Breaking My Heart

I remember when I wrote my first Entrance reports at Roblealto. This kid “Winston” was the one of the first to break my heart. He sounded like a brat and the report talked about how disinterested he was in participating in many activities at the childcare center. His family is Jehovah's Witness and not terribly open to the Gospel. When I saw his picture, his face matched the attitudes I had read about.

Later, maybe in December, I read an Entrance report about a family that lives on a street that a bus that I sometimes take to work goes to. That really struck me, and made things seem even more real. These children and families we are serving are REAL!! I realized I could see this mom on the bus some day. I might not know it was her, but knowing that the possibility is real just helps me realize how needy this world is and how blind to it we often are.

Well, lo and behold, one morning last week Fabián and I were on the bus to work and I saw a little boy flag down the bus with his mom. It was really cute. They got on and I recognized the face and saw his name written on his backpack. It was “Winston”!! He had the same pouty face still too, unfortunately. Please join me in praying for him and his family!

I've been thinking about a lot of things lately, and I'm not sure I've processed it all. I love Roblealto. I firmly believe it is the Body of Christ in action. God has blessed this ministry phenomenally. It all started with 8 kids in the Bible Home 79 years ago. Now we take care of over 700 kids, between the Bible Home, the school at the Bible Home, 3 childcare centers, and a program for adolescents who have graduated from the Bible Home or one of our childcare centers. Through this ministry, hundreds if not thousands of people have come to know Christ, families have been restored and broken out of poverty, and 95% of the children who use our services don't need them when they are adults. We are currently planning on re-building a house at the Bible Home, which will allow us to expand our program and serve 10 more children. Other projects include a new childcare center that will serve 250 children, a covered gym at the Bible Home so the kids can have a place to play when it rains (which is really often), a roof to cover part of the outdoor play area in a childcare center and a computer lab at another childcare center, just to name a few. There are SO many needs!! I know my job is important, but I still want to do more. I'm working on it... I'll let you know. Care to join me? What would you like to do?

Tico Tuesday, January 25th

Happy Tuesday to you all once more! So, what's with this graph? Sorry the font is so small, but basically I just want you to see the shape of the graph. This is the general idea of how one feels as one enters and adjusts to living in a new culture. I know, I know, I've been living in Costa Rica for 2 years now. Why am I showing this to you now? Because I'm realizing, I don't have it all figured out. They might call me the most Latina white girl, and I appreciate the compliment, but there are a lot more differences to life in Costa Rica than just greeting people with a kiss on the cheek, eating rice and beans for breakfast and saying "pura vida" anytime you want. I don't think my feelings have exactly gone according to the graph since I did have a good grasp on many things before living here, but I think the graph can be a bit misleading. It's not like you just end up being a perfect bi-cultural person. What you become is a lifelong learner. Being a learner is key to adjusting to a new culture. My eyes have been opened to many things lately. More about that on the blog!!
May we all have the attitude of a learner this week!

Carrie

Costa Rica is a very unique country. Because of it's geographical placement, it contains about 6% of the worlds biodiversity. Because of the coffee industry (and bananas have helped), it has become the most stable country economically and politically in Costa Rica. We are currently having our 5th McDonald's constructed in my province, Heredia (I don't know how many there are in San José). Costa Rica has a very small indigenous population and not a lot of easily workable land. Costa Rica is known as the Switzerland of Latin America.

So anyway, 2 things are tuning me in more to some of the things about Costa Rican life that I was not so aware of before... A loving, direct boyfriend and a tiny book that is actually about US culture. yesterday my supervisor let me a book whose target audience is new immigrants to the US. The author spent a number of years in Venezuela and then got to experience the, ahem, joys of reverse culture shock. but that helped him grasp what life is like for foreigners in the US. In this tiny little book that I read in the time it took the bus to get from San José to home (50 min), I saw my own native culture unfold and be explained in language a 5th grader could understand. Much better than the dry, more scientific book on the LAM recommended reading list. These things seem obvious, but they help make the distinctions between life there and here. Things like in the US, one's identity is one's job title, time is money, scheduling everything, being on time for everything, being more individualized and compartmentalizing our lives, being independent, etc. In Latin America, life isn't so efficient and we need to depend on other people to do things for us. That's why many people here have maids help them clean their houses. Not because they are rich, but because they might have to wait an hour in line at the bank and don't have time to clean the house. Some of the things I learned at IV's Ministering Across Cultures training do come in handy-like the how time vs event oriented and task vs people oriented viewpoints. It's all fascinating stuff. And yes, Fabián is helping me see some of the ways I can be more sensitive to him, others and the culture in general. :-) I have a long ways to go!

