Notes from Charles’ January, 2006 trip to Costa Rica

As most of you know I was in Costa Rica from the 11^th – 23^rd of January. There were three specific purposes for the trip: First, to zero in on a location for our base/home; second, to refine the vision for ministry by looking for and at specific opportunities; and third, to attend the wedding of a young missionary candidate who I helped disciple over the last year and a half.

Before going into specifics perhaps it would be helpful to start with the larger picture and then focus on particulars.  As it relates to our overall vision, we see three components: We see the base/home (“the base”) as a location to draw the community in by providing work, worship, schooling and health care. Through the base we would be able to go out into the community as we host mission trips.  Finally, at the base we would help train frontier missionaries who would then go out into the world. As you know, we have been praying about where to set up this base. After much prayer, multiple trips and consultation, we believe that the northwest section of Costa Rica (Guanacaste Province) would be well suited for our three stated purposes.

On the last page are two maps. The smaller inset is a country map of Costa Rica, while the larger is an expanded view of Guanacaste Province. I have marked both to help document the trip.

Again, the area that we are interested in is Guanacaste Province. I spent the first 5 days looking at potential sites for the base in this area. Guanacaste has a dry tropical climate with a look and feel that varies from the locally wet pacific cost, to the seasonally wet/dry middle section to tropical as you reach the eastern extreme. This latter section is marked by a series of volcanoes of up to 6,000 feet and is actually the continental divide. The Province has a dozen or so major towns with an overall population of about 250,000 people. However, most of the area is still farmland, principally cattle, rice, sugarcane and oranges. There is a new international airport in Liberia (#2), which would make mobilizing mission trips very easy. The area that we have been focusing on right now for the base is marked #1. This is near an area of cattle farms and orange groves. Of particular appeal are the built-in ministry opportunities with the migrant workers and to the nearby towns which also supply labor. To give you a sense of distances, the location marked #1 is only ½ hour by car from the border with Nicaragua and about 1 hour from the new airport. Sarah will be returning February 12th to explore this area further. We could use your prayers about a specific property near #1 that I found appealing. Locations #2 and #3 indicate nearby short term ministry opportunities, with the former being a church in Liberia which has hosted teams in the past and the latter a church near Fortuna which hosts a small summer camp for kids.

The next segment of my trip took me from Guancaste to the central area of Costa Rica, #4, which is in the coffee producing region. Here in the town of Santa Maria de Dota I met the Guaymi. These indigenous people are the migrant workers who pick the coffee. They live near the border with Panama and arrive in December with 2,000 men, women and children for the 4 months of harvesting. From a distance they are pretty in their colorful native garb.  But, up close they are a mess; open sores, festering wounds, scabies etc.  And these are the things you can see. Stay a few days and you see that not all of them can work and they are homeless, and after payday the insidiousness of alcoholism shows itself. All this is to say there is a huge ministry opportunity. We have been asked to join our missionary friend Dr. Frederico Randolf in putting together team(s) for the next season starting this coming December. The hope is to have teams of Doctors and Dentists to provide some basic medical care. Over the longer term the goal is to provide housing and start the process of sharing the gospel. This opportunity is particularly special as we get to work with a man (Randy Sperger) who we truly respect; we have been invited to be involved; we are getting in on the ground floor; and we get to work with indigenous people who are some of the least reached in terms of the gospel. Lest we kid ourselves that this will be easy, I met a young woman yesterday who was sharing with the students at Covenant School tales of her time in Costa Rica over the last two years. We were comparing notes and I told her about the Guaymi. I was telling her about some pictures I had taken and how the Guaymi were pretty until you got up close…She couldn’t believe I got them to let me take pictures. She said they are hard and cold and told me good luck working with them! At least they are not luke-warm!

Next I spent two days with the Maleku Indians. They live on the eastern side of the Continental Divide in a region not far from the base of the Tenorio Volcano, as indicated by #6 on the map, and is about 2 ½ – 3 hours from the area we are looking to establish a base. What was once an area of virgin rain forest has been stripped bare, a process finished by loggers but one that began almost a hundred years ago by Americans who forcibly took the rubber trees that once grew here. What is left is a small mainly treeless reservation for the approximately 1,000 Indians that still survive. We have been asked to help find resources for reforestation and micro-enterprise development. This could provide a platform for outreach including VBS. For all those who are wondering how we might serve the Lord when we get really old I need to tell you that in one of the Maleku villages there was a US based short-term missions team helping one of the churches with some repair work. There were about two-dozen of them working very hard mixing cement, carrying cinder blocks etc. My guess is the youngest one there was 70! The other story of interest is that once a year the Maleku hold their annual fishing festival. The whole tribe makes the trek to a nearby river where the women stretch their nets across the river and walk forward beating the water with sticks as they go. The goal is to get the fish into the shallow water where the men are waiting to catch them. The harvest provides food for months. I have been invited back to participate, which I would love to do. The catch is that the river is full of crocodiles so you have to be careful. If it gets too rough I can head back towards San Jose to the Christian summer kid’s camp (#5), which I passed on the way to the reservation. Anyway, more on this if I survive.

As for the wedding, a couple of words: wonderful, special. I pray that God will put more young men in my life to disciple and that He puts many young men and women in our ministry for Sarah and me to disciple.

Blessings to all,
Sarah and Charles Kaye