Costa Rica has 5% of the species of animals and insects in the world, even though it only has 0.25% of the world's land! And we got to see many of those species on a guided walk we took through one of the national parks here near Manuel Antonio Beach on the western coast of Costa Rica. Words can’t do justice to the experience, so here are a few of the species we saw.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Written by Eric
One of the things I learned in Costa Rica is that tías are wonderful people. At least the tías that I met were incredible. “Tía” is the Spanish word for aunt and there were some awesome tías at the children’s home where we have been working this week. The tías serve as full-time housemothers for the group of 11 girls housed at this home on the outskirts of San José, the capital of Costa Rica.
Our task for the week was to repaint the whole outside of the home. The walls and iron work needed to scraped and painted, as well as the doors and facia. It was painted 7 years ago when the home was built by a church in Houston, TX, but the regular rains have taken their toll on the exterior. Here is what it looked like upon our arrival.
Bright orange was chosen as the main color of the walls, brick red for the doors and iron work, white for the underside of the facia and brown for the facia itself. The tías chose the colors. They are not exactly the colors I would have chosen but my role for the week was to paint, not really to question color choices! And so we painted! Four days of work by the 10 of us resulted in this:
Orange, red, brown, and white looks great together! What do you think?
On the final day as we were leaving the site, one of the tías was thanking us for the great work we had done and was moved by how beautiful it looked.
A bit teary-eyed she said to us in Spanish, “This home looked so ugly and I want the girls to have a home that feels happy and gives them hope….”
Now before you know what I said to her, you must know that what moved me so much all week as I was working was not how quickly the scraping went, not how well the painting got done, not how much it rains in Costa Rica, not the cows that would walk along the road everyday (once up the road in the morning and back again in the afternoon), not even how incredible the tías can make beans and rice taste each day, but what touched me the most were the smiles and laughter of the girls that were living in the home. These girls had all come from difficult situations but now were safe in a home where they were loved, fed, and encouraged. They giggled, they played, they loved attention, and they loved on us throughout the days we were there.
“…it looked so ugly but now it looks so beautiful! Thank you!” she said.
I said to her, “Your house could look far uglier than what you say it did when we arrived …..but what makes this home beautiful are not the coats of paint on the outside but the love that I see given and expressed inside this home. That is the most beautiful gift that could be given to these children. Thank you for everything you do for them. We love you for that and God does also.”
“Me gusta…Me gusta mucho,” (meaning "I like it, I like it so much") she said as she was hugging all of us.
No matter how the home looks on the outside, this is what makes this home beautiful….
Written by Eric
One of the things I learned in Costa Rica is that tías are wonderful people. At least the tías that I met were incredible. “Tía” is the Spanish word for aunt and there were some awesome tías at the children’s home where we have been working this week. The tías serve as full-time housemothers for the group of 11 girls housed at this home on the outskirts of San José, the capital of Costa Rica.
Our task for the week was to repaint the whole outside of the home. The walls and iron work needed to scraped and painted, as well as the doors and facia. It was painted 7 years ago when the home was built by a church in Houston, TX, but the regular rains have taken their toll on the exterior. Here is what it looked like upon our arrival.
Bright orange was chosen as the main color of the walls, brick red for the doors and iron work, white for the underside of the facia and brown for the facia itself. The tías chose the colors. They are not exactly the colors I would have chosen but my role for the week was to paint, not really to question color choices! And so we painted! Four days of work by the 10 of us resulted in this:
Orange, red, brown, and white looks great together! What do you think?
On the final day as we were leaving the site, one of the tías was thanking us for the great work we had done and was moved by how beautiful it looked.
A bit teary-eyed she said to us in Spanish, “This home looked so ugly and I want the girls to have a home that feels happy and gives them hope….”
Now before you know what I said to her, you must know that what moved me so much all week as I was working was not how quickly the scraping went, not how well the painting got done, not how much it rains in Costa Rica, not the cows that would walk along the road everyday (once up the road in the morning and back again in the afternoon), not even how incredible the tías can make beans and rice taste each day, but what touched me the most were the smiles and laughter of the girls that were living in the home. These girls had all come from difficult situations but now were safe in a home where they were loved, fed, and encouraged. They giggled, they played, they loved attention, and they loved on us throughout the days we were there.
“…it looked so ugly but now it looks so beautiful! Thank you!” she said.
I said to her, “Your house could look far uglier than what you say it did when we arrived …..but what makes this home beautiful are not the coats of paint on the outside but the love that I see given and expressed inside this home. That is the most beautiful gift that could be given to these children. Thank you for everything you do for them. We love you for that and God does also.”
“Me gusta…Me gusta mucho,” (meaning "I like it, I like it so much") she said as she was hugging all of us.
No matter how the home looks on the outside, this is what makes this home beautiful….
Written by Eric
Since I first heard about Lifetree Adventures, I was intrigued. Sponsored by the same organization, Group Workcamps Foundation, with which I work in the summers doing the Indianapolis Week of Hope and my construction camps, Lifetree Adventures is half mission trip and half vacation. They have international mission locations all around the world. Since I have done so much with Group and had heard so much about LTA, I decided that we should try it as one of our missions on my sabbatical. Costa Rica with Lifetree Adventures was our choice.
