Living Outside The United States...

Well, it’s been just about just about six weeks since we were picked up by Chuck Dunnavant at Ron and Sherry Worthington’s home and taken to the airport for our flight to Liberia, Costa Rica.

 Now it is important for me to say a few things.

 Retirement is really settling well with me.  So far, I feel like I’m on an extended vacation.  Sometimes I feel like I should be preparing a sermon or making calls or attending meetings, but mostly I’m enjoying putting each day together without much thought being given to the following day and pretty much just doing stuff that needs to be done and investing time and energy in some shared projects with Josh.

Further, my health is much better than I expect or deserve.  Either Josh or Colleen and I take a demanding walk nearly every morning.  My weight is down from 206 when we arrived to a pretty trim 198 this morning! (3 more lbs. and I’ll try to maintain!)  Overall, my sleep habits have made some good adjustments.  Those of you who know me well know that I have not historically been a good sleeper.  Last night was an example of a positive change that has come over me.  Colleen and I had our prayer together at about 9:30 PM.  Within seconds I was asleep and don’t remember moving a muscle until 4:39 AM this morning.  Frankly, I would prefer to sleep until 6:00 AM, but, hey, I’m not complaining.  “Refreshment!” is a good word to describe the effect of this season on my life.  By 6:30 AM, Josh and I were on the road for that 3 mile walk.  Fabulous!

The main “extra-curricular” activity that has occupied lots of my time is bird and nature watching.  I’m sure other more spiritual foci will come to me in due time, but for this particular season, I am thoroughly enjoying the “nature circus” that Costa Rica provides.  I would say the word “kaleidoscope” somewhat describes each day here.  At this moment the butterflies and hummingbirds are working the flowers on the perimeter of our property.  Yesterday was an amazing visitation of parrots and toucans!  As a sidelight, a couple of unusual iguanas were, ahem, occupying the same limb of a majestic palm tree just on the other side of our pool.  This morning as Josh and I came up the lane on our way home, a drop-dead, gorgeous, blue morpho butterfly emerged from the jungle on our right and flew up the trail ahead of us.  I’m still trying to get my mind around the fact that a little body can flap those wings and determine direction.  The wingspan of a blue morpho is easily the size of my hand!

And, let me address the spiritual side of this before I hit on the main focus of this blog.  I’ll be up front with you and tell you that my spiritual energy and supply had hit somewhat of a low point entering in to this retirement time.  It’s a strange thing, but maybe the best way to say it is that there was a pretty big gap between what I wanted to see happen in and through my ministry and the actual, especially in the last ten years.  So, I was more than happy to see a major shift in my life happening with retirement, but not so happy that many of my hopes and dream were not realized. 

Would you like to know what has saved my spiritual bacon during this time of transition?  Sit down.  Fasten your seatbelts.  This is going to be heavy.  Heavy!  The Gospel According to Mark has been an amazing and thrilling re-introduction to the life of our precious and powerful Jesus Christ!  My habit in the past six weeks has been to read each chapter in the various versions on eSword (by the way, a valuable tool that every Christian with a computer and internet should, at least, check out! www.esword.com ) and just try to let it soak in.  This morning I am deeply affected by the impact Jesus had upon every person that came into contact with Him.  He truly was a people lover!  And, I am deeply impacted by the effect He continues to have on, well, anyone that will give Him half a chance!  He, still, is a people lover!

The other thing that has impacted my spiritual restoration during these six weeks…praise, worship, gospel music.  I’m a Southern Gospel aficionado, but pretty eclectic in my personal music tastes.  The lyrics of Phillips, Craig and Dean songs never fail to grip my mind and heart.  Janet Paschal songs are tender and thoughtful.  Hey, don’t leave out Mariah Carey’s Christmas album.  She has a beautiful voice for Christmas songs and I love praying for her at the same time I’m listening.  Michael W. Smith (many of you do not know this…my brother!) has a true gift for helping people like me put aside distractions and worship Jesus.  For me, this early part of retirement has been re-connecting with True North and beginning to strategize about what to do regarding the energy and other resources I have for the advancement of God’s Kingdom.

