What I have been doing in Limòn...
el 28 de junio
Tomorrow (Thursday the 29th) I am heading back up to Heredia so that I can be there to welcome and greet the mission team from CCC (my church in Colorado) whey they arrive at the San José airport on Friday. There is a group of 12 people from the church, along with Pastor Hugo, who are coming down here for about 2 ½ weeks to help run a youth camp that will be held July 10th-14th. I will be staying with them here in Limón the first week, then we will be heading up to the San José area for the camp, along with about 100-120 students and leaders from Limón. Along with the First Baptist Church (where my work and ministry is focused) there will be groups from a couple other Baptist churches in this area as well. I am looking forward to these next couple of weeks for several reasons:
1. I will get to see Luisa and Ibo and the girls and I will be staying with them at the house tomorrow night. It feels kind of like I am going back home to visit my family. :)
2. It will be great to see friendly, and some familiar, faces from my church back home. Pastor Hugo will be among the group, as will my “little sister” Colleen (who is the younger sister of my friend Jenn from Colorado). At this point I do not know if I really know any of the other group members, but I am sure that it will just be encouraging and refreshing to have some folks from “home” after all this time on my own.
3. I am really excited about the week at camp and the opportunity to spend more time and continue to build relationships both with the youth and the leadership of First Baptist Church. I think that this week will provide a great jumping off point for seeing the ways that God will be able to use me to help, support, and encourage the group and the leadership in the critical time after returning from the camp.
4. After being here for about 2 ½ months, I am excited to be able to introduce more people to my “home” here in Costa Rica, and be able to see other people experiencing this great country and culture. I got a little taste of that when Jessamy was here and it is just fun to watch someone who is seeing all of this for the first time and be reminded of what my first thoughts and impressions were upon my own arrival.
I also want to take a minute to give you a brief idea of what I have been up to down here in the ministry sense. As I mentioned, I am involved with the First Baptist Church of Limón. The church was founded in 1888 and was the first Baptist church in all of Costa Rica, so it definitely has a strong history in the community. Many of the church members, including my host here – Mirna, have attended their whole lives. As since families tend to stay much more geographically close here than in the States, many have immediate and extended family members in attendance as well. So in my three weeks here in Limón I have been able to attend 3 Sunday services, 3 Saturday night youth fellowships, and 2 Wednesday night Prayer Meeting and Bible Study. The church community is very warm and friendly, and they have welcomed me with open arms. Thus far I have been focused on getting settled it, meeting people, and starting to take part in the youth activities and get to know the leadership team.
These past few weeks have also served as an introduction to the Baptist denomination in general. I grew up in non-denominational churches, then spent a few years in college and after college in California involved with the Presbyterian church, so this is new territory in this aspect as well. It is not dramatically different than what I am used to, but there are a few things I have noticed and wanted to mention:
- They use Hymnals and for the most part stick to these older, more traditional songs during the worship service (no fancy projection screens and Powerpoint presentations of song lyrics here). I have enjoyed this because I have learned some new songs, but also have been reminded of a lot of hymns that I had known or heard or sung as a kid. Plus there is just a lot of truth and a powerful message in the words of these old hymns.
- There is a strong “family” feel among the church congregation. Each Sunday the worship leader recognizes and introduces visitors and calls attention to the birthdays and anniversaries of the members. If it is your birthday sometime during the week, you get the privilege of standing up front while the congregation sings “Happy Birthday” to you! Plus, they allow for a few minutes of greeting your neighbors and the people actually do it – the walk from front to back and side to side to greet each other and bless each other.
- It seems to me that service is of high importance to the members as well. They have a kitchen at the church and there is a group of women that cook lunch every Sunday to serve to various people. I had the privilege of eating lunch with the Pastor one Sunday, and not for any particular reason other than it seemed that they wanted to be able to serve me.
So there you have it. That is the recap of what has been going on and what I have been up to so far. Along with the church activities I have been working with Pastor Hugo a bit to make some arrangements and find out some more information in preparation for the group’s arrival. And, of course, I have been watching a lot of great World Cup games, reading, trying to stay cool, and walking around “downtown” and discovering a bit more about daily life in Limón. I am guessing this will probably be my last chance to post updates until after the camp and the group’s departure. In the meantime, give your eyes a rest because knowing the way I have been operating, I am sure there will be a least a few pages to report. (I wonder if those blog sites have a maximum size… I have all the blog postings saved in a Word document and it is 35 pages long. Yikes. Why aren’t term papers this easy to write??)
