Missionary Trips
It has been interesting to see in person how big and mighty of a God we serve. Teams experienced this first hand last week as the Lord continues to provide just what we need at just the right time. One of our new work sites sits in an area called Bambu. While the work there is similar to other work projects, the biggest challenge comes in getting the teams there and back, as only cars and one public bus are able to travel the rocky distance.

The mission teams must also take a short boat ride across the river in order to finally get to their location. On Wednesday afternoon, due to heavy rains, the public bus (which was the team’s way of getting to their site) was unable to make the return trip to BriBri. Our team found themselves stranded in the middle of the jungle, in a country where they didn’t speak the language and had no way of contacting us via telephone.

They were forced to fully rely on God to provide a way for their safe return. Putting their faith in God and in their Costa Rican maestro, Tachi, the group was amazed at their adventurous return back. Through a series of various forms of transportation, the help of the community, and the power of God, the team arrived safely in time for dinner.

God had not only provided transportation but had also provided a way for the BriBri people to be part of an answer to prayer. Not only did the team experience how precisely God places people at the right place at the right time, but they also got to be blessed by the community. They left this mission trip with a greater faith and trust in God to know and meet our needs no matter where we are. 

Seeing God’s Provision,

Alex Moses

Upcoming adult mission trips are available on our website at www.ExperienceMission.org.

This last week in Costa Rica, we had two different teams come down. While Chris and Thatia remained in the BriBri/Cahuita area with a wonderful team from Long Island, I had the privilege of climbing up “Tiger Mountain” with a group of six amazing people. We were a combination of Texas, New Jersey, Washington, and Illinois that was mosaically placed together. Words don’t seem to be able to express the memories and experiences we had this past week.

The journey as a team began with a three-hour hike Sunday morning. Muddy, tired, wet, and yet full of excitement for the coming week, we arrived at Leopoldo and Carlos’ house. They opened up their home to us with a love for Christ that overflowed into their love for us. Days were spent constructing a 36 square meter post house at the top of a mountain. Nights were spent in a time of fellowship with the father-son duo as we shared praise songs in both English and Spanish, and simply enjoyed loving each other. There is so much that I would love to share and am still working to process from the week but what I most want to share with you all is an example of love that I witnessed throughout the week.

There is a song by the band Wedding that says, “if you love me then just love me, don’t you give me pretty words, lay your life down at the altar, let me see how serious you are.” This song has been a challenge to me throughout this summer, and I have seen many examples of it being displayed throughout Costa Rica however the most distinct display appeared this week. So many times, Christians make following Christ difficult or “foo-foo” so to say. It becomes more of a show than a love relationship. This week, we had the pleasure of simply loving God.

Leaving behind all comforts and climbing into the unknown, for at least one week we were unable to “put on a show” and simply love God. Carlos and Leopoldo demonstrated such a love for Christ that was so simple and yet so genuine. No pretty words, no “foo-foo” just simple love for spending time with Christ. A love for Christ that is so real that it’s contagious to everyone around. I hope that I live my life with such a contagious faith that God’s love for me and my love for God overflows into the lives of others. May God be given all the glory.

Desiring Contagious Faith,

Alex Moses

Imagine with me for a second: You live in a house, however have finally saved up enough to order all the wood that is needed to build a new house –- a house that will provide more adequate living space for your family. You have had the land for a while now and are more than eager to begin working. Some people from a different country come and offer to help you build.

At first you are hesitant, for you don’t know these people and are unsure if they are qualified enough to do the work. However, they have offered to help pay for supplies which you are more than appreciative about and seem like kind people. You decide to take them up on their offer believing they will be able to help you get the job done sooner and your family will be able to move in earlier. Plus, you also have your day-to-day job that you must continue doing in addition to building the house so the extra help is more than welcome. The day finally arrives and the bus with your team on it pulls up to your house. Piling out of the bus are a variety of people of different ages, genders, sizes, and construction ability. Your excitement plummets a little however you figure no matter how long it takes the work is going to get done and maybe it’ll be fun to work with them.

One of the things that amazes me most about working with the maestros and the families out here is their patience and willingness to work with us. They don’t have to let us join in the construction of their home. They don’t have to teach us how to mix concrete by hand. They don’t have to be patient as we try to speak with the little Spanish we know. They don’t have to make sure that we are getting enough water or that we are feeling okay. They don’t have to become our friends. But they do. They welcome us into their homes, into their families, into their projects, into their communities and they continue to love on us. Many of the sites that we are finishing up this week could have been done weeks ago. But the Bribri people have given us the privilege to become part of their community. They don’t have to but they do.

