Here Comes the Rain....

I was sitting in the library at Cincel today reading A Tree Grows In Brooklyn when I began to hear the sound of rain on tin. A few minutes later I began to smell the rain. The smell of musty books and land turned wet. This is the first rain of ten months or so that are filled with rain. This is just the begining as August, September, October and November come the days will be filled with sunny mornings and rainy afternoons. I find it fitting that the first rain comes today. Tomorrow is April 1st and begins my last month of language school. As changes will begin to happen in my life and the lives of my fellow classmates, so does the weather. Slow at first and then as we adapt a little bit faster. Keep me in your prayers and thoughts as I transition from Costa Rica back to Missouri and whatever is in store for me next!

Also there is a family attending language school right now, Tim and Bethany Pike, who have just been hit with several health problems. She just got out of the hospital and last night he was put into the hospital and had surgery this afternoon. Pray for healing for them, pray for peace, pray for perservance and strength, so that they can and will continue the mission set before them.


Ecclesiastes 3: 1-9 (New International Version)

A Time for Everything


1 There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven:

2 a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,

3 a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,

4 a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,

5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,

6 a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,

7 a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,

8 a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

9 What does the worker gain from his toil? 10 I have seen the burden God has laid on men. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. 12 I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live. 13 That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil—this is the gift of God. 14 I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that men will revere him.

A Paseo

Today the school had a paseo or in other words a field trip. We went to the village of Cartago. I have posted some pictures below of my adventures. We made several stops, but one of my favorites was ruins left over from a church that was never finished being constructed. Every time they tried to build it or continued to build it there was an earthquake that stopped construction. They eventually made a decision to stop trying to build the church. The story goes that the head priest and his brother both were in love with the same woman. The priest killed his brother over the woman. Because of this, a curse was put on the city. If construction continues on this church, an earthquake will happen that will destroy the whole city. I wouldn't want to be the construction company to test this story =). Anyway they have turned it into a beautiful garden. I really loved it and only wished I was a better photographer to capture it all.


Cafe con leche - in my own personal brewer

Arroz, frijoles, pollo, pescado, tortillas, y platanos - very typical and delicious - don't worry I didn't eat all of it - I needed room for the coffee mocha flavored flan and cafe con leche =)

Me at the restaurante - it overlooked a reservoir

The view minus me

Part of the workshop at a store that sold carvings out of coffee wood

The outside of the store that sold coffee wood carvings

For all those animal lovers...

Me - on top of these ruins - it amazing how climbing on ruins never gets old...

The view of the street from the walls of the ruins

Part of the garden they made inside the ruins

My favorite picture of the day

A Cross

"It's who you are and the way you live that count before God. Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth. That's the kind of people the Father is out looking for: those who are simply and honestly themselves before him in their worship. God is sheer being itself - Spirit. Those who worship him must do it out of their very being, their spirits, their true-selves, in adoration." 1 John 4:23

The Strangeness of Obedience and a new Freedom...

I have been reading through Luke and a reading a little more slowly through Exodus. I started my reading yesterday in Exodus 12. This is the chapter where God describes to Moses the process of smearing the blood of the lamb over the door of the house, how to eat it, not to use yeast, and then explains that Passover must be kept from generation to generation.

As I was reading it I was thinking about how absurd it must have sounded to the Israelites. God says " I want you to kill a healthy one year old male lamb, take the blood and smear it on the doorways and on the lintels of the house, the lamb must be roasted that night in fire, you are to eat unleavened bread and bitter herbs with it, burn the leftovers, and eat it fully dressed with your sandals on and your stick in your hand, and oh yeah eat it fast". I am no expert on Israelite culture and maybe these directions weren't as absurd to them as they are to me and of course they did just see water turned to blood, frog and locust taking over the land, darkness, flies, hail and so forth. Still I believe these directions from God probably sounded a little bit strange. I am sure there where thoughts like "Why in the world do we have to do this?", "I don't want blood on my lintels", or "I prefer my bread with yeast in it". If God asked me to do this I am sure I would be like "What? Are you serious? I will look weird painting blood over my blood post." But, if the Israelite hadn't obeyed God the consequence would have been death.

