Thanksgiving Without Family?

Thanksgiving without family is like a bird with no wings, a cheetah with no legs, an eagle with no eyes... You get the point. This being said, our friends from Cartago did as good of a job hosting two random Gringos (thats us) for this special time of the year as Aaron and I could have asked. As we were all sitting down at a large table with 10 people from Costa Rica, that I didn't even know a year ago, to eat turkey, dressing, green beans, NO RICE, pumpkin pie, etc., I began to think, "What am I doing here and why"? Then as we began to share what we were thankful for, I started to realize how truly special these "random" people were. Slaving over an unbelievably cooked meal, inviting us to join THEIR family to eat, and making sure that we feel super comfortable when we are there, are just a few examples of the love that they've shown us. Aaron and I are so truly blessed to be thousands of miles away from home during Thanksgiving, and still feel as comfortable as we did Thursday. Thanks again to Meyling for the incredible Thanksgiving meal (que rico!), to Costa Rican mami and pops and Kevin for the hospitality, and to Suling and Elaine for the fun times. You guys are great.




Friday, Saturday, and Sunday Aaron and I were separated once again. He went on a 2 day encounter trip with the church that lasted from Friday evening to Sunday evening, while I held the fort down back at home.

The encounter for Aaron was a good experience. He says that it was pretty much a seclusion from cell phones and internet that were replaced with Bible studies and quiet time. I use the words "quiet time" literally. Everyone that went on the 40 hour encounter was not able to talk the whole trip. The pastor told them, "you can talk all you want... just talk to God". So needless to say, this was a trip that seems to have brought a good many people closer to God.

I, on the other hand, stayed here and helped a preacher named Douglas move out of his old home and into a new one. Anyone that has ever had the opportunity to do such a task knows that this can be quite a nagging process. How my cousin does this for a living, I will never know. (quick shout out to Derek Mills and "SQUARE COW MOOVERS" out of Austin, Texas - It's "A MOOVING EXPERIENCE" : 512-401-MOVE)

Aaron came back on Sunday evening where the whole congregation met at the church to welcome back the "encounterers"... This was somewhat of a celebration with tears shed, testimonies shared, and lots of singing and dancing.

Monday night some of the youth, Cesar, Wendy and I went and sang happy birthday to a member of the church. You may remember this guy from a past post, his name is Pablo or Pablito, and he has such a heart for the Lord. He seemed to be super touched by the simple fact that we cared enough to show up and sing happy birthday. His humble home that could barely fit a dinner table and a fridge, hosted about 20 people for a great time.(the picture below is just outside his house; Pablito is the one holding the cake)

Yesterday (Tuesday) Dimas, Enny, Aaron and I went to Palmares to have some coffee and bread with a family that we know and to also have our English class. The coffee and bread was good but no where near as good as the view that this family has from their house (there are some pictures posted below).

The English class lasted for 2 hours and seemed to be very productive. The 5 students that we had were very interested and a lot of fun to work with.

Harvey, our new puppy, is a tough one to put up with but is a lot of fun at the same time. I feel like im preparing myself for toddlers. He is on about a 3 hour cycle of sleeping with 30 minute breaks of "you better play with me or im going to cry all night" time. It is fun though to have something new going on in the house. Scrabble and Pattycake just get a little too monotonous at times.

Welcome Home Harvey

Hey everyone. First of all, Aaron and I would like to apologize to the friends, family, and girlfriend for not updating the blog lately. The past few weeks have been pretty busy for us with coming and going to and from the U.S., a bike wreck, fishing trip, bible studies, Church services, English classes, etc.

I (Justin) went home for 10 days (8th-18th) to join my dad in a beautiful rut week to hunt Deer. I stayed at the cabin pretty much the whole week. Lindsey Mills, Ben Hobbs, Matt Attaway and Maggie were able to come over and spend some time with me and dad as well. Dad was the only one to kill anything the whole week. He killed about a 100 lb doe. I saw a good many deer including 2 8-pt bucks fighting over a doe about 60 yards from my stand. Neither one was a trophy buck, so i let them walk for hopefully another year. I also got to spend some time with the whole Mills side of the family on Sunday night at the cabin eating, playing cards, and of course breaking out a game of Scrabble, in which I unofficially won. (here is a picture of the plane breaking the clouds and finding the sun. This was on the way to Orlando from Atlanta)

