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!
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
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