New Fruit - Manzana de Agua

One of the many things I love about Latin America is all of the fruits that are available that you can't find (or easily find) in the US.

Last night after church we went to the house of a family that lives near us in our bario, San Francisco de dos rios. They are wonderful people and extremely helpful as we learn to become Ticos.

While we were visiting their home, they introduced us to a fruit none of us had tried before, Manzana de agua. In English it would be "water apple". Wow. Delicious. It is roughly the shape of a small pear with a one large seed inside. My wife described the taste as like eating a sweet smelling flower. Our kids loved them too.

We will be hunting for these when we go to the feria (local farmers market) next weekend!!

Better Than Bars

If you have ever vistited a Latin American country (or downtown Kansas City), than you are very familiar with the bars and gates on every door and window of every house.

Our house is no exception. We have a front gate, a gate at the front door, and several locks on the wooden front door. I feel like I have moved into Fort Knox.

Last night while we slept, there was a loud clanging on one of the many locked gates around our house. Keeley woke me up because it sounded like someone was trying to get in.

OK. Adrenaline is pumping. Now I need a weapon....OK found a metal flashlight. Then it dawned on me that I don't even know what to yell at an intruder in a language they will understand. Some choice Clint Eastwood or Arnold Swartzenager lines should do, everyone knows those. So around our dark house I crept.

After a thorough checking of all the gates and doors, I was satisfied that our home was still secure and no breach had taken place.

Now I need to go back to sleep. Right. While I waited for the adreneline to be absorbed back into my body, I prayed with Keeley and pondered what had just happened. Here are some thoughts.

Here we are in a new place where there is so much to learn about and adjust to. Satan would love to have us be consumed by fear and worried about our safety at every turn. It would be easy to be so preoccupied with fear that we are unable to minister the way God would have us to. As we prayed, we asked God to give us a spirit of power, and of love, and a sound mind.

Because after all, God is exceedingly better protection for my family and I than some steel bars on our doors and windows. The same God that stopped the mouths of lions from eating Daniel is the same God that brought us here to Costa Rica. The same God that protected Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego from the firey furnace is the same God that brought the sun up on our new home today. God wants to build our faith, and last night He used to rattling bars to draw us closer to himself.

By the way, after talking to the neighbors behind us today we found out that there are some cats that fight each other at night and they scamper up the gates causing them to rattle. They also run on the roofs making a racket too. God is good, all of the time.

Jones'n For Some Internet

Yes, I'll admit it. When I have to go for more than a day or two without checking my e-mail, I start to get symtoms. Hands get shaky, my mind wanders, I even start to crave SPAM.

Just kidding about the SPAM, that stuff is nasty. Anyway, when we arrived in Costa Rica early last Sunday morning (about 2am), I began an involuntary Internet fast that lasted until Monday evening at 6pm. Can you believe that?? Over 24 hours without e-mail!!

I am feeling better now though. A couple who lives behind us has internet and a wireless router, so we are using their wireless internet (with permission...).

Seriously though. The Internet is a great tool, but I am a little disgusted with myself for missing it so greatly. I need to use it when it is there, but change my grip on it from a white-knuckle to a gentle handshake.

I'll write more later, I need to catch up on my web-surfing. :-)

30 Seconds of Encouragement - 8/18/07

There we were, rushing through one of the largest, busiest airports in the United States.  Atlanta International.  Passing through a corridor on our way to use an elevator (since the large off-road double stroller we brought will not fit on an escalator), I heard someone call out my name.  Not that the name Ryan is all that uncommon, but in general you don’t hear names of any kind being yelled out in the middle of a busy airport.

 

I looked to see who it was that was trying to get my attention (or the attention of someone else with my name), and my eyes fell upon a familiar face.  It was Jim Edwards from the Kansas City Baptist Temple.  Some of you already know why Jim was in the Atlanta airport at that moment and why it was so cool to see him, but for those of you that do not, let me explain.