We arrived in Costa Rica this past Monday night and have been staying in San Jose at a Torch Bearers’ retreat center. Torch Bearers is an international Bible teaching school. Students who have finished high school come here for two years before college to learn the Bible and to experience mission work for the needy of San Jose.
Costa Rica is lush green, the temperatures have been cool during the day and surprisingly chilly at nighttime. This is the rainy season, so every afternoon we get a huge storm and every morning we wake up to a perfectly clear day. We are told that it is not unusual for it to be like this during their rainy season, which is May through October. Rice and beans and tortillas have been a part of most of our meals with some fruits and meats added.
We have done a variety of service since we arrived. Yesterday we served lunch to neighborhood children in the most under-resourced area of San Jose. The 3 meals a day that this church serves are the only meals many of the children of the neighborhood will get. We visited the church sponsored addiction rehab centers for men and women. At each of these the residents, while in recovery, are taught to use their abilities to serve the community. For instance, if a man comes in who needs treatment and who knows how to bake, he must use his baking ability to make baked goods to sell to the community to help support his recovery.
Our main work this week is working at a children’s home on the outside of the city. The home is for children without parents. Children stay there under the care of house parents as well as go to school in the building next door. We are painting the girls’ home Texas Longhorn orange and spending time teaching and playing with the children.
As I finish, let me close with a story that reminds me of the goodness and grace of the awesome God we serve:
At the men’s rehab center that we visited yesterday is a man who is now part of the drug/alcohol rehab program. Soon he will be turning 40 years old. Upon his being admitted to the program, he was asked when was the last time someone celebrated his birthday. He replied, “When I was 14 years old. Since then no one has cared about me.”
His story: He left home when he was 14 because he felt no support and love at home. For the next 26 years he lived on the streets of San Jose seeking to find meaning in life but drifted into heavy drug and alcohol usage. Only recently did he seek out the church rehab center and become part of the program.
With his 40th birthday approaching the residents of the center decided they needed to do something to celebrate his birthday. They made a strategic decision. What does a guy need who has not had a birthday party in 26 years? A big party. A really big party. A really big party that will make up for 26 missed birthdays.
His friends are now really motivated - motivated to make sure that he stays in the program long enough so they can all have this big bash. But more importantly, they want to make sure that he knows one thing - that he is cared about more than he can ever imagine - cared enough to make up for 26 years of feeling no love by anyone.
To me, there are few things that speak more of the good news of Jesus than a big blowout party given by a bunch of recovering addicts to show God’s love for someone who has not known love for 26 years. That is grace. That is love. That is the perfect care of our Father in heaven.
That is what God’s Kingdom needs to look like on earth!
Since I first heard about Lifetree Adventures, I was intrigued. Sponsored by the same organization, Group Workcamps Foundation, with which I work in the summers doing the Indianapolis Week of Hope and my construction camps, Lifetree Adventures is half mission trip and half vacation. They have international mission locations all around the world. Since I have done so much with Group and had heard so much about LTA, I decided that we should try it as one of our missions on my sabbatical. Costa Rica with Lifetree Adventures was our choice.
We arrived in Costa Rica this past Monday night and have been staying in San Jose at a Torch Bearers’ retreat center. Torch Bearers is an international Bible teaching school. Students who have finished high school come here for two years before college to learn the Bible and to experience mission work for the needy of San Jose.
Costa Rica is lush green, the temperatures have been cool during the day and surprisingly chilly at nighttime. This is the rainy season, so every afternoon we get a huge storm and every morning we wake up to a perfectly clear day. We are told that it is not unusual for it to be like this during their rainy season, which is May through October. Rice and beans and tortillas have been a part of most of our meals with some fruits and meats added.
We have done a variety of service since we arrived. Yesterday we served lunch to neighborhood children in the most under-resourced area of San Jose. The 3 meals a day that this church serves are the only meals many of the children of the neighborhood will get. We visited the church sponsored addiction rehab centers for men and women. At each of these the residents, while in recovery, are taught to use their abilities to serve the community. For instance, if a man comes in who needs treatment and who knows how to bake, he must use his baking ability to make baked goods to sell to the community to help support his recovery.
Our main work this week is working at a children’s home on the outside of the city. The home is for children without parents. Children stay there under the care of house parents as well as go to school in the building next door. We are painting the girls’ home Texas Longhorn orange and spending time teaching and playing with the children.
As I finish, let me close with a story that reminds me of the goodness and grace of the awesome God we serve:
At the men’s rehab center that we visited yesterday is a man who is now part of the drug/alcohol rehab program. Soon he will be turning 40 years old. Upon his being admitted to the program, he was asked when was the last time someone celebrated his birthday. He replied, “When I was 14 years old. Since then no one has cared about me.”
His story: He left home when he was 14 because he felt no support and love at home. For the next 26 years he lived on the streets of San Jose seeking to find meaning in life but drifted into heavy drug and alcohol usage. Only recently did he seek out the church rehab center and become part of the program.
