My week in Costa Rica
As I sit in the home of my friends Woody and Su preparing to head back to Colorado, I reflect on the wonderful week God has given me here in Costa Rica. I thank all of you for your prayers, I have been kept safe all week and had some good times of fellowship with the team members here – making new friends and visiting people I met at the Latin America conference in Ecuador last year.
The weather did clear up on Thursday and stayed nice the whole weekend. Today however things are cloudy and rainy again. I guess I’ve come full circle. I got to visit the nearby city of Heredia, the capital of the Heredia province where San Isidro is (and the I-Teams campus is located). I also got to tour downtown San Jose, which everyone says is quite possibly the ugliest city in Latin America. I must say there’s not much special about it and it has a high theft rate that would rival any city in the region.
If I could ask for your prayers, I do have a tough decision to make. In meeting with one of the team leaders – Mark, he encouraged me to focus most of my energy on either computer support or university ministry and then do the other on the side so I actually can make a difference in one of those areas rather than make mediocre contributions. For those of you that know me well, I have a passion for both computers and university ministry so it will be hard but I believe he’s right. One thing Mark also has told me is that I should commit to four years here. Since I feel my body is longing for some stability right now, I think I will take that advice too, regardless of what I decide.
I’ve also been struck this week as Woody and Su have been following the events in Haiti. This in my opinion is probably the worst disaster in the world since the tsunami that hit Indonesia/Thailand in 2004. It will take years to rebuild Haiti, but hopefully the people will learn from this and work to better their nation. Still, it’s a stark reminder of the forces of nature. San Isidro lies in the shadow of two active volcanoes – Irazu and Turrialba, both a mere 13 miles away and the country of Costa Rica lies in one of the most active earthquake zones in the world, so it has been a reminder for us as well of what could happen, though building codes here are much stricter.