We started off the day at 615 with a devotion from John. Hebrews 13:3 and 12:1-4. The first time team members were presented with a Kairos cross necklace and then the men and women went on their separate ways. The women helped prepare lunch, clean up the mission house and do laundry. At 4pm, the bus picked up the women to take them to the prison for closing. We were checked in very quickly and headed to a room outside the actual prison right next to the conference room. The team and inmates came into the room and were greeted by the Kairos community and the Kairos Outside team with confetti thrown at them. Each family introduced themselves and answered three questions about what Kairos meant to them. At the end of the closing, a children's choir sang to them while holding candles as they were exiting the room. It was a very touching scene. One inmate's child was singing in the choir and he was in tears.
After closing, we headed to Calle Blanco Iglesia for a special ceremony and dinner. The leaders of the Kairos Inside and Outside were recognized and the men were given their Kairos shirts. We sang a song and then ate dinner. After dinner, we had to say our goodbyes. The women, both US and Costa Rican got emotional. We have spent 4 days together and worked very closely with each other. Relationships and special bonds were formed. Many of us cried!
Now we are back at the hotel packing and going to bed. We have to get up at 3am to get on the bus to the airport at 4am. Please check back on this blog, because more stories will be added from the men's inside team!
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Friday, October 12, 2007
Friday
Jack writes: Some highlights today in the prayer chapel at San Sebastian prison with the prayer ministry included prayer with the women in charge of some of the prisoner's activities. She came in for prayer for restoration. We also had the opportunity to pray with the Director of San Sebastian after a conference with Carlos Cunningham and the US support team. He wanted prayers for his health, the inmates, and the entire staff. The Costa Ricans and the US prayer chapel custodians started the day praying with the officer that controls the access to the prayer chapel. He loves the Lord.
On the way back to the mission house following the day's activities, one of the Costa Rican team members asked me for the words to "There's Something About That Name" so we can all share it tomorrow.
Sue writes: Today I have seen so many relationships growing stronger with the women on our team and the women on the Costa Rica Kairos outside team! It is so amazing to see how two different cultures that can't even communicate come together, love one another and figure out what each other are saying through bits and pieces of broken English and Spanish when a translator was not around. I have felt such a strong connection to these women and look forward to working with many of them on future Kairos weekends here in Costa Rica.
On the way back to the mission house following the day's activities, one of the Costa Rican team members asked me for the words to "There's Something About That Name" so we can all share it tomorrow.
Sue writes: Today I have seen so many relationships growing stronger with the women on our team and the women on the Costa Rica Kairos outside team! It is so amazing to see how two different cultures that can't even communicate come together, love one another and figure out what each other are saying through bits and pieces of broken English and Spanish when a translator was not around. I have felt such a strong connection to these women and look forward to working with many of them on future Kairos weekends here in Costa Rica.
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Thursday
We had breakfast at 6:30 so the men could head to the mission house to get on the bus to the prison with the other team members that were staying there. The women stayed behind to work on sorting through agape. We left the hotel at 9am to stop at the MegaSuper to pick up groceries and then headed to the mission house. As soon as we walked into the door we were put to work. We were frying plantanos (Plaintains), peeling and cutting plaintains, potatoes and carrots, and chopping lots of veggies. We also were preparing fried chicken for the inmates. Each team member and inmate was getting 1/2 chicken fried, rice, a slaw, plaintains and fresh fruit. This was going to be their only meal today. Normally all they get is rice and beans so this yummy and fresh food is a shock to their system. We were also told they LOVED our cookies! They were a huge hit with the inmates. The American team is now back at the hotel to rest for awhile and at 5:30 we will be headed back to greet the team when they get back for the team meeting. When we got to the house, they were decorating it like a birthday party! We did have a birthday...it was Vilmas 83rd birthday. Vilma is very active in Kairos and she is the one that gave us the tour of the Buen Pastor womens prison. The ladies gave her a red shawl and perfume, a pice of cake and sang happy birthday to her.
When the men arrive around 7, the women greeted them with a bienvinidos (welcome) song. They had a team meeting and then some of us headed back to the hotel to finish writing our letters and to download photos to our computer. Some of the guys told some stories about the prisoners and hopefully on Friday they will be able to blog a few of those!
When the men arrive around 7, the women greeted them with a bienvinidos (welcome) song. They had a team meeting and then some of us headed back to the hotel to finish writing our letters and to download photos to our computer. Some of the guys told some stories about the prisoners and hopefully on Friday they will be able to blog a few of those!
