Day 3: less processed than usual
Scheduling-wise, today was the most chill of days.
We woke up and had breakfast, which was muy rico. There is a lady named Maruja who has been cooking for us this week with help from her mom. I think Maruja probably has kids about our age, because she moms at us. After breakfast we cleaned up and then Lagos laid out the plan for us in a little more detail, which I'm sure I'll lay out below. We relaxed and prepared for the afternoon until lunch, then after lunch we loaded up into a van and drove into San José to play with kids in one of the poorer neighborhoods. Most of these neighborhoods are populated with people who have immigrated (largely illegally) from Nicaragua. It's pretty complex to get good work if you're here legally, so it's nigh impossible for them. After playing with the kids, we came back and had dinner and then chilled. Tomorrow (Monday) is when the crazy starts.
When Lagos was laying out the plan for our time today, he let us know that one of us should prepare a story that would allow them to segue into sharing the gospel with the kids. Then he paused, as if expecting a volunteer, and was met with silence and averted gazes. That's when my heart knew. I was gonna end up doing it. So, in the downtime before we left, I let Lagos know that I would do it. Y'all, I get super nervous talking in front of people. So, I'm casually internally freaking out and trying to get someone else to do this for me, which didn't happen (though many people expressed willingness to help if I wanted people to do a skit or something). I think through everything I would say, in Spanish, it's all planned out. And I'm super nervous.
So we get there and set up with a piñata and a cake and snacks. We play group games, which were super fun and then the moment comes. Lagos gathers everyone and gets me in front of everyone and says I have a story to tell them. Then he tells me, "in English, I will translate." Ohhh. Yea, that makes more sense. Nervous feelings mostly gone. I tell the story of the wise and foolish builders and we have some of our gringos acting out the story (David made an excellent storm). I accidentally slip into Spanish a couple of times because I was nervous and that's what I had been practicing ad nauseum in my head. It's all good though, I finish and step back so Lagos can share the gospel with the kids. Then he keeps staring at me, smiling, and I realize... Oh... I'm sharing the gospel. So I share in as kid-friendly of a way as I know how and I hear Lagos fixing and adding as he translates (bless up). He has me lead the kids in a salvation prayer, which felt weird to me, but was good. Then the kids get the piñata and cake and we play and stuff for an hour or so and we load up in our bus and leave.
All of this left me feeling some type of way, though I'm still not really sure what it is. I think I feel bad about it, but feel bad about feeling bad. Something felt off about stepping into material poverty, bringing snacks and entertainment for a little while, sharing the gospel and then loading up on our nice, air-conditioned turismo bus and leaving it all behind. Nice memory. Nice pictures. Nice experience. And I feel bad for describing it that way. I could easily describe it in a super positive way, because the church here does a great job of serving and loving this community and is using things like this to build good relationships and minister to the families and love the parents by loving their kids. No sé. I'm glad being God is God's job.
Hm...our 4-person Texas team is debriefing and worshiping together in the evenings, but I didn't share that because I hadn't processed it yet. (Sorry fam).
Our team went walkabout tonight and ended up in a park where a rock band was having a concert, singing about how much they hate the government. Note: the concerts in the park are organized and partially funded by the city government. So, there's that.
Lagos let us know that one of the long-term plans of the church here is to start a church or at least a church service for the homeless and materially poor people they serve. Part of that is what we will be helping with, starting tomorrow. We'll be spending the second half of the day with Pastor Gomez to start building relationships. I'm very excited about this. Especially with a small team (and especially especially with our small team), it will feel a lot less weird I think.
I am nervous, however. We brought many much hats for the church to use to bless the homeless population here. My hope was that we would be able to leave them with the church for them to distribute as they saw fit. That way, the relational "credit" that gets built is with the church here and not with some new friends from America that they may or may not ever see again. The Ohio team was also asked to bring some stuff to help bless the people here. Something that was said earlier made me nervous that the plan might be for us to be the ones to hand stuff out, but we will see.
be praying for great wisdom and love and tact and stuff as we start interactions tomorrow with students who are opposed to the idea of Christianity (they call Christians panderetas, which means "tambourines" because we're all noise) and as we start diving into the work with the city-side of the ministry.