 

Jim Edwards and 24 other people from our church, the Kansas City Baptist Temple, were on a weeklong trip to San Jose, Costa Rica to help with some construction work at the church of KCBT missionary Greg Kedrovsky.  Our original plan had been to travel with this team for our move to Costa Rica, but the blessing of using Delta Skymiles to purchase all of our tickets required us to travel a week later on the day of their return.  Twelve members of this team had graciously volunteered to help us in our move to Costa Rica by each carrying a suitcase full of our stuff.  This was an huge blessing and allowed us to bring a total of 22 suitcases (12 with them, plus 10 of our own) to our new home in Costa Rica.  Not only did this save us a lot of money, it also provided the manpower to move that many pieces of luggage from one place to another. 

 

Jim and another member of the team were hurrying to catch their flight from Atlanta back to Kansas City, while we were hurrying to catch our flight from Atlanta to San Jose, Costa Rica.

 

So in that enormous airport filled with thousands of people, God saw fit to encourage us by crossing our path with some members of the very team that had been such a blessing to us.  We only had time to say hi and smile, but it was a bright spot in our trip at just the right time. 

 

Coincidence you say?  No, not coincidence, God’s providence.  God is so good to us, and He is always right on time with the way He meets our needs, big or small. 

 

We made it!!

2:00 am and smelling like we had carried more carry-on luggage than technically allowed through two airports and airplanes, we pulled up to the house that will be our home for the next two years in San Jose, Costa Rica.  Whew.

 

Our girls were exhausted.  We were exhausted.  But we made it without any trouble and no worse for wear.

 

The man that picked us up from the airport, Ronnie, is a nice guy and very helpful.  He has a big van and does a lot of driving for students at the school we are going to attend.  He already had the key to our house and helped us get the luggage inside.

 

After locking the outside gate, the inside gate, and the three locks on the front door, we settled into our beds and got some much needed sleep.

 

The next day we started going through the suitcases and trying to put things where they belong.  The house is every bit as good as the pictures, we are very pleased and grateful for it.

 

Thanks again for all of our prayers.  God blessed us with a great trip.  From the extremely friendly Delta ticketing agent that helped us check all of our heavy bags, to the Costa Rican customs that didn’t take even give a second look at the strange household items we were bringing in as tourists, God went before us and prepared the way.

 

Just like the Nation of Israel in Joshua chapter 3, as soon as we obeyed and stepped into the river of God’s plan, He has parted the waters and allowed us to go across on dry ground.  Praise God.

Only 16 Days Left!

Time's fun when your having flies.

 

It is hard for me to believe that in only 16 more days we will be moving to Costa Rica.  It has gone from seeming like it was ages away, to now being right at our feet.

 

God has been so faithful (as He always is) to open doors for us and provide for our every need.  We have our house rented, our van sold, and have gotten rid of most of the stuff we are not going to keep.  I am trying to start a new practice in my life beginning with this move: not keeping junk.

 

We are excited to get into our rented house in Costa Rica and get settled.  We will have a couple of weeks to rest before starting school, so we are grateful for that.  18 Suitcases.  That is what we need to fit our families' possessions into.  Really makes you evaluate what you need.

 

It is a surreal feeling to be at the church these days.  Another missionary told me about the "disconnect" that begins to occur several weeks before you depart.  It is something that is difficult to even describe with words, but very clear to those experiencing it.  It is not like people stop being friendly or talking to you or anything like that, it is just a sense that a separation has begun already.  They are going about their lives here in Kansas City, and they are letting us go to begin our new adventure in Costa Rica.  Not a negative thing, but definitely a thing.  Maybe I will talk more about this concept in my book about being a missionary.  :-)

 

 

Jalapeños, Squirrels, and a Lesson in Honesty

My wife has a green thumb, and mine has shades of green here and there, so we decided to grow some vegetable plants in pots in our backyard. A tomato plant, some cilantro, and one jalapeño pepper plant.

Mmmmm....fresh jalapeño peppers. I like them alot.

