Twas the Night Before Christmas, Part 2

"Mary Did You Know"
[Originally written by Mark Lowry and Buddy Greene]

Mary, did you know that your Baby Boy would one day walk on water?

Mary, did you know that your Baby Boy would save our sons and daughters?

Did you know that your Baby Boy has come to make you new?

This Child that you delivered will soon deliver you.

Mary, did you know that your Baby Boy will give sight to a blind man?

Mary, did you know that your Baby Boy will calm the storm with His hand?

Did you know that your Baby Boy has walked where angels trod?

When you kiss your little Baby you kissed the face of God?

Mary did you know.. Ooo Ooo Ooo

The blind will see.

The deaf will hear.

The dead will live again.

The lame will leap.

The dumb will speak

The praises of The Lamb.

Mary, did you know that your Baby Boy is Lord of all creation?

Mary, did you know that your Baby Boy would one day rule the nations?

Did you know that your Baby Boy is heaven's perfect Lamb?

The sleeping Child you're holding is the Great, I Am.

'Twas the Night Before Christmas

I’m sitting at the kitchen table on Christmas Eve, my family getting supper and Christmas tree lights blinking in the background, trying to summarize the last 3 months into 20 top principles of development. After searching through my journal and notebook, picking out my favorite principles (which I narrowed down to fifty), and trying to explain what I’ve learned about community development in a five sentence paragraph, I’ve decided a quote is the best way to do it. It’s from what I would say is THE foundational book on community development. Interestingly enough, it’s both a biography and an autobiography. The main author was our key teacher during the last 3 months. He not only has a profound knowledge of human nature, but writes from hands-on experience in hundreds of communities from many different cultures worldwide. He has worked with communities suffering from relational and spiritual poverty in the U.S. and Europe all the way to starving, marginalized communities in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. I knew and respected him before I got to Costa Rica, but experiencing this school with him, watching him live both inside and outside of the classroom, has not only challenged my intellect, but my heart and the way I live as well. This is an experience he had:




“On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

‘What is written in the Law?’ he replied. ‘How do you read it?’

He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

‘You have answered correctly,’ Jesus replied. ‘Do this and you will live.’”



I want to point out a few things:

• My teacher didn’t answer the man’s question- he encouraged him to find his own answer.

• The man’s correct answer (or the solution to his problem) was holistic- it involved every area of his being and life.

• The solution began with living in relationship, intimacy, and obedience to God.

• The solution was manifested in relationship with other people.

• Knowledge of the correct answer wasn’t the solution; the solution was the application of the principles in his life.

If community development does not focus on changing a person’s heart and beliefs, all the practical solutions in the world are treatments, not cures. Poverty starts in our beliefs, and translates into our physical lives. The solution starts with God. The desire for change has to start with the community, and they will value and participate in the change if they discover the solution for themselves. And as my teacher says, knowledge is worthless unless applied to our lives. Transformation begins with me.

That’s a glimpse and a summary of the last 3 months- there is so much more about how and when and with who and with what that really I think you should just go take the school and discover it for yourself ; ). Thank you, everyone who has been a part of this journey. I'd love to share more specifics with you personally, so get in touch if you're curious ; ). Merry Christmas!

Nicoya

The sunlight streaming though the van window gently prods me awake. Through my mosquito net, the green mountains and pastures filled with grazing cattle invite the day in, along with the sounds of running, playing children in the large lot we’re parked in. I wiggle out of my sleeping bag, the heat close to unbearable already, and soak in the peace of quiet countryside.


The last few weeks have been a blur of classes, homework, and writing an intense 40 page Final Project demonstrating an application of topics covered. With topics as varied as resource stewardship, community health education, microenterprise, and church planting, still God has brought a couple recurring themes out: transformation starts with me and development must be wholistic. Then there is the question of what comes next simmering on the backburner of my mind. I smile at the thought of upcoming Christmas trees and family. And God. He’s pretty cool, actually. Guiding me through the waiting on direction, using the teachers to speak truth into my mind and about issues that much of the world faces daily. I’m enjoying this intimacy that is beginning to flow in our relationship as he challenges me on compromising and strengthens me in the inevitable spiritual resistance to obeying that challenge.

But today, the final project is handed in, it’s a long weekend, and decisions can wait for another day. After the cold weather, constant traffic, and cement landscape of mountainous San Jose, the sunshine, grass, and blue skies of the Nicoya YWAM base unthaw the stress. All of the bases in Costa Rica have gathered here for a weekend of casual fellowship, complete with a South Pacific style pig roast, campfire worship, a soccer game, and long bike rides on bumpy back roads. Thanks Jesus, for a weekend to experience your peace on a tiny farm in Costa Rica.