Dear friends,
Greetings from Costa Rica! Happy Thanksgiving to you all. I have so much to be grateful for and I’ll like to tell you just one of the reasons.
Many of you heard me tell the story of Ruth Vindas, my colleague in Ediciones Lumbrera and now the pastor of the Iglesia Bautista de Cinco Esquinas in San José. (pictured here with her youngest daughter, Elizabeth) The downtown mother church found itself in an increasingly rundown neighborhood, and began to suffer incidences of vandalism from drug addicts. When Ruth became the pastor, she proposed to the congregation that they partner with a rehabilitation program. To their credit, they did, and began to welcome recovering drug addicts into the church, creating an accepting and empowering space for them.
Here's the update on that story. The drug rehabilitation center moved out to Cartago, a neighboring city about an hour from the church, so the men are no longer able to attend the Cinco Esquinas church. But Pastor Ruth and her husband Marino regularly visit the men (by bus, since they don’t have a car), and two weeks ago 16 members of the congregation traveled out to spend time with them.
Meanwhile, the church has continued to be a refuge for the men who complete the program and return home to the neighborhood—as well as for those who don’t make it and go back to the streets. Ruth told me of Jaime, about 30 years old, who showed up at the church with a bullet in his leg. He had been kicked out of the Rehabilitation Center for provoking a fight, then got into another fight on the street and was shot. So he came to the church and asked for help. After getting him treated, Ruth suggested he return to the Center, but Jaime told her he couldn’t because he was not welcome. Ruth called the director and requested that he give Jaime a second chance, and he said, “Only because it is you asking, I will let him come back.” That was what it took for Jaime to finally realize that people cared about him, and he has made dramatic changes in his life.
Ruth also told me about an addict who was extremely hostile toward God, and would say terrible things about God to explain why he couldn't believe in God. She let him vent and when he said, “I hope I’m not offending you with what I’m saying”, she said, “You don’t offend me because I don’t believe in that God you’re rejecting either. My God is nothing like what you describe, and when you meet my God, you will realize that you are loved.” Gradually he began to understand, and finally the day arrived when he gave public testimony of how he had come to believe that God loves him and is a merciful and forgiving God who wants only good for him.
Let's believe it and proclaim it in thanksgiving!
In Christ,
Ruth Mooney