Home From Costa Rica!
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Ezekiel 16:8-14
[So says God to Jerusalem,] "When I passed by you again and saw you, behold, you were at the age for love, and I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness; I made my vow to you and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Lord God, and you became mine. Then I bathed you with water ... and anointed you with oil. I clothed you also with embroidered cloth and shod you with fine leather. I wrapped you in fine linen and covered you with silk. And I adorned you with ornaments and put bracelets on your wrists and a chain on your neck. And I put a ring on your nose and earrings in your ears and a beautiful crown on your head. Thus you were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing was of fine linen and silk and embroidered cloth. You ate fine flour and honey and oil. You grew exceedingly beautiful and advanced to royalty. And your renown went forth among the nations because of your beauty, for it was perfect through the splendor that I had bestowed on you, declares the Lord."
That seems at first to be a strange verse with which to begin writing about Costa Rica, even to me as I write it. So I will explain why this verse is appropriate:
Everything is created by God. Therefore everything belongs to God. We, too, can take no credit for our own form or our own souls, therefore we also are God's property. Like Jerusalem in this passage, we are at an age for love, yet are naked and unadorned. Yet when God enters in, He washes us; He anoints us with oil and clothes us in fine linens and adorns us with jewels and makes us beautiful. Everything we are is due to God, like this passage says, when God sees us and has mercy on us, we are changed; our nakedness is covered, our sins are forgiven and we are made beautiful through the splendor that God bestows on us.
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And it all belongs to God.
The mountainous roads wind up and over the hills giving way to rusted, tin-topped houses where artisans sit on their front porches and sell their wares to passers-by. Towns and small cities, colorful, as if painted onto the landscape, are framed around a central Catholic Church that is always open and ready for worshippers.
And it all belongs to God.
In the cities, parents and big brothers walk uniformed children to school in the morning, older children congregating in the central park, waiting on public transport. Dogs sleep lazily on the steps of the park pavilions and roll over for a good rub, or simply ignore your presence.
And it all belongs to God.
The sun rises with the aroma of fresh baked bread from the panerias. The coffee plants and sugar cane drink in the morning sun from the mountainsides, while leather-skinned shop keepers roll up their metal window guards to begin their day of business.
And it all belongs to God.
And on the first morning, with the sun up and the rooster finished with his early-light crowing, Luis, our Bed and Breakfast manager, cuts the top off of a coconut, wielding his trusty machete and hands it to me to turn up and drink.
And I give thanks to God.
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El Verbo Ministerios is an international Latin gospel-focused ministry with a varying number of church plants in different countries in Central America. Pastor Ricardo Duarte and his family, originally from Guatemala, felt called to plant churches in Costa Rica and are now operating three Verbo Ministerios in Costa Rica. The main church in San Ramon is where our team spent most of our time. We also visited the Verbo in San Jose. El Verbo means The Word, and is used more in a sense of our meaning of "verb," more like "the Word... in action."
I was only in Costa Rica for four days and spoke very little of the language, so what I attempt to bring home to the reader here is the best viewpoint I am able to muster from my very limited experiences.
Religion abounds in Costa Rica. Almost everyone has grown up in a Catholic home with parents or grandparents who worshipped in the Catholic cathedrals. I cannot personally make the assumption that a Catholic believer is not saved. After all, they study the same bible and put their faith in the same Jesus as is preached in evangelical churches. What occurs in their hearts is ultimately between the individual and God. And I suppose that just as evangelical churches have members that sit in church every Sunday yet do not trust in Jesus, the same would be true for Catholics. Nor was I able to communicate well enough with the people to ascertain any measurable idea of their spiritual condition. So, in no way do I here attempt to undermine the existing faith of believers in Costa Rica, but I can, with confidence point out some visible spiritual needs that exist there. And, I might add, they are not very different from those that we see here in our own front yards!
One of the first things that you notice about Costa Rica is that they are less economically developed than we are here. They visibly have a less productive economy than ours. But, though it's human nature to crave more and more comforts, their economy and their culture are intermeshed, and their economy is no measure of their spiritual condition or their human value. Despite the differences in the value of their economy, however, the reflection of desire for material possessions in their people is not any different from what we experience here in the states, or I would say, anywhere in the world. I would say their culture is almost exactly like ours, dealing with exactly the same human cravings and difficulties.
