Here today....gone tomorrow!

One may easily forget how a annual tradition for many Costa Rican citizens can directly impact life. After four weeks of ministry opportunities in Haiti and varied locations across the US, we were ready to return home and get back into a routine. Reintegrating into a slower-paced lifestyle punctuated with Spanish is now as familiar as the taste of a freshly baked Nestle's chocolate chip cookie or my favorite stateside craving, a Chik-fil-A chicken sandwich!
The first sight of people walking along the highway and Calle Vieja early one Sunday morning in late July made us wonder if there were a walk benefiting a local charity, but experience confirmed that it was the early arrival of the first of several million romeros returning for the annual La Romeria from points across Costa Rica.
The faithful pass through our tiny barrio to the old capital, Cartago where they pay homage to the patron saint, La Virgen de Los Angeles (La Negrita) in la Basilica de Los Angeles.

Larger crowds had been expected this year as government officials fearing spread of H1N1 influenza cancelled the festivities in 2009.
The last time we experienced this (2008), the kids and I hunkered down at home and made trips to the local pulperias for veggies, fruit and bread until the millions passed.

But this August 1st, Brian needed to be on the other side of town, and was scheduled to preach for both Sunday services--on the day when most pilgrims walked

right outside our front gate.
It looked like this Saturday on the hill past our town but by the time we returned Sunday many more crowded 100 meters from our gate where a Transito roadblock stopped us. We had made alternative plans should our access be denied, but a collective sigh of relief and a satisfied family contently remained inside our refuge for the next 20 hours...with occasional trips outside the gate for milk and snacks, for a glimpse at the swelling crowd; for as of 7 AM tomorrow, only the overflowing trash bins would indicate they had passed through.

An ordinary workday turned celebration for Anna's 10th Birthday!

After a special pancake breakfast (Anna's had chocolate chips), while Brian headed out with the international team here to capture a glimpse of ministry opportunities here in Haiti, the rest of us headed to our respective work sites-- Brian and Byron to an orphanage where they were constructing a building; Dave, Cathy, and Lori to roof shelters in a nearby neighborhood about a kilometer down the road from the base/TG operations center, the Haitian Queen. I was riding along with them as Steve and I would be accompanied by Miguel, our translator so as to obtain GPS coordinates for recently completed shelters, meet the homeowners, and pray a blessing over their new home so the moving in process could begin!

Lunchtime back at the base, but raindrops turned into pelting sheets of rain as we headed to the worksite in Gressier to obtain tools left in anticipation of the afternoon's work--tomorrow would come soon enough, and work would resume. Preparations for celebrating Anna's 10th birthday could be done in a more relaxed manner--new Haitian friends and EFCA missionary applicants (and their 3 kiddos) visiting family in Christianville will be joining us for the celebration.

I wonder if Anna is still working out the details of her latest birthday request? She decided instead of a Barbie dreamhouse, she'd love a younger sister....and the others were headed to the orphanage again. Maybe tickets to a Jonas Brothers concert in Costa Rica aren't such an expensive proposition?

Initial Impressions of Haiti

Much of the world’s focus has drifted from the devastating images from January 12, 2010, when a 7.0 earthquake leveled buildings in Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas. As our airplane touched the tarmac, my husband marveled at the empty fields that had been occupied by major humanitarian agencies just weeks before. Passengers were still transported to an outlying warehouse for immigration and baggage claim, and I found myself reliving scenes from my past in other third world countries, wondering what my next week serving in Haiti with Reachglobal/Touchglobal would look like.

Throngs of people speaking a mix of French and Haitian Creole (neither of which sounded familiar now that I’ve lived in Costa Rica for two years), individuals offering their cell phones for a fee, taxi drivers, and vendors hawking food and drink crowded outside the chain link fence which separated the newly arriving passengers from that chaos. My stomach churned as we realized that our neon green-shirted Touchglobal driver was nowhere in sight, and that a wait would include time in the tropical sun with two large duffel bags, assorted carry-on pieces, and Anna, our soon to be ten- year-old daughter. My mind recalled a similar situation twenty years ago in Quetta, Pakistan, and I relaxed. God had brought me through situations there I wasn’t ready for with our infant son in tow, and He would be with us during the week ahead in Haiti.

