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Here Comes the Rain

May 15, 2006 in CostaRica, Missions, Prayer by Dave | 5 comments

As I had mentioned in a previous post, the country of Costa Rica has only two seasons, the wet and the dry seasons. We have enjoyed about 3 months now of dry sunny weather, but for the past week except for yesterday, it has rained every day. The picture above is a view of the storm clouds rolling in once again.

It’s funny how the changes in the weather can bring about a thoughtful attitude, but activity in the blogsphere has helped push me into a pensive mood as well. A post written by Amy Maxwell has caused me to think a bit about our lives as Christians, and how we view our relationship with God. Her question was a question about how we pray. Amy, along with her husband Joel, is now in the process of a personal storm of trying to pay off the debt of a failed business, and she asked:

Should we pray for sunny days? Praise God IN the storm? Praise God DESPITE the storm? Praise God FOR the storm?

This isn?t just a word game. These are drastically different ways of looking at and dealing with life.

It struck me as an interesting question, and many of us, out of our experiences or studies would be able to respond stating the method we feel that is correct or that more suits our personal style. However, I felt compelled to respond in a different way:

My opinion is that, for questions like these, it is best to turn to the prayer book of the Bible, Psalms. In it we see all kinds of prayers that may not fit with our personal style. There are prayers of questioning, prayers of frustration, and prayers asking for God to bring judgment. Also, there are prayers of praise and prayers that ask for God?s blessing.

What does this teach us? That there are some prayers that are better and some that are worse? I think no. (Perhaps there are some that come from a more mature understanding of God?s ways.) But I think that the important point that Psalms makes is that we should pray. Praise in the good and bad. Pray for God?s peace and blessing, and sometimes just pray in such a way that we spill out everything that is in us before Him.

Sometimes what comes out won?t be pretty, but in all of our laughing and crying, praising and (perhaps) cursing, words of faith and frustration, I believe that God is working something out in us through His Spirit, and we are telling Him that He is more than a heavenly vending machine. He is our perfect, heavenly Father. And, who knows, when we are done, maybe He?ll have time to say something to us.

You see, I feel that we as Christians spend so much time on how we should pray that we fail to actually take time to pray. This is evident even in some of the new, and might I say, well though out missionary blogs that have popped up on missionary-blogs.com. Both The M Blog in this post on Trinitarian Theology and RTBM in “Returning to Biblical Missions” question our methodologies and challenge us to take a new look at our dependence on the Spirit. How better to do this but to bend our knees in prayer?

Who knows, maybe this post was something I needed to write simply to air out some thoughts, but perhaps this question of this mother of 2 in Springfield and the thoughts of two veteran missionaries will do what it did to me: reignite a desire to pray!

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More Adventures in Eating

May 8, 2006 in CostaRica, Culture by Dave | 1 comment

Have you ever eaten a flower before? (No, I’m not talking about the couple of dandelions that you may have swallowed as a child) Well we just had some for lunch!

Here in Costa Rica, a white flower that grows on the Itabo tree (shown in the large photo) is now in bloom, and, on many street corners and country roads, one can see vendors selling bunches of these. Known as “The Flower of the Dead” in Nicaragua, this flower is a regular meal here in Costa Rica.

Our friend Mayra had us get some from the property of CINCEL in order to make what is shown in the inset picture. The green, bitter part is removed, and then the flower is boiled with potatoes before frying with eggs, onions, some pepper, and salt to taste. The resulting mixture is then placed over tortillas in order to make a delicious “gallo”, or snack served over a corn tortilla.

Reactions were mixed here in the household. I enjoyed the meal, eating four of the gallos de itabo. Kelly and Rebekah as well commented that the food was delicious. Jonathan ate all of his, without asking for seconds and Joseph had to be told to finish. All in all, I would rate it a success but designed for more mature taste buds.

