Sunday, July 17, 2011

It’s 7 p.m. and we have just finished pizza and cokes for supper.  And, it’s raining….something us West Texas folk have not seen for a long time.  But, we are now in a country that is in the middle of “rainy season”.  And, lots and lots of rain.   But, let me back up a little since this is the first blog entry I’ve been able to post since we arrived yesterday. 

12 of us left Amarillo at 7:50 a.m. on Saturday.  We met us with the other 4 people of our team in Houston and arrived in San Jose, Costa Rica at 1 p.m. in the afternoon.   We are in the central time zone, just as at home, except Costa Rica does not use daylight saving time…so we are one hour behind.   It was raining as we arrived in San Jose and continued on until well in the evening.  We were met at the airport by our missionary host, Anne Sickel.  After loading all the luggage in a van and all of us in a bus we made our way to the town of San Pedro de Poas and the La Finca (the Field) Church of the Nazarene, where we will live and work for the next week. 

Our dining area is the first thing we see.  It’s an open walled, roofed, tile floor area with a small kitchen attached.  Behind that is another open walled, steel roofed area that is the current church.  It used to be a garage.  There is an older house next to the church that is currently offices and the children’s church area.  To the side is the site of the new church we will be working on.   Much, much still to be done.  Down the hill is the site of a small “new” cabin area in which are 4 dorm rooms.  This is where we will be living.  But, to get to the dorm area involves walking downhill on a dirt road.   Remember….it’s been raining all afternoon!  Thankfully, the van full of our luggage drove down so we didn’t have to cart everything in the rain.

The dorm rooms are small but each has a bathroom attached.  There are bunk beds in all.  The nine women are in two smaller rooms and all eight men are in one big room.   After getting our rooms semi-organized we met back up the hill at the dining area for a delicious supper of pork chop, rice, and vegetable.  We have wonderful women from the church cooking for us.  After dinner we had devotions and then retired for the night.  The rain finally stopped just before dinner.   It gets dark here around 6-6:30.  Bedtime came early as we were all tired from traveling.

 

This morning the sun came up really early…..and by 5:30 a.m. we were beginning to get up and ready for the day.   Cold showers were eye-opening as there is no hot water!  Breakfast was at 8 a.m.   It was cloudy and very foggy but not rainy.  Church started at 10a.m. with lots of singing and a very energetic praise band leading it.  People were sitting under the roof and outside on both sides.  The clouds lifted and there was a nice breeze keeping it nice and cool.   Pastor Ron Sullivan preached.  His sermon was translated into Spanish by Erica, a young lady in the church.   Cheryl Karr sang a beautiful song that needed no translation as God spoke through the music.  After church dinner of chicken and rice dish was served to us and several of the church people.  The weather is beautiful…probably in the 70’s.   Everything is so very green and lush with beautiful flowers and bushes everywhere.

After lunch we made arrangements to lease a bus and driver to go to a coffee plantation not far away and up the mountain.  Unfortunately, the rain started very heavily and we were not able to do the entire tour.   But, we did get to see how coffee was made and, of course, visited the gift shop to buy Costa Rican coffee.  Back to La Finca for supper of pizza and coke………….and still raining.  It’s a little cool right now….probably in the 60’s.  Almost time for evening devotions and bed.  See you tomorrow!