We had friends from Georgia visiting us last week. They came down here to help with a Vacation Bible School (okay, they came to do the VBS and we were there to help). They were members of the last church we served and tremendous friends. During our time together, we had a chance to talk about the past few years, dream together, and take a few trips to see other parts of Costa Rica. To see some pictures, click here to go to our web album.

Okay, I still don’t know tons about Honduras. There are a lot of things culturally and politically and historically that I don’t know that color what I can know at the moment. I realize I am viewing the situation through North American eyes, but I will try to write the facts as I have gotten them and nothing more. I don’t want to lead anyone astray, but I would like you to know at least a little of what is happening so that you can direct your prayers. I am still very frustrated by the lack of coverage I see on the news websites such as foxnews and cnn.

So, the information I have now…

– The current president, Michelleti, has been trying to get support from the international community, but with little success. The Obama administration is in support of the former president’s reinstatement, and this is not being well received by the Republicans in the United States. The former president is very much supported by Chavez of Venezuela and the Castros of Cuba.

– Michelleti (the current president) is of the same political party as the former president. A military coup would have put the military in control. This action put the person who was already offically next in line for the presidency in power.

– The former president had been wanting to do something that the congress and supreme court had told him he could not do. He obstantly continued to pursue it.

– One of Honduras’ ambassadors to the US has said offically that no coup has taken place in his country. The ex-president of Honduras has suspended him from his position.

– There has been some concern from the countries further south (El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama) about products and goods coming from the north on the highways. They have to pass through Honduras enroute. It seems as though those restrictions are being or have been lifted.

– Many of the governments of Latin America are opposed to what has happened. One of the main reasons for their opposition is the fact that they don’t want to turn the clock back to their history of 25 years ago.

This is, again, in a nutshell, the things I am learning about Honduras. There is a lot more that I don’t know. Honestly, I’m shaky on the details. A lot is up to interpretation. Please forgive me for the mistakes. What’s most important… please pray. Pray for peace to suddenly break out…

God bless you…

I´m not sure what kind of news coverage you are getting about what is happening in Honduras right now. I´ve been frustraded looking at cnn.com and foxnews.com for information because there isn´t much. Of course, they are covering more important things like the life history of the King of Pop… okay, enough sarcasm. I want to take a few moments to share with you what I´ve learned about the current situation in Honduras while talking with my teachers and other Costa Ricans…

Just north of Costa Rica is Nicaragua. North of Nicaragua is Honduras. It´s not far because the countries are somewhat small compared to the United States. As the crow flies, the capital city is less than 400 miles from the capitol of Costa Rica. Of course with roads and natural obstacles, it takes a while to get there on land.

The “old” president of Honduras, Mr. Zelaya, is well liked by Chavez of Venezuela and Castro of Cuba. Their ideas of goverment are not the same as the ideas of the government in the United States and “us” and “them” are more often at odds than not. A few nights ago, Mr. Zelaya was kidnapped in his pijamas by the military, put on a military plane, flown to Costa Rica, put out on the highway, and the plane took off. Not long after that, the leader of congress (they have to Vice President there) was sworn in as president. Not many nations in the world are recognizing the new goverment. President Obama has said the takeover of power was illegal and that President Zelaya should be reinstated. That does not mean he is in support of the ideas of Chavez and Castro. In truth, the presidency of Zelaya has not been totally well received by many. However, there are ways–better ways–to remove someone from power. He would have left office when his term expired in November anyway. Currently the people are under curfew. I´ve heard that from six at night until six in the morning, those in power have permission to shoot anyone found on the street. I hope this is wrong information, but I don´t know. In a nutshell, that´s what has happened. These are some of the effects.

The nations of Central America have been working hard for a number of years to be more democratic. The last military coup of this type in Honduras was in 1978. This takeover has put the process back about 20 or 25 years.

The nations of Central America have just or are about to (I´m not clear on this) sign a trade agreement with the European Union. This would be a tremendous boost to the economy. The problem is that it was contingent on peace in all the countries.

Both Zalaya and the leader of the congress claim to be president. Who is the president, really?

Although many in Honduras did not like Zalaya, he still had a strong following among the poor.

Okay, that´s pretty much all I know (or at least, think I know) about what´s happening. Please pray for the situation. Pray for the people. Pray for wisdom.

Thanks.

God bless you in all things.

Okay, so we had hot dogs for dinner tonight. We bought them at a store downtown and brought them home to eat. They were good. Not excellent, but good. Have you ever eaten hot dogs with a slice of green mango on them? (My guess is no, but you never know). It´s good. In the southeast of the US we eat hotdogs with coleslaw sometimes, and the mango sort of (okay, maybe not a whole lot, but kind of maybe) reminded me of that.

Another amazing thing: Here we can buy hotdogs in a package with 12 dogs. Okay, so that´s not amazing. Here´s the amazing part: we can also buy a bag with twelve hot dog buns! I´ve never understood why we buy packs of 8 hotdogs in the states and bags of 10 buns. Never made sense to me, and I am still trying to figure it out. I told the man who sold us the stuff that we were glad to have the same amount of buns and hot dogs. He looked at me like I was crazy. I guess he was right. Why shouldn´t I want that?

Anyway, be blessed in all you do…even as you try to figure out what to do with the extra buns…

Okay, so I´ve been waiting for inspiration to hit me… but is still isn´t here. However, I want to let you know we are still here and life is good!

