Thursday, October 30, 2008

Walk a Mile in My Shoes


I wish some of you could walk a mile in our shoes. I do not say this to infer we are holy or special. Quite the contrary, this has nothing to do with why we are even here. This week I have felt a pressing need to earnestly pray for America, more so even than the people of CR or the next country we will be going to serve in. Before I tell those of you in the states why I wish you could walk a mile in my shoes, let me first place this disclaimer: I am not trying to offend anyone or get anyone upset, I am merely stating the facts of what change seems iminent, and what this change will mean for my fellow Americans.
We currently are living in a country that is a socialist country. I believe that in less than one week the American people will probably vote for a change in our government. With this said change I believe we will go from a representative democracy to a socialist type government. I would like to tell you what it is like to live under a socialist government.

1. Free healthcare for every citizen. Now to obtain this free healthcare all you have to do is go downtown to the one hospital offered to said residents at around 5am. You wait in line with your number until around 9am when one by one you are allowed to see the receptionist. The receptionist will then help you make an appointment with the appropriate health professional. Your appointment will be sometime later that afternoon, so you need to go ahead and pack a lunch and plan on staying the day. When you have your appointment with your doctor you will probably have to get some form of tests, x-rays, etc. performed. To schedule these tests you will need to return the next morning to make the appointment with the appropriate department. You can call to make this appointment, but chances are slim that you will actually reach one of the people that can help you. When you make the appointment you will be seen for your test sometime in the next 3-6 months. If your results require further treatment or surgery, you can add yourself to the appropriate list for this and then wait your additional 3-6 months for your procedure. My empleada told me how she had to schedule her EKG 5 months in advance and her annual physical 6 months in advance.

If none of this sounds appealing to you, you can go ahead and pay out of pocket and go to one of the private facilities where the foreigners (like us) go for treatment, that is if you can afford to...

2. Redistribution of wealth. There are price controls on certain products here in efforts to make life easier for the poor people. For example, rice, beans and flour are very cheap here. When they tried this with other products as well in the country where we will be serving, it caused many farmers to lose their farms because they could not afford to grow the crops due to price controls. This then trickled down to the fact that no one could now purchase: chickens, flour, eggs, milk....you get the picture.
Here they have a yearly aguinaldo (bonus) for every worker. It is required by law that all employees who are legal residents receive this bonus every Christmas. Great, we all would love a bonus right before Christmas, right? Problem is, it amounts to one month's salary for each person, so the small business owner is now strapped down with end of the year expenditures and now they cannot even purchase Christmas gifts for their own families. We are even feeling the squeeze from this one with our empleada.

3. Monopolies run amuck. Just take a look at this article written just a few months ago. We continue to have blackouts on a semi-regular basis here that often appear city-wide.
Just about two weeks ago, Costa Rica suffered a historical blackout that darkened the entire nation for about three hours... Just a few days later, the Electricity and Telephony Monopoly (ICE), asked the Costa Rican Government to allow them an average of 23% in rate hikes, citing the increased cost in petrol to power thermal energy plants. According to La Nacion, the countries biggest newspaper, the Utility had already used 80% of it's operating budget for the year for Thermal Electric generation. When the government refused, the Utility commenced with rolling blackouts over the entire nation for the last nearly two weeks. Every day for 3-4 hours, communities have their power shut down. Those companies with backup generators are forced to bear the cost of paying for the generation of their power. Smaller businesses and individual families, simply suffer. The imagery is amazing.... Meat markets forced to lock up all their meat in freezers and unable to take the meat out for fear of losing the cool in the freezer, are losing money every day.
Other small businesses, including offices of various types, are basically without productivity for 1/3 to 1/2 day. And to make matters worse, they change the time of the outages per area, seemingly AT RANDOM! Last week our power was out every day from 2-5pm. Yesterday it was 7am-11:30 am, and today 11:00am-2:00pm, making it impossible to plan...

4. The powerful get richer and the poor get poorer. Costa Rica on a regular basis devalues their currency by 8 to 18% a year. If you are making $450 a month (this is more than the average college graduate salary) anything you save will be lost through inflation. You will never accumulate the savings needed to escape poverty level. The government that claims to be working on your behalf is really working to keep you poor and dependent. The money made from the productive economy will never be reinvested in the factory or machinery that could provide you with a safer, more productive job. It will be spent in so called “administrative costs” or used to buy votes. You can really appreciate this when you see the average Costa Rican house and neighborhood...think Bronx circa 1970.

5. Public transportation, the only way to get there. We found out shortly after arriving here that people with drivers license plates ending in odd or even numbers are only allowed to drive certain days of the week. This apparently is also in effect in our upcoming country of service as well. We have seen the police spend much time at the local intersections checking to make sure this law is inforced. I am told however that you can "pay the officer" to make sure it is not counted against your driver's license...which brings us to number 6...
6. Bribery, the new game in town. What else is the average rich person supposed to do? So while you are hoofing it or taking public transportation on those days you are not allowed to drive, you may be mugged. Why? Because that officer is following his mandate to be at the intersection and make sure that only cars allowed on the roadway are there, and also making sure he has his extra money for a little extra retirement thanks to those with the extra cash. This also holds true for certain government services, etc...

7. Changing separation of church and state to a national religion. Something that is commonly found in socialist countries is a national religion. For Costa Rica it is Catholicism. For other socialist countries it can even be agnostic or atheistic in nature. Does this mean a difference for America? Well let me ask you this, how many people would stop paying tithes if they knew that they could no longer deduct it from their taxes (tithes that incidently fund our work here). What then happens to most of America's churches if they too have to start paying taxes on any revenue? It doesn't take long to figure out what will probably happen...one religion for one nation...Anyone remember why those Pilgrims came in the first place?