The pepper plant was the first to bloom and soon thereafter a small pepper started to form at the top of the plant. Excitedly I would check the pepper plant's progress per passing day. The bigger the pepper grew, the more I could imagine the fiery goodness it would add to some savoury dish. During a pepper progress check, my dream came to a tragic end. The pepper was gone.

Gone!! Who could have taken my precious pre-pubescent pepper? My mind scanned through the usual suspects: birds, squirrels, the next door neighbor. Squirrels. Squirrels. It had to have been the squirrels!! We have 987 of them living in our backyard. My wife agreed with my surmising, so immediately I began to devise a plan to properly protect and preserve my potted peppers.

Pellet gun, check. Wire mesh for protective pepper cage, check. Dogged determination to see the next juvenile jalapeño reach adulthood, check.

Now this whole pepper-stealing-squirrels saga had been played out in living color before my two lovely daughters, 4 and 2 years old. Several days after the crime had occurred, and before any thieving squirrel had lost it's life at my hand, my 4 year old daughter approached my wife immediately after waking from her afternoon nap.

Confession is cleansing to the soul they say, and my daughter did some cleansing. She plead guilty to picking the small pepper and throwing it in the grass. When asked what her motive was for pre-maturely ending the life of the pepper, she said, "It was squishy".

Of course we were very proud of her for admitting what she had done instead of letting the squirrels take the fall, and so she was encouraged accordingly.

We now have clearly established the boundaries for vegetable picking in our mini-garden, squishy or not.

Amends have been made with the representative from the nut-gatherers union and there is a new pepper developing on the pepper plant. Harmony has been restored. :-)

Confessions of a Coffee Snob

It's an aquired taste.

That's what people used to tell me about about coffee before I had ever tried it. Anything that smells as good as roasted coffee beans has to taste just as good right?

My first experience with coffee was a large styrofoam cup full of "silver tanker" coffee. Silver Tankers are the large silver pots that you find in churches filled with Folgers (if you are lucky...) or some other inexpensive grocery store brand. I tried a sip, made a grimmace at the bitter yuck in my mouth, and headed straight for the cream and sugar. Contrary to my efforts, copius amounts of cream and sugar added to the yuck coffee only made it taste like sweet creamy yuck. This memorable event took place sometime in 1994.

After that, I avoided coffee for the most part. Engaging only in the occasional cup socially at get-togethers. That all changed when I met the woman who is now my wife. While we were dating, she opened my eyes to a world of coffee I didn't know existed. Starbucks. Now I am not even talking about going to the cafes and ordering drinks, she just made some drip coffee from purchased starbucks beans. She persuaded me to try a cup. I couldn't believe my mouth! No rancid bitter after taste! No yuck! It tasted like it smelled!

And so began my journey into the world of good coffee. I wonder how many other people there are in the world that say they don't like coffee, whose only experience with the savory beverage is Silver Tanker Folgers?

A friend of mine who is a far bigger coffee snob than I am recently suggested I try drinking my coffee from a French Press. He said this is the way to truly enjoy the full flavor of the coffee bean. Initial reports are: delicious, much better, full bodied flavor.

Try a cup of the good stuff. But be careful, it could change your life... :-)

My Mind is in the Gutter

Here in Kansas City we have been having rain. Lots of rain.

During one of the downpours we experienced recently, I noticed that the gutter on the back of our house was routing the rain water effectively. The problem was it was effectively routing the water up and over the end of the gutter instead of into the down spout.

Yep. Clogged up. When you can't remember when you cleaned the gutters last, that is a sure way to tell it has been WAY too long.

Being up on a ladder is not my favorite thing in the world to begin with. My comfort level in this activity drops dramatically when it is outside in the rain. But like it or not, the clog had to be cleared. So up I went.

The trees that provide wonderful shade to our house in the summer are the same trees that contribute a plethera of leaves, twigs, and seeds to our gutters. It's a love-hate relationship...

So upon reaching the top of the wet, mildly stable ladder, I found that the down spout was completely clogged with a lovely smelling combination of decaying plant matter. Pulled it out, and watched the trapped water quickly escape down the newly opened channel.

