Today was our first full day in Alajuelita (suburb of San Jose). So far, so good. We are currently hanging out with a 4 person team from Michigan and having a blast! We spent the majority of the afternoon doing demolition in a newly rented room that Jorge (the crazy Tico who led worship for CrossRoads team on the last night) will be using to plant a new Church that is sponsored by Celebration in Jacksonville. After the demo, we threw up a fresh coat of sky blue paint on the walls!!

This evening, we spent a few hours hanging out with Spencer (6:8 Ministries Executive Director / our host) and his family over dinner… So far, we are all getting along really well. It definitely feels like family. God even blessed us with a Rainbow at the end of the day.

This morning, we made the hike up to the Cross on the top of the mountain (from 3700 ft to 7700 ft). Rather than come down via the same route we went up, Jorge decided to take us down the back side of the mountain which made for a fun yet challenging trek, lengthening our hike by approximately 30%. Once we nursed ourselves back to health with some rice and beans, we headed to El Centro (the park in the middle of the city) to hand out Empanadas to the local “street people” and invite everyone to Jorge’s new church plant.

The team from Michigan left this morning. Spencer also left for a short trip to Jacksonville. Thus, Bonnie and I have been instructed to relax, recharge, and get ready for the next team. This break is very much needed as Bonnie and I haven’t taken any sort of break for the past few months… Between the wedding, moving both of our apartments into storage, firing kilns, business trips, wrapping up our lives in Florida, and saying goodbye to our friends in order to move to Costa Rica (at least for now), life has been really hectic. The past month has been very full of 18+ hour days. The next few of rest come just in time.

Bonnie and I walked up to CCA this morning for the 10am Service… Talk about a great sermon: The pastor talked about what it means to have the “Faith of a Mustard Seed” as it is in the parable. (Matthew 13:31-32, 17:20). Though many people interpret this parable to say that you only need a little faith to move mountains, the pastor interpreted it to say that even though we only have a little faith (little, like the mustard seed), if we EXERCISE our faith by trusting in God and following His call then our faith will grow exponentially (like the mustard plant) through our experience in God’s faithfulness. But it requires that we exercise our faith, not just be luke warm or complacent.

After church, we stopped by the panaderia (bakery) and picked up some fresh baked bread for lunch. Mmmm Mmmm. The rest of the day was spent reading (The Barbarian Way - Erwin McMannus) and finishing up a couple of websites.

The past two days have been great… Bonnie and I have just been enjoying each other’s company, just like a real honeymoon. In the evenings, we’ve been playing cards with Alexis and Molly (Spencer’s daughter and wife).

Spencer comes back tomorrow and Dave (Director of Operations) and his wife Lisa come in on Thursday, so activity is bound to pick up. Either way, the break has been wonderful, but we are both excited to get back to work.

We headed out with Spencer and Victor (local handy-man) this morning to San Jose in search of a pottery wheel. After striking out downtown, we were directed to a nearby art district where we found an 80 year old blind man with a kick wheel (manual) who said the only way to get a wheel was to order one to be built (and that it would take about a month). Fortunately, his son had just made himself a motorized wheel out of a $150 1/2 hp motor and some parts from a cement mixer. Unfortunately, the thing was so heavy duty, he had it welded to a huge metal framed table. After some discussion, Spencer offered him $300 and he used a circular saw to cut the wheel off the frame!!! God Always Provides!!! That said, Bonnie now has a pottery wheel and tons of clay here, so we will be doing our “God the Potter” demonstration for all the teams who come through from now on!

A new team of 20 people came in this afternoon from Michigan. We took them for a Prayer Walk through Juan Pablo (local barrio) and we ran into many of the kids that we met during out last trip… There is one family in particular that we really connected with today. The Mother’s name is Sandra and she has two boys named Jorge and Lalo (short for Eduardo). Unfortunately, Sandra’s husband has abandoned the family and the roof of their shanti house is in complete disrepair. Additionally, Sandra and her son Lalo and have been fighting as Lalo’s is in serious need of a haircut but Sandra just can’t afford it. That said, I promised to get some clippers and give Lalo a haircut tomorrow. The team is also going to put together a budget for the roofing repairs.

We headed to the Saturday Morning Market with the team right after breakfast… Bonnie loves the fresh tomatoes and mangos, plus the cheese is so much cheaper than at the MegaSuper (local super market). After the market, we headed down to Juan Pablo where half the team helped clean and setup the room for the free clinic we would be hosting in the afternoon and the the rest of the team cleaned all of the trash off of the soccer field in the Plaza.

While this was going on, I gave Lalo the haircut I had promised him… Before and After pictures below. In addition to the haircut, I had promised to bring Lalo a piece of gum, for which he was very grateful. As a matter of fact, before he even put the gum in his mouth, he took a great big “wiff” of it and savored the aroma as if he was about to sample a fine wine. Throughout the rest of the morning I watch Lalo enjoy that piece of gum more than any kid I’ve ever seen. Later, he mentioned to me how amazing it was that the gum didn’t lose flavor… Unlike the Chiclets they are used to here. Good ol’ “5” gum is the best, I do agree, but the appreciation for such a little thing really made me aware of how much me take for granted.

After lunch, Bonnie and I helped schedule all of the doctor visits for the afternoon and then I served as a translator while Bonnie played with the kids. The rest of the team facilitated VBS activities on the newly cleaned soccer field. All in, we performed medical check ups on 38 patients. (FYI - The most common complaint was intestinal parasites.) We actually had to turn quite a few people away today, so we will be hosting the clinic again tomorrow after church.

This morning, the while the team headed to CCA for the regular service, Bonnie and I went to Juan Pablo to participate in Jorge’s children’s ministry. What a blast… Jorge has such passion and energy when it comes to those kids. We sang all kinds of children’s worship songs, complete with choreographed dancing and hand motions. Being a kid rocks.

After lunch, we ran logistics for the free clinic again in Juan Pablo. Since today was the second day, we were much more efficient and we were able to see over 54 patients! God is good!

That said, the days are long… No trouble sleeping here. Tomorrow we will be going mobile and taking the clinic down to Aurora (the poorest area around).

We headed to Aurora today… Talk about an impactful trip. I’ve been around the world and have driven past barrios and shanti towns, but I have never gone into these places simply to love on the people there. Though today wasn’t my first time going to Aurora, it really wasn’t any easier to see the poverty. Nonetheless, the children were smiling and playing just as good kids always do. I really think today humbled a lot of the members on the team that we’re leading.

This evening, Bonnie and I had the pleasure of presenting our “God the Potter” presentation! What a blast… Bonnie got to throw some pieces while I gave the message and everything went well. He truly IS in all things at all times.

This morning, the fellas re-roofed the shanti of a family down in Juan Pablo. Though the mother was at work, her two boys helped paint and worked the entire morning with the rest of the team. Lalo, who was a bit of a hellian has really started to come around. It appears that all he needed was some attention and some love… Who would have thought?

After lunch, we headed up to Jasmine which is a small shanti town just two miles outside of the city. 6:8 is partnering with a local church to build “Little Yellow Houses” for the people there as they are so poor. Unfortunately, we didn’t make it all the way to Jasmine as the rainy season is now officially upon us… Instead, we made it about half way, got soaked to the bone, and then found that the dirty roads in Jasmine were all flooded (as the town is on the mountainside, we wouldn’t make it up). Either way, the team will attempt to go again tomorrow morning.

Today was spent packing and traveling to Guatemala. Because of rain delays, what should have been a quick trip turned into an all day affair. Either way, we made here safe. The day of travel enabled me to finish a book called The Barbarian Way by Erwin McManus… Here is his explanation for the rhinos (pretty powerful stuff):

A few years ago I took my kids to a wildlife animal park near San Diego. As we rode on a tram through the open terrain, a guide pointed out the unique features of the different species that we encountered. I suppose I always knew it in part, but I had not come to realize how most groups of animals have unique names or designations when they dwell together.

With insects most of us know that bees are called swarms, and ants are called colonies. Among ocean life, I was aware that whales are pods, and fish are schools. Cattle are herds, birds are flocks, and if you watch Lion King, you know a tribe of lions is a pride. If you grew up in the country, you might know that crows are murders. Maybe the most unnerving one is an ambush of tigers.

I was surprised to learn that a group of buzzards waiting around together to feast on leftover carnage is called a committee. Just this one insight is worth the price of the whole book. This explains so much of what’s going on in churches—a lot of committees waiting around to live off human carnage.

Flamingos are called flamboyants, which for some reason reminds me of TV evangelists. And the less glamorous owls are known as parliaments. They do seem sort of British.

But my favorite of all is the group designation for rhinos. You see, rhinos can run thirty miles an hour, which is pretty fast when you consider how much weight they’re pulling. They’re actually faster than squirrels, which can run up to twenty-six miles an hour. And even then who’s going to live in dread of a charging squirrel! (Sorry—that was a bit off the point.) Running at thirty miles an hour is faster than a used Pinto will go. Just one problem with this phenomenon. Rhinos can see only thirty feet in front of them. Can you imagine something that large moving in concert as a group, plowing ahead at thirty miles an hour with no idea what’s at thirty-one feet? You would think that they would be far too timid to pick up full steam, that their inability to see far enough ahead would paralyze them to immobility. But with that horn pointing the way, rhinos run forward full steam ahead without apprehension, which leads us to their name.

Rhinos moving together at full speed are known as a crash. Even when they’re just hanging around enjoying the watershed, they’re called a crash because of their potential. You’ve got to love that. I think that’s what we’re supposed to be. That’s what happens when we become barbarians and shake free of domestication and civility. The church becomes a crash. We become an unstoppable force. We don’t have to pretend we know the future. Who cares that we can see only thirty feet ahead? Whatever’s at thirty-one feet needs to care that we’re coming and better get out of the way.

We need to move together as God’s people, a barbarian tribe, and become the human version of the rhino crash. The future is uncertain, but we need to move toward it with confidence. There’s a future to be created, a humanity to be liberated. We need to stop wasting our time and stop being afraid of what we cannot see and do not know. We need to move forward full force because of what we do know.

Yesterday Mariah was in a store with her mom. She saw a man working with fabrics, and for some reason he caught Mariah’s attention. Mariah looked at Kim and pointed to the man, and she said, “Mom, look at the man. He’s the loneliest person I’ve ever seen.” Mariah began to weep uncontrollably.

We may not be able to see what’s at thirty-one feet, but we don’t have to be blind to what’s right in front of us. There’s a world that desperately needs God, a world filled with loneliness, hopelessness, and fear. We have somehow become deaf to a cry that reaches heaven coming from the souls of men. But God hears.

Today was our first full day in Guatemala and boy is this place different than Costa Rica! First off, Guatemala City (the capital) is huge (14 million people) and there is a lot more organized crime (kidnappings, cartels, etc) than Costa Rica. Fortunately, we’re about 10 miles outside of the city in a small town called Magdalena (population 5,500). The town is very “quaint” and rural. It’s seems that every family runs a small business out of the front of their house, but nothing extravagant… At best, they make enough money to put dinner on the table that evening. Which is a big reason why we are here: these folks have some pretty difficult living conditions and hopefully the teams we host can help them out.

Today, we took the cooks to the mercado (open air market) to pick up the groceries for the next team. Buying groceries for 20 people for a week is no joke!! After that, we got a chance to cruise around Antigua which is a cool art town a few miles from Magdalena.

God has so blessed us with such a great group of people here in Guatemala… Spencer (6:8 Executive Director), Brock and Kerri (a couple who is starting a ministry here called Deep Stream and Spencer’s best friends from Jacksonville - they have three kids), Amy (a 24 year old, single, white, female from Minnasota who moved here to work with Deep Stream / 6:8), and Luis and Sarah (a couple who met Brock and Kerri over Christmas vacation and then sold everything they owned and moved here from Michigan with their two kids last month to work with Deep Stream).

In other words, God has surrounded us with a bunch of “crazy” people just like us who are doing everything they can to follow God’s will for their lives.

Deep Stream is focusing on building houses for the poor folks in rural areas of Buena Vista. At present, a church in Florida (who had been raising money for a new building) decided to give their entire building fund to the poor. Part of that fund is going to support the Deep Stream project which is on track to build 12 houses in 12 months!!

