David's Story

Monday, March 11

Monday morning meeting: Hector talked about how special this weekend was for him because Eddie preached in Spanish.  He talked about how fluent and comfortable Eddie was while he was preaching.  It was an encouragement to Eddie, to the teachers and to the other students.  Learning Spanish is possible and having a student preach on Sunday is the ultimate test.  I a proud of his efforts and also we give all the glory to God.  Eddie is the first to say “it wasn’t me… it was the Holy Spirit.”

We also met a new student and a guy who is going with us to Chirripo.  The new student’s name is Andrea and she is from Oklahoma.  The guy’s name is David and he is from Pennsylvania.  He has an amazing story.  I want to share it with you, but I will be hearing more about it tomorrow, so stay tuned.

Eddie and I had class with Patricia again, and Eddie asked if we can practice speaking in “tú” form because when we get back to Florida, we will need to speak it and understand it.  Costa Rican’s use the “usted” form and it is much more formal than people in the states.  I feel like I am relearning how to speak Spanish because I haven’t practiced that form much.  I know that I will need to just persevere when we get back and listen to any Spanish I can get my hands on.

For lunch today, we invited the Morgue family to join us.  There was a meeting for people going to Chirripo, so they needed to stay at school for that.  If they went home, they could not be back on time for it.  The Chirripo meeting consisted of question and answer time and Daniel actually being serious for once.  He shared with us a little about what to expect and even showed us a video.

When we got home, it was naptime for Jaden and homework time for Eddie and I.  Later we had dinner and Eddie went to the Core Church member meeting.  Hector and Zeidy both had very encouraging words for him.  They talked to him about how blessed they are since we came to CISA.  Although Eddie doesn’t feel like he did much, he felt a calling from God and followed through.  That tiny step of obedience led to some big changes in the church and in the hearts of all those people at the meeting tonight.  I don’t get to attend them because of Jaden, but I love hearing Eddie tell me about them when he gets home.  It is so encouraging to know that these people are on fire for the Lord!

Tuesday, March 12

David’s story:  David’s father took a trip to an indigenous tribe in the jungle of Venezuela back in the 70’s.  Ken was an anthropologist and he was planning to stay a few weeks to study the people there.  He ended up staying for 12 years.  He fell in love with an indigenous woman and they had 3 children together.  David is the oldest of the three children.  She was truly indigenous with piercings and all and very little clothing.  Some time past and David’s father made arrangements for his wife and kids to move to the states.  He has pictures and video of their life in the states. National Geographic even made a documentary about their family and their trip back to visit her tribe in the jungle.

They lived in New Jersey for 4 years before his wife fell into a deep depression.  She was in culture shock.  Everything scared her from mirrors to the sound of cars starting to waking up in a room surrounded by four walls.  She wanted to go back.  National Geographic documented their journey.  It took them 6 days on a river and a few more days of walking to find her tribe.  They stayed for about 5 days before they had to return.  A few months later, their family returned to visit her tribe, and David’s mother did not want to go back to the states with her husband.  David’s parents were separated when he was five years old.

2 years ago, David felt called to seek out his mother and go and find her.  He has memories of her and he wanted to see her.  He sent someone to her tribe to find her and make sure she was still alive.  Eventually, he got his passport and all the paperwork needed and went to see her.

He has a video of the moment he found her.  He couldn’t understand her and she couldn’t understand him because of the language barrier, but the tears were flowing.  She was so happy to see her son 20 years later.  She has one more child with a man there, but his father is still single.

His father wrote a book and I plan to read it.  It is entitled: “Into the heart” by Ken Good.  He writes about his time with the indigenous tribe and falling in love and getting married. 

We asked David if he plans to write the rest of the story.  I hope so because I would love to read it.  He is a unique individual with a precious story.  He has a website with the title “My Life’s Mission” where he plans to share more of his story.  It is not ready yet, but I hope to follow it once it is.

He is here in Costa Rica this week to visit the Chirripo tribe with Daniel and Hector and the rest of our group.  He is studying anthropology and hopes to share his findings and help those in need.

Our day consisted of learning more “subjunctivo” verb forms in class, lunch with Gatica, petting a horse in our neighbor’s backyard, and packing for our trip to Chirripo tomorrow.  Eddie went to town to pick up few necessities for our trip with Hector and some of the other guys.  Along the way, he learned that David is not a believer.  Please pray for God to touch his heart on this trip.

We also packed up Jaden’s stuff and went to Freddy and Samia’s house for dinner.  It was delicious, and I am not worried about him staying with them for the next three days.  Still, it is hard to say goodbye to your son… especially while in a foreign country.  Samia and Freddy and the kids will take good care of him and he will have sooooo much fun!

Please pray for us as we leave for Chirripo at 5:30 am and plan to drive 2 hours and then hike for 6 hours.  Pray for strength for our team, pray for good health for our team, and pray that we will be open to the changes God is going to make in our hearts through this trip to the indigenous tribe.  See you on Friday!