Day 9: Sunday, March 14

- written by Susie, PC '11


Ah, the Lord’s day. Costa Rica has been just amazing so far, but also very full and rich and intense on so many different levels: Every day has been saturated with God’s greatness that stretched us individually and as a group and pushed us to break out of our physical, emotional, and spiritual comfort. ‘Never settle,’ God said. ‘I have things to teach you about Myself and what it means to KNOW Me that are far too great to be missed. And you WILL miss it if you just sit content on your comfortable notion of living as a Christian, or go only knee deep into the heavy waters of mercy. So then you, my children, shall die to yourselves and be born again, together, in freedom and hope, and laugh victoriously at the face of the Enemy that seeks to divide and oppress.’

And so has transpired much wrestling with insecurities and burdens in our plight to freedom and life in the Spirit, out of confusion and misery and into hope of love, peace and unity. All is well, all is well.

And I do not like to be vague—but the important thing that I see is that we’ve been LIVING the ministry of reconciliation (which is so fitting since the tour journal devotional for yesterday was on 2 Corinthians 5:16-21).

Many of us had become quite exhausted, running on almost-empty tanks, with much traveling and also circumstances that contributed stress upon stress (especially on our persevering tour managers and leaders). After yesterday’s J-Holy “concert,” everyone was clearly in need of Rest.

So, thanks be to the Lord for the Lord’s day. Just entering the bright, sunny sanctuary of International Baptist Church began to revive my spirit. I just love international churches. I had been to international Christian fellowships in Beijing and in Seoul, and I have always had an amazingly refreshing epiphany: that the Lord is the Lord of the whole planet Earth! To see people from every kind of nations and ethnicities and tongues and traditions coming together to worship one God, one Lord, in one Spirit, as one Church is the most amazing thing. I remember just exclaiming over and over again, ‘God is HUGE! God is HUGE! And He has touched the lives of every single one of us gathered here in this place from all around the world!’ Simply mind-blowing. Such realization of the scale of God’s greatness and might rushes into my soul with this weight of glory and I am just filled with wonder. And praise, most naturally. So I love international churches because this hint, this foretaste, lights something in me so that I dream of being in Heaven more vividly and more hopefully than ever.

And hope indeed does not disappoint us! Even my hyper-excitement could not have conveyed the full awesomeness of being with brothers and sisters from all around the world, singing with them and singing for them. It was good. It was very good. (And again, it was almost unbelievable for me that I was in Costa Rica, though I had been in Costa Rica for several days now. Again, so wonderful that I am somehow here in Costa Rica, in God’s presence, in Costa Rica?!)

After we returned from IBC, we had three hours of ‘free time’… which we spent talking as a group about everything—things that had to come out, things that had to be covered by humility, encouragement, understanding and love so that we could be hopeful and be reconciled to press on to move forward, on this tour and beyond. I am ever so amazed and thankful for my brothers and sisters who are so strong and courageous and for our God who heals and strengthens.

And off we went to Men’s and Women’s Night. I am sadly unable to give full information of what my good brothers did tonight, but I know that the women had a good sisterly time together at the shopping mall, then at a Mexican restaurant for dinner. It was lots of fun. And good food (mm fajita!). And a good time to just be with each other and share about ourselves, real and pleasant.

And another full day in Costa Rica concluded with everyone gathering together, men and women at peace (although it is clear that the women had a real good time, while the men went… bowling), and myself as the droplet of the day having the chance to share my life story, how I came to belong to Jesus. Pura Vida!