Tomorrow (Thursday the 29th) I am heading back up to Heredia so that I can be there to welcome and greet the mission team from CCC (my church in Colorado) whey they arrive at the San José airport on Friday. There is a group of 12 people from the church, along with Pastor Hugo, who are coming down here for about 2 ½ weeks to help run a youth camp that will be held July 10th-14th. I will be staying with them here in Limón the first week, then we will be heading up to the San José area for the camp, along with about 100-120 students and leaders from Limón. Along with the First Baptist Church (where my work and ministry is focused) there will be groups from a couple other Baptist churches in this area as well. I am looking forward to these next couple of weeks for several reasons:
1. I will get to see Luisa and Ibo and the girls and I will be staying with them at the house tomorrow night. It feels kind of like I am going back home to visit my family. :)
2. It will be great to see friendly, and some familiar, faces from my church back home. Pastor Hugo will be among the group, as will my “little sister” Colleen (who is the younger sister of my friend Jenn from Colorado). At this point I do not know if I really know any of the other group members, but I am sure that it will just be encouraging and refreshing to have some folks from “home” after all this time on my own.
3. I am really excited about the week at camp and the opportunity to spend more time and continue to build relationships both with the youth and the leadership of First Baptist Church. I think that this week will provide a great jumping off point for seeing the ways that God will be able to use me to help, support, and encourage the group and the leadership in the critical time after returning from the camp.
4. After being here for about 2 ½ months, I am excited to be able to introduce more people to my “home” here in Costa Rica, and be able to see other people experiencing this great country and culture. I got a little taste of that when Jessamy was here and it is just fun to watch someone who is seeing all of this for the first time and be reminded of what my first thoughts and impressions were upon my own arrival.
I also want to take a minute to give you a brief idea of what I have been up to down here in the ministry sense. As I mentioned, I am involved with the First Baptist Church of Limón. The church was founded in 1888 and was the first Baptist church in all of Costa Rica, so it definitely has a strong history in the community. Many of the church members, including my host here – Mirna, have attended their whole lives. As since families tend to stay much more geographically close here than in the States, many have immediate and extended family members in attendance as well. So in my three weeks here in Limón I have been able to attend 3 Sunday services, 3 Saturday night youth fellowships, and 2 Wednesday night Prayer Meeting and Bible Study. The church community is very warm and friendly, and they have welcomed me with open arms. Thus far I have been focused on getting settled it, meeting people, and starting to take part in the youth activities and get to know the leadership team.
These past few weeks have also served as an introduction to the Baptist denomination in general. I grew up in non-denominational churches, then spent a few years in college and after college in California involved with the Presbyterian church, so this is new territory in this aspect as well. It is not dramatically different than what I am used to, but there are a few things I have noticed and wanted to mention:
- They use Hymnals and for the most part stick to these older, more traditional songs during the worship service (no fancy projection screens and Powerpoint presentations of song lyrics here). I have enjoyed this because I have learned some new songs, but also have been reminded of a lot of hymns that I had known or heard or sung as a kid. Plus there is just a lot of truth and a powerful message in the words of these old hymns.
- There is a strong “family” feel among the church congregation. Each Sunday the worship leader recognizes and introduces visitors and calls attention to the birthdays and anniversaries of the members. If it is your birthday sometime during the week, you get the privilege of standing up front while the congregation sings “Happy Birthday” to you! Plus, they allow for a few minutes of greeting your neighbors and the people actually do it – the walk from front to back and side to side to greet each other and bless each other.
- It seems to me that service is of high importance to the members as well. They have a kitchen at the church and there is a group of women that cook lunch every Sunday to serve to various people. I had the privilege of eating lunch with the Pastor one Sunday, and not for any particular reason other than it seemed that they wanted to be able to serve me.
So there you have it. That is the recap of what has been going on and what I have been up to so far. Along with the church activities I have been working with Pastor Hugo a bit to make some arrangements and find out some more information in preparation for the group’s arrival. And, of course, I have been watching a lot of great World Cup games, reading, trying to stay cool, and walking around “downtown” and discovering a bit more about daily life in Limón. I am guessing this will probably be my last chance to post updates until after the camp and the group’s departure. In the meantime, give your eyes a rest because knowing the way I have been operating, I am sure there will be a least a few pages to report. (I wonder if those blog sites have a maximum size… I have all the blog postings saved in a Word document and it is 35 pages long. Yikes. Why aren’t term papers this easy to write??)
posted by Dynasty goes to CR at
1:48 PM
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