've gotten to know him quite well. He doesn't believe in a personal God and doesn't pray. However, I can see that he's eager to "do good" and serve people, as if there's a celestial supervisor reviewing his behavior. He's really been turned off by the hypocritical behavior of family members who claim to be Christians (in fact, one is a pastor).

Please pray with us that our friendship with Juan will continue to develop and the Lord would give me the right words at the right time to help move him a step or two closer to faith!

Thank you for all of your prayers, support and encouragement!
Seth

Centipede Kisses for Andrea

2009-05-09T12:23:00.003-05:00

OK, the title of this post refers to the fact that this morning I woke up to a centipede (3-4 inches long) crawling on my face! We have purchased mosquito nets to protect us from bug bites at night, but unfortunately ours fell on us in the night and we were too lazy to get up and replace it. I won't make the same mistake again!

What a week we've had! Here are some highlights:

We bought a car: a white 1999 Isuzu Rodeo. It seems to be in good condition and should serve us well. The rules of the road in Costa Rica are: whoever has the biggest vehicle has the right of way, and you don't hesitate, just GO and expect people to get our of your way! We won't use the car often, but it will help us get across town to friends' houses or on trips outside of San Jose for now, and later to get to work. The car buying process was quite an ordeal (added bureaucracy), and we're very thankful that we had Edwin (a Tico friend) to help us through it!
We ALL started school! We learned after our arrival that the kids and I didn't HAVE to wait for August to start as we had previously thought, so we turned on a dime and enrolled me in the language school and the kids in Sojourn Academy on the first day of orientation. It's been a shift in expectations, but a very good one. It will shorten our time at the school, Seth and I were placed in the same class so we can learn together (we really enjoy competing with each other), and gives the kids something to plug into right away to find new friends and have something to do besides bounce off the walls in our cozy house!
Our spanish classes started on Wednesday, and we can already tell we'll be learning SO MUCH. Please pray that we'll be able to learn quickly, eliminate our bad habits (and Mexican words that we picked up in KC that aren't the same in Costa Rica), and that the kids will adjust to going to school every day instead of one day a week. We're trying to get used to homework, schoolteacher expectations, etc. and it's quite a hustle to get the whole family up, dressed, through the one bathroom that we share, eat breakfast, pack lunches and walk to school by 7:30 am!
Seth and I are experiencing our first bout of "mal estomago" (intestinal unhappiness). Please pray that it will pass quickly (figuratively speaking, of course).
Sean and Jenny Evans arrived in Costa Rica yesterday, bringing four boxes of stuff that I left with them before we came. What a help they are to us in getting settled and having what we need from home to make a life here! They will spend some vacation time near Arenal (an awesome continuously erupting volcano to the north) and then we'll get to spend some time with them next Thursday before they go back to KC. We're excited to see people from home already!

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has give us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ through the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade -- kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time." 1 Peter 1:3-5

Blessings,

Andrea

Taking Costa Rica by Storm

2009-04-27T15:52:00.003-05:00

We’ve arrived! Our first four days here have been a whirlwind, but God had been good to us. We won’t give you the blow by blow of every day of our lives here going forward, but we know that some are interested in what our first few days have been like, and it’s definitely a testament of God’s mercy, sooo here goes….

We landed on time, tired from the overnight trip on which only one of us (Jude) got much sleep. Kellie from the CFCI base, Ronnie (our big brother from the language school), and Steve (our missionary friend with iTeams) were there to pick us up. All but one of our bags made it, the one with most of Alden’s clothes being the missing one. We called the airline this morning, it had arrived, and we were able to give them directions to our house so that it could be delivered. Our neighbor received it for us while we were out playing today, so everything is accounted for!

On Day 1, our Tico friends Edwin and Zeidy fed us brunch, after conducting an investigation to find us! Edwin was supposed to meet us at the airport, but tried an alternate route that morning and got stuck in traffic. We were concerned about how we’d meet up with them for brunch (we didn’t know our address or phone number before arriving, so neither did they, and we didn’t have their Costa Rican phone number with us because we usually use Skype to talk to them). But within an hour, Edwin managed to get our number after calling mutual friends in the States to get the language school info, calling the language school, and tracking down our phone number with our big brother! We thought it would take a day or two to establish contact with them, so what a surprise it was when our first phone call was Edwin saying, with a smile in his voice, “Hola! Es la casa de la familia Sears?!”