Interested in seeing some other interesting dishes? Head on over to missionary-blogs.com to take a look at The Kautz Family Blog’s enty: “La-la-la Lengua”

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Belated Remarks

May 6, 2006 in CostaRica, Misc, Missions by Dave | Permalink

Cinco de Mayo, the holiday celebration that com- memorates the Mexican victory during of the Battle of Puebla, has passed without even the thought of a Mariachi band as pictured in the post. In fact, here in Costa Rica, we had let the day slip until Anthony Scoma, a pastor friend from Texas reminded us. (BTW, Anthony, the Yankees won last night. It wasn’t pretty, but they won!)

Still, we didn’t let the day pass without celebrating. We had the opportunity to celebrate with a Tico (Costa Rican) family who had invited us over for a cafecito. A cafecito is a light meal that takes place as early as 3:00 PM and as late as 5:00 PM, in which there are snacks, sandwiches, and some sweets, and of course, coffee! We had a wonderful time speaking in Spanish for 4 hours as the kids played through the house. Times like these help us realize how far we have come since arriving in Costa Rica back in August of last year.

It is a satisfying thing really. Language school is a transition time, and it is easy to focus on the field so much that we fail to identify with the culture and the people here in Costa Rica. We are glad to have been a part of the lives of so many Ticos, who through their generosity have welcomed us into their lives. The sad thing about it all is that just as we have advanced in our language skills to the point that we the opportunity to form relationships with others, we are looking forward to leaving Costa Rica in 3 short months. Still, we’ll choose to enjoy the time and the relationships that we have.

Update: 5-07-2006 Andy Raatz A/G Missionary to Moldova has some thoughts on transition here

Photo Credits: Java Cafe (2006). Mariachi Dreams. Retrieved 05/06/2006 from https://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=93107466&size=m

Happy Monday!

May 1, 2006 in Coffee, CostaRica, Culture, Day2Day by Dave | 5 comments

There is a saying in Costa Rica that reads, “Lunes ni las gallinas ponen”, which means On Mondays, not even the hens are laying. We certainly can relate to Mondays in that way. With all of the activities and projects, it sometimes seems like we need another weekend in order to rest from our weekend. For this reason, it is important to start off with a good breakfast to get our energy going, and on days like today, Costa Rica’s national holiday of Labor Day, we have the time to prepare it.

For starters:
Of course, no breakfast is complete without a good cup of coffee, but how to prepare it? Prepare it Costa Rican style, café chorreado. First, you need a chorreador, the coffe maker pictured in this post, which essentially is a cloth bag suspended by one of a various arry of wooden frames. I picked up what I thought was a fairly attractive one for about $12. The coffee, ground fairly fine, is placed in the wet bag at the desired strength. (I prefer 2 tbls. per 6 oz. of water.) Then, water, just off of the boil, is poured over the grounds slowly, so as to create a stream, or “chorro” from the bag into the cup. The result is a fine brew that allows the natural oils of the coffee to pass through to the cup. And although many Ticos have switched to the “coffee maker” because of convenience, the choreador is still the most repected way to make coffee.

The main course:
OK, the coffee is taken care of, but what to eat? Gallo Pinto of course! The traditional breakfast food of Costa Rica, Gallo Pinto consists of beans, (normally black) and rice to which is added cilantro, bell peppers, onions, and the top secret ingredient, Salsa Lizano. A truly Tico flavoring that gives gallo pinto it’s charateristic taste. Added to this is usually eggs, the tomato for color, and in this picture, some Mexican chorizo or spicy sausage. We added it to give the meal some Mexican zing. (We are missionaries to Mexico.)

So there you have it, a good Monday morning pic me up. Sorry that this came on Tuesday for those of you who are subscribing via email.

New Newsletter Available

April 29, 2006 in Media by Dave | Permalink

We’ve just redesigned and renamed the Mexico Missive to more accurately reflect our ministry and this website. Best of all, those of you who have been tracking this site regularly get the first peek! So if you just can’t wait for the mail to get your copy, you can download and print it the new discipleMexico here now or click on the picture.

