In Spirit and In Truth…

I have had the privilege to worship God in 7 countries and three languages: English, Spanish and Arabic. I am still amazed that people all over the world worship God in the same way… reverently, excitedly, with arms raised, clapping, looking up, crying, laughing, and so on.

We have been in The Spanish Language Institute for about 4 weeks now trying to improve our Spanish. I think I have gone from what I used to call a 3rd grade level to the 4th grade! I hope to be in junior high by the time we leave!

Today we attended an all-Spanish worship service for the 5th week in a row. I still don’t understand everything we’re singing (even though the words are on the overhead), nor do I fully understand the full message form the pastor (although I’m getting better). Since the words are on the overhead, with a slow song I can get all the words out at the right time; with a faster song, my tongue and lips sometimes get messed up and it comes out garbled, if at all. Fortunately the band is loud enough most people don’t hear my garbling!

What has become clearer to me over these past few weeks, however, is the passage from John where Jesus is talking to the Samaritan woman: God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth – John 4:24. That’s what it’s all about – worshiping in spirit and in truth! I know my savior, I know the truth; I can worship Him in spirit and in truth even if I don’t know the words on the screen and even if I don’t know everything the pastor is saying (although the more I know the better the worship experience, certainly).

I believe that is how followers of Jesus all over the world worship the same way – they worship in spirit and in truth, not through reciting words from a book. What an awesome God we serve, amen? Amen!

What's In A Name?

Names don’t matter; it’s what’s in your heart, right? Then why does scripture place so much emphasis on names, God’s name in particular?

I remember my pastor, Vance Pitman from Hope Baptist Church in Las Vegas, describing the 3rd commandment: You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain. How long did I think that meant don’t curse using God’s name? Well, there were Hebrew words for cursing and that’s not what this verse is talking about. Webster’s dictionary includes the following for name: “a word or phrase that constitutes the distinctive designation of a person or thing”, and “reputation-gave the town a bad name”. When a man and woman get married, the woman normally “takes” the man’s name as her own (when Sandy and I got married, Sandy became a Stevener and now represents us!). When you become a Christian, you take on God’s name, Christ, and from then on, you represent Him! The commandment also says to not do this “in vain.” Vain is something that “has no real value.” Don’t take His name lightly! It means something. His name has value! How do we know this?

I am reading through 1 & 2 Kings now, and came upon something I hadn’t noticed before: Solomon said Behold, I intend to build a house for the name of the Lord my God - 1 Kings 5:5. As I continued to read, from chapter 3 through chapter 8, that idea is repeated: Now it was in the heart of my father David to build a house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel – 8:17… too many references to list here: read it for yourself! David intended to build, and Solomon built, the temple for God’s name.

Deuteronomy 16:2 says You shall sacrifice the Passover to the Lord your God from the flock and the herd, in the place where the Lord chooses to establish His name; in verse 6: the Lord your God chooses to establish His name. Note the Lord chooses to establish His name, not His power or His rules. When Moses was sent to rescue the Israelites from Egypt, he asked God for His name (Exodus 3:13-14).

Skipping to the New Testament… Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved - Romans 10:13; at the name of Jesus every knee will bow – Philippians 2:10; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved - Acts 4:12.

So, what’s in a name? It depends on the name. If it’s God’s name, that’s everything!

These ideas were written by several different people, 2000 years apart, in different languages... who can look at this book (the Bible) and seeing consistent themes like this, NOT realize this book indeed had a single, special author, God Himself! Praise God!

School Daze

I thought you might like some photos around our school, the Spanish Language Institute, or as it is known here, ILE: Instituto de Lengua Española. This is the main administration building.
Here is a quick switch between classes (5 minutes).
Sandy talking with Paul and Chrissy during a longer break.
Here is the computer lab: 3 computers, an inkjet printer, and the Internet. 200 colones to connect to the Internet for up to 30 minutes, 200 colones for a color print, 100 for a black and white (100 colones is about 17 cents).
Here is the mailroom with assorted notices. You can send us cards, letters or packages if you like: Bill (or Sandy) Stevener; Instituto de Lengua Española; Apartado 100 – 2350; San José, Costa Rica; América Central (remember to use international postage!).
Here is our snack area, with a good variety of treats; they also have a hot meal everyday for about 3000 colones (about $5).
Finally, here are pictures of us in the classroom. We are taking the same classes, but were placed in different classrooms based on previous Spanish language experience. We each have two classes with 4-5 students each (Fonética and Lenguaje) and one class with about 9 students (Gramática).
Bill and a classmate (April Dice):

Compassion

How much bible knowledge do you have? Can you name the books of the bible? Can you find specific verses without thumbing through the rest? Do you know the original languages of the bible? Can you occasionally come up with a verse someone is thinking about? Can you correctly apply specific verses to given conditions? Do you know the bible as well as Jesus did?

There’s nothing wrong with knowledge, but I don’t think that should be our goal. Check out these verses:
“Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them” - Matthew 9:36
“When He went ashore, He saw a large crowd, and felt compassion for them” - Matthew 14:14
“When the Lord saw her, He felt compassion for her” - Luke 7:13
“But a Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion” - Luke 10:33

Do you see it? Do you see the theme here? In every instance, before the text says Jesus, or the Samaritan, felt compassion for someone, they SAW someone. That tells me that knowledge is not enough. Certainly Jesus had all knowledge, yet it was after He saw people, the text says, that He had compassion for them. Certainly Jesus had compassion for all mankind, but it became more personal as He saw people.

