By Alex WildeThis is a blog about our life in Coopevega, Costa Rica. Our house is small. There is no basement and no upper floor. We have no dishwasher. So in order to wash the dishes, we have to do it a special way. First, you have to take a sponge and put it into the soap. Then use your sponge and scrub the inside and outside of the plate, spoon or cup. Last, dry it with a towel. We have a washer, but we do not have a dryer. So we use a clothes line. There is a fruit in our backyard. It is named guanabana. There is also papaya and orange trees. The guanabana you don’t eat it. You squeeze it to make a juice. If there is no sugar, it tastes sour. But with sugar and milk, it tastes sweet. Our friends the Geerlings, Mr. John, Mrs. Penny Mary, Teresa and Catherine, live across the street from us. The Brubachers, Mr. Phil, Mrs. Lacy, William, Annie, Miriam, Nora, Lily and Andrew, live ten minutes away by the church. We have a pavillion in our backyard. It is called a gazebo. We love to play there. Our friends the Geerlings and us made a house out of wood. Sometimes cows get into our backyard. Our friends play games like, Landa [means Tag], statues, landa con helado[ Freeze tag], hide-and-seek, Costa Rican hide and seek, ninja, talent show, soccer, 500, baseball, keep away, bouncing, football, doctor in the dark, monopoly, monopoly card game, extreme monopoly card game,chess, bike race, a really fun game, climbing, legos, kings and Queens, cops and Robbers, and “Town”. The roads in Costa Rica are dirt roads. One day, we were on a bus. We were going up a hill with 20 mission trippers but the road was so muddy that we could not get up the hill. The bus got stuck! It does not sound so bad but we had to get off the bus and started walking back to Coopevega in the dark. We were stranded for 30 minutes. Then a car passed. They drove off to find people to save us! A car came and carried the Brubachers and us. Then they got a tractor and pulled the bus up the hill!!! We nicknamed it “DEATH HILL.”
On Saturday, we feed the poor. On this day, we go to Casa de Jesus and all the poor people get to eat food. And the adults have talks, so the kids can play games outside! On Sunday we do Noche de los Ninos. On every Sunday, we go to the Casa de Jesus and invite all the Costa Rica kids and do an act and then watch a movie! And we also eat bean empanadas and refresco. One time we did acts about Jonah. It went good. I was Jonah. My sister, Brecklyn, was a sailor. My other sister, Grace, was the whale. Chi yu was God. Catherine read it and translated everything into Spanish. I like living here!
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by Jason and Jessica WildeThis past week we hosted our second mission trip here in Coopevega. This group was from Bishop Lynch, a Catholic High School in Dallas. On this trip, we focused our work projects on one small road in Coopevega. On Dona Mira’s house, we replaced a badly leaking roof and painted the exterior walls, while in another house we installed wood floors (they had only dirt floors before) and replaced an outhouse with a toilet and septic system. We ended the week in this community with an evangelization night, where we saw many new faces and were able to invite them to Mass. Philippe, one of the older sons of Dona Mira, stopped Jason on the road Saturday afternoon to tell him that he was attending Mass because of us bringing God’s love to their community. It was so encouraging to see many of the men attending our ministry nights and Mass this past weekend, which is unusual. Jessica drove Father Salvador, Chi Yu, and some of the high school students to visit Dona Maria. Her husband passed away about a month after the missionaries installed a toilet in their house last year. She lives a good distance from Coopevega along a farm road and gets lonely. Like a usual home visit, we visited with her, prayed with her, shared a testimony, and gave her food to feed her family. We thought our home visit was winding to an end, but you never know what you will run into on a home visit. Out of the blue, she asked one of the high school girls if she would “kill a chicken” for her. It turns out that she sells chickens and eggs to feed her family. Within minutes, Father Sal was helping the squawking chicken into the bag and an hour later we were bringing home some fresh raw chicken to be fried up for an afternoon snack. Father also helped the girls cut down a cocoa fruit from a tree. He sliced it open with a machete and we chowed down on the cocoa seeds. While it is essential for us as missionaries to feed the poor, it is equally as important to support their efforts to work and feed their families. So from now on, even though her farm is out of our way on a deserted dirt road, we will be getting our chicken and eggs from her instead of the supermarket.