Thus, we spent the entire day hanging out with these folks, running errands and picking up supplies for the team from Mississippi that arrives tomorrow.

The new team arrived today from Mississippi and all is well. Right after we unloaded all of their stuff from the bus, the skies opened up! Not with just the typical rain though, we also got a good amount of hail! After the storm passed, the team went on a prayer walk and met the families for which they will be building chicken coops for. (The idea is to supply a stuggling family with a chicken coop, chicks, and feed so that they can raise and sell the chickens as a micro business). When we told the families of this plan, they broke down in tears of joy… It’s the simple things, I tell ya!

This evening, we had a great dinner and worship time with the team.

We headed over to a small village just outside of town this morning to build to build the first chicken coop. Dirty floors, tin roofs, outhouses, stick walls, and no running water. The ladies cooked tortillas over a campfire… And yet the children were still able to smile without much hesitation. While a few of the men built the coop, the rest of the team handed out candy and crayons and coloring book pictures to the kids.

On the way over, I rode in the back of the truck to steady the wood for the chicken coops. As we drove through the mountainside full of crops and open fields, it reminded me of my childhood, working in the onion fields of Utah. In a way, it seems I have come full circle…

After lunch, we headed further up into the mountains to a town called Buena Vista (translation “Good View”) that over looked the entire valley of Guatemala City (pop. 14 Million). There, we were present for a “Key Ceremony” during which the Deep Stream team handed over the keys of a newly constructed home to a very emotional and grateful family. Though the home consists of nothing more than two rooms made of cinder block (no electricity, no running water, no bathroom), it is more than this family has ever had. As Brock presented the keys, he spoke about the church that funded the money… He said that is was a very small church that didn’t have much money, but that they wanted to be faithful to the call God had put on their heart. Then he spoke about his family, and how they didn’t know why they were supposed to come to Guatemala, but they came out of obedience. Lastly, he spoke about the team of workers who didn’t have plans to be doing this type of work a few months ago, but here they are. He closed with: “None of this was our doing, but moreso this house is a gift directly from God.”

Needless to say, I was a wreck. Quite candidly, it is tough for me to write these entries as my words nor my pictures can accurately describe the experience that is happening here. The emotions are overwhelming: extreme happiness coupled with a large dose of humility and shame. Either way, I will continue to do my best to keep this journal going.

This morning we headed up to Buena Vista again, but this time we went to the Elementary School to play games and do VBS activities with the students! What a blast… I honestly can’t believe how well behaved these children are. What amazed me even more was the fact that 4th, 5th, & 6th graders were happy coloring pictures of Adam and Eve! In the U.S., it seems as though a 6th grader isn’t interested in anything but playing on MySpace, chatting online, and text messaging their friends. Kids here are still “kids” and none of them know who “Hannah Montana” or the “Jonahs Brothers” are. They do know all about Spiderman and Wolverine though.

In the afternoon, we headed to another local barrio called “El Gorrillon”. This neighborhood consisted of people who were displaced by hurricane Mitch in 1995. After losing all they had, the government gave them a plot of land up in the mountains. Since then, they have build an entire neighborhood (no running water) and three years ago the government built them a school. Anyhow, we visited with a number of the families and then held a VBS session in the school yard for around 90 kids from the neighborhood.

I am so far from the halls of Corporate America…

Another session of VBS at Buena Vista Elementary this morning. Unlike yesterday, we had 115 K-3rd graders! Once again, they were extremely well behaved and we all had a great time.

After lunch, we headed back to Buena Vista to deliver the second chicken coop. This one went to Conchita (the same family who just received the keys to their new Deep Stream house). From their, we decided to take a prayer walk through the neighborhood to see some of the locals. As usual, a gathering of kids followed us through the entire neighborhood and we visited many of their houses. (This is an expected reaction when walking around a poor neighborhood handing out candy!)

Today was the team’s “free day” so we all headed up to some nearby Mayan ruins in the city of Tecpan. Though these ruins aren’t especially spectacular, they are only about 90 minutes away and the team seemed to enjoy them.

For lunch, we went to this amazing restaurant that puts all of those Brazilian Steakhouses (like Fogo de Chao or Texas de Brazil) to shame. For $20.00, you get a huge grill full of strip steaks, t-bones, chicken, sausage, and ribs that feeds four people! So good…

In the afternoon, we went to Antigua to do some tourist shopping in the artisan markets and we toured the ruins of the Cathedral from the 1600’s. I got a new Guatemalan soccer jersey (only $9.00)!

The men built the third chicken coop on site at Bryon’s house this morning while the woman went with Rosa (another recipient of a Deep Stream house) to learn how to make torillas… Bryon is a 10 year old boy whose mother and two sisters live in some pretty poor conditions. Essentially, there home was a small lot between two legitamite cinder block homes that they partially covered with sheets of metal roofing… Dirt floors plus a leaky roof during the rainy season makes for a cold mess. And though it breaks my heart to see these people in these conditions, I’m starting to get rather numb / overwhelmed by it all as it is everywhere. So, we finished the chicken coop, said a prayer, and continued on with the day.

This afternoon, the team made sandwiches / bagged lunches to hand out to the homeless folks downtown late tonight. Before dinner, we made a visit to a Hogar de Ninos orphanage… This was no stereotypical orphanage though, this was a “family-style” orphanage. Essentially, the McDaniel family has built a home that is capable of housing ten orphans along with them and their two boys. And though the children are still up for adoption, the family plans to raise them as a family through the age of 18. At present, they have four one-year old boys and are hoping to adopt two more children as soon as funding comes in. It is a very cool concept and the need here is tremendous (approx 370,000 orphans in Guatemala). Here is the website: http://www.hogardeninos.net/ The last video gives a good overview of the operation.

This evening, I had the opportunity to give the devotional to the team during our worship time which was really cool. I spoke about what International Missions are really all about and how Jesus calls us to be “in the world but not of the world”. (John 17:6-19) I think it went well.

After dinner, we went and passed out sandwiches. Though it was still early (8:30pm), there were plenty of folks already sleeping on the sidewalks. As we were handing out the last bags, we ran acrossed a man who had passed out drunk. As he was sitting down and leaning against a wall with a couple of police officers only 20 feet away, we simply left a sandwich in his lap. (People passed out drunk on the sidewalk is a very regular site here). As I started to pray for him while we were standing there, he wet himself…

Bonnie was in tears as this guy was in really bad shape… Not just physically drunk with snot and drool all over his face, but spiritually broken just the same. I’m still not sure how we are supposed to deal with these situations. As the cops had their eyes on him, we simply said a prayer and moved on.

This morning we had the opportunity to work on one of the Deep Stream houses! The house they are building this month is for the family of a local Pastor who has been living in a Sunday School classroom with his wife and four children for the past four years. His name is David and he seems to be a really great guy. And though his church packs out every Sunday, the congregation is very poor. Thus, God put in on Brock’s heart to bless his family with a new home. As this project is just getting started, the team today was responsible for digging out all of the trenches for the foundation. Though it was tough work, it was a blessing for us to be a part of this project.

This afternoon, we delivered the fourth and final chicken coop to a family in Buena Vista. Afterwords, we went on one last prayer walk and then headed back to the team house for dinner and worship. The team from Mississippi leaves in the morning and they will definitely be missed. I have no doubt that they have all had a life changing experience here over the past week and they have definitely brought a lot of smiles to the people here.

Early this morning we said goodbye to our new friends from Marble City, Mississippi… They really were a great team!

Right after they left we had a staff meeting and debrief… And the rest of our day was left at leisure. This afternoon, we headed to the park as Brock and Luis had a basketball game for the rec league they are playing on. One of their teammates didn’t show so I actually got to sub in a couple of quarters which was fun.

All in, I am absolutely beat. Long days and hard work coupled with uncomfortable living conditions (4 minute showers… after that the water is ice cold) makes for an emotional draining experience. We head back to Costa Rica tomorrow at 5:30am. And though we’ve loved Guatemala, we are excited to get back to all the comforts of Costa Rica I never thought I would be saying that! God definitely showed us how good we have it in CR… No complaining here.

Spencer, Bonnie, and I flew back to Alajuelita early this morning. Fortunately, the trip was completely uneventful. We did, however, get a chance to talk to Spencer candidly about our future with 6:8 Ministries… After much prayer and discussion, Bonnie and I feel that we have definitely been called to serve here in Costa Rica (at least for a season of our life). That said, we are moving forward with the next steps in this process: Fund Raising

Candidly, we are confident that God has called us here and thus confident that God will provide for our every need just as He has ALWAYS done. I’m still doing freelance web design and small business marketing (and will continue to do so) and Bonnie’s pots are hopefully still selling in the galleries. When we get back to the U.S., we will be selling at least on of our vehicles (anybody interested in a 2005 Nissan Xterra or a 2005 Honda Accord?) and hopefully moving into a small storage unit. Right now, our plan (God willing) is as follows:

Costa Rica: thru 6/9
Florida: 6/10 - 6/20
Vancouver: 6/20 - 6/22
Alaska: 6/22 - 7/21
Florida: 7/21 - 7/27
Tennessee: 7/27 - 8/1
Florida: 8/1 - 8/6
Mexico: 8/6 - 8/21
US Travel: 8/21 - 10/1
Florida: 10/1 - 10/15
Costa Rica: 10/15/09 - 10/15/2010…???

But these are just OUR plans. And as my mother always says, “If you want to make God laugh, just make plans.”

The past few days have been great! I’ve been able to finish up another website and I’m currently working on two more. In addition to that, Bonnie and I have had a chance to relax and simply enjoy each other’s company (this is, after all, our honeymoon). Today, Duke and Candy (President of Board of Directors and his wife) arrived and Spencer cooked up some steaks as it is his 65th Birthday today! It was a great meal and we all had a blast. Having Duke and Candy here is great! Duke gave me a really cool Smith & Wesson knife as a gift (which is funny, since it was his birthday). This ministry really is more like a family than just an organization. See Philipeans 2:4-8.

The next team comes in on Friday so we’ve been planning out their schedule and prepping for their arrival.

We also had a meeting with Maximo from the CCA Church this morning. CCA has a program where they build “Yellow Houses” for the poor in the rural community just a few miles out of town (up in the mountains). The next team that comes in will be building one of these houses, so we had to make sure everything was in place for their arrival.

Today was a big day for Jorge… In case you don’t remember, Jorge (the crazy Tico who led worship on the last night of the Crossroads trip) has be commissioned by a Florida church to plant a church here in Alajuelita. The original space that was rented and renovated just isn’t big enough as the interest in the new church is growing, so Spencer ran across a old recycling warehouse that is now for rent. We went to check it out and the space has tons of potential! After a lot of discussion and prayer, Jorge was able to break his lease on the first location and sign a contract for the warehouse this morning! The team who arrives tomorrow is from the church who has commissioned the church plant, so everything is working out wonderfully. (As if it were all part of a bigger plan / purpose

Hopefully, we will be able to fix this place up in time for service on Sunday! I’ll post pictures soon.

Today was absolutely wonderful… We started off with a staff meeting first thing in the morning. Now, I’ve been to a lot of staff meetings through my career, but none like this. The purpose of the meeting was to go over the schedule of the next two teams that are arriving, but it was also to get all of the staff members (which are more like family members) on the same page. What started two and a half years ago with just Spencer’s family on the ground in CR has now grown to fourteen people! It was a wonderful sight to see to how God is growing this ministry.

At noon, the team from Celebration Church in Jacksonville showed up and got directly to work! The group of eleven men went straight over to the new church building (former recycling plant) to start cleaning up and making plans for the renovation. After about an hour of clean up, we took the team on a prayer walk through Alajuelita and Juan Pablo. This team absolutely caught me off guard… When eleven guys (20’s and 30-somethings) show up and are amped up about construction work, it’s expected. But when they go on a prayer walk and all of them pray with AUTHORITY, that to me is impressive. These guys are serious about their faith! It’s like a huge pot of testosterone and faith stew! We must have stopped by nine different houses on our walk and these guys prayed with the families like they meant it at every stop!!! I heard shouts of “Come on, God!” and “Come on, Jesus!” several times!! It was really great!! I’ve never seen a group so enthusiastic about a prayer walk as these guys were… Did I mention it was raining the entire time?