Okay…drum roll, please.  Here is the main purpose of this blog today.

It is possible that just about everyone reading this should give some consideration to spending time in a different country and different culture before they pack it in, buy the farm.  Hey, don’t tune me out here.  Give me just a few paragraphs to make my point.  If you can get past the next paragraph, I promise to be more inspirational for the entire rest of this writing!

Just my opinion, but I believe Christianity has become rather predictable in North America.  Please don’t be defensive.  I don’t have an ax to grind, just a point to make.  Somewhere along the line, many churches in North America have become primarily focused on making Sunday gatherings palatable and attractive to the most believers possible.  Thus, typical church has become a gathering of people who are set on having their needs met with little or no thought given to people who have not yet had the awesome experience of meeting Jesus personally.  Now, chew on that. 

This is not meant to “close the case” on my thoughts in the previous paragraph, but the church we are attending here in Costa Rica is a classic example.  Imagine a large typical Sunday School classroom.  That’s our church now.  We enter at the front, just off to the right of the pastor.   Ha!  Better not come in late!  The chairs are plastic deck-type chairs.  On our first Sunday at the Church of the Coast, we were well into the service when I felt the legs of my chair begin to spread-eagle.  Right there in front of God, the pastor, and everyone, your friend, Wes, went down.  Immediately I was surrounded by people exclaiming, “Are you alright?  Can I help you up?”  Of course I’m alright and I can get up on my own.  What do you think?  I’m an old man and need help, or something?  Ha!

The front of the church is store-front glass and at about the time the message begins, the glare off the windows of the cars parked outside hits people like crazy.  We sing from song lyrics printed on regular white paper and folded in half.  There are no musicians.  We sing along with recorded music. The pastor does not use a microphone.  The children sit in with the adults for half the service and then make a noisy, noticeable exit. 

I think it’s worth noting that people seem to develop expectations that correspond with what they’ve learned to expect.  Consumerism is both a blessing and a curse, isn’t it?  One of the things I love about settling into a small congregation meeting in a store front is the nearly total lack of presumptions.  Since we are pretty new to the scene, and they don’t know much about us, we get the privilege of kicking back and seeing what the Church looks like away from North America.

Mo and his wife, Vilma, are part of the congregation.  Mo is maybe five foot two, but one of the most delightful, loving Christian men that I have ever met.  He is a significant part of the church as he serves as one of the major translators in the services.  When we share our Sunday morning hug, the contrast in height is great, but there is no contrast in spirit, unless, of course, you include that he is teaching me much about lack of presumptions.

One of the neat, funny, things about the Church of the Coast is their total comfort with the nuances of translating.  Every Sunday the person who is translating the message into Spanish from English will pause, at which time people in the congregation will jump in to help getting the right word or phrase.  They cannot know it, but their friendly participation in helping everyone understand, is speaking to my spirit!

Two Sundays ago, Pastor Payton was waxing eloquent regarding our need to share what we have with the people God brings into our lives.  I can quote what he said, nearly exactly, “But folks we must be careful about giving everything away.  If word gets around town that we are giving everything away, we would likely come to church next week naked!”  Then there was the appropriate pause for the translation and then another pause as people absorbed what was a bit of a clumsy statement.  In that silent pause, a young man a couple rows ahead of us, no doubt entertaining his own thought process, erupted with slow and meaningful, “Hal-le-lu-jah!”  What a great light-hearted moment!  Fortunately, Pastor was close to the end of his message!

Alrina Alvarez graduated recently from Purdue University with a degree in Chemistry.  She recently gave her testimony about how God called her to minister in Uvita, Costa Rica.  Alrina is doing her dead-level best to advocate for the children of Costa Rica.  She told me that most of the kids who start school here will not finish.  Her goal is to be a piece the turnaround, not just for the church, but for the very future of this country.  Talk about dedication.  That lady could, no doubt, be in a high-paying job in the States.  Instead, she is in Costa Rica, living on nearly nothing and touching the lives of the next generation in ways that only God really knows about.

