Debriefing... relaxing at Jaco Beach, Costa Rica

After our teaching commitments came to an end we had the opportunity to just relax a little bit as a team after all our hard work. We went to a beach on the Pacific Coast called Jaco... pronounced "haco". It was a beautiful refreshing time... I went on a long walk down the beach all afternoon and got some great pictures I thought I would share so here they are.

A quick adventure in Heredia, Costa Rica

So Friday and Saturday I went with two of my new friends I made here in Costa Rica to the other YWAM base in Costa Rica... in the town of Heredia. They were having a fundraiser picnic for the DTS class there this fall who are about to go on outreach. My friend Paola lives in Heredia so her brother Alvaro picked us up and took myself and my friend Ruth up for Friday evening and Saturday to spend the day there. It was an awesome time.

Friday night Paola and Ruth and I walked down to town and took a ton of pictures of the amazing flowers and sun as it was setting at the end of a gorgeous day. We had a fun dinner and evening of just walking around town and enjoying each other. Saturday morning I had the chance to play with Paola´s niece some and then we went to the Heredia base and had a blast. I got to spend some time with the Base Director there Terry... he has some awesome vision for the base and wants to start an SBS there. I also got to spend some time talking with some of the DTS students about their futures and I think some of them are excited about perhaps doing SBS next so that was awesome. I also had the chance to see my friend Carla again and her new boyfriend Ian so that was really great too. It was one of my favorite experiences from here on outreach, and between Paola and I we have some great pictures to remember it by.

Talamanca - Costa Rica = THE FLOOD

This last week we went to the southeast region of Costa Rica near the Panama border, a region called Talamanca... to a tiny indigenous village called Bambu. We went there to teach oral communicators God´s word for a week or so, doing some seminars to help them know how to study God´s word on their own. This was super exciting, the place was beautiful, and yeah... this is what we as Titus have been trained and equipped to do - so bring it on rainforest!

The first day there our host Alex took us on an amazing trip through the rainforest... crossed a river into Panama and got to just walk through jungle and wade through rivers. It was an awesome day, a beautiful day.

Then... it started raining... and for the next 9 days there was no end to the rain. Seriously it felt like we need to build another ark because the river was rising so quickly. The river actually flooded its banks for the worst flood Costa Rica has seen in more than 35 years. Tuesday the rain began... Tuesday night there was a 6.5 earthquake in Panama somewhere... and by Saturday the river had risen almost 10 feet even though it was like a few hundred meters wide. Yeah, so... all of our ministry was canceled and we sat inside a house on higher ground watching a natural disaster for almost 10 days... welcome to outreach. Honestly, it was a rough time... a hard time... because we wanted to be doing ministry... not trying to complain... but it was tough. The hardest thing about it wasn´t safety... or food... even though we ate tuna and rice for a few days before the roads were restored because the market ran out of food supplying all 3000 people in the immediate area - the hardest thing was feeling absolutely useless while being on a trip where you want to be used by God in the short time you have.

So yeah, we just got back to San Jose... my rainforest experience was interesting to say the least. Now we´re trying to patch together that last week and a half of our outreach since these 2 weeks have been washed away in the flood.

Please be praying for the last week of our outreach... that we would have some teaching time and that we would recouperate well seeing how the last week and a half were rather hard (I think I have giardia now because of the water filters being messed up by the flood too). Also be praying for the 8000 or so people around the river near Bambu who lost all of their crops in the flood and now are looking at around a year to restore what was lost. Also be praying for the YWAM base there in Talamanca because the house on the river is being torn down... they will save as much of the material as they can and hopefully rebuild on higher ground.

(PS = 2 other posts today also before this... check them out too)

Las Tablas... Costa Rica

These are the children we worked with the first week here in Costa Rica. We also preached a few evening sermons at a church in San Jose here... but predominantly we worked with these children. These children live in the absolute barrio (ghetto) of San Jose... the poorest of the poor districts... where all of the drug lords are... the absolute slums. These children are most definitely classified as "Children at Risk". We had the chance to sing songs with them, play some games, tell some bible stories, and color and play with them. It was amazing, these kids are so broken... perhaps my favorite part of the whole week was just sitting with them as they colored... they would scooch close to you so as to have your physical presence right next to them... you could sense their desperation for some sort of love or security. These kids need intercession and it was a humbling experience to simply try to love them as much as we could while we could. These children absolutely captivated my heart... there were a few in particular that I would take home with me in a heartbeat if it were at all a possibility.

Please pray for these children... don´t just look at the faces and not care... these kids are special to God... and should be special to us.

Last Week in Baja... sorry it took a while

So I had been meaning to post these pictures of our last week in Baja and these are them... the captions tell the story mostly.

We ended up taking a bus up to the border and walked across the border back into the U.S.A. so some of our pictures are from there. We spent a night in San Diego before flying out to Costa Rica with my friend Eric Poon from high school. Praise God for Eric, he really was a blessing to us in helping us out. While with Eric he took us on a few errands to get some things before flying off to Costa Rica... including a Wal-Mart run where we met Barbie... Sarah dared me to take a picture with her. Hey, you only live once right... there are many stories to go along with the pictures but for the sake of getting updated with some posts I will move on.

