Tuis

BTW - the picture above? It's actually the town on Tuis. That's were our crazy little house is and where we will be spending the majority of our time. Oh, wait! Did I not show you a picture of our house?

Here she is, in all her glory:






Yes, yes. I realize she looks grand, but the mission assured me this picture is life size!!


For more information on Tuis and the community, click here.

Bulletin Insert

For those of you who don't attend our beautiful church on Sunday (yup, that's pretty much everyone who reads this blog right now), here is an example of our lovely inserts that they are encouraging us to run.

To see it, simply:

1) Click on link below.
2) Click on logo in middle of screen.
3) Flip to the back of the bulletin (simply click "last" on the bottom right hand corner, or flipping though the pages with the page-advance button on the bottom right hand side of the screen)

Church Bulletin

#3

As you could probably guess, this last Sunday was presentation #3, delivered by the handsome husband. He did a fantastic job, always does, and I was left to be technical support. I did not do a fantastic job. In the end, it all worked out, and the presentation evoked quite a reaction from the congregation.

Until this point, our presentations and inserts in the bulletin have been on the neutral informative side about the region, the people, etc. But Tom hit them yesterday with a few of the concerns in the area, the needs, the misguided (and, honestly, scary and sad) spiritual beliefs of the Cabecar people against those with disabilities.

Tom highlighted the areas we will be working on with the indigenous on the remote reserves. Chimney construction to evacuate the smoke-filled houses (they cook on open fires within the home, no chimney results in an abundance of respiratory infections, one of the leading causes of death among children in these people groups). He also mentioned how my degree with tie into improving the mission's efforts towards improving nutritional support to the people, helping prevent infections, and, possibly, improving latrine design. Considering these people groups do not speak Spanish, communication barriers are an obsticle. The mission, as will we, takes the approach quoted from St. Francis "At all times preach the gospel and, if need be, use words." We will be committing our lives for a few months to improving the physical and health needs of these people and, as Tom put it, bringing the Holy Spirit to do the heavy lifting.


Next week is #4 and the final of this series. Praise God for these opportunities to inform and build a support network.

The Cabecar People

Here is a great write-up of the Cabacer people we will be working with, and the hike we will endure to get there.


http://www.amcostarica.com


Our projects will focus on improving nutrition in the communities and surveying water and sanitation 'facilities' to see if there is areas of need.

2nd congregational presentation

This picture is so funny...Do I not look like I'm begging for support?



Yesterday was our second presentation. Last week we focused on providing an overview of the trip, this week was about the community of Tuis... Tom has made awesome slide shows to accompany the presentations - then it's my job to get up there and execute them (the presentations, not the congregation).

The support that has emerged out of these presentations is phenomenal. A few members of our church are offering contacts down south that could to put us in touch with resources that are available on the grounds. I'm also very excited about a lady that approached me and offered to teach me her skills in photography, and receive photos that we will send from C.R., process them (crop, colour, etc), and post them at the church so everyone can see what we are up to. That is *SO* exciting to me. We've been offered much prayer support, speaking opportunities, personal skills and volunteered time... This has all blown us away. Praise the Lord.




Pic: Tom with Hector, one of the co-directors of the mission, from last summer's scouting visit to Tuis, C.R.

1st Congregational Presentation

The planning, preparing, and practice have begun to fade. We've started doing the real thing, and for a larger audience...

This past week was the first of a string of Sunday services that we get to present our mission venture to the congregation and solicit support. We ask for prayer, and the pastor follows up with a call for financial support.

--

It's very interesting, the more we speak to people, the more people we are asked to speak to. This is something I never really anticipated, but am eager to do. We're received a number of invitations to do presentations, lead bible studies, and give talks about our trip and on missions. Tom has already been called into service by the men's breakfast team, I've been asked to do the ladies' later this month, we are leading a bible study tonight on "how everyone has a role in missions," which Tom has prepared (and is very intriguing, by the way), and we've been asked to do again next week at another pastorate. And these are in addition to a few minor ones and one major presentation at our church already.

These invitations weren't really anticipated. I didn't think people would want to keep hearing from us. We're honoured to be asked, don't get me wrong, just a little surprised. Another surprising aspect that we didn't anticipate is the numebr of "God bless you for your work, thank you for doing this!".

Okay...Huh?!?!

What do you say to that? We haven't figured it out yet. I only stare back in disbelief.

I want to say is this:

"Please, don't thank me. We've done nothing yet, and may fail in so many ways in the things we paln to do that you'll want to retracked your thank you in the future ...What we presented today was 'the plan,' the plan that everything goes smoothly and these are the things that we will accomplish. What will happen on the ground may be drastically different than 'the plan'. Please, do not thank me, we feel so unbelievably honoured to be a part of this and to be the 'goers' in this situation. We are humbled by the support of 'senders,' which have a far more essential role than us. Without them, there would be no us. There would be no going. Without senders, this wouldn't be happening. The last person to thank, is me..." (and, becuase I'm Canadian) "...but thank you."

But I'm not too sure if that's the right thing to say either.