Free Gas for Your Think Tank — Short Reflections, Lasting Encouragement

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My wife Ernie and I have been riding an amazing train of events that have led us to Costa Rica several times and connected us to many people there. Come abord!

• Many years ago, Ernie’s hairdresser told her about a friend who was developing property in Costa Rica. Hearing her stories made Ernie want to visit Costa Rica, but every time Ernie mentioned us going, I wasn’t interested.
• Then in January of 2023 I felt led to learn Spanish and began to consistently watch videos in Spanish for two hours and read from a Spanish Bible each day.
• In the early fall of that year, two families from Mexico, that spoke only Spanish, moved in next door to us. They’ve been the best neighbor’s we’ve ever had, and we’ve learned a lot of Spanish from them.
• About that time a friend of Ernie’s returned from spending time in a Spanish language immersion school in Spain. Ernie suggested that I go there to help me learn more Spanish. I checked into it, but they were booked for a year.
• We have a nephew who lives in Panama, so I googled “Spanish language schools in Panama.” The first thing on the list was Intercultura, a school in the city of Heredia in Costa Rica. I went to their webpage and loved what I saw.
• So in October 2023, I went there for two weeks of Spanish immersion. I lived with a family that didn’t speak any English.
• My class was very small (a young German guy, a young American guy, and me). Everything was in Spanish. Our teacher was Jesús — who was an amazing professor.
• Jesús asked us how we had been learning Spanish. I told him that I had been watching videos and reading the Bible every day in Spanish since January. Then Jesús asked me if I grew up in a religious home. I told him no and briefly shared my Christian salvation experience in my broken Spanish. When I said, “Then I met Jesus, but not you, the other Jesus,” Jesús looked stunned. Then he suddenly started laughing uncontrollably from deep within. He couldn’t stop. After five minutes or so, Jesús left the room and closed the door. We could hear him in the hallway. After a few minutes he got control of himself and came back into the classroom. I’ve never seen anyone else experience such a powerful reaction to anything I’ve said. I knew God was up to something in Costa Rica.
• During those two weeks I felt an amazing heart-connection with the other 20 or so students who were there. When we would ask each other how we had been learning Spanish, I would tell them about reading a Spanish Bible. That opened the door for me to talk with them about the supernatural Jesus. I think that those two weeks were the most I’ve ever openly shared my faith with people. When I talk about my two weeks there, I am so moved that I often cry.
• After my time in Intercultura, Ernie flew down and we spent ten days as tourists. We had a wonderful time, and we both fell in love with the natural beauty and the people of Costa Rica.
• When we returned home to Nashville we couldn’t stop thinking and talking about Costa Rica. Every time I would share about it tears would come to my eyes. We wanted to go back, but we felt like we needed confirmation as to when and where to go.
• Then in the fall of the next year (2024) Ernie felt inwardly nudged to attend a prayer meeting that she had heard about even though she didn’t know anyone who would be there. A woman she met there told Ernie about having recently taken a mission trip to Costa Rica and gave her an “info @” email address for the group she went with.
• When Ernie told me about that, I sent an email to “info@ . . .” saying that we would like to volunteer to go on a mission trip to Costa Rica with them. To my surprise a woman emailed me back and said that she and her husband lead the ministry and they would like to meet with us.
• When we met with them in their office, they told us that someone had given them some property in Costa Rica and that they wanted to make it into a Christian retreat center. As we were getting to know them, we asked them where they were from originally. Her husband said Nettleton, Mississippi (a small town outside of Tupelo). My mother was born just outside of Nettleton and grew up in Tupelo (next door to Elvis Presley). Her cousin was the Constable (Sherrif) in Nettleton and the woman’s husband actually knew him. She was amazed said that in many years of marriage I was the only person she met who ever even heard of Nettleton, Mississippi. She told us that when they take another trip to Costa Rica she might call us.
• A month or so later in March (2025) we got a call from her. She and two other people were leaving in 6 days. After much prayer, Ernie and I booked a flight and went to Costa Rica with them. We flew into Liberia with them and went to their property high on a volcano overlooking Lake Nicaragua. (Previously we had flown into San Jose.)
• After spending five days on the property we drove to the San Jose area and stayed in an Airbnb. We attended a church there on Sunday and all 5 of us were invited to testify. We were embraced with such love by the people there.
