Costa Rica Missions Trip Day 6

June 25

Today was our day of rest!  We slept in a bit, I went for a longer run, Karen went out to the mermaid statue to SHAPE and Janis went for a walk. As we walked out of the door for breakfast we were met by a young couple who asked if they could have breakfast here.  We directed them toward Cecilia's and invited them to join us for breakfast.  Karrina & Will were from Florida, and we had a really good visit with our new friends!

See the mermaid statue?  This was 8am. 

See the mermaid statue?  4pm.  The tide is crazy!

About halfway through breakfast we realized that we had accidentally locked our keys in our apartment!  Luckily Cecilia is also our "landlord" so she let us back in.  By this time we were running a bit late for church, so we hopped in the car to drive down to the local Spanish/English church that Penny had suggested.  As we attempted to pull out of our little driveway, two geese were standing in the path & they would not move.  So Karen got out of the car and tried to shoo them away, only to have one of them nip at her!  She grabbed a bamboo branch to use as a makeshift sword and they finally got out of the way!

By the time we pulled up to the little church (or what we thought was the church but we'll get to that in a moment), it was about 10:15, & the service started at 10.  It was an open-air, kind of like everything else here, and someone had pulled their motorcycle right into the back of the church to park :).  There weren't a lot of people there so we easily found a seat and joined in the prayer time, although it was in Spanish.  Even though the leader was on a microphone praying, everyone was pretty much praying on their own as well - out loud for the most part!  So after the prayer ended they sang some worship songs in Spanish, and then the leader prayed over the offering and turned it over to the pastor.  At this point one of the singers came over to our row to welcome us quietly, and also told us there was a Spanish/English church just up the road a bit.  Yep, we had found the "wrong" church! But we were actually really enjoying it so we stayed.  After the service, every single person in there came up to welcome us and to talk, and it was really a cool experience.  As we were driving off (and actually drove by the other church!) I commented on how "noisy" it seemed to us when we first walked in and everyone was praying out loud on their own, but to God it was all clear.  He hears a crazy bunch of noise all at the same time but it just sounds like praise to Him and He hears everything perfectly clear. Wow.

Then it was laundry time!  The washing machine here is interesting...I'll leave it at that!  The loads run quick, and being that the sun was out and there was a bit of a breeze, everything dried pretty fast on the clotheslines.  I can't say our clothes are sparkling clean, but they sure smell a LOT better than they did.  Especially my running clothes - whew!

And then it was beach time!!  We picked up Brenda and headed down to the beach.  We walked along the sand and when we felt like it we stopped, played in the waves and then walked on some more.  It was a great couple of hours of just R&R.  When we returned we found an outdoor shower to rinse off some of the sand, and then we all showered and got ready for the regular Sunday night staff dinner hosted by Chris & Jamie, who work part-time as teachers for SOH and live just up the road from our place.

Supper was wonderful and their home is set way up on the hill. We enjoyed great conversation with new friends, and then Penny took time to share a situation that needed much prayer.  The Parrita clubhouse has strong Seeds and Roots of Hope programs, but two young men who have been doing great and even showed interest in being leaders have been heavily influenced by the drug culture in the high school, and have both become addicted to cocaine and are likely dealing. We spent a great deal of time praying for Diego and Amy, the clubhouse leaders, who were both there, and for the two teens, Michael and Tio.  We ended the evening by singing two worship songs (we were glad to be able to sing a few in English!).  It was pretty sobering, and even Hillary leaned over at one point and said, "mom, we are spoiled". Yes mi hija, we are.

As we were walking back to our place a storm started rolling in. In just a few short moments we had a full-blown thunderstorm!  We've had storms a lot - almost every day - but this one rivals a Kansas storm!  The breeze is definitely welcome.

Things I learned today...1) Running a longer distance means sweating for a MUCH longer period of time after I stop; 2) Dryers in Costa Rica are overrated; 3) Even when you rinse off in an outdoor shower after being at the beach, there's still a lot of sand in your bathing suit.

Costa Rica Missions Trip Day 5

June 24

Last day of painting!  Although we have enjoyed our time at the Tarcoles Club House and have been more than happy to do our part in helping to make this building a place where it can serve the boys & girls of the area, we also had to admit we were happy to be putting on those paint clothes for the last time.

We went next door for our "usual" breakfast at Cecelia's. She's figured out how much we love the fresh fruit, how much I like the coffee, and how much the dogs like Hillary.  We're starting to feel like family!  I will miss her but she's on Facebook so we will stay in touch there...which is just crazy to think about.  She even started taking pictures of us today!