We unpacked a lot, took naps, made a trip with Kellie to Hipermas (a Wal-Mart-like store), and had a great Costa Rican dinner at Steve and Elizabeth Peterson’s house. While our house is technically “furnished,” those furnishings are sparse and there are not many kitchen items, so Hipermas helped us provision ourselves a bit and get Alden a few clothing items. We feel very blessed that so many people have made themselves available to help us get settled in and feel at home. Organized Annabel got all of her things unpacked right away, set up her room and toys, and declared that she loves it here. However, she also added “Caroline and Annie” to our Hipermas shopping list. ;-)

While at the Peterson's on our first night here, God graced us with the most beautiful and brilliant rainbow we've ever seen! It was so bright, we couldn't believe it. What a welcome!

On Day 2, another CFCI missionary who just finished her second trimester at language school, Sunshine, gave us a walking tour of our area to acclimate us a bit. Our house is located on the southwest corner of a park called El Bosque, and there are several other parks within a 15 minute walk. We feel very blessed to have so many options for the kids to run and play! It has 3 small bedrooms, 1 bathroom, a living/dining room area, kitchen, laundry room off of the back patio, and a small backyard (see photos on the “Pictures” tab). Two luxuries we weren’t sure we’d have are a small hot water heater (hot showers!) and a clothes dryer. Though we’ll probably still hang the clothes on sunny days to save energy (that’s the Tico thing to do), a dryer will be very helpful during the rainy season, which is just starting and goes through October/November. Every day people come by begging for food or money, and we've been advised by other missionaries to plan on buying extra rice and beans to hand out in ziploc packets. What a different world than Kansas City!

We stopped by the nearby home of some other CFCI missionaries who just completed language school, Mark and Marge Long. They are the directors of a youth program in our neighborhood, are a very sweet couple, and have teenage daughters (potential babysitters!). More unpacking, and another trip to Hipermas, this time with Edwin while Zeidy and their daughter Monica hung out at the house with the kids. We swatted a lot of mosquitoes (they like our backyard, too), and found some insecticide to help out with that. Seth went downtown today with Steve to find some mosquito netting that we can put over the beds until they let up.

Edwin also took us to a ministry called MANA, which is a residential ministry to rehabilitate addicts. They recondition school desks to sell and make other furniture to support the center and learn a trade skill. We were impressed with this ministry that has turned around the lives of so many, and has 30 men living there now. The leaders love the Lord and the addicts, want each one to come to know the Lord, and offer comprehensive services to help these people who have been oppressed by their addictions. Back home, we ordered pizza for dinner, since Andrea was not quite ready to tackle cooking in the kitchen, and it was actually pretty good!

On Day 3, we played at a small fenced-in park at the end of our block where we could let Scarlet off her leash to run around with the kids. We made our first trip to la feria (the market) and bought plenty of fresh fruits and veggies from the farmers who bring their produce to sell every Saturday morning. Andrea went to a support group meeting of Christian homeschooling moms in the San Jose area with Elizabeth, most of them missionaries, but some expats too. She felt so blessed to get connected with such a group right away! They will be good mentors and are intentional about circulating curriculum resources amongst themselves since it can be difficult to get things down here.

Yesterday, we went to church at La Iglesia Berea and agreed that it would be our home church. Their style of worship is similar to what one would find in many evangelical churches in the U.S., and the teaching is rock solid. Several other missionaries attend there as well, but it’s mostly a Tico church, and it’s where Edwin and Zeidy attend. We enjoyed the praise time immensely, the kids were brave about going to their Sunday school classes, and said afterward that they enjoyed it.

Edwin and Zeidy fed us a delicious lunch at their place and we visited with them all afternoon and started looking for used cars for sale on the internet, with Edwin’s advice on what to buy here, which cars have the most expensive repairs, etc. and his offer to be our ambassador so the price doesn’t go up when gringos show up to look at a car. Without us even mentioning our need, they also offered to give us a cellular phone line that they aren’t using, which is something that we wanted to have, but you can’t get right now if you’re not a citizen or permanent resident of Costa Rica.

Today, again without us even mentioning our need, our neighbor Don Juan (yes, his name is Juan and he is an older gentleman, so you call him Don Juan) came over and asked if we’d like to use a wireless network that he and several other neighbors share to use the internet. More users means less per user to pay per month for them, and saved us what probably would have taken several more weeks to get our own DSL service hooked up.

