Tico Tuesday, April 28th

I thought you might want to know who this Rolando guy I talk about is. He is the senior pastor of my church here and the man who invited me to come back to serve here in Costa Rica. This picture is of him and his wife Yoli. (Sorry they're not looking at the camera.) They're so dressed down because we took a day to get away from the office on Thursday. The church office staff never had its Christmas party, so we went to a park/country club sort of place (which is in the mountains, so it is cooler-hence everyone froze while I was finally comfortable), had a couple brief meetings and played the rest of the day. It was really good to have time to socialize and be with everyone I work in another context other than something at church. To find out the ulterior motive for getting us out of the office (and what we came back to on Friday!), you'll have to go to my blog.
CONGRATULATIONS on making it to my blog!! I thought a little bait might help. Well, here you go. The remodeling at church continues and I don't know what they did on Thursday, but take a look at what we got.
POLVO! Dust and powder are the same word in Spanish and the perfect description of this atrociousness that pervaded the ENTIRE building!!!! I have never been more grateful to God for vacuum cleaners!!!

Another Busy Week in Costa

It's hard to believe I've only been here for a month. It feels like I've been here so much longer. Everything in the States seems so long ago, so far away. I'm pretty much settled into a routine here (YAAY routine!) and am continuing to learn and get to know life and people here.
Monday I had lunch with 2 other ladies from the LAM. One of them (Emilia) will do a little mentor program sort of thing with me that will hopefully help me as I continue to adjust to being here. The other (Sheila) is a really sweet lady that was at my LAM orientation last June. Yikes! I can't believe that was almost a year ago! My perception of time is so warped! Anyway, she made some DE-licious food. My favorite was the fresh pineapple, natilla (like runny sour cream), raisin, pecan, coconut salad. YUM!!
Sheila and her husband have a beautiful house-with a picture of the TETONS!!! One of their friends took a picture from the Chapel of Transfiguration and gave it to them. You might not know where that is. It's ok, Sheila didn't either. But I know EXACTLY where it is and have even been there. It is gorgeous!
Anyway, we had a really nice visit together. Emilia and I met up in Heredia centro and she gave me a ride to San Jose. We stopped at the language school first (Where Sheila and her husband work and where all the LAM missionaries who need to learn Spanish go) to see if Sheila was still there. Emilia gave me a little tour. I hadn't seen so many gringos since I was in Miami! Then we had our nice lunch and some really good conversation about what God has been doing in our lives. I'm looking forward to seeing Emilia and Sheila again in the future!
Wednesday night Ana, Josue and I went to see Samuel play in an orchestra concert. He is a really good cellist. (cello-ist? makes me think of jell-o) Anyway, Claudia and Rolando came too so it was nice to see them. Their siblings were very happy to see them too.
The concert was in the Teatro Nacional, which is based on the Paris opera house, but the scale is 4:1 in favor of Paris. It is a pretty intimate setting, but it is beautiful. The orchestra played a Brandenburg concerto (not the one from CivArts, but it was still great and had me thinking of Dr. Munson, tutti and key changes), a violin duet (that a guy and his grandson did together), and a symphony that a Costa Rican wrote. It was great. Made for a long day, but was definitely worth it.
So, there are most of the highlights for the week. Stay tuned for more!

Tico Tuesday, April 21st

Hello! It's Tuesday! Here is a fun cultural treat and play on words for you!
Taxis are a very common means of public transportation here in Costa Rica. You can easily tell what cars are taxis because they are all red (every shade, size, make and model), they have a yellow triangle on the side that says the name (or abbreviation) of the province to which they pertain and the number of the taxi. The license plate is in red writing (personal vehicles get blue) and it says TH (for Taxi de Heredia, my province) and then the taxi number. Most also have the little taxi light thingy on top of the car. If you ride in a taxi like that, you are insured. But, if you ride in a taxi pirata (one that doesn't have any of the features described above), you're on your own, so it's strongly discouraged. Check out the great joke a couple kids make on taxi pirata at the youth group costume night on Friday!

¡Noche de disfraces! (Costume Night!)

