Tico Tuesday, June 29th

Wow, last Tuesday feels like it was a month ago! The group from First Baptist Batesville, Mississippi has come and gone. We went to Isla Venado and came back and a whole lot of other stuff happened in between! The team from MS was fantastic. I was so blessed by them! The medical clinic we had was a huge success. We had about 310 patients and we took care of every one. And each of them was presented the gospel and given the opportunity to accept Christ as their Savior and Lord. It was great! I was with the nurses most of the time and boy did a lot of puffy eyed people come in! Thanks be to God for blessing this trip! More stories and details on the blog.... Now it's time to gear up for the trip to México de Upala in the end of July!

Thanks for your continued prayers,

Carrie

What a wild week! Last Wednesday I greeted some of the team members from MS in the airport. Unfortunately the last couple to arrive got stuck in Mexico and couldn't make it till the next night. God had a good reason for us not leaving for Isla Venado on Thursday!

Thursday morning we shopped and bought more supplies and food, had lunch in San José and VERY briefly showed them the Teatro Nacional. I had fun playing tour guide. In the evening we had a reception for the team and everyone from CCI who was going with us came too. Ok, well, not everyone could make it, but everyone who could did. That was nice too. The icky part was afterwards. We ended up having to change our microbus to the island. It was after 9pm and I was tired. The important detail of air-conditioning had slipped through my grasp, and I with my New England temperature sensitivity had not considered air to be a vital necessity like my dear Southern friends. So, thankfully God provided us with another microbus that had air and could pick us up 8 hours after we contracted it.

Friday we traveled to the island. I had a fascinating shopping adventure- buying food for some 30 people for the weekend. Someone had helped me estimate some quantities, but I was totally guessing when it came to a lot of things! And then I got to the cash register... and I hadn't brought my debit card from the States! I only had my debit card from the bank account here that I never have much money in... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!! Well, thankfully the people that were taking me from the grocery store to the ferry were able to help me cover the bill (later I charged everyone so I'd be reimbursed and I reimbursed them too). But oh was it close! And we ALMOST missed the 10am ferry! They were holding it for us and if we had arrived any later they would have had to leave without us and we would have had to wait until 2:30pm. That would not have been cool. But God took care of us. Us holding up the ferry also worked out well, because another one of our team members had his car door shut with his keys inside. So he was able to get his keys out before we left.

This time the tide was high when we met the boats to take us to the island, so we didn't have to lug everything through the mud. And that's really good. One of the gringos, who I adopted as Grampa Ed, needs a knee replacement so any kind of uneven footing is difficult for him. (This first picture is of Myra, their team leader and Bob, who leads their devotionals. They are both pharmacists)

We got there and enjoyed the delicious lunch of beans, rice and freshly caught and fried fish that was waiting for us. Then we got to work. Getting things going was a bit chaotic. The gringos just kind of launched and the ticos were left totally confused and not knowing what to do, so we gathered everybody round and got us all of the same page. The gringos have been doing medical mission trips for some 20 years, so they are really good at getting to a spot and figuring things out and getting right to work. We learned a lot from them! (Check out the sweet portable dental chairs we got for the amazing price of about $150!!)

We saw some 60 patients that afternoon. I was with the nurses, helping with translation, but I did some floating too to check on how everyone was doing. That evening we had a brief meeting to share and talk about how we could improve for the next day. The gringos camped out in the church sanctuary and the rest of us headed to Pastor Eladio's house (over a km, probably more like a mile away) in the pouring rain. None of us had umbrellas, rain jackets, ponchos or anything with us. We all got drenched, totally soaked to the bone. But, that was actually ok, because there was a problem with a water tube on the island and there hadn't been running water all afternoon. So, it was sort of like taking a shower...

I slept horribly that night-people were talking while I was trying to sleep, and if you think that rooster just crow at sunrise, let me tell you that is a BLATANT LIE!! They crowed all night, bugs were crawling on me, and I think I was still so wound up from everything my mind wouldn't let me sleep either. 5am came all too quickly.