Tico Tuesday, January 18th

Happy Tuesday once more!

Last Tuesday feels like a moment and a year ago at the same time! It was a great day though- we had a retreat for all the staff of all the programs of Roblealto, so that included the people from the central office, the Bible Home, the 3 childcare centers and the Program of Attention for Adolescents (for children who have been in one of our other programs but are too old for them). It was really beautiful to meet new people that share the same love I have for Roblealto, put faces with names and voices I have talked to, receive some good teaching and worship God with these wonderful people.

What's with the rocks in the picture? Head to the blog for the story. The only hint you get is Nehemiah. :-)

Have a blessed rest of the week and may God provide you with some great fellowship!

Carrie

Ok, maybe I shouldn't have given the Nehemiah hint in order to make more people come and read this, or maybe I that made you even more interested? Well either way, here you are. The second speaker who shared with us had us all go outside and pick a rock that was just like us. So, rocks of all sizes, shapes, colors and levels of self-esteem were brought in.

Then, he had us build a wall (the one pictured above). It was a really neat activity. Each of us- big, little, mud-caked, clean, flat, round, dark, light contributed to the wall we built. Each piece was essential and dependent on all the others to keep the wall whole and functioning as it should. Roblealto is like a wall that we are building up with God's help and protection to care for the children of Costa Rica. It was (and still is!) a really beautiful metaphor. God uses each of us as we are, where we are to do His work. We build and fight at the same time and are firmly convinced that we are doing something extremely important that God wants to be done. Just like in the book of Nehemiah.

I thought that was cool too because actually in November when a group of volunteers was here they shared a devotional with us in the central office on Nehemiah and how it connects to Roblealto. Great stuff!

So, needless to say, I think it's going to be a wonderful year with Roblealto! Please continue to pray for me and this incredible ministry of which I am so blessed to be a part!

Tico Tuesday, January 11th

Happy Tuesday to you all!

This past week I had the opportunity to make another trip to Isla Venado. When I was there in September delivering medicines that we had promised them when I was there with a team in June, I had two ladies ask me if I could get them Bibles. I talked to Pastor Eladio about the need for Bibles and he said there was a lot of need. Many people in the church don’t have one and I saw many Bibles at church that were literally falling apart. So, I took it upon myself to obtain new Bibles for Pastor Eladio’s church. Thankful a bookstore in San José not far from where I work sells Bibles at a really good price if you buy them in bulk, so I got the minimal 20 Bibles in order to get the really good price. Don’t worry. Every one of those Bibles will be put to use!! I was only able to bring 10 with me this time because I ended up having to go by myself and 20 Bibles do kind of weigh a lot (10 weigh enough on their own). But I plan to go back in another 2-3 months to deliver the rest and visit dear doña Epi and Pastor Eladio and all those other people on the island I’m loving so much. More about my trip on the blog!!

Blessings on you this week!

God bless you all,

Carrie

Though I ended up going by myself I think it maybe worked out better that way this time. There are some difficult things happening in Pastor Eladio and doña Epi’s family. Please pray especially for one of their daughters and her little daughter. I know God had me there for a reason though. I’m not sure doña Epi would have told me what had happened over the phone (she usually calls me every couple/few weeks. Isn’t that so sweet!!!). And, God worked in both her and me while I was there.

