Life at the Albergue

Life at the albergue (orphanage). I've now been here for just over a week, more than enough time to feel an integral part of the albergue family. They've had me doing a myriad of different tasks since i've arrived. Starting out in the orchard, i was bent with the task of making fruit grow in a giant sand box(i'm speaking quite literally here fyi)... hmm. So after digging some trenches and laying pipe for the irrigation, we're now set to wait patiently for the arrival of a fruit! I figure i'll be gone before they get the news that fruit doesn't grow so well in sand... I tried to tell them, but my spanish has yet to venture beyond the superficial. Anyway, that was last week. This week they have me in the shop! Whohoo! My task this week is to fix - to the best of my ability - the 15+ bikes we have sitting in the shop (these bikes are beyond trashed... i can't even begin to describe them without getting a headache). They gave me a $200 budget for this, and another $200 for my other task which is to build (from scratch) 5 shelves/hanger racks for the volunteer rooms. Haha! So... today Alias and I ventured into Trujillo to get the appropriate materials for the bikes (for just under $100 we were able to get 15 tubes, 10 tires, 8 chains, lubricant, tools, 3 sets of pegs, 4 new seats, 7 pedal pairs and some other misc stuff... pretty incredible how far you can stretch the dollar here!) and then to the Madera where we got the wood, made the cuts, etc etc etc and then back to the albergue. However, not before Alias took me to his favorite hole in the wall cebicheria where we got a thick bowl of cebiche, corn, potatoes, a bowl of pasta, and a beverage for 8 soles total between the two of us!! In case you haven't gotten the point... it's cheap here... thats like $2.75.

Ha.

I'll have to say it is a bit overwhelming trying to lay out this past week in proper blog form... i'm caught in a struggle to harmonize my tangible experiences here with those moments that have truly touched my heart in a seemingly indescribable way... moments with the kids. I will simply lay out whats on my heart...

Being here has certainly broadened my perspective on people, culture, and most especially God. I have learned a new definition of the all loving God as my knowledge of the 'all' has grown immensely. Working with orphans, allowing myself to briefly sink into their situation, has in a way given me a new cross to bear, so to speak... because now i can't in good conscience ignore the reality of these people, these ninos, and also not wonder at the millions more across the globe who suffer from similar afflictions. Travel, while it shouldn't come with a guilt trip, has become more to me thanseeing the sights, more than enjoying a sunset and a glass of the house red... travel to me, at least in this chapter of life, has become an experience of broadening my global perspective and challenging the truths i was raised thinking were god-given and self-evident. And while not every crossroads in life has a biblical arrow pointing in the right direction, we can pray for wisdom, for discernment, for a deeper understanding of what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ in a hurting world. I can tell you, as can many of you i'm sure who have worked with young ones in poverty stricken nations, that the joy these kids have in their hearts is enough to make my heart smile everytime i'm with them. To the world, these kids have been dealt a hand thats worth nothing more than a quick muck... at least in the culture I was raised. Many of these kids abandoned as babies, some lived in dumps before arriving here, the majority having been physically and sexually abused before being forcefully removed and brought to the Hogar de Esperanza (house of hope). They're brought here and taught responsibility, accountability, and the good news of Jesus Christ. In the time i've been here there's been an unusual amount of moving going on... we recently welcomed 5 new kids, and are preparing to say goodbye to 3 (one of which is my favorite... see pic below!!). Needless to say its been pretty tough for all of the volunteers and staff, but fun to watch at the same time the immediate acceptance of the 5 newcomers!

I was asked a few days ago to lead the bible studies two times a week for all of the volunteers, our first one being tonight. The verses I referenced (in order) for those of you who are interested are: Acts 26:12-18 (paul's drastic change) Eph 5:8-10 (children of light) Mth 18:3 (unless you are like a child...) Col 2:2 (unity) and Eph 4:1-6 (more unity)... It was pretty special being asked to lead this, and it was a welcomed challenge and it definitely was a challenge as i still have yet to 'really' know these people i'm working with on a deeper level. So tonight i wanted to talk about the definition of a christian, the worlds versus Jesus' definition... Talk about being transformed in the holy spirit, being evidence of change, moving from dark to light, and being re-born... For the last two verses we shared some conversation on the importance of unity, being united in one god, with one purpose, encouraging eachother along the way... in love. It seemed to be received well, and it'll be interesting to see how it works out in the coming weeks, but i'm excited to see how this group grows beyond the superficial where it seems (sadly) they've made themselves comfortable. Anyway... something you all can pray for specifically..

