Day 4 in Costa Rica

Today was a killer!

We woke up this morning greeted by clear skies and a view out the french door to the mountains north of the city of San José. Birds were chirping, our two german shepherd guard dogs, Buddy and Beyoncé (yes, after the singer) were standing over the wrought iron patio fence looking for some much needed people attention, and a cool breeze made the heat of yesterday seem a million miles away.

We left Mike Yoon’s, the place that others in the mission affectionately call the “Mini-Marriott”, at about 7:30 a.m. for the one hour trip into the city (which should only take 20 minutes at a normal speed - this is worse than L.A. at rush hour!) The time was well spent as we got to know Rodrigo Chavarría, a Costa Rican who studied with Juancito Terranova, the son of my co-pastor in Argentina, at Columbia Bible College and then at Wheaton. He is incredeibly articulate and we could sense right away that he was as much affected by his time in the U.S. as I was in Argentina. There was that sense of having almost a dual heart. He has been with the mission for a long time and has had a tough journey, but is excited about the future.

We arrived at the headquarters of PROMETA, a Latin online seminary offering accredited M.A.’s in Christian Leadership and Biblical Studies. There are more Ph.D’s and D.Min’s in that converted house than in most seminaries. Along with Rodrigo, who is handling the admin for PROMETA right now, we were able to sit for a couple of hours with Jeff David, another long time LAMer who writes curriculum and oversees students and their projects. While the time was supposed to be centered on the ministry of PROMETA, we quickly passed to discussing LAM and MSO issues. Shellie and I were amazed at their transparency and their honesty. I am humbled by their trust placed in us through the conversation. They care about their ministries, but they care as much for the sense of family in LAM, and are anxious to see what God will do in the days ahead with the mission. PROMETA is now in the process of being designated as the school of theology for the National University of Guatemala, to which over 50,000 students attend. This is a huge opportunity and honor. One other quick note: In 1990, I traveled from Buenos Aires to Guatemala City for a few days to spend with a family that was to soon join the OC team in Argentina. While there, we were guided around the city, to church and even to Antigua by a young pastor named Enrique Fernandez. To my surprise, I encountered him again today, Ph.D. and all, as one of the leaders of PROMETA. What a small world and isn’t it interesting how He brings people back around into our lives?!

After what was a great conversation, we prayed together and walked out of the conference room to find Mike Day, another LAMer waiting for us. We stepped into his Hyundai Van (I think every LAM mssionary has a Hyundai), and set off on another one hour trip, this time towards Irazú Volcano and the little town of Pacayas, where Mike and his Costa Rican wife, Noribette, have just purchased two acres of land that look over a beautiful valley filled with farmlands from a retiring LAM couple. The sun had given way to clouds and a significant breeze at 5,000 feet. Mike and Noribette are the Costa Rican Directors for AWANA. Having pastored two churches in the last fifteen years where AWANA was huge, it didn’t take a lot to get up to speed on ministry. That allowed us much more time to talk about the Days. Mike graduated from high school ion Wheaton, Il. and came straight down to San José to work, with the intention of going to language school at ILE (you’ll hear about that next). For a year or so, he would try to work and sutdy, then go back to the states to earn real money to come back down and study at ILE. After studying at ILE, he entered our LAM seminary, ESEPA, and there found Noribette in the library. Yes, she was the librarian. They got married young and are celebrating 19 years of marriage in 2009. Mike is one of those “can fix anything” kind of guys. They have four wonderful kids who love the Lord and their parents and even participate with their parents in the AWANA training that they do all over the country. They raise four bulls, two dogs, and a lone hen who has yet to lay an egg…I wish I could say that! We were a bit pressed for time, so we sat down right away to a typical arroz con pollo (chicken and rice) dish with chips and fresh pineapple jiuce. Dessert brought us “tres leches”, a cake that is made and saturated with three differenet kinds of milk. It was all awesomely good! Around the tabel we talked mostly about kids, history, AWANA, etc. After a quick picture, a time of prayer and saying good-bye to the family, Shellie, Mike, Josh (their youngest) and I headed back through Cartago a reasonably large town with a beautiful and old basilica. On the road back to San José, Mike shared some of his experiences and suggestions for LAM in general. Again, I was amazed at the candor. These people down here really love LAM and have a desire to see it become even greater than it has been.

We were soon out of the clouds and back into the heat and traffic. We made our way to the Insituto de Lengua Española (ILE), the premier Spanish language institute for missionaries in all of Central and South America. We were met at the gate by Barbi David (Jeff from PROMETA’s wife), who is a teacher in the Sojourn Academy, the elementary school on the campus of ILE. A quick tour of the elementary campus was followed by an introduction to Julie Chamberlain, the Director of the ILE and an almost twenty year LAM missionary. We had never really heard of her and were pleasantly surprised b y her warmth and candor. We sat outside on a patio overlooking the school campus with a view to the mountains south of San José and heard her story. She is one focused lady! When I asked her how she was doing, she launched us into a conversation regarding a leadership issue facing her that is almost exactly what Shellie and I faced in San Gabriel 13 years ago. I was taken back by the similarities and felt that God had ordained the theme so we could be of some very practical help. I wont bore you with the details, but I do feel she is encouraged to “take the bull by the horns” and act in a way that will provide the best leadership for the ILE and the Sojourn Academy, while allowing her to retain overall direction for the ministry. I am excited to hear how it all turns out.

Our one hour conversation lasted almost two, and we were late for dinner at Dick and Sheila Dudney’s, 22-year LAM veterans who are working as the Student Life Directors at ILE with Julie and Barbi. We stopped by and got a quick tour of Julie’s home and then arrived at Dudney’s to find dinner on the table and Dick and Sheila as hungry as Shellie and me. The actual dinner conversation was surprisingly diverse - our kids, Dudney’s kids, Julie’s journey, LAM retirees, and policies and procedures that we thought could use some review and/or revision. Julie blessed us with a couple of “pieces” - old time elocutionary vignettes shared at early 20th century dinner tables. They were the kind of thing you’d hear in Lake Wobegon.

I could see that by this time, Shellie was worn out from the heat, from the travel, from the emotional expenditure of the day, and so we called a taxi for our 25 minute ride back to our place of lodging. Notice I said twenty-five minutes? The same trip took us an hour this morning. We arrived exhausted, worn out, wanting to talk to our kids, and just generally not excited about being ready to go at 6:50 tomorrow a.m.

We made a quick call to Cara and found out the awesome news that she is coming to Miami the end of April for a conference and can spend a couple of days with us! The news only got better when Shellie opened the refrigerator to find it stocked with freshly sliced watermelon, cantelope and the sweetest mango I’ve ever tasted. There was also coke to feed my bad habit! As I sat down to write thie entry, our host Mike came to the door quite surprisingly. He missed his plane to Philadelphia this am and had arranged all the goodies for us. He’s also arranged for our laundry to be taken care of…what can I say, they don’t come more disposed to serve than Mike. We talked for a few minutes about life, love and his son and then decided to hit the sack. So here it is, 11:00 p.m straight up, 17 packed, precious, and purposeful hours after waking up - I’m toast!
May God multiply the sleep in fewer hours…Amen! And amen!