Les & Diana Morris

… to save money buying the freshest and lowest possibly price fresh produce for the Missio Dei Costa Rica community discipleship house!  Yup – it’s Saturday morning and this means feria (i.e. farmer’s market).  Now until this leg of our journey in Costa Rica, I’ve been a New England girl for 25 years and before that I was Jersey girl and I can tell you right now, this is not like any farmer’s market I’ve been to in the states! The day started with my alarm going off at 5:30 AM so we could be picked up promptly at 6 AM by Rodney. Today, Jessie was going with me, serving as my pack mule as I examined the produce and paid for it.  Anyway, the challenge is to keep up with Rodney.  He’s like a Ninja feria shopper – he’s on a mission, he knows which vendors he wants to buy from (no mean feat as their stalls are in different places every week and there are probably 200 vendors), and he doesn’t want to take longer than a half hour to shop.  While he’s being very efficient about this, always with one intern following close behind to help carry and usually a few gringos from a short term team running fast to keep up, Les and I and our interns are still trying to figure things out.  Nevertheless it is well worth it to do this every week.  It’s a huge effort (if you know me, you know that I may function at 6AM, but I’m NOT in high gear)!  I get better and better at understanding the vendors as they rapidly fire off prices, weight and ask me whether I want the tops removed of pineapples, radishes, etc. and do I need a “bolsita,” a litle plastic bag for collecting mu purchases at each vendor.  Did I mention that prices are often not posted or are posted by kilo? Regardless, the prices and the produce are unsurpassed – you begin to understand just how “un-ripe” fruits and vegetables are in the grocery stores in the states. And the SIZE of the produce is huge too.  All in all, it’s why Saturday morning feria is part of the routine.

Of course, there’ a lot of work when you get home too!  So, all the fruits and produce get washed, used (if it’s something you make ahead to keep) and stored.  Total time from 5:30 AM wake-up (with breakfast squeezed in, washing, storing, preparing, clean up)? 4-5 hours.  A typical Saturday.  Included after that is staying home so the plumber can work on the hot water and a leak in the main bath, 1 of the interns (Jessie) helping Cindy, the other intern (Shannon) helping Julie with Princess Club, Tito (our resident) at work, Les at Viña Anonos Men’s breakfast and a mission team trip to the Artisans’ Market.  All on a Sunny day with a breeze blowing and helping to dry the remaining donated clothes (see yesterday’s post!).

Who knew that doing so much laundry was part of the mission?! Seriously though, I haven’t seen so much dirty clothing in a long time, like we saw yesterday and today; and I mean really gross, muddy, wet, musty clothing.  We’re in the midst of cleaning clothes that have been donated for the store in Los Anonos, run by Adriana.

Sometimes, well-intentioned people, with good hearts donate things that really should be trashed or at least carefully looked at and cleaned before donating.  In the US, Goodwill and Salvation Army often don’t even accept clothes that are in poor condition, yet for some reason people feel that these same items make wonderful donations on the Mission Field.  The challenge is to ask yourself these questions:

Would I want to receive these clothes in this condition?

Would I wear these clothes, if they were given to me?

Would I give these clothes / items (books, sheets, place mats, etc.) to my spouse? my friend? my children?

If you answer “NO” to any of these questions, then they shouldn’t be donated!  People, the world over, want to look their best and feel good about themselves, their appearance and their homes.  It doesn’t matter what continent you’re on, how much or little money you have … these things do matter.

So,why all this laundry you ask?  Well, I’ll tell you!  Yesterday items were donated, “sans sorting and cleaning.”  A short-term mission team from New Life and I, along with Jessie and Shannon (the 2 interns living with us) sorted through a ton of stuff that arrived in dripping wet black plastic bags.  Suffice it to say, we filled 7 garbage bags full of items that could NOT be salvaged.  Yet, on a positive note, there were quite a few items, that with some intense cleaning, bright sun and clean air, COULD be redeemed and repurposed.  Voila!

So, I started doing laundry yesterday afternoon, hung out my last load at 10PM last night, and have started in again this morning.  2 loads remain after the current one, but most of these loads are needing to run through the extra heavy duty “muy sucio” cycle twice to come clean.  We hope that each item will bless the folks who come to the Los Anonos store and buy these clothes, blankets and towels for next to nothing.

… and we’re ever mindful, while we can sort, wash, wash again and get things clean, only God can clean hearts and lives … and yes, they have to be cleaned far more often than we would want.  Thankfully He makes our sins, white as snow and 1 John 1: 9 tells us,

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

Reckless and unrestrained was yesterday’s My Utmost For His Highest theme:

If you debate for even one second when God has spoken, it is all over for you.  Never start to say, “Well, I wonder if He really did speak to me?” Be reckless immediately – totally unrestrained and willing to risk everything – by casting your all upon Him.  You do not know when His voice will come to you, but whenever the realization of God comes, even in the faintest way imaginable, be determined to recklessly abandon yourself, surrendering everything to Him.  It is only through abandonment of yourself and your circumstances that you will recognize Him.  You will only recognize His voice more clearly through recklessness – being willing to risk your all.

And so … we have a house full of people doing just that.  We’re here setting up our home, the community discipleship house.  Buying plates, dishes, spices, cooking utensils … a refrigerator to put our food in, a stove to cook on, mattresses, beds to hold those mattresses and all the thousand and one things needed to set up housekeeping from scratch.  Scattered in the middle is a folding table that was being thrown out by Viña Escazu.  It’s been repurposed as our dining room table. Our church here, Viña Anonos has loaned us folding chairs and a microwave.  Rodney and Cindy donate things and help at every turn.  In short, we’re figuring out how to live here.  Our dog Lindsay has zapatos (dog shoes so she can walk on the slippery tile and wood floors). We’re leaving our laundry room light on at night – to discourage the bats, and listening to the pleasant chirping of geckos and lagartijas (little lizards that run on the walls).  And we’re living life together as a family.

Tito, from Los Anonos is our first resident, and 2 of our interns, Shannon and Jessie arrived last night. We’re really excited to see what God has in store for all of us, as we recklessly abandon ourselves to God!

As we do all this, I find myself thinking about a prayer from a monk, named Charles De Foucauld.  John Michael Talbot put the prayer to music. You can listen to it by clicking here  “I Abandon Myself.” and then selecting the song by that title. Following are the words:

I abandon myself to Your will
Do with me whatever You want
I will only be grateful for whatever You do
I’m prepared for anything at all

I commit my life to Your hands
I offer it all now to You
With all the affection of my heart and my soul
Because, O Lord, I love You

I abandon myself to Your will
Do with me whatever You want
Without any conditions and with confidence
Because You are my God

You may notice that I’ve posted about this song in the past.  I think this is because there are always new levels of abandonment to God.  It’s not a one time choice.  Scripture talks to us about “dying to ourselves ~ 1 Cor 15:31,” “taking up our cross and following Him ~ Matt 16:24,” “working out our salvation~ Phil. 2:12.”  It would appear to be so easy to just say “yes!”  But the truth is, we are being transformed into His likeness ~ 2 Cor. 3:18,” and that takes work – it’s a lifetime process!

And so, with gratefulness, with affection, without any conditions and with confidence, because He is our God, we have each, in our own way, chosen to be reckless and unrestrained in our commitment. His grace IS sufficient.