Both of these are great examples of how missions provide so much more for the local community than just a new roof or a week of food - in both cases we are able to use the newly formed relationships to achieve our true purpose of walking with the poor and bringing them along with us on our journey to God’s Kingdom. With love and prayers, Jason and Jessica Wilde by Jason WildeWhy should you go on a foreign mission trip? On our first mission trip to The Philippines a year ago, it felt good to gauge myself on what I had accomplished - build a roof, pay for medicine, pray over the sick, etc. Many people (including myself) get a bit frustrated when we spend the first three days of a trip ‘just visiting people’. But this is all just our human gauge of success, which has very little to do with how God sees our productivity. Now a year and three mission trips later, my perspective on this idea has changed. I think my shift in perspective began in part because of some questions we are asked at the end of each FMC mission trip, which include:
It’s amazing to hear the responses to these two questions, as they are a pretty good indicator of what we value in the time spent during those precious days of service. During that first trip, I thought of the memories, experiences, and souvenirs that I took with me, and the gifts and time that I left behind. Answers like this remind me of an article by Mike Gable which essentially asks “Why do you go on a foreign mission trip?” In his article, he points out several examples of trips which leave behind many things but actually do very little good. It is in these cases where it may feel good to leave behind something tangible, but in reality you do very little good and take away only a sense of pride and heroism. I think he pretty much nailed it when he asks us to instead be humble and “invite that Spirit of God to transform our hearts, minds, and souls to be open to the faith, gifts, talents, joy and yes, challenges of people of other cultures.” Similarly, I believe it is not what you leave behind, but what you take with you that has the most impact from a mission trip. It is not just what you change, but how the mission trip changes you. It is not the photos, ‘likes’, and memories that are important to God, but the relationships with real people who you leave behind. When we returned home from The Philippines, my perspective on what it means to live in poverty was very different. For the remainder of lent, our family fasted from meat after learning that most people survived on very little more than rice every day. We had relationships with many of the local families that we worked with, and after the attacks by ISIS nearly a month after we returned, I had a true sense of care for these people who had to live under a constant threat. I realized that my addiction to media and my phone was in no way improving my relationship with anyone but my own ego - and it was a huge distraction from my prayer life. Most importantly, I also had a sense of solidarity and a feeling of responsibility to talk to people about the injustices that we saw and experienced in that week of mission. While these may all seem like irrelevant intangibles in the grand sense of missionary work, I believe they are more valued in God’s eyes than any sweat or money. To “embrace life, touching the suffering flesh of the poor” (Pope Francis) is something that you can’t forget - that truly changes you - and it is this change of heart that is more valuable than any tangible thing that you may leave behind. by Jason and JessicaThis powerful statement and our nation’s motto, though always controversial, seems to be something that we can always turn to in times of need. I mean, what else could give us a greater peace of mind than knowing that our Lord has everything in control, guiding us to our final destination with Him? I know that whenever I have faced a stressful situation, or have been worried about the health of my child, I am completely calm and collected, just falling down and telling God to take control. Ok, so maybe this last part is a stretch. One of the many little things that I’ve learned about myself throughout our formation here at Family Missions Company is that I am a control freak. I’ve survived much of my career by always trying to handle everything myself, knowing every answer, every solution, and every possible outcome. In chess terms, I like to always have an ‘end game’ in mind (Jessica still won’t play chess with me for this very reason). When traveling, I had every logistic travel component planned down to the specific bus stop saved to a Google Doc on my phone, ready to be armed with it when we stepped foot on foreign lands. But then we let God slip into our lives, and everything went haywire. As we’ve shared before, Chi Yu’s adoption was