Archive for the 'Post-Trip' Category

Feb 09 2009

full circle

Published by under Post-Trip

This past week was Global Impact Celebration (GIC) week at UUMC. This is a showcase and promotion of all UUMC-sponsored missionaries from all over the globe. They have invited many guest speakers for several occasions throughout the week. Ray Zierkel and his family are the official representatives from Costa Rica, but our mission team felt called on our own to bring El Centro Evangelical Methodist Church’s own Pastor Edgar and his wife Norma to San Antonio to be a part of the celebration.

We set up several opportunities for members of the team to introduce Pastor Edgar to other communities at UUMC. The first (that I know of) was a dinner at the church where 4 missionaries talked about their call to mission work and the plan that God has laid out in front of them. We organized ourselves to sit at, or around a table with Pastor Edgar and his wife so that we could re-introduce ourselves to him.

I was actually kind of nervous to meet him… almost like meeting a celebrity or pubic figure. I just couldn’t believe he was here in the States and actually here at UUMC! That experience in my life felt so far removed from my actual life that it now feels like a story… a great story. And I had never thought of it like that until one of the main characters of that story was making an appearance in my reality. The story was coming full circle.

On Sunday, Kandy and Carrie setup their Sunday school classes for Pastor Edgar to come and visit. (I would love for those that were there for either of these to comment below to let us know how those went.) For the entire team, along with Pastor Edgar and Norma, we arranged lunch on Sunday as an informal reunion and a chance to share our pictures and stories (and try to remember our Spanish). I was excited to introduce them to my wife and our first-born on the way. We got some group pictures and had a good time.

I was very impressed with the members of our team and the support of the church to coordinate Pastor Edgar and his wife to come visit. It solidified our connection to Pastor Edgar and the community of Los Guidos, and I do not doubt that we will be back to Costa Rica in some capacity as missionaries, but no longer as a bunch of first-timers.

-RB

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Aug 11 2008

clarity

Published by under Post-Trip

This is the first blog I’ve ever done. The idea has always intrigued me, but I’ve never had a consistent topic that I felt I could write about over an extended period of time. I read professional blogs every day and most of them center around the technology industry, but none of them are personal or creative.

My intent for this blog was to map my personal journey from the initiation to the follow-through of my first mission trip. I wanted to be as honest as detailed as possible and I hope that you, as the readers, were able to grasp the situations as I experienced them.

The popularity of this blog and the response we received was truly mind-boggling. Once I sent the link to Adam on the day of our last pre-trip meeting, he took it an ran with it. He publicized it to the group as a noteworthy item and I obliged by sending it to them. I figured they were going through the same kind of stuff I was going through, or not at all, and they would get to know me a little better as well. What ensued from there was nothing less than wildfire. The team members each sent it out to their family members as a way for them to keep up with the group and what we were doing during the week. Almost immediately I started getting comments from family members with prayers and well-wishes directed towards the entire team! The blog was starting to develop a community!

Once we got to Costa Rica, the blog has already become a hot topic. The buzz was starting. It was then that I knew this was quickly going to become bigger than me or any of us. This blog had brought all of us together to communicate our experiences, and in the midst of our outreach in Costa Rica, we were creating another form of outreach for the readers at home.

The climax of the week for me was learning that Pastor Ryan had sent an email out to the entire UUMC email list!! That’s a potential of several thousand more readers to learn about our mission and what we were doing in Costa Rica — amazing. Not long after this, we were getting comments from total strangers that believed in what we were doing and had even made the decision to go on their OWN first mission trip after reading our story. That sent chills down my back. I truly felt that God was working through my writing. The team was invigorated at the news and you could feel the excitement rejuvenate everyone.

What I will take away from this mission trip has nothing to do with the mission itself. As we learned in our preliminary classes, in our first mission trip we would be learning so much more than we would be teaching. What I learned was that my love for writing has laid dormant for way too long. I am a programmer by trade, so the only writing I’ve had to do is boring technical documentation along with detailed emails — not exactly what you would call “creative writing”.

I’ve never had more clarity in my life that writing is my spiritual gift. It brings me joy to communicate exactly they way I experience the world, and God can use my joy and my gift to reach out to His kingdom. That kind of clarity can bring a man to tears.

In His Name,

-RB

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Aug 10 2008

the cut list

Published by under Post-Trip

As I mentioned, it became a game to name the next blog post from a funny saying or memorablt even from that day. Among the popular ones that stuck throughout the week, “Queso de Puff” was by and far the greatest. You may even see these show up as a sidedish at the BBQ we have at Adam’s house someday!!

There were a few that never materialized on the blog for one reason or another. I’m posting them more or less for our team’s benefit so they can enjoy the great memories that go along with them.

Here they are:
– “Things are a little different here.”
– “I have REALLY LARGE colones!”

Team,
Do you remember any more? Please post them in the comments below.

————

Now for something totally unrelated…

I was awarded the title of “Manly-est Facial Hair“. (Adam started with a goatee, so that part didn’t count.) It really didn’t bother me until we got back to the Houston heat and humidity… man, did it itch!! Matt was in the running with Adam and I, but he opted to shave before the trip home. Adam and I wanted to kiss our wives with our manly-ness when we got home… they didn’t like it that much.

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