Cool story

I am happy to say that I've moved in to my new apartment and have started fixing it up a little. The youth ministry, skate ministry, and house church have all been going well. Here's a story I wanted to share from a few days ago.

My last night at the hostel, I came home sort of late, and hungry. I was looking forward to cooking some dinner, but noticed that the kitchen and stove were occupied, so I went to my room to wait until it would be freed up. Two minutes later, there was a knock on my door, and a young professional Costa Rican (just arrived) introduced himself as Pablo, and asked me if I was hungry. I said yes, but told him "I can cook something after you are done." Instead, Pablo offered his own food to me, and I accepted. As it turns out, he was just putting the finishing touches on a huge pot of fettuccine in a wonderful creamy mushroom sauce.

As I prepared a little salad to share, we started talking, and one of the first things we discovered is that we are both Christians. Pablo told me that he plays bass at his home church in San Jose, and loves to do outreaches with their church band in different parts of Costa Rica. He prayed over our meal, then I noticed he was playing some Spanish worship music off of his laptop in the kitchen, and so we started talking about our favorite Christian bands, then favorite Christian books (his is the Purpose Driven Life, which I'm currently reading).

Pablo suggested that perhaps his church band could come down and play a concert at the skate park. I loved the idea and got his contact info in case we could set something up in the future.

The next morning Pablo headed back to San Jose, but as he was leaving, he handed me a little note. He said he felt God had given him a verse for me, so on the paper he handed me was Romans 8:28: "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose."

The verse really spoke to me, as just that morning I had asked God to let me know whether a certain relationship in my life was pleasing to Him, whether it was part of His plan, or whether it was just something that I wanted for myself. As he drove off, I couldn't help but think God had set the whole meeting up as a way of speaking to me, encouraging me and him at the same time. Why was Pablo cooking that huge pot of pasta, when he was there alone, and leaving the next morning? Why did he have the boldness to knock on my door and invite me to eat with him? God is so amazing!

I have started to paint the walls of my new apartment...bright yellow!

P.S. yesterday I mysteriously chipped a tooth. A fairly large piece of one of my lower front teeth (thankfully, the back part of the tooth) just disappeared as I was eating. It may have been the cap of a root canal that came off. So if you could pray for that (or for my dentist!), I would appreciate it! Thanks.

Housing!

I'm excited to share with you that I've found an apartment which I hope to move into next week!

It's a very basic studio apartment, about 10 min. bike ride south of the town of Puerto Viejo, but close to the beach and quite close to the Alternative Missions property. Previous interns and AM staff have stayed here... apparently it's quite safe, and it includes wireless internet access, which I'm excited about! There are just two apartments on the property, plus the landlord's house. The tenant next door is an American writer, and seems nice.

The reason I can't move in just yet is that the landlord needs to fix a few things inside, including the shower and a window screen. It should be ready by early next week, but I will be patient if it's not. Once I move in, I want to repaint the walls and fix a few things up in the apartment, add some furniture, install a fan or two. But overall I'm quite pleased with it, and the price is within budget!

The yard, with a little shared outdoor area for reading, relaxing...

My apartment

Need to add some more closet/storage space

Kitchen/dining room/desk/living room all in one!

Put me in charge :)

A young boy's first steps on rollerblades! (click to play video)

This past week the whole Cruce family went to San Jose for a few days of doctor and dentist appointments, which meant that I had full responsibility for running the skate sessions and Friday youth night. I was really glad for the opportunity to help them out by "holding the fort" in their absence and to see how I would do when I had to make all the decisions about unexpected things that cropped up. Unfortunately, I've been sick with a cold all week, so I found myself quite tired by the time the Cruces got back last night, but in spite of that, everything went well.

On Friday night, we had a cook-out for the teenagers, and I was thankful to have some help from one of the older local guys and from a girl named Tamara who volunteers with a local non-profit. I found it's hard to be simultaneously DJ, tomato slicer, grill cook, rules enforcer, skateboard repair man, and facilities manager, while keeping everything on schedule! We were blessed with a big crowd of over 30 people at one point. It's so wonderful when kids choose to spend their Friday nights with us than out on the streets where all kinds of snares await them.

The under-13 group looks like "organized chaos"

I am still staying at the hostel (no recent sloth sightings, by the way), because the manager of the apartment I am interested in moving into wanted to do some repairs before the next tenant moves in. I may be able to see it on Tuesday, but this being Costa Rica, nothing is firm. It's definitely been hard staying at the hostel on the weekends because the music from the outdoor disco across the street is very loud until 3 a.m., and earplugs do nothing to stop the deep vibrations. But the rest of the week it is pretty quiet.