But while their economy in its second-world state is no quantifiable measure of their spiritual need, one of the most significant markers of their spiritual need that stood out to me was the over sexualization of the women in the part of the country where we were. From advertising to typical dress, the culture is much less modest than what we consider normal here in the Southern United States. The ability to possess a sexual appeal seems to be the reigning goal for the young women there, and the rates of unwed mothers and teen pregnancies, from what I understand, highlight the need for a gospel-focused understanding of a biblical model for sex and families.
Like I said, this is not a different need than what we see right here in our own town!
But what is different is that, here at home, we've got a gospel-centered church on every corner (almost literally!) and about the only ministry they have are the Catholic churches which many, especially the youth, have deemed irrelevant.
To that end, Mariana, Ricardo's daughter, the San Ramon worship team leader, and one of our faithful interpreters while visiting, when I asked her how El Verbo ministers to that particular need, said that they stay away from any 'finger-pointing,' because the people are basically fed-up with being told what to do from religious people; they have become basically rebellious against the pointing out of sin and want to have control over their own life decisions without being dictated to by a religious authority (sound familiar?). Therefore Los Ministerios Verbos share the truth in faith and in love, extending an unending amount of grace and staying constantly in prayer that the word will be heard and that God will convict the hearers on an individual basis. The results of their efforts are paying off, and many of the young women who have come into the church and have accepted Christ as their savior, have gradually been making a change on their own, slowly choosing a more modest approach to their life, gradually decreasing so that God may increase. El Verbo is trusting in and exhibiting God's grace and relying on the Holy Spirit to accomplish individual sanctification.
I think we could learn a lot from that approach, applying more grace and less judgement, coupled with constant prayer and love!
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Friday night Matt and Johnny gave excellent advice to the worship team about leading worship, not from the perspective of the church being your audience, but that the worship team is worshipping, and thereby facilitating the worship of the congregation, whereby God in his trinity are the audience. Then they had a jam session where we learned that one thing that dissolves all language barriers is live music!
Saturday morning was the one day VBS in San Ramon. Though our best laid plans were not adequate to prepare us for the day, God was faithful to make it one of the best VBS experiences ever. We learned two more things that dissolve language and cultural barriers, smiles and playtime.
Saturday evening was filled with attending the youth group in San Ramon. The youth goes to age 27. They rock their program and we were quick to recognize some faces that glowed with salvation. We later found that these couple of people had recently come to know the Lord and had made life changes right away. What can I say, but that it showed! It's amazing to see the Kingdom at work!
Sunday morning brought us to the church service in San Jose. We facilitated Sunday School while Matt preached. The pictures tell the story.
After a bite to eat, we were off to a second service in San Ramon. We facilitated another Sunday School while Matt preached again. I didn't hear his sermon as I was upstairs with the kids, but I know it was on the Holy Spirit and, toward the end of his sermon, I heard the congregation erupting in spirit filled clapping and cheering. Two (or was it three?) people that night accepted Christ into their hearts.
At both services, the worship extends for an entire hour! Many of the songs we sang our spanish versions of songs we know here. We were able to sing them as the words, in Spanish were on the screen. I learned that there is one more thing that dissolves all language barriers... WORSHIP!
Sunday night, after we'd finished up with church services and filming, and as we were waiting for our bus, I had the chance to share my own testimony of how Jesus' love touched my life. Cathartic is a good word to describe that experience. God is always good and knows the right timing for everything... that's all I've got to say about that.
Monday morning we were up at 3AM to ready ourselves for a trip back to San Jose to head home. The 'kids' pulled an all-nighter since we didn't get back to the B&B until about 10ish anyway. We 'old folks' took advantage of at least 4 hours of sleep and went to bed! Toward the end of an uneventful return flight I learned that I had been coincidentally sitting beside a family of Alaskan missionaries in San Jose, Costa Rica. I gave this missionary my information and hope to be able to help him get in touch with Ricardo.