With his 40th birthday approaching the residents of the center decided they needed to do something to celebrate his birthday. They made a strategic decision. What does a guy need who has not had a birthday party in 26 years? A big party. A really big party. A really big party that will make up for 26 missed birthdays.
His friends are now really motivated - motivated to make sure that he stays in the program long enough so they can all have this big bash. But more importantly, they want to make sure that he knows one thing - that he is cared about more than he can ever imagine - cared enough to make up for 26 years of feeling no love by anyone.
To me, there are few things that speak more of the good news of Jesus than a big blowout party given by a bunch of recovering addicts to show God’s love for someone who has not known love for 26 years. That is grace. That is love. That is the perfect care of our Father in heaven.
That is what God’s Kingdom needs to look like on earth!
Written by Eric
1. Have you ever had a flight attendant that wore sunglasses while tending his flight?
2. Do you think that would be good or bad news?
3. Would you ask your attendant why he was wearing the glasses or would you just go along like everything was normal?
Well…These sunglasses on our flight attendant raised the curiosity of the Lohes on our Continental flight from Indy to Houston on our way to Costa Rica. Our wanting to have some fun on the flight brought out 6 pairs of sunglasses from us (Doug and Karen Thornberry have joined us for this mission). An intrigued flight attendant smiled and stopped by our seats to find out who we were.
“We are going on a mission to Costa Rica,” was our reply.
“So that is why you have sunglasses?” he asked.
“Well sure. But sunglasses are not all that we have. We have…(Kristen starts to unpack her carry on bag at this point) we have ball caps, Emergen-C, an umbrella, a bag of little green men, 20 plastic cups and….”
He continued, “And other things?”
“Sure we have 175 beanie babies but they are in our check in luggage. (Thank you Kinsey for your donation!) We have 200 bars of soap, towels, baby wipes, jump ropes, sheets, soccer balls, etc., etc. (We would have been great contestants with Monty Hall and Let’s Make a Deal!)
Prompted by the weirdness of the contents of our many bags, the flight attendant returned a bunch of times to find out all of the details of our summer. He was intrigued by all the places we have been this summer and of all that we have yet to do. (We never got his name but if you are he and you read this blog, please leave us your name on the comment section of the blog so we can let everyone know who you are.) We loved talking to him. Maybe he will go on a mission trip too someday.
And you know what I learned? Sunglasses worn on the inside of a plane reduces the brightness of the sun there too, especially at sunset! He was a very smart flight attendant. Maybe we will see him on our leg back from Houston to Indy! And…maybe by then we will know his name!
1. Have you ever had a flight attendant that wore sunglasses while tending his flight?
2. Do you think that would be good or bad news?
3. Would you ask your attendant why he was wearing the glasses or would you just go along like everything was normal?
Well…These sunglasses on our flight attendant raised the curiosity of the Lohes on our Continental flight from Indy to Houston on our way to Costa Rica. Our wanting to have some fun on the flight brought out 6 pairs of sunglasses from us (Doug and Karen Thornberry have joined us for this mission). An intrigued flight attendant smiled and stopped by our seats to find out who we were.
“We are going on a mission to Costa Rica,” was our reply.
“So that is why you have sunglasses?” he asked.
“Well sure. But sunglasses are not all that we have. We have…(Kristen starts to unpack her carry on bag at this point) we have ball caps, Emergen-C, an umbrella, a bag of little green men, 20 plastic cups and….”
He continued, “And other things?”
“Sure we have 175 beanie babies but they are in our check in luggage. (Thank you Kinsey for your donation!) We have 200 bars of soap, towels, baby wipes, jump ropes, sheets, soccer balls, etc., etc. (We would have been great contestants with Monty Hall and Let’s Make a Deal!)
Prompted by the weirdness of the contents of our many bags, the flight attendant returned a bunch of times to find out all of the details of our summer. He was intrigued by all the places we have been this summer and of all that we have yet to do. (We never got his name but if you are he and you read this blog, please leave us your name on the comment section of the blog so we can let everyone know who you are.) We loved talking to him. Maybe he will go on a mission trip too someday.
And you know what I learned? Sunglasses worn on the inside of a plane reduces the brightness of the sun there too, especially at sunset! He was a very smart flight attendant. Maybe we will see him on our leg back from Houston to Indy! And…maybe by then we will know his name!
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
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GREAT RESULTS ORCHESTRATED BY OUR GREAT GOD – Saturday, July 17, 2010
Written by Eric
“If you can’t paint like professionals, then don’t paint at all you @#^&* kids,” she said to the crew.
Girls sobbing. Built-up frustration. Phone call to me, the camp director. Thursday afternoon.
“Eric, please come out to our site. We can no longer work here because our resident (she) is not at all thankful for the painting we are doing for her. In fact, she is downright mean and swore at us.”
I headed out to the site with an ongoing debate in my mind. When we serve Jesus by helping a resident with home repairs, do we need to have thanks and praise OR do we continue despite ridicule by others because we know that ultimately we are serving Jesus, not the resident? What do you think?
