Ok so there’s been a lot that’s been going on and now that I’m home on this completely boring Thursday evening with nothing to do – I’m going to cram in writing about the last.. hhmm month?.. of activity, and boy has it been busy.
Friends coming and going
We’ve had some friends from the congregation leave – some who needed to go home and others to move on to new opportunities as ‘need-greater’s’. John & Erica Abt are a younger longer couple that were in our congregation that moved to Panama to continue serving in English. We were able to hear a few of their stories at a gathering given to them. They have served in many different area’s and here they are a bit higher up in age than most of us and still serving strong. They are set such an amazing example for us all.
Visitors!
Madison came out; Tyler & Kristy Hull along with Logan and Ally; Ken and Elise also came out a few times now and we’ve enjoyed everyone’s visits. Unfortunately our photo’s were limited so I’m waiting to get more from friends. But what I do have is a shot we took when we drove up to the San Luis ridge and I got a shot of Madison & Taylor. I’ll add more photo’s of friends when I get them!
While the Hulls were out we pretty much relaxed and visited at our house for about a day and half – they recovered from their flight and the Barbary’s enjoyed the cool air. We didn’t get to do many excited things with them since they had most of the fun at the beach while we stayed back at our home in the Central Valley.
Special Assembly Day!
We went to our first assembly in Belen near the capital – San Jose. The assembly hall is beautiful and they have what I considered some of the more comfortable chairs of an assembly hall. There was a max attendance of 573 and 3 were baptised. It was announced that there are now a total of 10 congregations and of English. There is also groups (one each) in German & Italian. We ran into ‘old’ friends we met from our first visit, I ran into a friend I hadn’t seen since Chicago, made new friends and exchanged numbers to go visit new territory. And of course, the material was very upbuilding and encouraging. I know the 3 of us were a little struck when we realized that when they referred to ‘need-greaters’.. that included us! I don’t think we’ve ever really thought of ourselves as truly need-greater’s till then and it’s such a privilege to be here
and doing what we’re doing for Jehovah.
So now we are all pumped for the District Assembly in September! Woo hoo!
In the picture is our C.O. Brother Klein giving a talk. There was a short interview of him and his wife and they sound like one of the sweetest couples. I wish I could have video taped the interview. Sister Klein has the funniest giggle and she kept giggling through the whole interview and of course it was contagious to the audience as well. What a cute interview!
Finally, a trip to the beach!
After the assembly we had all of Sunday free. So we slept in and after a great debate (not really) on where to go we decided to take a drive to the beach. So we went South to Jaco. On the way to Jaco there is a pretty infamous Crocodile Bridge. Well, it’s easy to see why it’s infamous. There were over 25 crocodiles that we could spot sunbathing underneath this bridge. You could only appreciate the size of a few of them at that moment but could really tell, these were monsters!! So the persons next to us decided to throw in some fish for them. Well things got heated up then. The big boys all croweded around and fought for a few pieces of fish. We guestimate they were about 20 ft long – totally massive!! The spikes on their tails and bodies made them look so prehistoric. The pictures really don’t do them justice.
On the way to Jaco you drive through some really pretty country. It was probably the perfect day to go to the beach it was overcast and relatively cool so we really enjoyed our drive. I got to touch the water – didn’t really get in much and the water was warm but nice. I imagine the deeper you get the cooler and more refreshing it becomes. It’s a beach that you drive right up to the shore and park – kinda like Old Man’s beach in San Onofre but less crowded.
Other goings-on
Lets see.. we are no longer driving the eye sore Isuzu Trooper, my parents purchased a nice Kia. I’ve been driving now. It’s not nearly as scary as you think it’s going to be driving but the number of close calls we’ve had is unnerving. There are so many near-misses that you have to drive defensively – never getting too comfortable with the road and the other cars. There’s often times that while on the main road you’ll round a corner and there will be a car parked fully in the lane while the driver has hopped out to chat with someone on the side of the road. That has literally happened. The type of things that make an American go ‘ARE YOU CRAZY!!!???’ is acceptable and normal here. But for us it’s like love it or leave the country; we have to adapt.
The ministry has been really fantastic. It seems almost every day we go in service at least one of us gets a great call. I have 3 bible studies now and I’ve subbed for others. My confession is that I haven’t had a bible study in many many years. When the brothers and sisters travel their existing calls and bible students sort of get divided up between those who are left over in the congregation. The problem with that is we have a few families leaving in August. Our longer term (3 months or more) visitors are leaving us at the end of this month and some families are heading back to take care of things at their home countries. So I imagine August will be busy for me.
So most of the time our ministry goes like this – looking and looking for English and most of the time we get a ‘no’ answer. And then you’ll knock on a door and find a Costa Rican who speaks english and sometimes they really light up to talk about the bible (I met a man in service just this morning like this). Other times if they don’t quite light up, they are still listening and attentive to the message we have. We do occasionally get some grouchy persons but at least 90% are nice and helpful. The fear of knocking on a door and the rejection that you receive is slowly starting to fade. Here we can have actual conversations with people. It’s polite to first ask about the family, see how everyone is, make some chit chat and then take time to discuss the bible.
So most of the time we still like to go by and snag a bite around the 11:30 time in the morning. Since our service meeting starts at 9 we are usually in the ministry by 9:30 and when it’s a warm or humid day, you’re definitely ready for a break around 11:30 – after getting about 2 hours of service in. After that it’s home or back out in service for a few more calls or a study. One of my photo’s shows 2 car groups out getting a pastry and coffee at Cafe Delicias.
So that’s about all I have for now. I know there’s not much detail in there but that gives you the opportunity to email us or call us (PLEASE!) and we can fill you in on the rest!