Privileged to be part of God’s work out here,

Alex

As I sit here in my room reminiscing about the past couple days, I can hear a rain storm rolling in. The clatter of the rain on the roof reminds me of the moments shared this week between the community and the team members. As it is the beginning of Costa Rica’s rainy season, the weather played an important part in each day’s work and progress. Many times work had to be halted  in order to take cover for the sudden bursts of pouring rain- more rain then I have ever experienced in my life. While the rain may have stalled work for a while, it also was the cause for many relationships to be formed and connections to be made.

One of the most touching effects of the rain took place at Crispin’s worksite. At this site, the teams are working hard to build a house for a family. They have the pleasure of working with Franklin, the maestro, who has been lovingly deemed the Clint Eastwood of Costa Rica. While the relationship between Franklin and the group has truly been a blessing, the real story is seen in the love that the family expressed for the students. After the first day of rain the team left wet and dirty, caked with mud from head to foot.

Granted, this is half the adventure and joy of working in Costa Rica. However, when they returned the next day they were surprised to find a shelter that the family made for them out of bamboo and leaves. The beautifully handcrafted structure not only provided shelter for future outbursts of rain but also from the beating rays from the sun. It doubled as a place to rest and eat lunch together, providing shade to keep their water supply from boiling.
            
I loved hearing about this shelter and being able to see it later in the week. More than the resourcefulness of the shelter and the people, I found the love of God that they expressed through it heart warming. They didn’t have to build a shelter from the rain and they don’t have to be at the worksite with the teams every day to help – but they are and they come to simply love and be loved. While we are out here to help families by building homes, painting schools, etc. the main reason we are here is to love God and love the Costa Rican people. The teams showed this love with every bag of sand they carried, every nail they hammered, and every smile they extended to the people. But the love of the community cannot be overlooked, for they too love unconditionally – through smiles, through hugs, through shelters, and through their willingness to welcome us into their lives.
In awe of God’s love,

Alex

Hola de Costa Rica!! This summer has just begun and plans are on the way for the many groups traveling out to Costa Rica, the first team arriving in one week. Everything from the kind-hearted people to the welcoming sound of the ocean has brought an excitement for the upcoming weeks. We all arrived safely to Costa Rica last Saturday and have spent the past couple days scoping out possible worksites, visiting with members of the community, and putting together plans for the summer.

Throughout the community we have been welcomed and treated warmly as though we were family. Thatia, Chris, and I have had the pleasure of getting to know the staff at the Hotel Jaguar, where teams will be staying, and also getting to know various community members. God has been truly working in this community and we are excited to be able to join in with the community where He is already at work. Consumed with an overwhelming love and joy for the people, their families, and the community, we await the arrival of the teams with growing anticipation.

Fifteen minutes ago we arrived back from a quick jaunt over to the market to get water for tomorrow’s hike to visit with Leopoldo, a BriBri man who lives in the mountains. Beauty is seen all around us here near the Caribbean and we are excited to see God’s masterpiece in a new way tomorrow. Furthermore, please pray for us tomorrow as the hike with be somewhat demanding and we are still adjusting to the change in climate and elevation here- though the warmer weather is more than welcome. No matter where we go, we look forward to making new acquaintances and having the opportunity to see God through different eyes; whether it be down the street to  “la tienda” or an hour and a half hike up the mountains. As the day turns into night we find we must say: Hasta Luego y Dios de bendiga!! (Until Later and God bless)
        Love, Alex

I´ve been down in Shiroles since Monday.  I was able to make contact with Jorgeli, but wasn´t able to meet with him until Tuesday.  As I was looking for Benjamin, he was nowhere to be found, and Jorgeli didn´t know where he was.  Then I spoke with Commander Comacho at the US embassy, and found out that Benjamin was informed of the US Government’s intention to delay the transportation of the materials at the end of last week, and he left early Monday morning for Alto Cuen.

I can only imagine what is going through his mind right now.  He was told back in December that the U.S. Government would be able to transport the construction materials to the bridge sites during the dry season so that the bridges could be built.  And, yes, that was intentionally plural.  Right now there are 4 bridges that they have materials for and are trying to build.  We are here just for one this time, because the others can be reached by foot during the whole year.  Alto Cuen is only reachable during the dry season.  There is another way down from Alto Cuen, but I spoke with David Jones, a local missionary to the Bribri, and Cabeca indigenous groups and he said he had to walk that way after getting stuck once, and it took an extra two days to travel.  This kind of time addition is perilous when talking about EMS response times.  So at this point we are trying to build the one bridge, and protect the rest of the building materials from the weather until the other bridges can be built later during the rainy months.  The problem we´re currently facing is that since the U.S. committed to delivering the materials, the local government shifted their attention away from trying to find a way to transport the materials and on to trying to find other materials and people to build the bridges. 

