“Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is folly with God.”
1 Cor. 3:18&19a
A couple weeks ago a missionary friend of ours needed a place to stay for a night. While we were talking he called Faith and I “crazy” several times as we told him our story. Once we had him up to speed on our adventure and all the unknowns he said something like; “If crazy is like hot sauce, then I’m catsup crazy. You guys are like that hot sauce that burns your lips, your mouth, and your throat, and then burns other parts of your body the next day!”
I think that the reason for this comment was the fact that he was heading back home after several months and we are here with our family and have no plan B. (I am pretty sure he meant this as a compliment. At least that’s the way I’m choosing to take it....)
“Crazy!” A word, or rather an idea, that pops up more and more in conversations that I have with others when talking about our decisions as of late. (I think they must mean crazy in the good way.... Right?) There are nights that, after waking up at 3:17 in the morning to get Bella a drink, I can’t go back to sleep because part of me knows that we really are crazy!
I am, however, finding that being “crazy” really does have some great advantages! Since making the decision to follow where God was leading us and moving to Costa Rica, it has become hard to have “normal” conversations. It has become difficult to talk with someone for more than 5 minutes without being asked something like; “This is a really large garage sale! What are y’all doing?”, or “Why do you need so many suitcases?”, or “What do you need this storage unit for?”, or even “What brings you to Coast Rica?”. It’s after questions like this that I get a big grin on my face and get to tell people (because they asked) about how God has been leading our family. I get an opportunity to share about God’s hand in our particular circumstances!
It has been amazing for me to have a part of my life that doesn’t make sense. It’s almost like God brings opportunities to make much of him when we have those parts of our lives that seem crazy to others, exposed in our lives. These insane parts of our lives are a cause for questions, they become conversation changers, and they are a gift from God! After all, how much fun is it to have a predictable ordinary conversation?
I guess I’ve said all this to say that as followers of Christ we should all have “crazy” parts of our lives that do not make sense to this world. Christ is working in us and his ways are higher than our ways, so there will be opportunities to share Jesus when people ask why we do the things we do. We should not hide those parts of our lives but instead put them on display for the world to see and wonder....
“The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God. For the Scriptures say, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and discard the intelligence of the intelligent .”
1 Cor. 1:18&19
We have gotten more of a sense of the direction that our family’s ministry is heading lately. This has really been cool to be a part of and our days are really starting to fill up. (I now have to check my schedule before committing to any upcoming project/event...)
After lots of prayer and seeking God’s will, Faith and I were getting a feel for the direction God was leading us. Then we got to spend an evening talking with our pastor and his wife after they returned from the States. We asked about needs and vision they have for the church here, and received some confirmation in seeing that some of the direction we had, lines up with needs at this time!
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| I got to go into the local high school with a group from our church! (That's right, there are no walls on this part of the school!) |
There are other new areas/needs that we can help with, some of which are still being thought/prayed about at this point. We are really excited, and hope to share some additional info in coming blogs!
Thank you for your prayers! We know you have been lifting us in prayer as we have felt it and seen answers to prayer in the last couple of weeks! Bella’s rash has gotten quite a bit better! Please continue to pray for our family’s health as we get used to a new country and new bugs! Please also continue to pray that we pick up the language quickly as ministry will be so much easier when we have a working knowledge of the language!
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| Some fun games to break the ice... |
We also found a house that we can move into on October 1st! Not only is this house a 3 bedroom (very hard to find here), but it is closer to our church and stores. It is also close to a river and is several hundred feet above sea level so we’ll get some cool breeze and keep our air conditioning cost to a minimum. The house also has a place to park our car out of the sun and rain. We feel blessed to be making this transition soon!
Finally, please pray for God’s provision in our situation. We have been so blessed to receive support from some of you. It is hard to put into words how grateful we are and how each gift has been an answer to prayer. However, we have had to take a significant portion of our monthly expenses out of our savings each month so far. For those of you that would like to support our ministry here in Costa Rica please go to - www.WorldOutreach.org/donations . Just select Aaron and Faith Riddering from the list under the donate tab and follow the instructions.
Your Friends,
The Ridderings