The blood was a sign that the household belonged to God, so that the house would be passed over when God came to strike the firstborn of Egypt. The annual Passover feast was to serve as a reminder to the Israelites of God freeing them from slavery. Unfortunately even thought the Passover continued to happen year to year the Israelites again and again failed to remember God the rest of the year.

If we skip forward several hundred years it brings us to the chapter in Luke I was reading the very same day. Luke 22 is the story of Jesus’ Passover meal with his disciples. This night as Jesus and his disciples were celebrating the freedom of the Israelite from Egypt, Jesus ushered in the idea of a new covenant and a new freedom. Jesus was arrested this night and he died so that we can live in freedom. Let us remember that Jesus freed us, let us remember to serve and obey him between our Sunday services and time of communion. Finally, let us remember that while sometimes obedience may make us feel like fool or sound strange that God knows best and the consequence of disobedience may very well be death. God may not be asking us to smear blood on our door post, but he does ask us to live lives that are very different from the world we live in. Making these life decisions may very well make us stick out like a blonde in Latin America =).

I hope all of you are doing well. Thank you for the continued prayer and financial support. I know things are financially tight in the United States right now and so I appreciate the continued support. I pray that you will be blessed and taken care of in this time of financial uncertainty. Thankfully we believe in a God who can turn a few fish into a meal for thousands. I am here because of your obedience and faith in this God. Thank you!

Live in His Love! Claire Balch

I am back in the blogging game...

I have neglected my blogging duties for the last week or so, but I am back. I am sitting in the midst of a room that looks like a tornado hit it, so either I'm blogging to procastinate cleaning up or I am not procrastinating blogging by cleaning up... I suppose both have to be done before I go to bed tonight, so either way I am getting something done =). I actually do enjoy blogging. I am sitting here on my bed, drinking green ginger tea and a fresh fruit drink with chunks of watermelon, mango and cantelope in it and thinking about what I will blog about...

I have reached the half way point of my time in Costa Rica. I have learned so much, but I know there is still so much to learn. I discovered today that there are a ton of children parable stories in Spanish on You Tube, so I think I found a new language tool =). Derek visited me this week. This was fun. We went to the Volcano Irazu. We spent two hours standing on a public bus only to find one strange colored crater and lots of cold and wind. We headed pretty quickly to the little store up there and got some lunch and hot chocolate and coffee. I felt accomplished by the fact that I figured out how to get to the volcano via public transportation. I got the same feeling when I could tell the taxi driver where I needed to go without handing him directions =). I also got to go surfing in Jaco this weekend. This was really fun. I haven't had a chance to surf since I left Santa Cruz in August. I dropped Derek off at the airport this morning. This upcoming week is life as normal. School and studying. I also started my tutoring class for my fonetics last week, so I am hoping this will really help with my pronunciation and accent. As much as it can for the next seven or so weeks!

Thanks for your continuing prayer and financial support! I appreciate it, so much! For those of you who leave comments I love getting them and reading them. I will admit that I check my blog for them =).

I will leave you with this...

"On your feet now - applaud God!
Bring a gift of laughter,
sing yourself into his presence.

Know this: God is God, and God, God.
He made us; we didn't make him.
We're his people, his well tended sheep.

Enter with the password: 'Thank You!'
Make yourselves at home, talking praise.
Thank him. Worship him.

For God is sheer beauty,
all-generous in love,
loyal always and ever."

Psalm 100



La Playa Jaco, the surfboards and some guy I don't know...

La Playa Jaco


Derek and I at the Volcano Irazu - I was wearing a hat, mittens, a long sleeve, a sweatshirt and a jacket and I was in Costa Rica =).

The Crater Irazu....