About halfway through my trip I got a call from Aaron on Skype, and we got to catch up a little on what had been going on in Costa. We got a friend named Dauber to take my room for the week so that Aaron wouldn't have to stay by himself. Aaron informed me that he had a bike spill coming back from paying a bill in town. Aaron was coming down a hill that is really steep and always has water on it from a leak in the road, and a car was coming his way. Well he braked, and his tires slipped out from under him, in which he hit the pavement and the bike slid up against the oncoming car. To make a long story short, he ended up with 6 stitches in his chin, some rough scrapes on his arms and a 100$ charge for a new paint job on the car he hit. All this being said, he feels very fortunate to only have that happen to him. It was a very dangerous wipeout and could have been a lot worse. Thank the Lord it wasn't. (He gets his stitches out today)

During the week, Aaron was also able to enjoy a fishing trip to Playa del Coco (Coco Beach) with Dimas, Cesar, Gualberto, Henry, and Rony. He says that the water was incredibly beautiful, and that he had a lot of fun. One pretty funny story from the trip is that while they were fishing, Dimas threw out his line with sardine bait, and as soon as it hit the water a Pelican scooped it up, and Dimas had to cut the line. This happened twice. The second time it happened 2 Pelicans were fighting over the sardine, one swallowed it while the other got tangled up in the fishing line. First time I've ever heard of someone catching a Pelican, much less 3, on a fishing trip.

I returned to Costa on Wednesday the 18th. Thursday we had our routine Cell Group, which has basically just turned into a regular bible study now. One of our youth members brought the Word. His name is Ariel, and you may remember him from the river excursion that we went on earlier in the year. He did a great job, and it was really good to see one of the members of the youth step up and do what he did. Not only that, but 18 or 19 show up to the bible study which is more than we have ever had. Afterwards we celebrated Catherine's birthday with Costa Rican ice cream and pound cake. If you would, continue to pray for this youth group and our leadership.

Church Sunday was great. The music was better than I think I've ever heard it, and Dimas' sermon was quite eye-opening as well.
After the service, a lot of the church members, mainly youth, went out to this open field, made 3 teams of 7 players, and played some soccer. This kind of stuff really allows me and Aaron to get to know everyone a little bit more.

The dog that lives with Dimas and Enny had puppies about 4 weeks ago. Aaron and I are going to take one to keep here at the house with us. We have named him Harvey, (from Last Chance Harvey) and we are really excited about having a bilingual dog.

We don't have too long until we both go home for Christmas. Aaron is going to try and go home on the 8th to visit a Seminary school that he hopes to attend in the future for about 3 days in Chicago. Then he'll be at home in Tifton around the 11th. I am going to wait on the Mission Group from the Voice of Truth (my dad's church), which is coming on the 12th, and we are going to have our 6th or 7th Bible school with the kids here in Alajuela. We are also going to build a "youth room" so that the youth will have their own separate place to hang out and have bible studies. I think my dad is bringing 26 or so people, which will be the most that we have ever had. The dates for this trip is the 12th-19th, and then we will be going back home for the holidays.

Please continue to keep us in your prayers; the youth group here, the mission group that is coming, mine and Aaron's ministry, and so much more...

Family from home...

Hey Everybody,
Within the last two weeks Justin and I have had some serious company from the States, which has been awesome. Ashtyn and Maggie arrived on Friday, Oct. 9 and stayed until Tuesday, Oct. 13. It was so good for me to get to see my sister and I know for sure that Justin enjoyed getting to see Mag-Attack. Right after they arrived on Friday, we went to eat at a friend's house (Carli...aka Papaya, and his wife Magali) and it was wonderful- rice and beans, beef, and salad. That evening the girls got to be apart of our Friday night cell group bible study that meets at our little house. Some of the girls in the bible study surprised Justin with a cake to celebrate his birthday while Mags and Ash were here. The cell groups are so cool- each Friday night the church members meet at someone's house and basically review the sermon from the past Sunday and go more in depth with it.

The next day we all went to take the girls to San Jose and see the big city. We also met up with our friends from Cartago while in the capital. On that Saturday night we had a band come to the church to do a concert for the youth. The band's name is Radicales51 and they are from El Salvador. The concert was awesome and especially the message afterward...just a good time with the youth and some sweet tunes (Thank you Liz).

On Sunday the girls got to go to church with us, then we went to check out these unbelievable water falls at a place called Los Chorros. The falls were probably about 100-120 ft tall...another sweet spot in Costa.

Monday we all just relaxed and chilled and took it easy...took the girls on a little bike ride. It was nice to have the girls around and to play some Scrabble and to be with family. Justin was oober-giddy to have his lady friend around for a few days. I don't think he stopped smiling for those 96 hours.