Before I sign off, i've been thinking alot lately about suffering, not speaking to the kind of suffering i'm witnessing here, but as I think of the recession we're currently in, and how many have been deeply affected by it, I wonder what it looks like to suffer well in these times. I recently uncovered a quote by John Piper (one of my new favorite authors), he said that 'even the most holy, and sanctified, and pure man or pure woman, has a sediment of sin in the bottom of their beaker...' I work well with visuals, and this brought to life exactly what i've always believed. That the shaking of our environment (recession?) exposes and reveals hidden sin, in order to bring us to a place of deeper repentance and cleansing. For when all is controlled and things are going good, the sediment is all but invisible, but when things become uncomfortable, and we become shaken, sin in our life is revealed that otherwise went unnoticed. I mean look at the life of Job... He went from being completely blameless and upright, fearing the lord and shunning evil, then, after his beaker was bumped, falling on his face in dust and ashes and repenting of the sin that became evident in his life. THIS IS A GIFT PEOPLE! Recession is great at revealing the unseen sin of waste in us... abundance = waste... recession = awareness! And yet once we've repented and dealt with all the uncovered sin in our lives, there's no promise the suffering will end. Sometimes trusting God means you don't get to get off the cross...

I haven't experienced this kind of suffering... although i have saught to be stretched in ways uncomfortable and foreign to myself... i've learned the luxury of having less and the freedom of simplicity... i've during my travels learned much about myself and in my journeys with the lord have learned about some of my own 'sediment' and have grown from the 'shaking environment'... but i have yet to truly suffer, to be knocked, to be brought to the only place that makes sense, falling to my knees in the dust and the ashes . Hmm... Again, a gift it would be. Suffer well friends. Don't waste this recession... find out what he's doing in you, and do it.

I've truly outdone myself here... I'll let you go now! Sorry about the length of this really... i reached a point where i just let my fingers go, and that's dangerous for me!

Until next time!

luke (and christopher!!)

God Blessed My Sole!

Catching y´all up on the recent misadventures, I suppose I should start from my departure out of San Jose Costa Rica. After saying goodbye to my new dear friends (casey, whit, carol, and saaarah) the morning of the 15th, I had a few hours to poke around the city of SJ for a bit before my flight at 2... Mitch (our Dominical travel buddy) and I got some time watching What Women Want at our hostel - don´t judge - and then it was off for a 32 hour sprint towards Trujillo.

Bus to Airport... Plane to Miami... 6 Hr layover... Chili´s and beer for dinner... Plane to Lima... land at 430... AM... sleep in airport for 3 hrs... no cash... only gringo in sight... bum 2 soles off a woman for bus to Miraflores... bus to miraflores (craziness, to be explained later)... get there.. still no cash... no atm card (remember)... no open bank... wait outside bank.. get cash, only after seemingly EVERYONE in the bank had to inspect my passport.. my drivers license.. my credit card.. check my eye color.. sniff my butt.. apparently its standard in peru.. i dunno, chalk another one up to a cultural experience i guess. Ha.. but seriously people. Moving on.. finally got cash... get on internet.. call my orphanage contact back home and say ´whuddup, i´m so lost!´... her answering machine apparently couldn´t answer my questions, so it was off for another adventure! Found a bus..