Last night was a good ending to a long, tiring week. I won't go into why it was so long and tiring. I've just been struggling a little more to adjusting to life and work here. I've now been here 4 weeks (and 2 days), and I think the honeymoon period really has come to an end. I'm learning more about my expectations (I think I've been trying to expect too much of myself) and what is expected of me. So, it's been good. But as you probably know, we tend to grow and learn more through the harder things. Don't go away-there are pictures below!
Huellas (the leadership development/Bible Study class that I'm in) was really good on Tuesday night and tied in perfectly with all me recent thoughts about home. We talked about Abraham and how he obeyed God in faith-and then Rolando (my pastor-who teaches the class) pointed out that pretty much every time Israel got settled, God put it on the move again what with slavery and exile, etc. God's people have to trust Him and walk by faith, following Him wherever He leads, whenever He leads. What a blessing it is to know that not only am I not the only one who feels like a vagabond, but I am supposed to be a vagabond and I am part of a long history or vagabonds!!
So, last night was la noche de disfraces (costume night) for all the youth at church and it was SO much fun! I had a hard time figuring what to be-my resources here are pretty limited, but it is good to be living in a house with other young people, all of which are very creative. My costume ended up being my own idea though-a cowgirl! I knew it would be very fitting for me. A lot of people thought I was from Texas, but I told them I was a cowgirl from Wyoming. :-) Josué provided me with the shirt and vest, and Ana lent me the hat and boots. It was a great success and I was even in the running for the "who got the most claps and cheers for their costume" contest. They liked my bo-legged walking.
The first picture is me with Ana, my Honduran sister. She was a beauty queen of sorts. Too bad you can{t see more of her dress. it was a beautiful dark red. She made a sash that said "Miss Nobody" and the back part of it read "because nobody is perfect." It was great!
This next picture is of Josué (Ana's brother). He was Paul after he got stoned. Pretty drastic, huh? He had been growing his beard out just for this! He was in the running for the "best reason for choosing this costume" contest. He was Paul after he was stoned because Paul didn't give up during his trials and he even went and preached to the people who stoned him
The last one is Samuel, Ana's youngest brother. He was a mad scientist. There is a gauze wrapped "hand" with a syringe sticking out of it on the little platter he is holding. He came in second in the "who got the most claps and cheers for their costume" contest.
So, there was highlight of my week! Wish you could have been there too!

Tico Tuesday, April 14th

Happy Tuesday!
This week's picture was taken on the plaza of my town, San Joaquin. (You may remember last week when I mentioned the mascarada taking place on the town plaza -the center of town that is basically a grassy field/park across the street from the Catholic church). They re-enact the crucifixion there every year. I'm still not sure if it's more a town event than a "church" event, though I'm not sure I can really make that distinction since Catholicism is so much a part of the culture here. Pretty impressive, huh?
Another brief note about San Joaquin- it is especially well known for its processions that take place throughout Holy Week to commemorate various people and events. (Many towns and cities have processions, San Joaquin's just tend to be more impressive.)

Here and Home

Here
It hit me. It FINALLY hit me! I'm here-IN Costa Rica! I'm here! I'm living here. I'm really HERE! I know, it sounds like I'm having a major blonde moment or sudden recovery from temporary amnesia, but let me explain. I looked forward to coming back to Costa Rica for almost 2 years, ever since I finished studying abroad. I know that's not a terribly long time. But, since I had to raise support, I didn't know when exactly I would be able to come back. I had to have all my support pledged before I could do so. So, Costa Rica became this kind of "in the future....someday" kind of thing. I tried to think about what I would actually be like when I was able to go and I imagined lots of squealing and jumping that would last up until I landed in Costa Rica and then I would be living in surreality until it hit me.
Well, there was lots of bouncing and squealing involved. But when it came down to it, I felt cool as a cucumber. Maybe I was affected by my extreme sleep deprivation my last night in Grove City. I had expected sleep deprivation, but only out of excitement. The true cause of my sleep deprivation was my own procrastination and slowness in packing. Hence, I was a total zombie when I got to Miami. My time in Miami was fun and then I flew to Costa Rica. No squealing. It felt like the most natural, normal thing in the world. I knew things weren't hitting me, but nothing felt surreal. It just seemed real. I realize this might not be making much sense, but that isn't uncommon for me.
Anyway, I was e-mailing a fellow LAMer the other day (Tuesday, in fact) and I mentioned something about the people I had just been living with in Grove City. And it just hit me. I don't live with them anymore. I'm not going to live with them anymore. I'm in Costa Rica, living with my wonderful Honduran family in little ol' San Joaquín de Flores. I'm here!
Josué, my dear Honduran brother and friend was in the next room, so I shared my great revelation with him. He proposed a toast with milk. I thought that was a SPLENDID idea. So, we toasted to God's goodness and that He brought me here. It was fun and made the moment even more special to me, to have someone rejoice with me. (I think I may have posted before about how much I love people rejoicing with me. If not, now you know. I love it when people rejoice when I rejoice!)