Putting some meat (or fish) on the table

As a follow up to my last post, the Bible study (in Spanish!) on Friday went well. Thank you so much for your prayers. It was a small group of just five teens plus me, so that made things easier. I enjoyed it, actually, and even enjoyed testing the limits of my Spanish and getting corrected at times. I'm thankful that they feel comfortable enough around me now to correct me when I make mistakes...it's a good sign!

Yesterday was my day off, and I went freedive spearfishing with 4 of the local guys. I was anxious to prove myself in the water (and secure future invitations!). As it turned out I had some luck. In fact, I brought in the only two fish we caught, plus two langostinos (like small lobsters). The other guys added several langostinos to the bag as well. Less than two hours later we were basting them with garlic butter and grilling them up for the house church meal. This was great fellowship!

The grillmasters - Sebas, Jose, Peace, Dexter

what the fuss is all about: halved langostinos and whole rock hind (grouper)

the house church meal. Not so different from an old-fashioned church potluck

At house church, after the meal and a time of worship, Barrett set the stage for the book of Romans. He wanted us all to really understand the social, political, and religious context in Rome at the time and how the things Paul wrote about relate to Puerto Viejo as a miniature version of Rome. Here, as in ancient Rome, pretty much anything goes. It's going to be a great study in the coming weeks.

In other news, I think I have a good lead on an apartment to rent that is supposed to be vacated on Wednesday. I'll definitely keep you posted!

The other day was chatting on Facebook with a friend who works for Microsoft, and I asked him" "What should we make of the situation with the financial markets?" I liked his response. He simply quoted Psalm 20:7:
"Some trust in chariots and some in horses,
but we trust in the name of the LORD our God."
Simple, yet so hard to do sometimes.

Beautiful Day!

It's a gorgeous day in Puerto Viejo! (click to enlarge)

Today I am preparing to lead a Bible Study for the teenagers this evening. Please pray for me as this will be my first time leading a Bible Study in Spanish. I'm not as fluent as I would like to be for this! Thank you.

Well, I would say it's a well-done well

We're building a new well on Alternative Missions' property. Derlin, the guy by my side, was working like mad on it today, so I pitched in and pulled up some buckets of mud and water from the bottom of the well. It was crazy watching him when he was swimming at the bottom, trying to dig out the mud which was deeper than him, and getting deeper by the minute, as the well kept filling up!

Some of these kids showed up a full hour early for the skate session today...talk about eager! They just can't wait to get their hands on the skateboards which are kept in this trailer.

Just for fun...

Top five signs “you're not in Kansas anymore”

5. You can't identify half the fruits on display at the roadside fruit stand.

4. Almost every American you meet somehow steers the conversation to the subject of government conspiracy.

3. “Dressing up” means going from bare feet to flip flops.

2. In between games at the outdoor basketball court, your opponent shimmies up a court side palm tree and starts throwing down coconuts for everyone to drink from.

And the top sign you're not in Kansas (or California, or Florida...) anymore...

1. You ask a person what iguana tastes like, and he struggles to find comparisons, before finally settling on the response: "Sort of like raccoon.”

I wanted to show you a picture of the "tree house" where the Cruces are staying while their house is being built just a hundred hards away. They had me over for a bean burrito dinner on Wednesday night and it was great!

This week we've been busy with the normal ministry afternoons/evenings at the skate park. God has really helped me to start connecting with some of the youth, both teenagers and kids who are 7-12. It was funny...the other day I happened to be riding my bike past a group of five of the younger ones. They knew that I was heading to the skate park, so they started chasing after me, wanting to pile onto my bike and hitch a ride. I made them run for a while, but eventually let them catch up to me. I agreed to give one of them (the first one to get on) a ride. He had the BEST time rubbing it in to all his friends afterwards. At the end of the skate session that day, one little boy named Oscar gave me a big hug as a way of thanking me for letting them skate.

Lately, it's also seemed that the kids have been behaving themselves a bit better and following the rules (I'm finding that consistency in enforcing them is so important!)

In terms of my housing situation, I have nothing new to report, but a few new leads, and I'm supposed to check out one rental house tomorrow which I'm excited about. A lot of people have been asking around for me.

By the way, as a follow up to the story about the handcuffed man whom I had given some water to, I've since had more contact with him. He recognized me on the street the other day, and quickly asked me if he could buy me a juice, as he said "for respect". I agreed, and picked out a grape juice with him at the nearby store. It was a nice moment. I remember reading a book somewhere about how men and women have different needs, and it argued that one of a man's biggest needs is to be respected. It also said that when a man needs respect the most is when he feels the least respectable (or the least honorable). I think the reality of that came to life for me in my encounter with this guy. My compassion for him (regardless of what he might or might not have done to get arrested) seemed to have impacted him in a positive way.

Sorry not a lot of pictures today, but here's another of Jose (the skater from last week), clearly enjoying himself at the skate park, and loving my skateboard which I have been loaning him.