In the last week, we celebrated two important and unique transfers: the final leg of Betty Luken’s felt people’s long trip to their congregational homes in Costa Rica and the transfer of a capital fund from St. Mark’s, Huntersville, to the women of Esperanza de Vida at La Asención in San Jose.

The first of these events began two or so years ago at Diocesan Convention in North Carolina, when delegates painstakingly cut out the thousands of felt figures that comprise Betty Luken’s Biblical story set.  This labor of love was a response to an observed and remarked upon need in Costa Rica: Sunday school materials.  Our seventeen churches in Costa Rica, to varying degrees, were operating programs for children without the colorful, engaging materials that bring Biblical stories to life and foster lasting learning.  Like Flat Stanley, Felt Jesus, Mary, John the Baptist, sheep, and pyramids were cut and stuffed into boxes for transit.  Like many projects, though, our felt friends had a difficult journey and suffered setbacks in closets and transit that delayed their arrival.  Noting the value and potential of the material, Bishop Monterroso halted the final dispersal of the felt people until he could hold a Christian Education workshop.

At last, on Saturday, representatives from over half our congregations gathered in Diocesan House to learn how to use the felt friends.  They were awed by the complexity, versatility, and beauty of the sets.  I could see eyes and hearts lighting up as people imagined their children experiencing the Bible through stories and tactile images.  Bishop Monterroso and I shared the story of the felt people’s journey and of the love of all those who helped to bring them from North Carolina to Costa Rica.  Rest assured, friends, your felt families are now happily living in humidity-proof plastic boxes all across Costa Rica and emerging on Sundays to share stories of God’s love.

Participants exmaine the felt people

The felt families are distributed!

The following day, Sunday, another glorious transfer occurred: a check was passed from Padre Eduardo Chinchilla (on behalf of St. Mark’s, Huntersville) to the women of Esperanza de Vida.  With this gesture, a capital seed was sewn for this group, whose name means “Hope of Life”.  The women of Esperanza de Vida have HIV.  They come together four days a week to advocate for their rights, to fight the stigma associated with HIV, to create goods for sale, and to receive pastoral care from and fellowship with Padre Eduardo.  There is not another group in Costa Rica comprised only of HIV + women fighting for their rights.  The capital seed donated by St. Mark’s is funding the production of a line of beautiful bags that will be sold visitors and, we hope, at locations in Costa Rica.  The profits will be reinvested to expand their production and a small portion will go to the women to help support their families.

The transfer from St. Mark’s to the Diocese to La Ascención to Esperanza de Vida was successful because the women, after expressing immense gratitude, have claimed the funds as their own.  They call the fund “Fundo San Marcos” in commemoration of the loving hearts from which it came, but it’s housed in their own bank account.  They have taken the seed and literally sewn it into bags that show themselves, their families, and their communities that someone with HIV is still a productive and valuable person in society.

Blessing the capital seed at La Ascención

Rosibel accepts the check

In both of these events, I was reminded the Body of Christ is dynamic.  We give, we receive, we give, and we receive.  No gift is a one-way street – the transfer always touches both parties.  In the companion relationship, we are blessed with an unending opportunity to exchange and thus grow as one Body of Christ, learning, serving, and loving together.

Bishop Hector Monterroso enters the Red de Cuido, while President Laura Chinchilla smiles.

President Laura Chinchilla hugs Juan, a student at Hogar Escuela - Barrio Cuba

Two of President Chinchilla’s top priorities are women and children, and she has developed an intuitive yet valuable approach to fulfilling their needs: daycare centers.  These programs address the needs of both groups by providing (mostly single) mothers with the ability to work to support their families and children with a safe and nurturing place in which they can thrive.  Although the government initially wanted to build its own daycare centers, many obstacles, not the least of which was the bureaucracy, stalled this plan.  Not one to be halted in pursuit of her goals, President Chinchilla decided to instead fund existent and successful institutions, such as ours; the government has repeatedly used Hogar Escuela – Barrio Cuba as a model program in its attempt to replicate our success in other neighborhoods.  The government’s solution to its daycare initiative is the Red de Cuido (Care Network) — a national group of 18 private organizations, now funded partially by the government, that provide exemplary care for children.  Yesterday, representatives from these organizations were invited to the Casa Presidencial to formalize our association with each other and the government.  Our inclusion is in part thanks to the hard work of missionaries from North Carolina.  The quality of the physical structure — its safety, environment, and comfort — is an important consideration in the government’s plan.  What may have seemed like small tasks — painting walls or providing financial resources for sleeping mats — helped call the attention of the government.