We had a busy weekend, celebrating our 17th wedding anniversary (we remember our parents´ 17th anniversaries and they were old. How is it that we reached this milestone and are still so young?) Audra and I went and had Peruvian food where we ate ceviche (raw fish cooked in lemon juice and served with a lot of cilantro) and she had the best beef we´ve had in Costa Rica. Later we took the family to see up at the theatre. We saw it in 3-D and we were totally impressed. Things have changed a lot since we put on those red and blue tinted glasses. Sunday we went to an Ox Cart festival. They were important for the culture here before the advent of planes, trains and automoblies, and the people filled them with coffee and sugarcane to carry them to the port cities so they could be shipped off around the world.

I know this isn´t the most exciting writing you´ve ever read. We´ll work on doing better. In the meantime, click here to go to our online photo album, or click here to go to see some video of the oxcart parade (there were more than 150 carts there).

Be blessed in all you do.

Yesterday was Saturday, and so for the first time in a long time, I decided to get some things done around the house that I´d been putting off. We rent the place, so there are some things we aren´t responsible for, but there are some easy things I could do to make our time here a little nicer (as if it weren´t already nice!)

About a mile from the house is El Lagar. It´s like a Costa Rican version of Lowe´s or Home Depot, and had pretty much everything I needed. They do things a bit differently there, but one thing they do that was familiar is they put big name items on display just as you walk in so that you can easily take one to the cashier to buy it. This time they had ovens and stoves out front. I wasn´t very interested in cooking stoves so I just walked by… that is, I wasn´t very interested until I saw a particular type of cookstove on display. It wasn´t gas. It wasn´t electric. It was firewood.

Okay, maybe that´s not all that uncommon in hardware stores. There is a bit of a movement by some to get back to nature and to get off the power grid. But these stoves weren´t there for the environmentally conscious. They were there becuase in our community there are people who want to cook their meals, but who do not have the electricity (or the money to pay for the electricty) to run the stove. They make do with what they have.

Nope, I don´t think we´re in Kansas…,er, the United States any more!

Be blessed in all you do!

We met Fred and Millie in 2001. They were some of the first people to come to the church in Ball Ground after we moved from the old building and into a store front. Little did we know at the time just how much they would mean to us. Over the years we have cried together. Talked together. Laughed together.

It was hard for us to say goodbye to them when it was time to stop pastoring the church in order to raise support to be missionaries. We always knew, though, that we had a place to go back to if ever we were in Ball Ground. They became great cheerleaders for us. Great partners. Great prayer warriors on our behalf. That meant a lot to us because for years they had been not only tremendous friends, but also a source of great inspiriation.

Among other things, Fred suffered from Alzheimers. I say suffered, but that doesn´t seem fair. He never seemed let it get him down. He would be frustrated when he couldn´t find the right words. He would have times of sadness because he knew what was happening to him and that he could do nothing to stop it. But suffer seems to be the wrong word. No matter what he was going through, he still greeted us with a smile, often asking me, “How´s it going, big guy?” As the years progressed, we gained more and more insight into his younger life as he regressed backwards. I think that for most of the time we knew him, I was his pastor (an honor I cherish), but over the years there were times when I think I was a friend from his army days. I don´t know who else I may have been…

Millie was always there by his side. Solid. Helping. Loving. Caring for him. She always told us this was not the way she would have prefered, but “if you can´t have what you want, you´d better want what you have.” She made the best of it. It was hard, but she wanted to be there as much as she could for him. She understood better than any of us what was happening to Fred, and she let us in on what we needed to know. Regardless what the disease did, she wanted to have Fred as long as she could.

This morning she said goodbye to him. Among his last words to her were “Are you ready? We´re going together.” She said something like, “I don´t know if we´re going together…” They held hands. They embraced. She helped him to go home peacefully and easily.

As I write this, I thought the tears were gone, but there they go again, welling up. This is a bitter sweet moment. As a dear friend, I going to miss him. As a Christian, I know he´s at peace. I can only imagine the stories he´s telling now!

God bless you.

Audra was shopping today at the local grocery store, getting some of the staples we need for week. Becuase the weather is hot, she was dressed comfortably in capris, short sleeved shirt and crocs (thos plastic sandal like things). Standing in the checkout line, she felt something tickle her foot. Without thinking she wiggled her toes and looked down just in time to see a large cockroach crawling out of her shoe. It had just crawled in and was now leaving.

Oh, the joys of life.

We just closed the gate behind some good friends who came over for Bible Study in Spanish about what the Bible says concerning faith and good works. It´s a good stretch of our vocabulary and our ability to use the language. The study is taught by a fellow student who is very good at learning languages and can speak not only fluidly, but also with precision. Someday, we will get there ourselves…

One of the traditions of cafecitos (that is, afternoon coffee) here in Costa Rica is a food called Chorreadas. It is basicly a corn pancake and is very easy to make, so I thought I´d share the recipe with you to try at home.

Chorreadas
2 cups corn kernals (if from a can, drain first)
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 TBS butter
1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp vanilla

Put all the ingredients in a blender and blend until well mixed. The batter should be thin, but if you think it is too thin, add a bit more flour to get it to the consistency you prefer. Put a bit in a hot frying pan, and with the back of a spoon, spread it out a bit until it is somewhat thin. Fry until the top starts looking dry. Flip over and cook a short time. Serve immediately. It is very good plain, but even better if topped with a little bit of sour cream.

If you try it, please let us know what you thought!

Be blessed in all you do!

The start of the rainy season has coincided exactly with the start of classes this trimester. I´m not saying it´s a bad thing. In fact, I for one am glad the rain is coming back becuase it cools down the hot sun of the mornings. The clouds roll in about noon and by one o´clock (the time class lets out for us) the first drops begin to fall. We got used to this system last fall and summer (er, I guess it was winter here) when we arrived. The difference this time is the thunder and lightening that comes along with it. I told a new student that it will taper off as the year progresses. I hope I´m remembering right that we didn´t really have much flashing and booming going on when we got here…

Be blessed in all you do.