If the US had said “no,” then Benjamin and others could have been working to provide for another transportation method.  They could have been coordinating with the helicopter that carries doctors to and from these villages to piggyback a few building materials at the same time.  They could have been searching for money to pay the helicopter themselves.  They could have been transporting the materials little by little with the police helicopter.  Unfortunately, the transportation has been delayed for the fourth time…and it was delayed until May 12th-16th.  And who knows if they will fulfill this promise. 

At this time we are hoping and praying for a miracle or for some better direction from the Lord.  If the concrete isn´t finished soon, then all the concrete, and the work to get it ready, and the work at the bridge site, and everything that has been sacrificed by our supporters and my family will be lost.  Perhaps now is the time that I need to start brainstorming ideas to help protect the concrete and the work that has been done from the rainy season so that we can build these bridges next February during the dry season.  I´ll be heading up to the bridge site tomorrow to speak with Margarito and the other residents up there, and to see what we can do to protect the work site so that we can finish this project and get these people the bridge that they so desperately need.  Please continue to pray for the success of the project, and to hold off the rains until the concrete is finished so I can get down from the mountains,  and also please send emails, phone calls, AND letters to all your senators and representatives so that the Secretary of Defense can understand what is at stake, and so he can understand that without the immediate completion of this bridge, it may take 10 years before they can try again, and many more people will be killed or injured by the river while trying to get down the mountain in the midst of a medical emergency. 

I´ll have more information and photos for you next week.  Adios!

- John Barry

Well, we made it all the way to Puerto Viejo on Sunday.  I landed around noon and we were able to catch the 2:00 bus.  We got here fine, but then of course being a Sunday, every room in town was completely booked, so we had to stay at Rocking J’s (the hammock hotel).  Evidently the rainy season got here a couple weeks ago, so I’m not sure what this is going to mean for the construction project, but we’ll be heading up to the river in about an hour and we’ll know more then.  The material transportation is supposed to begin today.  I don’t have any photos now, nor do I have much to tell, but I’ll know more when we get to Suretka, and I will get back to you all as soon as I can.  Perhaps tonight, perhaps tomorrow, but no later than Friday.  Adios!

-John Barry

The cancellation of a major bridge-building project in Costa Rica seemed at first devastating, but quickly proved fortuitous for a team of EM volunteers who discovered an even more pressing need for a bridge at another site in the jungle-covered mountains of the Bribri indigenous reservation.

The new bridge site is in the village of Alto Cuen, an isolated community of about 130 people. Getting to the village requires an hour-long trip in a riverboat, an hour-long trip in a banana truck, and a grueling, five-hour hike through the jungle that includes several river crossings.

“They are totally isolated,” said Benjamin Briton-Mora, Emergency Commission Coordinator for the area’s indigenous reservations. “There is no communication.”

The Cuen River is the main obstacle residents face in getting to civilization - it is that river they hope to span with the new bridge. Briton-Mora said that during the eight-month rainy season there, it is utterly impassable.

If there is a medical emergency, the only way to get the sick or injured down to safety is to haul them down the steep, jungle-covered hillside in a hammock, a perilous enough prospect even setting aside the need to cross the Cuen, which is chest deep at its most shallow point during the year. Briton-Mora said the dangerous hammock extractions have lead to several deaths, including a woman in labor and her unborn child.

Desperate for a bridge, Alto Cuen residents have worked almost non-stop since December to dig holes big enough to house the massive amount of concrete necessary to anchor one. While the U.S. Embassy has already donated nearly all of the materials necessary - including more than 300 sacks of concrete, each weighing 110 pounds - the community hasn’t had the funds necessary to contract a helicopter to get the supplies to the site, nor have they had the technical expertise on hand to build the bridge, Briton-Mora said. He said carrying the supplies in by hand would be impossible.

The region’s rainy season is just weeks away. If it comes before the concrete is poured, Briton-Mora said untold amounts of effort could be for naught as water fills the holes and turns their walls into unstable muck.
Change in plans a blessing
EM staff members may never have learned of the need there had it not been for the cancellation of a 163-meter suspension bridge project - one 15 students from Indiana Wesleyan University were to begin work on as part of a cross-cultural leadership training course last month.

Upon arriving a few days ahead of the students, staff members learned from a local government representative that the government organization Japdeva (whose initials in Spanish stand for “The Board of Port Administration and Economic Development of the Atlantic Slope”) had offered to fund construction of the bridge in Soke just after an EM setup trip to the site in December 2007.

“He said that, and it’s like, ‘Oh, OK,’” said John Barry, a volunteer contractor who oversaw the construction of a 53-meter suspension bridge in a Bribri village last summer. “We had to erase that whole plan in our minds. You just kind of hit the erase button.”

The Soke bridge had been frequently mentioned as a pressing community need - a 9-year-old girl was killed last year crossing the makeshift bridge there now - and EM staff members had hoped building it would provide inroads toward more solid, lasting relationships with Bribri community leaders.

