Weekend Report from Costa Rica

Hi everyone, this is Dan updating you from Costa Rica. I had a very busy weekend. Saturday morning I visited Sonia and Edwin's ministry, Amor en la Calle (Love in the Street). They work with street kids and very poor people in San Jose. This particular event was a health campaign offered in partnership with Amor en la Calle, the Salvation Army, and two pharmaceutical companies. They provided health screenings, medicine, haircuts (a good opportunity to check for lice), toys for the kids, and a little food. Over 200 people showed up, which was a great turnout. This took place in a very poor neighborhood called Sagrada Familia (Sacred Family). For those of you who know about Cabbagetown in Atlanta, this is similar but a little worse.


Sonia and Edwin and their team work in this neighborhood twice a week. They provide food, clothing, recreation, and discipleship training. It's a great ministry and I enjoyed the opportunity for them to take me around some of the shanties (kind of like a squatter camp with tin shacks) and introduce me to people, plus hear them describe their weekly ministry. They have invited me to lead a Bible study for a discipleship group they have with teenagers on Saturday mornings which they host in their downtown offices. I will probably do that on July 19 or 26. After returning home from that event, David Mosher (a fellow student at the Institute) and I went to LibroMax in the San Pedro mall. I was hoping to find some Spanish crossword puzzle books but was unsuccessful. We then went to HiperMax, the CR version of Wal-Mart, and by the time we finished shopping there, it was time for me to go to Ray and Lidia Zirkel's house for dinner. Some of you know Ray and Lidia, great missionary friends of ours. They are sort of my mentor missionary couple, in terms of how much I have learned from them. I had a great time visiting with them, and Lidia, who is from Alabama, made sweet tea, which was a great treat for me.

Sunday, Nancy and I took care of making a ticket change that we've been needing to make for our trip to Venezuela, so that we can arrive early enough for me to team-teach the whole week of Seminary with Warren, August 11-15 (we are teaching a course on Church Growth). We've been trying to make the change for several weeks but no Sky Mile seats have been available. Through God's grace 2 seats were available yesterday morning so that we could make the change. Nancy called Delta while we were "chatting" on the computer. This was a great answer to prayer. I then went to church, and then to a bead store to price beading supplies for our mission team to Guapiles, before finally returning to my Tico home. After a short nap, I studied for an upcoming grammar test and spent some quality conversational time with my Tico family.
Nancy had an equally busy weekend at home in Wilmore, taking care of a lot of house issues while our wonderful landlady was in town. This is Day 16 being apart from one another, with 35 more to go. Aye papa!

Thank you for your continued prayers for us as we partner with you in the gospel. Much Love, Dan