Guatemala Women's Outreach

I'm a little behind, but here goes! Last week, I had the privilege of participating in the first-ever-SI-women's-outreach in Guatemala. All of our female SI Costa Rica staff went as well. It was a fun time of fellowship and serving together. It was great to see some familiar Visalia faces, too!! Though refreshing in many ways, I admit I was exhausted by the end!! Mentally, emotionally, physically, etc.!

On this outreach, I was privileged to work with the medical team in the town of El Gorrión. It's a small community that was built by government sponsorship after some hurricanes about a decade ago. Basically the government relocated these families and gave them bricks and a plot to build a small house on. There is no running water, or sewer, though there is electricity. SI has been working on some cistern and water-filtering projects up there for a few years, as well as other things like pouring cement floors and making fuel-efficient stoves. There is also a small public school in El Gorrión where one staff member works.

Anyway, aside from hosting a medical clinic one day (which was held in the home of an El Gorrión family, and was a huge success!), the medical team's task for this outreach was to help SI with a community survey. The questions ranged from demographic info, family health issues, and opinions on a new community center for which SI has purchased land. The whole experience was so interesting! I, having no medical background except for a mother who is a nurse, served as a translator. In many ways, it reminded me of my home visits with FIRST 5, minus the educational part. We were invited into homes and got to know a hint of people's lives. One of the new Guatemala staff, Maurine, was in our group, and my prayer for her is that she (and her husband, Nick) would be able to build relationships with people in El Gorrión because of the time we spent in their homes. And also that the information gathered from these 50+ surveys would be useful to SI and the community leaders who are working together to improve the situation there. Aside from the need for water, etc., people shared many wonderful ideas for a community center like literacy programs for adults (to assist in jobs/applications), vocational training programs for youth, and a clinic. Pray that God's purposes would be met and that lives would be transformed because of Christ!

In the big picture it looks so exciting--and I know it IS. Where I get bogged down is in the dirty details of reality. For example: we visited a family that has 3 children. Mother is super sweet, but Dad is an (abusive) alcoholic. She is the victim of her gender, culture, and socio-economic situation--my heart aches for her. Of the 3 children, 2 (boys) have muscular dystrophy. The youngest child, a girl, goes to school, but the boys do not. They recently had surgery on their legs and were in casts, sitting on beds when we visited. (Apparently Dad was abstaining from alcohol during the recovery so that he could be helpful to Mom--to his detriment; his liver was severely swollen.) Anyway, the boys are basically prisoners to the 4 cinder-block walls day in and out. SI has worked with this family in the past (they helped put in a cement floor so the boys weren't crawling around in the dirt, and arranged for the surgeries), and will now be working to get the boys to school, maybe some therapy, etc. It's wonderful and discouraging to me all at the same time. I can see the potential for change and victory, and it gives me hope. But I've also seen enough to know that change happens s-l-o-w-l-y and only when people want it. You can lead a horse to water. . .and Jesus does not force his way in to our lives. It was this way with FIRST 5 for me, too. In the big picture, I could see the effects of all the work we were doing; but in the individual families, victories seemed infrequent and sometimes insignificant. Why does God choose to work through the process of our lives (myself included)? Why does he let us fail soooo many times? Why is God patient enough for all of this and I am not????! Why do I demand to see results when the results are not my responsibility? And where is my faith--believing in what I cannot see--that God will restore all the wrongs? That God is the God of hopeless situations?

I think of these things in light of starting SI Costa Rica, too. We have seen God's hand move in so many ways that we cannot deny that this whole thing belongs to Him. The big picture is very exciting, and we know, we believe, that God will do great things. . .but he will do them as he sees fit, not necessarily how I do. And it's not about me, either. It's about Christ being glorified. He will transform lives so that He receives glory--so that the world can see his amazing redemption and awesome love. So easy to remember in this moment. . .

Anyway, Guatemala was a good time. There's lots more I could say, but I think I'll leave it there! Oh, and I'll post a link to some pictures later, too.

A Choice to Make

Yesterday afternoon I had a few hours where nothing could or would go right. As I took Tracey and the rest of our female staff to the airport (they are currently in Guatemala participating in a women's outreach) I discovered that there is still something wrong with our car. We had some broken engine supports (at least in Spanish that is what they are called. Could be engine mounts in English) replaced. Well now there is a new sound, similar to a 747 landing, and a vibration that shook my seat better than any of those massage chair things ever could. Needless to say, something is not right and I will be keeping my weekly appointment with our mechanic again this week.