I’ll have more to say about this as we go along, but there is also a large and growing population of expats (people who have left their native country) down here.  My ministry participation down here has been slow, but I can tell you that God has placed it in my heart to do my best to reach out to and care for the expats.  We live in a thriving community of them and there is not one church in the entire community. (Ojochal)

What to do?  That is a good/great question.  For now, the answer for me is simply to be filled and still.  Does that make sense?  I desperately need to be so close to God that when the opportunity to love and care and share comes up that I am ready to step to the plate!!!

I hope you will give deep consideration to what I’m trying to say.  God wants to use YOU for the advancement of His Kingdom.  I know it is not impossible for you to be fruitful and productive right where you are, but I’m trying to speak to the hearts of people who need a change of setting and a change of associations for a time or for a life-time.  I can tell you that for us, something is happening.  We have a new and fresh awareness of the awesome possibilities of sharing Jesus with the world.

Pretty sure that it would be good to talk about finances for a paragraph before wrapping this up.  Our situation is skewed a little bit because we are living with and sharing expenses with Josh and his family.  However, what we are experiencing is, as far as living conditions is concerned, definitely upscale and we are staying well within our Social Security budget.   Additionally, we are currently looking into situations in other countries in order to be able to share the word with people who are considering the world of the expats.

Folks, this is a different world than any of us and, really, anyone in history, has ever experienced.  Things are changing, big time.  In my humble opinion, all of us should be learning all we can about this world in order to prepare for an interesting and uncertain future.

If, by any chance, the thoughts expressed in this blog have given you some thoughts about serving Jesus outside North America, please be in touch.  You can respond to this blog in the appropriate response setting, or, contact me on Facebook. 

One of my first memorized Scriptures was Acts 1:8, where Jesus says, “But when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you will receive power and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and throughout all the world!”

Want to hear (read) something crazy?  One of my prayers back in College was, “Lord, I will do anything and go anywhere for You.  You know I will.  However, let me interrupt this prayer to say that I’d surely prefer NOT to serve you outside the United States!”  Isn’t God’s sense of humor something else?!  Here I am a retired guy serving the Lord outside the United States and loving it like crazy.

And, I love you all.  Be in touch.

Friend,

Wes

My Most Memorable Fishing Trip!

I've had a lot of fishing trips in my life, because I love to fish.  In Alaska, I caught a 46 lb. King Salmon.  He was actually 43 pounds when I originally caught him, but he has grown over the years.  Hoping to live long enough that he will weigh in at 75 pounds.  Takes time!  Ha!  In Hawaii, thanks to Rick Robinson, I landed a 121 lb. (actual weight) yellow-finned tuna.  The day was long and the fight was hard, but I landed him and helped get him into the boat.  One glorious Alaska day, I caught a 90 lb. halibut while on a charter fishing trip.  Amazing!

Yesterday morning (Wednesday, 16th) I awakened at 4:00 AM knowing that another charter fishing trip was planned for my day.  I needed to be at the appointed location at 5:00 AM.  Actually, the alarm was set for 4:15 AM, but the old internal "fishing alarm" went off early. Call it pre-fishmatic functionality!  This was possibly going to be the trip of a life-time.  The dorados are biting off an island, I'd say 10 miles off the coast.  Can hardly wait.

Colleen had taken care of the food issues the night before and had it all in the fridge.   We also packed an extra pair of clothes, some mosquito/bug repellant and some sun block.  The food consisted of two tuna sandwiches (prepared in advance, but the bread and tuna mix were in different containers), two Snickers, and, two bananas.  All signals...go!