I had fun hanging out with 2 of doña Epi’s other granddaughters, Priscilla and Alexandra. My first encounter with Alexandra was an impromptu hula hooping competition my first trip to the island Dec 2009. I ended up letting her win because we had been going for quite a while. And she can keep the hoop going around her knees and I can’t. (oh and I just got me a hula hoop this weekend when I was hanging out with Fabián’s family in the mall after seeing the new adorable well-done Rapunzel movie with them. I’m so excited to use it!!!) Anyway, I can blog more about hula hooping another day. Alexandra is 8. Priscilla and I also met on my first trip to the island. She is a great 12 (or is she 13?) year old girl. Like most other girls her age, she is excited to turn 15 (like Sweet 16 in the States but 15th birthdays in Latin culture tend to be really BIG deals. It depends on how much money you have, but some of them are as expensive as weddings). Anyway, Priscilla already invited me to her 15th birthday party. Oh and she's the girl in the pink shirt in the pic above.

So, Priscilla , Alexandra and I walked around the island together the first afternoon I was there. We saw monkeys!!! One of them was a momma and she had her little one on her back. SO CUTE!!! The next day we went to the beach together with Priscilla’s best friend Fabiola. We had fun swinging on a rope swing (see pics on my Facebook page) and swimming in the water. I sliced my finger open on a shell while I was doing a handstand in the water, got a little rope burn from the swing and got a sting by a jellyfish kind of thing (it stopped hurting after like 10 min though. Weird!! I’m glad it stopped though and didn’t get all swelled or anything), so I felt a little beat up. It was fun though.

I also had some nice down time on the island to journal and read and that was really good. I also got to visit my friend Marlen, a lady I bonded with when I went in June. She is hilarious and just wonderful. She is so in love with God! I’m going to meet up with her again next time I go back to the island. I’d love to share more but I’m falling asleep here at the compu. More soon!

Tico Tuesday, January 4th

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Each day may we be reminded that God's mercies are new, that He is willing to give us another opportunity and that He loves us more than ANYONE else!! At the Viera house we rang in the new year with our traditional Friday night (Shabbat) bread breaking, wine/grape juice toasting and blessing. We also had a lovely time of worship together and enjoyed lots of yummy food that included tamales, beans, tortillas, salad and grilled meat, chicken and plantains. It was a feast! And it was also a perfect opportunity to share with some wonderful people. Claudia (the oldest Viera daughter) and her husband and mother-in-law who is a missionary in Africa came, as well as the pastor and his family of the church don Jorge and doña Esther attend. I got really tired before midnight, but figured I might as well stay up because there was no way I could sleep through all the fireworks everywhere (including in the little park across the street from out house).

God bless you and draw you closer to Him EVERY day this year!

Carrie

2 Three Legged Stools

My dear friend and mentor Julie shared a piece of wisdom with me quite some time ago. She told me relationships (with guys) are like 3 legged stools. The three legs are the three comprising members of the relationship. And seeing as how the stool has 3 legs, they all have to be equal or the stool will fall over. The three legs are the physical, emotional and spiritual aspects of the relationship. All three must grow in balance with one another in order to keep the stool upright and capable of doing what it was meant to do. The relationship will not be healthy or work out if it is all physical, or if it has no physical part to it.

Talking with another very wise person lately reminded me of this stool analogy and its truth. He said that many people who go to Grove City (where I went to college) tend to have very close emotional and spiritual relationships, but they are afraid of the physical (I know, this is pretty much the opposite of the rest of the world, which tends to just have physical relationships and not much on the emotional and spiritual side of things). I definitely agree with this observation. I know I was in several relationships in which I got quite close emotionally and spiritually to a guy, and sometimes I even had a crush on him (and I had no clue how he felt about me), but nothing ever became of the relationship. But, considering how close we were on the emotional & spiritual side, there should have been more physicality to reflect that. How often we deny it and say there's nothing going on. Maybe we don't have butterflies in our stomachs, but we need to be careful and guard our hearts and guard the hearts of others. This means I got closer than I should have to a few guys... Well, now I know! And I wanted to share this with you! Let us all be careful to guard our hearts and the hearts of those around us! May God bless us all with wonderful, healthy, well-balanced relationships!!

Oh and the other stool I mentioned in the title is what Fabián told me when I started explaining him the 3 legged stool thing. He said it's also like him, me and God are the 3 legs, and if any leg is missing or not growing, that stool will fall over too! That's for sure! Good point!