Costa Rica. Mi Corazon. Mi amor.

Tears fill my eyes as I type. I believe I left my heart in Costa Rica. Funny, we live in the land of plenty and a land full of churches and Christian resources yet it is still hard to see God. I travel to a different part of our world, a three hour plane ride from Houston and I see God. I see him in the people's eyes. They live in tiny, shack-like homes, dirt floors, empty shelves. And God is there. He is their in their everything. He IS their everything. He IS the only constant in their lives. When it is difficult to place food in their children's tummies and clothes on their backs, God is there. Sustaining them. He IS their Daily Bread.

I was blessed to be sponsored by our church to go to Tuis, a small sweet town in Costa Rica to serve families of children with disabilities. We working a a school that is only for children with disabilities. There are twenty-five of these schools in the country (of Costa Rica). The children are ages birth to 21 years of age. The most common disability at the school is Down's Syndrome. There is a lot of Autism as well. They attend school Monday-Friday from around 7am-3pm. It's really relaxed and the kids are beyond happy there. The focus, unlike here in the states, is activities of daily living (ADL's). The do work on academics, but that is second to the ADL's. They do cultural dance, crafts, job-skill tasks, therapy, social skills, and much more. It is a wonderful program and a happy school.

At the end of each day we would go into the homes of some of the students from the school. It was the most amazing part and the most difficult part all at the same time. It was wonderful to meet the physical needs of the families, but emotionally hard to see how much they did not have. Over and over the homes were empty of food and in need of basic items like clothing of the kids. And, over and over they were full of joy, love, and pride of what they did have and not concerned at what they did not have. A lump in my throat would come up each time I entered a "house" and saw that there was no plumbing, just a toilet seat to sit on, and pour water down to wash it out. No running water except for a spicket outside a hole in the wall. Dirt floors. Walls made of boards, warped, holes in them. Tin roofs. Rusting through. Not to mention the traitorous cliffs and hills these homes are built upon.

Location for the homes is key, thus the cliff-homes. Most families make a living with sugar cane farming. No easy job. The men and a lot of little boys hike to the sugar cane fields daily. Machete in tow and come home covered in suet and ash from the burning of the cane. Most of the women/moms do not work because of caring for the child with special needs. Many of them make a twenty minute or more hike to a bus stop every day to ride the bus for twenty or more minutes to the school. There they literally sit all day at the school and wait for the day to end because they do not have enough money to ride the bus back home and then back to pick the child up after school.

Its a hard life. But a beautiful one.

I truely feel that there is more being taught to me abould life, love, and God than I could ever have brough to Costa Rica to teach her people. Just as Christ fed the pepole before he taught them, we fed, clothed, and loved.

I will post again later, more pictures, more stories. I hope you are blessed though my words and photos.

"whatever you have done for the least of these, you have done for me"

Matthew 25:40

We are not is Kansas anymore! View from where we ate lunch on our way to Tuis from the airport in San Jose.

Mi amigo, nombre es Edwardo.


Students at work at Centro Educacion de Especial.

Amanda and I post-shite water rafting!

Tattooed my beer lables. Imperal Costa Rican Beer.

Melissa and I working en Educacion Fisico.

Mi amigo, nombre es David.

Dancing cultural dances.

Debbie and I trying to dance the cultural dances!

River outside of our house.

Working in the school.

Our Mission Team. Big hearts. Blessed to travel this journey with people who also believe our God is an accessible God who loves all people reguardless of disABILITY.

Working in the school.

Melissa, myself, and Ashley. My little leam who worked with the kids in the school.

Center of Special Education, school sign.