Our own Costa Rican River

The rainy season in Costa Rica.....especially now in October...seemingly unceasing rains....the road in front of our house turns into a our own river. Random pieces of garbage, metal, and even the road itself goes floating by....haha....here is a video with a quick glimpse....

God loves basketball too!

Colegio Monterrey

Haha... Costa Ricans would say that soccer is the sport of heaven. And with more and more time here, I might start agreeing with them. (don´t shoot me yet) But basketball has to be up there on God´s list and will probably never leave my list.

I am currently coaching at two different high schools and am working with the administration to build the program. The two teams are very different and I am learning so much from being involved in both. It is a neat platform to be able to talk about love, caring, relationships, community and more on a level they can understand. I thought you might enjoy some pictures of some of the girls from both teams....

Lincoln International School

Colegio Monterrey (second game)

Whose story is it anyway?

Competition exists on all levels. CEO's of major firms, between and within businesses, politicians, universities, high-schools, teams, even between homeless kids living on the street....

Many times as we walk around downtown San José, we have homeless people asking us for money or food or something along those lines. But I have never been asked what we were asked the other day.....

We had just left Raul (sup doggy) and were on our way home when another kid, Ronnie, came running up to us demanding to know if we knew the Nicaraguan kid (Raul).

Of course we do...and as we stood there talking we realized he was really pretty angry at Raul. Apparently, the story he had been using to hustle money from foreigners, Raul had stolen and was reaching the people before Ronnie could. Which meant that whenever Ronnie approached someone to begin his pitch, they had already heard the story and wouldn't give him any money.

As we stood there almost laughing, taking in what was happening, he repeatedly asked us to tell him what story Raul had used. When he finally realized we weren't going to tell him what story Raul told, (mostly because none of us really remembered by this point anyway), he asked "well then, whose story is better anyway?"

As we got on the bus to head home, I was hit by the way we all are competing for something, and often it consumes us...much like the way it killed Ronnie to think someone might have a better story than his, especially when it affects his potential income.

Jesus lived in a way opposite to our world of competition and the "get ahead" mentality. He practiced serving and loving in a way most people saw as weak. Yet to walk in the Father's love as he walked, loving as he loved and serving as he served, that took a much deeper strength than anything the Pharisees were capable of, or of anything I would naturally exhibit...

For me, much of competition arises out of the fact that I do not understand the Father's love for me and the security I have in Him. The more I begin to understand this unreserved love and forgiveness, the more I will be capable of walking as Jesus did...

"Sup Doggy?"

"Sup doggy?" ...The first words out of Raul's mouth as he saunters up to meet us, a big grin painting his face. He greets all of us as we try to tell him that actually most people say "sup dawg?". But he insists on saying "sup doggy". "I like it" he says as we all laugh together and begin walking to a place to eat. He picks the place and we all eat and talk together, much like any home group would be. We share our stories, hear his story and watch as God draws this young man step by step closer to knowing Him. He asked us with tears in his eyes the other day why do we help him? It seems that God's hand is on this young man's life and we are deeply praying that he makes it. It is a daily fight for him and he still has much of it ahead, but the same way we have seen God so dramatically and powerfully save us, we trust can and will happen with Raul. The enemy just as equally would love to see him destroyed as he realizes his potential as he grows. Please pray for him as you think about it that he would make it and walk into this life that Jesus is offering him.

In the picture from the left: Kathy Svoboda, Raul, Ruth Holbrook, and Anna

Saturday Night Live

We had our own team version of SNL this past Saturday night. I don't know if I will be able to describe the hilarious intensity of it all but just to give you an idea.....First a little background...Every Friday and Saturday night, we head down as a team into the center of San José; our focus is building relationship and trust with the people as we consistently show up week after week. While much of our intensity is geared towards young people, we do end up knowing and becoming friends with a variety of people. This past Saturday night was one of those nights that while the spiritual intensity and attack was evident, God's grace was abundant and these moments ended up being slightly funny. This was one moment that I specifically remember looking up and realizing the bizarre happenings and laughing for a second to myself.....

Jamie and I were talking to this homeless hippy from Switzerland with a dred mohawk (in spanish--both of our second languages). I look back and kathy (svoboda from colorado) was talking to some man in a suit about his thoughts on God and how his wife left him four days previously. Chicky is wrapped up in an ongoing conversation with a crying drunk 76 year old man with whom we had been taking to a shelter when we stopped to say hello to our blind accordian friend. Josh (woodruff from nebraska) is sitting on the ground staring into space with an exhausted look amidst all the spanish and Ruth (holbrook from miami) was moving between Chicky's conversation and talking (or singing with) Martín. (Martín is our friend the blind accordian player); he can be very persuasive at times. Just ask Ruth. In this particular moment however, Ruth was standing with Chicky...so.... Martín decides since no one is talking to him...to loudly play and sing...I don't know if you have ever been around a live accordian but I will tell you it pretty promptly ended a few conversations...Again, I can't fully describe the intensity and slight hilarity of it to you but I hope it gave some insight to our SNL San José experience.

The Beginning...A Blog Is Created....

So I have officially joined the blogging world as of now. My hope is that this would serve to keep us better connected as each of us walk in different places. Hopefully this will provide slices of life that my update emails will not be able to cover. Please feel free to comment in or join any discussion that might be happening. Til the next blog.....