You can download a free copy of Adobe Acrobat reader, the software required in order to read our newsletter, here, or pick up an alternate reader (one that I use) here.

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All good things…

April 23, 2006 in Day2Day, Language, Missions, Progress, Thanks by Dave | Permalink

They say, all good things in life must come to and end, and life in language school is no different. There were a several things that came to an end in the past week that we’d like to fill you in on.

First of all, the trimester of school finished this Friday when we said goodbye to 13 graduates and 1 instructor. Fellow Mexico Missionaries David and Carolyn Huneycutt, Ryan and Christie Thomas and Terisa and Fredy Vasquez were among those who said goodbye to Costa Rica to head to their appointed destinations in order to begin their ministries. We wish them well. Also leaving the school was 13 year veteran grammar teacher, Iris Chavarria (pictured in this post from last year). She was our teacher for our two trimesters, and we owe all of our knowledge of the functioning of irregular verbs and the uses of the subjunctive to her. Gracias por todo Iris, será extrañada.

Second, the end of the trimester also means that we received our evaluations from our Oral Proficiency exams that I mentioned in this previous post. Both Kelly and I finished well, scoring above normal for our group. Not that language school is a competition, but the ability to advance more quickly here will mean that we will have an easier time adapting to the language in Mexico when we arrive. We want to take a moment to say thank you to our teachers (pictured above),thanks to you for your prayers on our behalf. Without those, we are certain that we would not have made it this far.

Finally, yesterday meant the end of my 31st year, and what a year it was! We finished our itineration by speaking in over 55 services, travelling by car to each one, participated in the first ever commissioning of new candidate missionaries at the 51st General Council in Denver, CO, moved twice, arrived in Costa Rica in August, and survived a couple interesting trimesters which saw us through sicknesses, and accidents, but also has brought us closer to ministry in Mexico. Through it all, we have to marvel at the faithfulness of God and His people as we have received the help of so many that they would prove too numerous to mention. My 31st year is over, and, if it served as any indication, 32 should prove to be wonderful!

Wrapping this post up, we realize that good things do come to an end, but as we finish one thing, we find that God continues to offer us new beginnings, which bring rewarding challenges and opportunities to view his faithfulness.

Third time’s the charm.

April 18, 2006 in CostaRica, Media, Nature by Dave | Permalink

Well even though I have missed video blogging week, as mentioned on Missionary-Blogs.com I thought it was appropriate to put up a video of another visit a volcano, since we seem to be keeping a pretty good catalog of trips to these wonders of nature which you can visit here (Irazú) and here (Arenal).

The day below Poas, which sits above the central valley of Costa Rica, was sunny and bright. But when we reached the park entrance, we were told that the crater was completely clouded over, and at the time of the day that we were visiting, probably wouldn’t be visible. However, with Kelly’s family visiting, and the remembrance of 2 other failed attempts to view the second largest volcanic crater in the world, we were determined to try.

When we arrived, it was as we were told. All we could see was a wall of clouds. But almost as an answer to prayer, the clouds parted, and we were able to see Poas in all of its magnificence. Allow us to show you. Click on the player above to view a Google video file of the appearance of this, one of the most frequented tourist sites in Costa Rica. Note: What looks to be the lake in the center of the video is the principal crater.


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Easter Expectations

April 15, 2006 in Day2Day, Devotional by Dave | Permalink

In the photo to the left, you see our children, Rebekah, Joseph, and Jonathan smiling. They are smiling, because they believe that the cookies in front of them are going to be eaten in a few minutes after they are placed into the oven. But, you see, these are special cookies, Resurrection Cookies.

