For those interested, this is Samuels most recent blog from Costa Rica- Im pretty proud of my son and so thankful that he and his classmates are having this experience: Today was nothing short of an amazing, eye-opening experience. The first thing that I learned today is that children going to school get up at about 5am, which was quite surprising. We met at the church at 8am after breakfast (more delicious coffee). From there we walked to La Cuenca, and went on a tour of the houses of the refugees. This was the eye opening part. Our guide was in charge of the Smiles with Hope organization that ministers to that area. He told us the story of one woman, Carla (in the red tank top), who left her abusive husband and took her four children. An American family decided to give her money so that she could move to Nicaragua, away from her husband. After going through all of the paperwork, her husband found out, came home, beat her, and tore all of the paperwork apart in her face. This is just one example of hundreds of women in this community who suffer everyday. This is why our presence here is so important, for once, she gets to experience total strangers, walk into her home, listen to her, and love her. We visited many families, and talked to no husbands. In each house, we listened, loved, and prayed for all inside. Then we went back to the church for lunch. We ate fish (I have no idea what kind), chicken, rice, beans, plantains, and picadillo (a vegetable and potato salsa-like dish). For many of us, myself included, it was very difficult to go from dire poverty, from a state of not knowing where ones next meal was coming from, to an all you can eat buffet. It was a slap in the face of reality. We are tremendously blessed, and that does not even accurately describe the extent to which it is true. We soon returned to La Cuenca, and participated in their Sports Championships. This included Ping-Pong, Foosball, and Soccer. For obvious reasons, we did not win anything (especially soccer). Just being around the children, who all seemed to be six years old, was humbling. It did not matter who you were, why your were there, or if you could play UNO (the card game), they loved and welcomed you. I must admit, trying to explain the rules of UNO using my limited Spanish abilities was quite difficult. It usually went along the lines of this: ROJO CINCO! NO, ROJO CINCO! After our quite ridiculous game of UNO and other activities, we went back to our host families. To get there we traveled through the rain (we stayed dry) and past exploding transformers (it was just loud). After another wonderful dinner (including Mora, a blackberry puree drink) we walked back to the church for a service. At this service Kyle, Cameron, and I shared our testimony, Mr. Thompson spoke, and we sang several songs. We got the opportunity to speak to and thank our host parents, and we even made a few cry. Today was both a tremendous learning experience and emotional roller coaster. We love these people, and we love serving them. Our only hope is that they can understand that the impact they have have had on our lives is tremendously more than our impact on them. To be brutally honest, it would have been a tremendous mistake for me to not have come on this trip. Tomorrow we move to Cot, and say goodbye to our first host family. Please keep us in your prayers. - Samuel Glenn
Posted on: Tue, 08 Apr 2014 03:40:59 +0000
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