... ok, before mentioning busses anymore, i really feel I should explain just exactly what I mean when I say.. bus. Really peruvian busses are more like what we would know as 12 person vans. You think, ok, they probably just don´t have that many people in need of public transportation, makes sense right?? FALSE!! These vans.. painted in all kinds of different funky colors (which i´ve come to find out represents the district of the city it serves), apparently do not have a limit to how many can fit... just when i think, ´ok, there´s NO WAY anyone else can get in´.. another 6 jump on, another butt in your face... So you´ve got the driver, and then you´ve got the ´caller´... this fellow is surely the most entertaining of the two. With 25+ people awkwardly squished inside, he´s the dude hanging out the gaping door (ya, the door is open almost always) yelling our destination to the people on the street.. So we got this guy hanging off the side of the car, sorry, van, while speeding 30+ mph through incredible amounts of traffic missing other vans by inches at most... these guys are crazy! It was great, my first time was the most akward (thatswhatshesaid) because i literally had no choice but to sit on some old mans lap.. for 30 minutes! Throw a white beard on that dude and I woulda had my whole christmas wish list done and done! So the driver has one goal, get there (wherever the heck ´there´is!) and get there FAST! They have these time card things that the ´caller´stamps at various locations and then yells out the time to the driver.. its pretty funny, them trying to beat their own time and all. Allora.. enough of that!

So where was i?! Ah yes... taking the bus from Mira flores.. oh by the way, this is after being at the internet joint sitting right next to a guy snorting coke.. haha.. and he had a pretty interesting choice of career.. haha.. i´ll explain later if u want. He was actually a pretty nice guy, really interested in my travels, where i was from, my favorite color etc... Tangents!! stayfocusedluke!

The bus from Miraflores to Trujillo i thoguht was at 1259, so appropriately i showed up at the station (after an incredible 3 course lunch for 5 SOLES!! aka $1.75!!) at around 1201.. turns out i had been dealt some misinformation and the bus was actually to leave at 1159! (keep in mind, my WHOLE time in peru, I haven´t meet a single person who speaks a lick of english.. seriously.. and my spanish is terrible, which makes for even more misadventures). I get there and the bus is in dock waiting to leave.. the lady yells to the operator to ALTO EL AUTOBUS! The next one was in 4ish hours, and I had people waiting on the other end... I got my ticket.. climbed on up.. and spent the next 9 hours on a bus.. not a van.. a bus.. the G5 of busses in fact, it was pretty nice! I´m on a bus.. I´m on a bus!!

It being several days ago, it isnt as fresh as it was, but I remember this bus ride as being really the first time I had committed a significant amount of thought to what I was getting myself into. Up until this point it was all about the adventure, the unknown, until now that was, i seemed faced with the reality of it all. I spent much of this ride in prayer, prayer for the kids I was about to love, prayer for my fellow volunteers, prayer for my sustained energy (at this point i had been traveling for 25+ hrs with little-no sleep), praises to Him who up to this point had led me safely to this place where I was to be His hands, His voice, His love.. to these kids. I told the Lord that I trusted Him with whatever plans he may have for this month.. for my life. Saying this I couldn´t help but struggle a bit over my words... This bothered me, the fact that I couldn´t say with confidence that I fully, 100% trusted Him with my life. I spent time thinking and praying about this... thinking about how its scary to lend complete confidence and trust in one being. Its hard to put into words i´m now realizing, but i guess its as simple as saying that with this trust, came an equal amount of fear.. fear for where that trust might lead me. Fear that trusting in Him might mean going down a path i haven´t yet realized, a path much different than my own. And I came to the conclusion that... It´s OK LUKE!! What would this kind of trust be without fear?!? We are called to fear Him! So.. it became reality.. a beautifully mysterious reality it was still.. but a mystery that I now ´felt´ for maybe the first time as i crawled northward along the Peruvian coast towards my new home.

I rolled into Trujillo around 9, grabbed my stuff, wandered off the bus to a crowd of about 9 volunteers all there for my arrival! (actually they were saying goodbye to one of the longterm volunteers as well, but it made me feel special nonetheless) haha..

So now i´m here... I´ll save the details of the orphanage for another time...

However, Sunday was filled with church (all in spanish.. gah), and then a trip to Pacasmayo beach!

I´m 5 minutes late for work, so I ought to go, but now that i´m here, and have access to a computer, i´ll try and throw another one up in a day or so...

Love to you all!! I love all your comments and am excited to share with you stories about the kiddos! Maybe I can actually learn how to throw up a picture or two... that would be awesome!

Keepin it fresh!

luke

Sweet sweet sweat...