We have felt very cared for, and God has placed many people around us already to help us with every minor detail of starting a life here, including things we haven't even been wise enough to ask for yet. Ephesians 3:20-21 comes to mind, which says, "Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen." We know that He is with us, and is providing us with everything that we need, whether we know yet that we need it or not! The kids and dog have all adjusted well to our life here, despite its transitional nature, and have cheerful spirits about what we are here to do. Praise God for His work in our lives!

We hope that each and every one of you are enjoying the new life of Spring back home, and avoiding the swine flu! We felt so loved by you all in our sendoff from the States, with so many kind words and parties and embraces. Already we can’t wait to see you all again!

Much love,
Seth, Andrea, Annabel, Alden and Jude

Farewell Shindig Date Change

2009-03-29T15:07:00.003-05:00

Just wanted to post a quick correction. We've decided to delay the farewell shindig to Sunday, April 19, and we're planning to have a get-together at a park (probably Antioch Park) from 4 pm until dusk. Folks can come and go, kids can play, adults can visit, etc. This has the advantage of being closer to the date of our departure, and allows us to focus in the short-term on packing and getting moved out of our house.

Pray for good weather -- we'll have a backup inside plan in case it doesn't cooperate. More details to be released later, but we wanted to get the news out that we WON'T be having the open house at our place next weekend for folks who may have been planning on it!

Andrea

Six weeks and counting ...

2009-03-11T20:39:00.002-05:00

This past weekend, after weeks of watching airline tickets fall, we booked our tickets to Costa Rica! We're flying out Wednesday, April 22, on Frontier Airlines at 6:24 pm. In addition, last week we received our official acceptance from the Spanish Language Institute. Part of that process involves having a big brother sign up to help us find a place to live when we arrive in country.

Our new life in CR is slowly beginning to take shape and we're really excited about what the future holds after taking a couple of concrete steps forward. However, during the calmer moments between packing and planning, we've begun to consider all the people, places and things were going to miss about home. In fact, I've got a growing list of restaurants and meals in my mind that I just have to enjoy before we leave.

As to the friends and family we're going to miss, we decided the best way to say "so long" to a lot of people would be to have a going-away open-house at our home from 1 to 4 pm on Sat., April 4. Naturally, we'll be watching the Jayhawks play in the national semifinals later that night, and you'll be more than welcome to stay and watch the game with us, if you'd like! So, click the contact tab at the top of the page and let us know if you can drop by and say "hasta luego" ("see ya later")!

Final prayer requests for our state-side preparation:

A smooth conclusion to our house sale and closing on April 15
Good and healthy "closure" on relationships and situations here
Family unity through stressful packing, moving, traveling, and settling-in times ahead
Safe travel
Continued progress in fundraising
Discipline in finding time with the Lord during our hectic activity

Thanks for all your support and interest in what we're doing. We appreciate each of you and your special role in this endeavor. Our next post might be after landing in Costa Rica!

Love,

Seth and Andrea

Happy New Year!

2009-01-19T15:01:00.003-06:00

It's exciting for us to be inside of the actual calendar year of our launch to the mission field! What a range of emotions: excitement, nervousness, humility, awareness of things that we'll miss, but also total confidence that we're going in the right direction and that God will take care of us and do His work.

Now that we've set a target departure date (April 20), the countdown has begun. We're beginning to be consumed with "last-minute" details of dental checks for the kids, packing for our move into storage once we sell the house on April 15, luggage and packing for the trip, plane tickets, dog health certificates, language school enrollment, finding a place to live there, etc., etc., ad nauseum. Boy, will it be great to GET there and settle in after so much upheaval! I don't want it to sound like it's terrible, though; every part of it has been a blessing, and we know that it is growing and equipping us for whatever we will encounter in Latin America.

Let us give a list of praises for the things the Lord has done recently:

Annabel has "outgrown" her asthma this winter, eliminating the need to obtain her medication out of country. While we know that this somtimes happens in kids with asthma, we believe God has healed her at a very opportune time!
A potential bone health concern with Andrea from years ago has turned out to be a non-issue. Where bones were apparently weak 5 years ago, they are now totally normal according to a recent test!
While both of us remain officially "unemployed," we inexplicably have plenty of money for our bills and monthly needs, and work for both of us has come our way to provide for the next few months.
We still can't get over the mercy and favor we have been shown in the sale of our house.

These are amazing things that show us that God is in the details, and is not too busy to attend to all aspects of the journeys that each of us are on!