This evening, Spencer gave the devotional about “Taking up your Cross” (Luke 9:22-26). At the end of his message, he said “When eleven men like you come together and live all out for Jesus, they can change the world… I know because it’s already happened once.”

The day started off with a quick walk through the Saturday Morning Market to get some fresh squeezed orange juice, fresh tomatoes, fresh mangos, and fresh bananas on our way to the team house. After that, it was right to work at the recycling center (that is now the new church plant)… First, we dismantled the office and moved it to the back of the building to reassemble. Then we mixed batch after batch of concrete and poured 10′x10′ slab, a 5′x10′ slab, and a repaired the floor in what will be the childrens room. Next up, we had to build a cinder block wall along with weld together the frame of the stage. After that, half of the team ran down to the team house and mixed yet another batch of concrete so that we could re-seal and repair the septic tank (did I mention we did this in the rain?).

Once the septic tank was done, we had dinner and then Bonnie and I did our “God the Potter” presentation. Apparently, the Holy Spirit was in a very convicting mood during our presentation as most all of the people in attendance have relayed this info to us And if that wasn’t enough, Jorge and his crew came over and we had a phenomenal worship session, Tico style. (If any of you think your worship team get down, you haven’t seen anything until you’ve danced with Jorge’s crew - CrossRoads can vouch for me!)

Today has honestly been very emotional for me as I can’t help but reflect on the fact that God has been preparing me for this day my entire life… All of the time spent working on projects with my parents and older brothers was preparation for the building makeover. The years of seminars on “presentation skills” and “effective communication” were not so I could further the wealth of corporate america, but it was so I could interpret the illustration of God the Potter and share the testimony that God has created in my life. And the leadership training was not so I could simply run my own business, but so that I could lead teams through the ghettos of Costa Rica on prayer walks…

I never would have believed it before. 20 / 20 hind-sight.

God has a better plan.

The team spent all morning cleaning up the warehouse in order to get ready for the first ever service at the new building. What an amazing service!!! There were about 50 attendees and most all of them were from Juan Pablo. As Jorge ran the service, I actually served as the translator which was a blessing for me to be a part of it all. At the end of the service, Jorge invited the eleven men from the Celebration team on stage to sing some worship songs and believe it or not, they were amazing! Individually, I’m not sure any of them could carry a note on their back, but collectively, in the warehouse they had just finished renovating into a church, their voices carried like a choir of testerone-filled angels… During our worship time this evening, Jorge said that though they had painted and cleaned and poured cement and pray-walked, the most impactful thing that they did over the past three days was get up on that stage and worship in front of all the children in the community.

You see, out of the 50 attendees this morning, only about three were fathers. The rest were women and children. Which begs the question: Where have all the real men gone? Are we, as men, not called to be the Spiritual head of our households?

Today, the eleven men from Jacksonville stood up and showed this community how real men are supposed to behave. These big, strong gringos finished pouring concrete and building cement walls and then sang praises to God with bass in their voices. In a culture full of “machismo” that finds having a wife and a girlfriend acceptable, this behavior is unheard of. “But, God…”

Today was our last day with the Celebration Team… Talk about going out with a bang! Our plan was to hike to the first Cross on the mountain this morning as our time was limited and the rain last night made going to the third Cross to dangerous. On our way up, we passed by a very small woman who was cutting branches with a machete. I said hi to her as we passed, but she simply looked at me with a blank expression. About 100 yards after we passed her, we stopped to wait for the last of the group to catch up. As I looked back to see what was holding the group up, I see Jorge and Jonathan speaking with this lady. Just then, Jorge shouts up to the group (in his broken English): “At this moment, right now, this woman accept Jesus Christ for first time!”

What?!?!

I and the other ten group members had just walked by this woman 45 seconds ago…? And now she is praying with Jorge and Jonathan…? God, this wasn’t on the schedule…?

While the rest of us simply smiled and walked by, Jorge and Jonathan stopped and talked for a second. After only a few words, Jonathan told Jorge to ask the woman (Patricia) if she knew Jesus. She responded “Si, Dios” (yes, God) and pointed to the sky. At that point Jorge asked her if she had ever invited Jesus into her heart and she said no. “Would you like to?” Jorge asked, and she said yes! So they prayed…

Completely is shock, we all helped Patricia gather wood and take it up to her house. It turns out that Patricia was thirty years old and lived with her sister and niece in a small shanty house on the mountain. The had no electricity, no running water, a very little food. (Bonnie gave her a couple packs of crackers and some peanuts we had stashed for the hike. She said she was going to save them for her niece.) Patricia had never really left the mountain, never went to school, and thus doesn’t know how to read or write. After the team prayed over her and her home, Jorge promised that we would take her some food on our next trip up to the cross, along with a Solar Powered Audio Bible (in Spanish) for her to listen to.

I’m not sure where this relationship will go, but I was shown once again that God’s plan is so much better than mine.

After leaving Patricia’s home, we made it up to the first cross! What a view.

This team was so great to work with. Saying goodbye to them after lunch was really difficult as they definitely inspired me. But, their was no time to emotionally unpack anything because another team from Mississippi had already arrived and was ready to start their spiritual journey and we needed to now put our focus on them.

This job is not only physically demanding (mixing concrete by hand and really long days), but the emotional tolls are also costly. Getting attached to a team as they go through an incredibly intense experience and then having to say goodbye to them while putting on your “game face” for the next team is no easy task.

This was my first full day with the team from Wade Baptist (Mississippi). Their project for the week is to build a “Little Yellow House” in Jasmine (a shanti town half way up the mountain - about 4000 ft above sea level). As they assembled all of the panels yesterday, the men spent the day hauling buckets of sand, concrete, and gravel up the hill as the trucks couldn’t make it all the way to the build site. Unfortunately, it was “Costa Rica Hot” today. In the afternoon, the team mixed cement in the rain and poured all of the footers.

I’m really starting to wear out.

This morning, the women went to a local elementary school and facilitated English classes and did some arts and crafts. After lunch, they headed over to Jorge’s new church to get some more painting done.

Tonight, Bonnie and I got to do “God the Potter” again… I really love doing that presentation! Especially since it comes out different every single time.

Today was the free day for the Wade Baptist team, so Bonnie and I took them to the Jaco Beach and on the Canopy Tour Zip lines. All in, the day was very nice and relaxing (much needed), except for the end… On our return trip, the bus broke down. As we had just left Jaco, we had two hours for a replacement. But, for being stranded on the side of Costa Rican Highway (at night, in the mountain jungle, while it’s raining), the team was very relaxed.

One of the guys asked me if it was safe… I just laughed.

That said, we made it home at about 11pm, safe and sound (and exhausted).

Today was relatively mellow in comparison to most days. Since I was out late yesterday with bus breakdown, I got the morning off and did some web design stuff. (For those of you think I’m on vacation, I got the morning off from shoveling cement and spent my free time working on websites.) After that, I met with the 6:8 Directors about our future with the ministry. Talk about serious stuff. As I’ve mentioned before, it becomes more and more clear everyday that my entire life has been preparation for this moment, right here, right now. Who would have thought that 18 months worth of Business Managment training in Corporate America would have resulted in running a ministry in Costa Rica?!?! Turns out, it couldn’t have worked out any better!

This was our last day on the build site (half way up the mountain). Today, the house had to be finished! As a matter of fact, the dedication ceremony was scheduled for 1pm… Pizza, Prayer, and Praise. And though the floor and foundation were all that were done, the team came through. The walls went up quickly, the paint was close behind, the roof was bit tough, and the windows sealed the deal! Four days, $3500.00, and a ton of man hours, but Mercedes and her son Memo now have a “little yellow house” instead of a tin shanti with dirt floors. Still no running water, but they do have electricity.

A side note on the pizza… The pizza came from Pizza Hut and this was a real treat for the locals! One of the guys told me when he was working at a hotel on the coast making “a lot” of money, he took his Mom and Sister to eat at Pizza Hut, but it was really expensive. For a full day of hauling cement pillars up a mountain and mixing cement by hand, our local helpers got paid 7500 Colones (approximately $14) and that was a generous wage. Makes me think twice about the $20 pizza I’m so accustomed to eating every week.

Right as we finished the dedication, the sky opened up and the monsoon rain poured down. As we slide down the mud river that used to be a road, we were all soaked to the bone! I had to carry a suitcase full of power tools down the mountain, so even though I was one of the last ones to leave the site, I was the second one down the mountain as the that suitcase pulled me all the way!

This evening, we had communion since this was the last night in country for the Wade Baptist team. What a wonderful end to a trip.

We sent the Wade Baptist team home this morning and then had the rest of the day to relax. As it was our first day off in a week and a half, we took the time to catch up on the essentials. First, we headed to the Saturday Morning Market and loaded up: Lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, raddishes, mangos, onions, cilantro, limes, avacados, fresh squeezed orange juice, and a coconut! All for less than $8.00!!! Later on, we headed to the super market and spent $60 on cereal and other stuff. Either way, if we can learn to live off of just veggies, we would save a ton of cash!

The rest of the day was spent relaxing on the couch. Whoohoo!

This morning, it was the 2nd Official Service at Jorge’s new church and there were over 50 people there! I can’t believe it! 10 days ago, the place was a recycling center!!! And now it’s a legit church! Only God could have accomplished this…

As a parting gift, the Wade Baptist team bought 50 new chairs (bringing the total chair count to 75), more paint, and a couple of fans (the place gets really hot). What a blessing. Often times, people get mixed up and they think that “church” is a just a building. It’s not until you get a group together who are rocking out to some great live worship music in an old warehouse that you realize that “church” has very little to do with a building. We are “the church”. The building and the carpet are just props.

When we first started working on the warehouse remodel, one of the team members asked me about putting a “rock / stone face” on the front of the building. When I asked him how much it might cost, he replied “only about a grand”. I then informed him that most of the people who were going to come to this church didn’t have enough food for both them and their children, nor did they have the $184 to send their kid to school for the year. Needless to say, we went ahead and stuck with the big, green, metal warehouse door on the front of the building.

This morning, Bonnie went to the Feeding Center with Candy where they taught the women how to crochet and I went over the the church plant and helped Jorge and Victor put on a new tin roof over what will soon be the children’s room! I also finished a five foot cinder block wall! I’m pretty sure that my parents are regretting all the money the spent on my college tuition, seeing as how I’m doing manual labor on a daily basis (for free). So as not to completely waste the tuition, I spent the afternoon working on websites and actually making a couple of dollars.

This evening, we had a staff meeting to finalize the plans for the team that arrives on Friday… I’m starting to get a bit emotional because I really do love working here and leaving is going to be very difficult. But, yesterday during service God put it on both mine and Bonnie’s hearts that we really needed to get back here as soon as possible. Thus, it looks like we will be foregoing OUR plans of travel in August and September and coming straight back here after youth camp in TN. Like my Mother always says, “If you want to make God laugh, just make plans.”

Jorge, his wife Marisol, and I took the bus down to San Jose this morning to pick up some Gold, Silver, & Bronze Medals for the Children’s Soccer Tournament that the team will be putting on next week. While walking around downtown San Jose, we passed by a young man huddled against a city building, attempting to block the wind that was blowing his lighter out… After a double take, both Jorge and I knew for sure that this guy was literally smoking crack right in front of us.

Talk about breaking my heart… 11am on a Tuesday and this guy is smokin’ a rock in plain sight on a city sidewalk. I had no idea what to do, so we just kept walking.

After lunch, Jorge, Bonnie and I went to CCA Church for our 2pm meeting with the facilities director (we’re trying to rent the soccer fields for our tournament next week). Though we had made an appointment with the guy on the phone this morning and we showed up fifteen minutes early, it turns out that he had already went home for the day when we arrived!!! After talking with the security guard (who happen to have the scheduling book for the field reservations), he called the facilities director on his cell phone. Once on the phone, the facility director asks if we can call him tomorrow afternoon to discuss!!! What kind of inefficiency is this!!!

Apparently, Costa Ricans don’t like to be direct, so rather than say “no”, they just dodge you until you quit asking. Needless to say, I was pretty upset about the poor handling of the situation and we went to the soccerfield down the road and rented there. Though I would have much rather rented the churches field, incompetence previaled today.

