Les & Diana Morris

We saw a short movie clip recently called “Traders.”  It seemed to embody so much of what we believe and value and what the Vineyard churches stand for, that we thought we’d share it here, at the end of this blog (thank you Arthur for the program that allowed us to convert it!).

We want to take everyone on this journey with us.  Sometimes we may share things that seem a bit down or even critical.  We want everyone to experience, as much as possible, what we are experiencing – to share in our journey, our Missio Dei journey.  The truth is that we have been caught up in a whirlwind by God.  It is awesome and fearful, beautiful and different, difficult and fun … all at the same time.  And it is all challenging.  We are Traders.

By definition, a trader is someone who gives up one thing, in order to gain another.  Of course one of the most classic examples of this is the parable of the Pearl of Great Price, Matt 13: 45-46 – “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.” Les and I have found ourselves trading in so much and at the same time gaining so much.  You simply can’t do one without the other. There’s another story that gives the illustration in another way.

It’s the story about how you trap a monkey – The goal is to take the monkeys alive and unharmed for shipment to zoos. In an extremely humane way, the captors use heavy bottles, with long narrow necks, into which they deposit a handful of sweet-smelling nuts. The bottles are dropped on the jungle floor, and the captors return the next morning to find a monkey trapped next to each bottle.

How is it accomplished?  The monkey, attracted by the aromatic scent of the nuts, comes to investigate the bottle, the nuts, and is trapped. The monkey can’t take its hand out of the bottle as long it’s holding the nuts, but it is unwilling to open its hand and let them go. The bottle is too heavy to carry away, so the monkey is trapped.

As hard as letting go can be, it releases us to pursue new things.  We can only embrace the new things after letting go of the old.  This does not mean that the old was necessarily bad in any way.  It simply means that as “Traders,” change is in the wind now, as Les’ song goes.

So, here’s a spotlight on Les and Diana’s first week.  Week one (actually only 5 days so far + a traveling day) is almost over.  A typical day for us has gone like this. Our host Mami makes us a delicious breakfast, served at 6:45 AM.  (We had to explain that we have lost a lot of weight and needed less food – that fruit was fine.  Deizy has been a “missionary to missionaries” for 27 years, non-stop and was very understanding.  She now serves us fruit for breakfast, with cafe and the fruit here is wonderful!). We started Day 1 with a 1/2 mile walk, arrived at the school by 7:30 AM and began orientation.  We had to provide passport information, get our student I.D. pictures taken and then take a written placement exam.  We don’t have the results yet, but our class of 40 new students are mostly beginners.  The half hour test was “completed” in about 5 minutes – I’ll let our readers figure out what that means!  One woman who has been a missionary in Japan for the last 18 years and just got married to a missionary to Spain said, “I’ve never failed a test so badly in my whole life!” and Les added, “or failed one so quickly!”

We followed this with a one and a half hour meeting in the chapel during which we watched hilarious exaggerated skits about Tico culture put on by the staff (most of whom are Ticas whom we are already falling in love with).  We met most of the staff, heard from the Director of Student Life, heard from the Director of the school and from the Director of Education.  I’d like to tell you what they all said.  It was interesting and the time went by quickly, but my brain is on overload and I cannot remember anything they talked about. We did have a break and delicious snacks, which always include fruit.

A quick walk home and almuerza with Deizy and then a return walk to the school for our oral exam.  If we thought the written exam was difficult, the oral exam was unbelievably hard – all in Spanish.  Yet as hard as it was, we managed to communicate (all questions AND answers in Spanish) and left laughing and smiling with many big hugs and compliments. Our new Tico Escuela Familia is wonderful!  Another walk brought us home for cafecito (think afternoon Tea/Coffee/Fresca).

Did I mention that all our meals (Desayuno, Almuerza, Cafecito y Ceno) are full of conversation – totally in Spanish – with our host Mami and sometimes Rodolfo?  This is wonderful practice, but oh so hard. It is also a gift from God, as many host families do not do this with their students.  God is good!

Day 2 and Day 3 were highlighted by briefings from the doctor on medical care, benefits and cautions (including how to be prepared for killer bees) and from the Director of Student Life on personal security.  It was definitely an eye opener and very sobering to most students.  We are NOT in Kansas anymore Toto (thanks Donna!)  The security talk was emphasized and lightened by a hilarious skit done in regular time and slow motion, showing how you lose everything when pickpockets target you.  If you can imagine one person walking by on one side and jostling you and another person on the other side stripping you of your wallet you get the idea. For levity, the slow motion version had the 2 people pick up the victim, turn him upside down, and shake him vigorously causing everything he owned to be dumped on the ground, including his undershorts!