Some of you may have heard or read about the 6.1 earthquake in Costa Rica earlier this month, which was centered just north of the capital, San Jose, where we'll be living. Smaller quakes are frequent in Costa Rica (which is located at several converging tectonic plates), but this is the largest that they've had in years. About 40 people lost their lives, hundreds of people were stranded when roads and bridges were destroyed, and over 1200 people were displaced from their homes. You can see some dramatic before and after pictures at http://www.crid.or.cr/crid/pdf/Antes%20y%20despues%20del%20Terremoto%20de%20Cinchona.pdf.

This has renewed the vigor of our compassion for the poor there, and given us a new urgency to get down there to help with some of the relief work. A missionary friend of ours currently living there reports that it will likely take months if not years to repair the damage left behind, both physical and emotional. People who have lost most of their earthly possessions need to hear the good news of the gospel, that the Lord can sustain and restore them, and that Christ's body on earth wants to help!

Blessings,
Andrea (&Seth)

Steps of Faith

2008-12-15T12:33:00.002-06:00

How blessed we have been lately, but also how challenged we have been to continue following the call and trusting that God will bring it to completion!

We are now at 58% on our monthly support pledges, with steady progress each week. While things have slowed down due to the busy-ness of the holiday season, we hope to re-establish some momentum in the new year and get back to meeting with people to share our vision.
It was a blessing to share at New Summit Presbyterian in Lee's Summit yesterday. If your pastor or missions board might be open to having us share with the congregation or make an appeal for church support, please reach out and let us know.
We have arranged with CFCI headquarters for our new departure goal to be April, in time for Seth to start a trimester of language school that starts on April 29. Our estimated departure from the States will be April 20. This allows us to finish fundraising, take care of logistics of selling property, nearly finish the homeschooling year for the kids at HCA, and enjoy this last holiday season for a while with our families (without the added chaos of impending departure!). Andrea will begin language school in August when we have settled in and the kids can begin with the private school there. As usual, God has arranged a plan in His timing that is even better than what we thought we wanted at the beginning...
We have signed a contract to sell our house with a closing date of April 15, 2009. It's a blessing to anticipate release from the "liability" of remotely owning property, but also a sad thing to let go of a place that we love and one that has created so many ministry memories for us. Please ask God to keep our faith strong while we feel vulnerable and continue to let things go that were once valuable to us. We know that He is teaching us to "count as rubbish" the things of the world in comparison to the riches of knowing and serving Him. What great preparation for the mission field!
Just when things were starting to look pretty lean for us, Seth has rustled up some remodeling work that should take us into January. If you or anyone you know has work to be done around the house, please let him know! We know that God will continue to show up and provide for us, but it can get nerve-wracking when you're waiting and thinking about the next month's bills! I'm seeing a trend here that we are having to take one step at a time and trust God to show us later where the next one is...Gee, think it might be more training for what's next? ;-)

A passage that has been the subject of conversation around our house lately is from Matthew 25. Jesus is telling his followers about the final judgment, and how he will separate the "sheep from the goats," those who are saved and those who are not. This is important stuff! What is the chief criteria that he gives for this decision? The answer: how we treated the poor and downtrodden in our world.

"For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me."

Then the righteous will answer him, "Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink ..." The King will reply, "I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me."

Jesus takes personally how we treat those around us who are in need! He goes so far as to say that we treat Him however we treat them, and that in this way, He will distinguish whether our faith is real. Now don't misunderstand and think that I'm proposing a works-based salvation; that's not my point and is not the truth. The sheep didn't receive salvation because of what they DID for people, they received it because of their FAITH, out of which sprung how they loved and treated other people (and Jesus).

I'd like to challange each of you this Christmas season to think about how to put your faith into practice and do these things that Jesus mentioned. Not just by giving to an organization that does these things on your behalf, but actually getting into the dirt and the grime with needy people. For it is in the personal contact with them that we experience how to show grace, see our own depravity and need reflected, and come to a truer appreciation of our blessings and the grace shown to us. Something radical has begun to happen in our hearts as a result of relationships like these, and we pray that you'll experience the same blessing.

Thanks for the encouraging words, friendship, and financial support that so many of you give us! Together, God will use us as a team to show His compassion and mercy to those around the world who desperately need to see it.

