Prayer for a thief
26 OctThe airplane was small….too small for our carry-on luggage. So at the check-in counter we had to hand over our baggage. I still carried my backpack, but had forgotten my headphones and iPod were in the suitcase. Flying an old Russian prop-plane was an interesting experience. No overhead lights, no air vents, and seats made for much smaller people. When we arrived at our lodgings in Camaguey and I opened my suitcase I found it had been completely riffled through. My headphones case was open and my iPod was gone. Not the first time I’ve had things stolen from me and probably not the last, but what a disappointment!
So here is my prayer and I’d like to ask others to pray with me. I’m praying that the thief, or the person who buys the iPod from the thief,will listen to the sermons on the iPod, receive Christ, and write me (my business card is taped to the case). Can you imagine the email? “Dear Brian, I am the one who stole your iPod and I wanted to write you to say that the Gospel touched my heart and I am now a new brother in Christ.” Now THAT would make losing an iPod a great privilege!
La Feria
25 OctLa Feria
Saturday is the farmers’ market known in Spanish as, “la feria” . On the ½ mile walk there, one sees unusual sights(Brian has the camera in Peru or I’d post a pic here)….a soda(small restaurant often run by a housewife out of her driveway/front of house), a bakery with piping hot baguettes(and other fresh baked but not warm rolls, breads, cookies), a veggie stand, a fruit store, a mini-super(think AM/PM or 7-Eleven but not overpriced), a diaper store(yes, for adults and infants), and a couple carts selling fresh fruit drinks(orange, kolita (bubble gum with fruit floating in it), mixed fruit, tamarindo, and limeade. On the edge of the small, local market here in Tres Rios, trailers selling meats or seafood sit a few meters(remember the metric system—they use it here!) before long rows of fresh veggies and fruits. Often vendors sell only green veggies or strawberries or you name it. Quite an experience…if ya’ll come visit, we’ll take you!
Pursuing a No-Regrets Life
24 OctMuch of what we read has little to do with our lives and offers an escape from reality. Our family recently received the book One Month To Live: Thirty Days to a No-Regrets Life. The book’s thesis is that in daily life we put off many things due to lack of time, energy, resources, or mere excuses. All of us have the same quantity of time to spend each twenty-four hours. What can we do to make it count for the kingdom, most specifically in the lives of our families and others?
Case in point, applying to graduate school while raising four children was a choice motivated first by a passion for the lives of women and children (instilled by God and three different nurse-midwives whose paths crossed mine in my 20’s and 30’s); secondly, to cultivate my intellect; and thirdly, by a desire to use that passion to assist women in my own family and women and children in need.
I daresay that making the choice to leave a comfortable, idyllic American lifestyle was another turning point for our family and in doing so, we began living out what the book above calls a no-regrets life. Believe me, we have not arrived but are on a journey and hope that a small portion of such living will be learned by our children and their children as they develop, not in middle age.
In-transit from a challenging Carribean island
24 OctFriends from home
17 OctThere is something special about having friends from our home country visit us here in Costa Rica. For some reason it is encouraging to know someone from our old life knows a little about what our life here is like. Today four people from our home church arrived and spent the afternoon and dinner with us in our home. And the best part was having friends from there and here meet each other and get a chance to know each other.
Tomorrow we head out to San Carlos which will take us through the mountains and into pineapple and orange farm country. We’ll be visiting some of our Costa Rican partners and have a chance to see the pastoral training they do here.
Zumba, anyone?
11 Oct· It is a solo sport, except during races etc, and even then you are competing against one’s own personal best
· It takes place OUTDOORS, a breeze or light sprinkle may even be felt
· Cadence is involved, but not to a Latin beat
But when Keri wanted to go with me to Zumba, it made it somehow more palatable…
Zumba is intense- and when done in a hot, non-air conditioned Costa Rican gym(think the smallest exercise venue in any Charlotte area YMCA) you are sure to burn enough calories to earn a taxi ride home from the middle of town-especially when your 17 year old insists! We’re gonna try a different class at another gym this week!
Matthew speaks
7 OctMatthew was asked to be the student representative for the groundbreaking of the new 128K square foot science building at Wheaton College.
Matthew speaks
7 OctMatthew was asked to be the student representative for the groundbreaking of the new 128K square foot science building at Wheaton College.
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