Christmas at the Coffee Plantation
By Scott & Sherry | December 12, 2007
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Christmas came a little early for the kids on the coffee plantation. The four missionary couples who participate in the Bible study on Wednesday nights decided to pull our resources and buy food for all of the families represented at the study (6 families in all!). We also bought each child a small gift and watched their faces light up as they opened them. These families are extremely poor and barely have enough money for food, much less gifts. In fact, one of the families doesn’t even have electricity. Doesn’t that help put all of the nonsensical things we do to “celebrate” our Savior’s birth in perspective?
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Finishing Up Barefoot
By Scott & Sherry | November 30, 2007
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Our final three weeks of barefoot language classes have been centered more around learning grammar than practicing conversation, which is what we focused on our first three weeks. This should give us a strong foundation as we enter language school on January 9th. Don’t get me wrong, our barefoot classes haven’t been all work and no play. We did take one day to learn about a cultural practice of some countries in South America. The cultural practice of drinking herbal tea, or maté. I know, it sounds kind of silly, but this is serious stuff, especially for the people of Argentina. I think it’s the US equivalent to drinking Starbucks!
Our barefoot classes will end on December 7th and we will have some free time for relaxation before the REAL work begins. During our free time we have plans to travel to the Pacific Coast and to Nicaragua. Be looking out for those posts to see some great pics!
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Home Bible Study
By Scott & Sherry | November 29, 2007
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On Wednesday nights we drive out to a coffee plantation about 30 minutes from our house for a home Bible study. Our mentors, Allen and Rebecca Alexander, have started a house church there made up of 4 adult women and about 15 kids! The kids range in age from 4-14. They listen intently to the Bible story and about 5 of the boys are really quick to recognize the deeper spiritual significance of the stories. It has been a real blessing to see these young kids thirsty for the Word. Each time we drive up to the house, they all come running outside to greet us.
We meet in the house of Maria who worked on the coffee plantation until she had to quit to take care of her very sick child. She has a nine year old girl named Stephanie who has renal failure. Just a few months ago, she was not expected to live. In fact, she was so full of fluids from improper care at a hospital that she looked like she was seven months pregnant. But Praise the Lord, the Alexanders have been helpful in getting proper treatment for her and she is doing so much better now. If you would, please take time right now to pray for Stephanie. She is such a precious little girl who has been through so much in her short life.
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Ministry Visits
By Scott & Sherry | November 27, 2007
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Our barefoot language class had the opportunity to minister to and visit with young men who are recovering from drug and alcohol addiction. The not-for-profit organization that houses and feeds these men also teaches them woodworking and construction skills they can use to earn money when they graduate from the program. The items they build are sold to the public and those funds are the sole support for the organization.
Three of the people from our class taught a cooking class and each young man was given a bowl to sample. They made Hobo Stew using a coffee can to cook it in the oven. Scott and I taught a very short class on budgeting and another classmate taught them how to put together a business plan.
The next day our class traveled to a nursing home to visit with the older people to encourage them. Some of the ladies in our class made homemade cookies and we sang a couple of songs for them in Spanish. I think they enjoyed our visit and they were very gracious to listen to our bad Spanish!
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Ox Cart Parade
By Scott & Sherry | November 25, 2007
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We had the privilege of attending the annual event to kickoff the official Christmas season in Costa Rica: the Ox Cart Parade. The long-standing tradition has it beginnings in the early 20th century when people from all over the country would use the ox carts to bring the statues of the saints from their homes far away, into the city of San Jose. At one time, the ox carts were the primary means of transport for delivering coffee over the mountain passes to boats on the Pacific Coast. Although today, not many oxen are used for agricultural work, the hobby of raising a matched pair of oxen is what maintains the tradition. We were really impressed by the beautiful craftsmanship and the sizes of some of the oxen.
