Day 8 in Costa Rica

“I can do all things through Christ who gives me the strength.” That’s the theme of our daily prayers and meditations now a full week into our first of several Presidential visits to the fields of LAM. It is 9:00 pm and we just got back to Mike’s where we instantly find peace and calm…normally! Not tonight however. Today starts the Semana Santa (Holy Week) celebrations and there is a huge party going on down the road with full amps and speakers, an emcee, loud music and a pretty decent subwoofer system. Looks like we’re in for a long night. I guess the Lord wants us to leave every drop on the altar of dependence today!

We left the house this morning at 7:55, headed for the AMCA house where we stayed the first two nights. It has been the central meeting place for all of our trips around San José and beyond. Steve had some time to publish a couple more days of our journal on the blog and made a couple of calls to the home office while waiting for Craig and Christina Burch to pick us up and take us to ESEPA, one of the two seminaries started by LAM. Greg is a professor of missions and finishing up his Ph.D. in missions at Fuller Seminary. God has given him a special call - to train pastors and workers in developing ministry to street kids at risk. He is currently developing a fully orbed curriculum to be used in seminaries throughout Latin America. Greg and Christina have logged ten years with LAM but have all the enthusiasm and energy of new recruits. I think they encouraged Steve more than he could encourage them!

After a brief cafecito and conversation with the Burchs, Paul Mauger, another LAM missionary who just happens to be sent from Phil and Cindi’s church in Pennsylvania, brought two students in to the sitting room where we had been talking with Craig and Christina. To our surprise, neither was a true latino. One of the students, Stefán was a North American, ex-marine from Kansas City who chose to study in Costa Rica over the U.S. to help pave the way language-wise and culturally for future ministry in Latin America. The other student I was to find out at the end of our conversation is Robby Richard, the son of Dr. Ramesh Richard, a professor at Dallas Seminary, evangelist and preacher. It was amazing to hear how he chose to be at ESEPA instead of Dallas because he loves Costa Rica…so much so that he has married a “Tica” (so did Stefán)! These two young men began to ask questions about LAM and missions and that was like throwing raw meat to a lion for Steve. He switched into recruitment mode and really connected with the students. He hopes to stay in contact with them and help them find their future through LAM.

We then met for a while with the new Rector (president) of the seminary and learned about the ups and downs, as well as the current vision for the seminary. Steve really feels that LAM has to do more to support the seminary and the finding and training of future theologians, especially in light of the proliferation of so many megachurch pastors who have little or no theological training. Robby Richard told us of an evangelical conservative church they attended in the interior of Costa Rica that teaches a man can have seven wives, according to the Bible?!?!? There is such a lack of serious theological reflection in Latin America today and ESEPA holds the real promise of develop and providing platform for the next generation of theological leaders.

After a while with the Rector, Mark Padgett, Paul Mauger rushed us over to his house for homemade pizza (yummy!) and great conversation with him and Nancy. They were sent to the field by Westshore EV Free Church, which Shellie’s brother Phil pastors.
Aside from teaching at the seminary, Paul helps with admin at ESEPA and is actively involved in helping the growing Latin Missions movement (Latins going out as missionaries to the world). Nancy started a discipleship through baking group 15 years ago and they’re still going strong! Paul and Daniel, their son, of course appreciate the physical fruits of the group’s baking labors! As we have found with almost every missionary, Paul and Nancy opened their hearts and their lives to us in a short amount of time and we are deeply grateful. LAM has incredibly wonderful people!

No sooner did we finish our pizza then Bob Sabean (he’s the crazy driver from last Saturday) came by to whisk us off on an hour-long trip back up to Camp Roblealto to see the actual camp and meet the new director, a LAM missionary. Bob spoke nonstop the entire time about Christian Camping International, the group he has worked with for over 30 years. At times, Shellie had to start giving Steve a back rub or head rub because lunch and the heat had him falling asleep as Bob continued on. We were greeted at the camp by the Director, Robert Bruneau, and his wife Nina. They are a wonderful couple from Panama who have been with LAM for nine years in camping ministries. We took a quick tour of the camp and then sat for several hours and talked Christian Camping International, Argentine soccer, what it is like to be a Latin and a LAM missionary at the same time. The conversation spilled over into a wonderful homemade lasagna dinner in the midst of a torrential rain. Once again, their transparency and honesty is so encouraging to us.

7:00 came quickly and we needed to get back to the other side of San José (Mike’s house). We jumped into the camp truck and Robert and Steve proceeded to get lost somewhere in northeast San José. After finally doing what most men won’t - stop and ask directions- we got on the right road, only to come to a complete halt after a kilometer or two. We thought we had come up on an accident because traffic wasn’t moving in either direction. So being the brainiacs that Steve and Robert thought they were, they tried a detour…that fifteen minutes later only led us right back to where we tried to detour. Traffic was moving slowly, but moving by this time. After a few minutes we came up on what was slowing everything - a two-block long catholic procession celebrating the beginning of Semana Santa. There was no traffic control, nothing. The parade simply took over the road and we had to do what we could to go around them.
The trip took almost two hours. It should have taken 25 minutes. But the Lord meant for us to spend more time with Robert on the road and it was good quality conversation.

We’re sure that we’ve left some details out, but we’re so tired we can hardly keep our eyes on the screen. A great, long, hard, fruitful, tiring, hot, and encouraging day! Steve just got off the phone with the Gaults, a couple we were to go to La Cumbre Camp with tomorrow morning. He canceled us out of the 8-hour drive up into the mountains tomorrow so that we can sleep in, rest and prepare for a long Sunday. We love and miss you all and thank you for praying us through these days!