Treasures in heaven....

Many of you have already read the facebook post from 2 weeks ago. If you haven't, here it is...

Yesterday I was blessed to see my family walking the walk! We were going to San Jose for my birthday trip and stopped at a store for less than 15 minutes. When we returned to the car the lock had been removed,the radio stolen, 3 backpacks with our clothes, 1 computer,2 ipads, a kindle, iphone, ipod, 2 bibles, Pat's passport, camera,and several other items. My kids rocked! Yes they will miss their things. They pretty much had half of everything they owned in the car, clothes included. But...God is still their God. We realize someone likely saw Americans get out of the car and assumed we had lots to offer. We proved them right. They scored big. They will have a great Christmas. But so will we! We won't be buying Christmas gifts because we will be busy celebrating the gift, Jesus. We pray that those who now have our possessions will one day receive the true gift as well. Now that our electronic distrations are gone we will have more time for relationships, serving Christ, and worshipping our Lord.

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where theives break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where theives do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also " Matthew 5:19-21

Even though we had lots of stuff, we stand firm that our treasures are not here on earth.

We had a lot of electronics in the car with us.  We were going to San Jose for 24 hours.  Our lifestyle had become dependent on these items.  I could justify why we had each item with us for such a short journey.  In my mind, and likely most of yours, they would be good reasons.  But life without them hasn't been bad either.  Austin's phone is missed the most.  We do not have a land line here so we relied heavily on his phone.  Of course, God knows that.  We have a neighbor who lent us a phone until we could get a replacement.  We had another missionary family here in CR also give us a phone to replace Pat's that was stolen.  When God tells us not to worry, he means it.

The blessings have not stopped.  God is opening our eyes and revealing Himself in ways we have been too busy to see before.  My grandma and grandpa live in Bell, FL.  It is a very small town with a small church that has been praying for us throughout our journey.  When they found out what happened, they took up a love offering for us.  What a humbling experience!  God used his people, who don't know us, to remind us that we are not on this journey alone. 

Blogging and facebook updates are not my strength, but my facebook post the day before the break in went like this...

Thankful today that I was home when the pipe burst in the bathroom. Thankful for tile floors that are very durable and easy to clean when covered an inch or so in water. Thankful for a son who speaks Spanish and an awesome neighbor who came quickly to the rescue. Thankful for the unbelievable amount of towels I have here to soak up all the water. Thankful I was able to get them all washed by midnight so we can go to San Jose tomorrow. Most of all, I'm thankful for a mighty God who would have provided for me even if I wasn't home, didn't have tile floors, towels, or an awesome son and neighbor!

That night I was truly thankful that I took the time out of my day to see that God has all of my needs taken care of before they are revealed to me.  I was thankful that everything I need to take care of the situation was readily available to me.  The next day, I felt very unprepared by our events.  While we as a family handled the situation with the same faith and trust in God, I did not forsee how He had already taken care of my needs. I knew that we were going to be fine without our material possessions, but I didn't understand that some of them were going to come back to us and it had nothing to do with what we did.  Over these last two weeks, I see that God has already taken care of everything and it's only a matter of time before I see the completion. 

Basic living in Costa Rica is very inexpensive.  But, anything extra is outrageous.  We did some research here and an ipad costs $1500.  If they cost that much in the US, we would not have had one.  No wonder we get labeled rich Americans.  Last week, someone stole my 2 pairs of sneakers off of our gated front porch.  The weather here has been awful and they were both wet and muddy, yet they were better than the shoes that our new friend now has.  I know this because I saw his shoes in the trash right by our house.Nike's here are over $200.  I didn't pay that much.  Culturally, I don't think we were prepared for some of the differences.  We know plenty of people here who have the same things we had in the car with us.  But, it is viewed differently by some who think we have everything because we are American.  

