Just after posting yesterday morning’s update we joined a small congregation for their weekly worship service. Since the earthquake they have had to re-locate to a side porch on a house in the town of Varablanca. The downside is that many people from the church are no longer able to travel the distance to attend. The pastor spoke of the God who makes a way when there is no way, and that we must trust him to work mightily even when we don’t understand how he might do it. After the sermon, our group offered to lead a bi-lingual rendition of “Shout to the Lord.� It was warmly received by the congregation. Speaking personally for a moment, I was touched when we got to the line, “Mountains bow down and the seas will roar at the sound of your name.� The way it translates into Spanish is “mountains fall down� and so it was a bit crazy to be singing this having just observed mountains that literally had fallen apart.

In the afternoon we met with a couple of local community groups – the development organization and the school committee. We got to know the men and women who serve the community of San Rafael in this way, and learned quite a bit about their situation. The (very wealthy) owner of a local dairy farm was present as well, and we hope that in the future he will continue to collaborate with the community to help rebuild.

Today we met with the mayor of Heredia, and the political system here is confusing enough to skip in this short blog entry, but suffice it to say that he has a lot of power to change things in the entire affected area we’ve been visiting. Some of his answers didn’t go as far as we would have liked, but we gained valuable insight into the way government structures operate and how he as mayor views his responsibility.

Currently I am several blocks away in Heredia, in the back corner of a small internet cafe, typing feverishly so as to outrun the impending deluge. In other words, it’s about to rain and I will need to run back to meet the group very soon.

Thanks again for following along, and thanks for your prayers. We’ve got a busy week ahead and we expect plans to change frequently.

It is now pouring outside.