Children at Risk

So today I had the chance to teach 7 little children about who God is... WOW!!!

These children are considered "children at risk" because they live in the slums, their parents make hardly any money and are probably involved in drugs and other wickedness, and they will probably not receive much of an education. Yeah, today I had the chance to speak the truth of God's love to 7 little children who have... well... really... nothing. They don't have any hope outside of the love of Christ. He alone can give life to them, they certainly won't find it elsewhere.

Today I spent the morning with these precious children in the slums of Costa Rica, in utter filth and poverty... and you know what makes me sad the most. I really don't feel like I care. My heart is not absolutely broken. Yeah, they're cute... yes, I want their situation to be better... BUT, there's something within me that is willing to simply accept that this is their lot in life. This is what breaks my heart. I wish I could have pictures of them, perhaps that would break OUR hearts more... but really, shouldn't it break my heart that I am so blessed and these poor children have... nothing.

This is what God is showing me today... he wants me to love what he loves.

Having a nice car... well... is nice... but really, shouldn't I care more about these children?

Having the finer things in life isn't inherently bad... but... shouldn't I want these children to have some sort of joy in the midst of utter darkness?

Is it enough that I entertain them for a few hours and feel better about myself for being a good person?

This is what I am challenged with... what is right? What does God say is of value?

AND... the real question is... am I going to stop talking about doing something... and actually DO something?

So... please be praying for Maria (7) and her brother Dilar (3), and for Esther (8), and for Antonio and Johnny (both 5), and for the two 8 year old twin girls that were so cute I forgot their names. They are desperate for God's help... they have nothing, but they can have Jesus... the living savior who can bring redemption to their dark and hope-deprived future.

Las Playas del Baja

I dont actually know if that translated properly... I probablemente messed something up in that simple 4 word title. No worries... which I now know how to say in Espanol now... "nimodo". So, yeah, we have been to the beach a few times over the past 3 weeks. It has been extremely nice to take some time on days off and get to the coast... to rest, to play, and to watch the sun set over the Pacific. I have missed West Coast sunsets for about 6 years now... so it is awesome to get to see them again. These are just a few of our pictures from the past 3 weeks hanging out at the "playas". These beaches have great boogie boarding, which I am able to do courtesy of a friend at FFHM who let me borrow his board. They also have TONS of seashells... giant Pismo clams are the size of your hand and there are literally a gazillion sand dollars at "sand dollar" beach.

I love all of you... God is doing mighty things, this has been a wonderful experience teaching into and experiencing another culture. 1 more week here and they we are off to Costa Rica for a month to teach Gods word there.
p.s. please check out the previous post if you missed it...

The Bible Students... and Foundation For His Ministry

So this is the Christo Por Su Mundo Institute de Biblica. These are the students we taught the first two weeks here... these are amazing people who are going to change Latin America through their faith in Christ and willingness to serve others that they might experience the life abundantly that God has for them. I consider myself thoroughly honored to have had the chance to speak truth into their lives... it has been an amazing and humbling experience spending time with radical people like these. I was able to spend a great deal of time with them both in class as well as outside of class at meals and visiting them in their studies during the evening. I will most assuredly miss them.

These are more pictures of FFHM... Foundation For His Ministry. This is an amazing place where God is doing a mighty work for the community here and throughout Baja. I certainly hope I will be able to return here again... I plan on it. I would encourage all of you to check out their website and watch the video that I put up 2 posts ago. I will miss this facility... mostly because of the people and the children here... it was an AMAZING blessing to get to spend 3 weeks doing Gods work here in Vicente Guerrero, Baja Norte.

Finally... some pictures from Baja... our time here has been awesome

So I finally had a chance to get to a good internet connection to put some pictures from these past few weeks online. These are pictures from our drive down here to the mission... from some of our teaching... and some of our fun. We have many other pictures and have been recording most of our lectures so I will try to get some of that stuff published soon also.

The past few weeks have been filled with a lot of teaching... I taught 1st Thessalonians for 10 hours last week and have taught the book of Philemon every evening this week, so about 6 hours @ 1 1/2 hours each evening. Wednesday I got to teach what we call Bible Overview at a family's house... so I explained God's story through the Old Testament in about an hour. That is perhaps my favorite teaching, to explain how God has moved through history calling a people to show his mercy to. Yesterday I taught the book of Jonah for 4 hours as our last lecture at a Bible Institute here. I have become quite fond of the students in that school... I eat almost all of my meals with the students, have played soccer with some of them, and have been thoroughly humbled and blessed to get to teach these people who are going to be changing Mexico for the sake of Christ. God is going to use these men and women mightily to bring restoration to broken hearts here.

So these are some of my pictures, it is absolutely beautiful here... the people being the most amazing part of the trip by far.