anything but predictable. We never really knew what was going on until we received a frantic fax needing our signature before being sent back to China. And we really didn’t fully know his medical situation until at least six months after he had been home with us. But, from the first moment we met Chi Yu, his limb difference was not a disability for him. In fact, his limb difference is his greatest strength. Because of it, he is the most determined and energetic kid we’ve ever met. But he did have health problems. His pancreas was not working properly resulting in poor growth. To us, this was his greatest need. We knew that it was God's will that Chi Yu was our beloved son. It was God's will that we were becoming missionaries. So we placed our trust in God that he would provide the means to care for Chi Yu in missions. We knew that there is no better place to be than in the center of God's will. But when the reality of paying for God’s trust hit, it shook us. It turns out that Chi Yu's pancreas medicine costs $1000 per month without medical insurance. We frantically searched for every alternative possible - and still it would cost about $450 per month in Costa Rica. For a missionary family living Gospel poverty, this would use up all our financial resources quickly. Many suggested that we tried medical insurance. We started with a very promising and morally-oriented Christian healthshare plan, and they denied Chi Yu from the start. Think about that - our orphaned foreign-born son was rejected by an organization that claims the same book that says “He ensures that orphans and widows receive justice. He shows love to the foreigners living among you and gives them food and clothing.” (Deut 10:18) Now don’t get me wrong - I am not downplaying the role or importance of any kind of insurance as a safety net for many people. But, I am concerned when it replaces the trust that we should be placing in our Savior, or when it replaces the standards of charity that we are called to live by as Christian witnesses. Many of the now successful insurance companies were at one time just an organization of brothers who decided to care for the least of them when times were tough. But somewhere along the way to modern day maturity, they have instead become financial contracts of trust and safety that we have all learned to depend on religiously (most literally) to replace the trust in God and our neighbor. I can’t help but think that placing the phrase “In God We Trust” on the very dollar bill used to buy insurance is a powerful image of this idolatry. For three months, we prayed for a miracle. We prayed that God would provide the medicine at a low cost or do the impossible - heal him completely. We knew this was God's mission not ours so we knew He had a plan for us to care for our son and to go on mission. We just had to trust Him, which was extremely hard. To be honest, the complete trust wasn’t there - we also kept worrying and working on our own solution in the background. (Jessica): Over our Christmas break, we took Chi Yu to his gastro doctor for his regular exam and she was pleased by his growth. When I asked her to order a test to see if his pancreas had started producing the missing enzymes, she hesitantly reordered it but wasn't very optimistic of any change due to his birth defect. Later that week, we were at the movies when a trailer for The Miracle Season caught my attention. My heart leapt for joy at the hope that this would be our family's season of miracles. Then my flawed human nature set in and I started to doubt. Would we be able to care for Chi Yu in missions? Or would we have to go home, find Jason a job and rebuy everything we had given away? My heart sank. Were our dreams of being Jesus's hands in the world serving the poor coming to an end? After the movie, I turned on my phone and saw a voicemail from his gastro doctor. His pancreas was now functioning normal, and now we could wean him off his medicine! God had completely healed him! What is impossible for human beings is possible for God. (Luke 18:27) We can’t but think that this was yet another lesson for us in this season of formation - that true faith and trust in God leaves us free to do so much more for His glory during our limited time in the flesh. “Do not worry about your life and what you will eat, or about your body and what you will wear. For life is more than food and the body more than clothing. Can any of you by worrying add a moment to your life-span? If even the smallest things are beyond your control, why are you anxious about the rest? As for you, do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not worry anymore. All the nations of the world seek for these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, seek his kingdom, and these other things will be given you besides.
