a little update on field service in costa rica

luis and deborah are two of our return visits. we met luis the week that my parents were visiting. we pulled up to a huge house, and I saw luis in the driveway, so i hopped out of the car and went to go ask if there were any english speaking people in the house. i fully expected him to say that we couldn’t go in, or that they weren’t home, which happens a lot in our territory, but he himself spoke english. so I said my usual 2nd line “we are looking for english speaking people who are interested in learning more about the bible” and even then I fully expected him to say that he only speaks a little english and not enough to study the bible (this also happens frequently with the locals… they speak a bit of english but they don’t read it, or they don’t understand enough of it to study). he was like, yeah, i want to know about the bible. we have been back to luis twice since then and have brought him a bible and a bible teach book. he really wanted to know what happens when we die, so we covered much of that chapter in the book, and now we are starting with chapter 1. luis used to be a pastor so he is very familiar with the bible but he says “I want to be a jehovah’s witness”. he has strong faith in jehovah and is really eager to learn. he’s having a hard time right now, as his wife has left him and is now living somewhere in mexico with another guy, although he doesn’t know where. his 4 kids are in guatamala with his wife’s parents, as he cannot afford to have them live with him in costa rica. he’s working hard to send money back to them and hopes to be with them soon. for now, we see him at least once a week and he’s always so happy when we leave. (happy because of our visit and the truth we shared with him, not happy because we are leaving :)

another return visit we have is deborah. she is from florida, she has been in costa rica for 8 years with her son, she’s a retired dentist (early retirement in costa rica? yes please!). when naomi and I met her, she invited us right into her house and showed us around, she said she was dying for some white girlfriends and then here we are showing up at her new house (she had just moved from another part of the country) and she was just beyond excited, talking about the country and all the things to do here, we could hardly even get a word in! it was kind of bizarre, but that’s how people are here, they invite you in and they just want to chat, half the time they don’t even care why we are there! so we gave her some magazines on nature, declined the offer of some pot “for fun” and thought we would be on our way. but then as we were leaving we complimented her on her garden, which was just beautiful, and she was off on creation and god and how beautiful and unique everything he makes is, and we were able to actually have a spiritual conversation with her based on creation. then she says “well I would just love a bible study.” we were like “um, ok, yes, I think that can be arranged!” we left her with the bible teach book but have not yet begun a formal study. deborah lives way up in the mountains of uvita, which is about an hour and fifteen minutes south of us. the first time we went up there, neither naiomi or I had a car. josh and I have since rented a car for a few weeks so we’ve been able to go by twice. today she wasn’t home, but we left a note, and then we ran into her and her son as we were driving down the mountain. we will go back next week and try to get her into chapter one of the book.