This afternoon, we stopped by a local elementary school and told him about the Principle about the soccer camp. We requested that the third grade teachers pick their 40 best students (20 boys / 20 girls) to attend. The camp is free of charge and each participant will receive a fee soccerball, a uniform, shin guards, and a pair of cleats! The principle said to bring by the invitations tomorrow and he would give us a decision then.

This morning, Jorge and I returned to elementary school to drop off the invitations for the soccer camp. We didn’t see the Principle, but we saw the Vice Principle and he said the Principle would give us a call later in the day to confirm. The VP said it wouldn’t be a problem.

After that, we packed up a big bag of rice, beans, salt, sugar, eggs, spagetti, fruit, and a solar powered audio bible and headed up to visit Patricia (the lady who lives on the mountain below the first cross). When we arrived, Patricia, her sister and her neice were preparing a meager lunch for themselves over the wood fire. They were very grateful for the food… We also learned that Patricia’s sister is pregnant (3rd child, no husband). That said, we will be bringing baby clothes up the next time we visit. So, we prayed with them, showed them how to use the audio bible (remember, Patricia can’t read or write) and then made our way down the mountain.

Tonight, the USA played Costa Rica in a World Cup Soccer Qualifier! Though none of us give a rip about USA Soccer, the Ticos flip out for their national team (even though they aren’t all that good). So, Spencer invited all of the Ticos who are on staff over to watch the game on the projector in the chapel. It was really great… They all brought their families and we ordered a ton of pizzas! Unfortunately, Costa Rica mopped the floor with the USA Team. And boy did they celebrate after each of the three goals! Whooping, hollaring, and moshpit / coreographed dancing! What a riot!

Today was our last day before the next team arrives. Bonnie wasn’t feeling very well, so she spent most of the day in bed. I worked on the computer all day and then Dave and Leisa had everyone over for dinner (which was wonderful). All in, a relaxing day. But really, it was probably just the calm before the storm A new team of 19 high school kids arrives tomorrow.

19 members of the River City Church Youth Group arrived today! Right after they arrived, we had a quick lunch and then headed out on a prayer walk. Now, if you have never been on a prayer walk, thay are really cool. The idea is to walk around a neighborhood, stop at a couple of houses of people you know and pray for them. The cool part is, you never know who God is going to put in your path that day, so every walk is different…

We stopped by Luis’ house today to pray with him as he is in a wheelchair and his aging mother (who has always taken care of him) just passed away two weeks ago (right after the Celebration Team prayed for her). Though we didn’t find him, we did find his grieving sister who is now responsible for taking care of Luis. She was a wreck… So we prayed for her and with her. “Blessed are those who Mourn, for they will be comforted.” - Matthew 5:4

As we made our way to the Juan Pablo neighborhood, I went to find Lalo and his brother Jorge. I had two sticks of gum and was ready for their usual requests! Unfortunately, no one was home I asked their next door neighbor if he had seen them, but he said no. He tried to speak to me in English as I was walking by saying “moment, please” but I didn’t get what he was saying as he seemed kinda out of it. A little later, Dave and the rest of the group walked by and the man stopped Dave. Dave called me over to translate and the story became clear…

The man’s name was (also) Luis and he asked us: “You guys help people, right?” Dave responded “Not us, God.” and pointed to the sky. Luis then took us into his shanti house… Mostly dirt floors with a few wood slats, patchwork walls and a leaky tin roof. He had two children: A young girl named Celeste who is at every activity and every event we hold in Juan Pablo, and a one year old baby boy sleeping on a half soaked bed (leaky roof…) It’s at that point that Luis tells us that his wife has left him and he has to take care of the children alone. He works construction, but only makes $60 / week. All he really wanted was a couple of sheets of tin for the roof as he said he could do the labor himself. Thus, Dave said we would help him out. As we were leaving, Jorge invited him to the new church plant and pointed out that Celeste was their every Sunday. Luis responded that he was the one who sent her to all of our activities and to our church. At that point we told Luis that God didn’t just love his children, but He loved him too. Next thing you know, Luis was on his knees in the mud (it had been pouring rain this entire time) with Jorge praying the sinner’s prayer…

Afterwards, Bonnie and I discussed how there is a difference between “being in need” and “being at the point of asking for help.” The latter is a far more serious situation as we have to get over our pride in order reach this point. Luis reached that point today.

The team started the day off by going to the Saturday Morning Market and passing out free juice and invitations to the new Celebration Church! They really handed out a ton of invites! Hopefully we’ll have standing room only tomorrow…

After the market, we headed to the church where the team finished up most of the painting in the sanctuary and then moved to the hallway and the children’s room after lunch. At 2pm there was a Women’s Ministry meeting in the sanctuary and more than 25 women were in attendance! It’s great and amazing how much this community needed this new church… It seems that so many people are excited to get involved here (and in need of a safe place). Jorge is going to start opening up the building one day a week for the local teens to come and practice their break-dancing (break dancing is really big among the youth of Costa Rica right now…?). Hopefully, that will serve as a good outreach for the youth.

Yesterday, Jorge went by the school to speak with the Principle again about the Soccer Camp as the Principle never called him. In classic Tico style, rather than just say “no”, he tells Jorge to come back on Monday and he will give him a decision then!!! How stupid is this?!?! Now I know that different cultures have different customs about non-confrontation and about “saving face”, but I think it’s ridiculous. Jesus said: “Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes’ and your ‘No’ be ‘No’, anything beyond this comes from the evil one.” - Matthew 5:37

Anyhow, since we got the hint that the school doesn’t want to work with us, we decided to go door to door. Yesterday, Jorge signed up 25 3rd Graders from Juan Pablo so I headed up to Jasmine with Dave and some of the RCC Team and we signed up another 12 from the mountain neighborhood.

This evening Bonnie and I did “God the Potter”. I was a blast as always, especially since the presentation turns out differently every time! Tonight, I threw a bowl at the floor and shattered it to demonstrate a pot exploding in the kiln as a result of our impatience. It’s so hard to wait on God’s timing sometimes, but when we rush things, we not only harm ourselves, but those around us as well.

This morning, there were over 85 Ticos at the morning service!!! Including Gringos, there were over 110 people worshiping in the old Recycling Plant we now call Iglesia Celebracion!!!

After service, we fired up the grill and provided the entire congregation with hamburgers. It was an absolute riot

This afternoon, the team headed into San Jose but I stayed back as I am giving the devotional again tonight. As this is our last devotional before we leave (since tomorrow is the teams free day), I decided to spill my guts and give my testimony. And since nobody got up and left, I’m counting it a success

After devotional, we took the group over the church (four houses down from the team house) and had some Tico Worship! Talk about going out with a bang…

The RCC Team had their free day today so Bonnie and I chaperoned them to Jaco Beach. What a relaxing day… All we did was chill out on the beach while they ran around doing the Zip Lines and touring on the strip. It was wonderful and much needed. Especially since we are both recovering from this trip and recharging for our Florida layover (there is so much to do before we head to Alaska and then back here)!

Which reminds me: Is anyone interested in buying Bonnie’s Nissan Xterra?

2005 Nissan Xterra SE - Rear wheel drive, 4.0L V6 engine, Power Windows, Power Locks, Rockford Fosgate Audio System, black with charcoal gray interior.
Mileage: 40,000
$13,000.00

I’ll even deliver it to you, anywhere in the U.S.

We bought our return tickets today… Coming back to Costa Rica on August 2nd. It’s tough to leave here as there is still so much left to do, but we are definitely excited to see our friends and family in Florida.

After seven weeks in CR, we headed back to St. Petersburg today. So far, being home has been wonderful… Air Conditioning, traffic laws, and no crazy smells. It was a long day of travel, but we made it home safe (thanks for the prayers!).

Just watched the Lakers lose to the Magic! Whoohoo!

We’ve been here in Florida for the past week now, but it seems like we’ve been back for several months! That’s not in a negative tone, it’s just that we have been so busy, we’re completely exhausted…  I’ve been working quite a bit and we’ve been catching up with everyone of our friends (who are a lot more like family) every chance we get!  Thus, we’ve been eating and celebrating non-stop (and working at night).  All this joy and fun is so emotionally exhausting (and I wouldn’t trade it for anything
I can’t believe it’s only been a week!

We drove up to Jacksonville last night and stayed with Rita (one of the 6:8 Board Members).  She was so nice!  I stayed up until about 3:30am working on a website though, so my lack of sleep continues.

The interview with the Board of Directors went well.  They asked me questions and I answered them.  At the end, we shook hands and they said “Welcome aboard, assuming your arrest record comes back clean.”  Since I’ve never been arrested, I’m considering myself in.

Candidly, I felt as though a huge wait was lifted once the interview had finished.  Not because I was nervous about the 6:8 deal, but because I received a very attractive and lucrative job offer this past Sunday from a church in St. Petersburg and I had been completely stressed out on which opportunity to pursue…  My ultimate goal is to be obedient to God’s Will for my life and I would hate to go down the wrong path.  Every morning I pray that God open the doors he wants me to walk through and close the doors I should stay away from, and this past week it appears I had two open doors in front of me.  Which one was God’s will?  Options / Choices are a beast!!

In the end, I understood that God would use Bonnie and I in either of these situations and that either choice would be in His will.  So, we decided to continue forward with Costa Rica for this season of life as we are being used their everyday, without fail.

And all harmony has been restored to our journey.

Today was our last day aboard the Island Princess Cruise Ship…  What a voyage!!!  Four weeks, 16 port stops, and the most beautiful landscapes I have ever seen.  Alaska really is “the last frontier” (as it reads on the license plates).  As part of our compensation (in addition to the room / board), we were blessed with the opportunity to go on over $3500.00 worth of excursions at no charge!  Thus, we went whale watching a couple of times, we went crab fishing on one of the “Deadliest Catch” boats, we road ziplines through the Tongass National Forest, we drove jeeps and road trains through the White Pass, we saw glaciers “calving” (breaking off into the ocean), and last but not least…  We took a boat tour through the Misty Fjords National Monument (which was the most beautiful place I have ever been - better than the Grand Canyon, Hawaii, Cancun, the Great Wall, the Andes Mountains, Yellowstone, Costa Rica, etc ).

And though we have thoroughly enjoyed this enormous blessing, we really are ready and excited to get back to work in Costa Rica.  Don’t get me wrong, though this time of relaxation, vacation, and rejuvenation has been absolutely amazing, it truly does pale in comparison with the fulfillment we have found in serving the less fortunate.  So, with our batteries recharged and our bellies so very, very full, we are looking forward to the next adventure.

For those who may have lost track, here is our latest itinerary…
7/20/09 - Vancouver
7/21 - 7/27: Florida
7/27 - 8/1:  Tennessee (Youth Camp)
8/2 - 9/8:  Costa Rica
9/8 - ???:  Florida / U.S. Travel?

I’m still in the process of going through pictures, but I post my top ten soon!

God Always Provides.
Omar

Today was our last day of Youth Camp…  Overall, this trip was an absolute blast!  Though I don’t really relate very well with the middle school kids (they’re just too young), I have found that I am able to really connect with the high school students.  That said, as the “Dean of the Boys Cabin” I spent most of my week yelling at middle school kids (telling them to clean their rooms, take showers, and use deoderant) and laughing with the high school guys about pretty much everything.

I am so proud of Bonnie!  She was a room leader for a group of high school girls and I truly believe she made a huge positive impact on both their spiritual life and their perspective of self-worth.  She is amazing.

In addition to our duties, we were also fortunate enough to participate in all of the activities with the students:  Paintball, Adventure Racing, Ziplines, Rope Courses, jumping on the Blog (gigantic air bag that one person sits on while another jumps off a huge tower and lands on, thus launching the other person into the air and eventually into the lake), white water rafting, a trip to the wave pool, and a near death experience while lighting off some professional fireworks with a couple of the other camp leaders
Though it was trying at times, it really was a huge blessing to spend the week serving these young people.  More than ever, I see how desperately the youth of our communities need role models.  Absent fathers, too much TV, and not enough discipline is creating a mess of our future. 

Today was our first full day back in Costa Rica…  Talk about starting things off with a bang!

