Last year, Jonathan's oldest brother, Tony, and his wife, Laurie met us in Ft. Lauderdale on one of our visa runs. Now that we're residents, Tony and Laurie have to travel all the way to Costa Rica to visit us! They are coming in tomorrow (Easter Sunday) and staying a whole week! We're so excited to see them, hang out and eat some good food--because one thing is for sure, if you are dining with Tony Griffith, you are eating well! We're not sure if we'll have internet access over the course of the next week, we'll be visiting an active volcano and seeing some beautiful beaches here in Costa Rica, so the next post may just be lots of pictures documenting the result of a great week!
For those of you that are unfamiliar with Latin America or other Catholic countries, those countries really like to celebrate Semana Santa (Holy Week). Many people get the majority of the week off of work and school, especially Thursday - Sunday. And since it falls at the end of the dry season in Costa Rica, it's a great time for Ticos (Costa Ricans) to take off for the beach. In fact, about 20% of the population heads for the coast at some point this week.
We did not go to the beach, but we have been doing the next best thing. That's right, the old baby tub/bucket in the garage trick. It's been really sunny and hot for the past few weeks and our house starts feeling a little bit like an oven around 11:30am. So that's the perfect time to bust out the baby tub and mop bucket. It's a great way to entertain Caia, cool everybody down, and pass a little time. Plus Caia looks funny when she's squatting in the bucket.
Caia at the beach...she could get used to this! And thankfully, one of the perks of our job is to accompany teams on their Costa Rican excursions. Teams come down and work at the project (and often with other Costa Rican ministries) for 4-5 days and then they are ready to relax for a day on the beach, see a waterfall, explore a volcano or experience another one of Costa Rica's naturally occurring landscapes. We have really enjoyed working with teams and on their days "off," we get an even greater chance to really talk with them, hear where they came from, hear where they're going, to understand what drew them to Costa Rica or how God wooed them unto Himself. It's during these days that Caia and I (Amy) finally get to hang out with a team and get to know them. So, you will see more of Caia at a beach, at a volcano, in a pool, in front of a waterfall, etc. and we are thankful to the teams who allow us to see Costa Rica with them! **This picture is of Caia at Tortuga Island with a team from Living Hope Baptist Church in Bowling Green, KY. They were a huge help with her the entire day! Thanks y'all! Come back soon!
Our teams donate their time and services helping us through construction, children's ministry, outreach, teaching English, and in any other way that we can incorporate them. In exchange, they are blessed with the opportunity to participate in what God is doing in Costa Rica and by getting to know one of the best countries on the planet.
The Abraham Project was started in 1997 by a local church comprised of only 7 people. The pastor (Jorge Gomez) believed God was calling the tiny church to transform its community by living out the Gospel of Jesus. In other words, God wanted this body of believers to participate with Him in healing the community, both spiritually and physically. After praying, the group was convinced that the pastor's vision was from God and they were on board. So with $20 they set out in faith and obedience believing that God would do the rest. Now the church has an average of 350 people in attendance every week and has founded the Abraham Project. Aside from the church, this ministry has 4 major areas of outreach which are 2 children's homes, a daycare, vocational classes, and a multipurpose building that is currently under construction.
Amy and I love the vision of the Project because it is seeking to truly transform the community through evangelism and meeting the needs of the people in very practical ways. It's not the perfect church or ministry, but it's a very good example of the body acting as the hands and feet of Jesus for a community that desperately needs him.
Below is a video that our youth group made to show a little of the history of the Project as well as what the place looks like now. Oh yeah, it's in Spanish. (The guy talking is our pastor).
Just when everyone thought it wasn't going to happen....here we are in the blogosphere. As a first line of business I would like to say that this is something that we've considered for a long time but have not done mostly because we feared the commitment. We didn't want to be the guys that said "Hey, everybody! We have a blog!" and then only put up a picture of our kid every 5 months (not that there's anything wrong with that...we just didn't want to do it that way).
So here we go. Hopefully this blog will really be a window into what we are doing and help us stay better connected to our friends and family back home and around the globe. The idea is that we will do our best to keep our followers up to speed on what we're doing on a regular basis and in such a way that's not too boring. We live in an amazing country and work with some amazing people so we hope to give you some insight into what God is doing in, through, and around our community.
We are missionaries at a great Costa Rican ministry called the Abraham Project where we organize and work with mission teams and interns from the States