After Mags and Ash left on Tuesday, my mama and Aunt JoJo arrived on Thursday evening. I actually got to preach at the church in Alajuela right before they arrived, which went really well, Praise God. Its pretty cool Dimas has been giving me the opportunity to share with the church and preach. The next day, Justin, Mama, Aunt Jo and I went to San Jose and met our friends from Cartago to eat and do some shopping. We then went back to Cartago where we stayed the evening. Upon arriving in Cartago, we went to the orphanage (which actually isn't an orphanage, but only a couple who has adopted 32 or so children). Mama and Aunt Jo got to talk and pray with the mother and ask her how it is that she and her husband support so many kids. She said it was "by God's grace". Most of the children there come from some type of abusive situation, so it is awesome to see this couple that shows so much love. I was glad mama and Aunt Jo got to meet our friends from Cartago, who always show some serious hospitality to us.
(This is a picture of just a few of the kids in the BIG family.)

On Saturday morning, we went to an outdoor fruit and vegetable market in Cartago after eating a typical Costa Rican breakfast at our friend's home. Justin and I had agreed to cook the meat for a church member's birthday party that afternoon, so we took it on back to Alajuela around lunchtime. Upon arriving at Martita's house(the birthday girl), we noticed that the grill they had for us to cook on was just a car rim laid sideways with a grate on it. So we went back home and grabbed the normal charcoal grill and then went to work. It all turned out well, Praise God. Before mama and Aunt Jo left we were able to go to church in Palmares and Alajuela, and also eat a nice meal out (thanks Aunt Jo!). So nice to have the mammy in town...

As for what Justin and I have been doing lately, we are continuing to teach the English class each week in Palmares, as well as teaching the discipleship class for the youth there. The English class is getting more and more fun each week as the students are beginning to progress. Dimas has also asked me to teach the Adult discipleship and Justin the youth a time or two when he wasn't able to go because of commitments at the church in Alajuela. On these occasions, it has been challenging, but also rewarding. We also are continuing to work with and spend alot of time with the youth at the church in Alajuela. We are also playing just enough soccer to be reminded of the fact that we need to improve our skills.

(Top picture is a picture of some of the youth group in Palmares... The bottom picture is a picture of the whole group; most everyone attends both the English class and Bible study)

The Good Samaritan

This past week has been an adventurous one. A week ago from today (last Saturday) we were on our 2nd day in Playa Coyote (Coyote Beach) with the youth group (yes we consider ourselves to still be youth). This was a great experience. Aaron and I got to know the youth a lot better, which was something that both of us were wanting to do. There were 21 youth plus me, Aaron, Wendy, Cesar, and Enny on the trip. We spent most of our time riding the ginormous waves of the Pacific ocean on an air mattress; one of the best times I've ever had. We would put as many guys on the air mattress as possible, take on the biggest wave we could find, and hope for the best. When we didn't have the air mattress, we would try and body surf the waves while teaching Dauer, one of our good friends, how to do the same. Other than playing in the ocean, we also had nightly devotions as a group. Every meal was rice and beans with the exception of Saturday night, when Aaron and I cooked everyone a hamburger and a hot dog. Overall this was one of the most exciting yet productive trips that we have been on in Costa Rica. The video below is from the top of a mountain on the beach. Aaron and I hiked up it with a guy that lives on the beach. No this video is not fake...









This is a picture of the whole group that went to Playa Coyote.

This is a picture of the beach during sunset from our campsite.

This video is of Cesar trying to hit a ball thrown by Aaron with a bat that he brought from home. Cesar always acts like its the easiest thing to do, but I have 7 videos of him unsuccessfully trying. This is the 6th, and as you can see he was getting pretty frustrated. He is a comical character...






We also got the chance to go to Cartago again to see our friends. We really enjoy their company. Also it allows us to get out and see more of Costa Rica than just Alajuela. In Cartago we were able to enjoy our first Scrabble game in Spanish. The game itself is not called Scrabble, it's called Intelect, yet its exactly the same only with Spanish letters. Just so you know, Scrabble is a very big part of both mine and Aaron's family, so this isn't just another game. I don't quite recall the winner of the game that we played (ok ok, Aaron won).

We returned from Cartago on Thursday night around 6:00 just in time for church service at 7:00, in which Pablo preached. Pablo is a very cool character. He is just a regular member of the church with a very Hip Hopish style that absolutely loves the Lord. It was awesome to see the support behind him, as well as the passion for Christ in Pablo's heart.