We headed to Tarcoles a little later than we had anticipated, and we were met there by Glenn's two painter guys who had been waiting a bit for us.  When we apologized they just said "No problemo!" and we thought "Pura Vida" :).  They are the hardest workers - between the 7 of us we knocked out the rest of the painting and even the cleaning up by about 1:30.  They will return to finish the front of the outside and the ceiling, but other than that it certainly looks different than it did on Wednesday morning!  Here are a few more before and after pics.

After a leisurely lunch at our favorite Soda, we loaded up the car and headed back to Esterillos.  We stopped in Jaco to wander around a bit, and somehow we found another ice cream shop to try.  While we were there Penny text Karen that she wanted us to go with her to Parrita to Diego's regular Saturday night youth group.  She said we were to leave at 4:45, so I had a moment of panic when I looked at my watch and it said 4:20, knowing we had a 15 minute drive and we were all pretty nasty from painting!  No one else seemed very concerned, and they even were looking at me a little strangely as I was rushing us to leave. Um...yeah...my watch was still set to Central time so it was really only 3:20.  Lol!

The only unfortunate event of the day started at lunch when Brenda mentioned she had a bit of a headache.  After our ice cream stop she said it was turning into a migraine, and by the time we got back it was full-blown. We dropped her off at her place so she could rest, while the rest of us got showered and ready to meet Penny.

It's always a treat to spend time with Penny, and she shared more SOH stories with us on the drive to Parrita. On the way to the Parrita Club House we stopped at the previous clubhouse, which is now a small place of business - a mini-hair salon for both girls & boys; it also hosts a wifi/computer room, and they rent movies. We then drove through some government housing, and viewed how an incredible number of people live in some pretty poor conditions.  It was here that SOH pretty much began, as this was where a former prostitute brought Penny to show her where many mothers were bringing their children to generate income for them.  Most of the people living in the government housing were homeless prior to moving into these residences, and there are gangs, prostitution & children running around unsupervised.

The clubhouse is definitely a bright light in this area. Penny & her husband Chris, who is in construction, built the clubhouse from the ground up, and it was just completed in November of last year.  It was pretty awesome to hear worship songs & prayers in Spanish, as well as Diego's message. Although I could garner bits and pieces of the Romans 7 passage & the message he shared, it was certainly helpful to have Paula there to translate! It was just an awesome "ah ha" moment that God is so everywhere.  I was really overwhelmed!  Afterwards we chatted with some of the kids before heading back to Esterillos.

We stopped for supper just down the road from our little casa where we enjoyed some wonderful food and great conversation.  After we returned, Penny & Karen went to check on Brenda, who was still suffering from her migraine.  They prayed for her, gave her some medicine & a massage, and put her to bed.  Praying for healing for that awesome gal.

Things I learned today in Costa Rica...1) I am spoiled. 2) The second you step out of the cold shower, you are immediately hot again. Like immediately before you dry off. 3) I am really, really spoiled.

Costa Rica Missions Trip Day 4

June 23

We started the day with breakfast at Cecelia's - the fresh fruit is absolutely amazing.  Hillary was a little disappointed that there was toast instead of potato cakes, but there's always tomorrow :).  The pineapple fruit smoothie has become a staple for her however! I sure love the coffee, and even Cecelia said "Te gusto mucho el cafe!" Si, senorita, I do.

On the way to Tarcoles we stopped to replenish our water supply, and to pick up some ant spray & dish soap.  We also made a visit to a local ferreteria (hardware store) to get a couple more paint rollers & a scraper to help address our paint spills. Everyone is so friendly!  It's fun to experience everyday life here.

Our focus today was to get the rest of the blue paint covered with the light grey, which was easier said than done. Some of the walls are so heavily textured that it took multiple rolls with the rollers, and a lot of tedious "dabs" with the paint brushes.  Just before lunch our friend Glenn showed up and surveyed our work.  We shared our frustration with some of the walls, and then he disappeared...only to return shortly with two painters equipped with rollers and ready to help us tackle some of the challenging walls, hard to reach areas & the outside of the building.  As we left for lunch, we all felt more confident that we will actually finish our painting job by the end of the day tomorrow!

Since we have enjoyed the Soda (diner) we've frequented for lunch for the past 2 days, we decided to return once again!  It's been great to have Brenda with us as her Spanish is in a whole other place than mine.  What a bonus to get exactly what we order, instead of being served something sort of close to what we thought we were ordering.

