6:30 AM
I am awake, so I quietly got up, showered, dressed and headed up to the main house to type this blog, while Steve and John Tanner were asleep in our cabin. I guess I am too excited to go back to sleep, plus I have to start preparing to change my internal clock again back to my usual 4:30 AM rising. It’s another beautiful morning here in Costa Rica – sunny and clear and cool up here in the foothills. Perfect weather for me.

Mark Edwards is already up here making coffee and talking with a youth pastor named Darrel, visiting from the US and planning a future trip to CR with his youth group. The main room is set up in a circle for our morning meeting right after breakfast. We will have a time of sharing, reflection and communion together lead by Pastor Bob.

MUSINGS
Things I’ve thought about or learned on this trip:
• Working with concrete
• Latin American culture and the ministry of Sonlife and International Teams
• Getting to know some other guys in a deeper way is really good for my soul
• God is a Master Architect and Builder, who has a plan, and has blessed me immensely by making me a part of it. I am a living stone.
• I need to personally focus on obedience to God’s plan for me.
• I love Pat’s jokes! He makes me laugh! That’s good!
• Christians around the world in different cultures believe the same basic doctrines (orthodoxy), but differ greatly in how that doctrine is lived out in their cultures (orthopraxy). “It’s not right or wrong – It’s just different.”
• There is a special bond created between men when they work together physically and hard, toward a common purpose and goal.
• The world is a very big place, full of people who desperately need to hear the Good News of Jesus the Christ
• Bob Boerman is my “Senior” Pastor. I need no other.
• I usually think more highly of myself than I ought.
• I can often take pride in my humility
• I have a long way to go in my spiritual journey to be more like Jesus
• It takes a lot of hard work to love people in a different culture over a long period of time.

7:15 AM
I hear more people and activity ramping up as I have been writing this. Breakfast is at 8 AM today.

8:45 AM
Breakfast is over and we are either packing or doing our “devotions.” I am reading and thinking about the scripture for today in 1 Corinthians 3:10-15, “By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.”

11:00 AM
We left the campus and drove toward the airport and stopped at a restuarant calledf Rosti Pollo for lunch. It was a good time of fellowship shared around a table. After that, we said our good-bye’s to Mark and Stewart who are staying on an extra week in CR, and our friends Mark and Karen Edwards. We also said good bye to Ken Bylsma, our foreman, who is staying on to oversee another work group next week.

2:30 PM
We made it through all the ticketing, taxing and security at the airport and waited for our flight to board. Some of us did last minute shopping in the duty free area. I picked up a Ken Follet paperback thriller called “Whiteout” and a Snickers bar. I ate it on the plane, and started the book. It’s good.

9:15 PM
We are in the air somehwere north and east of Charlotte, N.C. on our way to Chicago. The flight from San Jose to the US was uneventful. The connection at Charlotte was a bit nerve-wracking. Once we deplaned in Chalotte, we had to first wait in long lines and go through U.S. Customs, then pick up our baggage, then re-check it in on the connecting flight, then run to the new gate (which was far away) to board for the next flight. We were not sure if we would all make it because there was only one hour between floights in which to do all of this. However, U.S.Airways delayed the flight a bit and we all made it – even John Tanner, who was originally booked on a later flight! Eddie and Mike were seated in First Class for some strange reason!

I called and spoke to Deb a couple times about the delay and that we were in fact on the plane. She is picking us up at O’Hare tonight. Speaking of O’Hare, once we landed and taxied to the jetway, our captain notified us that it appeared that the jetway motors were on fire! We sat for at least 45 minutes while they scrambled to put out the fire and move us with a “tug” to a different jetway. What a shock top walk off into the subzero temperatures! Welcome to Chicago! It also took a whole to get our baggage. By the time Pat and I got ours, and Deb drove us back to Oak Park, we didn’t get to bed until 1 or 1:30 AM. A very long day!

I am so grateful to all those who supported me for this trip. Thank you to each one of you! You know who you are! I’ll post some additional thoughts in the next week as this trip soaks in more and I process it off-line. Thanks for reading. Feel free to post your comments.