As it turned out, there was no shortage of similar opportunities.

Bribri leaders asked the team to build a cement bridge over a washed out portion of the road to allow ambulances and banana trucks to pass. Residents, tired of the lack of vehicle access - and of soaking themselves every time they had to cross the washout - turned out in droves to help the team, volunteers said. At one point, Barry said, local contractors temporarily redirected a backhoe to help the team.

Additionally, students traveled to the village of Coroma, where a suspension bridge EM built last summer has led to the planning of a larger high school - something volunteer teams will work on this summer.

While the majority of the group worked on the automobile bridge and in Coroma, a small team of volunteers and EM staff members, including Executive Director Chris Clum, made the long trek to Alto Cuen, led by Bribri guides. They were the first Americans seen there since 2004, when residents said they saw two backpackers hike past the village.

After spending several hours in awkward silence - many of the residents there do not even speak Spanish, only Bribri - the team was able to break the ice and begin discussing the project with residents there.

Clum said the entire party was sympathetic to the urgent need for help there.

“You find yourself in an opportunity where someone is looking and praying for someone to help, and you happen to wander in and you’re the people who can meet that need,” he said.

Clum said he hoped that funds raised specifically for the Soke bridge could instead be used to fund the Alto Cuen bridge.

“They’re pretty stressed, and I can understand. They worked a third of a year to dig these holes, and there’s nothing more they can do,” Clum said. “I almost feel like we have to help them. The fact that we end up there and we’re they’re only hope - it seems kind of crazy. Why wouldn’t we?”

IWU leadership professor Dr. Bill Millard, who led the students to Costa Rica, experienced firsthand how dangerous the river can be when, crossing on an alternate route, he was swept away and pinned under a rock. Millard said he was nearly killed and would have taken his last breath underwater were it not for thoughts of his family.

“I thought it was over. To me, the only thing that saved me was God giving me energy,” Millard said. “This isn’t just a joke about these bridges being built. These are life-threatening situations.”

Barry plans to return to Alto Cuen in the coming weeks to spearhead the project there. He said he was struck by the resilience of village residents, who dug the 10-foot deep, 10-foot wide holes without a guaranteed method of getting concrete there.

“Suddenly right then I realized, holy cow, I have no faith at all compared to these guys who have put forth all this time and effort,” he said. “It’s nothing short of a miracle we were able to get up there and see it and be made aware of the situation.”

The most critical thing at this stage, he said, is getting the 10,000-pound concrete bases poured, as well as the pillars to support cables for the 110-meter span.

Barry said if they didn’t get it done, the setback would be devastating.

“Who knows if they’ll ever be able to get that much done again?”

For information on how to support construction of the bridge in Alto Cuen, contact Experience Mission at (360) 554-8060 or e-mail info@experiencemission.org.

For the 15 students from Indiana Wesleyan University who traveled to Costa Rica for a cross-cultural leadership training course last month, the collapse of construction plans ended up significantly enhancing their learning experience, IWU leadership professor Dr. Bill Millard said.

“Because of the fact that our laid in stone plans all fell through, it actually ended up making the course better for a study situation,” Millard, who led the students to Costa Rica, said. “Students really had to be involved in what we were going to do. Leadership really started to come to the forefront.”

EM staff facilitated the course by organizing basic logistics and a work project for the students. They had planned to begin construction on a 163-meter suspension bridge in the Bribri indigenous village of Soke. However, Bribri officials, having received government assistance for that bridge, asked the team to work on other projects.

The IWU students were heavily involved in deciding which projects they would work on.

“They had responsibility,” EM Executive Director Chris Clum said. “They made the decisions. We basically gave them the opportunity to kind of build the week and pursue the different opportunities. They ventured out on their own and forge some inroads that were pretty cool for them.”

Most of the students ended up working on a concrete automobile bridge, while others helped prepare the construction of a new high-school building in the village of Coroma.

Millard said the cultural immersion became complete for another group who hiked to the remote village of Alto Cuen.

According to Bribri tradition, first-time guests in a home must accept food or any other gifts offered them or they won’t be welcome in the home again. Millard said the students dutifully eight dozens of pejibaye, a starchy fruit slightly larger than a golf ball. The fruit’s taste, Millard said, is “somewhere between a potato and an artichoke.”

“When you’re done with that , you realize that was just the hors d’oeuvres,” Millard said. “Then they bring out the rice and beans.”

The students ate rice and beans - staple foods in Costa Rica, and especially on the Bribri reservation - three times a day. Millard said they planned to eat rice and beans during their final debriefing session on March 19.

Millard said the course, which gave the students one credit and satisfies the university’s cultural learning requirement, was a huge hit among students and is a go for next year.