By the time an hour and a half to two hours of conversation at dinner is done, including answering our homework questions (yes, we have homework even during orientation), our brains cannot remember Spanish OR English.  We do manage to have some lovely Skype time with our family, which has been a real blessing, for us and for them.  Oh – I almost forgot, the school likes to give very vague directions and instructions.  This is intentional, as it forces you to go ask questions, even the simplest of which is a monumental task, as we discover how little we know.

Our down time, if it can be called that, is filled with learning our way around the city with other students and getting to know them.  Yesterday Sabado, we took an 8 hour walking/bus tour – to become familiar with San Jose and the bus system.  With few street signs and almost no language skills, this is a great adventure!

Well, these are only a few highlights.  Lunes we finish orientation, get our books, placement results and class schedule. Martes we begin actual classes.  So as the old Steven Curtis Chapman song goes, “Saddle up your horses, we’ve got a trail to blaze.  Through the wild blue yonder of God’s amazing grace.  Let’s follow our Leader, into the glorious unknown. This is a life like no other, this is the Great Adventure.”

Our Great Adventure has taken us to Costa Rica.  But we can all be Traders, wherever we are.  We invite you to watch the following:

[youtube width=”637″ height=”516″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiAh3lYo6k4[/youtube]

Blessings / Bendiciones,

Les y Diana

Les & Di in Costa Rica October 2010

Days away from the actual move to Costa Rica, a new year starts and an old one ends.  School starts too, January 5 at Instituto de Lengua Espanol – our new home 4 hours a day, 5 days a week.   Everyone keeps asking us if we are excited.  The answer is a resounding “yes!”  But as excited as we are, 2010 has been a year of letting go of many things too – people, family, friends, pets, memories and good old fashioned “stuff.”  As Christians, we often work hard to make sure that our possessions don’t possess us.  We keep our hearts and eyes fixed and focused on God.  Yet if truth be told, many of our “things” hold a great deal of meaning for us.  Some items we worked hard for and waited long for, with great anticipation.  Some of them we acquired easily and you would think they’d have little power over us; yet they seem to stir up our emotions. In spite of how we acquired our “stuff,” regardless of whether these “things” have any true value or intrinsic value only,  they all are associated with memories and relationships. They remind us of our history and the stories in our lives.  So for us, the end of 2010 has been a season of letting go.  Some items have been packed carefully away and are neatly sorted and labeled waiting for our return, when a more final decision can be made as to their ultimate disposition. Still, we’ve been fairly ruthless in our sorting.  We’ve given away a number of things and have thrown away bag load after bag load.  We’ve even needed friends to help us view these things with an objective eye.  So as we sit here tonight, a neat row of suitcases, carefully packed and weighed, gaze back at us, holding what we will live with for the next year.  After 37 years of marriage, these suitcases don’t look like all that much, but for better or worse, they are what’s coming with us;  the decisions have been made.

Tomorrow, Twinkey and Red Cat (our Maine Coon cats) go to their new family (at least for now), and our Chocolate Lab, Lindy, waits to move in downstairs with Jon and Eri. She will miss her cat friends, for they are all good buddies.  There is much emotion associated with their leaving, and although they are much more important than our “stuff,” this parting for us is a piece of letting go. So we turn the page in our story. One chapter ends and another begins.

Costa Rica Pacific Ocean Sunset

2011 is an unknown for everyone, not just for the Morris family.  For us, this next chapter will take place in an as yet unknown context; one without snow, one with two seasons instead of four. We have a new language, a new culture to learn and a new people to embrace.  We know there are friends waiting for us in Costa Rica that God has already started to knit our hearts to, and we are thankful.  God is good and we are reminded that for us to receive the “everything new” promised in Revelation 21:5, the old must first pass away – and we are the ones who have to choose to let it go.  In order for us to enjoy His mercies that are new every morning, as we are told in Lamentations 3:21, we must recognize our great need of that mercy.  Of course, in turn, we get to be embraced by His great faithfulness.  Life is full of these contrasts, by His design.  He has always been a God of “if-then’s.”

All our bags are packed, we're ready to go

So, along with everyone else, we close the chapter of 2010 and eagerly anticipate 2011 and all that God holds in store for us. While these pages are not yet known to us, He is known to us.  His mercies ARE new every morning.  His plans for us ARE good. He DOES make everything new and GREAT is HIS faithfulness. Our hearts trust safely in Him.

(P.S. If this looks like a lot of suit cases to you, just remember that textbooks, electronics, comforter, bedding, towels and pillows are all packed too!  LOL)