Day 49: Thematic

And, just like that, week 7. 70% of our time in Costa Rica is over.

I think I want to write thematically today, instead of chronologically. It took a full 15 seconds to think of the word chronological, because I am tired and my language brain is s t r e t c h e d.

The first thing I want to talk about is James Lund. Today, James shone. God was using James to make moves today. At noon, we had a men's time with the church. It was the first time they've done this, and they want to make it a monthly thing. They met in a mall food court that was pretty central to everyone. Since James has a lot of experience in marriage and helping shepherd young married couples, Lagos le pregunto to share some thoughts. James came with a books'-worth (a big book, at that) of pages and information and thoughts. He spent time this week sifting through them, and then when he found out how short of a time he would be sharing, he pared it down to a powerful paradigm and an incredibly helpful tool. It was maybe 15 minutes of content, but I could tell it impacted the men who came (me included).

In fact, around 2, as we were sitting around post-lunch, wondering when we should head to the CDI to work on stuff, Gomez, the head pastor of the church, asked James if he would preach at church tonight about how to engage with anger and negative emotions. 5 hours of notice. James thought (and I imagine, prayed) for a minute and then (to my absolute shock), said, "sure, I can do that."

And do that he did! (the fact that those words made a real sentence tickles me) Tonight, he brought it for the church. He shared important paradigms about negative emotions and especially how to engage well with anger. It was incredibly powerful, and I think multiple people came up to thank him afterwards. 5 hours of prep. God really moved through James today.

Oh, yea, also, we did a ton of work in the CDI today. Most of it was projects that James and Lagos had organized and procured supplies for yesterday in their unknown adventures. But, suffice to say, the CDI is in much better shape thanks to James.

Ok, the second thing I want to talk about is the CDI. Around 2:30, we went to the CDI and started working. Our initial crew was Evan, Andrew, Matthew, Tannia, and myself. We got to the CDI and got it opened up, and - eventually - found all the tools and supplies from James.

We used his pre-given instructions to add support to a breaking sink; this involved adding some brackets and anchors and screws. Evan did most of this. We also used James' instructions to drill and punch a hole through an upper part of the wall to run some wire from the main CDI room into the bodega, so that there could be wifi there. This was primarily Andrew, Matthew, and Izzy (once Izzy, Katie, and Ana Raquel joined). Then, we used James' instructions to fix some wires that were dangling from the ceiling. We put anchors in the ceiling and then used screws to attach some nice mounts for the wires to the anchors. There was a lot of dust and stuff from this, but it looked so nice after it was done. This was primarily Evan and Andrew.

Tannia and Matthew cleaned the walls some, then went to get supplies, then helped paint with Katie and Ana Raquel. Oh, yea, we also touched up a lot of the paint in the CDI. It looks so sharp right now, even though we didn't finish it all.

Somewhere near the 75% mark of our labor, a bunch of tiny ballerinas-in-training showed up at the CDI doorstep with Reychel for their ballet lessons. The CDI has ballet lessons most Friday evenings. There had been some miscommunication about whether or not they would be there today. They were there! So we quickly cleaned up the main CDI area and made sure the kids couldn't accidentally touch the painted areas. Fortunately, our remaining work was not in the space they needed.

Around 6, as we were finishing up, I sent people back to the apartment in waves (as they finished) to get ready for the church service tonight. James and Matthew were already at the apartment, preparing the teaching and worship, respectively.

The third thing I want to talk about is my family. I miss them! My brother and his wife just had their second daughter! I am a "Double Uncle," as my brother put it! I feel very sad not to be able to meet my new baby niece, but I feel so grateful that she's here (there) and healthy! Wow. Just...wow.

That's all the specific things I want to say.

I ran this morning, which was nice. There was a team worship time. There is supposed to be a big storm hitting the north of Costa Rica right now, so it may rain more than usual. Tomorrow is our last full day with our guys.

We got dinner after church tonight and it went really late. I got to have a good conversation with Matthew just now. I really love and respect him. He is so different from me, and his heart is so cool.

I am really going to miss our guys' team when they leave.

There's been a lot of Relationship Talk today.

I think that I experience 3 different kinds of missing people:

The First is very sterile; I recognize that I am not in the same place as a person and I am aware of how much I care about the person and think it would be nice to be around them.

The Second is more heart-felt; I feel the separation and distance from the person, and get a warm feeling of affection towards them and wish that I was in the same place as them right now (this is the level where I usually message someone and say, "hey bro, i miss you, let's hang out."

The Third is more dramatic; I feel sad and upset that I am not in the same place as the person and feel at least a little bit frustrated at whatever circumstance is preventing me from being where they are.

I think that's all the random things I have to say for now.

PRAYERS!

-for us to walk in step with the Spirit

-for good team dynamic

-for God's continued protection of our team
-for our last full day with our big team
-for the marriages of the church here to be blessed and protected

-for good connection with the H@ngout students Sunday

-for a lot of the students to come!

-for the camp next weekend to be powerful for the CDI kids