Dear friends,
Recently, God has brought the above verses to the forefront of our minds, reminding us of our ultimate purpose here. It is especially fitting considering the challenging terrain in this area where we serve, as many of you who have visited us can attest to. These past few months have been filled with challenges and blessings, a few of which we share with you below. All in all, we are thankful for the opportunities to learn, grow, and “see the goodness of our Lord in the land of the living”.
In July, we made a surprise trip to visit our friends in Tsimari and to see the progress the community had made in preparation for building the bridges. We were blessed to see how the community had come together – men, women, and children preparing the bridge sites and building a shelter for the volunteer workers. Unfortunately, it is unusual to see communities come together like this in the indigenous territories, since paternalistic government and private programs have created a dependant, because-I-am-an-Indian-you-have–to-give-it-to-me mindset. We went with Giovanni (who will be the foreman for the bridge construction), Seth (one of our Cabécar friends), as well as Rebekah and Hannah Jones, who are the daughters of our dear friends Timothy and Keiry Jones working on the Cabécar Bible translation. We were able to work with the community in building the shelter, as well as attend to some medical needs of patients in their homes.
The engineer has completed the plans for the three suspension bridges to be built in Tsimari, and we are waiting for the materials and some of the structure (which will be prefab) to be ready to begin the construction. It is possible that the construction will not begin until January for various reasons. First, we are in the midst of the rainiest part of the rainy season in this area. Also, Giovanni broke his hand (scaphoid fracture) after falling off his bike this past week, and will be in a cast at least until December. We trust that the Lord’s timing for this will be perfect.
Also, we are thankful that our friend Aniceto (the man from Tsimari who we are training to be a community health worker) continues to be faithful in coming out for training and to receive medicines. One encouraging thing is that the community is contributing to his travel expenses to come here each month – which is a sign that they are taking ownership and see this as a something valuable for their community!
One of the challenges we have recently faced is the shut door (at least, for now) for our continuing to train the government community health workers. On the local level, this training program was readily received, and we really saw some good things beginning to happen; however, the health area administration (out of Turrialba) shut down the program because of what is essentially a power play. Although we are sad that we haven’t been able to continue what we feel like is the key to improving healthcare on the reservation, we also realize that what we are doing is shaking up the system – which is why we are here.
In September, we had the opportunity to make a whirlwind visit to the U.S. This included visiting our main supporting and home church in San Antonio (Village Parkway Baptist Church), sharing with our two friends Dan and Lori Friedly in Washington, D.C. – who will be moving to Costa Rica to attend language school and work with us in March 2009, visiting with Judith’s Aunt Marilee, Uncle Lou, cousin Andrea, and sister Jaime in Denver, and attending a week-long seminar with the Central American Leadership Initiative at the Aspen Institute in Aspen, Colorado.
As part of being a member of the Central American Leadership Initiative, Alekcey needed to present a project of long-term social impact at the Aspen Institute. After praying about this for several months, Alekcey felt like he had his project: start a technical boarding school in this area for adolescents to learn furniture making for export, business models, and moral values through mentoring. At the last minute, while Alekcey was in the middle of the seminar, he realized that this was not the project he was to present; and instead presented the project of creating and executing a new model for the administration and implementation of health care for the indigenous peoples of Costa Rica, starting with the Cabécar people of the Chirripó area as a pilot program. This is a need we have been aware of for some time, but have been shying away from it because of all the political barriers that need to be faced to truly make a change at the administrative level. This also means working with the government healthcare system –which is a mammoth of bureaucracy which we have, for the most part, been trying to avoid. Nevertheless, our God is bigger than all of this. He will show us the way to go, and give us the perseverance we need to see this through. We are glad we don’t have to do this alone.
There are a lot of other things going on, some of which we will likely share in the next newsletter as we see certain things come to pass. Stay tuned! – And thank you for all your prayers.
With love and by His grace.
Recently, God has brought the above verses to the forefront of our minds, reminding us of our ultimate purpose here. It is especially fitting considering the challenging terrain in this area where we serve, as many of you who have visited us can attest to. These past few months have been filled with challenges and blessings, a few of which we share with you below. All in all, we are thankful for the opportunities to learn, grow, and “see the goodness of our Lord in the land of the living”.
In July, we made a surprise trip to visit our friends in Tsimari and to see the progress the community had made in preparation for building the bridges. We were blessed to see how the community had come together – men, women, and children preparing the bridge sites and building a shelter for the volunteer workers. Unfortunately, it is unusual to see communities come together like this in the indigenous territories, since paternalistic government and private programs have created a dependant, because-I-am-an-Indian-you-have–to-give-it-to-me mindset. We went with Giovanni (who will be the foreman for the bridge construction), Seth (one of our Cabécar friends), as well as Rebekah and Hannah Jones, who are the daughters of our dear friends Timothy and Keiry Jones working on the Cabécar Bible translation. We were able to work with the community in building the shelter, as well as attend to some medical needs of patients in their homes.
The engineer has completed the plans for the three suspension bridges to be built in Tsimari, and we are waiting for the materials and some of the structure (which will be prefab) to be ready to begin the construction. It is possible that the construction will not begin until January for various reasons. First, we are in the midst of the rainiest part of the rainy season in this area. Also, Giovanni broke his hand (scaphoid fracture) after falling off his bike this past week, and will be in a cast at least until December. We trust that the Lord’s timing for this will be perfect.
Also, we are thankful that our friend Aniceto (the man from Tsimari who we are training to be a community health worker) continues to be faithful in coming out for training and to receive medicines. One encouraging thing is that the community is contributing to his travel expenses to come here each month – which is a sign that they are taking ownership and see this as a something valuable for their community!
One of the challenges we have recently faced is the shut door (at least, for now) for our continuing to train the government community health workers. On the local level, this training program was readily received, and we really saw some good things beginning to happen; however, the health area administration (out of Turrialba) shut down the program because of what is essentially a power play. Although we are sad that we haven’t been able to continue what we feel like is the key to improving healthcare on the reservation, we also realize that what we are doing is shaking up the system – which is why we are here.
In September, we had the opportunity to make a whirlwind visit to the U.S. This included visiting our main supporting and home church in San Antonio (Village Parkway Baptist Church), sharing with our two friends Dan and Lori Friedly in Washington, D.C. – who will be moving to Costa Rica to attend language school and work with us in March 2009, visiting with Judith’s Aunt Marilee, Uncle Lou, cousin Andrea, and sister Jaime in Denver, and attending a week-long seminar with the Central American Leadership Initiative at the Aspen Institute in Aspen, Colorado.
As part of being a member of the Central American Leadership Initiative, Alekcey needed to present a project of long-term social impact at the Aspen Institute. After praying about this for several months, Alekcey felt like he had his project: start a technical boarding school in this area for adolescents to learn furniture making for export, business models, and moral values through mentoring. At the last minute, while Alekcey was in the middle of the seminar, he realized that this was not the project he was to present; and instead presented the project of creating and executing a new model for the administration and implementation of health care for the indigenous peoples of Costa Rica, starting with the Cabécar people of the Chirripó area as a pilot program. This is a need we have been aware of for some time, but have been shying away from it because of all the political barriers that need to be faced to truly make a change at the administrative level. This also means working with the government healthcare system –which is a mammoth of bureaucracy which we have, for the most part, been trying to avoid. Nevertheless, our God is bigger than all of this. He will show us the way to go, and give us the perseverance we need to see this through. We are glad we don’t have to do this alone.
There are a lot of other things going on, some of which we will likely share in the next newsletter as we see certain things come to pass. Stay tuned! – And thank you for all your prayers.
With love and by His grace.