This year, Kelly felt it important that we do something more tangible to celebrate Easter with the kids, so using a recipe from the ladies of Calvary Christian A/G in Springfield, MO we introduced Resurrection Cookies to them. These cookies are made in such a way as to give children visual, hands on representations of the passion, death, and resurrection of Christ. Reading Bible verses to accompany each step in the process, we made cookies, but we also reflected on the reasons why Jesus had to die, and the manner in which he suffered for us. Crushing almonds signified the beating that Jesus took on the cross. Vinegar represented the gall that Jesus was offered, and so on until the process was completed.

In all I think the part most significant in the process was the sadness of closing the cookies in the oven for the night and going to bed. As we taped the oven shut, sealing the “tomb”, the children complained. They wanted to have a taste of the cookies before bed, but we wouldn’t relent. Besides there being raw eggs in the mixture, we felt that it was important for our children to experience in a small way, the disappointment that the disciples felt as the tomb of Jesus was sealed shut, as all of their hopes and expectations of something great were dashed. Our three saw their treats being taken away from them, the disciples, their very lives.

The joy and the excitement of Easter morning couldn’t have been more real then as the seal of death was broken and the tomb was empty. Jesus was alive and hope was reborn. Our children weren’t expecting to go to bed in disappointment, but they will wake up tomorrow to perhaps an unexpected sweetness. In the same way, Jesus didn’t fulfill the earthly expectations of his band of followers, but the new life that his disciples tasted on that Sunday morning could not have been more sweet.

The wonderful thing is that all of us get to share in the benefits of the finished work of the death and resurrection of Christ, and the flavor that forgiveness can bring to life cannot be compared!

So close, and yet so far

April 11, 2006 in Devotional, Missions, Prayer by Dave | 1 comment

The missionaries of today are quite different from those of the past. Single-minded laborers for the Lord, they loaded their belongings in caskets, headed for far off regions that they were sure that they would never return from. Today, we are usually only a plane flight or two away from our home country, and the technology that we enjoy has us linked through the telephone and the internet in such a way that many of us can enjoy a connectedness with our families that few ever even imagined in the past. Some of us are even blessed to receive visits from family as we are enjoying now: Kelly’s parents David and Kim Yaple, along with her brother Micah have been here since last Thursday night, enjoying the Holy Week school break along with us.

Still there are events that remind us of the miles. We had a few that have happened just this weekend. The first was the birth of our latest nephew Levi Christopher this weekend. He’s a 9lb 1oz cutie that is currently 2,050 miles away as the bird flies. The second was the death of my uncle David Regan. Suffering from cancer, my uncle succumbed the day before Levi was welcomed into the world. With the desire to be there strong, but the realities and expenses of travel being as they are, suddenly the world has gotten much bigger. And when we hear of loved ones being sick or churches struggling, we long to be near, to be able to comfort with a touch or simply our presence but we are unable.

These are the times when the calling has to be sure. The times when we reflect on the reason that we have left the United States in order to work on the mission field, and the answer is not because there is a need, but because we are called. So we offer up our prayers for those who are far from us. Prayers of thanksgiving for those events in which the Lord has blessed, and prayers of peace and comfort for those who have suffered loss, and we take confidence that the Lord who has taken us away is big enough fill the space that we leave behind, be it in the celebrations or the sadness.

Sometimes Language School is hanging on for dear life.

April 2, 2006 in CostaRica, Language, Nature by Dave | Permalink

Sometimes, we are on top of the world and think that fluency in Spanish is within our grasp. Other times, we are somewhat like Josh Amiot, hanging on for dear life!

This is the stage that we find ourselves in this week. We are now passing through our “ECHO”s, or Spanish conversation proficiency exams, during which our conversation with one of our professors will be recorded and our level of progress marked. This is one of the most stressful times for the students of CINCEL as we try to bring everything together for this “final exam” for the current term. (Two terms down and one to go!) We appreciate your prayers on our behalf during this time.

Now about the picture. Josh had the unfortunate experience of slipping on the rappelling wall in full view of the camera during our recent men’s retreat. We certainly thank him for the wonderful object lesson, and of course for his great sense of humor!

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