I arrive. The resident was on the phone. Her husband had been sick for weeks and was now hospitalized. “A tumor in his lungs,” came the word on the other end of the phone. She was quiet for a moment and then hung up.
“Tough news, huh? We will pray for you,” I said.
Now it was time to make a decision about what to do with a group of youth who no longer wanted to work for a resident because she was swearing at them. The youth who were working on her house were doing an incredible job painting and repairing her house. She, nevertheless, demanded 4 coats of paint on her house and was constantly looking over their shoulders as this crew of first time workcampers worked their hardest in the surprising heat of a Canadian week.
As director of the camp it is my responsibility to make sure that all of our campers have a good experience serving Jesus. I do not tolerate swearing residents very well. Granted she had reasons why the stress of her husband’s illness could have triggered her anger, but she had no right swearing at youth who were there to serve.
“I am going to move you to a new site,” I told the group. The girls responded with a quiet, “Yes!” I knew I had made a good decision. The group worked hard to finish as much work as they could that Thursday afternoon and I moved them on to a different site with a great resident who loved on them all day Friday.
I went back Friday to check on the angry resident. It is never comfortable walking back into a situation where you do not know what will be the reaction. She greeted me with somewhat of a smile and said words that only could have been orchestrated by God, “You know these kids. They are angels and I can’t say how much I appreciate what they did.”
Only God can orchestrate that. I told the kids back at camp what the work they did meant to her even though she was never able to share it. Though he may never read this great praise needs to go to Ralph, the adult leader on the site. He handled things so wisely!
Please pray for this resident woman and for her husband. Can you imagine how hurting one has to be inside in order to swear at youth who have come to paint your house? Gotta be great need there!
It was an incredible week. 58 construction projects including a 60 foot wheelchair ramp and a second story deck. Wonderful worship. 1,876 cans of food donated. I learned to speak Canadian, “eh”! A boys group from Jersey wrote a song about me - Kristen taped it for you. And God was honored by 374 lives serving Him for a week.
“If you can’t paint like professionals, then don’t paint at all you @#^&* kids,” she said to the crew.
Girls sobbing. Built-up frustration. Phone call to me, the camp director. Thursday afternoon.
“Eric, please come out to our site. We can no longer work here because our resident (she) is not at all thankful for the painting we are doing for her. In fact, she is downright mean and swore at us.”
I headed out to the site with an ongoing debate in my mind. When we serve Jesus by helping a resident with home repairs, do we need to have thanks and praise OR do we continue despite ridicule by others because we know that ultimately we are serving Jesus, not the resident? What do you think?
I arrive. The resident was on the phone. Her husband had been sick for weeks and was now hospitalized. “A tumor in his lungs,” came the word on the other end of the phone. She was quiet for a moment and then hung up.
“Tough news, huh? We will pray for you,” I said.
Now it was time to make a decision about what to do with a group of youth who no longer wanted to work for a resident because she was swearing at them. The youth who were working on her house were doing an incredible job painting and repairing her house. She, nevertheless, demanded 4 coats of paint on her house and was constantly looking over their shoulders as this crew of first time workcampers worked their hardest in the surprising heat of a Canadian week.
As director of the camp it is my responsibility to make sure that all of our campers have a good experience serving Jesus. I do not tolerate swearing residents very well. Granted she had reasons why the stress of her husband’s illness could have triggered her anger, but she had no right swearing at youth who were there to serve.
“I am going to move you to a new site,” I told the group. The girls responded with a quiet, “Yes!” I knew I had made a good decision. The group worked hard to finish as much work as they could that Thursday afternoon and I moved them on to a different site with a great resident who loved on them all day Friday.
I went back Friday to check on the angry resident. It is never comfortable walking back into a situation where you do not know what will be the reaction. She greeted me with somewhat of a smile and said words that only could have been orchestrated by God, “You know these kids. They are angels and I can’t say how much I appreciate what they did.”
Only God can orchestrate that. I told the kids back at camp what the work they did meant to her even though she was never able to share it. Though he may never read this great praise needs to go to Ralph, the adult leader on the site. He handled things so wisely!
Please pray for this resident woman and for her husband. Can you imagine how hurting one has to be inside in order to swear at youth who have come to paint your house? Gotta be great need there!
It was an incredible week. 58 construction projects including a 60 foot wheelchair ramp and a second story deck. Wonderful worship. 1,876 cans of food donated. I learned to speak Canadian, “eh”! A boys group from Jersey wrote a song about me - Kristen taped it for you. And God was honored by 374 lives serving Him for a week.
Well, we have attended two of the programs at the workcamp and delivered desserts to our Indiana three, but mostly we've been exploring around the area. We went to the "Lift-Off" last weekend which included a hot air balloon festival and the "Ontario's Strongest Man" contest. Those guys lifted all kinds of stuff and even pulled an eighteen wheeler down Water Street! (The trick was to see who could pull it the FASTEST!!) We spent another day at Upper Canada Village, a Conner Prairie type place where we visited a water powered saw mill, steam powered woolen factory, a grain mill, bakery, cheese factory, bootmaker, tinsmith, dressmaker, general store, tavern, printer, weaver, schoolhouse, wheelwright, blacksmith, and farm. (All 1866) Greta milked a cow with both hands, and we sung in two different church buildings (when no other guests were there.) The acoustics were great! We also took in a horse-drawn wagon ride, a horse-towed canal boat ride, and an 1866 "medicine show," The Traveling Tiltons. Since then, we've been picnicing and swimming in the St. Lawrence River a couple of times. Tomorrow we plan to venture to Ottawa (Canada's capital) and hopefully have a tour of Parliament.