Wednesday
Today we had a very early start with breakfast at 6:30am. Saul was coming to pick the women up at 7am to take us to the bakery, Panaderia La Moderna. Santiago and his brother run this bakery and let us come in there to bake our cookies for Kairos. We made a toll-house base recipe and divided it up into five parts and added cocoa to half the batch to make chocolate cookies with either peanut butter or white chocolate chips. The others were regular chocolate chip cookies and butterscotch chip cookies. The bakery let us use their flour, eggs, sugar and butter and we had the rest of the ingredients. We had to guess at some of the amounts because of metric conversions. We dumped all the ingredients into a very large commercial mixer and it mixed it all for us! We then split the dough up and rolled cookies 30 per cookie sheet. We were able to cook all 870 cookies at one time in a very large commercial oven that used rolling racks. It was so awesome!!! We spent a total of 3 hours preparation and baking time for all those cookies. Saul was running late to pick us up, so we all pitched in to help bag bread items for the bakery. We have never seen so many small breadsticks in our lives! THOUSANDS!!!! We managed to get them all done for them by the time Saul picked us up at 12:30. We headed back to the mission house to drop off the cookies and start helping the team out! The men left about 1:30 to head to San Sebastian. While the women were at the bakery, the men took chairs and supplies to the prison and got it all set up.
The ladies ended up skipping lunch and started to help cut tomatoes and assemble sandwiches for snacks for the prisoners and the Kairos team that were going to be picked up at 4:30 At the mission house, we had no electricity. It had already been out a couple of days. Beth, Carla and Sue cut up carrots, potatoes and another type of vegetable for the dinner that night for the entire team while we still had daylight. Others worked on setting up the prayer room, making salvation bracelets, the prayer chain and working on other types of agape. Luckily the mission house had a gas stove and a large gas grill to start cooking the supper. It was taking longer than usual so the ladies were going to end up eating with the rest of the team when they got back. We had a couple of hours of time to spend getting to know each other and talk. It was starting to get dark so we lit a bunch of candles, drank coffee, hot chocolate and ate some homemade bread while waiting on dinner to be ready. The men began arriving to the mission house around 7:15-7:30. They had a quick team meeting to talk about tomorrow then we ate our dinner. After dinner, everyone went to bed or back to the hotel to get lots of rest for a long day tomorrow.
The ladies ended up skipping lunch and started to help cut tomatoes and assemble sandwiches for snacks for the prisoners and the Kairos team that were going to be picked up at 4:30 At the mission house, we had no electricity. It had already been out a couple of days. Beth, Carla and Sue cut up carrots, potatoes and another type of vegetable for the dinner that night for the entire team while we still had daylight. Others worked on setting up the prayer room, making salvation bracelets, the prayer chain and working on other types of agape. Luckily the mission house had a gas stove and a large gas grill to start cooking the supper. It was taking longer than usual so the ladies were going to end up eating with the rest of the team when they got back. We had a couple of hours of time to spend getting to know each other and talk. It was starting to get dark so we lit a bunch of candles, drank coffee, hot chocolate and ate some homemade bread while waiting on dinner to be ready. The men began arriving to the mission house around 7:15-7:30. They had a quick team meeting to talk about tomorrow then we ate our dinner. After dinner, everyone went to bed or back to the hotel to get lots of rest for a long day tomorrow.
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Tuesday
We just arrived back at the hotel about 7:00pm so I am finally updating our blog. Our day started off very early. We at breakfast at 6:30am so we could get on the road at 7:30am. We headed north for about two hours to see a waterfall and go on a boatride.
Our first stop was at Santiago's bakery where we will be baking LOTS of cookies tomorrow. It was very interesting to watch how they cut and baked the cookies and rolled the dough for various breads and pastries. We got lots of samples and bought lots of snacks for the road. When we got on the bus, we passed around different kinds to share!
It was raining most of the morning, but a very light mist. As we headed up the mountain, it was very obvious we were in a rainforest. Ferns, tall trees, coffee plantations on the side of the mountains, and beautiful flowers were everywhere. Our first stop was at a fruit stand where some of us bought snacks, souvenirs and drinks. We made it to the waterfall which was very beautiful. We were able to walk on the side of the cliff to get behind the waterfall. With all the mist and rain, we definitely got a little wet!
We continued on the very curvy road and stopped to see another one. At one of our stops, we saw a monkey up in the tree and Carla made monkey noises at it. Next we went on a boat ride down the Sarapiqui River and saw a crocodile, two Caymans, lots of birds, Jesus Christ lizards (a lizard that walks on water), iguanas, lots of monkeys, long-nosed bats and a poisonous tree frog. Beth did jump out of the boat to chase a Jesus lizard but scared it off in the wrong direction. This was Faith's (Carlos and Karla's baby) first time on a boat and she had a great time!