First thing this morning we went to check out a potential project for the team that arrived this afternoon:  We heard about a lady named Binda who has a mentally retarded son and her family is in need.  So, when we arrive at her house we find that there are nine people living in a tiny three bedroom home and the walls are full of mold.  The wall of their tiny kitchen is literally falling into the neighbors backyard and most all of the family is consistently sick with respitory issues (probably because of the mold).  The father has abandoned the family and one of the daughters is pregnant.  Long story short, we are going to go in, scrub the mold off the walls, paint the place, fix some lights, and put up a new wall in the kitchen.

After that, we went by the Women’s Shelter and the Men’s Shelter to schedule visits for the team later in the week.  Then, we headed up to Jasmine where we scoped out a site to build TWO houses in ONE week with a team of 27 that is coming later this month!!!

After lunch, we made a trip to pick up building materials, change money, and made it back in time to welcome the team from Darlington, South Carolina and take them on a prayer walk through Juan Pablo.

Overall, today really helped me put into perspective why I missed this place so much…  While most people were slowly getting back to work this morning, getting their coffee, talking about the weekend, and staying away from the guy who has a bad case of the “Mondays”, I had an opportunity to be a part of something so much bigger than myself that I have a hard time fathoming it.  Here, we wake up everyday and simply go out looking for ways to serve the people of this community.  And God Provides…

Though there must be a way to replicate this in the U.S., I haven’t found it yet, thus the reason I have come here.  And if there is a way to do this in our “backyard”, then why aren’t more people doing it?  And though I don’t know the answer to this question, what I do know is that we are definitely being used here, serving as a part of something so much bigger than ourselves.

This evening, the group attended the Tuesday night service at Iglesia Celebracion (also known as the old recycling center).  Wow, has this place changed!!!  I’ll post pictures in the gallery…

Anyhow, the Tuesday night service is aimed at the Youth of the community, but pretty much everyone comes, including a handful of homeless / alcoholic men.  Apparently, these drunk guys have been showing up for the past few weeks, which is great.  But, tonight, one of them actually showed up sober!  Additionally, one of his buddies (who was completely sauced) broke down into tears toward the end of Jorge’s sermon (which was a great message about the things that “own” our hearts) and a bunch of the youth went over, laid hands on him and prayed for him!  It was really cool to see how God is working in the lives of this community!

After the regular service, we had Tico Worship with the team.  Seldom do I feel better than when I am covered in sweat from jumping around and dancing to some upbeat Tico Worship music!!!

For the past two days, the team has been cleaning and painting the inside of Binda’s house…  Talk about a big job.  On top of the mold and the crampped living condictions, it would seem that the family had not dusted nor swept for at least a few years.  Nonetheless, we moved all the furniture, scrubbed the walls with Clorox (to kill the mold), painted all the walls in the house, hung new light fixtures, fixed the cement block wall that was falling away from the kitchen, repaired some cement stairs, replaced some tin roofing panels, and posted some chicken wire over some vents…  The chicken wire is an attempt to keep the “cat-sized” rats from entering the house.  :(  Additionally, we replaced a few windows with ones that actually open.

All in, what was a dark, cold, musty house on Monday is now a lot brighter, a lot cleaner, and substantially more full of hope.  At the end of the day, Binda shed all the tears she had, thanked us profusely, and praised God for answering her prayers.

This evening, Bonnie and I gave our “God the Potter” presentation to the group.  Always a blast

I am emotionally worn out.  And my throat is a bit soar…

We spent the morning at the CCA Men’s Center (a rehabilitation center for drug addicts and alcoholics) giving and listening to testimonies.  Literally, our team of 14 sat down with 10 or so men and went around the circle, each giving our testimonies.  (The reason my throat is sore is because I served as the translator for each testimony.)  Thus, for about 2.5 hours we sat in that circle and traded stories…  The men talked about their addictions, eating out of garbage cans, living in card board boxes, stealing from their families and losing everything they ever valued:  their jobs, their homes, their children, and their dignity.  Some of the men had only been off the streets for a few days, others had already completed 4+ months (it’s a 9 month program).  Regardless of the length of stay, each story ended with the acknowledgement that the only reason each of them was still alive was because of God’s grace and mercy, and that they knew he had a plan for their lives.  Though many of the stories we very difficult to hear (and even more difficult to translate through my shock), I honestly witnessed a hope that could only come from a faith in Jesus.

As the group gave their testimonies, they each shared of the tragedies in their own lives and the role Jesus had in bringing them through the dark times.  And though nobody on our team was a recovering addict, everybody had some serious baggage.  The cool thing was that I saw healing happen before my eyes as they became vulnerable and opened up their hearts to each other.

As I often say:  “There is no better proof for the power of Jesus Christ that your own personal testimony…  This was me before, and this is me now, and it’s all because of God.”

For lunch, we headed to to the CCA Feeding Center (which is like a soup-kitchen for kids).  We played with the kids, jumped rope, and then served about 60 children and their mothers.

In the afternoon, we headed to the CCA Women’s Center (a rehabilitation center for prostitutes, drug addicts, and alcoholics) and played the same “testimony game” as we did with the men in the morning.  Though our stories were the same, the women had some very different stories.  From murder to prostitution, it was another 2.5 hour session of difficult translation for me.  But, just as in the morning, the healing that happened before my eyes through these shared testimonies was priceless.

We spent the morning working on a grandma’s house in the Juan Pablo barrio.  The team put up a new bedroom wall, bought here a new kitchen sink, repaired an exterior wall, replaced one of the tin sheets on the roof with a transparent sheet (can you say skylight?) in the bathroom, and we bought here a (used) washer for $100.

She was ecstatic…  Unlike most grandma’s, her daughter is a drug addict and she cares for many of her grandchildren.  Can you imagine feeding a family with only a “garbage” burning stove (the could use wood, but there isn’t alot of wood in ghetto) and no refrigerator?  At least washing clothes will be easier.

Additionally, we opened up the community center and the children of the neighborhood came in and made hand-puppets out of brown paper bags, cotton balls, and string.  They also enjoyed blowing bubbles and kicking the soccer ball around.  Who needs an xbox to have fun!

This morning, we continued our work on the Grandma’s house in Juan Pablo…  We painted the new walls we put up on Friday and poured some cement to repair the foundation.

After lunch, we took food to a few families up to Jasmine (the village on the hill).  While we were up there, we visited the two families whose homes (tin shanti’s) we will be tearing down next week in order to build them both new houses.  Though the team had already seen some pretty humble homes, seeing the living conditions in Jasmine seemed to really take a toll on the emotions of the team. 
While up in Jasmine, I stopped by the pastors house as they invited me over to take a look at their computer.  They are having problems with their printer, but as they don’t have internet, I’ll have to download the drivers at home and fix it next week when we go back to Jasmine.

First thing today, the team split up:  Half of us went to deliver food (rice, beans, salt, sugar, spaghetti, etc) to a family in Jasmine the rest of us went to deliver food to two families in Juan Pablo.  After that, we headed down to Aurora to visit Jose Antonio (the little boy with mental disabilities).  He continues to do so much better!!  This boy (who is 6 years old) couldn’t walk 9 months ago, and now he is walking and on the verge of speaking!!

While at Jose Antonio’s house, the neighbor’s across the alley (a little old lady) asked me if we were there to pray.  When I told her “yes”, she asked me if we could come pray in her house as well!  Talk about a testament to what she has seen prayer do in her neighbors lives!  It turns out that the lady had just had an operation on her eyes and her husband was bed-ridden from a leg injury about four years ago.  Thus, we prayed over them and their house and then one of the doctors taught the old man a couple of exercises that he could do to undo the atrophy in his leg and increase the blood flow to his foot.

On our way out of the neighborhood, we stopped by Maria’s house (who used to be a witch, but has now given her life to Christ) and we delivered our last load of food.  While there, a young boy asked me for the cross I wear around my wrist…  I gave it do him, of course.  This is the third cross someone has asked for off of my wrist…  Two here in Costa Rica, and one waitress in Florida.

Now, on to the “gun shots and hot dogs”…

After lunch, we took the team to the houses (shanti’s) down by the river.  This is probably the roughest neighborhood we go into, even though we’ve never had anything bad happen.  So, we headed down to the dead end street where we go with almost every team and handed out over 100 hot dogs, cookies, chips, pencils, tracts, and bubbles.  We also had a great time jumping rope with the kids and adults alike.  Even the local drug dealers came by and got a bite.

Once it was time to go, I rolled up the jump rope, we handed out the last of the bubbles and pencils, and began to walk out.  As we were about half down the dead end street, a couple of the women came running after us…

“Wait, wait…  There are some guys waiting for you at the end of the street!  My husband heard them saying that they were going to be waiting for your group so that they could assault you!”

As I’m always bringing up the rear of the group, I quickly called the group back.  As soon as I explained the situation, the woman said that her husband went ahead of us to be our escort.  Two seconds later, “Bang! Bang!”  Two gunshots rang out ahead of us down the street.

At that point, the crowd of women and children surrounding us said that the “coast was clear” and that we should continue on down the street.  Not knowing what to do and aware that there was only one way in and out of this neighborhood, I simply told the group “start praying, we gotta go”.  And so, escorted by a short portly woman and a gay man as our body guards, we headed out of the neighborhood.

It turns out that the gunshots came from the woman’s husband in an attempt to scare off the hoodlums who were planning to mug us.  Nonetheless, the woman (with a rock in each hand, hidden behind her back) and the gay guy (with a couple of rocks in a grocery bag) escorted us out of the neighborhood all the way to the main street and the bus stop…  No harm, no foul, though we were all a bit shaken up.  On our way out, one of the hoodlums yelled at the team:  “We want your money, you son-of-a-b#&*h!”  One of the young boys who was walking with us remarked to me “Some people have no respect.”

What really amazed me today was how the community came together and actually stood up and surrounded us in this situation.  What was the most ironic and humbling though was the action of the gay gentlemen who led us out of the neighborhood…  In the Church today, I think that the gay population is the most shunned and persecuted demographic of all.  Yet, when we were between a rock and a hard place, it was this man who stood up for the group of Christians.  He could have very easily turned his back on us and allowed us to fend for ourselves, but he didn’t.  And that, my friends, is the most accurate immitation of Jesus Christ and His love that I have seen all week.  Jesus Christ shows up in different forms everyday in our lives;  today, he was embodied as a gay man with a grocery bag full of rocks.  For that, I am so very grateful.

The past few days have been spent recovering from the last team and planning for the team that arrives tomorrow.  More than anything, I have been doing administrative planning for my new role…  As the ministry grows, what started out as a one man organization has blossomed into a two-country, multi-family, operation with owned property and a handful of salaried local staff, and all in just three years.  Thus, the planning is really to put the infrastructure in place to enable the continued growth as God hasn’t given us any indication that His work is going to slow down any time soon.

20 / 20 Hindsight:  It looks like all that corporate training is coming in handy after all 

This morning, I heard a great message at Iglesia Celebracion (Jorge’s Church) on “Generosity”…

First off, generosity is not limited to money, but it also includes time, talents, love, patience, etc.  (Keep in mind that this is a very poor congregation.) Next, Christ is the perfect example of generosity (to the extent that He gave His life for our sins).  So, the question is “are you generous”?  And the assertion is that it is impossible to have Jesus Christ in your heart and not be generous (with all things - specifically your love).

This message led Bonnie and I to talk about the difference between generosity vs. sacrifice…  In light of the fact that we consistently here that Jesus sacrificed everything for us and was the “sacrificial lamb”, etc.  Here’s what we came up with:  A man who has much and gives what is extra to the poor is generous.  He didn’t have to give anything to the poor.  He could have kept the extra for himself.  Yet, a man who has not even enough for himself and give of what little he has to the poor, that man sacrifices for others.

In simple words, sacrifice is sharing / giving even when you don’t want to.  For example, when you only have enough food / drink for your family / friends and an unexpected guest shows up at the door…  The sacrificial act would be to have everyone have a little less than a full plate and offer them to join in.

Though this isn’t what we want to do, but it is what we are called to do, and it is definitely what Jesus did for us.

I know, sacrificing stinks
Hebrews 13:16 - “And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.”