Even if we hadn't done all these fun things, it was great being here because our B&B hostess, Trish, makes the BEST breakfasts in the WORLD!! We have really been pampered! If anyone needs a place to stay up here, we will give them her name!
Even if we hadn't done all these fun things, it was great being here because our B&B hostess, Trish, makes the BEST breakfasts in the WORLD!! We have really been pampered! If anyone needs a place to stay up here, we will give them her name!
Written by Eric
It is Wednesday afternoon, the middle of workcamp week here in Cornwall, Ontario. If you go as far east on the upper border of New York, then cross over into Canada, you will find Cornwall. It was a 15 hour drive from Indy and about an a 1 1/2 hour drive west of Montreal. Cornwall is a city of 46,000 people next to the St. Lawrence River. Though things have changed a bit now, a few decades ago the city was divided by the French speaking ones on the east side of town and the English speaking ones on the west side of town.
375 campers have the afternoon off and are either at the river, water park, a nearby city (Montreal or Ottawa) or shopping. It is time for a little relaxation, food, and an afternoon away from the week-long work. As for me, as the director of the camp, I am at the school staffing the office while the rest of the staff and workcampers are away.
As far as people here....We have 16 churches in attendance. One from Canada, others from Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Texas.
As far as our lodging...We are staying in a French Catholic High School. Here all high schools, whether Christian or public, are funded by the government. That is very different than in the states. This school's mission is "to teach students about Jesus Christ and about their French heritage."
As far as sleeping places for 375...By 5 pm last Friday we had everyone assigned to rooms in the school, some had air-conditioning and some did not. At 5 pm the fire department came by to "check" our rooms and told us that we had to reduce each of the rooms by 5-7 people to meet fire code. That caused us to wonder, "What will we do with 42 boys?" "Put them in the gym!" The only trouble was that the gym was not air-conditioned and 42 breathing boys make the gym even warmer. Oops, that should be HOTTER, not warmer. It was stuffy and extremely hot. What should we do?
As far as the facility guys...Rightly so the facility guys, custodians, were protecting their school from all of these students coming from all over. Only certain rooms were available. Only the front door of the school could be used for entrance and exit. No door could be left open to cool off the gym. That is how it was for one night. And then a very awesome thing happened. God moved some hearts. After walking through the gym on Sunday night with the facility people, after their experiencing the heat of a room with no doors open, God touched hearts. THEY started suggesting rooms where the boys could lodge. THEY decided that doors could be open. They have now all worked beyond their hours just to keep the facility clean for us. Today one of them rigged up a system in our non-airconditioned program auditorium for the cooler air to flow through the space. Go God!
As far as work...We have 54 sites that are painting, home repairs, and roofing whole houses. The most odd project is painting a Royal Canadian Air Force plane that is mounted in the town park. How many of you ever got to paint a jet?
As far as their currency...They have $1 coins called "loonies" because the coins contain pictures of birds, loons. They have a $2 coin with birds on them. Guess what they call them? "Two-nies." They are considering $5 dollar coins. Any guess what they will call them?
As far as food....Maybe the most unique food we have found here in Cornwall is POUTINE. Poutine is a combination of...are you ready?...french fries topped with cheese curd, covered in gravy. Delightful and of course, no calories at all!
As far as me...I am still sitting in the office waiting for dinner while the others are out. There is something beautiful about having some time to write and reflect. There is something good about having 375 high schoolers out of the school for just a little time this afternoon.
I pray your summer is continuing to be a great one for you.
It is Wednesday afternoon, the middle of workcamp week here in Cornwall, Ontario. If you go as far east on the upper border of New York, then cross over into Canada, you will find Cornwall. It was a 15 hour drive from Indy and about an a 1 1/2 hour drive west of Montreal. Cornwall is a city of 46,000 people next to the St. Lawrence River. Though things have changed a bit now, a few decades ago the city was divided by the French speaking ones on the east side of town and the English speaking ones on the west side of town.
375 campers have the afternoon off and are either at the river, water park, a nearby city (Montreal or Ottawa) or shopping. It is time for a little relaxation, food, and an afternoon away from the week-long work. As for me, as the director of the camp, I am at the school staffing the office while the rest of the staff and workcampers are away.
As far as people here....We have 16 churches in attendance. One from Canada, others from Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Texas.
As far as our lodging...We are staying in a French Catholic High School. Here all high schools, whether Christian or public, are funded by the government. That is very different than in the states. This school's mission is "to teach students about Jesus Christ and about their French heritage."