Andrea (&Seth)

Unexpected provision

2008-11-23T10:35:00.003-06:00

At a recent church service, we had two couples who've been friends for years, pray for us. One of the men prayed and asked God for unexpected provision for us in our efforts to raise support. I was really encouraged by that prayer because it's been on my lips, too.

God has blessed us in the fundraising journey in a number of ways: He's connected us with people that we've not previously known but who are excited about what God is doing in our lives; He's given us time to share encouraging, intimate prayer with other followers; and He's brought us unexpected provision financially.

The Lord has provided nearly all of our start up costs of $23,000 to begin the journey. In addition, he's provided about 47% of our monthly support need. All of this has come in during the first two months of our full-time fundraising! Currently, 29 couples or individuals have made recurring pledges to our effort. We need at least that many more to make it to our goal.

As the calendar year winds down, now is a great time for year-end giving. We hope that you'll prayerfully consider our mission with CFCI as a recipient of a one-time special gift, or a recurring gift toward our support account. We need to have 100% of our monthly support pledged before we can leave for the mission field. If you'd like to give, see the "Send Contribution to:" tab on the right hand side of this page.

Please join us in praying for more of God's unexpected provision for us during this journey. When he provides for us from unexpected sources, all the glory belongs to him and is a real encouragement to us to see his hand moving and leading us.

Please also pray for God's practical provision for our family. Mission Adelante is graciously paying Seth through the end of the year as we transition into our new ministry roles. In addition, Seth has begun to pick up some remodeling jobs to supplement our income. Please pray that God would provide the income we need, for as long as we need, to complete the fundraising part of this mission.

Thank you for your prayers and support!

Seth (and Andrea)

Welcome!

2008-11-10T16:41:00.000-06:00

Welcome to our blog, where we hope to keep our friends, family and supporters updated on our mission to Costa Rica! We pledge not to overwhelm you with trivial information or too-frequent posts, but do want to have a means to quickly get the important news out and post pictures and other fun tidbits...

As I've recently been studying the book of Judges and reading the book of Mother Teresa's personal writings, it's really come home to me how God uses not the best-equipped, smartest, or strongest for His work. Rather, He chooses to make His strength known by choosing the weakest and least of all possible vessels. In this way, there can be no possible confusion about who gets the glory for what happens!

Take Deborah, a woman chosen by God to play a key role in the defeat of Sisera's army. How culturally inappropriate was it for a woman to have authority of any kind, much less in a military situation!? She surely would have been viewed as weak and lowly, not qualified to accompany men to battle.

Take Gideon, "the least in his family, and of the weakest clan of Manasseh," who argued with God and tested Him before he would obey His call to lead Israel into battle. Not only did God choose Gideon, but then He told thousands of soldiers to stay in their tents and sent only 300 men into the battle with him. The Lord wanted no doubt about who brought the victory!

Take Mother Teresa, a humble nun turned saint, who loved simply and walked in obedience. She experienced many of the same spiritual conditions that you and I do. She didn't have any special degrees, certifications or qualifications. She had only love for Jesus and desire to please Him above all else, even when she didn't feel His nearness. She made herself nothing so that Christ could be everything.

Boy, does this message hold true with our call to be missionaries! We feel unworthy and ineffectual, out of our league and sometimes overwhelmed at the thought of what will be required of us on the mission field. But I would be willing to bet that's right where God wants us. That way, when He does His work, suffering is eased, and souls are saved, the glory will be solely His, and we hope that people will say, "What amazing things the Lord is doing!" May the church be edified and inspired by knowing that God will use any of us that choose to pursue Him and obey.

A progress update:

Praise God that our $23,000 lump-sum launch fund is very nearly complete! He has brought unexpected blessings, and very quickly!
Our support pledges are at 43% of our goal. Please pray that God will continue to move His follower's hearts to partner with our ministry in Costa Rica. We have several upcoming events where we will get to share about our mission plans; please pray that we will communicate well and that our words won't get in the way of what God wants them to hear.
All five of us have a clean bill of health after medical checks for living overseas! Even with good reason to believe that an issue or two would be found based on past health issues, tests and labs came back clean. We really believe God has worked in this area and brought physical healing so that we may not be hindered.
We are spreading the word that our house is for sale or rent, beginning with Mission Adelante volunteers who may have an interest in the neighborhood. We'll do a separate post for general consumption with that info a little later, but feel free to contact us if you have interest.

Many thanks for your prayers, kind words of encouragement, friendship and love,

Andrea (& Seth)