Tico Tuesday, September 28th

One life to live

I know that is/was the title of a soap opera, but it's true. We only have one life to live, and this life is passing, fleeting, a breath, and flower that blooms and fades. On Sunday afternoon Abuelita Ruth went home to be with Jesus. I'll admit, I'm jealous. If we claim to follow Christ and be His, then shouldn't we long to be with Him for eternity? God has definitely been showing me lately that there is nothing better than being with Him. But He has us here for the time being: He has a purpose for us and will be faithful to complete it. We are rejoicing that God fulfilled His purpose in Abuelita and that she is now with Him, but of course we do miss her. I'll post some further stories on things and share how God glorified himself in Abuelita's death on my blog.

O Lord give us the grace to be faithful to You in this life on earth!

Carrie

Abuelita was a quiet woman. It wasn't always easy to converse with her because she didn't often have much to say and sometimes I just didn't know what to say. Towards the end as she weakened trying to get her to talk would often send her into a bout of coughing or she just wouldn't have the strength to speak. So, I never got to know her terribly well. But, there are a lot of things I observed and learned from her. She was very diligent. As long as her health allowed she was always doing something productive. She liked things to be neat. I couldn't leave any dishes dirty in the sink from preparing my food before I ate because by the time I finished she'd wash them. Things had to be orderly. Abuelita was generous and thoughtful. She loved embroidering. She sewed and crocheted and sewed and embroidered and embroidered and embroidered I don't know how many placemats, hankies, tea towels and other random rectangles of material. One of her last big projects was making a dust coverlet thingy (that you put under the mattress that hangs down to the floor) for one of her granddaughters. She loved bright, vivid colors and almost everything was flowers and butterflies. But what I most loved, appreciated and admired about Abuelita was that she was a woman of prayer. She kept notebooks full of prayer requests. She would flip through her current one every day, running her finger down the list and moving her lips almost silently, praying. She watched CNN all the time and took note of what to pray for in the news. She prayed for so many things and people. And when someone came to visit she'd ask about a whole bunch of things she prayed for for that person-the salvation of a loved one, their business, somebody's health, etc. Talk about an incredible memory! Abuelita also read the Bible a lot and memorized passage after passage. Don't ever let your age stop you from memorizing! Even in the last few months and weeks of her life Abuelita was still memorizing the Word of God. Wow, may God give me the grace to follow her example!

A few weeks ago my friend Ana Luisa told me her Grandma wanted to visit Abuelita. Finally she was able to come on Sunday afternoon. She was reading Revelation 21 with Abuelita Ruth and felt obliged to kneel. They both acknowledged feeling God's presence very strongly and said she saw Jesus coming to take her away. The family was called into her room (or I think maybe they heard what was going on and went to see) and about a half hour later Abuelita passed away in the arms of her son and daughter. Her other son Henoc tried as hard as he could to come from Colombia but was not able to make it. But, thanks to Skype they were able to see each other and he was able to sing her favorite hymn “ Great is Thy Faithfulness” to her and pray with her. After that she went downhill really fast.

I was SO glad Tía was not home alone when this happened. It was too bad I wasn't there, but I'm not much for wanting to be with or hang around dead people. And I think it's much more important that her immediate family be with her. What a blessing Jorge and Esther hadn't left yet to go back to Guápiles where don Jorge works! I was on the ferry on the way home from Isla Venado (a story for anther post) when Ana told me. I cut it close, but thankfully I was able to catch the last bus back to San José. By the time I got to San Joaquín at about 9pm they were already having the calling hours. Yesterday morning we had a mostly impromptu mini-service that was very nice and then we had the burial. I haven't been to many burials, but I'm pretty sure this was the first one where they actually buried her and were done covering her body back up by the time we left the site. That was a little rough for me, but I know that there's only a body that doesn't work anymore inside the casket under the ground. Abuelita is really alive with the Lord, now, more alive than she ever was here on earth!

So, that was that. Very quick, all of it. But, it was all sweet and simple. Sunday night during the calling hours we sang some hymns and I read Psalms 34 and 103 aloud. Monday morning a whole bunch of don Jorge's coworkers drove all the way up from Guápiles to be there, and they were really touched at the way everything was done, Tia's singing, and don Rolando's words. The wife of don Jorge's boss approached Tía in the cemetery and thank her for returning their family to the faith. God was being glorified and drawing people to Himself, even through Abuelita's death! As Paul says in Philippians, “For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain,” and we even managed to gain something here too! God's ways are indeed perfect and so much higher and better than ours!!

Oh and another really sweet thing was a comment Samuel made to me. At the close of the little service, don Rolando had the whole Viera family come together and then he blessed them, then he blessed everyone else. Well, later at the cemetery Samu commented to me, “you weren't there when he blessed us.” He really considers me part of the family!! That was really special to me.

This sounds weird, but one of the saddest things for me about Abuelita's passing is that it means Tía is going to leave. She's not gone yet, she's going to stick around a little long, then visit Honduras and then go home. But, having her around has been an absolutely enormous blessing and I am going to miss her A LOT!!! Thank God for Skype!!