As far as sleeping places for 375...By 5 pm last Friday we had everyone assigned to rooms in the school, some had air-conditioning and some did not. At 5 pm the fire department came by to "check" our rooms and told us that we had to reduce each of the rooms by 5-7 people to meet fire code. That caused us to wonder, "What will we do with 42 boys?" "Put them in the gym!" The only trouble was that the gym was not air-conditioned and 42 breathing boys make the gym even warmer. Oops, that should be HOTTER, not warmer. It was stuffy and extremely hot. What should we do?
As far as the facility guys...Rightly so the facility guys, custodians, were protecting their school from all of these students coming from all over. Only certain rooms were available. Only the front door of the school could be used for entrance and exit. No door could be left open to cool off the gym. That is how it was for one night. And then a very awesome thing happened. God moved some hearts. After walking through the gym on Sunday night with the facility people, after their experiencing the heat of a room with no doors open, God touched hearts. THEY started suggesting rooms where the boys could lodge. THEY decided that doors could be open. They have now all worked beyond their hours just to keep the facility clean for us. Today one of them rigged up a system in our non-airconditioned program auditorium for the cooler air to flow through the space. Go God!
As far as work...We have 54 sites that are painting, home repairs, and roofing whole houses. The most odd project is painting a Royal Canadian Air Force plane that is mounted in the town park. How many of you ever got to paint a jet?
As far as their currency...They have $1 coins called "loonies" because the coins contain pictures of birds, loons. They have a $2 coin with birds on them. Guess what they call them? "Two-nies." They are considering $5 dollar coins. Any guess what they will call them?
As far as food....Maybe the most unique food we have found here in Cornwall is POUTINE. Poutine is a combination of...are you ready?...french fries topped with cheese curd, covered in gravy. Delightful and of course, no calories at all!
As far as me...I am still sitting in the office waiting for dinner while the others are out. There is something beautiful about having some time to write and reflect. There is something good about having 375 high schoolers out of the school for just a little time this afternoon.
I pray your summer is continuing to be a great one for you.
Written by Eric - Friday July 9, 2010
In 1976 in Loveland, Colorado 12 inches of rain fell in 3 hours. The sudden and unexpected rains flooded Big Thompson Canyon washing out homes and killing 140 people. The call went out for youth groups to come and help with recovery and clean-up. Over 300 youth and their leaders showed up to help. Group Workcamps Foundation, now Group Cares, was formed that year as an organization to help local residents with housing needs and now has over 200 camps each summer. In the past CrossRoads has served with Group Cares in Manistee, MI (Kris Gidley's home town), Blytheville, AR and Red Lake, MN.
Today Kristen and I join with a 15 other volunteer staff from across North America for a workcamp in Cornwall, ON. Cornwall is just across the border from the northeastern tip of New York. Cornwall was the town that the British created following the American Revolution for British sympathizers. Today it is a town of 40,000 people.
We drove 12 hours yesterday through heavy rain to get to Toronto and we are headed off to Cornwall today, another 5 hours. The campers come Sunday for a week of work and worship. I will be directing the camp and Kristen will be serving as a construction supervisor. Chris Kemp is joining us here on staff for the week to also oversee construction. Ed Gill was supposed to be here too but, at the last minute, work would not allow him to join us. He is disappointed not to be here, so when you see him Sunday give him a hug to lift his spirits.
Carol and Greta drove with us and are spending the week in the area seeing the sights of Ontario and Quebec.
Oh yes, and for the record, so far on this trip others have guessed our nationality as German and Swedish. Last night the dinner server greeted us with, "And oh you must be, let me guess, Dutch." The blond hair and blue eyes confused him. We gladly told him we were from Indiana and he was most surprised.
On to Cornwall to enlarge our family to 400+ for the week! Pray for ours, Chris' and the many groups' attending our camps safe travel.
In 1976 in Loveland, Colorado 12 inches of rain fell in 3 hours. The sudden and unexpected rains flooded Big Thompson Canyon washing out homes and killing 140 people. The call went out for youth groups to come and help with recovery and clean-up. Over 300 youth and their leaders showed up to help. Group Workcamps Foundation, now Group Cares, was formed that year as an organization to help local residents with housing needs and now has over 200 camps each summer. In the past CrossRoads has served with Group Cares in Manistee, MI (Kris Gidley's home town), Blytheville, AR and Red Lake, MN.
Today Kristen and I join with a 15 other volunteer staff from across North America for a workcamp in Cornwall, ON. Cornwall is just across the border from the northeastern tip of New York. Cornwall was the town that the British created following the American Revolution for British sympathizers. Today it is a town of 40,000 people.
We drove 12 hours yesterday through heavy rain to get to Toronto and we are headed off to Cornwall today, another 5 hours. The campers come Sunday for a week of work and worship. I will be directing the camp and Kristen will be serving as a construction supervisor. Chris Kemp is joining us here on staff for the week to also oversee construction. Ed Gill was supposed to be here too but, at the last minute, work would not allow him to join us. He is disappointed not to be here, so when you see him Sunday give him a hug to lift his spirits.
Carol and Greta drove with us and are spending the week in the area seeing the sights of Ontario and Quebec.