For some reason the first thing that came to my mind as I awakened was a church song from back in the 60's, "He [Jesus] is my everything.  He is my all.  He is my everything, both great and small.  He gave his life for me, made everything new.  He is my everything, now how about you?"  Little did I know that my faith would be tested and I would have a close encounter with everything I've said I believed for all these year, since giving my life to Jesus Christ at age eighteen.

We met at the appointed place and the appointed time for the beginning of our adventure.  Christian was there.  He runs the zip line tour for Osa Mountain Village.  Bob was there.  Bob is the biker dude and is developing a world class bike course at OMV.  Jeff was there.  That was my first time to meet Jeff.  Not sure that he has a connection with OMV, but he is a bike racer and just won a major bike race here in Costa Rica last week.  Mitch and Charlene were there.  They own property in OMV, are currently living in a tent on their property, but have plans to construct an upscale "container home" made from two forty foot containers with a covered courtyard in between.  Lisa was there, but I don't have much information on her.  I know she was with Bob and I know that she serves as a spokesperson for OMV.  Two deckhands were on the boat as well as was Jim, who is the President and CEO of OMV.

The first thing you need to know about this trip is that it started very pleasantly.  We motored down the Sierpe river.  Scores of exotic birds escorted us on both sides of the boat.  The sky was dark, but not threatening.  I was seeing a major display of nature that few people ever see.  Mangrove forests lined the river.  The exposed roots are called the "nursery" for a variety of species of fish.

The first deposit of distraction came when a gentle mist began.  Off to the west the clouds were dark, but who cares?  It's warm and surely a warm drenching would not harm any of us.  The way the weather works here in Costa Rica, the clouds would come upon us and then pass over.  The mist quickly turned to rain and it was a hard rain.  Finally, at the mouth of the river when things began to get a bit rough, Jim spoke up and querried us with "How do you all feel about continuing this trip?  We could turn around now and re-schedule for some future date."  There were various responses, but it came down to Lisa's response and she was firm in her desire to fish.  I could not have agreed more!  I came to fish.  Bring on the storm!

Crossing over the bar was rough but tolerable.  With a few miles to go on the open sea to reach our happy fishing ground, no one yet seemed worried or put off by the obvious discontent and turbulence of the ocean.  As we continued our westwardly progression, the winds picked up significantly, even severely, to the point where we were literally lifted off our seats and slammed back down when the boat hit the bottom of the trough.  Bob commented on one of the slams that it was a "Chiropractic slam!"  I'd had previous experience of being in storms in the Cook Inlet in Alaska.  Back then I was young and had serious confidence in the Zodiac boat in which Gene Bryner and I were being tossed about.  This time was different.  Our boat was fiberglass and not the kind that seemed constructed to take such a beating.

At the end of our trip (yes, we did survive!), the skipper said that we encountered 15 foot waves, very unusual for this area of the ocean at this time of the year.  We were surrounded by strikes of lightning and could hear claps of thunder.  I'd say that for awhile, we were in the midst of the storm!  The rain, hard rain, came sideways and drenched every thread of clothing on the entire boat.  The skipper stood at the steering wheel in the middle of the boat and was completely soaked!

Not everyone on the boat shared my faith in Christ.  A funny level of humor pervaded the conversation during the entire storm.  Profanity was the order of the day, with some exceptions.  One of the guys ventured, "What a time for me to have forgotten my [necklace] cross."  And at one point Jim did his best to get the skipper to call home base on an emergency phone to, at least, let them know to come and look for us if we did not call back in an hour.

That song just wouldn't leave me, "He is my everything!"  I don't want to over-dramatize this, but it ran through my mind several times that I'd not make it home.  Perhaps the kiss and "I love you!" I gave Colleen at about 4:30 AM would be my last.  Maybe Josh would have to go through the details of searching, identifying and making arrangements for the disposal of my remains, if found.  I know that sounds morbid, but it really was that bad.  We were all holding onto our seats and the sides of the boat doing our best to not get thrown out.