• Our trip only lasted a week, so I had decided to stay and attend another week at the Intercultura language school. The rest flew home. The church invited me to preach on Wednesday night and to attend a gender reveal celebration for the pastor’s daughter on Saturday. They also arranged for me to preach at another church on Sunday. All three were amazing experiences.
• That week at the school, the receptionist came and found me during a break and in Spanish told me to follow her. She led me to an American man in his 50s who had been a student there and lives in Costa Rica. As we spoke in Spanish, I asked him what he did there. He told me that he worked with a nondenominational mission’s organization called Vidanet, that trains young adults to be missionaries.
• When I got back to Nashville, I looked up Vidanet’s webpage and read more about it. I was surprised to see that they were asking for an older couple to volunteer to serve as “grandparents” to the students for three months during the fall. I didn’t want to take the time to fill out their application, so I sent a message to their general email box.
• About a week later, to my surprise, I received an email from the director saying that he and his wife would like to zoom with me and Ernie. We met online together for two hours and connected heart-to-heart. They invited us to come to Vidanet and spend a few days to get to know them and some of the students. So after being in Costa Rica in March (2025) we went back in May. We loved the spiritual environment at Vidanet.
• While we were there, we began to ask God to give us a place to stay in the fall if He wanted us to come back. The last day we were there the leadership team invited us to come back for the fall. They also told us that a couple on the team was going to go to the USA for six months and that we could stay in their house. We were amazed and knew that we were supposed to come back.
• That fall was wonderful. There were 18 students at Vidanet for three months of training, before going as 3 teams to serve as short-term missionaries in three countries. We spent about 30 hours a week getting to know the students, encouraging them, listening to them, praying over them, eating meals with them, doing outreaches with them, worshipping with them, and showing them God’s love. They truly felt like our grandkids.
• When we weren’t on the base at Vidanet, Ernie and I would walk our neighborhood and visit various places in the area. People were curious about us “gringos” so we would tell them about Vidanet and about how much the people there love Jesus. We got to minister to a lot of people (including Uber drivers) and made several close friends that way. After three months it was very hard to leave and go home just before Christmas.
• The students also went to their homes (half of them were Latinos and the other half Americas). Then they returned and were sent to three countries for five months. They returned to Vidanet in May (2026). Ernie and I did too. We had to see them again and hear about their experiences!
• We just got home last night. What a great trip. We were at the base as the students arrived. They didn’t know that we were going to be there, so we got many great hugs. We spent about 9 wonderful days with them hearing their stories and interacting with them.
• We were also invited to come back to Vidanet in the fall of this year (2026) and spend another three months with a new group of students. Once again, we prayed that God would confirm it by providing a place to stay. We had two places in mind but they both fell through while we were there.
• One night we took dear friends we met last year (who speak only Spanish) to dinner. We were telling them about needing a place for this fall. They surprised us by telling us they are building an apartment behind their house as an Airbnb and that it will be ready soon. They said we can live there this fall and gave us a very good price.
• Our last three days this time in Costa Rica we traveled with a young couple we had met in our neighborhood and their baby daughter. They are new Christians and have been radically transformed by the risen Jesus. Ernie and I have been zooming with them every 2 or 3 weeks to help them grow in their faith. It’s such an incredible blessing to see people who have been deeply changed by Jesus, hungering and thirsting to grow closer to and strong in Him.

I would love to name all the dear (“pura vida”) people who we have connected with heart-to-heart in Costa Rica, but I don’t want to leave anyone out. From Vidanet to Uber drivers to Intercultura to vendors in markets to neighborhood walks to servers in restaurants to churches — Ernie and I love you all. See you soon. To the Vidanet students who aren’t coming back this fall — we will miss you greatly, but we are excited to know that God the Holy Spirit is leading and empowering and using you as shinning lights pointing people to the reality of the risen Jesus!

Also thank you to all of our USA friends. We so appreciate your prayers, encouragement, and support!