March Comes In like a Lion

“Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the show?”

Midmorning today, my stepmother, Alma Gloria Malpica Whitney, left this earth. She and my father had been happily married for forty-seven-and-a-half years, though her health had been in decline for the last half-dozen years or so. Ginny had gone to be with Dad yesterday, so she was there at the end and will be there at least through tomorrow. Dad would prefer for me to finish out my scheduled time here, so that’s what I’ll do, but the gravity of the situation has cast a shadow on what would otherwise have been a wonderful day.

Dad and Alma in happy times, here with Nate and Erica

The day began for me with a walking tour of Grano de Oro.

I may need an archeologist to explain this sign to me.

Hardware store

Coffee is the main cash crop in the area.

Timothy tells me the usual spelling is bajoc. Anyway, R & R have one for rent.

Wanna buy a cake?

How about some cheese?

Seafood—dine in or carry out.

After breakfast came Bible reading time at the Cabécar church here at Finca La Cueva.

In the mid-afternoon, we went down to Grano de Oro for a service at a Spanish-speaking church that Aziel Jones, Timothy and David’s father, started in the 1960s in response to a request from a “Spanish” believer. He would commute hours each way once a week to hold Bible studies with Spanish speakers in the area. The relationship between Spanish, even believers, and Cabécar Indians was then about the same as that between white believers and blacks in the USA. Because Aziel was working full time with Indians and only one day a week with the Spanish, the Spanish felt like he was treating them as less important than the Indians they looked down on, so response to his preaching was tepid. (There were other factors at work, of course.) But there still is a core of believers, and Timothy’s son-in-law Joel is working hard to build it up in both width and depth.

After church I was invited to visit Timothy's parents-in-law, who were in the area for the Bible conference that took place yesterday in the church building. They very graciously served me a mug of hot coffee—I never touch the stuff voluntarily—but the señora knows how to make it good, so it didn't require much sacrifice to down it. And I’m sure its strength is what has enabled me to stay awake long enough to make this blog post.

Then it was back to Timothy’s for dinner. My newfound friends’ Spanish isn’t much better than mine, and they don’t speak English, so it was a quiet dinner, but I enjoyed the company.

Tomorrow is another day. It will start with a drive out to the boonies to deposit a team of missionary dentists off at their location for a week, then back to the computer screen for ... we’ll see.

Thank you for your prayers!