Just as the storm began to slacken, a cool breeze from the west delivered goosebumps to all of us.  I began to shivver and was overcome with nausea.  Hanging over the side of the boat I delivered the entire orange I had consumed on the way down the river.  I've never been one to get sea sick.  What an exception, but I was not the only one! 

I couldn't stop shivvering and then I remembered about the rain pauncho stored in my backpack.  The seriousness of the situation now turned from the turbulance of the ocean to the trembling in my body and it occurred to me that maybe the pauncho (thin plastic blast "jacket") could be helpful.  So, I stood up, removed my shirt, wrung it out, put it back on and pulled the plastic over and around me.  Folks it would be hard for me to believe that a thin silly millimeter of plastic could make such a difference.  I went from being very cool to being very, very comfortable.

It wasn't that we were out of trouble or that the waters grew calm and we  caught our limit.  No!  The water continued with a nasty churning and made it very difficult for us to have much enjoyment.  At about 10:00 AM, we conducted another vote.  Believe me, I was enthusiastic in my vote to head for the barn!  Actually, the vote was unanimous.  I should say that the ocean was far more cooperative on the way home.  The skipper revved the big Honda engine and had us on plane most of the way back to the river's mouth.

The trip back up the Sierpe was as entertaining as the trip down!  One major "Oooh, Aaah" moment was the sighting of a gigantic crocodile sunning himself on a sandy shore.  I did notice there weren't many swimmers in that area!

That's my story.

I rode back to the meeting place with Jim.  One thing I said to him was, "Lots of people watch 'Survivor.'  I definintely feel like I've been on one of their shows today!"  He agreed.  Reminded me of an insight I had a year and a half ago when I hiked the Grand Canyon with Dave & Linda McClung, "Lot's of people stand at the rim of the Grand Canyon and say they've been to the Grand Canyon.  I now say, 'No way!'  You haven't been to the Grand Canyon until you have walked to the bottom (Bright Angel Campground) and climbed back up!"  Dave and Linda would probably say, "You haven't been to the Grand Canyon until you've walked from the South Rim to the North Rim...and back!"

Anyway, just saying, adventure is where it's at.  But adventure with Jesus in your heart brings lots of love, joy and peace.  Peace in the midst of the storm.  As we headed back up the river, I honestly thought, "What an amazing parallel to life!  People go through perils and storms and trials and testing, but in the end...it's good to go home!  My dad is home.  My mom is home.  Colleen's parents are home.  And, it's good to live so that when our summons comes to 'go home' that we do so with this One Who is...our Everything!"

God bless you all!

Much Love,

Wes

PS.  No pics this time.  Am pretty glad I chose not to take my camera with me.  It, no doubt, would have taken a major bath and that would have put an end to picture taking!

Why Costa Rica?

Dear Family & Friends,

This blog is going to  jump around quite a bit, but I would like to primarily deal with the issue of why lots of people are choosing Costa Rica as a place to settle in retirement or as a home away from the United States.

First just let me say...Costa Rica is one beautiful place.  In my limited travel around CR I have found it to be a place of amazing beauty.  The easy part about writing of CR's beauty revolves around the fact that I am writing this from a table on our patio.  I simply have to lift my  eyes from the computer screen and I see an amazing array of jungle in front of me.  Here is my exact view.

Taken this morning while I was writing this blog.  That's my pool girl (Jamie) on the other side of the pool.

People pay huge bucks to vacation in such a spot as this!  Here is some information about our expenses so far.  Since we are splitting the cost of this home & setting with Josh and Jamie, our costs are very low.  Let me give you some specifics.  Our (Wes & Colleen's) monthly expenses: Rent ($600); Food ($200); Utilities ($125); Car Gas ($200); Taxes/Insur/Med ($300).  And, we have set aside a certain amount for tithes/giving.  I will keep you posted on this as I suspect the amounts will change as time goes by.