Yesterday, the Bishop, Sandra Cardona and Sandra Piedra, (the directors of Hogar Escuela), ten adorable and excited children, and I piled in a bus and drove around the corner to the large 70’s style Casa Presidencial.  President Chinchilla, the director of the agency in charge of social well-being, and their corporate sponsor (Holicum) delivered speeches about the importance of providing love, support, and care to children in underprivileged and under-served communities.  Most women served by the Red de Cuido make around $350/month, which does not leave much to cover childcare costs.  Without daycare centers such as ours, mothers therefore have to choose between working (realistically, a necessity) and leaving their kids in the care of older children (or worse, alone).  The President announced that her administration is going to increase the subsidy our centers receive to care of these children, which will allow us to expand and enhance our programs.  The Iglesia Episcopal was also informed that the government has granted us permission and funds for increased enrollment in Barrio Cuba.  We can now bring more neighborhood children into our safe haven and into God’s love.

After the brief speeches, the squirmy kids jumped up and ran outside to a large lawn.  We tried our best to make a line and file orderly into the main part of the building.  President Chinchilla greeted each person with a warm hug.  For children who do not always even receive warm hugs from their families, the moment was quite moving.  I for one was petrified that I would mistakenly greet her as Señora Presidente rather than Señora Presdinta, or worse.  Thanks to God’s grace and quite a bit of preparation, I think I successfully greeted her with respect and proper grammar.  Inside the Casa, we took a walk around the first floor lobby – a huge, modern room with a large pool and fountain the middle.  The kids were enthralled by the body of water and quite a few had to be thwarted in their attempt to take a dip.  Insofar as the mission of Hogar Escuela is to teach children that they are loved and valuable, having the President remind them of their importance certainly met our goals for the day, week, month, and probably year.

As many of you know, the government has also invited Bishop Monterroso to submit our plans for Hogar Escuela – Heredia to social welfare agencies IMAS and PANI for funding.  An inordinate amount of paperwork (the word for paperwork, transmite, does not have a direct English translation because there is no equivalent process) and many months later, we are still without an answer.  We hope that our inclusion in the Red de Cuido is a sign that good news is coming soon.  I’ve tried pestering Luz, the Diocesan accountant and saint, into pestering the government, but it appears that our best tactic is to pray, wait, and pay attention.  If I’ve learned anything in Costa Rica, it is that our human ability to make things happen only extends so far.  At a certain point, the more we meddle, the more we interfere with God’s plan.  In a moment previously appointed yet unbeknownst to us, things will fall into place.  It is all we can to do to observe carefully and prepare ourselves to act when the time arises.  As we patiently wait for the government’s answer, we thank God for the opportunity to better serve our community in communion with our brothers and sisters in North Carolina.

Looking in on San Andrés, Bataan, Limón

The last month has been a blur of excitement and exhaustion.  Within two sequential weeks, we had four concurrent groups: Christ Church, St. Mark’s, St. Mark’s and St. Alban’s adults, and Donna Osborne.  I then had a few days to recuperate and promptly left for North Carolina, and then a vacation in Costa Rica.

I was blessed to spend two weeks during this excitement with Donna Osborne, an active member of St. Mark’s, Huntersville, an executive at Bank of America, and an expert in many things, including finding fun in tiring trips with insufficient air conditioning.  We were initiating a strategic planning process for the Diocese of Costa Rica, which entailed visiting all seventeen of our churches scattered around Eastern Costa Rica.  Our goal is to help Bishop Monterroso develop a comprehensive strategy through research, conversation, and prayer, for the Diocese to grow spiritually, physically, and through outreach missions.  Applied to the companion relationship, the Strategic Plan will help us better focus our resources to according to these demonstrated and discerned priorities.  In this research phase, Donna and I traveled to small, weathered churches in a small van with no suspension – on a road with many bumps and potholes.  In some locations we found aging congregations in aging buildings, electricity and plumbing often long since gone (having been stolen by drug addicts).  In others, we found innovative uses of space, materials, and energy.

