A Death-Bed Wedding, a New Believer

A man named Rafael was dying of kidney failure. His son Jimmy has been coming to our services in the Costa Rican slum of Tejarcillos.  Our local ministry leaders have gotten good at preaching, teaching, and doing pastoral visits, but this one was a little more difficult.

On the way to Rafael's house, I came the closest yet to being mugged there in the 'hood.  As our leaders Fran and Ileana and I turned the corner down a dirt path to Rafael's house, two young men were standing there watching us.  One of them said to the other within earshot of us, "I'll bet that Gringo has money  (meaning 'let's go take it from him')."  The other one said, "No, I know him.  He works over on that corner."  And they left us alone.

It was a Tuesday evening.  We went to  try to encourage Rafael, who clearly did not want to die yet. He was, I believe, 52. We prayed for healing and reminded him that life and death are both in the hands of the Lord. And for the believer, they're both good options (Philippians 1:21)! Rafael had accepted Christ about four months earlier. The conversation turned to his so-called wife Maria and it came up that they had never actually gotten married. Our ministry leader Ileana asked them if they would like to get married, and, if so, would I be willing to marry them on the spot? Now Costa Rica does not recognize Protestant weddings at all, much less an impromptu, ad hoc one in a shack. So it wouldn't be legal, but they would finally say their vows before God. I tried to put them off for a day, since it had been years since I had done a wedding, and had never done one in Spanish. Since we didn't know how much longer Rafael would live, Ileana said, no, it would have to be right then and I would have to remember the ceremony and do it as best I could, even if I had to say the words in English.

So I relented and said there was one condition. Rafael would have to ask for Maria's hand and she would have to accept. Rafael asked, and Maria said that, yes, she had always wanted to be properly married after being together for 28 years. So they gathered the extended family together from around the neighborhood, and I muddled through the ceremony in Spanish before pronouncing them husband and wife.

The following Tuesday I was at the house of our leaders, Fran and Ileana. We went from there to visit Rafael and the family. Fran and Ileana asked me to do the talking and bring an evangelistic message to the family. I hate it when they ask me to do stuff "off the cuff" without time to prepare or even think about what I'm going to say. But God is always faithful. The thief on the cross, who repented in the last hours of his life, came to mind, and I shared the story and its implications with the family. Rafael, who was no longer lucid, reminded me of the penitent thief since he had trusted in Christ at the end of his life. Rafael's other son, Esteban, gave his life to Christ that night.

Two days later Rafael died. He now awaits Esteban, Jimmy, and Maria in heaven.  Fran and Ileana are now following up with the family and taking them through a discipleship program.

 

The other bigs news is that, after nearly 13 years here, our family will be moving back to the US in December.  More on that next time...

Spirit of Fear? Not from God!

As I read over the last blog entry, it seems apparent in retrospect that I was being tormented by spirits of fear.  I had almost panicked when I was alone on the beach with the homeless man, and then was plagued by irrational fears while camping alone.  Both situations called for prudence, but, looking back, there was no reason for fear, let alone panic.  I have never been a fearful or panicky person.  I believe there were demons involved because the fears seemed to have had a definite beginning and end. 

It seemed to have begun last November when a murder took place about 200 yards from me in Tejarcillos.  From that time on, I seemed to lose my nerve and became increasingly fearful, culminating with my experience camping on the beach.  It ended when I took authority over them, first on the beach, and more fully with a pastor in California.  I have not been bothered by fear since then, even when working in Tejarcillos and driving through Northern Mexico.

I fully realize that some will read this and decide that I have finally flipped my wig.  What's a seminary educated, life-long Presbyterian doing talking about being tormented by demons in this day and age?  The fears could easily be explained as a mild form of post traumatic stress, or at least that all the years of violence and flying bullets in Tejarcillos had taken their toll on me, right?

So before continuing with my story, let me begin to make a case for the existence of such beings. 

First there is personal experience.  Martha came back from Ethiopia less than two weeks ago and told me about helping drive a demon out of a man there.  Martha writes, "It was as if he was levitating - his legs were curled behind him and his upper body was raising up with a strength that was not his own   - even with four men trying to hold him down.  His physical strength could not have been his own power/doing as it defied his physical "position" (legs under him) and also his size."  When it was over, the demons were gone and the man freed.  The remedy?  Taking authority over the spirits in the name of Jesus and making them leave.  Combined with my victory over fear and hearing the stories of others, I've found that battles with the demonic are really not that unusual.