This gutter experience got me thinking about how as Christians we are supposed to allow God's love, wisdom, knowledge, and understanding to flow through us into the lives of others. But just like the gutter, we can become clogged with things not of God that keep what has been poured into us from flowing into someone else. So what is the answer to keeping our lives free from clogs?

Frequent cleaning. If I had been diligent to empty my gutters of debris on a regular basis (when it was not raining yet), then I would not have experienced the clog during the heavy downpour. In our lives as Christians, we must be diligent to allow the Word of God to cleanse our lives on a regular basis. (Ephesians 5:26) This consistent cleaning by our Lord will allow our channels to be clear, and his goodness to pass through us into other people.

Are your gutters clean?

Intentionally Intentional

Last week we had an awesome Discipleship Conference at our church. On Wednesday night, our Senior Pastor Jeff Adams was talking about the importance of being intentional in our making of disciples of Jesus Christ. I really like that word, intentional, and it got me thinking about how it applies in all areas of our relationship with the Lord.

intentional - characterized by conscious design or purpose

Here is short list of things that came to mind that I need to be intentional about (not exhaustive)

• Spending quality time in the Word of God
• Spending quality time in prayer with God
• Sharing with others what God has shared with me
• Time to really talk with my wife
  
• Time to play with my girls
• Telling the people I love that I love them
• Being the kind of friend to others that I want them to be to me

In our busy lifestyles it isn't enough to just hope things will end up happening on their own. We must be intentional about the things that matter. One of my favorite quotes is, "There is always time for what is important". The question we all have to answer for ourselves is, "What is important?" Our "list" of priorities will determine how we spend our time, because we are almost always intentional about the things at the top of that list.

Far too often one of the top 5 on my unwritten list of priorities is: self. Wouldn't it be great if we could permanently kick self to the bottom of the list, or remove it altogether?

What do you make a priority to be intentional about?

Walking to Work, or Working to Walk

Walking. In 2007 it has a different meaning in the United States than it did 100 years ago. Today, walking is what you do to get from the living room to the garage in order to get in your car. Or what you do from the parking place close to the grocery store you spent 15 minutes circling around to find.

I have started walking to work. It takes me about 20 minutes one-way, up and down two reasonably sized hills. There are several reasons for starting this new activity. Here they are, not necessarily in order of importance:

1. In preparation for leaving the country in 4 months, we are a one car family. If I drive to work, than that would leave Keeley and the girls without a vehicle.

2. I could stand to lose some weight. Having tried the sitting around like a lazy bum method without success, I am going to try to be more physically active.

3. Preparing for Costa Rica. In Costa Rica we are going to walking ALOT more than we do here. Most likely we will be living close enough to the Language School that we can walk to and from there each weekday. I don't want to be doggin it when we get there and have to walk each day. I remember reading about Hudson Taylor as he prepared to leave to minister in China. While still living in England he began eating much less and slept on the floor to prepare himself for the conditions he would encounter in China. Praise the Lord for beds in Costa Rica!

4. Time to meditate and pray. If I drive to work, it takes me about 3 minutes if I get reds at the two stop lights in between. If they are green lights, the trip is even faster. Hard to do any meditating or praying in that short span of time. Walking for 20 minutes however gives me some good time to spend talking with God. Great preparation for a day at the office. Sometimes I even sing or hum quietly (but only when there are no cars driving by, I don't want to look like I am crazy....).

My wife has been to Kenya, Africa several times and told stories of people there walking for hours just to get to a church service that would last less time than it took for them to walk there. Our culture is really spoiled in that sense. Just costs us some gas to get there.

Anyway, the walking is good for me is several ways. I am determined to stick with it.

Swimming with the Fishes

My wife Keeley and oldest daughter Avigail had some excitement yesterday. They were having a Mom's Group activity at one of the prettiest parks in Kansas City, Loose Park. There is a nice lake complete with ducks and turtles, my girls love it. Yesterday Avigail got a little too close to the edge of the lake, lost her balance, and fell in to some water about 4 1/2 feet deep. Since she is not yet 4 feet tall this presents some obvious problems other than just getting wet.