For every church, we took stock of what needs and resources are present, and tried to determine in what order they should be addressed.  We also interviewed community leaders in every area to understand the needs and problems of the neighborhood.  These conversations complemented the perspective shared by the congregations, which, like in the US, were sometimes more focused on structural needs (“we need a new building!”) than those that are abstract and socially-based.  In almost every community, we were most struck by the astounding number of young mothers we saw.  Having attended large and economically depressed public schools up until Wesleyan, I thought I had been exposed to teen pregnancy; I found here, though, that the problem can be so much larger and more complicated than it seemed in Alexandria.  In most communities, our inquires about teen pregnancy were met with discomfort and resignation, “we don’t talk about this problem.”  The depth to which the Catholic Church is so deeply entrenched in Costa Rica swallows up any inclination to discuss sexuality or contraception.  Girls have babies who then have babies.  Donna and I felt strongly that we need to include introducing dialogue about sexual health in the social projects that we recommend.

The churches we visited, although small or in disrepair, often were ripe with desire to grow and expand; they just lacked the resources and capacities to do so.  We compiled our research into a document that demonstrated our findings and suggested a prioritized list of actions, ranging from buying more bilingual Books of Common Prayer to developing a regional youth program (including sexual health programs) to tearing down the decrepit second story of a building.  The project was incredibly interesting and exciting for me, and I’m looking forward to continuing the work.  I had a blast with Donna, too.  The innovation and creativity that we applied to our work extended to all aspects of our transient life: facing the prospect of our (very rural) hotel’s breakfast ending at 6 am one morning, we bought little boxes of cereal and milk and ate breakfast out of the water glasses with plastic spoons.  We also developed a shared love for a glass of Frontera wine after a long, bumpy day; Cocanas cookies at any time of day; and true reverence for good suspension.  I think that Donna would agree that we were most moved by the moments when everything came together – when we could see how one project at one church could then lead into another more comprehensive project, and how that bigger project would help bring more people into a relationship with God.  In these moments, the divine inspiration that we both feel led us to the process of the Strategic Plan was palpable.

Donna’s visit was followed by two exciting workshops on Radical Welcome and Youth Ministry led by Rebecca Yarbrough and Matt Addington, respectively.  The Radical Welcome workshops were held in San Jose and Limón.  In each location, participants watched a video featuring Bishop Monterroso and Bishop Curry discussing the concept and role of Radical Welcome in their respective Dioceses.  The workshop then turned into a conversation about what Radical Welcome meant to individuals, and how they imagine their congregations becoming more welcoming and dynamic.  In many cases, strangers sat down together, and when they stood up to leave, they had become bound to one another through a discussion of sharing God’s love.  Hearing one’s own fears or questions asked by someone else from a totally different background was a very spiritual experience.

The Youth Ministry workshop took place in San Jose and was a trial for a program we want to implement in the companion relationship.  As I wrote, the need of a youth program in Costa Rica is paramount, and at the present, there are no trained youth ministers.  Matt Addington, a patient, energetic, and talented youth minister from St. Mark’s and St. Alban’s, is committed to sharing his experience in order to help develop the capacities of youth leaders in Costa Rica.  The workshop was a discussion of the nuts and bolts of youth ministry.  Afterward, we agreed that we should continue this effort and find a way to turn dialogue into action.  I’m very much looking forward to seeing how I can make this happen.

After St. Mark’s and St. Alban’s left, I jetted to Charlotte for a week of meetings, conversation, and visits to CVS and Harris Teeter.  Throughout the course of the week, after talking to Diocesan staff, people involved in Hispanic ministry, and veteran Costa Rica folk, I began to develop some clear ideas of what my job should and can be.  A large part of my work will entail figuring out how we can make our relationship with Costa Rica more comprehensive and intentional.  It should be interesting, exciting, and challenging.  I also got to spend time with the friends I’ve made through the relationship, which was relaxing and enjoyable.  I bought out Harris Teeter’s supply of Indian TastyBite dishes, Arm and Hammer toothpaste, and Bumble and Bumble conditioner.  In the often overwhelming process of trying to create a life in a country where I can count my friends on my fingers, the little things, such as these, really count.