After our boat ride, we headed down the mountain and stopped at the El Yugo truck stop and had dinner. We stopped at Moravia to do some "touristy" shopping and then headed to the "hippy" market to finish our shopping!
Now we are back at the hotel for an hour and we are getting ready to head to Callo Blancos (Carlos' church) to eat dinner.
Our first stop was at Santiago's bakery where we will be baking LOTS of cookies tomorrow. It was very interesting to watch how they cut and baked the cookies and rolled the dough for various breads and pastries. We got lots of samples and bought lots of snacks for the road. When we got on the bus, we passed around different kinds to share!
It was raining most of the morning, but a very light mist. As we headed up the mountain, it was very obvious we were in a rainforest. Ferns, tall trees, coffee plantations on the side of the mountains, and beautiful flowers were everywhere. Our first stop was at a fruit stand where some of us bought snacks, souvenirs and drinks. We made it to the waterfall which was very beautiful. We were able to walk on the side of the cliff to get behind the waterfall. With all the mist and rain, we definitely got a little wet!
We continued on the very curvy road and stopped to see another one. At one of our stops, we saw a monkey up in the tree and Carla made monkey noises at it. Next we went on a boat ride down the Sarapiqui River and saw a crocodile, two Caymans, lots of birds, Jesus Christ lizards (a lizard that walks on water), iguanas, lots of monkeys, long-nosed bats and a poisonous tree frog. Beth did jump out of the boat to chase a Jesus lizard but scared it off in the wrong direction. This was Faith's (Carlos and Karla's baby) first time on a boat and she had a great time!
After our boat ride, we headed down the mountain and stopped at the El Yugo truck stop and had dinner. We stopped at Moravia to do some "touristy" shopping and then headed to the "hippy" market to finish our shopping!
Now we are back at the hotel for an hour and we are getting ready to head to Callo Blancos (Carlos' church) to eat dinner.
Monday, October 8, 2007
Monday
We arrived safely yesterday, ate lunch at Burger King and then headed to the hotel to settle and sort supplies. We made a pit stop to drop off supplies at the mission house and drove up the mountain to visit the home of Nery and Pam Duarte. Nery is the head of search and rescue here in Costa Rica. a seminary professor, psychologist and is also a pastor for the prison. He has a beautiful home overlooking the city. We ate dinner with our Alabama team, Carlos and family and other people from the CR team at Rosti Pollo. We then made a stop at the Hiper Mas to pick up pillows to donate and of course, Costa Rican coffee! We headed back to the hotel and were in bed by 10pm. We had a very long day since most of us had been awake since 330 am.
Today has been the first opportunity to log on to our blog at the mission house. We walked to the mission house from our hotel in the rain, which is actually somewhat refreshing since we have not been getting much in Alabama. Now we are sorting through the items we brought to the house and getting it ready for the Kairos team that will be staying here. We have a full day ahead of us visiting three prisons. APAC, Buen Pastor women prison and tonight at San Sebastian we will be serving communion.
The first prison we visited was APAC, which is the faith-based prison that Carlos founded. There are 27 men in this prison. It is a low security prison. We had a tour and a mini concert by their choir. Hugo played the accordion while the other played his guitar. They did a fantastic job! They even sang a special song for Jack and Barbara since their 43rd anniversary is this week (Wednesday). We also got to see two new additions, the butterfly garden and the new workshop area.
After APAC, we came back to the hotel to drop off all that were not going to Buen Pastor. Only four were allowed to go, so Dianne, Steve, Sue and Sydney went to Buen Pastor to see the women's prison. We only got to see the part where the mothers of 3 years and under lived. Each room had a bed for the inmate and a playpen/bed for the child. Some of the women had very young infants and up to 3 years of age. After they child turns three, they must either go with the family or become a ward of the state. That broke our hearts. The women do get conjugal visits every 15 days and some have gotten pregnant in prison...but most have brought their babies into prison with them. We took a photo of one of the inmates and her baby and soon after we found out that she was in prison because she had killed her brother, mother and father. We were totally amazed!!! She just didn't seem the type, but you never know! She is currently 22 years old and she committed the crime when she was 15. We also toured the area where they hold the Kairos and also toured the chapel.