Our two new amigos knocked out a lot of painting, as did the rest of us. The best part was moving beyond grey and opening up the orange paint.  A new color to paint actually gave us all a little lift!  Telling ourselves we would stop for ice cream on the way home may have also been helpful.

We wrapped up around 4:30 and headed back to Oeste Esterillos, stopping for some bomb ice cream in Jaco.  We had a little time before dinner so I went for a quick run during which I found another beach area just down the way from our little casa.  It was gorgeous!! We will definitely be jumping in the ocean in that area sometime in the next couple of days.  Dinner was at Cecelia's, and tonight we had shrimp or fish with rice, a broccoli and carrot ensalada and her awesome & refreshing fruit drinks. Hillary was very happy to see potato cakes on the side.

So things I learned in Costa Rica today...1) Matching plates/mugs/cups are overrated in Costa Rica. 2) I used to really like the color blue but after seeing it peek through freshly painted grey walls for 2 days may put it on my "dislike" list. 3) Bags of rice at the grocery store are very large. 4) Costa Ricans love to make eye contact and say "Hola!" or chat for a moment.  And they are patient with those of us who like to think we know Spanish.

Hillary checking out the hammock before starting our long day of painting!

Meet Glenn.

That's a lot of rice.

Costa Rica Missions Trip Day 3

June 22

We started the day with breakfast at Cecilia's place and were once again met with wonderful service, fresh papaya and pineapple and that great coffee. We had a great time visiting with Sara, & heard more about the miraculous story of living pain-free with severe scoliosis. The twist in her spine is obvious to anyone who stands being her and looks at her spine and hips, but she was healed at age 15 of all pain and went on be a skilled cheerleader (can you say Dallas Cowboys?!), have 5 children, a serve as a missionary for 40 years.  What a story and what a lady!

After breakfast we walked a few doors down and saw where the staff lives.  While we were walking around their pool area, we ran into Brenda, an awesome gal from San Diego who flew in the same day we did to serve with Seeds of Hope for 5 weeks. Her schedule was fairly open for the day so she came with us to paint, which turned out to be a godsend for all of us. She was a huge help, and having a younger person there for Hillary to connect with was awesome.

After praying over the clubhouse, Karen accidentally gave Hillary a roller full of paint to the forehead, giving her a new color for her bangs! We spent a lot of time priming some of the more challenging walls, and I have to give Brenda and Hillary a huge pat on the back for tackling the hardest walls of the whole place. They rocked it! Still not sure how we are going to get to the top corners but I'm sure we'll figure something out. There's a whole other wall this same size to the right of the rock column!

We had lunch at the same "Soda" where we ate yesterday, and again it was fantastic. Luckily Brenda speaks a little more Spanish than I do so the communicating went a little quicker! That great lunch gave us a little pick-me-up that we all needed to blow through the rest of the afternoon. Two more days of painting should finish the job!

The drive back and forth to Tarcoles from Oeste Esterillos where we are staying is absolutely breathtaking. We can see the ocean on one side of us from the highway, and the scenery on the other side is just as gorgeous. Planning to stop to see the sunset tomorrow or Saturday.

So things I learned in Costa Rica today...you really have to use your core when standing on a stepstool on top of a table...paint rollers will bend and even break plumb off when painting heavily textured walls...scissors are not as handy as a flathead screwdriver when taking tacks and staples out of a wall...and it takes a LONG TIME to cool down & quit sweating after you run 2 miles in this humidity. Just sayin'.

Karen and I with Cynthia 

Breakfast with Sara & Josh before heading out to paint.

Use your CORE!

Dinner! Getting used to those tasty fried Plantains & fresh fruit frothy drinks!

Costa Rica Missions Trip - Day 2

June 21

Today began fairly early as we had to meet the paint delivery folks at the Tarcoles Clubhouse at 8:30...or so we thought.  But we'll get to that later.  We went "next door" for breakfast where we were served eggs, black beans & rice (a staple with pretty much every meal), toast and the best coffee ever. Seriously. It is fabulous. Basically the lady who lives in the place next to us, Cecelia, has a little restaurant and serves meals.  It's kind of like a Bed & Breakfast for us. She & her family are awesome and she's so patient with me as I continue to try and use Spanish to communicate!  We had two SOH friends meet us for breakfast - Josh, who is from New York, is fairly new to SOH & runs the clubhouses in Jaco, and Sarah, who is a seasoned 40+ year missionary and has been with SOH for some time now.  She loves Africa and told us "I was actually on my way back to be a missionary in Africa when I met Penny Williams!"  That seems to be a recurring theme :)

Breakfast was so nice - it's pretty hard not to enjoy drinking great coffee while watching the waves crash just a few yards away.  Not my typical Kansas morning view!

