Friday, January 14, 2005
Feliz Navidad y Feliz Año Nuevo (Merry Christmas and Happy New Year)
| Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I hope every one had a safe and refreshing holiday break. Well, a lot has happened in the last month and a half. During the middle part of December our church had a national youth retreat weekend for the church communities. About 40 kids aged 13 and up came to our retreat center, which is located two hours from San Jose, to gather as one community and learn more about the gospel. The main focus for this retreat was centered on violence and how we handle different types of situations that surround us. Unfortunately, for these kids violence is not a new concept for them; however, it was a good seminar on how to handle these types of situations and what we can do to stop it. I definitely learned a lot more about what the people in our communities are dealing with and was empowered to hear the determination they had for a desire to stop it and fight such violence. In addition to discussions, we also got to be goofy and play games as well as integrated the communities and strengthen these friendships. For me I had a lot of fun getting to meet all the kids in the communities and talk to them on a deeper level.
For Christmas time, I (Liza) was fortunate enough to have my family come down and visit. My sister came down from Philadelphia for 5 days, including Christmas, and my parents came from St. Louis for 2 weeks, including Christmas and New Years. Oh man what adventures we had! Of course, right away we went straight to the beach and into the rainforest to find some monkeys. After that we returned to San Jose for the Christmas service in La Carpio (the Nicaraguan neighbourhood). It was definitely not what my family was used to for a Christmas service (me either), but it was an incredible experience that I could show them what I do and the people that I love and work with. It was different because, well of course it was hot, no snow this year, it’s a very small church, about the size of a house, there are loud polluting buses passing every five minutes about 2 feet from the church, and one more important thing, everybody speaks Spanish. Also it was unique because ahead of time we were all assigned children to buy gifts for and at the service we passed them out. We bought one gift for each child so that we made sure everyone got at least one gift for Christmas. During the service people told stories about there memories of past Christmases. One story was told from a father who was remembering one Christmas which was during the Nicaraguan war. He was about 6 and he remembered not having very much food for a long period of time, and so he expected not to get a gift that year. To his surprise his father gave him a very small toy on Christmas eve. He was so happy and he knew how hard his dad worked for that. It is moments like that where we are reminded how much we really have and how grateful we should be for all the amazing things in our lives. I was just so happy my family was able to be there for that because it was so important to me. They were my gift that year, thanks guys for coming down and visiting and I can´t wait till you can return. I love you very much! After Christmas my parents and I went to a place called Tortugero for New Years. Tortugero is on the Caribbean side and is very unique to all of Costa Rica. This is a nature reserve that protects thousands of sea turtles that pass through and lay their eggs on the beach. Unfortunately, we were not there during the season for this, but we still saw plenty of exotic animals, like monkeys and alligators on the canals. The people we met on this trip were really great and it was a fun way to spend the New Years. So, my family has left, and I miss them a lot, but now we are back to work. For this month we are setting up more soccer clinics in the communities and Lindsay and I will be getting back into business. Prayer requests: Please pray for the communities we are working with, as well as the pastors that are putting so much work and effort into them, for Lindsay and I to start up work again and continue to help in whatever way that we can in the communities, and to help Christ stay the focus in all that we do. Thanks all of you for your love and support. I pray that you all had a memorable holiday and that everyone is safe. Remember if you need us to pray for anything you are going through do not hesitate to let us know by email. God Bless you all, Vaya con Dios. |
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www.elca.org
www.futbolporlavida.org
# posted by Liza & Lindsay in Costa Rica @ 3:13 PM 