Second, it has been revealed to us in Scripture.  The Bible is unequivocal in its teaching that Satan and demons exist and are arrayed against us.  Scripture is really one long spiritual war beginning with the serpent in Genesis and ending with the lake of fire in Revelation.  If you want to argue that demons don't exist, you'll have a hard time doing it from Scripture.

Thirdly, it can be deduced from reason.  Science points to a Creator.  If there is a Creator there is a world beyond.  If the Creator is a spirit, there could be other spirits.  Do you believe in any spirits at all (such as angels or departed souls)?  If so, then why should we assume that they are all benevolent?  If there are evil people, should we be surprised that there would be evil spirits?  If we took a poll, we would probably find that 90% of the world takes such spirits' existence for granted.  If you polled the world's missionaries you'd probably find the number to be 99.9%.

It's mainly just us enlightened Westerners that have a hard time with the idea.  We have made extraordinary advances with science including the apparent recent discovery of the so-called God particle.  But can we really claim to know any more about the world beyond us than the writers of the Bible?  Science points straight to an Intelligent Designer, but can tell us nothing about the unseen world.  For that information, we depend on revelation.

Charles Kraft is an ex-missionary to Africa and professor at Fuller Seminary.  He's the one whose conference I attended in California.  Kraft observes that Westerners tend to believe that every effect has only a single cause.  My fears were caused by emotional trauma.  Kraft writes in Confronting Powerless Christianity that "if a demon is present, there are two causes.  Demons cannot be present unless they have something to cling to.  They are like rats and rats cannot exist unless they have garbage to feed on.  With demons the garbage is usually emotional or spiritual damage...so with demonization, dual causation exists."   So I conclude that a spirit of fear began to cling to my emotional trauma.

The great news is that freeing me of fear was only one of many things that God would work in me on the trip.  I look forward to telling you about it!

My Drive to LA and Back

I did it for reasons known and unknown.  I felt like I had lost my way spiritually and needed time alone with God.  I wanted to attend a conference by spiritual warfare guru Charles Kraft.  While there I would spend time with a pastor who I hoped could help me get untracked in my spiritual life.  Some folks who care about me said I was crazy and foolish to drive a car through Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Mexico and back.  I kept my plans a secret from my parents, who I knew would worry themselves to death, but they found out anyway.  When it was all over, God had kept me safe and sound with no major incidents.  I got the time with God that I needed, got refocused spiritually, and learned a lot about spiritual warfare that I can now put into effect in my life and ministry.

The ministry in Tejarcillos is nearly ready to hand off completely to the local leaders.  The ministry center is 95% finished.  Right now we are just working out details with the municipality's construction standards.  I help out with English, children's ministry, and am leading the youth ministry at the moment.   The one thing that our leaders lack and that I want to help teach them before handing off the ministry is this:  we need to do more to combat the spiritual forces arrayed against us and the people of Tejarcillos. 

The time I took to make the trip was well worth it, and I hope to move more fully into the area of spiritual warfare by organizing prayer meetings together with other ministries there in the neighborhood.

I hope to unpack (no pun intended!) my trip on this blog a little at a time, sharing what happened and what I learned. 

I almost made a terrible mistake by leaving without getting permission to leave the country with my car (Costa Rica is not as free a country as you might think).  Yes, you have to get the government's permission to leave with your own car!  If I had gotten to the border of Nicaragua without permission I would have been sent back home.  As it turned out, each country in turn required some sort of permission and background check to enter and leave with the car except for the US.

I left on a Wednesday afternoon after getting all the documents I needed and dealing with some ministry matters.  I got to a beach called Puntarenas just as the sun was about to set and pitched a tent on the beach.  Here in Costa Rica, anyone can camp on the beach within 50 meters of high tide.

I woke up the next day and there was a guy sitting on a log nearby.  We chatted briefly and it turned out he was homeless.  I started to break down the tent and realized we were the only two people anywhere on the beach and almost panicked when I realized he could easily pull a weapon on me.  Instead of folding the tent, I balled it up hastily and threw it into the pickup truck.  Then he approached me.  As it turned out, he was hungry and asked me for some food.  I gave him some food I had packed and he was very happy with it and went on his way.

