Irony

It turns out that the cross that was placed infront of our entrance was not the best move. The is an old man who comes to talk with the men in the program named Marchena. He is well known and even meets with the Mayor once a week for prayer and studies. Last week when he came to the center to teach the men he recognized the cross. He made the cross for his son that died when he was 6 years old. He was not happy. He went to the mayor, then Jimmy(program director) met with the mayor and the Mayor sent 5 police officers that day to take out the cross. It was done illegally anyways. Just a whole bunch of craziness. This past week has been pretty slow and hard. We are waiting to get a saw mill that was sent to Limon. We have the money and the saw mill is their. We are just waiting on the tranportation to go get it. It will be a whole day trip to get it. We currently have 8 men in the program. I am hoping that Juan Carlos, the guy who recently graduated wants to come back and help out. He is enjoying being back home with his family in San Jose and wants to possibly stay in San Jose to be with his family. We shall see. Today at the beach it was a gorgeous day. We had our service, shared in communion, threw the football, surfed, swam, and fellowshipped.

Update

For clarity purposes...the Minsteria de Salud has given us a month to find a new location and it is possible to get another month extension. There is no access for an emergeny vehicle, this is the main reason among others. We need new wiring, a ceiling, and a new kitchen. We aren´t going to do any of the repairs, we are just looking for a new house. Also, the program is right next to the cemetary and there is a group of women who formed a group called Holy Ground who is trying to get us shut down. They have actually came in the past two days and said that one of their relatives is buried underneath our entrance. So, they hired two men who are in active crack cocaine addiction to, hard to explain......put a cross in cement and make somewhat of a grave right in front of our entrance. It is absolutely ludacris. Ludacris is a fitting word. To me it is just a spiritual battle, so we are praying hard and trying our best to show the group Christ through our interactions. Man it is hard. I wanted to rip the cross out of the ground and mess up the concrete at first. Jared bought a whole bunch of cement block, which they took out...and they killed quite a few of the flowers Jared bought and planted. It is not some big huge deal...it just appears to be a group of women who have nothing better to do. They have documents that say someone is buried in the cemetary, but no actual location. So, they chose the entrance as the location. I wish I could better explain the craziness. It is exciting to me to be apart of this. The men in the program are doing great. We just had one man finish the program this week. His name is Juan Carlos. He did so good and grew so much. He is coming back next week and we are going to talk to him about staying with us to continue growing and working in the program. He is a great leader and is a blessing to have around. Also, I went to a meeting last night at this 5star hotel that consisted of the "big wigs" of the area. Kim(program founder) spoke as I passed out our info. Kim does an amazing job of networking and creating opportunities for projects and beautifying the community. The main guy who heads this group up is a huge supporter of Casa De Amor as well as most of the people who attend these monthly meetings. This group helped start the program with Kim. The mayor is a big supporter too. It was pretty cool to be able to meet a lot of the people and get to see how things operate. We are pressing forward regardless of the obstacles and praising Jesus as we continue to grow.

Not much new lately other than I moved into my new apartment last week. I think that it is going to work out great. The only difficult thing may be all the noise that comes from the surrounding apartments. I think that the walls are much thinner than what we would typically have in the states. The man who rented me the apartment has a son who was in the drug program...he has taken to me pretty well, as have the others in the area. I think they are intrigued at seeing a gringo living with them. Jose(mans son) comes over almost daily and wants to learn english and I in turn get to learn spanish. We are going to be studying the bible some as well. He wants to change how he has been living. He told me last week that it is hard here in Quepos because he knows everyone and whenever he goes out into the city all his "friends" as him if he wants to get high. I completely understand where he is coming from. There is a bunch of temptation here for someone trying to get clean.

I have been going to church on Saturday nights witht the men from the program. I don´t understand much of what is being said, but I get the point. I really just like the praise and worship. I taught last Sunday at church and I think that I am doing so again this coming Sunday. I have stayed busy in studies thanks to opportunities such as teaching at church, preparing a bible study on Tuesdays for our team, mens prayer breakfast every Wednesday, and Shabbat(rest and fellowship) on Friday nights.

We are looking for a new place to have the program as of today. We will be closed down in 2 months because of the conditions of the program and mostly in part due to the fact that there is no way for emergency vehicles to access our program. Basically, there are specifications that cannot and won´t be met, so we are looking for a new place. It will work out fine. I am looking forward to seeing God do something great.

2 things.

I have seen people in addiction who I think might be demon possessed. This may be a very controversial subject for some, but if there was any doubt in my mind that it existed(there was not) then it would have been done away with the other day. I was sitting at my friends house writing my brother an email and I saw their gate fly open. A kid was running in with his hands behind his back. I said hello to him, thinking nothing of it because they have kids coming in and out all of the time. Well, this kid looked at me crazy, said something crazy in Spanish, then he spit on his hands and threw it at me. He did the same to Jared and continued running. His hands were actually bound behind him and he still managed to spit on them and fling it at us. Laura, the woman's house we were at yelled at us to go get him he was demon possessed. I froze, Jared ran, then I ran. It was pretty sad and shocking. Jared carried him out of the house down to his house. His mother was out in the street looking for him. I heard that they keep him tied down because if they don't he goes crazy. He used to be a perfectly fine kid. I think he may have been 11 years old or so. It was pretty clear that the normal kid was gone and something else was going on. Not sure that there is anything exactly identical in the bible, but it sure reminded me of a couple stories of Jesus or His disciples' encounters.

Next, I went with the program director of Casa De Amor into the jungle yesterday. We were given a piece of land, about 2 acres worth in the jungle. Myself, Jimmy(program director), another guy from the program, along with the man who donated the land all went about 10-15 miles into the jungle with machetes clearing the jungle out. It was so humid, but it was a blast. I thought that I was going to see a snake or get bit by one. Thank God I didn't. I prayed before I went in. We cleared quite a bit of land and we were able to see what we might be able to do. There is a man in Quepos, where the program is, that has drawn up plans for the area. I have not seen them, but it sounds like there will be some hut style places where guys can stay. There is electricity as well. There is a wood mizer that is currently sitting in customs here in Costa Rica. We are just waiting on money to be able to get it. Everyday it sits in customs it costs 10 bucks or so and it costs about $4,700 to get it out. It is a $20,000 piece of equiptment that will do a lot for the program and teach the guys a trade.

1st Week Back

The initial transition coming into Quepos was a bit rough, only because I was sick. The first few days were kind of a drag, but since I have started feeling better I am having a blast. The program is doing very well. There is a great group of men currently there. 8 men, of various ages, living in close quarters, leads to plenty of "ministry" opportunities. So, I have been able to sort of jump right back into things. Me and a couple of guys fed the homeless men and women. There wasn't much of a turnout this past Thursday, but I think once the word gets out more will eventually come. When I was here last time I went apartment hunting and I saw some brand new ones that weren't finished yet. I was able to talk to the manager and work something out....I will be moving in on Wednesday. It is a small, studio-style apartment. I am excited to live there. It is extremely nice compared to some of the other apartments I looked at and it is the same price per month as the others. I have begun to run here as well. I ran today for about an hour or so. Today was my first day at church, which is still on the beach. I taught today. They didn't waste anytime throwing me into things. I am grateful for it. You couldn't have asked for a better day than today. It probably got up close to 90 degrees with minimal cloud cover. There was also a surf competition at the beach today. The water was clear enough to see the bottom with the water up at chest leval. I told God today,"Are you serious, get to live and serve here?...there was a mixture of gratitude with awe."