Back to the beauty subject.  It is difficult to view any area of CR and not see beauty.  One disclaimer...on our trip to the Panamanian border last week, we did see lots of potholes.  They were not pretty.  But, in general, this is an amazing place.  Costa Ricans and their government have a reputation for preserving natural beauty.  In the development of our property, we had to get permission to remove a specified number of trees!

Blue Morpho Butterfly picture...Taken by Josh this past Saturday.

We've seen howler monkeys in the wild, lots of parrots, lots of hummingbirds and lots of butterflies.  As a sidenote...and, lots of biting bugs. A few days ago, 21 scarlet macaws flew across the view I showed you above.  They were gorgeous.  We've seen lots of yellow-billed toucans and one white-billed.  This morning on our walk, Josh and I saw two blue morpho butterflys and one that was as big, but the wings were black except for a splotch of bright blue on both wings.  Every day brings some new discovery!

This just happened this afternoon as I was choosing pics to insert in this blog.  These two Yellow-billed Toucans showed up for their photo session!  Hard to know which pic to post!  One toucan has now flown away.  The one on the left is still up there by him/herself!  Like I say...always someting going on!

We've had time near and in the Pacific Ocean.  The water is simply amazing.  Both beaches we have visited were clean and the water was very warm.  I'm hoping to learn some things about fishing from the various jetties.  They tell me that the ocean offers a few different kinds of lobsters.  There is some annual festival down here where the lobster is served up in a variety of ways, but during the rest of the year people don't seem to pay any attention to it.  I would like to pay attention to it!!!

Mind you, I've only been here for just about three weeks, so consider this blog an installment.  I will have more and better information as we go along.  But, it's safe to say that lots of people come here for the beauty.  Other people come here for the the reduced cost of living.  And, I need to say pretty early on that the cost of living here is in many regards the same as it is in the United States. 

With conservation, we expect our utility bill this month to be in the $250.00 range.  Food prices seem to be about what they are in the States.  There are some exceptions, but in general, everything that has to be imported is as expensive, or more expensive, than it is in the States.  Gas at this point is about $5.00 per gallon.  We haven't looked much at clothing prices, but I'm told that quality is generally lower and prices are generally higher.  If you are tall and/or large, you (we!) are petty much out of luck  And no shoes in our size, at least for Josh and me.

These are just some things I'm learning as I settle in.

Another motivation I'm finding for people moving to CR is they simply want to get out of the rat race.  That is a good one.  It is nearly impossible to spend a day in the States without multiple reminders of the perilous times and the frailty of the system.  Life is just different here.  People tend to live their day to day lives without the hoopla of politics.  The information is available, but it just isn't given a high priority.  We spent some time last evening checking in on a recent edition of Survivor and the X-Factor.  It was fun, but not anywhere near the high point of our day.  The high point here revolves around relationships and the surrounding beauty.

One more thing.  Several people asked us if our motivation for moving to Costa Rica had anything to do with "end times."  The straight answer is...not really, but kind of.  We are not big on "end time" studies and scenarios.  On the other hand, something is obviously going on in this world that is different than anything I've ever seen or experienced.  It seems rational to give some thought to what to do in case of some world wide crisis, doesn't it?  My neighbor in Castle Rock was a Mormon and he was clear that they had an area of their home dedicated to emergency supplies.  Our family has and is giving consideration to being more prepared in this regard.

I've wondered what it would be like to be in a large population center and have a crisis hit.  Just think about it.  This isn't the main point of this blog, but it just seems to me to be something thoughtful people should consider.  If you have any control over where you would live in a time of national crisis, you may want to take some time to think about a...better location.  In some ways I think it is good to at least consider having some emergency supplies.

In future blogs, my promise is to keep you up-to-date on my thoughts as well as with what I'm hearing from other people.  My plan is to share information about opportunities here and in other locations that you may want to take a look at.

Have a great day.  As Hannity says, "Let not your heart be troubled!"  Oh, wait, that wasn't Hannity, that was Jesus.!
Peace,

Wes