Day 46: Today Was Not a Good Day

There were a lot of good things about today. A lot of really good things about today. But, sometimes, a day just isn't really good anyway. 

I'll skip right to it; one of the single moms of two of the CDI kids (the two whose names I finally got recently) passed away today. I'm not fixing to put their story on display here, and I don't know a lot of details, but it's really sad. They spent the majority of the day at the CDI, at first in the bodega con Lagos, Ana Raquel, y Georgen, because they feel very loved and supported by them. For the second session, they came and existed around the other kids in the CDI, generally looking dazed. 

The church here is doing a really beautiful job of supporting these guys and their more distant family in the middle of this. There will be a memorial service tomorrow, all planned and organized today by the church here. Mourning with those who mourn is one of the deepest and hardest forms of love. The only harder form of love, in my opinion, is mourning someone. True mourning is an expression of love, and a hard one. It's easier not to mourn; it hurts less and leaves you feeling less weak and vulnerable. But it's a loving thing to do; to allow yourself to feel hurt for someone you love, because you love them. Not that we mourn like those who have no hope; there's a beauty to the mourning of the followers of Jesus.

I was moved today by the love shown by the members of this church. 

We did things today. We got up early and went to the CDI. We had a ton of kids come today; I think 22 in total? We did homework and English lessons and played and did the devotional and played and made bean-and-cheese tacos... All of those things went very well today, though some of the kids were crazy today and did not obey well. One in particular was a terror. I wonder if the kids could tell deep down that something was off. 

Our extra manpower was definitely needed today; we had people running errands and doing work and all over the place. I was so grateful today for our team and their work-ethic and servant-hearted attitudes. I am proud to call this team my team, they're doing so well!

After all the CDI madness calmed down, we waited and did some other prep for the funeral tomorrow. After a while the two kids came and joined us. They're staying with a family in the church until things get sorted out (that is what being the body of Christ looks like - opening your home with no warning and no prep time to two middle-school boys who just lost their family), so we hung out in the CDI until they all headed home. 

Our team, along with several of the church members who'd had a hand in all this, went to get dinner at Duke's (the Texas BBQ place that the church in Costa Rica opened last year). We went to their new location in Escazu. Marta works there! If you've been reading since 3 years ago, she was involved in our first trip. We ate a bunch of BBQ and listened to country music in a restaurant that was decorated in a way that legitimately looks like home. Everyone relaxed a little and, though the sadness was still there, had a good time.

I got to talk to Alexis for a significant amount of time tonight, which was really, really good. Distance is hard, relationships are hard, insecurity sucks...but I'm really glad that we get to do this stuff together (y'know, but with distance).

PRAYERS
-for us to walk in step with the Spirit
-for the boys that lost their mom. for their family. for wisdom. for this church. for comfort.
-for a good last H@ngout tomorrow
-for good connections and gospel opportunities
-for our time in the English classes to go well tomorrow
-for the funeral tomorrow to honor God and be a source of comfort
-for good team dynamic
-for opportunities to do some projects and aprovechar the team power we have rn
-for our Balkans team to be blessed

Tree is growing...one more branch!

Evan and Andrew playing with Jeremy

Some of the kids are doing remarkably well with this list


Ok, so I neglected to get the team foto, the vibe wasn't right today though. I'll *probs* get it tomorrow