Saturday was yet another long, tiring day, but God brought me through. We saw over 200 patients, I helped again with the nurses, but also covered for a some people while they ate and brought other people water, Coke, granola bars, etc to keep them going.

In the evening we paused the clinic to have an outreach event. We showed a movie called “Hope” that goes through the Bible up through Jesus' life, crucifixion and resurrection. Afterwards the activity didn't go quite as I'd planned, but it worked out fine. We wrapped it up and then gave out hot dogs to everyone. The people on the island live off of fishing, so seeing any other kind of meat is a real treat.

Thankfully it didn't rain that night, so once we walked home taking a shower felt really good. It had been a hot, long day. I took a Benadryl to help me sleep. I'm not sure if it actually helped me or not. Falling asleep was easier because there was much less noise. But I was awakened early in the morning. This time it was the howler monkeys. At least they didn't wake me up too too early.

Sunday we had a team devotional and then a chain prayer-we had everyone pray for the person on their right. Well, you IVers remember Korean prayer? Well, I think I've mentioned it before, but Costa Ricans often pray that way too. We all started praying for the person on our right at the same time. Our way was much more time efficient, but after a couple people we picked up on the idea that it was one person at a time. Yes, I just said “we.” That was really interesting. I find myself identifying more with people and life and culture here. It's always so weird when gringos come. Because I feel like I get them pretty well, but they don't get life here very well. I try to help them with that, but you can see how that leads to me identifying more with people here through that. On the way to the ferry Friday I was riding in the microbus with the gringos again playing tour guide and explaining about coffee and all sorts of things and I found myself saying “we” and “us” as I talked about life, culture and history of Costa Rica. Interesting... I know I'm still a real gringa though. I'll be celebrating Independence day this Sunday! But more importantly... I'm a beloved daughter of the King! That is my real identity! Oh and that reminds me of some other interesting conversations. The gringos asked me about how I got to the mission field, my church background, etc. And it was really funny to see how they reacted when I told them I was Anglican. Yes, I am Anglican and I love being Anglican, but really, being a daughter of God and having a relationship with Him is what matters. Denomination slabomination. I know they exist for a reason, but please, let's focus on what unites us rather than what divides us!

So anyway, back to Sunday morning. They church service was 3 hours long instead of the 2 they'd told us, but really it went by pretty quickly. The testimony time was sweet. The congregation sang a “friends forever” song for us and it was all just adorable. Some of the gringos, including a phenomenal guy (one of the dentists whose name is John and happens to have particularly dark skin) sang a spiritual. He is so good animated and passionate about God and bringing Him glory. He was such an inspiration to me! He pastors a church in MS. I'd love to visit it some day! One of the pastors the gringos brought gave the sermon. He talked about seeking first the Kingdom of heaven. It was simple, but good. It don't always get to hear such Biblical sermons. But I will confess, I did sort of almost maybe sleep through part of it. I was so tired!!!

Oh what what a HUGE blessing! These people on Isla Venado are so amazing. The ladies that prepared our meals are so dear and loving and wonderful and with true servant hearts. I went to the kitchen for a drink. And when I entered they opened the fridge and pulled out my water bottle, full of cold water. It floored me. What a simple, but oh-so-powerful gesture of love!

After church we had lunch and left. Trip successful. We all made it home in one piece, though one of the gringos did get a little nauseous on the hilly, curvy road in the dark with lots of stop and go traffic. I can't really blame him.

Monday I was going to accompany them on their tour of Volcán Poás and the La Paz Waterfall Gardens, but I was too tired. I slept until almost 10am and did laundry, etc, knowing I had another busy week coming up as we prepare to go to México de Upala at the end of July!

Last night we had a good-bye dinner. It was sad to say good-bye to all of them. I was really bonding with some people like Grampa Ed (whose face is half cut off in the picture) and John (right behind him). But everyone on the team was so amazing! I really was so blessed by them!

So, that was the trip! Thanks for reading and thanks for praying!