intersections: theology, technology, politics

It’s 5am local time on our second day here at the base. We have a packed schedule of training and sessions today to prepare us for our outreaches beginning Saturday and going through Wednesday. Someone from our team has been asked to preach at the local Vineyard on Sunday. Breakfast is served at 7:15am, followed by 45 minutes of quiet time. Then we have our first session of the day.

The base is an old mushroom farm;  it’s nice. There are bunk beds and showers. We are situated on a mountain top at 5,000 feet. There’s a nice breeze throughout the day, and though it’s the rainy season, it hasn’t rained yet. We had a lovely dinner last night followed by an evening session.

Today we start learning our skits for open-air ministry on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings. We are performing a skit called, “The Family.”

I’ve found everyone on the base staff team to be so nice and friendly, and our team leaders, two Canadians, seem great. They don’t speak Spanish, but that’s no problem.

All of our students are in good spirits and health and seem to be enjoying their experience so far. We all are a bit tired from our travels but grateful for our safety and protection.

With love from Costa Rica!

Evening Worship

I was recently at a youth conference where one of the speakers said that people are just waiting for others to tell them about Jesus, people are just waiting for us to get up the nerve and tell them about Jesus, but we are ashamed or afraid to speak out and so these people and others like them will perish and it will be our fault (they didn’t say that last part, but that’s clearly what is implied). And what does this invoke in our students, guilt. And we have a long history of Jesus using guilt to woo people and invite them into relationship with him.

If all these people are waiting for us to tell them about Jesus, why don’t they wear a sign or a graphic tee that says as much. They don’t wear a sign, because many of them aren’t in fact waiting for us to tell them about Jesus, most are doing just fine without him. But we do have a biblical call to share the good news, that much is clear. But I believe the call to share the good news has to be good news.