Costa Rica - Day 3

Would you buy a battery here?

Day 3 had an interesting start. Our first stop of the day was Super Baterias| Los Especialistas en Baterias. Our wonderful driver, Tony, has been having car problems and only got his Mazda MPV back Friday morning. The alternator was just fixed but the battery was still bad and needed to be replaced. So, Tony had a "battery specialist" replace the battery. Battery number one must not have had enough amps because the car still wouldn't start. The battery specialist then used two aluminum pipes to connect the +/- terminals of the battery installed in the car to a second battery that his helper held up next to the installed battery. Still not enough power. Instead of going to a catalog of batteries to match the car to the right size battery the "specialist" proceeded to take batteries off the shelf and try them one by one. Trial and error. He finally found a battery that could start the MPV. Yippee! Then he proceeded to tell Tony the cost was $200. That's a LOT for a battery, double what a reasonable battery should cost. Tony was able to talk him down some.

Tony

The unscheduled stop made us a little late to our first appointment of the day but todo bien (it's all good) because we're on tico time. After the battery adventure we went to the home of Brian and Cathi Duggan. Brian is the International Leader for ReachGlobal in Latin America. The gentlemen on the team from Indianapolis are not from an Evangelical Free church so Brian gave a quick history of the EFCA then dove in deep to his team's goals for Latin America in the next 10 years. The focus is on discipleship and training locals to spread the gospel. There are a lot of new, energized evangelical Christians but they don't have any training. The culture is that of the Catholic Church and complete obedience to the church's hierarchy. This is not the case with evangelicals. The senior pastor does not have absolute power over his congregation. Josue, and other church leaders in Latin America, need church attenders to help co-lead the church. Contact Brian if you'd like to help out. They need experienced church leaders and Christians to come alongside these new believers and disciple them. It's all about relationships.

Meeting with Brian on the Duggan's Veranda

I think we might have had our first fail of the trip today as well. We had an open house at the church for participants of the seminars to come and ask questions one-on-one. No one showed up. It is a Friday though and most participants were at work or school. We are doing the same thing Saturday afternoon and many have indicated they plan to attend. The time was not a complete waste though. The team was able to share with Dan and Josue what was working and what was not working on the trip so far. We were also able to discuss some specific questions that participants had brought up the night before. It was good to come up with some culturally-relevant responses. We were also able to spend some time in the city center of Tres Rio relationship building with Josue, Tony and one of the interpreters (Johan).

View of the school we are using for our sessions from the city square.

Catholic Church in Tres Rio from the city square.

Class time this evening was great. The "kids" in my class really started opening up and I shared a bit more of my testimony. I shared with them how Rebecca and I daily raise our kids up to God and commit our family to serving Him. I told them the story of Joshua when they enter the promised land and he asks the Israelites who they're going to serve: Yahweh or the gods of the Canaanites. Then quoted one of my favorite verses, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!" (Joshua 24:15) We spent a good deal of time scouring a couple of my favorite websites for ideas on how their church can start a web presence: Mars Hill, The Resurgence, and Desiring God. I shared with the class, and those of you who know me will laugh at this, that I frequently refer to these blogs when discussing spiritual matters on a day-to-day basis. A popular website for them is Hillsong. I was able to encourage my interpreter, Ricardo, to learn more about Christian hedonism as well.

"Humble yourselves before the Lord and He will lift you up." - James 4:10 

Take particular notice of the word "will." It's not "might" or "maybe." "He will lift you up." I challenge you, if you haven't already, to fall to your knees and give everything over to Jesus. Humble yourself in His presence by bowing and letting it all out.