My First Ministry in Spanish

Good morning to all! How is everyone doing? Our family is doing well. Sherry and I are excited to be done with our first semester of language school. We have two more semesters left, and then we are off to Paraguay! We cannot wait, but we know that it is important for our ministry to stay here in Costa Rica and to learn Spanish, well. We had a good first semester, and we are looking forward to learning more in the next eight months.

We would love to hear from you as you read our blog. Please let us know what you think, how you feel, what is going on in your lives, and what is going on in the U.S. (new restaurants, movies, games, news, weather, what is happening in your church, etc.). We would love to hear from you all as well. It helps us to not miss home so much. So, please, when you have the time, drop us an email or post a comment to a blog! We would absolutely love it!

This blog is about my first opportunity to minister, completely in Spanish. I wrote about the taxi system in San Jose not too long ago. So, I won't go back over that, but my first opportunity to really minister came in a taxi. On Tuesday, April 17th, I jumped in a taxi to go to the kids' school for soccer practice. As we began our short trip, I noticed a picture of a woman at the bottom of the dashboard. The driver had made a small shrine around this picture, and I asked him if it was his wife. He said, "Yes." I thought. As the conversation progressed, I noticed he was using a verb tense that I have not learned, yet.

Finally, I understood. He has said that it WAS his wife. So, I promptly told him that I was sorry for his loss, and I asked how he was doing. He said he was doing fine while he worked during the day, but when he went home at night, he was lonely and would cry a lot. He said that she had died a year ago, and they had been married for 18 years and have three children. I asked how the children were doing, and he said okay. They have moments of rough times as well. He went on to talk about how much they miss her.

As we neared the school, I asked him if I could pray for him. I told him that I didn't know Spanish, well, but I would pray a little in Spanish and the rest in English. He said I could. As I prayed, I looked over and noticed that this man was crying. I put my hand on his shoulder and asked God to please be with him. After I had finished, he looked me in the eyes, thanked me, and smiled. Then, he asked, "How many years have you been here in Costa Rica studying Spanish?" I told him, only three months. He gave me a huge compliment! He told me that I spoke very well and had good grammar. I told him, "Gracias a Dios y Lizbet (my phonetics teacher)!"

Now, I did not think I had enough Spanish to be able to minister to anyone. I thought I did not know enough words to say in Spanish to allow God to use me in any way, verbally. I think one of the biggest hindrances to sharing the love of Jesus with those around us, is our brain. We think we do not know enough words or scriptures to be able to share Jesus with someone. Well, if I can do it in another language, any of you can do it in English!

For about a month now, Sherry and I have been praying the Prayer of Jabez before we go to sleep at night. It is a powerful prayer! If you do not want to be used by God to change someones life, then do not pray the Prayer of Jabez. I promise you that opportunities to minister will come your way if you pray this prayer. The way I pray it is this, "Lord, bless me greatly! Expand my ministry to even include other languages! Keep your presences around me and protect me from my sinful desires! Be with me, Lord! Help me to be your light to the world! I want your desires to be my desire that I might always be available to be used by You!"

This prayer is not exactly the Jabez prayer; however, it is what I have been praying for over a month. As a direct result of this prayer, I was able to speak in Spanish with a taxi driver for over 20 minutes. Not only speak, I was also able to minister to him and to pray for him. Let God use you to change the world around you, one person at a time.

My family prays for blessings to be upon all of you as you read our blog,

Charley

Easter

Greetings to all from Costa Rica. I thought I would write a little about Easter here in Latin America. It is very intersting to watch and learn about. We had an entire week off of school prior to Easter. It is called Semana Santa, or Holy Week. This is the same week that we went to the volcano, Arenal. I wrote about that a little while back.

Today's blog is about Easter Sunday and the three days leading up to it. On Thursday, the entire city of San Jose is completely shut down. Almost every business is closed, and people begin to get in a really somber mood. They seem very sad and are in mourning. It seems like they are expecting something bad to happen. In fact, most of the people act like Jesus is going to be crucified again. It is huge! All day Friday, they parade or walk around all of the Catholic churches making a lot of noise and mourning the eminent death of Jesus.