I’m trying, though, to build enough of a life here that I don’t rely on Chana Masala to make my day (although I’ve got a stash just in case!).  I’m throwing myself in a process of evaluating the process and role of mission trips in the companion relationship, and am so excited for the project.  I will begin conversations with folks involved in the Companion Relationship in North Carolina next week.  I’m also working with Geoff Peters of Christ Church on microfinance, Greg Frye of Holy Comforter and Chris Skarzynski of St. Timothy’s on upcoming mission trips, and Padre Eduardo Chinchilla on developing a micro-enterprise with the women of Esperanza de Viva, an organization for women with AIDS, just to name a few!  Aside from working, I am concentrating on finding an apartment.  Although the hospitality of Diocesan House is unmatched, I need to have more personal space, removal from the office, and a neighborhood in which I thrive.  I’ve found a cute place in Heredia, near an excellent yoga studio, two universities, Cristo Recusitado and the Hogar Escuela construction site, and tons of fun but tranquil bars and restaurants.  Please pray for me as I pray about this decision.

I look forward to updating this blog more regularly about the events and activities taking place in Costa Rica.  I am committed to participating in Episcopal life here as a representative of North Carolina, and will share the experience through the blog.  I think it’s important to be intentional about this and I am open to suggestions on how to best convey the love of North Carolina in Costa Rica.  I am grateful for all the enthusiastic work, support, and love that emanates from the Diocese of North Carolina.

St. Paul's and their work at the nursery of Hogar Escuela

During weeks four and five, I have realized how much we can serve and love God by creating and facilitating art.  St. Paul’s, from Winston-Salem, added joy, discovery, and excitement to the nursery of Hogar Escuela–Barrio Cuba by painting bright blue and yellow strips and a chain of cheerful baby animals along the walls.  The room feels like a place where babies should giggle and learn, and I am confident that the spirit of the walls will inspire God’s spirit inside each child.  St. John’s, Charlotte, ran Vacation Bible School in three locations in San Jose.  Through their leadership, two hundred children learned of God’s love for them and celebrated their love for life and God through playing games, singing, and doing novel arts and craft projects.  These weeks taught me that creative expression helps us to share God’s love with others and see God’s gifts in ourselves.  The following is something I wrote for myself about learning the value of art and am now sharing with you.

Rightly so, the field of development studies prioritizes survival.  Poverty, to use Amartya Sen’s term, is a series of deprivations—the first and foremost of which is a lack of life manifest in infant and childhood mortality.  From there, poverty is the lack of access to healthcare, to education, and to economic opportunities.  These deprivations, of course, are intrinsically related to the ability to survive, and can be imagined as a triangle where health care leads to education, which leads to economic opportunities, which leads to health care.  Life is what happens when we survive and is the sum of the triangle.  A breakdown of one arm of the triangle often leads to a breakdown at all three points, threatening the ability to survive.  Development, faith-based or otherwise, seeks to reinforce both the connections between and each individual point.

This model guides my general outlook on development: the most important step to alleviating poverty is creating and maintaining systems that provide for healthcare, education, and income.   There is plenty of disagreement about the best way to achieve these goals, and I still have a lot to learn about different perspectives and ideas.  Upon beginning my job in Costa Rica, though, I had not considered where art should or possibly even could fit into a development program.

Things have changed.  This week, we helped two hundred kids paint, draw, glue, play, and experience art–loving and serving God.  In communities where the most basic amounts of food and shelter consume a mother’s entire budget, there is no room for new markers, googly eyes, or clay.  Kids play in the dirt, chase stray dogs, and kick around deflated soccer balls.  Resourcefulness and imagination grow strong, but what about creativity in a more material sense?

Stick figures, pictures colored without regard to the lines, crooked houses, and droopy eared dogs are not plastered on walls of these houses.  At Vacation Bible School this week, as we poured paint into Styrofoam bowls, faces brightened and hands began to clamor for brushes.  Seashells to glue onto frames were grabbed up like pieces of gold.  There was no haphazard slapping of paint—each stroke was meticulously calculated and executed.  The final products were beautiful and illuminated by pride.  As kids walked home each afternoon past heaps of trash and rusty tin, they carried their crafts with care.