It feels like ages since i last threw up a blog... again, ill try to condense exactly what we´ve done since last updating i believe when we were in Montezuma?? Ya... so since spending a day there relaxing we´ve really only migrated to different beach spots... first being Santa Theresa, after finding out that Mal Pais is nothing more than a dirt road with a few offshoots to fishing docks (lame)... Santa Theresa was definitely bomb... we stayed at Costa Arriba and spent the good majority of our time there surfing and just playing on the beaches. This is seriously one of the most beautiful beaches i´ve ever been to... although the waves were WAAAY above my skill level, it was fun nonetheless getting absolutely owned.. always with a smile. What wasn´t fun however was coming out of the water to realize my supposedly inconspicuous bag of ´goodies´had been jacked... when i say goodies i mean GOODIES.. Like, my camera, hammock, book, sunglasses, tanktop, and journal!! Gah! So, after going CSI all over that beetch and walking miles, inspecting every pink grocery bag that caught my eye, i had to just deal. Oh, and this is a day after I lost my debit card in town, what the heck right?! I guess i only have myself to blame...

Anyway, we stayed there for a few days, then yesterday we spent the whole day traveling from there to the little town we´re at now, Dominical. A quaint little village, visitors might enjoy a nice stroll through one of several organic markets.. ok rick steves, thats enough.. But seriously, this town is pretty sweet, althuogh its definitely gringonized, with a population of only 300 you can definitely feel the presence of surf hunters... the waves here are rediculous!! Casey and i went swimming just a bit ago, and no more than 2 minutes into the water we found ourselves in the middle of a crazy intense rip tide.. kinda scarry! We´re staying in a place called hostel san clemente for those that care.. its what you´d expect for 10 bucks a night.. which is actually more than anywhere we´ve been yet. The roach falling off the ceiling onto the girls bed last night was a nice bienvenido for sure...

Sitting here now, catching you all up on my travels, you all should know there are other things on my mind... i´ll have to say the worst part of having my stuff stolen was losing my journal.. also all the pictures i lost. but the journal... It really took me some time in the word after steaming for an hour or so to really calm my spirit. All i had to do was read the first 4 chapters of Job to bring my praise back to Him. The lord giveth, and the lord taketh away, through it all I will continue to praise Him (something like that..). Talking to mom was nice to, she quoted a scripture from matthew basically laying down the importance of.. well.. stuff. Wahts that scripture again mom? Also.. i´m reading a book called Desiring God by John Piper, and there was a section in it which i read yesterday that spoke to the story of Joseph, and his brutal acceptance of his enemies, his faith in the lords perfect plan, through good and bad, and how the lord used the work of his enemies to bring truth to the world... anyway.. lots of good.. so much good here!

I´m loving it here if you can´t tell... i´m starting to accept the fact that for the next month and a half my body will have a continuous flow of drench, stench, and whatever gross ench you can think of...

I´m loving seeing different cultures.. bringing a new meaning to God loving All.. not just within our borders as americans.. and as i see more people, all loved by the same creator, my understanding and image of God only continues to grow. Gosh... such scattered thoughts i´m sure, i know i would be frustrated reading this jumbled mess of luke-brain as i´m sure you too are. GAh!

I´ll have more time to write later, probably when back in San Jose prepping to leave for Peru! Who hoo!!

Oh man.. i´ve got 45 sec til my times out.. later yáll!!

luke

Sweet Condensation..

Its been quite the jampacked past few days if i may say so...

I figure since i´ve just done so much it´d be better if i just wrote a brief outline because i now have, well, only 15 minutes before i´m outta here!

Here goes...