Do not be afraid any longer, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your belongings and give alms. Provide money bags for yourselves that do not wear out, an inexhaustible treasure in heaven that no thief can reach nor moth destroy. For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.” (Luke 12:22~34) by Grace WildeTake care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions. (Luke 12) Have you ever been to the store? There is extravagant stuff everywhere, welcome signs, craft ideas, then you spot a beautiful dress. You already have millions of dresses but this one is just unique. So you buy it. This simple act sounds normal, but it is not. Buying extra things is the feeding of the brain with material stuff not the educational, spiritual, and foundation of life kind of stuff. This is not silly, not crazy, this is consumption. Adam and Eve - Consumption brought sin into the world! Where did consumption start? Believe it or not consumption brought sin into the world. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. (Genesis 3) You see Eve was tempted by the devil with a sneaky trick. The trick of consumption. She was first asked what the tree was about. She told him. The devil states that God is wrong. He convinced her that the fruit actually was a mystical, delicious, powerful fruit that made you more powerful than God. She ate it and gave it to Adam, but it didn’t make her happy. It made her as miserable beyond miserable. In this simple act, she brought sin into the world. The devil tries to do the same thing today. He tempts us into his lies of consumption. Earth - Consumption brought sin into the world and may end it! Let’s say a new computer comes out. Every one in a city hears about it. Many people already have a computer, but this one is even better. So, everyone buys it. So, all of the old computers fill up a dump. This is a example of how something may seem awesome, but it trickles back to a dump. Think, 1.5 tons of trash are wasted a year per person. Now, there is billions of people in the world. So, the whole world wastes 1,110,000 tons a year. How much would change if we didn’t over consume? Joy - Not the joy of things Let's say you have a chocolate bar and you eat it. Does this give you joy? That joy will only last for a minute. The same thing happens with a phone. What is real joy? Real joy is the joy that can stick to us for days; the joy that will last forever. The answer of this desire is Jesus. Jesus is the joy that sticks to you for eternity, not the material possessions of this world. Jesus fills me with joy everyday in receiving the sacraments, spending time with my family, singing praise and worship songs, caring for the poor, reflecting on His word during desert day, praying at adoration, attending Mass, and observing his creation (grass, trees, flowers, mountains, dirt, air, stars, the moon, the blue sky, snow, rain, the sun). Each encounter with Jesus fills us with joy, with that deep joy which only God can give. - Pope Francis When we open our Christmas presents on Christmas day let us remember that the real present and the real joy is Jesus. So, let us go out this Christmas to love one another and not things. You weren't created just to consume resources, you were put on this Earth to make a contribution. - Mother Teresa Merry Christmas by Grace WildeThanksgiving in General Cepeda is fun. We invited everyone we met in General Cepeda to a gigantic feast that we serve. The feast was delicious. But, afterwards I was very tired. To prepare for the feast, they put 5 turkeys in the pila to defrost. (The pila is an empty fountain where we brush our teeth.) On Thanksgiving, we worked all morning on cooking and setting up. We worked on the decorations. We set up little bobble head turkeys at each of the tables. We also wrapped up silverware in napkins. We made a poster that said all the things we are thankful for in Spanish. We also helped peel potatoes - enough to fill a bag that was bigger than Chi Yu! When the people arrived there were two shifts, so once you were done eating you took over someone else’s job. There was a greeter who greeted people and counted how many people came. By the end, around 250 people had been fed. Then they were seaters. That was our job. We were supposed to lead people to empty seats in the mission house. Then there were people who served drink, food, and dessert. When it was time for us to eat, the food was delicious. But, my favorite food was the desserts. There were chocolate cake and brownies. There were also pumpkin muffins!!! I had a pumpkin muffin and it was delicious. It had chocolate chips and raisins in it!! Thanksgiving was really fun and General Cepeda was awesome. I was very sad when we had to leave, but, I look forward to Costa Rica.