Oh yes, and for the record, so far on this trip others have guessed our nationality as German and Swedish. Last night the dinner server greeted us with, "And oh you must be, let me guess, Dutch." The blond hair and blue eyes confused him. We gladly told him we were from Indiana and he was most surprised.
On to Cornwall to enlarge our family to 400+ for the week! Pray for ours, Chris' and the many groups' attending our camps safe travel.
Written by Eric
Last week I had the chance to visit Dachau Concentration Camp just outside of Munich, Germany. It is not one of those places that I "wanted" to visit but it was one that I "just had" to go if I was going to be in Germany. I don't want this post to be a downer but the images that still flow through my mind are vivid and difficult to deal with.
We spent about 2 hours walking around the camp which is being preserved so that we all can remember the atrocities human beings can perpetrate on one another. The displays, though very nicely done, were difficult to process, the posted pictures chronicling the years of the actions at the camp were gruesome and the air seemed stagnant and stale as people moved around the camp.
Toward the end of our walk we went to the crematorium, the "ovens" as they were described. The crematorium was outside the walled and barbed wire camp so that people that were being retained inside the camp would not know what was going on. I had always heard about the "gas chambers" at the camps however it is another thing to stand in the middle of one of them and realize how many lives had needlessly been taken in that particular room, how many lives had been affected by this senseless and depraved ideology.
If there is any good news from my time there it is that evil in its most horrific expression does not in the end win out. Dachau is now only a memorial, not an ongoing camp. God is faithful in wiping out human evil and, even though many innocent people may die in the process, goodness always is God's will and He has the power to make all things right in the end. It reminded me again of just how off base we can become so quickly and begin to value that which corrupts us. For me, it was an affirmation of why I seek to be a disciple of Jesus and why I want others to be the same. We must, we must be the ones to bring goodness and justice to a world in need so that no one ever has to be hurt by another human being.
Last week I had the chance to visit Dachau Concentration Camp just outside of Munich, Germany. It is not one of those places that I "wanted" to visit but it was one that I "just had" to go if I was going to be in Germany. I don't want this post to be a downer but the images that still flow through my mind are vivid and difficult to deal with.
We spent about 2 hours walking around the camp which is being preserved so that we all can remember the atrocities human beings can perpetrate on one another. The displays, though very nicely done, were difficult to process, the posted pictures chronicling the years of the actions at the camp were gruesome and the air seemed stagnant and stale as people moved around the camp.
Toward the end of our walk we went to the crematorium, the "ovens" as they were described. The crematorium was outside the walled and barbed wire camp so that people that were being retained inside the camp would not know what was going on. I had always heard about the "gas chambers" at the camps however it is another thing to stand in the middle of one of them and realize how many lives had needlessly been taken in that particular room, how many lives had been affected by this senseless and depraved ideology.
If there is any good news from my time there it is that evil in its most horrific expression does not in the end win out. Dachau is now only a memorial, not an ongoing camp. God is faithful in wiping out human evil and, even though many innocent people may die in the process, goodness always is God's will and He has the power to make all things right in the end. It reminded me again of just how off base we can become so quickly and begin to value that which corrupts us. For me, it was an affirmation of why I seek to be a disciple of Jesus and why I want others to be the same. We must, we must be the ones to bring goodness and justice to a world in need so that no one ever has to be hurt by another human being.
Written by Eric
My dad, Gunther, emigrated with his family from Germany to the United States in 1928 when he was 9 years old. From the time that I was very young, whenever I asked my dad where he was born, he would say, "Wuppertal-Elberfeld." Now I was looking for some response like "Mayberry or Allentown or even Westfield." But what I got was a name of a town I could not understand especially since it was couched in a deep German accent.
When I got older my dad, though he was an invalid by that time and had difficulty speaking, would tell me some things about where he came from. I knew it was in northern Germany and that it was an industrialized area. I knew they had a special monorail in town and he also gave me a book with pictures of his town that was printed in 1920. Every time I had a social studies project in school, I would choose to do a report on this double-named town.
You can imagine my intrigue and excitement last week when, driving down the Autobahn, I saw the exit for Wuppertal. We had been able to narrow down the choices of where he lived to one street - Wulfrather Strasse. Through Google Maps I found out that it was only four blocks long. That was short enough to walk the whole way.
There is something hard to describe about the feeling I had walking in Germany on the street where my dad was born and where he lived. Though my dad died in 1969, walking down Wulfrather Strasse gave me a special connection with my dad again. It was an incredibly steep street with apartments and a local neighborhood church and cemetery. Maybe my dad was baptized in that church - how cool is that? Maybe my dad sledded down his street. That would have been fun. Maybe there were my relatives buried in the cemetary. I did not have time to explore. I did get to ride the special mono-rail called the Schwebebahn, built in the late 1800s. During that whole day I was wishing I could do the "Back to the Future" thing and see my relatives as they were when they were children.