We packed up a few things and headed out on the 45-minute drive to Tarcoles with little or no directions.  I drove and Karen navigated, and we made it right to the clubhouse with one minor turn-around...which was actually just trying to get out of the area where we are staying!  We had enough time to spare to walk down to the beach area, get the clubhouse opened up, & find all the light and fan switches (which was NOT EASY!!) before 8:30.  When the delivery didn't arrive right away, we took advantage of the extra time to pray over our day, and to write some scripture and positive words all over the walls we would be painting.  By then it was almost 9, so we started sweeping and prepping the walls as best we could...and then we swept some more...and drank more water...and planned out our painting strategy...and waited some more. By this tine it was 10:15 so we decided that Hillary and I would drive back to Jaco to the paint store to check in with them.  Just as I started the car Penny text Karen that they were on their way, which turned out to be a really good thing because later we learned that the paint store wasn't actually in Jaco! I told the girls that God probably saw me getting in the car and said, "Get those guys on their way...they don't have time for Jen to get lost and spend all day trying to find her way back" :)

A couple of things I learned about painting in Costa Rica.  Stir sticks are optional, as are paint can openers, although a long stick and scissors work in a pinch.  I also learned that light grey paint really looks like white.  Oh - and an X-Acto knife doesn't work as well as a true scraper. Just some tips.

We had a great time painting, covering a LOT of mint green paint with grey/white and priming a all the walls with pictures painted on them.  We enjoyed a fantastic lunch just up the road a few steps. The food here has such great flavor - not spicy, just really flavorful.  And they cook with very limited pots, pans and kitchens.  Less is more.

We got back to our place around 5:30 & decided to go walk in the ocean before supper. I had a slight tragedy when the right sole of my Teva's came unglued, so I returned to our casa before the rest of the girls.  I decided to slip on my running shoes and go for a quick run.  In Costa Rica there are so many dogs running around - all very friendly fortunately.  As I rounded a curve two dogs were running around and thought I was their new playmate.  I almost stepped on one and the other jumped up and gave me a nice scratch on the leg!  I kept that run short. Between that and smashing my finger in the mop handle, I am in need of some band-aids.

Supper was fantastic - fresh-caught fish with potato cakes, rice and beans of course and a wonderful cucumber, greens & tomato salad.  Served with fresh avocado - right off the tree that was growing behind our table.  Cecilia topped it off with a fresh fruit drink that was outstanding.

By the way, crisis averted...super glue is being delivered by Sarah in the morning to fix my Teva's. And bringing band-aids. Whew.

Costa Rica Missions Trip - Summer 2017

How this whole thing came about.

When we were living in Fresno, California, my good friend Karen Segovia became involved with an organization called Seeds of Hope in Costa Rica, and many times she talked to me about going there with her to serve and learn more about their mission. After we moved back to Kansas we continued to talk about it, and finally decided that 2017 was the year.  Then in February she called and said that our church in Fresno was sending teams of missionaries to various places, and one of those was Seeds of Hope in Costa Rica. When she was named the team leader for CR-SOH, it pretty much sealed the deal for me to go!  John and I decided that since part of SOH's mission is centered around teaching young girls how they are valued and have purpose, we decided it was a great opportunity for Hillary and I to both join the team.  So after months of fund-raising through letters, personal asks, extra group trainings and boot camps, June 19 arrived and we boarded a plane for Costa Rica!

June 19
We flew to Houston where we met up with the other two team members heading to Costa Rica. Through a God-led series of events, Seeds of Hope founder Penny Williams was also on our flight so we all arrived at the same time in CR. After navigating customs with no issues, we hopped in a shuttle van to the hotel where we were staying for the night since it was already late. Waiting at the hotel were two of the SOH clubhouse directors, Diego & Ricardo, who were waiting to meet with Penny.  After quick introductions, the rest of our team - which included Karen, Janice, Hillary and I - headed across the street to Denny's for a good meal.  Not having been to Denny's in many, many years I must say, their menu has come a long way!  :)  We had a very nice waiter or "camarero", who was very patient as I tried out the Spanish I've been studying for a few months!

We hit the beds hard that night - the Fresno crew had been up since about 3:30am so they were ready for some rest.  I personally was so pumped about being here that I didn't go right to sleep.  I can't believe we are really here!