The first night i arrived in san jose around 900... and after customs, immigration and all that crap i somehow got my bag after a bit of a struggle, found my way to the curb where i had to basically drop my shoulder and ram my way through the sea of taxi drivers offering me ´good price´. .. Found the bus to san jose city meeting people all along the way, still without my travel buddies at this point. Got off at the wrong bus stop (duh) then had a bit of a hike which i´m sure when observing from a birdseye view looked somewhat like... well.. a bird maybe. Anyway, got to galileo hostel, met my friends and crashed. Got up at 4 to catch a bus to la fortuna where we were immediately greeted by out new hostel owner (although we didnt know it yet)... he took us to his - ´Cabinas Jerry´- place and got us all set up foro $7/night.. which would become the new standard. Anyway, he took ud on a 7 hr tour of the ´hot spots´in the area... first was a 2.5 hr hike up to a lake inside of a volcanoe crater! No kidding.. it was pretty bomb... Got up there and had a spread of mango... papaya.. and some other stuff i´m not sure i wanna know what it was. Anyway.. we hiked back down and continued to walk about another hour to a hotel Jerry said cost its customers circa $500/night... mainly because they have a bomb view of the lava from Arenal... anyway.. we basically snuck on the bunch of us and got to the viewing spot just in time to see a freaking HUGE cloud roll right in place of the lava... awesome. We could still hear it and see some of it coming down the mountain because by now its night and easy to spot.. woulda been great to see it in action tho... oh well.. can´t win em all. Continuing! NExt stop was the hot springs.. which was (i´m laughing right now thinking about it) basically a sketchy part of a river under a bridge apparently below the ´real´hot springs... haha. It WAS pretty amazing though... our group of 12 or so was all having a great time, maybe because Jerry had also brought a cooler full of native bebidas for us... mmm. But seriously, it was pretty sweet, we had caves that we could swim in and we turned this one section into a big slide.. again, kinda sketchy, but greatgreat fun for sure! Oh ya.. the water was crazy warm! Hot i guess... hence hot springs. Way to go luke! Whoa... that night we got back around 930 ish and Jerry had one more thing in store for us.. ladies night. Not much to say here other than it was pretty sweet learning to dance marangue from the locals... Hawt! Casey and I did get denied by some chinitas though... whatever..

Day 2! We´re rollin!! We woke up early and booked a Jeep-boat-jeep trip to Monte verde! What a breathtaking trip.. especially the boat portion going across lake arenal... Anyway, we get there and meet our new friend eddy... the owner of Cabinas Eddy. Ha... apparently Jerry and him are friends.. it wasn´t long before we learned that neither jerry and eddy were actually named that, and apparently they just don´t want to dissapoint people, so when i would ask if ´their name is jerry/eddy´ they would say ´jajaja´... anyway, we get there, drop our stuff, and head out for a tour of a coffee farm! Something totally new for me, and pretty awesome to see the crazy amount of work that goes into finding the perfect bean... it was also kinda funny/sad hearing all the workers whenever they would talk about the 4th grade of coffee (the worst) they would follow it by saying... ´the one that starbucks uses´... once we got it, he would just refer to it as starbucks´coffee... is it really that bad?? Whatever... Casey and I decided we wanna come work on the coffee farm for our next seasonal gig next winter.. potential amazingness! Ok ok ok... That night we made our own dinner because we´d been spending juuuuuust a bit more than we had planned (why would they care about that luke??) ha.. OH! That night i payed a dollar for a washington apple.. i mean comeon, i had to right?! So after a night filled with fun games among my now group of 7 travel buddies, we crashed so we could be ready for yet another crazy packed day...

Day 3... Zip line tour!! No words for this really... I mean how can you explain flying across the greenest canyon you´ve ever seen 300 feet in the air traveling for 1 kilometer?!?! you just cant! And there were 14 of em! not to mention the tarzan swing which was sent my man factory into my stomach... shoot! AFter that, also following a good hike around the perfectly beautiful city of monte verde, we jumped yet another bus to the city of Puntarenas... we weren´t really sure what to expect just because we were getting such a late start.. anyway, it worked out that we got there fine and in time to catch a ferry across to the nicoya peninsula. We hoped to find a ride from the ferry drop to Montezuma while on the ferry... our girls (hats off to them) worked their magic and found a ride for half of us... the other half (and a new friend darren we met on the ferry) had to take a cab and split it among all of us.. (again, why do they care.. gah!) Finally got to Montezuma late, late enough that all the hostels were shut down... except for one.. Jenny´s place. So, this place miiiight have been a brother, were still not sure, but for 10/night (total rip off for desperate late night travelers) we had no other option... The night ended with a not so quick trip to ragae night, then back to good ol´jennys for really our first thick night of sleep.

