Change again... and again... and ...

We will soon have to move from our current place... which we really liked a lot actually.  But on the other hand; we already knew we could only stay short term here anyway.
It's just a bit frustrating to not have a stable place to lay our heads, especially when one gets accustomed to where we now lived for a while.

However this is life on the road & life traveling after all.... and it comes "as part of the package" when one is out and about on a trip (living on a very limited budget).

Now the trouble is that we have not found an alternative place to stay yet.... but hopefully we will be able to do so before we have to move.... which will be in 3 weeks time.

We do ask around frequently in the area we live now since we like it so much here.... and hopefully it will pay off sooner rather than later.
But nothing is certain in life.... except for uncertainty.

 

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Our cong in Costa Rica

Preaching with circuit overseer

Our circuit overseer is here this week and today we preached close to where we live.
Turnout was the best one ever.

But as you probably noticed already I'm not taking many photos nowadays because it just annoys me BIGTIME!!!
The camera on this phone is sooooo slow & it takes 10 seconds just for my phone to be ready to shoot, then there is a second delay when I shoot as well. And finally the quality of the image files are rubbish.

I really wish my iPhone was working because im missing out on a lot on memories .... and all if you in Europe miss out on following us in the blog as well :(

Riddled with bullet holes

Out preaching in our personal territory today and came across this traffic sign on the main road.

Now this comes across as a fairly quiet place to us (in the daytime at least) thus I don't understand why the sign is riddled with bullet holes from a rifle or handgun.
Strange indeed.....

Supermarket. ... hardly not - LOL

This is the supermarket where we live; its a corner shop on the "main road" going through the village.

The good. ...
We don't have to travel all the way to the city to get the basics (it's a 30min trip and the bus only leaves once an hour).
The bad. ...
Expensive and not very much choice.

Forgot to mention one thing...

Its rainy season here at the moment, thus almost every day it rains.... and when it rains, then let me assure you..... then it rains bigtime!!!
We therefore have to attempt to get all preaching-work completed by midday, because when it starts raining its simply too much to do streetwork or any other kind of witnessing.

Another problem is ... its also impossible to predict where/how/when it will start raining, because looking at the sky does not give any clues.
One day.
It looks like it will rain and we might hesitate to go out.... but it's no rain in sight all day.
The next day.
It looks all fine... so out we go and then.... surprise surprise... we end up standing in a shower on full blast.

Some stuff

Some of the stuff we find on the trees when walking home after the ministry.... and we are picking to our hearts content.

There is so much around it just falls on the ground and wastes away.

On these photos u see we brought home Oranges & Guava today.

Great territory

Today we been to our personal territory again that is called SAN RAMÓN SUR link.
The feedback + response we normally get in that area is just fantastic, so it's such a shame we can't go more often to that area of the city (currently only once a week approx).

Now.... since we always find people who are interested over there we thought that we should maybe even move over in a months time (since we have to move out of our current flat then).
But as we kept looking we found that its very hard to find any type accommodation in that area; thus it does not seem feasible now.

In any case.... today we yet again met several interested persons... and one guy especially was really keen; so I will probably start studying with him next time around. He is open to discuss with us every time we show up there.... great potential & a guy who seems to think a lot outside the box!!

Another good (and different) thing today was that we found quite a few men in the territory... normally its always women who are home during the day in this country.... but for some reason that was not so today :)

We just had an earthquake.

Below is an extract from 2x English speaking news sources related to an earthquake which just hit us here in Costa Rica.
But its quite funny actually (at least seen from our point of view) since neither me; nor Mily, noticed anything at all of what happened because we sat on the bus at the time ...
And believe you me this really proves the point regarding the state of the roads here. Going into town and back from here is just so extremely bad + bumpy that we never even noticed what happened around us.

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News Source 1.

Two strong temblors of magnitudes 4.9 and 6.7 shook most of Costa Rica on Monday at 9:31 p.m. and 9:52 p.m.
A report by the Volcanological and Seismological Observatory of Costa Rica registered the first temblor’s epicenter at 50 kilometers (31 miles) west of Bahia Ballena, in the southern Pacific, while the second was located in the northern Pacific, near the Nicaraguan coast.