We were able to rent a vehicle for Semana Santa, and on Friday night, we wanted to get something to eat. So, we went for a drive to try and find something open. As we passed the Catholic church in Zapote (the area of San Jose we live in), there were a lot of people in the street marching around the church with noisemakers and crying and yelling. It was a lot different sight than we normally see in the United States. Well, we drove around for awhile, and we finally found a KFC open. So, that's where we had dinner that night.

Then, on Easter Sunday, we had a service at the school. All the missionaries in Costa Rica came, and we celebrated the resurrection of Jesus together. San Jose was almost like a ghost town. It was so quiet. Our service was nice. We had a service for the adults, and our friend, Monica Peercy (Missionary Associate to Mexico-she will be the children's pastor at a church in Mazatlan) held a children's service for all the kids, we all ate lunch together, and then, we had a traditional Easter egg hunt for the little kids. The picture above is Abigail Shrader. Isn't she cute? She's a missionary to Peru.

We had a good time, but I couldn't stop wondering about how the celebrate the death of Jesus and not the resurrection. The Latino people seem to build up all week to Jesus' death, and then on Saturday, it is all over. You know what? I didn't see any hope on any of the faces of the people marching around the churches! I wanted to scream out, "HE'S ALIVE! YOU DON'T HAVE TO WORRY AND MOURN BECAUSE THE MAN YOU ARE LOOKING FOR IS NO LONGER IN THE GRAVE! HE IS RISEN, AND HE WILL RETURN IN THE SAME MANNER AS WHICH HE LEFT!"

All people need to hear that the reason for Easter is the death and RESURRECTION of Jesus Christ. He is our hope! He is our salvation! He is our peace! He is love, mercy, justice, and grace! He is our all in all! He is everything we need and more! Please put your trust in him. Allow Him to come into your heart and just see what He can and will do for you.

The pictures above include Monica teaching the missionary kids sign language to a song, Chaz doing Easter eggs, and the girls just got back from their MK retreat (they are exhausted).

Love to all,

Charley

A BIG THANK YOU

Today is a very special blog. In our mailbox today, I saw a package for our family. It was from some very special people at First Assembly in Barstow, California. The missionette group, Prims, sent us letters and chocolate. WOW! We are truly blessed by some young ladies today.

After we read the letters, cried, and became homesick, we consoled ourselves with Hershey's Kissables and mini chocolate bars. Here in Costa Rica, there is chocolate. In fact, Costa Ricans love chocolate. However, it just does not taste the same as Hershey's chocolate. It was really nice to have a taste of home today. We are very thankful and excited to hear from home and eat good chocolate.

The leader of this fine group of girls is a wonderful lady, Michelle Lanzer. She is a hard worker and sweet lady. We know her well, and we are thankful for her friendship. The Prims that we received letters from are: Aaliyah, Esmerelda, Ariana, Hanna, Rachael, Dannie, nameless one (we had a blue card with lots of stickers, but the young lady forgot to sign her name, and of course, Miss Michelle.

Now, I will attempt to answer all their questions. We are sending them letters from us, but they raised some good questions. So, I will answer them here, as well.

Hanna,
Chariti, Kaylee, & Chaz are all doing fine. They are growing and learning a lot of Spanish (and other stuff as well). They like their school as well as they liked school in the United States (which is to say they would rather be home playing). Yes, it is pretty warm down here. Yes, they do have to eat (some of the foods are good, some are not). Yes, they ride a school bus. Sometimes it is a van, and other times, it is a bigger bus. Their school is pretty hard. They have to learn everything you are learning in school, and they also have to learn Spanish. Yes, they all say they like it here. They all miss you, too.

Ariana,
It is usually hot here. They like most of the food. I think you asked the kids if there are monkeys here. Yes, in fact, hopefully you can see one that we saw in one of the pictures above. The school is hard, but they are working hard. They go to school in a bus, and sometimes they come home in a taxi, especially after soccer practice.