Who do you see that might need compassion? Note that the people that Jesus and the Samaritan saw were not their close friends, or even people they normally hang out with.

What’s the point? This: part of our growth as Christians is to constantly be mission-aware. We don’t all have to go to foreign lands to see this (although some people should), but that is a great way to see God’s activity outside our normal comfort zone. Another great way is to get involved with outreach activities already happening at your church, activities that take you away from the church building and into more of God’s kingdom. It could be a children’s ministry, a street ministry, a prison ministry… any type of ministry involving God’s call on your life to get out and see who needs compassion.

Scripture says that after Jesus saw people, He had compassion on them. Are you following in those footsteps?

Bounty for the Weekend

Saturday morning we had our first trip to the local “farmer’s market” for fresh fruits and vegetables. Although we didn’t take our camera to the market, we did get some photos of some of the stuff we bought. Someone recommended that we clean them first with a 15-minute soak in a weak bleach solution followed by a 5-minute soak in plain water. Here is a picture of the fruit drying after the final soak.

The strangest thing we got was a small red prickly fruit with a grape-like center and a large seed in the middle. The outside looks like one of those fuzzy stress balls. We had seen these in Honduras so they were not a total surprise, but they are unique, nonetheless!

We had several other surprises… the carrots were about as large as normal size cucumbers;
the “oranges” had generally green skins but were normal on the inside.

One more thing we are still getting used to is how many items are packaged in bags… salad dressing, mustard and mayo (we found ketchup in a plastic bottle, although it is sweeter than in the US), laundry detergent, milk, and a host of other things. We even saw plastic containers you could buy to put the bags in... a form of recycling!

Please understand we are only noting the differences, not saying anything about better or worse. We find it fascinating to see how different cultures use the resources they have and consider this part of our education.

We have one more day of orientation on Monday, August 31, and then classes start on Tuesday… woo-hoo!

Home, Sweet Home (San Jose, Costa Rica)

We are now one step up from homeless… we live on a street with no name. That is typical for this area, maybe even for Central America in general. Our official address, the street address I gave the cable company for installation, is “150 meters sur oeste del parque Los Sauces, edificio 309, apartamento 4” (150 meters southwest of Los Sauces Park, building 309, apartment 4). Please don’t send anything to that address: the box is very small and we probably won’t get it!

Speaking of housing, we did not expect the fortified housing we have seen. EVERY house has iron fences around their small front yards, and either iron gates to enclose their cars or mechanized solid walls that open for the cars. Our four-plex has a block wall, pointed iron bars, an iron gate, and razor wire over it all; I think our apartment is safe when we leave for the day!

Our Big Brother and Sister (Brian and Amanda) met us at the airport with Fernando and a van for our two trunks, two suitcases, and two backpacks: everything we own except for what we left in storage in Las Vegas. We got to our apartment with no problem. Brian and Amanda gave us a good walking tour of the area and we saw where the Spanish Language Institute (Instituto de Lengua Española) is (about a 10-minute walk). We stopped at a local place for lunch and realized it will take some time to get used to the money system here: lunch for 4 was 21,925 colones!

As it turns out, our apartment is on the bus route that circles our part of San Jose, which is not even on most tourist maps! Depending on the bus driver, the closest stop to our gate is about 10 feet or 200 yards! The closest major store is a Hiper Mas, similar to a super Wal-Mart, about 15-20 minutes by bus. It is so much like a Wal-Mart the employee badges have Wal-Mart printed on the top of the backside! One thing we found odd was that there were 1 or 2 vendor reps on every aisle helping customers choose the correct (their) brand! We’re not sure if that was because of the weekend, or if they will be there during the week as well.

The couple next door to us in our four-plex is attending the language school, also. They will be working in-country when they finish the course.

Saturday afternoon we found a nice church, spoke to some people that were making preparations, and decided to try it out Sunday morning. Although it was all in Spanish, we found we could follow most of the praise songs and the guest speaker used PowerPoint slides, so we could follow that, also. They emphasize small groups and we have a list to choose from.

Something we did not anticipate was how much we would have to buy once we moved into a furnished apartment: silverware, pots’n’pans, cleaning supplies, etc. The hard part is buying things we know we won’t be able to keep when we leave.

NONETHELESS, we are excited to be here, we are eager to start classes, and we look forward to what God has in store for us!

WE'RE HERE (HERE is San Jose, Costa Rica)

A big thanks to our Big Brother and Big Sister, Brian and Amanda Blalock. They met us at the airport with Fernando and a van to take us (and our stuff!) to the apartment they found for us. No pictures, yet, but we didn't expect to see everything looking like a compound. All the buildings, houses, apartments, have stone walls, or pipe fences, that go the the streets, and are topped with spiked fences and concertina wire!

We hope to have internet installed in our apartment sometime next week, and finish getting things setup. The priorities after we arrived yesterday were to get pillows for the bed and a coffee maker that worked.

Hope to have a more complete update, with pictures, in a few days.