On Friday (yesterday), Diego, a 14 year-old youth member of the church here at Agape, invited us to go with him, Ariel, and Harrison to some swimming hole down some river. Not knowing all the details, Aaron and I whipped up some PB&J sandwiches, a Bubba Keg of lemonade, and threw it all into my book bag. We started out on bikes for about 2 miles or so until we reached Harrison's aunt's house where we left the bikes. Then we walked just about another mile down a railroad track and through a cow pasture until we arrived at some river down in the bottom of this deep trench-like area. The river was extremely pretty with the exception of random trash and clothes floating here and there. The littering fine is not quite as enforced here as it is in the U.S. We walked down, through and around this river passing by small waterfalls and cascades until we reached the swimming hole (this was about a 2 and 1/2 hour hike). Once we got to the swimming hole, we ate our sandwiches and then began playing like the 14 year olds that were accompanying us. This was a ton of fun until me and Aaron realized that it was 4:30 and it gets dark at 5:30 in Costa Rica, and that we were in the bottom of a river in a jungle-type area (in Costa Rica) with no way out but the way we entered (tough to understand i know, but this is the truth). So with anacondas and serpientes (snakes) in the back of our mind we began to high-tail it back up the river. Thank the Lord, we made it back to the top of the river just before dark. I have some videos and pictures attached.










Once we got back from the River excursion, we had to get ready for a bible study that we were having at our house. This bible study is a part of the church's "50 Days of Love" theme. Aaron and I said that we would host one of the 11 cell groups that are going on throughout the area that we are in with the members of our church. Although only 3 people attended other than Aaron and myself, the bible study went very well. It was about the Good Samaritan and how we should care for others. One of the main points was "Kindness is an action of love".

Arrive on time...

Hello again. It has been quite awhile since our last post so we will try to update as best as possible. Praise God things have been going well. Justin and I have been pretty busy lately...yesterday (Tuesday) we gave an English class at the church in Palmares before the discipleship classes. So many people here want to learn English and everyone is always asking us to teach them English so I believe we are going to start doing that class each week. We started with the basics: the alphabet, pronunciation, and general salutations. It was a lot of fun and I believe the 'students' really enjoyed it. After the English class, Justin and I taught the discipleship class for the children and youth. This week we had more kids than youth, and we were both amazed at how well they listened...it was interesting- we were talking about the story of the Ethiopian eunich and Philip, and it just so happened that a kid named Felipe (Philip) was there...he payed attention really well.

The church started on Sunday a campaign called "50 days of love". During this time the pastor is preaching and emphasizing the importance of love in our lives and walk. One cool thing that is going to be happening during this time is that different members of the church are going to be opening up their homes for cell groups to meet in different areas of the city during the campaign. I am thinking that is going to be pretty exciting.

Justin and I were also able to get out of Alajuela last week and visit some friends in Cartago for a day or so. One of my good friends, Spencer Young, has a cousin who lives in Cartago, and we were able to take a bus there to visit him and his wife's family. They were a super-hospitable family who took us around Cartago (Cartago used to be the capital of Costa Rica). It was a good time. One of the highlights was getting to visit an orphanage where this couple has taken in 35 children. Most of the kids have come from difficult pasts, so it was cool just to go and play with these kids and love on them. Below is a picture of some of the 35 kids and also a picture of our friends in Cartago.

Another comical event that happened last week was when a family from the church in Palmares invited Justin and me to come eat at their home, along with Dimas and Enny. The family is from Colombia, and had planned a traditional Colombian meal for us. We were supposed to arrive at their home at 12:00 to eat, but due to the fact that we are in Costa Rica and life doesn't happen on time, we arrived at their home at 1:45 (Actually one of Dimas' brothers-in-law came to visit, who lives in another state, so we couldn't really just leave right when he got here). Upon arrival, the lady started kind of going crazy and talking about how she had been trying to call us and how she thought we weren't coming. And since she couldn't get ahold of us by phone, she invited the neighbors over to eat the meal!!! So we apologized and waited while she made some more rice and beans and this awesome salad. Even though we missed out on the meat, it was still a great meal.

Please pray for Justin and me as we are down here. Please pray for the youth from the different churches, as we work the most with them. Thanks!

Caminando con Dios

This past week has been one of the busiest weeks of our trip. We have begun working more in the clothing shops (las tiendas).

Tuesday we spent the day at the warehouse/shop making clothes racks and sorting clothes.

On Thursday we got up at 5:30 and left by 6:15 or so to head on a 2.5 hour trip to Puntarenas to open a new shop, which makes a total of 6 shops now! Puntarenas was an different type of place. It was much hotter, and the city itself looked older and not as developed as Alajuela. As we were pulling into the area where our shop was located, the oil pan underneath the truck busted while Cesar was driving over a big dip in the road. We parked the truck right outside the shop, took a look at the spill and began to collect jugs to catch the leaking oil. After we collected it all, we began unloading clothes, racks, and coat hangers from the truck. Once every item was in the store, we assembled the clothes racks and started hanging clothes. Henry and Cesar found a mechanic to repair the truck, and we left around 5:30.
We got back home late for church at 7:15 or so.

