Mission Trip: Costa Rica

Julie dropped me off at the church with about 10 minutes to spare. The group was gathered next to the mini-bus that the church was providing for our commute to Houston. I say “mini-bus” since Adam constantly used that term, but perhaps a better description was “airport shuttle bus”. That should paint a better picture for any of you that have ever been escorted from your respective hotel or rental car station to the airport in the typical “mini-bus”.

Our tour guide this evening: Pastor Adam.

We stopped for a short time in Flatonia for a bite to eat McD’s and stumbled upon Marlene and Matt, who were traveling separately. Fueled-up and filled-up, off we went. One caveat… no place to put my biggie-sized drink!

We got to Foundry a little after 10pm, and unloaded those that were staying at the church. Girls room = soft cushiony floor. Boys room = typical hard floor. Adam and I took those that opted for “no floor” to the hotel and came back to catch some Zs.

————

Six o’clock in the morning came pretty quick, or not quick enough, depending on how you look at it. Many nights in a tent have trained me to sleep on an unforgiving ground, but “sleep” is a relative term.

Up and out of the church by 7am and at the airport by 7:30. We parked our shuttle and got picked up by a REAL shuttle (much softer seats, but still no cup holders). Check-in was a breeze and security was a snap.

Up next…. Costa Rica!!

My normal Thursday night for the last 4 months has been competitive open-gym volleyball in the new North Campus gym at UUMC. The response has been almost overwhelming as the attendance has grown from 8 to 38 within the last 2 months. I’ve been playing volleyball in and around San Antonio for the last 15 years and it is great to see some of those people come out of the woodwork, and meet some new faces as well. My new responsibility of running this new form of ministry has been a true blessing, and I love it. However, I had to forgo my commitment last night and this coming week to allow myself some time to pack and prepare for this trip. Pastor Kit, our Recreation Pastor, is graciously filling in for me while I’m gone.

—————

I pulled out the suitcase as soon as I got home. I’ve done all the errands I needed to do before tonight, and now it is time to pull everything together.

Passport… check. Rainsuit… check. Various small electronics to occupy my time during travel and downtime… check. Spirituality… ummm… check?

“Preparing” for this mission trip has no doubt been 95% physical and only 5% spiritual. That 5% consists solely of our group meetings where we’ve studied our workbook and had a little group discussion. On my own I’ve been too preoccupied to sit, focus and listen. I have a feeling that my 5% is going to get overloaded once we get in and around the community in San Jose.

Our last meeting discussion centered around our presence among the people in another culture, and specifically when on a mission trip. Many have the misconception they need to “put on a Godly face” and “tell the people all about Christ”. That along with speaking “Christianese” often comes accross as an “act” or “fake”, especially when it is not normal. In actuality, where we are going, many Christians have paved the path before us and already laid a foundation for us to carry-out. Our group prayer is that we show up authentically and learn more than we teach. In Adam’s words (paraphrased), “God, allow me to carry on the work you have already begun here, and not screw it up!”

—————

Our bus leaves from the church at 6pm today. We are driving to Houston, and most of us will sleep at Adam’s former church, Foundry United Methodist Church. Our flight leaves around 9:30am, so it will be an extra early morning to get through customs and check-in for our flight.

The next time I can post will depend on internet availability. At bare minimum, I will try to update you from an internet cafe when we get to San Jose. Any time prior to that will be icing on the cake.

-RB

The countdown has begun. The tickets have been booked, passports dusted off and we are ready to go!

I went to church this morning and thought about the next time I would be worshiping… in a church far, far away among the “Ticos” (a name Costa Ricans have given themselves). They announced our mission trip at the end of the service and prayed for our safe journey. The excitement started to set-in a little more as it felt more real. I’m already very happy that I made the decision to go.

—————

A member of the team did suffer a minor setback last week. Adam’s grandmother, and final living grandparent, passed away last Tuesday night. Our team had a BBQ planned for Saturday night at Adam’s new house, but he instead had to cancel and spend the weekend in Dallas for the funeral.