Tico Tuesday, September 21st

Happy Tuesday!

This is my tica mom, Ana Victoria. Normally one's “mamatica” is one's host mom, but I don't keep in touch with my former host parents anymore and I live with a Honduran family and this lady is by far the tica who is most motherly to me. She is a very kind, loving, caring, selfless person. She and I have spent a lot of time together and thus have a strong foundation in our friendship. Mami and I often share prayer requests with one another and it means a lot to us that we can confide in one another. She still can never come close to my REAL Mommy, but she is an enormous blessing to me here. We like to splurge once a month and share a big piece of yummy chocolate cake from the restaurant next door to church. I'll have to post a picture of that later this week!

God bless our moms and mother-figured in our lives! As says one of my favorite quotes from the movie Hook, “You need a mommy, very very badly!!”

Carrie

PS. Don't forget to head to my blog for more stories and thoughts!

PPS. My Mom race a race this past weekend with my brother and she WON her category!!! Way to go, Mommy!!!

Last Wednesday was Independence day here and in the rest of Central America. We had a wonderful day off and enjoyed watching the parade go through town, eating helado de sorbetera (a kind of homemade ice cream), and just hanging out. Pictures are on facebook, and will be tagged and commented upon soon. I spent most of the day with Mami (Ana Victoria), Papi (her husband William), their daughters Diana and Veronica, Albeiro and Jorgito. We had a blast! I'd write more but I've come down with a cold and am really tired.

So, perhaps more later.

The other thing I'd like to share though is something that my cousin Christianne shared with me yesterday when we skyped. You know how we talk about our problems and tend to categorize them and say that some are really big and important and some are pretty small and insignificant?

In the sermon she heard Sunday night the pastor explained that to God even mountains, and mountain-sized problems, are TINY to God because everything is tiny to Him!! He is HUGE, the Master and Creator of the Universe and everything!!! To Him everything is little! But, to Him EVERYTHING is significant! Our “little” problems matter just as much to him as our “ginormous” ones!!! How cool is that? WE matter to God! He loves us far more than we could ever imagine and He cares even about the littles details in our lives! How great is that? How great is our GOD!!!

Tico Tuesday, September 14th

There's nothing like playing in the dirt!

Saturday the members of Soporte, the young adult group from CCI and a couple other people got together with the town municipality and planted some 70 trees and picked up a ton of trash! One of the Soporte leaders has been talking for forever about picking up trash in the community and we finally did it! I thought planting the trees would take all day, but the town had the holes dug and the trees next to them, so all we had to do was take the plastic wrapper off the roots, stick the tree in the hole and cover it back up again. The afternoon rains took care of the watering! We weren't on a very busy street, but I still had a passerby stop and ask me who was participating in the marvelous initiative. I think next time we're going to try to get t-shirts to identify us. The other side of the street is still very littered!

More news and stories on the blog!

Thanks be to God who takes care of us, His little trees (Jer 17:7-8) and cleans out all the trash in our hearts!

Carrie

Along with the tree planting and trash-picking this weekend I got to enjoy some excellent tennis, knowing that I was watching it with Mommy (or at least knowing she was wishing she could watch too). And Sunday Vivi, her brother Oscar, Albeiro (their cousin) and a couple other people and I went to Ojo de Agua, a place I hadn't been to since I was a student here 3.5 years ago now! Once we got there I remembered why I hadn't bothered to return... jajaja! No, it's not that bad. The water is a little warmer than the ocean in Maine in August, but still definitely not for the faint of heart. The place has just been around a while and so it looks kind of run down, the sidewalk around the lake is like all the other sidewalks in the country (cracked and uneven), people weren't there to man the boat rentals, etc. But, it was still fun to play in the water a little bit before I got too cold and it started to rain.

People here tend to be really proud of Ojo de Agua (literally means eye of water). It is basically a natural spring, so the water is really clean and the water in the pools supposedly renews itself like 12x a day or something like that. My suit still smelled slightly chlorinated when I got home though. So, if you come visit me and want to swim in a pool, I'll probably take you somewhere else...

Thinking about Jesus

Just thought I'd share some things I've been reading and learning about.

1. Jesus' ancestors

• First of all, he was born of the Virgin Mary, who was pledged to be married to Joseph. Hence, to the world it appeared that Jesus was an "illegitimate" child. Most of us are reminded of this every Christmas.
• Joseph and Mary can both trace their families back to Zerubbabel, a guy that played a pretty neat role in the post-exile time of rebuilding things on Jerusalem.
• Zerubbabel along with other important not as well-known ancestors of Jesus like Boaz, came from the tribe of Judah. Hence Jesus is the Lion of Judah and Micah 5:2 talks about the Messiah coming from th tribe of Judah
• Boaz was the Great-grandpa (or perhaps with a few more greats in front) of the famous King and Psalmist David. He was also the husband of the Moabitess, Ruth. Wait, Jesus didn't come from a pure Israelite family? Nope.
• How's this for scandal? Judah married the daughter of a Canaanite. Their 2 oldest sons died and to make a long story short Judah ended up sleeping with his daughter-in-law (the Bible doesn't specify if she was Canaanite or not, but I think I would lean towards thinking that she was). And actually at the end of the book of Ruth everyone wished for the descendants of Ruth and Boaz to be like those of Judah and Tamar. Pretty crazy, huh?