Home
So, where is home? This question have plagued me for years now and I know I've posted about it before. Well, I don't know how this happened but Heaven actually seems more like home than ever before. I've known for a long time that my home is in Heaven, but I never really had a good concept of that fact. There has been a lot of talk around me lately about Philippians 1:21 "For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain." Between a few conversations, a good sermon from Rolando and a couple pointers from the Holy Spirit, I am finally getting to grasp this whole idea of my home not being on this earth. John 17:3 says "Now this is eternal life:that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent." The collect for the Wednesday before Resurrection Sunday (from the 1929 Book of Common Prayer) says "Assist us mercifully with thy help, O Lord our Salvation; that we may enter with joy upon the mediation of those mighty acts, whereby Thou hast given unto us life and immortality; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen" (extra caps and emphasis mine) Immortal. Yes, my body with have a physical death and I'm not looking forward to the pain which might accompany that. But my true home, my real life is in Heaven, being with my precious, holy Jesus. He has a purpose for me here on earth, so may that be fulfilled. I am a vagabond here. I go from one place to another and it's not always easy and I often feel like I don't have a home (like a base). But, what a comfort and joy it is to know my real home is where I get to spend eternity, the presence of my Lord!

Tico Tuesday, April 7th

Holy Tuesday greetings from Costa Rica!
The other week Tito, Joanna, Sebi and I went to Barva, a small town nearby that is famous for its mascaradas. People make these crazy masks-often of a famous person (like an ex-president) or a TV character. They have a parade and the plaza (which is in the center of town in front of the Catholic church ) is full of masks on display, activities for kids (trampolines) and adults (gambling), traditional foods like churros (fried bread sticks) and granizados (shaved ice, ice cream, flavored syrup, and powdered milk), as well as cimarronas (bands with trumpet, drums, trombone, cymbals, tuba, clarinet, and saxophone) and lots of street vendors. It's like a mini fair! A good picture can be found at http://www.panoramio.com/photo/5645611. This picture below is actually of me wearing a mask! We met a mask maker when I was a student here 2 years ago. How is the mask so tall? The head is set on a stool and the bottom feet of the stool are on my shoulders.
Have a blessed Holy Week as we remember the Passion of our Lord!
Carrie

Costa Rica, Week 2

This week I felt like I had a lot more direction that last week. I have a better idea of what I'm going to be doing. It's still going to take a while for things to start coming together, but at least I didn't feel like I was just wasting time sitting around.

One of the goals given me was to strengthen the church's relationship with ECU, the equivalent of InterVarsity in Costa Rica. So, Tuesday I met with a guy who attend my church who is also the general secretary for all of ECU in Costa Rica. We had a great time. I described to him what the Grove City chapter of IV is like and he described to me what ECU is like. ECU actually exists in high schools here as well as in universities, which I think is pretty cool. Campus Crusade for Christ and Navigators and a few other Christian ministries exist in Costa Rica as well, but haven't gotten much beyond the UCR (University of Costa Rica). So, ECU pretty much has the monopoly on student ministries.

We decided that we want to have an activity with the young people from church to tell them about ECU and get them involved in it. YAAY! Something concrete to plan! And this is the cool thing-the youth that get involved in a ministry like ECU are strengthened and get experiences and training that they might not be able to get through their church. So, they grow in their faith, are involved in ministry, and become stronger and more mature spiritually and can thus contribute more back to their church. So, that was really fun and exciting for me.

On a side note, the guy I met with also basically asked me to be a staff worker at the local public university. Gotta love Latin America! Being on staff here is just a volunteer thing and isn't near as intense or demanding as being on staff in the States (God bless you IV staff, I love you!). But, I know it's more than would be wise for me to take on right now. I would like to attend some meetings though and support them as a chapter. I do have a lot of experience that I could and would like to share with them, but I don't want to leap in just yet.

I had another great meeting with someone on Thursday afternoon. This guy basically runs 3 ministries-one for men who feel like they've been burned by the church, a hiking group (yeah hiking!!!), and a kids field day camp thing. It was so beautiful to see this guy's passion to serve the Lord and tell other people about Jesus. He showed me a whole bunch of pictures and everything. It was great! I'm hoping I'll get to help out with one of his kid's days next month.

I'm feeling pretty settled in at the Viera's. It's nice to have a mostly set routine. We're all coming and going all the time, but I have had time and meals with everyone, and it's been really fun. It's so good to be with these people in real life instead of hearing from them over the internet every so many weeks! Last night was really special. I've posted before about the Vieras and their Friday night tradition. Well, it continues. I've been praying for the Vieras every Friday night for about 2 years now, even though I'd only spent 3 Fridays with them. So to be with them last night was so beautiful and special. They're telling people about their new adopted gringa daughter/sister. It's so sweet.