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A new team of 27 High School Students arrived from Victory Church in Pennsylvania this afternoon.  As the team is so large, we decided to split them into two groups for our afternoon prayer walk.  I took my group down to the Juan Pablo barrio to visit all of our regular friends as well as pray over some new friends who have fallen on hard times and are seeking.  Overall, though the group is young, I think this really opened their eyes to the fact that their is more to this world that “high school drama” and “video games”…  I’m really excited for this team as I believe the will be very receptive to the activities we have planned for them this week.

We broke ground on our house builds yesterday morning and the past two days have been spent as follows…  With such a big group, we split into two groups:  guys / girls.  While the girls stayed and put together the panels (walls) of the house in the church parking lot, the guys headed up to the shanti-town of Jasmine to haul materials up the mountain to the build site.  The materials included 100 cement pillars, one flat bed truck full of sand and one of gravel (carried up in 5-gallon buckets), and 200 2 x 4’s.  Once the materials were at the build site, the guys then proceed to dig 50 holes for the cement pillars.  (Though this doesn’t seem that difficult, the ground turns to clay after digging only six inches.)  After that, it was time to mix the gravel, sand, and cement…

Yesterday, we got off to a slow start and the rain chased us off the mountain early, but the guys still worked really hard.  Today, we started early and worked through the afternoon.  For the majority of these 12 young men, today was the hardest they have ever worked in their entire lives!  I am honored to have been a part of this day, especially since all this hard work is going to benefit a 53 year old woman and her family (husband and three adult boys) who are currently living in a tin shanti with a dirt floor and no running water.

Overall, I have been very impressed with the guys on my team.  Though they come from very affluent backgrounds, they have really been selfless and sacrificial these past few days.  This has been great as I have really been pushing the “Men Built for Others” philosophy on them and they have been very receptive.  Keep hope alive!

Last night, Bonnie and I gave our “God the Potter” presentation and tonight, we attended Jorge’s Tuesday Night service and had Tico Worship afterwards!  Man, I think Tico Worship is my favorite event every week…  Second only to Pork Chop night (Miriam makes the best pork chops in all the world - Sorry, Mom. 

After two hard days of hauling rocks and building panels separately, the team was reunited on the side of a mountain to put up the walls of the first house!  It’s so cool to see the walls go up so fast (especially since they were pre-assembled)!  After a late lunch, the rain came and we had to get off the mountain before the roads washed out.  Thus, the girls went to the Women’s Rehabilitation Center to visit with the ladies there and trade testimonies.  As the girls in this group are so young, I think it was probably a bit overwhelming for them, but still good for perspectives.

This afternoon, we were given a presentation by Maximo and Pastor Alberto about the vision of the CCA (Centro Christiana de Alabanza) Church.  This was very enlightening as CCA has a ton of ministries (Men’s Rehab Center, Women’s Rehab Center, Children’s Feeding Center, Yellow House Project - built 50+ homes for the poor in the past two years, Senior’s Center, Christian School, Indoor Soccer Fields, Bakeries, Car Washes, Internet Cafe’s, Pizza Restaurants, Print Shops, Mechanic Shops, etc).  Essentially, the vision is not to “do as a church does”, but more so to “be the church” in the community…  The church is not a building, but a group of Christ-Followers who are living as He called us all to live!  That said, I believe that CCA is making a tremendous effort to “be the church”.  They have their faults, like any organization does, but overall, I really think they get it.  I wish more churches spent more time reaching out to the community as opposed to simply focusing on the people who passively fill the seats on Sunday morning…  As Pastor Alberto told us today, “we are waging a war against misery in our society…  A real follower of Christ cannot stand for people to be left in misery!  With all the misery that exists in our society, how is it that churches are full of celebration on clapping on Sunday mornings when many are not doing anything to get rid of this misery?  It’s like a team who loses every game they play and then celebrates like champions afterwards…”

Feed the hungry, heal the sick (spiritual, physical, emotional, mental), and clothe naked…  One at a time.  And then give all the glory to God.

The team spent the morning painting the outside of the first house and assembling the walls of the second house!  I can’t believe that this team has built two houses in five days!  We’re actually scheduled to finish one day ahead of schedule!

That’s what I call a God-sized project with God-sized blessings…  One of the coolest parts:  The lady receiving the second house (Haley) works all day, every day, thus she hasn’t seen us working.  Today, when she left for work all that had been completed on her site build was a couple of cement pillars in the foundation and a number of holes had been dug.  When we left the job site this afternoon, the entire house had been assembled.  When she gets home from work this evening, she is going to find a brand new home!  I think this is the coolest part because it’s kind of like we were Santa’s (Jesus’) Elves working in complete secret :)  I can only imagine her surprise when she gets home…  All glory to God!

Now, for the drama with thugs.  This morning, a few of the team members (a 48 year-old lady and two teenage boys) went back to the church to pick up some paint supplies.  On their way back to the site build, a couple of hoodlums came up on them (one on a bike and another on foot) and attempted to mug the woman!  As they tried to pull her camera out of her pocket, her “fight or flight” instinct seemed to kick in as she began kicking at the young thieves as the pushed her to the ground.  At that point, the two teenage boys stepped up and pushed the thieves away…  As these thieves weren’t looking for a confrontation but just a quick pick pocket, this resistance was enough to scare them off.

Then, at around 1:30pm when the team was getting ready to leave the build site, the pastor’s daughter sent word that there was a group of thugs waiting for us to exit the neighborhood so that the could assault us…  As this is a barrio where the local church has built over 40 homes for the poor, the community quickly came to our aide.  Additionally, we have a number of local Tico’s working with us and a bunch of gringo men as well.  Thus, we threat wasn’t terrifying, but three incidents in a week is incredibly dis-heartening.  Thus, we called the police and the thugs scattered once they arrived, leaving us safe passage out of the barrio.  No gunshots needed :)  God’s people and His protection prevails once again.

For those of you who might be worrying about our safety, these thugs aren’t interested in violence, but more so just a bunch of “opportunists”.  If they see easy prey, they will exploit it.  Thus, we’ve decided that it is time to hire armed-guards to travel with us when go into the sketchier barrios.  Normally, when we finish a house we host what we call the 3 P’s (Praise, Prayer, & Pizza).  In light of today’s events, we’re going to be doing the 4 P’s at tomorrows house dedication (Praise, Prayer, Pizza, & Police) as we have arranged for a police escort to and from the shanti-town.

This evening, I gave my personal testimony to the team of high school kids.  Pouring your guts out in front of a bunch of people you don’t know all that well is always therapeutic.

The morning was spent putting the finishing touches on both houses… Installing windows, touching up paint, installing a couple of lights, (no running water though). By lunch, everything was done… An absolute miracle… Building two houses on the side of a mountain in six days with high school students. Just another testament to fact that God will use whatever you bring to the table.

Once the work had ceased, we held the house dedications…  Prayer, Praise, and Pizza.  The dedication was really sweet as Luz (the new home owner) was completely over whelmed, to the point of tears.  But what was even more moving was that her husband (who has a history of alcohol abuse) decided to surrender his life to Christ this morning!  Thus, he was also completely overwhelmed and moved to tears (as were many of the 40+ people there for the dedication).  Nobody expected this, but I guess God knew.  :)  And to think, all we had planned was to build a couple of houses…

After the house dedications, we took the team to play soccer at a new indoor field that just opened up a block from the team house.  I didn’t play due to the fact that I have been deathly ill with a summer head cold for the past two days…  While I was sitting on the sidelines, the owner of the field gave me a tour of the facilities and told me his life story in the process…  It turns out this guy is the sole distributor of Mission brand tortillas in Costa Rica!  As Tico’s don’t use tortillas much, I found an immediate friend in this guy :)  He even gave Bonnie and I a couple of packs of tortillas to take home with us!  God Always Provides.

The team headed to CCA for service this morning and we were surprised to find that the church had a special recognition ceremony for us during the morning service!  The pastor called everyone who worked on the construction project up on stage along with the two families who received the houses…  A few people were given the opportunity to speak, but it was the words of Oscar (Luz’s husband who just received Christ yesterday) that completely wrecked me…

While fighting back tears, Oscar described how he had lived his entire life by his own will and his own rules and that just last week he was convinced that Jesus didn’t exist.  Then, this week a random group of gringos whom he had never seen before spent six days hauling rocks up a mountain so that he and his family could have a clean, dry place to sleep.  All be because they heard that his family needed some help…

“But today, I know for sure…  He DOES exist…  He DOES exist!”

Often times, we get discouraged in our faith walk because the magnitude of the obstacles in our path are so plentiful.  Today, I am reminded that it’s not about “being Jesus” to the “whole world”, but more so about being the hands and feet of Jesus in “someone’s world”,  one “someone” at a time.

Since sending the team from PA home yesterday morning, I haven’t stopped working! Not on mission work, but on websites. It never ceases to amaze me… God holds off all the web work so I can focus on the teams here, and the second the teams go home the emails start flowing like a river! No complaints here, this work is a blessing to the pocket book!

Gotta get back to work!

I have spent the past two days organizing / putting together our budget for 2010… It looks like $2000 / month should cover all of our expenses. This is impressive that two grand will cover both Bonnie and I for a month considering that used to be my weekly budget a few years ago
Nonetheless, fundraising season is now officially open! In an effort to remain 100% transparent, I posted our line item budget under the “Fundraising” link…

We’re really looking at this as our last “confirmation” of whether or not we’re really supposed to be moving to Costa Rica. If the support rolls in, so be it. And if it doesn’t… Then I guess God has something else in mind. There’s only one way to find out
The thought of raising $24,000.00 used to scare me. Not anymore. I’ve seen God overcome much greater obstacles. This is a mole-hill for Him. And an opportunity to support something huge for the rest of us. Though many people might want to simply “give what extra they have laying around”, I’m hoping that people will “sacrifice” for this cause. I’m not asking you to go without food, but maybe give up eating out for a month and donate that money (on top of the “extra”). Skip a couple of happy hours, put off buying that new outfit, rent a movie instead of going out… The “least of these” will be grateful.

As always, I’m not asking for people to do anything Bonnie and I aren’t willing to do ourselves. Though it doesn’t seem like a big deal anymore, giving up most everything and moving here to Costa Rica has definitely been a huge sacrifice for both of us. And God has blessed us greatly for being obedient and He always provides for our every need. I’m confident He will continue to do the same.

The only question is: Is He trying to use you to accomplish His will?

As we have a couple of days off before the next team comes, Spencer wanted to take his family on a little excursion, so we decided to tag along. The destination was the Tortuga (turtle) Beach to see the Giant Sea Turtles lay their eggs…

After about 90 minutes in the van, we pulled into a hotel parking lot and Spencer / Molly went inside to work out the details while Bonnie and I stayed in the car with the four kids.  While sitting there, we noticed that the pool was the largest pool any of us had ever seen and there was a giant water slide too!  Needless to say, the kids were excited and I was also happy about the trip so far.  Then Spencer and Molly return and we start driving again..?  As we pull out of the parking lot, Spencer informs us that we are still three hours away from the turtles and we’ll need to find a hotel that is closer.  %&#*@!

So we drive for about 30 minutes through the coastal villages of Costa Rica, go the wrong way for about 5 miles, and then finally get on the right road to the turtles.  Unfortunately, it is a crappy dirt road with giant pot holes.  And we’re on it for an hour!  We’re now traveling through the banana plantations of Costa Rica with no civilization in sight.  Did I mention it was raining and the dirt road had turned to mud?  We occasionally pull over to ask one of the locals riding their bikes if we are on the right road to see “las tortugas”.  Each of them assures us we are.

After an hour of the dirt road, we pull up to an open air restaurant / bar in the middle of nowhere.  We park the van, and Miguel the “tour guide” with no front teeth and no shoes (raining, remember) takes charge…  The boat ride to see the turtles is $60.  Are you going to need a hotel?  $9 / person.  Will you need a guide for the turtles?  $15 / person.  Ready?  Let’s go.

Seeing as how we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into and Miguel did, we kind of just followed him to the boat.
“How long is the boat ride?”  I asked.
“Maximum, one hour.”  responds the captain.
Though the rain has let up, we are in the middle of no where, surrounded by banana plantations, boarding a boat for an hour long ride through what I always imagined the amazon jungle would look like.

