Costa Rica Eruptions
18/01/12 05:12
There are plenty of volcanoes throughout Central America. Most tourists who spend time in Costa Rica find an opportunity to visit one of the six active volcanoes in the country. Poas Volcano National Park is close to San Jose and a popular destination. Unless it is raining and foggy, tourists can view the sulfuric pool and smoke rising. Sometimes a geyser will explode into the air sending steam and ash up above the caldera.
Although it seems to have begun a quieter phase in 2010, Arenal remains one of the most active volcanoes in Costa Rica. The government has installed a web camera that allows anyone with access to the Internet to take a look at the mountain. Most of the time there is a steam cloud around the top of the mountain.
A week ago, Turrialba got the attention of people in the area by emitting a large ash plume. A new vent opened in the southwest flank of the west crater. An alert was issued last Thursday, but has since been lifted because scientists do not consider the mountain to be at risk for an imminent eruption. At the moment the volcano seems to have returned to its normal levels of activity. The park remains closed to visitors as scientists continue to assess risks to humans and animals.
One of the realities of Costa Rica is that in mountain areas roads tend to be narrow and full of curves. In the best of conditions, traffic cannot move quickly. If there is need of an evacuation a single landslide or other event can result in people being unable to escape.
It seems like there is some kind of volcanic event almost every year in January. We always pay more attention to activities in Costa Rica at this time of the year because this is the week of Vacation Bible School at our sister church in Los Guido. Sybil and Chuck Rounds, members of our congregation, are in Costa Rica to assist with the program as they have done for many years. Prior to their service George and Mae Louise Zeise helped to establish the link between the Costa Rica congregation and our own. We’ve been exchanging members and ideas and providing mutual support since 1988. I have been fortunate to make four trips to visit our sister church and their pastor has been to South Dakota to bring prayers, greetings and to experience our area and congregation.
News and pictures of Vacation Bible School are being posted on our church’s Facebook™ page. Vacation Bible School in Costa Rica occurs at a time when it is very difficult for me to be away from our congregation here. Annual meeting and its preparations consume much of January for me. Compiling an annual report, developing a budget and other preparations take a lot more time and effort than initially appear. People who become involved in our Church Board who have no prior experience with congregational administration are often surprised at how many extra meetings and long days are built into the month of January in the church.
No matter how busy we get, however, we know that it is even busier in our sister church. Vacation Bible School is a massive effort for the congregation. Over the past decade, we have watched as our sister church worked to improve its facility. A new roof with independent support beams rose over the church and parsonage, providing some much-needed attic storage space. Kitchen improvements have resulted in a commercial kitchen that is vastly different from the space some of use remember first seeing in 2001. Modern appliances and a new range hood provide for safety and convenience in food preparation. The sanctuary now has a higher ceiling, better lighting and brand-new tile floors that make it easier to accommodate a wide variety of activities from worship to classes to feeding children. Whenever I tire of having to move furniture for changing programs in our church, I am reminded that moving furniture has to occur multiple times each day to support the programs of our sister church.
With all of these improvements, however, our sister church building has not grown any larger. When 90 to 110 children show up for Vacation Bible School it is crowded. And the excitement of the children can also mean that it gets noisy. Still, the church has developed good ways of dealing with the crowds of children. Activities are held in the parish house across the street and in every nook and cranny of the church building including the front porch.
Christian education in both countries has its roots in serving the community. There are a few people in our congregations who think of Christian Education as something that we do for “our” children. We occasionally hear comments about “building our future,” or “attracting younger members,” but we know that at our core Christian Education is not about ourselves. It is not about institutional stability or making our congregation bigger or richer. Christian Education is about mission. We serve the children of our community so that they might go forth and share the love of Christ with others. We don’t keep our children for ourselves, we send them into the world equipped with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
At the core of the Gospel is love. Jesus commands us as disciples to love one another. And we are sent forth into the world. In the words of the great commission from Matthew, we go forth into all the world. One of the expressions of that commission is that a congregation in Rapid City South Dakota invests in Vacation Bible School in a sister congregation in Costa Rica. Such an action does nothing for our bottom line. It does not build up our worship statistics or balance our budget. It does something far more important. It expresses our faith. We believe that the love of God should be shared with all. We believe that the joys of discipleship go hand in hand with costs.
It truly is a wonderful thing to have a sister church sharing Vacation Bible School this week. Otherwise I might be tempted to focus all of my attention and prayers on the process of maintaining and strengthening our congregation for the year to come. There is a great danger to focusing on our selves too much. One of the gifts we receive from our Costa Rica partners is the gift of broadening our vision. The Good News of Jesus is not about keeping the doors open or building a legacy in Rapid City. The Good News of Jesus is about feeding hungry children, supporting widows and working for justice and peace.
