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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Our Homework Trip Downtown
By Scott & Sherry | November 7, 2007
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Our homework assignment this week was to take the bus to downtown San Jose and seek out a few parks, national monuments and museums. This is where it got tricky…our task was to ask the locals for directions to our assigned places and once there, ask what their operating hours were and the cost of entry. As you may have read in a prior post, asking directions in Latin America may get you lost, so one important lesson we learned was to watch the way their hands were pointing, instead of listening to “go east 3 blocks…” We had to stop twice and ask directions to the first destination on our list because we thought we’d gone far enough, but it turned out the first person did give us correct directions!
We saw some interesting sights along the way, such as men sleeping on the sidewalk covered with plastic bags to protect themselves from the rain, plants growing out of the side of a wall, and a protest outside of one of the government buildings. We also ate a delicious meal at one of the local restaurants where vendors would come inside the restaurant and ask the customers if they want to buy anything from sunglasses to lottery tickets. One day soon this will all be so normal for us, but for now we’ll continue thinking, “it’s not wrong, it’s just different!”
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Birthday Parties Costa Rican Style!
By Scott & Sherry | November 3, 2007
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Attending any festive activity for the first time in a different culture is always interesting. Different foods and rituals, one never knows what to expect! We received an invitation to the birthday party of Josué and Ariana. The party was to start at 4pm and guests didn’t start arriving until 4:30ish and instead of unwrapping the gifts at one time during the party, as soon as a guest walked in the door with a present, Josué and Ariana opened the gift immediately!!
The food served at the party was Tacos Ticos. They were similar to flautas (rolled up, fried tortillas with beef inside), topped with shredded cabbage, mayo and ketchup. They were served in a small plastic bag that would catch some of the cabbage that would fall from our mouths. I think we used quite a few napkins trying to wipe off the mayo and ketchup from our faces!! Definitely not a food you would want to eat on a first date!! Check out some of the pictures from the party…I’m sure you’ll get a kick out of them!!
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Living and Laughing…
By Scott & Sherry | November 3, 2007
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One of the benefits of living with a Tico family is having native Spanish speakers all round us. As was mentioned in our prior post, Noel and Roxana are our host parents. They have two grandchildren, Ariana (6 yrs) and Josué (9 yrs), who affectionately call us “Gringitos” (white people). These two only speak Spanish, so it is always challenging to carry on a conversation in a manner in which we all understand each other.
One day, Ariana was telling us that something had fallen, but because she was using a verb tense we didn’t know, we couldn’t understand her. So in her cleverness, she told us the verb in its basic form and the light came on for both of us!! It’s very humbling to realize we only have the vocabulary of a 3 year old!! Nonetheless, we are having quite a few laughs with many more to come, I’m sure!
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Meet our Host Family
By Scott & Sherry | November 3, 2007
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Meet our host parents Noel and Roxana. Noel works at a facility where he teaches recovering drug addicts skills, such as woodworking, so they can eventually be productive members of society. Roxana is a Spanish tutor for students at the language institute we’ll be attending in January. They have three grown children, 2 sons and 1 daughter, and two grandchildren.
Noel and Roxana were missionaries in Mexico for two years ministering to the poor and they have also been involved in ministry at an orphanage here in San Jose. Most recently, we have been participating in the house church meetings they have started on Wednesday evenings at their son’s house. Their desire is to also host conferences dealing with interpersonal relationship issues and providing biblical answers for those issues. Please pray for their neighbor’s hearts to be receptive as they seek to reach their neighborhood for Christ!
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