By Alex WildeIn General Cepeda ( M E X I C O), we have a mission post. It is a wonderful place. We have a room by the kitchen. We have made a lot of friends: Gabriel, Drew, Jeremiah, Aaron, Nathaniel, Anthony, Benji, and Elijah. There is also a very big concrete slide. One slide has one bump. The other has two bumps. If you slide down with card board, it makes it go slow. With a jacket, it slides fast and makes you fly a little bit. But with a bottle, you fly. I once made a jumpsuit out of a jacket it worked well. I also made a jet. It is awesome. Sometimes instead of landing on your butt, you land on your feet. At the beginning, I thought it was scary. Now I say it isn't scary. One of my friends, Aaron, sat down opposite me. We linked arms and then we went down the slide together. We spun. One time we went hiking with my friend Jeremiah. When we went down the mountain, we slipped and fell and there was a small rock slide. We fell on many cactuses. We had snacks. We ate Rice Krispies and granola bars. There were also grasshoppers. We tried to catch the grasshoppers but it was very hard. The grasshoppers jumped near the chapel at the beginning of the mountain. The chapel and the mountain were very beautiful. Ms. Allison pulled out some of the cactus spikes but not all of them.
Another time, my Mom and Dad had a date with me. We bought food, cantaloupe, chips and more for a rancho visit later that night. We walked to a table. They bought me a 99 calories Coke. And we talked a lot. The missionaries stopped by to talk to us. The date made me feel happy, special, and loved. by Brecklyn WildeAt the mission post in General Cepada, Mexico we helped with home visits. Home visits are when you visit someone’s house, talk with them, read from the Bible, pray with them and give them food and medicine. During our first home visit, all we knew about where the person lived was that it was green and by the market. It was easy to find houses near the market, but the problem was that all of them were green! We knocked on two people’s houses and they both said to go further. So we went around the corner, and there was the one green house amongst the red and orange houses. We came in and a nice lady greeted us. Her husband has Parkinson’s disease, but the missionaries knew that beforehand, so they had bought him some medicine for it. One of the single ladies that went with us on our home visits name is Shayna. She ties her rosary around her arm. I do too! When we walk to the different houses, we hold hands and carry each other’s crosses. We pretend to ‘help carry each other’s crosses’ along the way. Another time, we met a lady who owned a candy store. She had two girls. One of the singles that was in our group was talking in Spanish to the youngest girl. Then she saw the girl’s sister get some candy, so the younger girl started crying. Then the mom gave the girl a big big marshmallow in the shape of a flower. Then she offered it to all of us. We took it and ate it. It was so good! I wish we could have them again. Another house we went to there was a man who had a wheel chair. His house was full of flies. Grace, Alex, and a couple of the other kids with us had to go to the bathroom. I didn’t have to go then, so I stayed in the house. When I came out, I found out that all the kids had climbed on top of the man’s roof. There was a big barrel. They used that to climb down. I found out that Alex had fallen into the barrel and couldn’t get out! And raising his eyes toward his disciples he said: by The Wilde FamilyOne of the themes that we’ve frequently discussed during our missionary formation was how in Ireland, the Holy Spirit is referred not as a dove, but as a wild goose. In many ways, this is a much better representation of how God’s plans are not of this world and usually appear pretty crazy to man. When He sent His son to evangelize the world, he didn’t come to Rome as an emperor, but instead to a poor unmarried girl in an obscure village. He didn’t come to dine with the rich and powerful, but instead sat with sinners, prostitutes, and the poorest of the land. He didn’t ask to be served, but instead washed His friends’ feet as a sign of servitude. No one would have understood why He allowed Himself to be humiliated and executed in a way that we would most closely associate with an electric chair. Even His disciples couldn’t understand when their primary persecutor (Saul) became their greatest ally (Paul). I came to you in weakness and fear and much trembling so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God. No one knows what pertains to God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the things freely given us by God. Now the natural person does not accept what pertains to the Spirit of God, for to him it is foolishness, and he cannot understand it, because it is judged spiritually. The spiritual person, however, can judge everything but is not subject to judgment by anyone. (From 1 Cor 2) We began this journey with no particular destination in mind, expecting to be placed in a mission post that we least expected or desired. We still came with full zeal and excitement. But slowly over time, we started thinking again as man does. We knew which country we least wanted to be placed, and we knew where we’d like to be (somewhere