"May God be gracious to us and bless us..." Psalm 67:1a

After we landed in Costa Rica, it was really easy for me to spot the differences between the culture that I had been plopped down into and the culture that I'm familiar with.  While I am not a stranger to the Spanish language, it sounded so much stronger than it does in Texas.  The crowd outside of the airport doors with taxi drivers, families calling hello and weeping goodbye to loved ones, and the sheer number of people hanging around, not moving from their location was a little unsettling to me.  No one seemed to leave or arrive as we stood around waiting to be transferred to the Methodist Center.

I continued to be bombarded with differences as we traveled a few miles to where we would be staying.  The traffic was incredibly erratic and seemingly without regulation.  People were everywhere.  They lined the side of the streets, sat around in the public parks, and rode their motorcycles on the sidewalks to get around the slower cars in the street.  I'm not sure that we stopped at any of the stop signs as we traveled along the narrow road, but we finally did make it okay.  The first time I held the Costa Rican colones in my hand, I was shocked at the weight of their money.  At approximately 500:1 exchange rate, I was constantly having to check prices in order to figure out what things cost.  Eating beans and rice for EVERY meal was so strange (as was the hot dog we had for breakfast one morning).

The public park in Alajuela.  I never saw this park empty of
people while we were there.

One of the streets in Alajuela.  Notice the
gutters.  They are about a foot deep because
in the rainy season they get several inches
of rain over a series of days.

However, as the week progressed God began to show me a few things about Costa Rica and his own diversity.  I began to see fewer differences and began to see the similarities that I have with these people.  I saw the pride in their eyes as they talked about their children.  I heard their laughter when I told them a joke and they heard mine when they told me one.  I sensed the excitement of learning something new and then applying it to Bible study as we worked in small groups.  I felt the warm embrace of the little children when they came to VBS each day and felt so special when their screams of "Otra!" reverberated through the classroom after we had finished a skit and they wanted to see it again.

So one of the blessings that I received on this trip was simply seeing that even in the diversity of God's creation, we are still alike in so many ways.  We all need air, food, water, and shelter.  People need one another and enjoy being entertained.  The love that God has for people is made evident in so many ways.

Myranda with one of her girls.

After I got back to Wilmore, I stopped by the bookstore to get my books for this semester so I could start reading.  One of the first books due is one called "Same Kind of Different As Me" by Ron Hall and Denver Moore.  It is about a homeless man and a rich art dealer whose lives intersect in an amazing way. Towards the end of the book, Denver Moore states this about Ron and his wife, "...I worried that I was so different from them that we wadn't ever gon' have no kind a' future.  But I found out everybody's different--the same kind of different as me.  We're all just regular folks walkin down the road God done set in front of us."

This statement sums up one of the lessons I learned while in Costa Rica...they're the same kind of different as me.

Until next time...
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