Fortunately, Keeley was right there and heard the splash. Unable to reach her from the side, Keeley jumped in and got her. Although wet, cold, and smelly, everyone was fine (Keeley's cell phone is another story....).

After the incident and all the way home, my daughter repeatedly thanked Keeley for saving her life and told her that she loved her. Keeley and I were discussing the incident last night and she brought up how as Christians we are so grateful for Jesus saving our lives at the time we receive Christ, but then as time passes we stop telling him how thankful we are. The trauma of falling into the lake and then being rescued by mom will fade into my daughters memory. She will stop thanking Keeley for saving her life. That's just how it works. This is human nature isn't it?

When it comes to God pulling me out of the lake of my sin and its consequences, I don't ever want to stop telling Him, "Thank you Father".

(This picture is the lake at Loose Park, I don't know who this lady is.)

What day is this?

I am T-I-R-E-D, tired.  At my job, we are working on a project that has required more man power than usual, so some of the desk jockeys like me have been putting in some manual labor time.

 

The construction site where we are working requires that all work be performed between the hours of 6:00 am and 2:30 pm.  I like the getting off of work at 2:30 part, but the getting up at 4:00 am to be at my office at 5:15 to then be at the jobsite by 6:00 is killing me!  I suppose I would get used to it if this were to become my normal routine, but for now my body is in shock and rebellion.

 

So my soft, keyboard operating hands are now chapped and scraped up from doing real man work.  :-)

 

This too shall pass.  The project will come to an end.  I will end up back at my desk once again thinking that the grass is greener on the side of the fence where guys get to move more and be active in their jobs.

 

If you see me this next week and my eyes look a little more glazed than normal, now you know that it is caused by a cocktail of sleep deprevation and honest hard work.  What doesn't kill you makes you better right?

What's In Your Fruit Basket?

I have been teaching through the book of Philippians at a small mens Bible study close to my home. We recently looked at the passage that contains chapter 1, verse 11 which says:

Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God. Philippians 1:11

Looking at this idea that we are supposed to bear fruit to God's glory, I have been thinking a lot about the process that takes place in a tree in order for it to bear fruit. Take an apple tree for example. In order for an apple to be created, the pollen from the male part of an apple blossom has to reach the female part of another apple blossom. The blossom is then pollenated and that flower will result in an apple soon after.

So that is fine for apple trees, but how to we produce fruit as Christians to the glory of God? Just like the apple tree, there must be a coming together of two parts. The two parts for us are simply the Christian and God. But just knowing about God or crying out to him only when we have a problem is not the fruit producing union that is required. In order to produce fruit in our lives as Christians, we need to have an intimate relationship with our Lord. Intimacy requires desire and time. An intimate, right relationship with God will naturally produce the fruit that brings glory to our Lord.

So what is in your fruit basket?

Another interesting question to answer is, "What exactly is the fruit that brings God glory?". I'll save that one for a different post.

Thanks For the Hail God!

On February 28th, we had a thunderstorm come through Raytown where we live and dropped nickel size or bigger hail.  At the time of the storm, I can remember thinking how cool it was to watch it and how glad I was that our minivan was inside the garage of our borrowed house.

 

Little did I know at the time, but the roof of our house that we are selling before we leave for Costa Rica was taking a beating from the hail.

 

About a week after the storm I had a friend from church who is a roofer look at our roof to give us a bid on fixing some leaks.  He checked out the roof and found the significant hail damage.  At his suggestion I called my insurance company and had then check it out.

 

The claims adjuster found there was enough damage to warrant a total roof replacement!  Wooo hoooo!!!  Praise God!!!  He cut us a check that same day that will pay for the entire roof to be replaced.

 

So instead of just getting the leaking valleys replaced for a significant out-of-pocket amount, we are getting our entire roof replaced for nothing out of pocket.  My God is a great God.