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Today is a travel day , we fly direct from Charlotte to San Jose, Costa Rica, a 4-hour flight. We are met at the airport by a 20-passenger Toyota diesel bus. We make a stop at the local mall for a quick lunch and groceries.
After a grueling 3-hour ride over narrow and steep mountain roads- the Blue Ridge can't hold a candle to these roads- we arrive at our destination, the Iglesia Evangelica Methodista La Molina, down a mile-long bumpy dirt road. We are greeted by Efrain Bermudez, the district superintendent of the Iglesia Evangelica Methodista de Costa Rica, translated as the Evangelical Methodist Church of Costa Rica, a pan-Methodist denomination. No United Methodists here. It's 7:30 p.m. and the ladies of the church have supper prepared for us.
Sitting across from me is Enrique, a local church member wearing a Kairos shirt. Turns out he volunteers at a prison in San Jose. We compare notes with his halting English and my poor Spanish.
Our 10-member team come from 8 churches from Spruce Pine to Madison, Greensboro to Charlotte. Turns out we are the first WNC Conference building team to come to El Molina. Our task is to repair termite and rot damage to the adjoining church parsonage, built partly of concrete and the upper part of wood.
After a
delicious meal, we
pump up our air mattresses, hang tarps with ropes to divide the
sanctuary into 2 sleeping rooms, and bed down on the tile floor. It's
a simple concrete building with a metal roof and no doors or windows,
only bars over the openings. We survive a restless night interrupted
by bats flying overhead, barking dogs, night critters outside the
door, and roosters crowing at 3:00 a.m. The joys of being the hands
and feet of
Jesus!
The church ladies feed us 3
delicious meals a day out of a simple kitchen that no US woman would
dare cook in.
Team members hard at work, tearing off the wooden outside back wall |
Unloading building materials at the parsonage |
Tuesday night prayer meeting, I meet another Kairos brother |
Progress
continues on
interior painting, exterior soffit replacement, and replacement of
the rear exterior wall that had been severely damaged by termites.
Our local church ladies continue to feed us 3 times a day with
delicious and bountiful local food with lots of fresh vegetables and
fruit.
Local church members pitch in to help the mission team. |
The open air kitchen sink |
Costa Rica Kairos prison ministry pictures |
Thursday night gospel sing at the church |
Thursday night gospel sing at the church |
Work continues on the parsonage.
At the end of the day, we are treated to a 3-hour ride in a wagon behind a farm tractor out through the rural countryside. We see 4-foot iguanas- they say they taste like chicken-, water buffaloes and howler monkeys.
Work continues on the parsonage. |
Costa Rica style transportation,
the
back of a pick up truck. |
An 8-foot tall poinsettia plant |
An 8-foot tall poinsettia plant |
4-foot male iguana |
Today is a
recreation day, a
van takes the team out to an indigenous Indian village while I take a
taxi into La Fortuna to visit with John and Bessie Ott at Camp Casi
Cielo. Many improvements have taken place since we sent a team there
5 years ago: the road has been paved, the drive into the camp is
paved, the multi--purpose building is complete except for tiling the
lower floor, and a new separate kitchen building is under
construction. John has a new diesel pickup truck and the camp has
acquired a new 15-passenger van.
The 2nd floor of the multi-purpose building |
The new camp sign: In Spanish for "Almost Heaven- Christian Camp" |
The Arenal
volcano-
active for over 20 years; |
The Catholic cathedral on the city square in La Fortuna |
The new La Fortuna fire station, complete with a dalmatian dog |
A view of Camp Casi Cielo from the highway |
The worship service begins
at 10:00 a.m., our team leader, Pastor Roger Sailors, handles the
preaching with our interpreter Peggy, a US retiree whose missionary
parents lived in Chile and Costa Rica, tells the sermon in Spanish.
Worship ends at 11:45 a.m. We stand up for all singing, prayers and
scripture reading, sitting only for the sermon. This congregation is
enthusiastic and spirited, hands in the air and voices in unison
during the praise music. They love their music. We recognize some of
the contemporary praise songs.
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Sunday morning worship service, no pew Bibles or hymnals |
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We take some recreation time by taking the van to La Fortuna, about 15 miles away and spent the afternoon at Baldi, a hot springs resort, the water heated by the Arenal Volcano next to the resort. Water at the top is at 153 degrees, at the bottom a milder 93 degrees. The volcano has been active since erupting in 1968 when it buried the town killing 83 people. It is the most famous of the 9 volcanoes in Costa Rica although the Poas Volcano has recently come to life after a century of dormancy. |
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Happy Valentine's Day from Paradise- more cold showers and no mirror to shave by. Up at daybreak- 6:00 a.m.- every morning when the flock of parrots and other birds serve as the alarm clock. Here in the tropics, every day, summer and winter, has daylight from 6:00 a.m. To 6:00 p.m.
We are enjoying our hosts- most gracious, friendly and welcoming, loving God and loving life!
Today Bob and I install a ceiling and overhead light in the church's men's bathroom. Other team members work on completing the painting of the parsonage. Our projects are way ahead of schedule due to as many as 6 church members working with us each day- we thank God for such wonderful teamwork and spirit! We hire a welder and helper to install steel framing at the front of the sanctuary and the one side wall in order to make the walls higher. They are currently 10 feet tall and open to the metal roof above that. The church is all steel and concrete- too many termites and moisture to make good use of wood.