After the kids and I arrived home I was busy chasing Sawyer when I heard Olivia screaming for me in the other room. Turns out she had grabbed a pair of scissors and cut her finger. Nothing too bad, but of course she wanted mommy and was not happy when I reminded her mommy was in Guatemala.

Shortly after getting a band aide on Olivia's finger some furniture we had ordered was delivered. As we were unloading it I began to notice things like a mirror on a dresser wasn't the design we had ordered, a bed wasn't what we had asked for, and some poor work on the bed for the kid's room. So about half or more of the order had something wrong with it.

It was just one of those days. In the midst of feeling sorry for myself the Lord spoke to me. He has a habit of doing that when I least expect or want him to speak. In the quiet of my heart I heard the Lord telling me, just like I often tell Olivia, "You have a choice to make." Don't we always have a choice to make? We can not always choose or control our circumstances, but we can choose how we react to them. As we continue to adjust to life in a new culture I find I need to tell myself to choose to react well far more often than I have ever before.

I think it was Charles Swindoll who once said, "Life is 10% circumstances and 90% how we react to them." Well with all due respect I think his numbers are a bit off. It seems to me it is more like a 5%/95% split, maybe even 1%/99%.

Ram Luna

As an early Valentine's Day Surprise (and our 2nd official get-dressed-up-planned-date since arriving in Costa Rica--kinda sad, we know), Jeff took me to Ram Luna, a restaurant up in the mountains, not too far from us. It is decorated in traditional Costa Rican style, with an amazing view of the city. They serve typical food, and on Wednesdays they do a traditional folk dancing show. Overall, it was a fantastic evening, and we recommend everyone go!

Us, overlooking the city lights.

From Ram Luna

With the dance troupe. This was pretty funny--and very touristy (that they posed for pictures with all the guests)! They actually 'introduced' all the tables, too, and announced where everyone was from. There were people that night from as far away as Spain, France and Turkey!

From Ram Luna

One of the talented dancers. I love their outfits!

From Ram Luna

Our Home

We have been blessed with a tremendous home! After almost two months of looking, walking through numerous neighborhoods, calling on countless adds, and talking to everyone we could think of we found a house. Actually I should say that the Lord provided it for us, just in time. About 2 weeks before we had to be out of our apartment. Our new friend Carlos, who is a real estate agent, helped us find it.

To be honest it is more house than we need, but it gives us room to host the various guests we will be having. It also has an attached office with an independent entrance that will serve as the Students International Costa Rica office. We have a great landlady and the rent is probably about 60% of what it should be. We are slowly, but surely acquiring furniture and are meeting a lot of interesting people via Craig's List, newspaper adds, and small furniture stores owners. So without further adieu here is our home:

Our First Visitors

We were excited to welcome Ken and Candy as our first visitors in January! They stayed with us for about 10 days and got a taste of what our life is like these days, including car trouble, our new house, early mornings to get the kids to school, the feria to get our fruits and veggies, gallo pinto (rice and beans Tico-style), and a trip to Manuel Antonio beach and national park (we WISH that was a REGULAR part of life!!) It was really fun to have them here. The kids were ecstatic to have Grandma and Grandpa visiting (I think Olivia was worried no one would ever come to see us.) We were all blessed by their presence and helpfulness. As Ken would say, a fun time was had by all! Here are a few pictures of their time with us, complete with one of Olivia's favorite songs!

Email Update

We sent out an email update this week. If you did not get it and would like to get future updates please send your email address to thedixonz@gmail.com. If you would like to get the PDF file click here.

We will post some pictures soon as well as a ministry update.

We moved into our new home about 3 weeks ago. We like the house and the location. However, we are still waiting on our internet connection to be hooked up, so our communication is a bit limited and sporadic these days. When we are hooked up we will post a more detailed post with an update on what all is going on.

If you have heard of the earthquake a little over a week ago here we felt it in our home, but did not have any damage. Parts of the country are pretty devastated, so please keep Costa Rica in your prayers. Hopefully we will post soon with more info for all of you who faithfully follow our blog. Hopefully our internet will be connected in the next few days.