The team went into San Sebastian to do communion for two churches. As we entered the prison, we could hear praise and worshiping going on inside. We joined the first church, served communion, sang and then several of our team members spoke to the inmates. We moved over to the second church next door and did the same thing. What an awesome experience to see the inmates praise our awesome God!
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Communion at San Sebastian: It was raining as the guards opened the gate for us to enter San Sebastian Prison. Once inside they take your passport and "pat you down", in some sense robbing you of your identity, before passing you to the next stage of steel doored security. When you are called by name, go through the doors and down the hall where windows and outside walls are covered in a steel rebar lattice.
The room was dark and smelled of urine. It was painted a red-mud color with red, wooden tables and attached wooden stools. Clearly this was not "home".
The men gathered from the cell blocks, forty two Christians with every sort of tattoo, beard and outfit; but oh how beautifully they sang. The Holy Spirit filled the room. They sang loud to overcome the constant din from those who gawked, and talked, and went about their business. We joined in the songs with men who had found hope in a hopeless place.
The men provided Communion elements on the tables, small steel cups filled with grape soda. And the "Bread of Life" was in fact broken saltine crackers. There among the bars of San Sebastian, in the overpowering clatter, we communed in remembrance of Him. In the mildew and damp of the tropics, in the dim red light of a prison room, those men professing to be Christians had their first encounter with the Holy Spirit on the Kairos weekend. All would experience God again in the succeeding days, but on this first night, grape soda and saltines, the only elements available to fallen men, were symbols of His love for the "least of these".
Today has been the first opportunity to log on to our blog at the mission house. We walked to the mission house from our hotel in the rain, which is actually somewhat refreshing since we have not been getting much in Alabama. Now we are sorting through the items we brought to the house and getting it ready for the Kairos team that will be staying here. We have a full day ahead of us visiting three prisons. APAC, Buen Pastor women prison and tonight at San Sebastian we will be serving communion.
The first prison we visited was APAC, which is the faith-based prison that Carlos founded. There are 27 men in this prison. It is a low security prison. We had a tour and a mini concert by their choir. Hugo played the accordion while the other played his guitar. They did a fantastic job! They even sang a special song for Jack and Barbara since their 43rd anniversary is this week (Wednesday). We also got to see two new additions, the butterfly garden and the new workshop area.
After APAC, we came back to the hotel to drop off all that were not going to Buen Pastor. Only four were allowed to go, so Dianne, Steve, Sue and Sydney went to Buen Pastor to see the women's prison. We only got to see the part where the mothers of 3 years and under lived. Each room had a bed for the inmate and a playpen/bed for the child. Some of the women had very young infants and up to 3 years of age. After they child turns three, they must either go with the family or become a ward of the state. That broke our hearts. The women do get conjugal visits every 15 days and some have gotten pregnant in prison...but most have brought their babies into prison with them. We took a photo of one of the inmates and her baby and soon after we found out that she was in prison because she had killed her brother, mother and father. We were totally amazed!!! She just didn't seem the type, but you never know! She is currently 22 years old and she committed the crime when she was 15. We also toured the area where they hold the Kairos and also toured the chapel.
The team went into San Sebastian to do communion for two churches. As we entered the prison, we could hear praise and worshiping going on inside. We joined the first church, served communion, sang and then several of our team members spoke to the inmates. We moved over to the second church next door and did the same thing. What an awesome experience to see the inmates praise our awesome God!
------------------------
Communion at San Sebastian: It was raining as the guards opened the gate for us to enter San Sebastian Prison. Once inside they take your passport and "pat you down", in some sense robbing you of your identity, before passing you to the next stage of steel doored security. When you are called by name, go through the doors and down the hall where windows and outside walls are covered in a steel rebar lattice.
The room was dark and smelled of urine. It was painted a red-mud color with red, wooden tables and attached wooden stools. Clearly this was not "home".
The men gathered from the cell blocks, forty two Christians with every sort of tattoo, beard and outfit; but oh how beautifully they sang. The Holy Spirit filled the room. They sang loud to overcome the constant din from those who gawked, and talked, and went about their business. We joined in the songs with men who had found hope in a hopeless place.
The men provided Communion elements on the tables, small steel cups filled with grape soda. And the "Bread of Life" was in fact broken saltine crackers. There among the bars of San Sebastian, in the overpowering clatter, we communed in remembrance of Him. In the mildew and damp of the tropics, in the dim red light of a prison room, those men professing to be Christians had their first encounter with the Holy Spirit on the Kairos weekend. All would experience God again in the succeeding days, but on this first night, grape soda and saltines, the only elements available to fallen men, were symbols of His love for the "least of these".
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