June 20
The weather was fairly cool this morning and I enjoyed a quick workout by the pool.  After a nice breakfast together we went out to the pool area to share SHAPE bible study, and then packed up our things.  We regrouped in the lobby, loaded our vehicles and headed for Tarcoles!  On the way we stopped to see the Crocodiles at the famous Tarcoles Bridge, which is where it all began for Penny and Seeds of Hope. Read more about that here: http://www.seedsofhopecr.com/our-story.html.

Ricardo is the Director at Tarcoles, and they just secured a new location for the Tarcoles Clubhouse. Another SOH supporter and friend, Glenn, met us there & all of us sat down to make a painting plan. You see, our job this week is to paint the clubhouse, and after seeing it, I wanted to snap my fingers and have Kelly Kuhn appear to help us!  Before we jumped into the planning, we took a few minutes to pray over the location, and it was a great time of prayer and preparation for everyone.  The location was previously a nightclub/bar, so giving it a thorough covering in prayer was the perfect place to start.  Keeping it covered in prayer and soon to be paint will make a fabulous place for the kids to come hang out, attend classes and eventually have small businesses of their own, although Glenn's vision of an ice cream "parlor" at the entrance during our prayer time may happen sooner rather than later!

We left the location and headed down to the local "hardware & paint" store.  Glenn and Ricardo were quite a team as they bartered a good price on paint & paint supplies, and made a new SOH supporter out of Veronica and "momma"!  They agreed to have it delivered by 8:30am the next day, so we are now in the paint business.

One thing I love about this culture is how the clock isn't really the clock.  Things just happen when they need to happen and even though we got done what we needed to get done today, there were no feelings of being rushed or like we "had" to be somewhere.  It's a very laid-back place, and although people drive a little crazy, it's not a "rush-rush" atmosphere.  That's a really nice feeling...until it's 3:45pm and you haven't eaten lunch yet!  :)  We stopped to eat in Jaco at the greatest little taco bar.  There were swings on one side of the bar for seating, and stools on the other.  The food was wonderful, and once again, no feeling of being rushed or having to hurry.  It was nice.

We parted ways after "lunch" and our team of 4 was joined by Paula, a SOH staff person who "pretty much does everything".  She took us to the grocery store to pick up water and a few other things and then guided us to our humble abode near the beach in Oeste Eustaurios where we unloaded, unpacked and settled in a bit.

Another little tidbit about Costa Rica...the sun goes down quite early - like 6pm!  And it rises early which will be helpful in getting us up and around in plenty of time to make the 45-minute drive back to Tarcoles to jump into our paint job.  Luckily our meals are prepared by the lady next door, so our focus can be on our work to be done here!  Can't wait to see what tomorrow will bring!

First Day of School Failure!

So for the past couple of weeks on Facebook we've seen happy smiling faces of kids going back to school accompanied by sappy posts from parents (aka moms) about the ages and grades of their kids. Yes, I am one of those moms who insists on first day of school pictures, writing down what they wore, what they did & other tidbits about their first day.  Fortunately for my kids, I did finally back off in response to their plea for me to stop going up to the school and taking pictures with their teachers.

Trace and Jordan (our other kid for the fall) started school yesterday.  It was a rather calm morning since both kids got up on time, ate breakfast with no arguing or fighting, were ready to leave in an appropriate manner and were quite accommodating for the photo shoot.  Today?  Not so much.

Today was a first day of school failure all around!  Someone hit the snooze button. Someone else took too much time in the bathroom.  More than one was late for breakfast, and it wouldn't be a school morning if someone couldn't find all the pieces to their outfit. I tried a new pancake recipe, hoping to accommodate some new dietary changes the doctor recommended for Trace...let's just say that one won't be a repeat.  When someone fed the dogs, they ran off.  When I asked one child why their hair wasn't done yet they said it was my fault. One child told another one to shut up, and you know that always goes well. Devotional?  Yeah, that didn't happen either.

I shooed them out the door, 5 minutes late, had them pose and told them to "look like you are happy for the photo even though you aren't". They obliged, and if you see our pics, you would think we are a big happy family.  Two seconds later they were loading in the car, arguing about who was going to sit where and the oldest asked if he could make the younger ones walk from the high school instead of dropping them off at the elementary.  I stuck my head in the window and told them to have a great day, then waved at them as they drove away.  As I went back into the kitchen I surveyed the pancake mess, started laughing and thought "After almost 2 years of not doing one blog post, I am so blogging this today."