It rained all night last
night, a monsoon at times, everything outside very wet and muddy.
It's supposed to be the dry season but we've had some rain at least
every other day. Fortunately, we've had much inside work to keep us
busy.
Stephanie, 11-year old daughter who lives next door, painting the outside back wall. |
New jalousie glass units being installed in the parsonage windows by Chuck. |
New paint and varnished woodwork in parsonage living room. |
Men's bathroom ceiling going up |
Local church members helping with exterior painting |
It has rained all night and this morning, but the weather has cleared up by afternoon. Final coat of painting is going on in the parsonage; the welder continues to install metal purlins in the sanctuary so that we can raise the interior walls. The roof is over 20 feet tall at the peak and the interior walls are only at the 10 foot height.
Bob and I have
finished
installing the ceiling, putting in an electric outlet and stuccoing
the men's bathroom ceiling at the church.
Newly installed metal framing in the sanctuary |
The welder installing steel framing |
The back wall of the parsonage is complete; such nice tropical colors! |
The stuccoed bathroom ceiling |
We end the day by joining the congregation at the Tuesday night prayer service. Our team leader, Roger, gives the message. The district superintendent, who is the interim pastor, is at the hospital with his wife, Denia, who is scheduled for some serious surgery. We miss her as she is an important member of our team.
The DS took
her in to
Alajeula on Sunday morning for pre-op tests. Surgery had been
scheduled for Monday but under the national healthcare plan,
schedules sometimes get pushed back. Costa Rica dissolved its
army in
1948 and instead of spending billions on unwinnable wars in faraway
places, it uses those funds to improve the lives of its citizens.
All
CR residents have free healthcare, consequently CR as a developing
country has better numbers than the US in infant mortality, obesity,
heart disease, and life expectancy. We rarely see an overweight or
obese Tico (Costa Rica citizen). Our US citizen interpreter, Peggy,
moved to CR because she couldn't maintain a liveable lifestyle in the
US on her deceased husband's Social Security survivor benefits.
Her
Medicare doesn't cover her here so she pays $20.00 a month in
national healthcare premiums to be covered under the CR healthcare
system. She is able to have a comfortable lifestyle here in CR
with
her SS benefits direct deposited in a CR bank, with no need for heat
or air conditioning, her electric bill is $15, water bill $12, cell
phone $40 per month. CR has more cell phones than land lines with
high speed internet and cell phone service available nearly
everywhere.
Today is the birthday of Pamela, our team leader's wife. At supper we present her with balloons (some black since this is her 60th), a card, and a locally baked birthday cake. Her birthday gift from her husband is a horseback riding session, complements of a local farmer.
The day is warm and sunny, hardly a cloud in the sky; tonight we see the moon for the first time, it's a full one - big and yellow in the tropical sky.
We finish
hanging all the
wallboard that we have on the upper walls of the sanctuary - lots of
climbing, cutting, and lifting. We've earned our money today!
The first 2 sections of wallboard go up. |
The front wall is complete |
The iron window guards get fresh paint |
Fresh interior paint and varnished woodwork |
Denia has her
surgery this
morning, all goes well, praise God, she is experiencing little pain.
The DS drives the 3-hour drive to the hospital back and forth daily.
Last night was spectacular with a full moon, powder puff white clouds, and the stars and planets brilliant points of light. The air was crisp and cool, and the neighborhood was peacefully still; no dogs, roosters, or trucks. God's magnificent creation on display! We are so blessed to be in service to Him in this place.
We begin to button our projects up - installing the window grilles back on the house, final paint touch-up, and moving all extra steel, ladders, and scaffolding out of the sanctuary and cleaning the sanctuary.
Some of our
local helpers
begin putting primer on the wall that we installed at the church
yesterday while the welder and helper go to work on the building next
to the parsonage that now houses the children's ministry. This
building was the original church until the larger one was built. They
are putting up steel framing around the perimeter and installing
chain link fencing on top of the short exterior walls.
The window grilles are on. |
The primer goes on the newly installed upper walls in the sanctuary |
Working on the children's building |
Los
manos y los pies de Jesus Cristo = “The
hands and feet of Jesus”
Today is our
last day of work, we put down vinyl flooring in a bedroom of the
parsonage, finished paint touch up, and 2 of the local church members
haul in gravel and improve the drive into the parsonage.
The Thursday night praise and worship had a large crowd- were they there to see us gringos? Team leader Roger preached again, teenage girls were reading their Spanish bible and their hands are raised while singing, such evidence of the working of the Holy Spirit. It's obvious that these Ticos love the Lord and love celebrating it. It's been our privilege to be among such faithful Christians and share the faith. Not only is Costa Rica a beautiful place to visit but her people are just as beautiful and gracious as well. Praise be to God for bringing us here.
Tomorrow will be a travel day back to the real world. We will arrive home tired and sunburned but eternally grateful and blessed. Praise be to God for such a blessed mission.
The hands... |
...and feet of Jesus |
Vinyl flooring going down |
Gravel being dumped on the driveway |
Gravel being spread on the driveway |
2 of my new
friends at
church last night- |
My new buddy Michael |
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We
end today
with a tractor and trailer ride to the local iguana conservatory |