Esmerelda (I sure hope I spelled your name right),
Yes, they have been in school pretty every day since we have been here. They are working hard, making new friends, learning Spanish, and also learning how to play soccer really good. I think they could beat their dad at soccer now.

Aaliyah,
We are doing fine and learning a lot. The food is really good in Costa Rica. Gallo Pinto is Chariti, Kaylee, and Chaz' dad's favorite. It is rice, beans, and special sauce. YUMMY! School is hard, but they are all doing well. Sometimes, it is hard living here. Imagine that you had to walk to Von's or Wal-Mart anytime you needed milk, eggs, or bread. That's what we have to do. Also, imagine not being able to understand the people at the store, restaurants, or on the telephone. It would make it hard to order pizza from Dominoe's or Pizza Hut, huh? It really is a lot of fun here. It is different than back home where you are. There is no Disneyland, but there is a jungle, monkeys, snakes, coati's, lizards, ocelots, rats, and many birds. We haven't found any lions or tigers, though.

Thank you to all the Prims who wrote letters and asked questions. We would be happy to receive any letters (chocolate, candy, etc.). It is fun getting mail from the States. If you would like to write a letter or send a package, please email us and we will tell you the best way to do this. It is pretty easy to receive mail from home. Email is charley.mattix@agmd.org or just click on the email, and you will ego to our website where you can email anyone in the family.

Blessings to all,

Charley, Sherry, Chariti, Kaylee, & Chaz

Arenal

Hello to all from Costa Rica. The Mattix family is doing well. Right now, Chariti and Kaylee are up on the mountain north of San Ramon at the Latin America/Caribbean Missionary Kid's retreat. They are having a good time. It has rained on them almost the entire time they have been there, and they have pretty much either been wet or muddy. Now, you may be asking how do I know this?

This past week was Semana Santa, Holy week in Latin America and around the world. We did not have school this week. So, we took advantage of this and went on a paseo, or trip. Sherry, Chaz, and I went to the volcano Arenal, along with three friends of ours. The picture you see is of the volcano itself. We were there for three days, and we only saw the top of the volcano once, for about 5 minutes. We were told that at night you can see it erupting. We never saw this, but we did here it a lot. It really was an amazing experience. In fact, Sherry and our friend began singing "God of Wonders" when we saw the volcano for the first time.

We saw a lot of interesting things. We kept wishing everyone was here to share this experience with us. God's creation truly is unique and amazing. As we drove around the volcano we saw coatis, monkeys, lots of birds, flowers, and many other animals. We were able to go on a Hanging Bridge tour. This was an amazing walk through the jungle. The tour lasted about 2 hours, and we walked over several bridges. We were literally in the jungle at the base of the volcano. It was awesome and breathtaking. We saw several monkeys, birds, butterflies, leaf-cutter ants, and an eye-lash viper. There will be pictures of these on our website. Be sure and take a look at some of what we were able to see this past week.

As Sherry and our friend, Monica (MA to Mexico) began singing "God of Wonders," I began to think how truly amazing God is. I thought how did God think of all these things? How did he come up with a coati or eye-lash viper? How did he make such a variety of landscapes, rivers, waterfalls, mountains, people, animals, etc. It is truly a miracle and a wonder. "God of wonders beyond our galaxy. You are holy, holy! THE UNIVERSE DECLARES YOUR MAJESTY! You are holy, holy!"

If you ever wonder whether or not there is a God, then all you have to do is go outside (not in the city) and take a walk around. Notice all the details in nature and in animals, it is truly a wonder that anyone would not believe that God exists. Yet, I often wonder if He thinks of me. This week, in the quietness of the jungle (it's not really that quiet), He met us there and He showed us a little of Himself in the nature around us. We had such a relaxing week.

Even though we never got to see the lava flowing at night, we knew that it was there. Even though we have never seen God, we know that He is always there. I can feel His presence in my life and in the world around me. No matter what happens, He is with us! He will be with us, and He will go with us wherever we are. God loves all of you, and He will be there for you! All you need to do is to believe in Jesus Christ, ask Him into your heart, and continue to develop your relationship each day. He will lead you, guide you, and go with you!

Blessings to all,

Charley