It is our job to show them that we do have everything.  But, it's not because we are American.  It's because we have accepted the free gift that has been so graciously offered to us at such a tremendous sacrifice.  It is my prayer that the people here would see the light, Jesus, shine through us and that they would come to experience the same joy we have in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

The first 90 days...

Sunday we will have to leave the country because we will have been here for 90 days. Our first trip will be to Panama to continue to practice our Spanish skills and visit the Panama Canal. Amazingly, Turrialba has become home already. Our friends live down the street, our backyard is a peaceful place for quiet time and a gathering place for games and laughter, we look forward to crawling into our bed at night. Now, if Publix and Chick-fil-A would open up we may not need to come back to Tallahassee. It's a small town so we often recognize people out and about and don't exactly feel like strangers anymore.

I am hoping the first 90 days was our trial period. It was filled with trial and error. Pat and I had a lot of growing and maturing to do that was painful at times. We are still uncertain where God wants us to worship or even what that place looks like. Will we be big fish or small fish there?  Will it be our time of growth or our time to help others grow?  We sort of gave God a deadline of October 19th ( when we return from Panama). That never works does it?  He hasn't budged. I feel less peace today about any one direction than I did 3 weeks ago.

However, that does not mean God isn't working!  Shea and I have online Bible Studies with friends back home. We have Christian friends here who speak English and we can encourage one another. We have built strong relationships in our community. Austin is being led to lead a youth group Bible study. There is a group of teens who attend a youth service on Saturday nights a few towns over and my kids have joined in. Movie night is still a go. We've even been invited to some friends and watched "Courageous."  Our biggest ministry right now is that every Thursday we have a kid's club here. It starts at 3:00pm and goes until late in the evening. We play games, read a Bible story, make a craft, and have a snack. Week 1 we read the Good Samaratian and made a first aid kit. Week 2 was the fruit of the spirit. This will be week 3 and we will be memorizing Juan 3:16. I'm so proud of my kids for learning the language and being able to communicate with large crowds in Spanish glorifing the Lord. We usually end up with about 20 people.

If any of you are interested in putting together a mission team or joining one, please let me know.

Saying goodbye...

This morning we rode to San Jose to see off our friends who have been staying with us for the past week.  We will miss the friendship and help.  Tony and Belinda have a rare combination of organizational and mechanical skills that come in handy when moving in and fixing up.   The children, Caleb and Hannah, brought energy and musical talent to set the foundation for and cap off each day.  Last but not least, muscician Jon Nicholson bridged the gap between the parents and kids.  John often  lead worship during our devotional time and his ability to speak the universal language of music broke the ice when palabras (words) were lacking. This week was about getting organized and getting connected.

Wednesday the 23rd of July our  group drove 18 kilometers through the cane fields to a primary school at Haciende Oriente where we presented the Colors of the Gospel and handed out bracelets so the students could remember the Good News. The school has 37 students and is situated on the edge of a farm in the mountains of central Costa Rica.  The scenery is beautiful. Taking advantage of the rich soil, the cafeteria ladies have planted a successful garden next to the cafeteria.   The principal, Minor, welcomed our variety of personalities and abilities and taught us a few new songs.  Hazel cooked up some typical Tico soup and we refreshed the cafeteria  by repainting all the chairs with the same colors that were part of our Good News presentation.

Tony and Belinda start to work on the cafeteria chairs.

Minor and John talking  music.



Hannah getting some food from Hazel



Shea and a student jump rope while Tony twirls it.  



Tony and Hannah doing quality checks on the green chairs. 



School garden planted next to the cafeteria. 

The colors of the Gospel.

Hazel takes us to the top of the mountain community. 

Blessings....

  Blessings come in many forms. We were very blessed to host our first mission group.   It was a little crazy trying to organize a mission trip when we had only been here for 5 days.  Several of our plans fell through (which seems to be fairly typical of the area). So....we improvised. And as always God was faithful.