The National Seismological Network reported the magnitudes at 5.3 and 6.3, respectively.
Emergency officials have not received any reports of injuries or significant damage to structures.

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News Source 2

The powerful earthquake was felt throughout much of Central America, including Costa Rica, as well as El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and Panama.

Nicaraguan emergency officials are continuing to assess the damage from the quake, which was followed by at least 17 aftershocks in Nicaragua alone.

The University of Costa Rica recorded a magnitude 5.3 earthquake s20 minutes prior to the powerful Nicaragua quake, with its epicenter 37 kilometers from Bahia Ballena, in Osa.

Local currency

This is the local currency. ... an awful lot of zeros ;-)

At today's exchange rate £ 1 is equivalent to 865 Costa Rican Colones.

A reminder of how good we have it

It's always an enlightenment to travel regardless of the continent or the country I ever traveled to; and Costa Rica is no exception.... and today as we were out preaching in our personal territory it hit me again from another angle.

As we spoke to people we were struck by our ignorance of this part of the world... how our outlook of this country has been formed (incorrectly) by information we seen on TV and read on the internet.
True, both Mily and myself are actually extremely selective in the information + news-sources we access to educate ourselves since we don't want to access junk, we want accurate and interesting information.
But it seems that what we thought was "accurate knowledge" regarding this country was nothing more than preconceived ideas accumulated from various news sources :(

I also recall a previous post on our blog where we highlighted our surprise of the amount of substandard accommodation when going house to house; and we also highlighted how poor many actually are. We stated how this was something we expected to see in Nicaragua; but not in Costa Rica.
In any case, my reason for writing this post is not a continuation of the standard of living issue.
No... today we were struck by another thing while preaching.

What I wanted to write about today is peoples level of education and their outlooks on life + the world today.
While we were out preaching we discussed the Bible's sign of the last days with a family here..... however we realized that our attempt to create common ground with them did not work out.

      As we spoke to them we tried to make the case for how things are deteriorating globally in the last days, for example increase insecurity, wars in the Middle East; earth quakes, deceases, the threat of ISIS etc, etc.
      But as we presented the case to them we realized that this family are completely oblivious to what happens on a global scale in this world!!??!
      They are unaware what happens in large parts of the globe.
      We can not blame them or hold them accountable since it is not their fault having limited global insight... they just happen to be fed with very limited news and limited information in regards to things on a global perspective.
      The only information they have (since many can not afford cable TV or internet) is very shallow and often irrelevant in the bigger picture. All information they get tends to focus on local issues; and at the very best sometimes what happens on this continent.

For this reason, today was a good reminder for us that we are not only blessed with material riches in Europe. We are also blessed with access to information (multiple sources as well) and this access can sometimes be a much richer blessing than access to material things and money.

Video and photo from our personal territory

Today we started working in our personal territory that we been given called San Ramon Sur.
Lots of need and lots of good returns and plenty of discussions. 

This will be a great place to spend a few months; it's not too far from San Isidro, only 30 mins on the bus. ... but still there is a very big difference in their mindset and approach to spiritual things. A lot of them think outside the box and are open to discuss with us.

I also noticed that quite a few are not very well off at all here; it's almost a bit like Nicaragua with very run down shanty houses that are in a dire need of repairs. 

The police that showed up briefly in the video-clip were looking for "someone", and lots of others showed up a bit later in other cars and motorbike.
We stayed in this area all afternoon but we still don't know what actually happened here or who they looked for and/or why.

I still have not got my iPhone up and running so photos are still far and few between on this blog. 
I can only use my Note 2 phone that is SOOO slow .... so once I'm ready to shoot something then it's already gone and disappeared :(

 

Back with the boys

After our ministry today we went over to visit the brothers in the first place where we stayed here in Costa Rica. They invited us to eat with them.... but looking at the amount of meat in the food we kindly declined ;)

They always seem to have a lot of people hanging around the house. ... I get the feeling they (Nicaraguan brothers) are a lot more social than the Costa Rica equivalents. 

Assembly

We had our circuit assembly this weekend. Around 1500-2000 present.

ASAMBLEA DE CIRCUITO
Tema: "Busque la paz y siga tras ella"
1 Pedro 3:11

No guns or dogs

Sign in the local supermarket;  no weapons or dogs allowed in the store ;)