There is steam rising from the volcanoes in Costa Rica. But that isn’t the big news. The big news is that our walk with Christ always leads us away from ourselves into paths of service. It is a journey worth taking.
Although it seems to have begun a quieter phase in 2010, Arenal remains one of the most active volcanoes in Costa Rica. The government has installed a web camera that allows anyone with access to the Internet to take a look at the mountain. Most of the time there is a steam cloud around the top of the mountain.
A week ago, Turrialba got the attention of people in the area by emitting a large ash plume. A new vent opened in the southwest flank of the west crater. An alert was issued last Thursday, but has since been lifted because scientists do not consider the mountain to be at risk for an imminent eruption. At the moment the volcano seems to have returned to its normal levels of activity. The park remains closed to visitors as scientists continue to assess risks to humans and animals.
One of the realities of Costa Rica is that in mountain areas roads tend to be narrow and full of curves. In the best of conditions, traffic cannot move quickly. If there is need of an evacuation a single landslide or other event can result in people being unable to escape.
It seems like there is some kind of volcanic event almost every year in January. We always pay more attention to activities in Costa Rica at this time of the year because this is the week of Vacation Bible School at our sister church in Los Guido. Sybil and Chuck Rounds, members of our congregation, are in Costa Rica to assist with the program as they have done for many years. Prior to their service George and Mae Louise Zeise helped to establish the link between the Costa Rica congregation and our own. We’ve been exchanging members and ideas and providing mutual support since 1988. I have been fortunate to make four trips to visit our sister church and their pastor has been to South Dakota to bring prayers, greetings and to experience our area and congregation.
News and pictures of Vacation Bible School are being posted on our church’s Facebook™ page. Vacation Bible School in Costa Rica occurs at a time when it is very difficult for me to be away from our congregation here. Annual meeting and its preparations consume much of January for me. Compiling an annual report, developing a budget and other preparations take a lot more time and effort than initially appear. People who become involved in our Church Board who have no prior experience with congregational administration are often surprised at how many extra meetings and long days are built into the month of January in the church.
No matter how busy we get, however, we know that it is even busier in our sister church. Vacation Bible School is a massive effort for the congregation. Over the past decade, we have watched as our sister church worked to improve its facility. A new roof with independent support beams rose over the church and parsonage, providing some much-needed attic storage space. Kitchen improvements have resulted in a commercial kitchen that is vastly different from the space some of use remember first seeing in 2001. Modern appliances and a new range hood provide for safety and convenience in food preparation. The sanctuary now has a higher ceiling, better lighting and brand-new tile floors that make it easier to accommodate a wide variety of activities from worship to classes to feeding children. Whenever I tire of having to move furniture for changing programs in our church, I am reminded that moving furniture has to occur multiple times each day to support the programs of our sister church.
With all of these improvements, however, our sister church building has not grown any larger. When 90 to 110 children show up for Vacation Bible School it is crowded. And the excitement of the children can also mean that it gets noisy. Still, the church has developed good ways of dealing with the crowds of children. Activities are held in the parish house across the street and in every nook and cranny of the church building including the front porch.
Christian education in both countries has its roots in serving the community. There are a few people in our congregations who think of Christian Education as something that we do for “our” children. We occasionally hear comments about “building our future,” or “attracting younger members,” but we know that at our core Christian Education is not about ourselves. It is not about institutional stability or making our congregation bigger or richer. Christian Education is about mission. We serve the children of our community so that they might go forth and share the love of Christ with others. We don’t keep our children for ourselves, we send them into the world equipped with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
At the core of the Gospel is love. Jesus commands us as disciples to love one another. And we are sent forth into the world. In the words of the great commission from Matthew, we go forth into all the world. One of the expressions of that commission is that a congregation in Rapid City South Dakota invests in Vacation Bible School in a sister congregation in Costa Rica. Such an action does nothing for our bottom line. It does not build up our worship statistics or balance our budget. It does something far more important. It expresses our faith. We believe that the love of God should be shared with all. We believe that the joys of discipleship go hand in hand with costs.
It truly is a wonderful thing to have a sister church sharing Vacation Bible School this week. Otherwise I might be tempted to focus all of my attention and prayers on the process of maintaining and strengthening our congregation for the year to come. There is a great danger to focusing on our selves too much. One of the gifts we receive from our Costa Rica partners is the gift of broadening our vision. The Good News of Jesus is not about keeping the doors open or building a legacy in Rapid City. The Good News of Jesus is about feeding hungry children, supporting widows and working for justice and peace.
There is steam rising from the volcanoes in Costa Rica. But that isn’t the big news. The big news is that our walk with Christ always leads us away from ourselves into paths of service. It is a journey worth taking.