thanks :)
We woke up and had breakfast, which was muy rico. There is a lady named Maruja who has been cooking for us this week with help from her mom. I think Maruja probably has kids about our age, because she moms at us. After breakfast we cleaned up and then Lagos laid out the plan for us in a little more detail, which I'm sure I'll lay out below. We relaxed and prepared for the afternoon until lunch, then after lunch we loaded up into a van and drove into San José to play with kids in one of the poorer neighborhoods. Most of these neighborhoods are populated with people who have immigrated (largely illegally) from Nicaragua. It's pretty complex to get good work if you're here legally, so it's nigh impossible for them. After playing with the kids, we came back and had dinner and then chilled. Tomorrow (Monday) is when the crazy starts.
When Lagos was laying out the plan for our time today, he let us know that one of us should prepare a story that would allow them to segue into sharing the gospel with the kids. Then he paused, as if expecting a volunteer, and was met with silence and averted gazes. That's when my heart knew. I was gonna end up doing it. So, in the downtime before we left, I let Lagos know that I would do it. Y'all, I get super nervous talking in front of people. So, I'm casually internally freaking out and trying to get someone else to do this for me, which didn't happen (though many people expressed willingness to help if I wanted people to do a skit or something). I think through everything I would say, in Spanish, it's all planned out. And I'm super nervous.
So we get there and set up with a piñata and a cake and snacks. We play group games, which were super fun and then the moment comes. Lagos gathers everyone and gets me in front of everyone and says I have a story to tell them. Then he tells me, "in English, I will translate." Ohhh. Yea, that makes more sense. Nervous feelings mostly gone. I tell the story of the wise and foolish builders and we have some of our gringos acting out the story (David made an excellent storm). I accidentally slip into Spanish a couple of times because I was nervous and that's what I had been practicing ad nauseum in my head. It's all good though, I finish and step back so Lagos can share the gospel with the kids. Then he keeps staring at me, smiling, and I realize... Oh... I'm sharing the gospel. So I share in as kid-friendly of a way as I know how and I hear Lagos fixing and adding as he translates (bless up). He has me lead the kids in a salvation prayer, which felt weird to me, but was good. Then the kids get the piñata and cake and we play and stuff for an hour or so and we load up in our bus and leave.
All of this left me feeling some type of way, though I'm still not really sure what it is. I think I feel bad about it, but feel bad about feeling bad. Something felt off about stepping into material poverty, bringing snacks and entertainment for a little while, sharing the gospel and then loading up on our nice, air-conditioned turismo bus and leaving it all behind. Nice memory. Nice pictures. Nice experience. And I feel bad for describing it that way. I could easily describe it in a super positive way, because the church here does a great job of serving and loving this community and is using things like this to build good relationships and minister to the families and love the parents by loving their kids. No sé. I'm glad being God is God's job.
Hm...our 4-person Texas team is debriefing and worshiping together in the evenings, but I didn't share that because I hadn't processed it yet. (Sorry fam).
Our team went walkabout tonight and ended up in a park where a rock band was having a concert, singing about how much they hate the government. Note: the concerts in the park are organized and partially funded by the city government. So, there's that.
Lagos let us know that one of the long-term plans of the church here is to start a church or at least a church service for the homeless and materially poor people they serve. Part of that is what we will be helping with, starting tomorrow. We'll be spending the second half of the day with Pastor Gomez to start building relationships. I'm very excited about this. Especially with a small team (and especially especially with our small team), it will feel a lot less weird I think.
I am nervous, however. We brought many much hats for the church to use to bless the homeless population here. My hope was that we would be able to leave them with the church for them to distribute as they saw fit. That way, the relational "credit" that gets built is with the church here and not with some new friends from America that they may or may not ever see again. The Ohio team was also asked to bring some stuff to help bless the people here. Something that was said earlier made me nervous that the plan might be for us to be the ones to hand stuff out, but we will see.
be praying for great wisdom and love and tact and stuff as we start interactions tomorrow with students who are opposed to the idea of Christianity (they call Christians panderetas, which means "tambourines" because we're all noise) and as we start diving into the work with the city-side of the ministry.
thanks :)
Piñatas are just the best.
Me, Héctor, and David (the storm)
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