And so, we ride.  The jungle was absolutely beautiful.  It was kind of like Jurassic Park in that the vegetation was gigantic!!  Huge, lush, green plants everywhere.  The water of the river was very muddy and there were crocodiles throughout.  After an hour, we pull into what appears to be a small island village…  Imagine Key West 100 years ago.  No cars, no scooters, sand paths, and small little motels everywhere.  The entire native population of the island was less than 1000.  Thus, Miguel showed us to our hotel, and we headed to the beach so the kids could play.

After dinner, and once nightfall hit, it was time to go find the turtles!  Our turtle guide took us on another boat ride about three miles up the river to Sector 1 of Tortugero National Park.  There it was only about 10 minutes until we were lead to our first sighting!  We were able to walk right up to a 300 lbs, 50-year-old female turtle laying 100 eggs and then burying them before returning to the ocean!  As the turtles are very sensitive to light, absolutely no photography is allowed (and the park rangers are Nazi’s about it.)  Even so, the sighting was awesome!  After that, we saw a couple more sightings (all within about 30 minutes).

The next morning, Bonnie and I went for a walk on the beach and saw about 30 tracks to different nests in a span of about 1/4 mile!  Apparently, there are over 2000 turtles that hit this beach (14-miles long) on a regular night during nesting season!  Absolutely wild.  To think that people come from all over the world to see this is neat.  There were a lot of European tourists there while we were there.  And to think, all in, this excursion only cost us about $50 / person (boat rides, hotel, & guides)!

Dealing with unknown shouldn’t really be that difficult, seeing as how we have no idea what tomorrow will bring.  Even so, in the American Society we live in, we convince (fool) ourselves into thinking that we have complete control over everything.  That is, until we surrender our lives to the will of God and accept the fact that when compared to God, we aren’t so powerful and in control after all.

Last night, I had a really hard time sleeping…  I could stop thinking (worrying) about the future and all the things that are outside of my control.  In particular, our current situation of fundraising and housing (or lack there of).  With regards to the fundraising, it’s so hard for me to be at the mercy of other people and their sacrifices…  “What if people won’t support?”

Now, I’ve said it a million times:  God Always Provides.  I have no doubt about that.  It’s the “how is He going to do it?” that’s driving me nuts.  Then, the question of housing arises…  We’d like to stay in Florida for the next couple of months, primarily so Bonnie can work on her pottery (I can work anywhere).  Yet, finding a three month lease on a budget is no easy task.  Again, I know God will provide, but “how?”

Matthew 6:25-30 tells us specifically not to worry:

²⁵“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? ²⁶Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life^[a]? ²⁸“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

With this in mind, it makes me feel like crap when I stress out, “O me of little faith.”

Thus, I’ve decided to fast today, and everytime I feel hungry I will remember that all of my issues are in the hands of a very capable God.

Nobody said this was going to be easy. 
Update:  3 minutes after posting this, a woman and her baby came up to the house looking for Spencer’s family.  She was in desperate need of help and someone told her that Spencer’s family helped people…  She was out of work, her power had been turned off, her older child was living with her mother since she couldn’t take care of her, and her baby hadn’t had anything to eat in the past 24 hours except for a box of juice.  As her residency from Nicaragua has expired, she is unable to find work.  She didn’t know where else to go, so she showed up on our doorstep.

Thus, we put together a bag of food (rice, beans, cereal, eggs, etc), told her where our mission team house was, and invited her to church on Sunday.  She was very humble and grateful…

Just when you think you have real problems, God shows you what real problems are all about.  We’re so blessed we’re giving up food (fasting) and here people are starving on our doorstep.

I have no problems.

That’s right, folks!!! We are on the board!!! I just updated the fundraising thermometer… So far we’ve received $1,273.00 in pledges!

God Always Provides. Special thanks goes to handful of supporters who got their donations in right away… It would have broken my heart if I would have opened up paypal and found a zero balance. You guys have no idea how encouraging it was to find out people are listening! And some old friends to boot!

On a side note, I posted a video that I made from my India Mission Trip last year. Most of you probably never saw it, so when you get a second you can check it out on the Media page.

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A new team arrives on Friday!  Tomorrow is our final day to prep.  I’m super excited to see God use these guys.

A team of 8 men and 3 women arrived today from Celebration Church in Jacksonville… This is awesome because the last team from Celebration that came down was amazing, so I had really high expectations for these guys.

We started off the same way we start every group off with: A prayer walk. As we were making our way through the Juan Pablo barrio, the team stopped to pray for a family who we have seen tremendous growth in over the past two months. While they were praying, I heard a couple of the neighbors rustling around behind us. I was at the back of the group, so I turned around and say to older men in their little dirt floor shanti smoking cigarettes and joking around (also known as smokin’ & jokin’). At that moment, God (through the Holy Spirit) told me to approach them. I quickly ignored the urging and turned back toward the group. So he told me again. This time, I obeyed and entered through the open door of the shanti to speak to the men…

At first, they started telling me about how the tin roof leaks onto the dirt floor (as they very well know that we help people with this kind of stuff). As both of them had been drinking (keep in mind it was 4pm), I decided just to ask if they would like us to pray for them. The both agreed immediately and started spouting off Bible knowledge. (Apparently, they are brothers and they were both very involved in the Catholic church years ago, serving as worship leaders and deacons… but now they are married to the alcohol.) Anyhow, I invited the team into the shanti and told them that I didn’t know anything about these guys and that God had just prompted me to come talk to these guys and that I wasn’t really sure why were here. At that very moment, the older brother moves to the center of the group, gets down on his knees, puts his head on the ground and starts praying! One of the team members responds to my statement about “not knowing why we are here” with “We know what to do.” and immediately the entire team lays hands on the man and starts praying all at once! Within seconds the man is crying his eyes out and crying out that he is tired of his lifestyle and that he wants to return to the days when he was in communion with God…

To say the least, I was taken back by all of this. Especially since it all happened in a matter of two minutes!

Looking back, I can’t help but think what would have happened if I would have ignored the “still small voice” that urged me to go talk to these men? Would God have told someone else and I would have just missed out on the opportunity of being a part of His plan? Or would these men simply have continued on drinking without interruption? How many other opportunities have I missed out on because I ignored God’s prompting?

Believing in God is not enough. You have to be willing to follow Him in obedience. (Easier said than done, I know.)

We split the team into two groups this morning. One of the groups went to build out a kitchen in the back of the church that will be used for the new Feeding Center for the homeless. The other group went to Juan Pablo to do children’s ministry… For the most part, I spent the day visiting with the families in Juan Pablo and promoting that we would be showing the Mexico vs. Costa Rica soccer game (world cup qualifying match) on the new projection screen at the church. This was pretty comical as everybody in Costa Rica was amped up for the game and I was walking around with my bright green Mexico Soccer jersey! Talk about being in enemy territory! If nothing else, it was a great conversation starter
All of the days activities went really well. An hour before the soccer game started, Jorge led gave a message and then we had Tico Worship! What a blast… Not only was the team participating, but much of the community had already arrived for the game so they participated as well! I so love Tico Worship! It was actually really cool because we finished the last song exactly at 8:00pm so we flipped the switch on the projector just as the game started! There were probably 80 people that showed up to watch the game on the big screen. The best part about it was that there were not just kids and mom’s, but a lot of Dad’s showed up to (which is completely out of the norm).

We snuck out right after half-time to avoid getting beat up… As the only person in all of Costa Rica who was rooting for Mexico, I wanted to be off the streets when the game ended.

Final score: Mexico 3, Costa Rica 0

Church this morning was amazing!  One of the guys on the team (Jason) gave his testimony to the whole congregation:  Long story short - Grew up in a good home, got hooked on crack, went to prison, got out prison, cleaned up his act, started smoking crack again, went back to prison, gave his life to Christ, got out of prison, married his high school sweetheart, started his own construction company, now is a very successful builder in Jacksonville, has a wonderful family (4 kids) and is a leader in the church.

As many of the people in the church are currently struggling with the same addictions that Jason went through, the testimony was both relevant and powerful!!!  Immediately after the message ended, Jorge asked if anyone wanted to surrender their life to Christ and three men jumped up and went to the front!  No hesitation at all!  One of the guys had been coming to church for a couple of weeks and was a recovering drug addict.  Another of the guys was simply walking past the church in the morning and one of the members invited him to join us for service…  And he came!  So powerful.

After service, we had a hot dog BBQ for the whole church!  Then, we took everyone over to the new indoor soccer field that is just a block away and we let all the kids play soccer for the rest of the afternoon.  This was really special because these kids never get to play on a field this nice…  What was even better was that we got everyone involved:  We had a boys game, a girls game (Mom’s joined in), a toddlers game, and we finished with a men’s game!  Everyone had a blast.

This evening, I had the privilege of giving the message about “Living for God at home, not just in Costa Rica” during our chapel time.  Though I’ve given this message a couple of times before, it hit very close to home as Bonnie and I are heading back to Florida in two days and we aren’t immune to the distractions of the world.  Thus, there was a lot of conviction amongst us all and a lot of watery eyes.  :)  So far, I have setup to volunteer in my friend’s 2nd Grade Class (in the ghetto of St. Pete) at least once a week and Bonnie and I have some ideas about talking food to the homeless folks who live under the bridge while we’re in Florida.

Today was our last full day in Costa Rica.  We spent the morning hanging out with Spencer’s family and then headed to Juan Pablo to deliver some new shoes to a young guy as well as give Lalo one last haircut.  As we went through the Juan Pablo barrio to say goodbye to all our friends, it was really very difficult.

I think the song “God of this City” says it best:  “For greater things are yet to come and greater things are still to be done in this city!”

I so pray that God let’s us come back…

We’ve back in the U.S. for two weeks now and it feels like we’ve been back for two months…  Things have been incredibly hectic!

For the first week, B and I spent most all of our time reconnecting with our amazing friends and family that we have in St. Pete.  This was so great as we really have been blessed with a plethora of phenomenal relationships through church and the clay studio.  Then, we spent our first weekend back at Universal Studios for the Rock The Universe concert.  This was such a blast as RTU 2007  was the first time Bonnie and I hung out and fell in love.
For the past week, I have been in Utah visiting my family (Bonnie is in FL making pots and preparing for a couple of shows).  Reconnecting with my two best friends (for over 20 years) along with spending tons of time with my brothers (one just got back from Iraq) and cousins has really got me back on track.  Before last week, I was getting seriously homesick as I hadn’t seen my family for over 8 months!  Nonetheless, I am feeling much better.

Throughout these past two weeks, Bonnie and I have been very focused on the idea that our “mission field” is not only in Costa Rica, but more so our mission field is “where ever our suitcase is.”  This doesn’t mean we have been preaching at everyone and hitting people over the head with a bible, but simply that we are doing our best to just “love” people as Jesus teaches us.  Even with this attitude, we have had tons of people ask us about God and Faith!  What a blast it is to be used by God and given opportunities to talk about the things He has done in our lives!

[I've said it a million times already, but I'm convinced that your Personal Testimony is the most powerful thing you possess...  It's probably a good idea to share it.]

Lastly, we are currently at 18.27% to our fundraising goal!  We still have a long way to go, but I KNOW that God ALWAYS Provides.

As my Mom always says:  “If you want to make God laugh, just make plans”.

As I child, I hated hearing my Mom say this.  Especially if it were in the midst of sharing my dreams of going on a great vacation or of the things I would do / accomplish in the future!  But as the years past, I found that my Mom was right on track with this one.

Ever since I began this faith journey almost four years ago, I have continually attempted (and failed) to surrender all control to God.  This includes control of my future…  And even though I am completely convinced that I “my plans” are “little” and “His plans” are “BIG”, I constantly try to put my plans into action.  A few years ago, I finally put (most) of my plans aside and I surrendered to His plans…  At which point the control freak in me took over and I started trying to take credit for and dictate “His plans” as though they were my own!

Why?!?!  I know my plans aren’t this crazy!  I know my plans never work out for the good of anyone other than myself!  (My plans always end with me making a million dollars.)  How can I possibly try to take credit for His work?  How powerful is my sinful Pride that it can attach itself to His plans?

The uncertainty of the future has really been stressing me out over the past few weeks.  Fundraising isn’t going as well as I had “planned” and I had been questioning whether this whole “move to Costa Rica” plan was mine or His.  Then, I had a great friend (Dave Hendricks) give me these pearls of wisdom:  “I’m not planning anything, but I am preparing.”