Tour Journal entry March 12th
Benjamin Robbins, SY '12
Buen Día and Centro Cultural
This morning was an early one for the Droplets. We were up at 5:30am to get ready and to the Channel 7 television station for our performance on Buen Día, the Costa Rican equivalent of The Morning Show. It was an intimidating gig to prepare for because most of us have never been on national television before. We thought carefully and prayed a lot about what it means to be representatives of Christ, desiring that as our only identity as we headed into an environment where perception can be skewed and actions can speak loudly to a lot of people. Our host, Edgar Silva, told us that while we were performing on the show (just one song, which you can watch at this link ) we were singing to probably over one million housewives of Costa Rica…which is likely the biggest audience that Living Water has ever had.
We performed I Understand, a gospel piece by Smokie Norful arranged by our own Kevin Ing (CC ’11), and then got a personal tour of the station by Edgar (who we are told is one of the most loved men in all of Costa Rica.) He showed us around his second home that is the studio and at the end we sang for him The Lord Bless You and Keep You, our traditional closing song. What surprised me personally, and the group concurred later, was how touched Edgar was by TLBY; he was visibly moved and expressed after we sang how touched he was. My initial response was to be surprised; I don’t really think of TLBY as out best song, and we sing it so often that I don’t really think about the words too much, but Edgar’s reaction made me stop and think. We do very much want to bless others as we tour and sing for the Lost, but I think sometimes we underestimate the power of some of the simplest gestures. Instead of the focus being on us, as a group, we were turning the attention on Edgar, seeking to serve and bless him with our music, and that caught him a little off guard. This is a man who is adored by all of Costa Rica, not just as a celebrity, but as an individual, and yet our blessing, our desire to serve him touched him deeply. Praise God for the way that he works in hearts. We don’t know where Edgar is spiritually, but we do know that our God moves in mighty ways.
The rest of that day we had some free time in the city and then headed to the Centro Cultural, a Central and North American Cultural center, for our evening’s performance. There were some hiccups in communication with the manager of the theater, Manuel, which tried everyone’s patience: the concert was advertised as starting at 8pm instead of 7:30, the newspapers didn’t put the advertisement in that was sent, things like that. The group was a little bit tired from our early morning and having just passed the halfway mark of our 12 day tour, so we were dealing with some exhaustion and low spirits. I’m not ashamed to talk about our hardships because I’ve learned that they are a part of ministry just like the good days. While our morning with Edgar Silva was great, by the time we had our pre-performance talk after supper, there was some tension among the group and a general sense of not being excited for the gig. Christian Young-Valdovinos, BR ’11 gave that talk, and it was very personal and very focused on the message that we bear. I think we were all a little shocked at his forwardness, but we needed a sort of radical reminder of the way that Jesus changes lives, and that we have been charged to tell the world about Him. The performance tonight was for a small audience, but because of that spiritual refocusing, it was the most worshipful one yet.

Day 1 March 6, 2010-Alice Kong

Hello Costa Rica! Today was day one of Living Water’s first International Tour. We’ve been up, literally ALL day. At 11:30 pm (on Friday), we met at Phelps Gate, spent some time in prayer with a nice send off by our fellow droplet Jason Chu, and then headed off to John F. Kennedy Airport in New York in our three rental cars. Having safely arrived at the airport around 2:30am, we checked in, and waited for Derek who was planning on meeting us at the airport. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 5:00 am and it wasn’t until the last passengers were boarding the plane, that Derek came strolling through the terminal to our gate. Praise God that we all made it onto the plane safe and sound. I was thinking about how ridiculous it was that we were traveling at such a late/early hour, even after 8 weeks of sleep deprivation at school, and I can’t help but thank God for the abundance of His grace in giving all of us energy and strength to stay awake until we made it onto the plane. The moment I sat down in my seat, I knocked out. I awoke to the sound of the flight attendant so beautifully announcing that the weather in Costa Rica was 72 degrees Fahrenheit. Oh sweet and glorious words of bliss! Nearly 40 degrees warmer than New Haven! We got off the plane to the sight of bright blue sky and lush green palm trees blowing in the wind. Talk about the trees the dancing and declaring the glory of God! If I thought the scenery outside the airport was beautiful, I couldn’t even imagine what the rest of the country would look like. Our shuttle picked us up from the airport around 9:30 am and dropped seven of us at the Greenhouse Hostel and then took the rest to Luis’ house. The whole shuttle ride, I stuck my head out the window and soaked in as much of the sun, the smells, and the sights as I could. Costa Rica is such a beautiful and bright and colorful place. Around lunchtime, the droplets at the hostel walked up to Luis’ house where Luis’ mom, Dona Myrna, greeted us with kisses (besitos) on the cheek and had prepared an enormous and incredibly delicious meal for us. I think all of us were paralyzed afterwards by how good the food was and also by the sheer amount of food that we consumed. Oh man, Costa Rican food is sooo good. After lunch, Luis gave us a tour of his neighborhood, Barrio Cordoba in Zapote, San Jose. We walked to his second house where we met one of his four brothers, Sergio, who is a professional musician. He played some saxophone for us and it was beautiful! While walking around outside, Luis pointed out the many mango, papaya, banana trees which were interspersed among the brightly colored houses and exotic plants and flowers. We played around in a children’s park for a bit and then some of us went to a small shopping mall to get a few toiletries and other little essentials/random things. We ate another large and delicious meal at Luis’ house, had our very first debriefing with Luis as our first droplet of the day, and then parted ways to pretty early so that we could sleep and prepare our hearts for the next day. I’m so thankful that our first day was so smooth and that God brought us here safely. I’m excited to see what God has in store for us, ways He will stretch and grow us individually, ways He will draw us closer to each other, and how He will cause our hearts to flow rivers of living water for the people of Costa Rica these next 11 days. G-prov!