Crumbled buildings, mangled autos burnt beyond identification, shells of businesses long since vacated or demolished remained, as did hopeless faces. Tents, temporary shelters, and newly erected tarps and organization-branded, Tyvek -wrapped structures dotted the dusty, rutted road to Gressier. Poverty marked indelibly by a major earthquake remains, but Sunday would dawn with a different sound—the sound of praises sung at sunrise, and a worship service with over one hundred smiling Haitians, the joy of Christ evident on their faces, dressed in their Sunday best(be it well worn, torn or stained from lack of adequate shelter)worshipping in an outdoor sanctuary without walls, shaded by a canopy of green trees, cooled by a gentle breeze, partaking in communion with one another and white-faced "blancs" from a myriad of countries.

God is at work in Haiti. Are you willing to step out of your comfort zone?

Anything but Ordinary

 

Although clinical practice that includes antenatal care and prenatal education may often become routine, clinical practice with an international flair may be spiced up in some unusual ways. Several months ago, Dr. Deliana and I were deep in discussion, when the clinic receptionist posed a question that initially had us giggling. A woman had walked in off the street and asked the theoretical question, “Can someone tell me when my baby will be born? ” Most mothers know that children rarely pay attention to their due dates, so we told the receptionist to make an appointment for the next clinic, only to hear groaning from the waiting room. As much as I would have enjoyed “catching” a baby, our clinic is not set up for emergency deliveries, and after a quick assessment and a few questions, we realized that birth could be imminent…and I grabbed sterile gloves two sizes bigger than my hands, a dirty bulb syringe, and some linens in case the inevitable happened only to plod down the bumpy, pothole-laden road, behind numerous garbage trucks and buses hoping to reach the public hospital in time. I whispered words of comfort (yes, in Spanish) into this young teen’s ear, while lifting silent prayers for a safe and timely birth of a healthy infant anywhere but in the uncomfortable backseat of that car! She wasn’t under the clinic’s care for this pregnancy, but I pray that our desire to share the love of Christ in such a situation will bring her back to clinic-offered health education and parenting classes, and eventually to a Bible study planned for the mothers of La Carpio.

Pray for those involved in providing care for the people of La Carpio, for opportunities such as these, caravans to the jungle(next update), and opportunities for Reachglobal staff and healthy partnerships to reach 100 million people for Christ in the next decade.

Me?. ...in the jungle?

 
This month has been one that has stretched my faith and fortitude in unimaginable ways.
Being willing to go wherever God intends has been ingrained in my heart ever since an unforgettable morning on Front Campus, Wheaton College in 1982. There are times when my North American background and psyche becomes overwhelmed with suffering, poverty, cultural difference, and screams, "Why me?" But I would like to challenge us all to step past our comfort zone and do something outrageous--for your neighbor, for a stranger, for one another, and for God. Those small steps could lead to something life-changing, mind-boggling, and always better than we could imagine.

Pray for us (Brian, Anna and I) as we head to Haiti next. Me? In Haiti? Yes, and I am smiling as I think how many steps outside my comfort zone this life has taken me...and the many unique ways God has enlarged my vision. Start small....just one step!

Representing Four Cultures

Silver and Gold...

Or, in the words of Michael W. Smith, " And friends are friends forever, if the Lord's the Lord of them." Those of you who follow my blog and Facebook sentiments should understand that whenever life gets busy, overwhelming, needs processing or the dear hubby is traveling more, that you should pray harder, and that God is working in my life and that of our family.

This last month was filled with conflicting emotions as our family said goodbye to several folks whose lives had intersected ours and while examining my emotions, I realized it is truly better to have loved and lost temporarily,(as these folks will sit on my front porch in Heaven) than to not have loved at all.

Friendships take hard work. In Brownie scouts at the ripe age of 7, I learned the song, "make new friends, but keep the old, one is silver and the other is gold." This song has played and replayed in my head over the last weeks as new friends and old friends came and went.

As a missionary, the hardest thing for me has been the cultivation of friendship, only to have the friends move a continent away. Or to see my children finally find a true friend only to see him/her move a year or two later...or to leave my adult children in the U.S., or to watch our eldest son graduate and gather for photos in front of the same sign Brian and I stood in front of more than 25 years ago on graduation weekend, knowing that the large group of friends smiling back at us were experiencing emotions similar to the emotions I write about here.

Friendships forged during those intense college years or in foreign cultures are similar. They are pure gold, and stand firm over time.