While we only got to spend a day in Wuppertal-Elberfeld, I thought much about what it must have been like for a young 9-year-old boy to leave the only city and country that he knows, and to get on a boat with his family and ride for over a week to a new land where they spoke a different language. I do know that it was the faith in God of his family that gave them the strength to come to the States. And as much as I liked being in Wuppertal, I am grateful that they made the journey across the Atlantic because I have been blessed to grow up in the United States.
Wuppertal-Elberfeld: A mouthful for a young boy. An incredible experience for a guy celebrating the roots of his dad.
My dad, Gunther, emigrated with his family from Germany to the United States in 1928 when he was 9 years old. From the time that I was very young, whenever I asked my dad where he was born, he would say, "Wuppertal-Elberfeld." Now I was looking for some response like "Mayberry or Allentown or even Westfield." But what I got was a name of a town I could not understand especially since it was couched in a deep German accent.
When I got older my dad, though he was an invalid by that time and had difficulty speaking, would tell me some things about where he came from. I knew it was in northern Germany and that it was an industrialized area. I knew they had a special monorail in town and he also gave me a book with pictures of his town that was printed in 1920. Every time I had a social studies project in school, I would choose to do a report on this double-named town.
You can imagine my intrigue and excitement last week when, driving down the Autobahn, I saw the exit for Wuppertal. We had been able to narrow down the choices of where he lived to one street - Wulfrather Strasse. Through Google Maps I found out that it was only four blocks long. That was short enough to walk the whole way.
There is something hard to describe about the feeling I had walking in Germany on the street where my dad was born and where he lived. Though my dad died in 1969, walking down Wulfrather Strasse gave me a special connection with my dad again. It was an incredibly steep street with apartments and a local neighborhood church and cemetery. Maybe my dad was baptized in that church - how cool is that? Maybe my dad sledded down his street. That would have been fun. Maybe there were my relatives buried in the cemetary. I did not have time to explore. I did get to ride the special mono-rail called the Schwebebahn, built in the late 1800s. During that whole day I was wishing I could do the "Back to the Future" thing and see my relatives as they were when they were children.
While we only got to spend a day in Wuppertal-Elberfeld, I thought much about what it must have been like for a young 9-year-old boy to leave the only city and country that he knows, and to get on a boat with his family and ride for over a week to a new land where they spoke a different language. I do know that it was the faith in God of his family that gave them the strength to come to the States. And as much as I liked being in Wuppertal, I am grateful that they made the journey across the Atlantic because I have been blessed to grow up in the United States.
Wuppertal-Elberfeld: A mouthful for a young boy. An incredible experience for a guy celebrating the roots of his dad.
With Germany advancing in her World Cup bid with her 4-1 win over England, there is soccer mania throughout Germany. Houses everywhere are flying the German flag and nearly every car has a least one, if not two (or more!), German flags flying. Some people have taken their German flag and tucked them in the front hood of their car so the whole front of their car cries out "Deutschland!"
Not wanting to be the only car not flying the black, red, and gold, I stopped into a store along the Autobahn to buy a flag for our car. Finding a flag, I took it up to the cashier.
"Zwei euros," she said rather firmly.
"Ya!" I plunked out my two euros with a smile.
She rang up the purchase and then she began a long run of German words that I could not understand. And then, thinking that I was understanding it all, she continued with more words. She concluded with a big, "YA?" She was looking for a reply. She wanted a reply to a bunch of words that I did not understand.
At that point I had two choices. I could use my meager German language knowledge and tell her that I really did not understand her OR I could just say, "Ya!" and go on. So which one would you choose?
With my biggest smile I picked up my flag and said, "YA...YA!!" and I walked away.
Walking back to the car I wondered what I had just agreed to. Perhaps...
(1) I agreed with her that, like everyone else, I was a great German Wold Cup fan OR...
(2) Maybe she was telling me just how stupid it is that I, like all these other crazy people, are spending their money on these stupid flags for a dumb sport.
All I can say is, "YA!" Go Deutschland in the World Cup" and if you see a blue car running around Westfield in a few days flying a German flag, please nod your head with me, smile, and say, ""YA!"
Not wanting to be the only car not flying the black, red, and gold, I stopped into a store along the Autobahn to buy a flag for our car. Finding a flag, I took it up to the cashier.
"Zwei euros," she said rather firmly.
"Ya!" I plunked out my two euros with a smile.
She rang up the purchase and then she began a long run of German words that I could not understand. And then, thinking that I was understanding it all, she continued with more words. She concluded with a big, "YA?" She was looking for a reply. She wanted a reply to a bunch of words that I did not understand.
At that point I had two choices. I could use my meager German language knowledge and tell her that I really did not understand her OR I could just say, "Ya!" and go on. So which one would you choose?
With my biggest smile I picked up my flag and said, "YA...YA!!" and I walked away.
Walking back to the car I wondered what I had just agreed to. Perhaps...
(1) I agreed with her that, like everyone else, I was a great German Wold Cup fan OR...
(2) Maybe she was telling me just how stupid it is that I, like all these other crazy people, are spending their money on these stupid flags for a dumb sport.
All I can say is, "YA!" Go Deutschland in the World Cup" and if you see a blue car running around Westfield in a few days flying a German flag, please nod your head with me, smile, and say, ""YA!"
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