THANKS FOR A GREAT VISIT: December 2007

Our Sister Church friends, Pastor Miguel Vargas and Guillermo Cortes from Iglesia El Divino Salvador in San Jose, Costa Rica spent a wonderful week with us. They toured many of the sites we help support with our mission funds, took trips to Seattle and Tacoma, went to the Alternative Gift Fair and enjoyed our auction night with us. Over 50 people attended the adult Sunday school class where Miguel spoke about his own faith journey and what’s happening at our sister church, then answered questions. Many of us heard him preach at both morning services.

When I asked them what their strongest impressions were, they both noted how slowly we drive in the city and were amazed at the number of church volunteers they saw at the mission sites they visited. Miguel especially was struck to find the large number of poor people he saw both at Bread and Roses and at the Community Kitchen. Their impressions of the United States come from TV, they said, and there are no poor people on sitcoms.

Many thank you’s to the members of our congregation who showed them around: Mark and Julie Boyd for opening their home; Paul McCann for showing them the Food Bank; to Libby Penny and Pat McCann - a tour of the Bread and Roses Advocacy Center; to Scott Bishop - to Habitat for Humanity and the Free Store; to Beth Rossing for being their guide at Community Youth Services; to Lee Johnson - to the Community Kitchen and to Pat Dickason for setting up the visit to the Olympia Early Learning Center. Janet Tolman arranged a wonderful lunch for them with our Panorama residents; Gib and Beth Rossing hosted them for dinner one night; Kari Qvigstad and Jeff Fishel provided a Sunday evening potluck with lots in attendance. Mark and Louise Bohe along with Mark Boyd - to see Zoo Lights in Tacoma; Tom Green and Mark Boyd - to Seattle via the Bremerton ferry and to the top of the Space Needle.

PHOTOS FROM THE VISIT: http://www.theunitedchurches.org/Costa_Rica_07/

Do you have pictures not on here? Please send them to webmaster@theunitedchurches.org

“God has been here,” says Don Miguel Vargas, the energetic new pastor of our Sister Church in Costa Rica. And for the 10 TUCO travelers who visited the San Jose church in November, 2005, that seemed to be true.

The dates for our visit, November 5 through 14, were chosen following an invitation from our Sister Church to be part of their 50th anniversary celebration on November 13.  The ten members and friends going were Janet Anderson, Mark Boyd, Shirley Sainsbury, Janet Tolman, Melissa Wise, our youth delegate Hannah Hunter (18), and the Qvigstad-Fishel family of Kari Qvigstad, Jeff Fishel, Gabriel (11) and AnnElise (9).

The front of the church was painted a bright yellow and ochre, and the sanctuary has a new coat of paint. Upstairs where two years earlier were only four bleak walls, partitions have been added. There was energy and optimism among the congregation as they prepared to celebrate their 50th anniversary. The four celebratory services during the week were well attended, the music lively, the  sermons dramatic, and church leaders were involved in every part.