I also feel like I'm getting to know some other people at church better. It's really fun to be with the other ladies who work at church (receptionists/lady who cleans). And there is one family from church that is really sweet and I feel like I'm really connecting with the wife/mom.

So, there's a brief picture of life this week. (jaja! Brief.) This is a good outlet for me to share what's going on. Thanks for reading!

Tico Tuesday, March 31st

Happy Tico Tuesday!

This week's picture is of Claudia Viera (my Honduran sister) and her husband, Rolando. They got married on Saturday, and it was a joy to be there! (It was one of the reasons why I wanted to get to Costa Rica so soon.) I haven't been to a ton of weddings, but this was the most Christ-centered one I've ever been to. It was beautiful!!! (think Civ-Arts, you Grovers) Every part of the ceremony pointed to the union of Claudia and Rolando as representing the union of the Church and Christ, which is what marriage is, according to the Bible. More details on the blog... (further explanations, decorations, music, etc)

Have a blessed rest of the week!

Carrie

The details:

The Vieras cherish Jewish traditions. Not only are they fascinating and historical, but they also shed light and give deeper meaning to many things in the New Testament. So, a lot of aspects of the wedding were in accordance with Jewish tradition. The bulletin explained the traditions of Jewish weddings and how each part of it is fulfilled/in concordance with Christ and the Church being the ultimate groom and bride. It explained the bride price -Jesus paying the price for our sins on the cross, the no-walled tent (think “Fiddler on the Roof”)-the Tabernacle in Heaven that will not segregate worshipers and priests (I hope I remembered that right), and the bride waiting for her husband to come-the church awaiting Jesus' Second Coming. And that part was especially neat because Clau went down the aisle first. In a typical wedding the bride is the last one in because she is all prettified and there are dumb traditions that say the groom shouldn't see the bride until she parades in. But, looking at it from the Biblical perspective, it makes 100 complete and total sense for the Bride to go down the aisle first and await her husband's arrival.

And Claudia didn't just walk down the aisle, she danced! She is a dancer and choreographs a lot of interpretive dance-ish things in church. She also had three little girls with butterfly wings and headbands with springy butterfly on top dance down before/with her. It was gorgeous. Her mom, Doña Ester made her dress, so it was adequate for dancing. Oh, and once she got up front a couple young girls release butterflies and they flitted around everyone the rest of the ceremony.

Jorge, Claudia's Dad then got up and made a few comments about why Claudia came down the aisle first and a few of other other things. He did a great job at pointing out that the Bible is ALL about the redemption of man. Then, Rolando (who sings with the worship team in church frequently) sang as he came down the aisle. I tell you, in some ways this wedding was like a dream.

There was a little homily thing about taking on the characteristics of God, because that is the only was we can love others and have successful relationships. We can't do it on our own. I can only remember 3 out of the 4 characteristics though, love, forgiveness, (the forgotten one) and unchanging. God is unchanging. We clearly change and will continue to do so, but our love shouldn't change (or if it does it should only be for the better).

Claudia and Rolando sang their vows to each other. The end was so beautiful it was a perfect moment for them to kiss and the pastor said he feared for a moment that they would before they were pronounced man and wife. It was really cute. Thankfully they didn't have to wait for long.

After they exchanged the rings and kissed, but before the recession they had the parents come forward and pray for them. That was really special. Then as they walked up the aisle together in the recession we all threw rose petals on them and set off firecrackers and spewed confetti everywhere. What a joyous occasion!

The reception was on the same property, so we just had to walk less than a minute to get there. The reception was fully of more music, including a special piece Josué (Claudia's brother) wrote for her, and people periodically getting up to share abut and bless Claudia and Rolando. The food was simple and delicious. The cake was gorgeous. It was covered in a plain white fondant and had layers spread out over half the table with sunflowers all through it. Sunflowers and butterflies were the main decorative themes. So, the centerpieces had sunflowers in them with little butterflies on sticks in them. My description doesn't do them justice. They were lovely.

And one of the nice things was, they waited to do pictures AFTER the major activities of the reception. It was so nice to not have to wait an hour (or more) for the reception to start! Well, everyone had to wait over an hour for the wedding to start because everything was running late. But, that's ok. I was actually with the Vieras helping however I could, so I didn't have to stress about not getting there on time. It was really nice. I love not stressing!

So, it was a beautiful day. I wish I could do it better justice. Everything was gorgeous and intentional. And it was fun. I got to sit with all the other young people from church. I am getting to know them a little bit better, which is really good. They are wonderful people. So, there you have it. Thank you, Lord for bringing me here in time to be at this wedding!