In March, Pat and Austin met a family that lives right down the street from our house. Austin was able to keep in touch with them via Skype until our move. Twenty minutes after we arrived in July, Valentina (5) rode her bike by our house and spotted us. She greeted us with the loudest, happiest scream I have ever heard.  She quickly ran home and returned with her siblings, Nahomy (12) and Gael (2).  We became very close to their family in just a few short days. Evelyn and Deiver ( the parents) hung out with us for 4-8 hours a day.  Our relationship has been much like that of long lost cousins. Deiver was laid off from the Rawlings Baseball plant. He has been out of work for about 3 months now and is having a hard time looking for work with no car, scoliosis, and a herniated disk in his lower back.  The night we were preparing for The Stephens and Jon Nicholson to arrive, the kids went to their house for dinner. Grandma was visiting and had promised Austin a home cooked meal. The kids had a great time and mentioned that floors of Evelyn and Deiver's house were all cement. Ok...they do things differently here. No big deal.

A few days later, Pat walked down to their house for the first time.  He noticed that they could use our help.  Here we were searching for ideas and projects in town and our very own neighbors (notice a theme here) could use some help. They had recently done an expansion on the house and ran out of concrete before finishing the kitchen.



Nahomy doing the dishes in the before picture.

Bags of concrete mix.




The floor after removing the sink.

View of the kitchen from the outside.  Notice there is no door.  They have 2 old doors that lean up against the opening.

Our Story

     I know the move seems random to many of you, but it really was pretty calculated.  Well...as calculated as the Sullivan family gets anyway.   The idea of a long term family mission trip sprouted many years ago, but as we all know these sort of things take much time and planning.  Over the past 17 years, Pat has poured his heart and soul into his company creating the means to make this all happen. The kids and I have been diligent at home to ensure that they were a year ahead academically so that we could take a year off and simply serve the Lord. I cannot tell you what an honor it is that God has made this possible for us.
      I love to look back and see his hand guiding us every step of the way. I regret that I can also look back and see us pushing him away and taking matters into our own hands. The most exciting part of this experience is that we realize we are now at a point where God is the only one who can be in control. The 5 of us are so far out of our comfort zone that we can only rely on him now.  It didn't start that way. I wanted to control where we would live (at the beach near people who speak English), how long we would be gone (3 months), and who would be over us (some experienced Godly family who has done the same thing we are doing and has kids the same ages as ours).   I had my list of ministries we could work with and their contact information. We spoke with friends who have a condo in Costa Rica along with ready made connections. Pat and I booked a flight to Costa Rica to check things out and make sure we (I) approved of them. By the time we boarded the plane, God had narrowed our list down to one place, Turrialba, Costa Rica with International Impact Ministries.
     Taking a step this big requires us to live out our faith. Being we are going on a mission trip, I figured we should just follow his calling and go where he leads us.  We read a great book a few years ago called, The Cause Within You by Matthew Barnett. The focus of the book is to find what God is doing and join him. We have friends that have been to Turrialba and loved it. I  was a bit giddy at the thought of going someplace others loved and created a picture in my head of what the town would look like and how comfortable I would be there. Why do we do that to ourselves?  Our driver was 2 hours late picking us up from the airport, the showers in the house didn't work, there was a group of about 20 musicians staying at the compound, no one spoke English. But... God is still faithful!  The first night Pat and I arrived we went for a walk to see the town. We found a neat little park with a creek. We headed over to a rock to sit and pray and this is what we saw.

     Yes, God's promise. Just for me. At that moment I gave up control of where I would be or what I would be doing. That was 7 months ago. We are now heading down to a rural inland town with no beach or English speaking people around for 12 months and God is over us. Our house rented for what we were asking before we put it on the market and the renters agreed to host our dog and fish while we are gone. God has gone down our "hanging over our head" list and wiped it clean.  While my "Missy is in control" list was very specific of our ministry works, God has just called us to love our neighbor. (Imagine that!). At first I felt inadequate when people would ask what we would be doing, but now I say with confidence that we are going to love our neighbor.