Then I drove about three hours up the road to a town called La Cruz, just this side of the Nicaraguan border.  I camped for two nights at one of the most breathtakingly beautiful beaches I have ever seen, Playa Rajada.  We had camped there ten years earlier with the English speaking youth group we had worked with. 

I managed to get the truck hopelessly stuck in the sand.  It's pretty much a deserted beach and I had to wait for some guys to arrive to watch the sunset and drink beer.  They happened to have a Land Rover and pulled me out. 

While peaceful and beautiful, my time at Playa Rajada reminded me just a little of what Jesus went through in the desert.  At times at night when I was the only person on the beach, I felt tormented by something beyond myself telling me that something terrible was going to happen to me.  I spoke to the "something(s)" out loud in the name of Jesus, which helped, but they never seemed very far away. 

Rather than bring back pleasant memories of camping there years earlier, I was plagued by painful memories of conflicts within that youth ministry which had been ignited by circumstances beyond my control.  It was one of many hurts in my life that needed to be healed, and which God lovingly lifted from me on the trip.  But it didn't happen right then...

More Costa Rica/US Comparisons

In the last blog entry, I showed several areas in which the US is, well, superior to Costa Rica, in my view. Now I'd like to share some ways in which the Ticos show their superiority.

People vs. Schedule

Doctors in the States often set limits like, for example, that you can only go in with two complaints per visit. That way the doctor can keep folks moving through and people don't have to cool their heels all day in the waiting room. We even knew a doctor who would only examine four moles at a time. So if you had twenty moles that needed checking you'd have to make five appointments!

Here, you'd better bring a long book for your doctor's visits. Sometimes you'll get in and out quickly, but don't count on it. The doctors here will take all the time you need. They'll give you a detailed answer to each of your questions. When he or she is done answering your questions, you'll be asked about how each member of your family is doing, and you might even hear some gossip on the patient that was in before you! It doesn't matter how many people are waiting outside.

If you're visiting a Tico family on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon, you'd better plan on staying till sundown. You'll come across as abrupt otherwise. And if you're the host, your Tico visitors would be shocked to find out you were expecting them to leave three hours earlier.

Peace vs. War

Ecclesiastes 3:8 tells us there is a time for war and a time for peace. I fear that the US has at times gone to war when it was still the time for peace. I can say with certainty that Costa Rica will never make that mistake. Why? Because it has no military.

As we speak, Nicaragua is occupying a swath of land that, until recently, was nearly universally recognized as Costa Rica's. What's Costa Rica doing about it? The only thing it can do--taking it to various international governing bodies.

The advantages of having no military are that taxes stay relatively low, and there is enough money to fund a number of social programs like public health care and higher education.

Children: High Priority vs. Low Priority

If you get on the bus with a small child and the bus is full, don't worry--someone will give up their seat for you.

If you're in a mile-long line at the airport and you have a small child, you don't have to lament the long wait you have coming. Your little one is your ticket to the front of the line.

If a stranger stops on the sidewalk and gives little Junior a pat on the head as you pass, you needn't feel threatened. It's only because children are loved and cherished here.

If you don't keep up on your child support, the cops will promptly hunt you down and put you in jail. It's about the only thing here that can be described as "prompt."

Abortion is illegal here. We don't hear the horror stories of terrible things supposedly happening in places where abortion isn't "safe and legal."

It's humbling to see that there's so much we Americans can learn from others!

The US and Costa Rica: A Frank Comparison

We've spent the last two months in Dallas recovering from burnout and we go back to Costa Rica this Monday (I'll grab about four hours of sleep after the Super Bowl and we head out at about 3:30 a.m.). I thought you might be interested in some of my observations about the differences between the US and Costa Rica during our time here.

But first, let's rewind to the year 2000. At an orientation session a veteran missionary of 25 years of service handed us a paper with his observations contrasting the work ethics of Americans and Costa Ricans. We were asked for our thoughts about the contrasts. Something stood out for me immediately, but I did not say so because I was chicken--afraid to offend the man who would eventually become my boss. What jumped out at me from the page was that every observation he made about the American work ethic was positive, while every comment on the Costa Rica work ethic was negative.

I've seen a number of missionaries grow jaded and bitter with their years of service, and, to be perfectly honest, I came back for these two months because I was becoming that way myself. Other missonaries have historically sought to undermine and even destroy the cultures of the people they wanted to reach with the Gospel because they saw their own cultures as superior. Therefore the people could only benefit from a new culture. This is often derided as a tragic byproduct of the era of Western Imperialism. But, again, I believe that those missionaries meant well, and simply could not conceive of any other solution.

