Two more days to go…and we’re spending most of them at the Bougainvillea Hotel in Santo Domingo (a suburb of San José). That’s how we started this Monday morning (after reading our daily passages in “Jesus Calling” first).
The schedules for today and tomorrow have been shortened as we are almost completely spent. We wanted very much to meet our remaining missionaries but have lost a bit of interest in seeing every building and barrio in which they work. God went before us as Steve talked with those still on the docket. Amazingly enough, they were feeling worn out for us after looking at the schedule. So today was, and hopefully tomorrow will be, compacted. Well, at least that was the plan…
We jumped into a cab about 7:45, and rode the 30 minutes down to the AMCA house in order to upload blogs, make phone calls and send some emails. Paul Pretiz, a veteran missionary and now retiree was to pick us up at 9:00 and take us to his house for coffee. At 9:20, Steve got a bit worried and called him. Somehow wires had gotten crossed (Steve thinks it was probably his “bad”), and Paul had instead driven up to Mike’s which was closer and would have saved a $15.00 cab ride! He said he would come down and get us, so we had another half hour to work - and we needed it. At the same time, the hour delay was setting everything back, including our arrival at the hotel!
We had a wonderful ride back to Pretiz’ home which was simple and yet comfortable for them. Ruth had a stroke several years ago so her body wasn’t working like most do, but she was completely alert and quite conversational. She is a prayer warrior and has spent a lot of time in prayer for Shellie and me. They, like the other retirees, have been in Costa Rica for decades, have family now in Costa Rica, and are content to live the rest of their earthly sojourn in Costa Rica. Paul is a writer and has authored many articles and co-authored several books about the ministry of LAM. He and Ruth came to Central America to work as radio station managers with HCJB, on loan from LAM. We enjoyed a spot of tea, fresh fruit and some short but meaningful vignettes of their ministries over the years. It was too short! We had only been sitting for about 20 minutes when Paul abruptly said that we needed to get going if we were going to make the right connection with our next family, the Meyers’. After a brief, but precious time of prayer, Paul drove around the north side of city, past the HCJB towers (Faro del Caribe actually), and guided us to a mall!!!
Josh and Christy Meyers and their two cute kids were waiting for us at the entrance of the mall and we selected a hamburger joint in which to sit and eat. Not having had too much luck with meat, Steve had very low expectations. To our surprise, the burgers and fries were great (almost like home). It was a special treat for the Meyers. Josh and Christy are teaching at Palabra de Vida, our very first stop of the trip, with Matt and Lisa Befus. Matt was actually their youth pastor at College Church in Wheaton many moons ago. Josh left a growing career with Capital One to join the Befus’ on a limited term mission (2-3 years). The more we listened to what God had already done in and through them in the U.S. and here, Steve’s brain kicked into vision gear. They have enjoyed teaching, but it’s not what they want to do to for the long term. This is the kind of guy who could help us grow the mission from within. Steve hesitated saying anything directly to Josh about the possibility of working with us in the MSO
until we were saying goodbye to them. Josh sent Steve an email later that night with a copy of resume and is quite interested. Due to our desire to shorten the schedule, we only had an hour with them and then they drove us down to the Clinica Biblica for our grand tour of this huge hospital.
The Clinica Biblica could very well be the crowning achievement to the memory of Harry and Susan Strachan, the founders. The Clinica was started in the 1920’s in a small building and has grown to cover several city blocks with multiple-story buildings. It is one of the very few state-of-the-art hospitals in Latin America, and most likely one of the largest! The buildings are strewn pictures and dedications and verses that make clear the biblical foundation and ongoing christian values upon which the hospital operates.
Upon arriving, we were met by Bev Cook and her two sons. They essentially run the international insurance and travel programs for the hospital. Apparently, thousands of dollars are spent each year to entice North Americans to come to the Clinica for every type of surgery and cosmetic alteration, which can be had for a fraction of the U.S. cost in facilities which, quite honestly, rival any hospital we’ve seen in the U.S. The Cooks escorted us to a quiet conference room where we heard of their programs and how they have been serving at the Clinica, now well into the second generation.
We stopped for a bit to sit and drink some water at their very modern coffee bar, when Esthela, one of our hosts on Sunday, came to get us. Esthela not only leads a church with Verna, but she also serves as the Chaplain for the Clinica. Everywhere we went in the hospital it was abundantly clear that, not only was she doing her job, she was doing very well! She took a break from her duties to give us a comprehensive tour of the hospital facilities. We were able to receive a tour of the original building, which is still being used though the patient rooms are now converted into offices, and we saw almost every floor in every building. Esthela knows this place well!
2:30 came quite quickly and Steve had hopes of getting to the hotel by 3:00. Sensitive to the exhaustion that must have been on our faces by that time, Esthela hailed a cab for us and we were off to the AMCA house first, to get our bags, and then to the hotel. Steve figured it would take almost an hour to do it all. But God’s grace was to be found yet again, as we learned that the AMCA house was less than five minutes from the hospital, and that the hotel was only ten minutes from there. We were checking into Room 207 at 3:10. We barely made it onto the beds and napped for a couple of hours, looking out our room window over the beautiful gardens we described earlier.
Tonight brought us a quite table for two in the dining room, reminiscent of a 1960’s artsy retreat center, once again overlooking beautiful flowers and trees. The linen tablecloths, fused-glass lamps and numerous paintings on the walls made it all seem so distant from the heat and bustle of ministry we have been experiencing for almost two weeks. The decision to move here was right and it didn’t take too long to being to feel like we had actually found rest and retreat in the midst of such a trip! Our evening as made even more special by the quietness of the hotel - we hit during Semana Santa. There were only a few people at the hotel.
Falling to sleep tonight won’t be hard, and we so look forward to waking up to the birds in the gardens tomorrow morning. Only the Lord could make a day so packed with people and places melt away in the midst of His beauty…
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