Getting back into our church van upon arrival in Atlanta, we all realized how wealthy we are with our comfortable and spacious seats and our smooth ride. It was really mind-blowing to be reunited with the comforts of home. It showed me how much I take for granted every day. Also, just by the way things worked out, we ended up 'fasting' from lunch Sunday to lunch Monday, finally getting a meal at the ChickfilA at Stonecrest mall before arriving back in Covington. It was possibly the best ChickfilA any of us have ever eaten!
Back at the church, we hugged our families and then hugged our goodbyes, thankful to be back home, carrying with us a piece of Costa Rica in our hearts forever. I am so grateful for this trip, grateful for the burden of the faces in the pictures below, grateful for the opportunity to bring these memories and these experiences back to you all here in the states, grateful to increase a relationship with my brothers and sisters in Christ across countries. It is so amazing to see the kingdom at work in the world.
Please pray for the gospel churches in Costa Rica. Pray for the Duartes and the citizens of Costa Rica. So many beautiful people. So much beautiful country. It all belongs to God. He is the one who will see it and adorn it and clothe it and make it His royalty! Pray that God will bless El Verbo! Pray that He 'sees' Costa Rica!
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Every residential place had iron gates and many had barb wire like this.
The view from our entry gate. This is our B&B and the mountain we were on.
Inside the San Ramon Catholic Cathedral.
Sarchi.
This guy is a true artisan. His work was inspiring!
Jess and Me
The Guys.
The Kids.
The Parrot.
The Ken : )
The Waterfall.
The Dog.
The Locals.
The Worship Team Practicing.
This computer equipment was purchased with offerings from our church!
Ricardo trying out the cahone box we brought them. It's a box that produces different drum beats based on where you hit the box. You sit on the top like that and hit your beats on the front of the box.
Matt and Johnny talking to the worship team.
A tired bunch chilling out after a meal out on the town.
Saturday morning... VBS!
Hable Si, Si, Si, Si, Si a E.E.E.E.B.V!
Beautiful Jess.
They were doing a skit to reinforce Anna's bible study.
Crafts!
Maria was Amazing. She worked so hard that by the end of the trip, she couldn't remember which language to interpret. At one point Sunday night, while we were all sitting around telling stories, Maria was telling her story in Spanish and asked Mariana to interpret for her, so Mariana told us the English version of Maria's story. Good times. : )
"And the Word Became Flesh and Dwelt Among Us!"
Laughter... understood in any language!
Pastor Ricardo prayed over our snacks and then Matt prayed for all the boys and girls that were not able to be there that day due to being sick.
Our Snacks!
These two really touched my heart!
Another skit to reinforce another bible story!
This woman shared an awesome testimony!
What we were doing meant a lot to them too.
Sat. Evening... Youth!
This guy worshipped like this the whole time. His name is Arnoldo and the Lord has used El Verbo to minster to his heart and change his life. He is one of the ones I was talking about whose face shines with salvation!
Iphones... just one more thing that dissolve cultural barriers!
Sunday Morning... Ministerios Verbo San Jose, an open air church!
Headed Back to San Ramon, Sunday Afternoon.
Views of Costa Rica's interior... from the bus.
Our B&B was on the other side of the hill in the left of the picture. Ken was saying, not realizing that that was our hill, that that is 'the quintessential hill' that he thinks of when he thinks of God's "cattle on a thousand hills." That day we were surprised to discover that it was our very hill.
A couple of videos of Mariana and the worship team at San Ramon's Sunday Evening Services.
They were AWESOME! The videos really don't do them justice b/c I was just using my camera and it's not really equipped for this kind of sound.
But it does give you a visual of the inside of one of their services.
Sunday Afternoon Services, El Verbo, San Ramon
All of "the girls" with our new friend Mariana. We love you Mariana!
And lastly, on our way out, we were very fortunate to get to witness a volcano doing its thing off in the distance. Apparently this hasn't happened in decades... and yet we got to witness it! Wow!
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That's it. That's our trip. So much was at work in hearts here that I cannot describe. I hope I have at least done it justice in bringing back a piece of the experience. I know I have grown as a person, as a Christian, as an American through this experience. I've learned even more that we all, all people, are cut from the same cloth. What a wonderful and worthwhile experience. Mostly, I witnessed the kingdom at work even across countries. God is amazing. Everything is His. Amen.
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