7:00 AM
Another beautiful day in San Isidro, Costa Rica. Sun is shining and the temperature must be in the 70′s. I just finished breakfast, with lots of good Costa Rican coffee!

The night was a little rough due to the tingling in my hands and forearms from the hard digging yesterday. I have new appreciation and thankfulness for the principle of a “Sabbath Rest.” I REALLY need one today!

8:00 AM
In about an hour, we leave en masse for a local church service. Last night at our “Crew Meeting,” Mark Edwards asked us to observe and make note of cultural observations we have while experiencing the Tico style of worship and “doing church.” I am looking forward to the experience.

9:00 AM
We left for church and arrived at Cominidad Cristiana Hijos Del Rey about 40 minutes later. We were a bit late due to detours we needed to make in order to avoid the preparation for a parade which I will explain later on. The service had already started, and we could hear the praise songs from the street. The service was a very interesting study in cross-cultural worship styles and expressions. Here are my sermon notes and observations from the day (Page 1 and 2)

4:45 PM
We have just returned from visiting downtown San Isidro where we watched a parade, visited the Roman Catholic Church, and walked through the street viewing street art made of flowers, fruit, plants and sawdust, plus various other elements – all in celebration of the parade. Although we do not yet fully understand the meaning of the parade, we heard that it will help raise money for the local public library. I guess they have not heard about the separation of church and state in Costa Rica.

8:45 PM
We have just finished evening dinner and our Crew Meeting. By the way, the food here at the training center/campus has been very good. Dinner was preceded by a time of discussion in our room with Ken and later with Bob, about post-modern thoughts and trends in the church, and in culture, especially in light of the cross-cultural exposure we had during the day. At dinner we asked about the meaning of the parade we saw in town that afternoon. The explanation was that once a year, the townspeople have a parade to celebrate that Christ is the King of their town! The question that immediately came to mind was, “Then why did they appear so sad?” The music they played and the way they walked and looked was very-very sad… almost like a funeral dirge and procession. It still did not make much sense to us who saw it.