Iguana hunting

Iguana hunting isn’t the most common way to build a youth group, but down here, you never know what will bring people together. Last week as I was working at home, I heard a crowd of guys in front of our house. I went out to see who it was and recognized a couple of them kids I knew from town. I asked them what they were up to and they told me that they were hunting iguanas (illegal but a traditional source of food in the Afro-Caribbean diet). The showed me what they were hunting them with…sling-shots made from tree branches and rubber straps. These guys had pretty good aim, too. They had already bagged one and were on the hunt for a second one. We figured that all the hunting would give them quite an appetite so Amy suggested that I invite them back to the house when they were done to help us finish off a giant pot of soup (iguana free) that she had cooked the night before. I followed them down the road towards the river and gave them the invitation to come eat lunch whenever they finished hunting. Teenagers are teenagers no matter the culture or the part of the world, so they all accepted, decided they were done hunting and came to the house right away. We spent the next two hours hanging out with five, then six teenagers as they downed every bit of soup, bread and cookies that came their way. We had a blast getting to know them a little better and they really seemed to enjoy hanging with the gringos.

These kinds of times are essential to what we’re trying to do down here. One thing that I have come to understand is how much effort and time it takes to gain the trust of these guys. I think that many of the people in the Afro-Caribbean culture, while seeming to be very outgoing and at times, “in your face”, are actually pretty shy when it comes to interactions that are outside of their control. For example, some of the guys can be pretty boisterous and rowdy out in the water or wandering around town in a pack, but get them in a different situation, say in front of a visiting mission group, and they will either run (literally) or try to fade into the background. I think they feel like they’re on display…like a curio in a museum. I can’t say I blame them for wanting to get out of situations that are uncomfortable…I often want to do the same. I just hope that as we do small things, like feed the troops while they’re hunting iguana, we gain their trust and friendship as individuals and eventually as a team. I know these guys are going to be spending quite a bit of time at the skate-park but for now, these small times are what builds relationships and gives us opportunities to tell them about Jesus and show the that he cares about them. You won’t find it mentioned in “The Purpose Driven Youth Group”, but iguana hunting may just be the world’s most over-looked strategy for getting a group of teenagers together.

Hanging Out

Hanging out…just plain old hanging out usually isn’t too productive…by most definitions of productive. It’s interesting then that many of the best and most productive times we’ve had here in Puerto Viejo involve “hanging out”. For example, this past Sunday evening we invited almost 20 people over to our house for Easter. For much of the time, we just hung out, ate and enjoyed each other’s company. I have found that sharing a meal is one of the best ways to get to know people and, for me the other is by going surfing with them.

Anyway, Easter Sunday night we spent a lot of time hanging out and getting to know each other better. It was a very mixed crowd, representing four different cultures and a wide variety of religious backgrounds. One of the guys that came is named Patrick. Patrick is the subject of a book entitled “In Search of Captain Zero” which was written by one of Patrick’s friends that went looking for him several years after Patrick had moved away from Long Island. It’s an interesting book…pretty rough reading in parts due to the language, etc… but I found it really interesting and in some ways, I felt like I knew Patrick before we even met him. Throughout the book, the author recounts various details of his life as he and his buddy Patrick, traveled around the world surfing, running drugs (crazy stories) and avoiding death on numerous occasions. These flashbacks are interspersed with accounts of things that take place along the way as Alan searches for his old friend.

It’s pretty interesting that Patrick is now living in a tent pretty much right in front of our house. This has given us an opportunity to really get to know him. He’s pretty solitary, but he loves kids and dogs and we have both. He also comes by to fill up his water bottles regularly. Well, one day last week, Amy invited him to spend Easter with us and he accepted. That night, he enjoyed the warmth of a family, a good potluck dinner and he also heard the gospel presented in a very straightforward, simple manner. Patrick listened, made some comments from time to time, and really seemed to enjoy himself. I know he’s not a Christian (he’ll happily tell you that himself) but I also know that God loves him very much and wants to change him from the inside out. Figuratively, God’s calling Patrick out of the tent in the woods and into the warmth of a house, with a family that cares about him.