The timing of her passing was a real blessing to Adam and his wife Brittney. You see, they are expecting a child in December. They went on Tuesday night to visit “Nana” in the hospital, and were excited to tell her that they were going to have a boy. Shortly thereafter, as in FIVE minutes later, she took her last breath and left her earthly body. I’m sure that Adam and Brittney will hold onto that moment for the rest of their lives and pass it on to their new son as he grows older. God takes from us the old as he makes way for the new.

-RB

As a part of the entire missionary experience, I sent out a few fundraising letters via email to mostly family members. The cost of this trip is not unreasonable, and Julie and I are in a place where we could set aside the complete cost of the trip without breaking the bank. However, the missionary state-of-mind is that of doing service for others in the name of Jesus Christ. If I were to fork over the complete bill for the cost, who would I be accountable to for my actions as a servant? It would be nothing more than a glorified vacation with some community service on the side.

As a missionary, I have asked a few people to donate in my name to the cost of the trip as a reminder that I am serving a greater purpose, and those people are giving out of the goodness of their heart for something that they, too believe in.

I am proud to say that 92% of my trip has been paid for!! I thank all of you that contributed as well as UUMC for its scholarship funds provided.

-RB

There are 12 of us on the team:
Adam, Delanie, Misty, Amber, Ray, Dane, Kandy, Marlene, Matt, Carrie, Debbie and myself.

For all of us this is our first mission trip, with exception of Adam, and rightly so. In preparation, we are meeting occasionally to get to know each other before we embark on Costa Rica. We are using the Short-Term Missions Workbook by Tim Dearborn as a study guide for the meeting and to guide our discussions.

The goals of the book are to gain a biblical perspective on the world, gain crosscultural understanding and even prepare us for reentry when we return home.

-RB

Of all my years in the church, I’ve never taken part in an out-of-state mission trip, much less out-of-country. Those that know me best know that my time outside of the US has been quite limited even for personal travel, so embarking on an international mission trip is a much bigger deal than it may seem to others.

My biggest decision factor was not a fear of travel, nor was it going into another culture. No, the biggest questions were, “Is it time?”and “Why now?”.

Julie does a LOT of traveling for work and we often have an opportunity to make a vacation out of her work travel if I can take off from work and get a plane ticket. Usually the majority of the expenses are taken care of by nature of lucrative corporate travel. She has a trip for Hawaii planned for late June to Oahu, where Tesoro has a refinery. Our plan has been to use a Southwest ticket that we have acquired from her frequent flyer miles for me to tag-along. Well… the partner that Southwest used to fly to Hawaii, ATA, is no longer in business and SWA no longer flies to Hawaii. I would only have enough vacation time to fulfill ONE trip this summer and it looked like it wasn’t going to be to Hawaii.

When the church first announced this mission trip, Julie and her mom were very interested and went to the first meetings with Pastor Adam. As the weeks and months played out (and we realized that I was not going to Hawaii), it turned out that I was instead in a better position to take this mission trip. Julie and her mom had to back out and I stepped up and made my intentions known to Adam that I would be going instead.

It helped my decision tremendously that Adam and I have become quite good friends since he joined our church a year ago, and I would be remissed if I didn’t give him any credit for my decision. We attend bible study together, often meet for lunch during the week, and were even workout partners. To top it off, our wives share the exact same birthday! We can always talk about sports (which usually brings up the Texas A&M / Texas Tech rivalry), but mostly we can just talk and share life together. I’m looking forward to this new experience and I feel fortunate to be able to learn from such a close friend.

When it came down to it, the decsion was a “no-brainer”. I truly feel that this mission trip is the next hurdle in my path to challenge my life as a follower of Christ. It was time to for me step out into the unknown and trust Him to use my talents and services for others.

Oh, what I would do to have
the kind of faith it takes
To climb out of this boat I’m in
Onto the crashing waves
To step out of my comfort zone
Into the realm of the unknown
Where Jesus is,
And he’s holding out his hand
[…]
But the voice of truth tells me a different story
the voice of truth says “do not be afraid!”
and the voice of truth says “this is for my glory”
Out of all the voices calling out to me
I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth
– “Voice of Truth” by Casting Crowns

-RB