I know this is lengthy and that most of you are aware of the gravity of the situation. All I ask of each of you is to seriously consider praying earnestly and even fasting with me next week as our nation reaches a precipice. To ignore this situation or to say that it is merely a change that is necessary for the good of the whole is to ignore the very foundations that our great country was built upon. The Bible says we are to be as wise as serpents and as gentle as doves. To me this means we keep informed (and I mean by more than just one source), keep praying (for all of our leaders!), and keep exercising our right to make a difference in the government that will affect us and our neighbors. Remember that Jesus' second-most important commandment was to "Love thy neighbor like thyself" What better way than to make sure the people placed in charge of us and our neighbor has our best interest at heart? I can think of two wonderful examples of this in the Bible; Esther and Daniel. Both of these wise people changed the course of history in their countries when they chose to engage in the political process. We have that privilege ourselves in our great nation, so remember, " if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. " 2 Chronicles 7:14

Sunday, October 19, 2008

A Taste of Humble Pie


Coming to another culture can be a very humbling experience. Quickly one realizes that their “gringo” ways of doing things are just that, gringo. Not everyone in the world feels the necessity to stick to a rigid schedule or to be punctual at the risk of being offensive. For example, when we were reviewing for a big test in our grammar class, another teacher came into the room and told our teacher, Oscar, that they would be singing in 15 minutes and his assistance was needed. Singing? During class???!?? Some of the gringos wondered what could be so important to interrupt class, especially during an exam review. Well, one of the teachers was having a birthday. I had the wonderful privilege of watching a group of people that put relationships over personal agendas honor one of their friends by not just singing happy birthday, but also a local song of blessing from God to that same person.


Ken had a humbling experience of his own when a man walked out of the store across the street as we were leaving our house for school one day. The man was speaking in rapid Spanish to Ken and Ken had a quizzical look on his face. The man switched to broken English and said to Ken that he remembered Ken from the House of Restoration for men, and that Ken had been there to share the gospel a few weeks ago. Like Ken said, he is fairly certain one of the more advanced students probably did all the talking, but this man remembered Ken being there. Ken said it humbled him to know this man saw him as an evangelist, and that this inspired Ken even more to apply himself to learn the language.


It has really humbled me to think that these people understand what so many of us gringos take for granted. People and relationships are so much more important than schedules and agendas. The average Tico will be very offended if you come to a meeting and do not go to each individual to ask how they are doing, how is their family, etc…They will honestly think maybe you are angry with them or something is wrong. Every time we go to the House of Restoration it takes about 5-10 minutes to go all around the room and hug and kiss everyone and ask how they are, how is their family, etc…The same applies when it is time to go. Much time is spent hugging and telling the other person you hope that God will be with them this week and that they will be blessed, etc…This is not just a custom either, or at least not with most people. This is for real. They genuinely care deeply for one another. I think of all the times in my life I have just kind of waved and said hi to people and gone on my way, when I should have stopped and said, “Hey, how is your child doing? Have they adjusted to that new class yet?” Or, “How are you feeling since losing your loved one? “


Yes, it has been quite a taste of humble pie, but I am learning to appreciate the flavor. Just call it the blue plate special. Would anyone else care for a piece? There is plenty to go around….

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Ask and Ye Shall Receive

This week started off a little dismal as the rain has been relentless. We have tried to entertain the children with little forts, mini fiestas, nice hot bowls of chili (thanks Nana!), and mugs of hot chocolate. Who knew that Costa Rica could get down into the 50s during the day?

All the rain has helped everyone sleep a little better I think, as we have metal roofs and the noise of the rain drowns out most of the street noise. I just listened to Ken go over a passage with the children in Matthew where Jesus says, "Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." As you can see Kayleigh really took that passage to heart the other day waiting for her evening Bible story.

This week had a really bright spot in it, though. We received some packages from Nana and Papaw, Grammie, and our friends Miss Beth and the Dickinsons. There were some hand made cards, skittles, jelly bellies, spices, grits, and some cool tattoos the kids are sporting for the camera here. It felt like Christmas had come early for all of us! Ken lamented how one of our friends at school said he gets a little more glum with each day his mail box is empty. (I noticed that Ken did not volunteer any jelley bellies to him though...) So thank you so much for brightening up our very dreary week.
We have been told that this current tropical depression, or whatever it is that makes me feel a compelling need to start constructing an ark in the back yard, will leave by the end of this week and we will go back to only 12 hours of rain a day instead of 24. ¡Gracias a Dios!



Saturday, October 11, 2008

Ballad of San Francisco

Here is a collage of our favorite photos from our area of San Jose called San Francisco de Dos Rios. There are some photos from our neighborhood, the parks nearby, and our school. We also included some pictures from the cultural day we had at school last week. We hope you enjoy it!

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Rain, rain, go away!!!!

Yes, it is the height of the rainy season! Everyday now we can expect the rain to come by 12pm or 1pm and continue on until around 11 or 12 at night. This constant rain does have a tendency to wear down parents of young, active children, but you should see how it wears down the roads! We are including one of our favorite gringo trap pictures. We have to cross in the middle of this busy street just about every day, and this is a very common sight. The depth of this "pot hole" is about 6 feet deep. The width is big enough for a large horse to sit in comfortably. As you can see the locals have a special way of making sure drivers see these pot holes until the road crew can get around to fixing them. By the way, this has been here now for over a week. So, next time you are driving down the street in your car and complaining about the state of the roads there in your city, remember, at least you don't have to worry if your car will be falling INSIDE of the pot hole!