in Asia). It was logical and well planned, as if we had any control over our own journey. As if. But the Holy Spirit is funny and wild and crazy, and in the end it all makes sense. God knows what we most need and knows how to use our weaknesses to glorify Him. During our desert day in Northern Mexico we were given our permanent mission post assignment in a letter. With great anticipation, we opened it… The Wildes are headed to Coopevega, Costa Rica! We will be joining two existing families, the Geerlings and the Brupbachers. At this time, we don’t know much more than this, but we have trust in God that we will be cared for. We do know we’ll be serving the poorest of the world in a small community near the Nicaraguan border. And we really need to learn conversational Spanish now. For a deeper well of knowledge about this FMC post, please check out the Brupbacher’s blog posts at http://brucrewmission.blogspot.com By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; he went out, not knowing where he was to go. By faith he sojourned in the promised land as in a foreign country. (Heb 11:8-9) By: Jason and Jessica Wilde They devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles and to the communal life, to the breaking of the bread and to the prayers. Awe came upon everyone, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. All who believed were together and had all things in common. (Acts 2:42-44) One of the critical ministries of a missionary is to visit communities that are underserved by a priest or deacon. This can take many forms depending on the community and available facilities. In the region surrounding General Cepeda there are dozens of smaller communities or villages called ‘ranchos’ which are served by FMC. Some are small communities with a small chapel, while others are little more than a building or two hidden away in the mountains. Most ranchos will only be visited by a priest monthly, while some may go a year or longer without pastoral care. During our first week, we visited San Isidro, a rancho located about 45 minutes away from General Cepeda. Each night we were joined by the local community in a small chapel for our ministry. The first night one lady praised God that we had come to visit and pray with them. She said the missionaries hadn’t been there in a year and that she thought they had been forgotten. On the second night, Jason and I each gave a small personal testimony on God’s work in our lives. I was so nervous. I had practiced my testimony several times throughout the day but I still couldn’t shake the jittery feeling that gripped my stomach. Right before we loaded up the van to head to San Isidro, I ran back into our little room and grabbed a white rosary out of my bag. Many of the FMC missionaries tie their rosary to their arm so they can hold the crucifix in their hand - I wanted too see if this would help calm my nerves. Nathaniel, one of my fellow missionaries, once told us that when we hold the rosary we are holding our mother Mary’s hand. We arrived at the rancho and after a couple of praise and worship songs, it was time for my testimony. I held Chi Yu in one arm and was palming the crucifix in my other hand. In the end, I was not at all nervous and I totally rocked my testimony. Afterwards, I sat down next to this sweet old lady bundled up in her winter coat while Jason got up to give his testimony. Her name was Margarita. About a minute into his talk, Margarita reached over and held my hand. She held my hand for his entire testimony. A little later, she leaned over, pointed to my rosary and whispered “Bonita.” Until this moment, my Spanish had been practically non-existent and the little I had used came out raw. But with the power and confidence not of my own, but of the Holy Spirit, I untied my rosary, handed it to her and whispered “Para tu”. She smiled a beautiful toothless grin that absolutely stole my heart. Later that night as we were saying adios to our new friends, she told me that she was going to use the rosary to pray for me...FOR ME! Give and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap. For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you. (Luke 6:38) My jitters had a purpose. If I wasn’t nervous, I wouldn’t have grabbed my rosary and blessed Margarita with it. The jittery feeling also humbled me and brought me closer to our lady so I could lean on her and hold her hand for support. And while it may appear that I had been sent to serve Margarita, she really gave me far more. She graced me with her love, her smile and her prayers. The last night at San Isidro, we prayed over each other and had Con Vida, a celebration of life. Each family brought a dish to share - gorditas, tostadas, lots of corn on the cob (San Isidro is a farming community), and various homemade tacos. The generosity and love of the families at San Isidro was certainly given out to us in the largest measures possible! |
On a MissionTwo passionate parents and their four children are excited to bring His Word to everyone in need while living a life of Gospel poverty as missionaries. They invite you to join them on a journey to encounter our global neighbors that Jesus commands us to love through works of charity and service. Archives
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