So I thought I would share some contrasts that I've observed during my time here of our two cultures. You'll find that, yes, the US wins and Costa Rica loses in each camparison. The lesson here, however, is that the solution is not an attitude of superiority and condescension, but of humility, love, patience and perseverance. When I find I've run out of these qualities, I need take a break, get with God, and go back as He leads.

Clean vs. Dirty
During our time in the US, we've seen very little litter. People hold on to their trash until they find a trash can. I even saw folks following their dogs around with pooper scoopers!

A couple of years ago I had a couple of hours to kill in the city of Limon, Costa Rica. I walked through the entire downtown section of the city (about ten square blocks). There was garbage everywhere. I found two trash cans in the entire downtown. They were about ten feet apart in a small park. If you take a bus from downtown San Jose to any other location, you can look out the windows and see the streets lined with litter. Cross any bridge and you'll see junk and garbage clogging the waterway below. If someone has a candy wrapper or empty bottle and there's not a trash can within reach, it is perfectly acceptable to throw it on the ground.

Trust vs. Suspicion
Here in Dallas, Martha had bought a large container of Lifesavers. When she opened the container, there was a pack of Lifesavers missing. I went back to Kroger, but it was evening and Customer Service was closed. I went to a cashier and explained the situation, a little embarrassed because I was afraid she'd think I had stolen the pack and now was trying to rip off the store. Instead, she let me keep the pack and reimbursed me for the entire purchase. Why? Because Americans trust each other. In Costa Rica the process would be much more complicated and the likely result would be that they'd say we should have checked the container before we bought it since lifting items from their containers is a common practice. In Costa Rica I always open an ice cream container to make sure no one has eaten out of it. I have bought ice cream (and know others who have too) and opened it when I got home and it had a hole where someone had scooped a chunk out with either a hand or a spoon.

In Costa Rica when you go to Walmart and other large stores, they give you a plastic card when you enter the parking lot in your car. You cannot leave with your car without returning the card to the guard. This is to prevent folks from walking in, breaking into your car and driving away in it. Here in the US I have never seen this system used. Why? Because here people are more trusting. And why are we Americans more trusting? Because, as a rule, we're more trustworthy.

Can Do vs. Fatalism
The missionary I mentioned earlier is also an inventor. Costa Rica gets a lot of rain (the tourist brochures don't tell you it rains every day for eight months of the year!). Out in the countryside a lot of people grow beans. Every year, the farmers lose a third of their bean crops to the heavy rains. This missionary invented a bean dryer so the farmers could increase their yield by 33%. How would you like it if your boss told you he or she would give you a 33% raise for a 10% increase in work? The bean dryer never caught on. The reason seemed to be a deeply ingrained fatalism that told the farmers they were interfering with God's will by trying to salvage their beans.

Working in the slums we have seen two kids graduate high school and go on to school in nearly twelve years. High school and college cost a couple of hundred dollars for fees and expenses per semester. There's no doubt that this is still lot of money to folks who are poor, but most Costa Rican families can do it if they are willing to sacrifice and prioritize. Instead, it breaks ours hearts to see kids turn 14 or 15, get pregnant, quit school, get minimum wage jobs (about two dollars an hour), and continue in the cycle of poverty. Nearly everyone we know has chosen this option, but to them it's not an option--it's just fate.

So what keeps us going? Just like we see on every page of the Bible God calling out a remnant of folks who want to be different--to be His people-- we see Him doing the same thing in Costa Rica in the slums, the prisons, and the city streets. In my less-than-finest moments I have seen myself as superior. When that happens, God gives me a reality check and reminds me that I'm guilty of many of the things I condemn in others. Then He tells me that whatever advantages I enjoy as an American are by His grace: "America, America, God shed His grace on thee." And finally, that one reason we are there is to humbly and lovingly share cultural insights like the ones I've mentioned here that are part and parcel of our American-ness. Which brings me back to the Gospel.

I believe that our country is so great because of its Judeo-Christian (that is, Biblical) underpinnings. And, I believe that both the material wealth and spiritual riches we enjoy are to be used to bless the rest of the world with God's love. As the Good News of Jesus takes root in places like Costa Rica, then we will see Christ transforming culture.