Please pray that we’ll have more opportunities to hang out with Patrick…really getting to know him. Pray that God will work in his life and that he will one day experience everything that God has in store for him…forgiveness, new life, restoration. There’s lots of “Patricks” down here. God willing, we’ll continue to meet them and show them that there is a God who cares for each of them personally.

Topo (far right, kneeling) is a local guy that used to be on the Costa Rican professional surf team. He hasn’t surfed competitively for a few years but he still gets out in the water on a regular basis. Having grown up in this area and having spent much of his life on his own, Topo saw a need and started giving free surf lessons on Saturday mornings to a lot of the local kids in town who either don’t have parents or whose parents don’t spend much time with them. They’re not quite street kids, but most of them don’t have too much of a family to give structure to their lives. We’ve been getting to know Topo and several months ago, before we left for the States on furlough, we started helping him and his girlfriend with the lessons. It’s a pretty cool thing to be taking place here because you just don’t see too many locals that actually volunteer within their own community. It just doesn’t happen. Anyway, I started taking my older daughter Maili to the surf lessons back in October. She has a great time, is learning to surf and gets to know more of the local kids and I have a chance to push some kids into a few waves, getting to know them a little better too. Different people drop in to help and on any give week, there will be a couple of local guys and a couple of expats like us that are just taking some of their time to invest a little time in the lives of some kids that need it. Who knows what this might lead to down the road. As we get the skate park up and running, many of these same kids will come down and join us for a skate session and hopefully, will get the opportunity to experience God’s love in a personal way. That’s what it’s all about. Christ came to earth to save us. One of the benefits of this is that we get to have a personal relationship with the almighty God that created us. These kids need to know that this is possible for them as well… That there is a God that loves them and has a plan for them. They need to be told this but they also need to be shown, first-hand. At it’s most basic level, all it is is pushing some kids into a few waves. But it’s an investment that has potential to return some really big dividends.

Joaquin

Interesting days and unusual days. Life in Puerto Viejo is a series of contrasts. The amazing natural beauty is such a contrast to much of the ugliness that affects humanity as a result of sin. We live on one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen, yet are constantly affected by the dark side of human nature in the form of theft, typically to fuel a drug habit. One day the Caribbean sky will be sunny and gorgeous and the next day all hell breaks loose and it gets cold, windy and rainy. The majority of the people are so loving and friendly that you almost forget the few that are constantly looking for a way to take advantage of us. We see God working while Satan does his best to shut down any and every work that God begins. This contrast and the battle behind the scenes that causes it was never more evident a couple of days ago when Ronnie and I had a conversation with a drug addict named Joaquin that I’ll never forget. We got to know Joaquin last summer during a time when we were hosting a variety of teams. Joaquin is one of the more interesting characters that I’ve met during the past year here in Puerto Viejo. He’s about 5’6” tall, wears some pretty outlandish clothing (especially for this culture) and has one of the craziest haircuts that I’ve ever seen. If there’s one thing about Joaquin that he pays attention to, it’s his hair. Talking with him is a trip. He speaks some English, a little island Patois and pretty good Spanish. Since my Spanish isn’t that great, a lot of our communication is non-verbal. When we are able to talk, he’s pretty hard to follow and the same conversation… sometimes the same sentence can go from Jesus to Star Trek to the best way to grow bananas. Joaquin is a trip. The whole town knows it. But there’s one thing about Joaquin…God loves him. A lot. I don’t think Joaquin knows this…yet. If he did, and if he really understood it, he wouldn’t want to live the way he does. Most days he just wanders from place to place, looking for enough wild fruit or coconuts so that he can eat a little and sell a little for his next drug fix. Joaquin has had a difficult 24 years and it shows in every line in his face.