Reflecting on my own childhood, some of my most formative memories include coloring my future family (somewhere along the way I planned on developing red hair and green eyes), depicting imaginary scenes, and smearing glue all over myself.  It is negligent to allow other children to grow up without these opportunities.  Creativity is invaluable and essential.

When parents chose between milk and markers, sustenance will and should always prevail.  This choice, however, can be prevented by organizations filling in this “creativity gap” and providing impoverished children with the opportunity to create.  Art, in the most basic sense, is the expression of oneself and one’s view of the world.  By giving kids the chance to explore, we allow them to discover who they are.   Creative expression allows kids to grow, to cope, and to explore their worlds and enrich their lives. Insofar as development seeks to move beyond the triangle of necessity and to improving quality of life, programs should include the creation and appreciation of art.

Basking in God's light, St John's VBS at Heredia

Celebrating God's Light, St. John's VBS at Heredia

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God instructs us to love and share with those in need.  Development, as explained above, is serving God through intentional ministry.  By including creative expression in our programs, we help participants find God’s gifts in themselves.  Missions that share creativity and art with others spread love and the invaluable chance to find out where God’s blessings lie.  I am so fortunate to have been part of this process with the help of St. Paul’s and St. John’s and am renewed by the memories of joy that each child experienced while basking in the art we created together.

Week One: Finding God while Waiting, Emmanuel, Southern Pines, NC

Pouring concrete floors at Santiago, Estrada (Emmanuel, Southern Pines, NC)

Fresh paint at Santiago, Estrada

A thoughtful and hardworking bunch, the Emmanuel mission team, led by Joseph Payne, immediately headed East to their worksite upon arriving in Costa Rica.  They spent the week in Estrada, Limón, where Emmanuel has been working for a number of years.  The church community has contributed time, love, funding, prayers, and energy to constructing a new worship and educational space for their partner church, Santiago.  This summer, the Emmanuel team painted the outside and inside of the building, giving life to the structure.  They also mixed concrete and leveled floors to prepare the ground level of the building for use.  Although they accomplished a lot, the group faced moments when all the shovels were occupied, paint was still wet, or work was otherwise halted.  In these vacant windows, the team did not sit around discouraged or bored, but rather looked around them and found signs of God.  While some were spreading concrete, others took the opportunity to play soccer with local kids in a grassy lot next to the church.  Leaping over a small ravine, they turned potential boredom into an opportunity to form relationships and spread love.

Finding God in times of waiting is not an occasion unique to Estrada or mission trips.  We are constantly barraged by opportunities to become bored, frustrated, or otherwise displeased because we have to wait.  In each of these moments, though, we have a choice: we can either allow discontent to consume us, or we can see beyond what we’re “missing” and open our eyes to what surrounds us.  God is always around, waiting to be found.  The Emmanuel group helped me to see these opportunities, and themselves chose to find God.

Week Two: Choosing to Serve, Trinity Cathedral, Columbia, SC

Dancing to bubbles at Hogar Escuela

Esteemed Costa Rican veteran Brian Sillderff led his annual team to San Jose this summer to work in Hogar Escuela—Barrio Cuba.  He brought with him a spiritually engaged and culturally aware group of teenagers, adults, his wife, Alicia, and their new baby, Josie.  The team painted a cheerful and hope-inspiring mural along the playground wall in Hogar Escuela.  Their work is important because this wall is a barrier between the school and the surrounding neighborhood.  Physically, the wall serves to keep the children and staff safely enclosed the school and prevents unwanted people and animals from coming inside.  Emotionally and spiritually, the wall seals in the love, hope, and God-filled spirit that are pervasive in Hogar Escuela, while keeping the despair and poverty that hover over the neighborhood from infiltrating the school.  The mural encapsulates the spirit of Hogar Esuela.  Trinity also led Vacation Bible School for the children, which provided a chance to share love, creativity, and fun with many kids hungry for these gifts.