Last week Aaron was asked by Dimas to preach at the Thursday night church service, and he did so. He preached about our walk with God, and it went really well. I have videos, but they are too long to download on here. So a picture will have to do for this one.

Also this past Tuesday night we invited Cesar, Wendy, Rony, Mauricio, y Martita to eat at our house for supper. This was a ton of fun. Cesar is one of the funniest people i have ever met. Maui and Martita are super sweet, and it was a lot of fun cooking for them.

Today Mexico and Costa Rica played, which had a super bowl atmosphere. The front page of the newspaper yesterday had a Costa Rican player on it, and titled above was "We are going to war". Costa Rica just lost 3-0, and everyone is super bummed.

Sik Wit It

Well, it has been at least a week since our last blog and a lot has gone on. We will start with yesterday and work backwards. Yesterday (Tues.) I went to San Jose with Pastor Dimas to buy the materials for a campaign that will take place at the church in Alajuela called 50 days of Love. In the afternoon, Justin and I went to Palmares with Dimas for their Tuesday night Discipleship service. Justin and I were able to give the discipleship lesson with the youth (jovenes). Considering the youth that had been at the church during other services, I thought we would have about 5 or so in the group, but we ended up with about 10 or so...the youth's ages varied from 2 years old to 27 years old! It was definitely a good time...we are looking forward to next week.

On Monday we got up early (5:30) and set out to go fishing in the gulf on the Pacific side of the country...we got the boat onto the trailer we made last week, only to find out that it was set a little to low and the boat rubbed the tires whenever we hit a small bump. We ended up driving about an hour to Palmares where we stopped at a Mechanic shop that one of the church members owned there. We basically worked on the trailer for a few hours and hung out with that family (the car shop was beside their home). The hospitality they showed was amazing to us as we waited. After a few appetizers of some kind of grilled bread, we feasted on this chicken and rice dish that was unbelievable...the woman who made the food had no choice but to be a good cook as her name was Iris! After finally getting the trailer fixed, we arrived to the gulf in the afternoon and started fishing....we probably caught about 15 or so salt-water catfish before heading home around 9:00pm or so. It was fun just to roadtrip it with the family.

On Sunday, we once again participated in the church services at the two different churches. Justin had been working all week on putting all of the songs onto a new program called "Easy Worship 2007" to have the words for the congregation and was able to have a few songs ready for the service Sunday morning.

One of the highlights of last week for me was one day when Justin and I took Enny and Wendy to the town square in Alajuela for them to buy a few things they needed. As Justin and I waited for them as they shopped (I was hoping that the whole guys waiting while the women spend endless hours shopping was going to be an avoidable evil upon coming to Costa Rica, but I believe that is a worldwide phenomenon), there was a guy on the street who was obviously homeless. To make a long story short, I was able to show him some love simply by treating him as a human and listening. He is a 25 year old alcoholic who is broken and humbled. I was thankful to be able to meet him and tell him that I would be praying for him and that I would ask my friends to pray for him. His name is David Perez; please pray that God would grant him repentance in Christ and free him from this stronghold of Satan on his life.

Another highlight of the week included eating at Cesar and Wendy's house on Sunday evening. She made a chicken lasagna with white sauce that was super good...as if that weren't enough, she followed that up with a chocolate cake! It was great just to be invited to their home and to eat...we finished up the night with a healthy soccer match which ended with a controversial 12-11 victory by Justin's team (bad guys) over the good guys (Aaron's team).

Aaron and I also had the opportunity to put our cooking skills up to the test on last Saturday. Enny was out of town for the day, so Dimas figured it would be beneficial to him, since he doesn't cook or do anything that is done in a kitchen, to ask me and Aaron to whip up a lunch for him, Wendy, Cesar, Rony, and one of Dimas' friends, who was a pastor also. We ended up cooking our specialty (grilled chicken, steak, and sauteed vegetables). The whole meal was a success, and the time spent together was very memorable. We have posted a video below that shows Dimas singing "Open the Eyes of My Heart, Lord" in english... Listen for Cesar's reaction afterwards... We hope you enjoy...(people in this video: Pastor Dimas, Cesar, Wendy, and Rony is in the back)





Also posted below is a video of Cesar and what he thinks of his soccer skills. Pretty hilarious if you ask me, although it is very true...