Living Water on Buen Dia TV show!

Check out our perfomance on Buen Dia, a morning show in Costa Rica, similar to the Today Show in the United States.


http://www.teletica.com/noticia-detalle.php?id=39537&idp=3

Living Water: coro estadounidense trae mensaje positivo a Costa Rica
Edgar Silva
Adaptación Teletica.com
12 de marzo, 2010

Estos días, se encuentra de visita en Costa Rica el coro de la Universidad de Yale: "Living Water a Cappella".

Vienen para hacer una gira y presentarse en comunidades de escasos recursos

La Universidad de Yale está ubicada en la ciudad de New Haven, Connecticut, al noreste de Estados Unidos, es una de las universidades más prestigiosas de Norteamérica.

Living Water se fundó en 1979 y ya han producido 4 discos. Su principal caracterísitca son sus impecables armonías y su habilidad de cantar diversos estilos de música.

Su gira 2010 tiene música góspel afroamericana, canciones tradicionales y rock y pop contemporáneo, tanto en inglés como en español, bajo la dirección de Alice Kong. El coro está conformado por 11 miembros, incluido el costarricense Luis Diego Granera Vega.

Living Water realizará 11 conciertos durante sus 12 días en Costa Rica en sitios como: Teatro Eugene O'Neill, Teatro JHoly, la Escuela Internacional Cristiana y la iglesia Bautista Internacional, entre otros.

Day 5: God of Wonders Costa Rica Style

Our day today was super relaxing, sooooo relaxing, but not without it's fun challenges. First, 8 members woke up early in the morning for a 7:45 pick up by the zipline canopy company. We loaded onto the air conditioned van and set off for a morning in the cloud reserve forest. After a nice breakfast in the forest we suited up in harness gear that would safely take us whizzing through the forest on steel cables. The hike the first line was pretty intense, but once we made it up the mountain, we were ready to go, i.e. ready to sing :) We sang a rousing version of Open Up the Sky while looking over the mountain peaks to the valley below. It was a moment I will always remember. Other than the slight mishap of Ben¨s shoe flying to the forest floor in a fit of excitement (a guide did retrieve it for him later though, haha), we had a great time. We were even able to sing What Wonderous Love for the about 40 people also in our zipline group. It was a great time. After ziplining, we rejoined the other 3 Droplets who hung out at the hotel in the morning and we headed for Manuel Antonio Beach. Our amazing van driver (but he is so awesome that he is actually part of the group now ), got us a tent for $10 so we would not be scorched under the sun. It was a good purchase! The thing I liked most about the beach was all the space to have good conversations with people. Being on tour with your 11 brothers and sisters, around the clock, 24 hours a day, can get tiring and can really test your love for one another. Just getting to relax and have "Kashi Heart To Heart" conversations (as Esther likes to call them), was so much fun and really allowed all of us to get to know each other better. Later that night at the hotel pool, Kevin (who is a liscenced swim instructor at Payne Whitney) gave me swimming lessons. He says I went through a whole semester worth of instruction in 1 hour! I guess he is just a great teacher. Tomorrow we leave Manuel Antonio for our performance at the United States Embassy. I am sure it will be awesome. We are praying for rested voices ready to sing and hearts that desire enlighted hearts of the Embassy staff who listen.

--Amy E. Jones