The love that the Trinity group shared with the children of Hogar Escuela, and received in equal amounts, reminded me that we are always exposed to opportunities to give and receive love.  In every day and in every place, we can choose to give and receive love; we need not be in Hogar Escuela to make the concerted effort to seek people with whom we can share love.  Moreover, service is something done particularly but not exclusively during mission trips.  Perhaps the most important lesson we can learn from mission work is that service can and should continue after the trip ends.  At the closing of Trinity’s week, during our service with Bishop Monterroso, I challenged the kids to find opportunities to share love and serve God in everyday life.  I now challenge each of you to do the same.

Week Three: Economics of Efficiency, Christ and Holy Trinity, Westport, CT

Christ and Holy Trinity at Hogar Escuela (mural in background painted by Trinity, SC)

CHT building hope at La Ascención

Although the first two weeks of missions brought challenges and moments of stress to the Costa Rican mission team, our blood pressure really rose during the third week of missions, when fifty-one intrepid folk came down from Connecticut.  The Christ and Holy Trinity team, led by Kimberly Andrews, brought with them years of construction experience and a bottomless supply of energy.  With expedience and skill, they painted the inside of Diocesan House, constructed and repaired walls in the backyard of Diocesan House, constructed a wall in the back of Ascención, painted the back of a building, insulated, dry-walled, and plastered an upstairs room in Ascención, and constructed a ceiling in the church’s chapel.  Just reading the sense evokes the sense of exhaustion that was felt by all when we finished the week!  The Costa Rican team enjoyed welcoming Christ and Holy Trinity to our Diocesan family and we were blessed to have them share in work and fellowship with us.

While trying to keep all fifty-one people gainfully employed, we were often one power driller, ladder, or plaster trough short.  Sitting in a pile of dust in Ascención one afternoon, I reflected on the current situation and my economics classes at Wesleyan.  Immediately, I realized that what we were doing was perfectly efficient in Costa Rica, just not according to our American understanding of the word.  In Costa Rica, labor is cheap and tools (capital) are expensive.  Therefore, efficiency derives from allowing one or two people to take as long as they need to complete the project while minimizing capital expenses.  In contrast, in the US, labor is expensive and capital is cheap.  Efficient practice involves employing the maximum of time and labor-saving tools and completing the project as quickly as possible.  Groups from the United States working in Costa Rica, naturally, frame their expectations in terms of American efficiency.  The challenge lies in converting groups’ definitions of efficiency from one of time-saving to one of tool-saving.  Culture shock, in this case, is conceptual.  Serving God in Costa Rica requires not only accepting an excess of rice and beans, but also the motivation to reconsider our understanding of economics and efficient work.

As in most experiences, knowledge attained through mission work is cumulative.  In order to work efficiently in Costa Rica, one is challenged embrace the opportunity to find God during periods of listlessness.  What’s more, everyday, to best serve God in our communities, we must be open to finding Him in unexpected places, in new definitions of familiar concepts, and when it seems like we’re just wasting our time.  God is everywhere and in everything—we just need to stop, look around, and open ourselves to Him.

As Marta wrote, my plane touched down last Wednesday, June 8th, and my tenure as the Companion Diocese Officer began.  I was immediately recognized Clarence Fox’s smiling face and Panama hat from the crowds gathered outside the airport.  My first few days have been spent straining to absorb as much information and as many names, places, and memories (in Spanish!) as my brain can handle.  The ever-patient staff at the Diocesan office helps to make this process easier and more effective, as does wordreference.com.

Emmanuel, Southern Pines, the first of the ten groups to grace us with their energy, passion, and time arrived yesterday.  Clarence met them at the airport and they promptly embarked for Estrada, a small and impoverished town in the oft-neglected Caribbean province of Limón.  The group of twelve will be working on Hogar Escuela—Estrada.  This growing school provides a complete foundation for its vivacious students—spiritual and intellectual education, nutrition, and love and support.

This evening, two dedicated folk from St. Mark’s Huntersville are arriving to do preliminary work for their mission later this summer.  We will tour churches and programs here in San Jose and in the Limón province.  We hope to visit the Emmanuel crew at Estrada on Wednesday and lend our muscles to their work.

I look forward to working with all of the dedicated, faithful people involved in the Companionship and to continuing to strengthen both the relationship and its projects.  Pictures to follow shortly!

Blessings,

Liza