2. Jesus as a "Man of sorrows"
I'm not a big fan of those stories and people that say that Jesus was in love with so and so and make up all these things about His life that have ridiculously little to no Biblical grounds. There is a lot we don't know about Jesus' life, but I think sometimes we ignore those things that we do know. Isaiah says Jesus was familiar with suffering. So often I think we sugar coat Him and make Him to be this walking, clean little saint who had an easy life. I don't think that's the case. Yes, He was perfect. But I wonder how many people really took Jesus seriously. I wonder what all happened in His life to make Him a "Man of sorrows." Maybe His earthly grandparents died when He was young. He was "despised and rejected by men." There no way that could have been an easy life! Yet He was perfect... I guess He can identify with more of the struggles in our lives than maybe I realize....

Tico Tuesday, September 7th

Being a missionary is not a job title, it's a lifestyle.

Maybe you've heard me say this before, maybe not. But I firmly believe this with all my heart. It is my challenge and encouragement to myself and to you today. One thing in the Perspectives class that really stuck out to me was an article that talked about the “spiritual-vocational hierarchy.” Maybe I even mentioned this in a Chronicle, now that I think about it. But anyway, the article points out how so many of us think that being a missionary, pastor, doctor, or some kind of service professional is more noble and God-honoring than it is to be an engineer, computer guru, or janitor. That is absolute rubbish! God looks at our heart and wants to be honored in all we say and do! Technically I'm here because God called me here to serve at CCI, and I know He has been using me here, but I'm also positive that He has been using me in everyday life here too. There's nothing wrong with being a missionary vocationally, but that doesn't put everyone else off the hook! Let's make ourselves available to God and see how He wants to use us today!

The story behind the picture and other thoughts can be found on my blog! I dare you to read an entry if you never have before!

Your fellow servant for Christ,

Carrie

Saturday was my friend Diana's birthday. We decided to make pancakes at her house for a birthday breakfast. Diana, nor anyone else in her family (which is also my 2^nd family here), had never had chocolate chip pancakes! So, it was fun witnessing the experience. Felipe was amazed at the chocolatey goodness and was just thrilled to bits. My little Verónica ate out all the chocolate chips and consumed very little of her pancakes. Mami (Ana Victoria) and Papi (William) enjoyed them thoroughly too (especially with the New Hampshire maple syrup I gave to Mami). So, that was really fun.

God gave me several other opportunities this weekend to share with friends. I feel like I'm finally establishing a strong enough relationship with some of my friends here that we can confide in each other more. I felt really honored to have one of my girlfriends here tell me that she wanted me to know about something that's going on in her life.

Please keep praying for the youth of CCI. A lot of them are having struggles with family, work, relationships/friendships, and school. May this drive them closer to God and not farther from Him! He is our only hope!

And a slight change of subject.... the sermon at church on Sunday night was REALLY good!! Fernando Montero gave it. He is an elder of the Sunday morning service and General Secretary of ECU, the equivalent of InterVarsity here in Costa Rica. He preached on the Sermon on the Mount, with a lot of his notes taken from a book that John Stott wrote about the Sermon on the Mount. It was great!! He talked about the Beatitudes being like a staircase with each one progressing to the next. I felt like I had never really understood what it meant to be “poor in spirit,” but the way he put it made so much sense! It is a recognition of our sinful condition and need to turn to God. This leads to mourning-lamenting our sinful condition and repenting, which allows us to be humble and accept it when others point our sin out to us. This then leads us to have hunger and thirst for righteousness, etc, etc, etc. It was wonderful! I have heard him preach I think 3x now, and each time he does a great job expositing the Scriptures. I took notes and shared them with Tía and Abuelita yesterday morning. After I finished, Abuelita said that reminded her of such a such a hymn, I think it was “At the Cross/Alas! And did my Savior Bleed.” So, I went and grabbed my hymnal and plunked through it on the piano (I can read music but I don't really know how to play chords and such). Tía LOVES to sing and Abuelita loves to listen, so we had a little bit of music and and that was our Monday morning church service. It was really sweet and I could tell Tía was really touched. She'd had a bit of a difficult morning up till then. And Abuelita was feeling a little better too. She sat up for a little while afterwards, reading/praying through her notebook full of notes/prayer requests. So, that was a special time. Please keep praying for Abuelita and the rest of the family as she continues to get worse. We called emergencies in the middle of the night last night because Abuelita (felt like she) couldn't breathe. She has been significantly weaker and we know her time is coming close (but not how close).

Thanks for reading and thanks even more for praying!