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Evangelism Workshop
By Scott & Sherry | November 24, 2007
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On a recent Saturday, some of the missionaries were invited to attend an evangelism workshop hosted by a local Baptist church. The greater part of the morning was spent covering various witnessing techniques, all in Spanish! The church was also to host a movie night the following day featuring Facing the Giants, dubbed in Spanish. After lunch, we were teamed in groups of four and we canvassed the neighborhood, going door-to-door (or really gate-to-gate) to pass out invitations for the movie, tracts and to share our faith. We never heard how many people showed up for the movie night, but we’re praying that God would use that movie as well as our testimonies to reach the lost we spoke to that day.
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Thanksgiving Day
By Scott & Sherry | November 23, 2007
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Since Costa Ricans don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, this year we spent our day carrying on our usual routine, class in the morning and homework in the afternoon. The IMB missionaries did gather in the late afternoon/evening to celebrate together with a home-cooked meal. After eating way too much (speaking for ourselves), the missionaries had a time of saying goodbye to all of the families who will graduate and leave the language school to go to their fields of service in the next few weeks. It was great to hear about the close friendships they’ve made in this past year and all of the struggles they’ve shared in during language school.
We have so many things to be thankful for as we reflect on this past year: Being appointed with the International Mission Board, Scott graduating from seminary, traveling mercies during our trip to and from Richmond, VA for missionary orientation, and for safety and good health while here in Costa Rica. We hope that you spent this day reflecting on the ways God has blessed your lives this last year.
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Views of Costa Rica
By Scott & Sherry | November 20, 2007
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Some of the things we’ve seen here in our first four weeks have been quite funny and some of them downright dangerous. For instance, they have these things called “Gringo Traps”. You may be walking along the sidewalk and suddenly find yourself flat on your face because, while you were looking around observing the lovely things of Costa Rica, you fell into a crater-like hole!! Fortunately, we haven’t succumbed to those traps, but other missionaries haven’t been so fortunate.
One of the things we’ve found funny (in our own weird way) is the difference between gated communities in the States and gated communities here. In the States, only the elite neighborhoods are gated. In Costa Rica, every house in the city is gated!! I believe the mentality goes, “if it’s not locked up, it’s fair game.” We’ve come to realize even living in the States that one cannot hold on tightly to the things of this world or “stuff”. Otherwise, we spend all of our time worrying about losing it when there are much more important things in this world, like those who die every day without knowing Jesus Christ as their Savior and are condemned to an eternity in Hell.
If you do not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, please click on the link “Do you know?” to the left towards the bottom of this page to learn more about how to become a Christian or write us and we can tell you how! God Bless!
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Going to the Market
By Scott & Sherry | November 18, 2007
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Our last barefoot homework assignment was to travel to the markets in downtown San Jose to pick up certain fruits and vegetables to be used during the taste testing portion of our following class. We were responsible for buying a fruit called Anona and vegetables called Chayote and Yuca.
We were able to find the vegetables, but unfortunately Anona was out of season, so we weren’t able to bring it to class for sampling. Our teacher Olga had cooked samples of all the vegetables prior to our class so we were able to sample them during class. It was a really interesting exercise that allowed us all to eat some things some would not have otherwise tried. Of course, since we live in a Tico house, we’ve eaten most all of them! 
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Meeting Caroline’s Family
By Scott & Sherry | November 10, 2007
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Recently we’ve had the pleasure of meeting the aunt, uncle and cousin of our sister-in-law Caroline (Scotts brother’s wife). Jonathan and Anabel are pastors of a Baptist church in Guadalupe, about twenty minutes away from us, and have so graciously picked us up for church the last several weeks. A couple of weeks ago they took us out for dinner after church to Lone Star Restaurant. Sound familiar? Well, it was a little different from the Lone Star you may know, but they served the same delicious steaks. Anabel also cooked us a wonderful meal our first week with them called Olla de Carne (Stew). Their hospitality was wonderful and they let us know we were their family. What a wonderful blessing to be so far from home and have people who love us and consider us their family!
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