Day 4... Not much here.. our first real relax tay with no travel, we decided to just hike up to a series of waterfalls which were pretty spectacular, then hitchihike our way to the surf beach just down the road... this is all after switching hostels of course to a place right in town for cheaper... anyway, playing in the ocean i felt like i was 12 again not wanting to get out EVER. You seriously could stay in this water forever its so dang warm! Gosh.. today, day 5, were gonna pack up and make our way just up the coast a bit via a short bus ride to Mal Pais (thanks for the tip J) and get some surfing in...

Thats about as rough as you could get for the past few days... Soooo much between the lines (obviously), and I finally bought an authentic banana paper handmade in costa rica journal with a sloth on the cover!! Point being.. i´m excited for time in my hammock simply capturing snapshots of this blessed experience. We are so blessed are we not!?

Allora.. my time´s about spent... I´ll try and not go more than a day or 2 before my next entry.. and hopefully i´ll have more than 15 minutes.. gahh!!

love to you all!!

Leaving

A rookie blogger, i sit here in my bed seven hours from takeoff contemplating exactly what i’m getting myself into creating this blog thing... Just the fact that my fingers are extremely hesitant to move as they are so used to makes me wonder... I’ve in sitting here decided that given the audience, nothing would be more appropriate than to on this journey be completely transparent and real with you all along the way. If there’s one thing i can’t stand its writers block, a subject i’ve unleashed pages of disgruntlement towards. I want you to know what I see, but more I want you to know what I feel, and for this I need to let down my guard and just be... I need not worry about proper grammar (got that derek?), or whether what i say will offend people... I need to be real, especially when its with those I care deeply about. You wouldn’t be reading this if you weren’t someone who is very special to me... It’ll be just as much a journey for me writing of my experiences and various ‘heart poundings’ as it will be for you reading them i’m sure of it...

I know I need to be up in four hours, but something in me just won’t let me close my eyes until i’ve captured ‘something’. And I guess in my reflection this evening, i’m realizing that right now, at this very moment, what i’m about to do, where i’m about to go, for the amount of time i’m going... is just now hitting me...

... so i wasn’t sure exactly what I meant by that so i just journeyed to the bathroom to ‘think’ ( cause
“sometimes it’s the only place you can think clearly” - dad), and I suppose what i was trying to say is that in looking forward to where i’m going, meanwhile like a thick fog in my skull is the rememberance of these past weeks at home and even further back to my amazing time in vail with such great people... i think twice about my intentions, and wonder just how much i’m willing to be stretched. See... that was the whole idea, to go to a place where i will undoubtedly be stretched. Get out of my comfort zone... and just show up. How the lord lead me to Peru? Really in thinking about it, i’ve no clue... It could’ve been anywhere! But in seeking to combine a travel experience with a sense of purpose, here i am, ready, but am i really... There’s always a part of me that doesn’t really want to be ‘fully’ ready... toothbrush and underwear are all I need right J? Lets let the lord take care of the rest, and become excited in the waiting, find peace in the stretching, and seek truth in the molding of our lives..

Thank you all for your prayers and love! I know this entry may be a bit scattered as i’m running on fumes, and while i’m not sure the scatterdness will go away, i AM sure it will get more refined with time... so, a refined scatteredness, hmm... sounds lovely... sounds like luke. wow...

On repeat in my heart are the words of one of my favorite hymns... i’ll leave you with the lyrics.
really read them... they’re awesome!

“Oh soul are you weary and troubled,
no light in the darkness you see,
there’s light for a look at the savior,
and life more abundant and free.

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
look full in his wonderful face,
and the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
in the light of his glory and grace.

To death and to life everlasting,
he passed and we follow him there,
over us sin no more hath dominion,
for more than conquerers we are.

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
look full in his wonderful face,
and the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
in the light of his glory and grace.

His word shall not fill you he promised,
believe him and all will be well,
then go to a world that is dying,
His perfect salvation to tell.

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
look full in his wonderful face,
and the thigns of earth will grow strangely dim,
in the light of his glory and grace.



Love to you all! See ya in Costa Rica!

luke