A couple of days ago, as I was headed to the store to pick up some groceries, I say Joaquin sitting against our fence. He asked me for 500 colones which equates to about a dollar. I want to help him but I don’t want to give him fuel for his drug habit so I asked him if he would just like something to eat. Joaquin said yes, so I made him a sandwich and got him some fruit and a drink. I stayed out there with him just to hang out for a while and I began to get a very strong feeling that I needed to share with him, how much Jesus loved him and wanted to change his life. Because of the language barrier, I am pretty much limited to showing God’s love to Joaquin by spending time with him, having a meal with him or some other physical way to demonstrate God’s love. This time it was different. I really felt like Joaquin needed to hear about Jesus… how much Jesus loves him and how Jesus came to set him free. He needed to hear this in his own language. There was only one thing I could do, so I prayed. I asked God to send Ronnie, to help me translate and to share with Joaquin himself. Although having a prayer answered by God shouldn’t be amazing, I was still amazed at how quickly He answered my prayer. I don’t know why I ever doubt, but I never seem to put as much trust in God as He’s worth. Well, once again, God came through because He cares about people more than we ever could…even at our very best. Just a few minutes after asking God to send Ronnie, I looked up and saw him riding his bicycle down our road. It was like the sun had just burst through the clouds on a rainy day. Ronnie pulled up and started talking to us. He told me that God had just brought him to us. Cool stuff.

Anyway, as Ronnie and I shared (mostly Ronnie at this point), I could see that there was a fight going on in and around Joaquin. I prayed that God would clear up his mind and relieve him from the damage of the drugs, just long enough for the truth of Jesus to sink in. It was unreal…I could actually see waves of confusion and clarity going back and forth across Joaquin’s face. He would be clear and focused for a few minutes…listening and concentrating. And then…he would be back with Captain Kirk on the enterprise. We continued to talk and share. Joaquin was very interested but there was someone else that didn’t want Joaquin to be free. Three times Ronnie asked Joaquin if he would like to give his life to Christ…if he would like to be free and changed. Joaquin said that he wanted to be changed but each time, just as it looked like he might say yes, he said no. We had an opportunity to pray with him. He was very grateful and said that he would remember this special day. I believe he will. We’ll be praying for Joaquin and we hope you will be too. There’s a war going on and his soul is at stake. God loves Joaquin and I think he just might be starting to believe that he’s actually loveable. God brought us together with Joaquin for a reason. I don’t doubt that. I believe that God has special plans for Joaquin and I look forward to the day when Joaquin says “Yes” to Jesus.

Back in PV

Getting settled back in to our home here in Puerto Viejo has been interesting to say the least. We arrived back in town on Tuesday, Feb 14th and had one day to start un-packing before we left for Jaco on the Pacific coast to attend a friend’s wedding. About two hours after we left Puerto, we received the first of two interesting phone calls. The first call was from our neighbor who was letting us know that some random guy had come into our property and, claiming they were his, had taken the two stray dogs that we had adopted a few months ago. When they first wandered into our yard back in November, they were skinny and in really bad health. We waited a few weeks before we started taking care of them because we didn’t want to just take someone else’s dogs. After asking around and not finding anyone to claim them, we adopted them. The girls loved them and really took good care of them. They were the most upset when this guy took them. According to our neighbor, the guy’s story seemed to be true and the dogs seemed to know him well. I was mostly upset that he came when we weren’t home and without any permission, took the dogs away with no regard for the fact that we had been taking good care of the. Our older daughter cried for about a half hour when she found out. Right after this, we got the second, which was to let us know that we had won a scooter in a drawing at the local pulperia (a small corner store). This was a really cool thing because the scooter belonging to one of the couples on our team had just broken down for the last time and it is their only mode of transportation. Amy had been filling out forms for the drawing for month specifically so that she could give the scooter to them if we happened to win. God blessed us so we just passed the scooter on to them. What a strange day. The rest of the weekend went well…the wedding was great and it was great to see so many friends again.

As we get back into the swing of things, my hope is to post at least twice a week and include some photos as well. This is all new to me so it will take a little time to get the hang of it, but it’ll work out

Between Worlds

Once again, we're between two worlds...one is a world of busy schedules, wealth and high-tech and the other is a world of relationships, fluid schedules and simplicity. We're caught between these two as we have to function smoothly between the two. We fly back to Costa Rica later today and tomorrow we'll be back in the little town of Puerto Viejo on the Caribbean coast near the border with Panama. I'm looking forward to getting back to our home, friends, dogs and work. It will be interesting to see what has changed and what has remained the same after five weeks of travelling. I know that there are some interesting situations that will be awaiting us but the good thing is that ultimately it's all in God's hands. More to come.

Costa Rica Slide Show

Welcome to our blog. Instead of me telling you about us, why don't I just show you...


Powered by Castpost