Absolutely Genius.

I’m confident God called us to Costa Rica.  Did He say “January” or was that me?  I’m not sure, but it doesn’t matter.  It’s His plan and His timeline we’re following, not mine.  If He wants to change the plan, so be it, it’s His to change.  My only responsibility is to be available and ready when He calls on me to be a part of His plan.  I heard Duke say the other day… “You could have bought a ticket if all you wanted to do was watch the game from the sidelines.”  Thus, if you want to get off the bench and get into the big game, you’ve got be ready!

And that’s why my goal is not to plan on going to Costa Rica, but only to prepare for the time and place He calls me in.

Put me in coach, I’m ready to play.

Dear Supporters,

After a solid 4 months of fundraising, Bonnie and I now have approximately 15% of our budget raised with an additional 20% pledged.  At the beginning of this journey, we prayed that God would provide us with confirmation through our fundraising efforts.  As such, we believe we have received a solid “no” to the question “should we move to Costa Rica full-time?”

Through discussions and emails with the 6:8 Board of Directors, I believe we are all on the same page…  This is not the end of our relationship with 6:8.  Bonnie and I are still scheduled to lead two teams from our home church (Guatemala - March, Costa Rica - August) and I am still responsible for the website.  Additionally, we are completely open to the possibility of serving with 6:8 here is the U.S.

Next up is the question of “what to do with the support we’ve already raised?”  Bonnie and I would like to use this money to fund our trips in Marchand August with the excess being distributed at the discretion of 6:8 (to build houses, feed the homeless, send kids to school, etc).  As for the automatic monthly payments, we will be cancelling those asap.

If you would like a refund of your contribution, simply let us know and we can have that arranged.

That said, we are so grateful for each of you who have supported us in this journey.  We have truly been heart broken by this decision but we have full confidence that God has an even bigger plan in store for us.  As of now, we are preparing to live here in St. Peterburg, FL indefinitely.

God Always Provides,
Omar & Bonnie Bravo

Here is the latest…  Since making the decision not to move to Costa Rica (on 12/30/2009), God has continued to open doors and provide as He always has.

First off, He provides a sweet little 1940’s two bedroom house in a great little neighborhood, complete with a hardwood floors, coffered ceilings, a really cool screened-in front porch, and a fenced in backyard for the dog.  And Bonnie is able to use the second bedroom as a studio (an answer to prayer).  Not only is the place wonderful, it’s cheap too!  One bedroom garage apartments in this neighborhood run for about $900.00 / month, but we were able to get this house for only $850 / month!  Talk about a blessing.

After searching for a job for a little over ten days, I had made it to final round interviews for three seperate positions:  1) as a Community Organizer  2) as an Administrator (COO) of a local non-profit and 3) as a Web Design Instructor at the local technical school.  By January 20th, I had received two verbal offers, to which extent I cancelled my final round interviews for the Community Organizer position.

That said, I am doing my best to accept both the Web Design Instructor position and the Non-Profit Administrator position.  I actually started working with PTEC (Pinellas Technical Education Center) this past Wednesday on a part time schedule (hourly - max of 28 hours / week).  The Administrator position is a full-time position (salary - 32 hours / week with Fridays off), but they are ok with me trying to pull off both gigs initially.  Though the instuctor position is cool and it has allowed me to get through the door of the Pinellas County School Board, my priority is with the non-profit.  Not only is it a COO position (with a transition plan to CEO), but it is an amazing program that I have no problem selling my soul to.  Plus, they’ll pay for me to go to USF (Univ. of South Florida) to take weekend courses and get a certificate in Non-Profit Management!

The name of the non-profit is Resurrection House and it is a very well established organization here in St. Petersburg.  Established in 1987, the program is a community, faith-based, transitional housing and self-sufficiency program for motivated families with minor children who are homeless or at risk of being homeless.  And because they take absolutely no government funding, there isn’t all the red tape to deal with and you can actually be effective!  At this point, this position isn’t a done deal, yet.  As there was no job posting (the CEO approached me directly), no other applicants and I’ve received a verbal offer, I’m thinking I have a good chance, but I don’t want to jinx it.  They are still waiting for the results of my background check.  :)  Hopefully, by the end of next week I will have a written offer.

You can learn more about Resurrection House here:  http://www.floridaresurrectionhouse.com/

Bonnie has put in a couple of applications for teaching positions that start in the Spring, but hasn’t had any hits yet.  We’re thinking since God gave her a home studio, she’s probably just supposed to focus on making pots.

With that, I want to thank you all for your continued prayers.  They mean more to us than we could ever express!

Love you all and can’t wait for you guys to visit!

God Always Provides,
Omar

PS.  As if that wasn’t enough, I got my cat LoJack back!!!  One big happy family.

This past week, we received the email below from 6:8 Ministries, effectively canceling my team’s upcoming mission trip to Guatemala due to the increase in safety risks.  As much I hate when God closes doors, I believe now as I always do that His plan is greater than ours.  The toughest thing for me to deal with is that our team has been working hard to prepare themselves spiritually, emotionally, mentally, and physically for this trip.  They are totally bummed.

The icing on the cake is that our plane tickets have already been purchase (through American Airlines) and there is a $150.00 cancellation fee.  As we have 12 people in our group, that comes out $1,800.00 worth of fundraising dollars down the drain.  I’m going to appeal to American Airlines to see if they might have some mercy on us since we’re a group of Missionaries.

Here is the 6:8 announcement:

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We need to inform you that 6:8 Ministries will no longer host mission teams in Guatemala. Last week the 6:8 Ministries board of directors made a decision to terminate operations in Guatemala. This decision was made primarily over concern for the safety and security we are able to provide to the short-term mission teams we host.

The fact is that Guatemala is significantly more dangerous than Costa Rica. Continuing to host mission teams in Guatemala creates an unnecessary risk, a risk we were not willing to take. We believe that we can better accomplish our mission through an increased focus on Costa Rica.
We believe that Guatemala is dangerous and have reason to think that it will only become more dangerous. While, we understand that we can never guarantee complete safety for our teams, the increasing level of violent crime, corruption, and organization of gang activity makes Guatemala especially dangerous.

While, we have not experienced any serious security issues, some of the local Guatemalan people we work with have. One of the families we are associated with have been forced into paying off death threats on their children. Since our arrival we were made aware of organized vigilantism within the proximity of our team house. These men are the Guatemalan equivalent of a”neighborhood watch”. This group of men are heavily armed, and wear trench coats and ski masks. They patrol the streets in efforts to keep out dangerous gangs.

Our staff on the ground, Amy Mikul has been communicating “feeling unsafe”. Amy has been coming to Guatemala for the past five years and has a good understanding of the area. She has informed us that she believes that the crime is getting worse, to the point she now feels unsafe to live alone. All of this, combined with reports in the media, have led us to believe Guatemala is no longer a right fit for 6:8 Ministries. To give you a further idea of why we feel this way, I’ve included links to a few articles written by various sources over the past few days:

One final note. This decision was not made in conjunction with deepStream Ministries. Neither the Johnson nor the Schmidt families were consulted or brought into the decision process. While, we believe that it’s too dangerous for 6:8 Ministries to host short-term mission teams, we don’t feel that it is too dangerous for hardened missionary families called to serve in Guatemala. These missionaries know what to look for and how to avoid dangerous situations. We applaud these families for stepping out in faith to follow what they believe to be God’s call on their lives.
While we are disappointed, we are not discouraged. We will continue to focus on Costa Rica and everything God is doing through 6:8 Ministries.
Please feel free to contact Spencer with any questions you may have regarding this decision.

In Christ,

Spencer Boulter
Executive Director - 6:8 Ministries
Spencer@6:8 Ministries.com
(904)342-6286

After having our International, Non-Profit, Humanitarian Mission Trip to Guatemala canceled by our host missions organization due to major safety concerns (i.e. recent kidnapping / death threats related to the organization), we started calling American Airlines in hopes of minimizing our losses on our canceled tickets… ($1,800.00 in fees and penalties - Keep in mind this money came from donations and fundraisers.)

First off, American Airlines is very clear about their cancelation policy of $150.00 and I know that American Airlines doesn’t “OWE” us anything.  That said, because of the nature of my team’s situation, I figured I would give AA an opportunity to go “above and beyond the call of duty” and do right by a non-profit organization and help us out.    Thus, we gave them a call…

During our three calls with International Reservations Supervisors at American Airlines, we explained that our trip had been canceled due to safety issues in Guatemala, we explained that we were missionaries, that the finances for these tickets came from fundraisers and donations, and that we were going to Guatemala to build a house for a poor family in mountains above Guatemala city.

They weren’t impressed.

Thus, we made the business case to them…  We stated that they could sell these tickets for a higher fare as these tickets were on heavily booked flights and that we were trying to cancel asap in order to give them more time to resell these tickets.  Additionally, they would gain our loyalty and future business by helping us out.

They were still unimpressed.

When I asked them what motivation a customer had to cancel early as opposed to wait until the last minute, the International Reservations Supervisor told me that “they didn’t care”.  He actually said “if we can’t sell the seats, we will just take on more cargo, it’s not a loss for us.”

A different  International Reservations Supervisor suggested that we should go ask 6:8 Ministries to cover the fees…  (Seriously?!?!  ”Don’t ask the BILLION DOLLAR Corporation to help you out!!!  That’s not what we do!!  Instead, you should ask the non-profit, humanitarian, missions organization!!!!)

As if saying “no, we can’t help you” wasn’t bad enough, two of the three Supervisors we spoke with were terribly rude and completely unprofessional. The one Supervisor who was nice was also the one who suggested we ask the mission org to cover our fees. (nice / incompetent)

After having flown with American Airlines faithfully for over 20 years, I was completely disappointed with their unwillingness to help us out.  Especially since we weren’t asking for a refund, but simply a voucher (without penalties) for future travel (we have another house-building trip scheduled for Costa Rica in August with our Youth Group).

Thus, I sent the following email to the CEO of American Airlines:
==================================================

Dear Mr. Arpey,

I am a Mission Team Leader for 6:8 Ministries, Inc. and I want to share a very, very negative experience in hopes that American Airlines might save a future relationship with my nonprofit organization, our business and community supporters, and the 12 passengers included in these two reservation records.

Our organization has had to cancel a mission trip to Guatemala because the risks of violence have recently escalated and we can no longer assure these volunteers’ safety.

While I acknowledge AA has no obligation in this matter, we believed in your “FlightPlan 2020” that was recently published and the tenet to earn customers’ loyalty. Unfortunately, we’ve had to deal with three reservation supervisors who obviously don’t support your plan and instead prefer to belittle us.

In this matter, we believe our request for voucher refunds without penalties was consistent with your plan’s two important tenets, to earn customers’ loyalty and to fly profitably. Our request enabled AA to retain the revenue already collected, enabled AA to reap additional revenue from the resale of our 12 tickets on already heavily booked flights, and gave AA the opportunity to show they understand the financial hardships volunteers endure to help nonprofits. But instead, your three supervisors advised us that AA is not interested in our proposal because seat spoilage is not a concern to your airline, since you can replace any lost passenger revenue with additional cargo revenue. I find this very hard to believe, based on the constant policy changes your carrier makes to limit seat spoilage.

The three conversations thus far can be characterized as nasty, short, uncaring and nothing like my past experiences with AA. In my previous Distribution Business Management role with Texas Instruments, I had the opportunity to work with many fine AA Sales and Marketing representatives and I find it very hard to believe this is how you now want AA portrayed.

This matter was also escalated to your Group and Meeting Travel manager for his review, but he responded that the appropriate procedural steps have been taken and unfortunately AA is unable to make any exceptions. I hope you’ll disagree with his decision.

In closing, if you think we can turn this situation around to put AA back in a positive light, I hope one of your representatives will contact me in a timely manner. I think you’ll agree, these passengers and our business and community supporters include some of the most attractive marketing segments and shouldn’t be disparaged, but instead should be courted.

Sincerely,

Omar Jesus Bravo
6:8 Ministries

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To date, I have received no response.

To anyone who is still monitoring this blog, I am now making all of my new posts at www.RealMenDefined.com

This is a new site that God has called me to create.  Not sure what it will turn into…  Make sure to become a fan on Facebook and share with your friends!

Godspeed,
Omar