Saturday Post -- 07/04/12

Pura vida! So goes the customary greeting/farewell in Costa Rica, where we spent a quite marvellous week or so, living it up on the beach and, of course, attending LAM Canada's 50th anniversary conference.

We had a full two weeks off work and so, with our outward flights not due to depart till the early hours of the Tuesday morning, we opted to take the sleep-depriving overnight bus to Santa Cruz, arriving on the Saturday morning. While there, we touched base with Enoel and Lisa Suárez. Not sure if Enoel's had a mention here before, but he is the key figure in organising the missionary boat river trips in the Beni region, one of which Amanda took part in last June. And Enoel took advantage of our visit to begin the arm-twisting for this year in earnest. Watch this space.

We, on the other hand, took advantage of Santa Cruz, a thoroughly unremarkable city, in our usual manner: making the most of those amenities which Trinidad has none of. We visited one of our favourite restaurants in Bolivia, where 'salad' is not a swearword. We took in a film at the multiplex ('Safe House', Denzel Washington action-thriller-by-numbers, and a grave threat to my ability to hear). And we spent a day hanging out at one of my favourite places in Bolivia, Café 24, just off the main plaza, where we enjoyed high-speed internet, good food and a United victory on the telly, in an establishment with a very European feel to it.

Like Santa Claus on Christmas Eve, we flew through the night to Costa Rica, arriving at 9am in the capital, San José. However, our exhaustion was quickly forgotten as we got to know our chauffeurs, Ken & Sue Vissers, who are currently serving in Honduras but who had a camp ministry in Costa Rica. Think Abernethy Trust in the UK or Pioneer Camp in Canada and you have an idea as to the nature of their ministry. Anyway, the Visserses (?) were keen to touch base there again, so we were whisked in their mini-van to a height of 8,500 feet to La Cumbre (The Summit). In a glorious valley high in the mountains,  we saw what happens when you dream big, pray, and train up local leaders to run with a ministry themselves. It was pretty inspiring. We were also met there by Allan & Rhoda Holt, who lead short-term teams to Latin America and who, like ourselves, had arrived a few days ahead of the conference.

Ken Vissers, back where it all began

A river running through the campsite

Much though we enjoyed the quasi-Scottish hillside setting, there was only one place we wished to visit: a beach, any beach. When you live in a land-locked country for two years, you'll understand why. So we were directed by Ken & Sue to the resort of Manuel Antonio. We travelled there on Wednesday, arriving with in sufficient time ahead of sunset to take advantage of the surf that very day. The town itself was a wee bit on the touristy side for my liking (the sort of place where everyone's initial greeting is in English), but the payoff was vistas like these.

It wasn't all sand, sea and surf. We visited Manuel Antonio
National Park, which housed rare Squirrel Monkeys, such
as this chap.

With all conference participants due on the Friday evening, we boarded the bus to San José that morning and arrived at around 7pm at, in the most literal sense, base camp. Like La Cumbre, our conference centre was a Christian campsite in the hills above San José, and by virtue of not being flat, dusty and hot, made for a perfect getaway from Trinidad. Opportunities to explore the surrounding areas were somewhat limited due to the conference's packed schedule, but we took advantage of what little time was available in the early mornings.

Camp Roblealto, our conference site, situated next to Roblealto children's
home, LAM Canada's first ministry.

So busy was the programme that I would be here till Tuesday were I to write about it in any detail. Suffice it to say that a few key goals were achieved. Firstly, we got to meet our fellow missionaries and establish friendships among them. Most of LAM Canada's missionaries work in Central America and several live not too far from one another. We are, then, relatively isolated, so simply being able to put faces to names was important to us. Secondly, we left the conference with a much greater awareness of what God is doing in Latin America. All participants were given a slot to talk about their ministries, which range from church-planting in a remote mountainous region of Guatemala, to Christian schools in Honduras, to missionary support work. Furthermore, we were given the chance to visit certain key ministries in Costa Rica, including a men's prison ministry (where the raw humanity of the singing sent a chill down our spines) and the Rahab Foundation, where women go to flee the grip of prostitution (for those who have the book, the foundation was mentioned in a testimony in Philip Yancey's 'Prayer').

A conference session. Executive Director Carluci dos Santos is on the right,
 in front of the screen.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, us missionaries left with a greater sense of ownership of LAM Canada's work. This was LAM Canada's first ever such conference in its 51 years of existence. For many of us, the practical reality is that LAM Canada has simply existed as a fund-allocating mechanism for our ministries. Two extremely capable full-time workers based in Ontario keep the administrative side running, but beyond that, their time is limited. Therefore, at one of the last sessions of the conference, we sat down in working groups and set out concrete goals for taking the ministry forward as missionaries in the coming months. And the success of the conference was demonstrated by the fact that everyone was very much in favour of establishing such get-togethers at regular intervals over the coming years.

Having saved a bit of spare change, we splashed out and took the plane back to Trinidad on Thursday evening (though not before the customary visit to another of Santa Cruz's much-vaunted amenities: a supermarket!). So if it's possible to feel tired and refreshed at the same time, that pretty much sums up our current state. We return to the day-to-day grind this week and you'll hear all that's fit to print next week.

A very happy Easter to you all.

Prayer

• For implementation of the shared goals proposed at the conference. We all know how easy it is to let these things slip once we get back into day-to-day life. Pray against that.
• For a smooth re-adjustment back into our ministries this week.

Praise

• For a break which was both relaxing and productive.
• For safe travels to and from Costa Rica.

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda