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....

Glimpses of Panama

Hey All - I posted some photos from the Panama Visa Trip. I wanted to share it all with you. I got a sunburn too, but don't worry I won't share that =) I hope all is well.



The Beach

Crystal, Dawn and I at the beach

Me at the beach...

I guess I can't say I don't like fish anymore... =)

El pescado y yo

David, me, Issac, Krystal, Dawn and Dina

La Playa

It was Karolyn's Birthday - She got the Panama TGIF version of the birthday song

There was a circus in town - so the girafe and all the other animals were given the town tour

I missed the bear, so the tiger will have to do =)

That's all Folks =)

Live In His Love!

An update and some musings....

Hello -

It has been a crazy last few weeks. The homework has increased. I went out of town, as well last weekend and will be going to Panama this upcoming weekend to renew my visa. All of the students at Cincel are going. We leave tomorrow in a bus. It is a lovely ten hour drive on a curvy road. I bought my motion sickness medicine last week and my ginger ale today. I did a little snack shopping today, as well. It is important to be prepared for these long bus rides =). It will be nice to have a day off from school and to be able to relax at the pool or beach. Last weekend a group of us went to Manuel Antonio for the weekend. This was nice. It makes the week a little more busy, but definetly worth it! I have posted some pictures.

I just want to leave you with these few thoughts that I have gathered from readings and different chapels over the last few weeks:

1. Today in Spanish Chapel the pastor talked about how in crisis there is opportunity. In that opportunity we are allowed to grow in God. He talked about how in crisis we can smile and find peace because God is in control. He used the story of Joseph and the crisises he went through to show how crisis can become opportunity.

2. We have a lot of chapels about perserving and pushing through the toughness of language learning, culture learning and missions work in general. These messages are important because at times it can be hard and difficult. It is good to be reminded to fight the good fight. But, I think that it is important to remember the joy of serving the Lord. The joy of remembering how God provided to get you where he has you, the joy of learning a new word, the joy of being able to minister to so many more people because you now know their heart language, the joy of experiencing a new culture and finding things you like just as much or more as something in your own culture, the joy of being able to go to school and worshipping at chapel in the morning and so on. Where ever you are in life, where ever you are in the world, please don't forget the joy of knowing the Lord, the joy of forgiveness and mercy and the joy of living in His love and freedom.

3. Lastly, I am reading this book The Signature of Jesus by Brennan Manning. The last chapter I read was about the courage to risk and the importance of risk in the Christian life. Their are two quotes I want to leave with you: "Tom Minifie, an associate pastor in Seattle: 'To be at ease is to be unsafe.' The church of the Lord Jesus starts to decay when the members who compromise it forfeit their willingness to risk"(pg. 189). Manning also quotes Winston Churchill, "Success is never final, failure is never fatal. It is courage that counts"(pg. 193). So, have courage and live boldly the life God ask of us!

Here are the promised pictures...

Dawn, Krystal, Aimee, Karolyn and Myself at the national park in Manuel Antonio

Me at the beach a little before sunset. The sky was beautiful!

Some volcanic rocks in the ocean

The sunset - this was one of many pictures I took.

Musings from Luke 6...

I read Luke 6 the other night. I have typed part of it below because I wanted to share it with you. I encourage you to read the whole thing. This chapter is pretty powerful and pretty counter to how we want to behave. Love your enemies? Pray for those who give you a hard time? Stand there and take it when someone slaps you? Seeking truth and not popularity? Give away your life? Then lastly a reminder to make sure that we are taking God's word and letting it change us and they way we live. That we are burying it deep into us, so that when the storms hits we will stay strong. Christianty, Christ-following, is not about bible-studies, a social club, a cultural belief system, who you know or don't know and what church you may or may not attend. Christianity is about a relationship with our heavenly father. It is about fellowshipping with him, reading his word and then asking him to help us apply his heart into the way we live our lives. Asking Christ to walk this walk with us and to help build a foundation that will not be shaken...

"There's trouble ahead when you live only for the approval of others, saying what flatters them, doing what indulges them. Popularity contest are not truth contests - look how many scoundrel preachers were approved by your ancestors! Your task is to be true, not popular.

To you who are ready for the truth, I say this: Love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you are hard time, respond with the energies of prayer for that person. If someone slaps you in the face, stand there and take it. If someone grabs your shirt, giftwrap your best coat and make a present of it. If someone takes unfair advantage of you, use the occasion to practice the servant life. No more tit-for-tat stuff. Live generously.

Here is a simple rule of thumb for behavior: Ask yourself what you want people to do for you; then grab the initative and do it for them! If you only love the lovable, do you expect a pat on the back? Run of the mill sinners do that. If you only help those who help you, do you expect a medal? Garden variety sinners do that. If you only give for what you hope to get out of it, do you think thats charity? The stingiest of pawnbrokers does that. I tell you, love your enemies. Help and give without expecting a return. You'll never - I promise - regret it. Live out this God-created identity the way our Father lives toward us, generously and graciously, even when we're at our worst. Our Father is kind; you be kind.

Don't pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults - unless, of course, you want the same treatment. Don't condemn those who are down; that hardness can boomerang. Be easy on people; you'll find life a lot easier. Give away your life; you'll find life given back - given back with bonus and blessing. Giving, not getting, is the way. Generosity begets generosity.....

If you work the words into your life, you are like the smart carpenter who dug deep and laid the foundation of his house on bedrock. When the river burst its banks and crashed against the house, nothing could shake it; it was built to last. But if you just use my words in Bible Studies and don't work them into your life, you are like a dumb carpenter who built a house but skipped the foundation. When the swollen river came crashing in, it collapsed like a house of cards. It was total loss."

Luke 6:27-37

Here are some pictures from the Bible Study we have here at the house. Sonia (Mami) leads it.

This is Osqui and Rey. They are our in house worship team =) Osqui is Mami and Papi's son and Rey is a family friend.

This is Andy and Isaac. Andy and his wife Connie are missionaries who will be going to Chile. Isaac is a student who wants to go to the Domincian Republic to finish school and teach.

This is Sonia and I

This is Papi and Mami.

This is Rey and Diani eating the after Bible Study treat. Diani and I go on walks and she puts up with listening to my broken spanish. =)

This is Andy and Connie.

I hope all is well with you. I am enjoying life so far in Costa Rica. I appreciate your continual prayers and support. Thank you so much for the sacrifice, so many of you make so that I can continue this work with Convoy of Hope. I know times are getting tough, but God knows and as I read in Luke last night Christ told disciples and the parents of the little girl who everyone thought was dead " Just trust me and everything will be allright". Luke 8:50 (Message Version).

Live in His Love.

Claire Balch