The Most Expensive Coke I Never Drank

July 20, 2011 By nick 5 Comments

I will post about our last day of ministry in Costa Rica a little later. I really enjoyed how we got to serve on Monday and would love to share those stories. But right now, I feel I should share with everyone the events surrounding my getting stranded in Costa Rica since word has gotten out through various means of communication. I know how easy it is for stories to change over the course of several conversations.

Monday was a full day of ministry and I was very thirsty before dinner. We went to Edwin’s (the leader of La Roca) house for dinner. His wife cooked us an authentic Colombian dish that was very delicious. I drank a small cup of juice that Christa made, but it didn’t really quench my thirst. Drew and I talked about going to the mart to grab a Coke Zero once we got to La Roca that evening, but ended up not going as we spent all of our time hanging out with the students one last time.

As soon as we got back to the hotel where we were staying, David Brown and I decided we would walk down the street to a mart to grab a drink. Drew decided he would stay back, so David offered to buy him a drink while we were gone. We walked to the mart across the street (maybe 500 ft. away) and asked if they took U.S. Dollars. The man replied no, but pointed to the Chinese Restaurant back across the street which was still maybe only 150 yards away from our hotel. We walked over and went in.

We walked by this Chinese Restaurant several times during the week and I have never seen anyone eating in it. It was the same on Monday night. We stopped in around 10:30 p.m. and it was vacant as usual. We asked if they had Coca-Cola Light (Diet Coke) and the man pulled out a couple of bottles. David then told him he wanted two regular cokes, so the man grabbed them as well. As soon as we had the drinks, we asked the cashier how much we owed. He struggled a bit, looked around his counter  a while and then went and asked for help. He came back and told us what was equivalent to $6 USD. David pulled his cash out to pay for the three drinks he was buying for himself and a couple of the guys back at the hotel, but I had a twenty dollar bill. It would be better for me to use the twenty on four drinks rather than just one, so I handed the man my money and told David that I would buy all of the drinks. The cashier couldn’t figure out what $20 USD was equivalent to in his currency (Colones), so I pulled out my phone and opened the calculator app to show him how many colones he owed me in return. I started explaining that my $14 USD change was equal to…

Ch-Ch…It was the sound of a gun cocking behind David and me. I immediately thought, “We’re getting robbed. This is really happening!” We’ve all heard about being robbed or others being in a place that was held-up by a gunman, but it was actually happening to me, in Costa Rica. We were being robbed at gunpoint.

The man started yelling stuff in Spanish as I turned to look at him. I saw 33 men carrying grenades, machine guns and a whole arsenal of weapons, okay, more like a gunman and two other men walking in; the gunman in the middle and the two other men on the left and the right of the restaurant. The robber on my side of the restaurant was tightening a hood from his jacket over his head. I had my wallet in my hand, so I quickly turned back towards the counter with my back towards the robbers. I stuck my wallet in the top waist band of my athletic shorts. The robbers would have to demand my wallet from me if they saw my brilliant swift move to hide it…. “Clank!” My heart dropped (no that was not the sound of my heart dropping), not because we were being robbed, David and I were not nervous or scared at all, my heart dropped because so did my wallet right through my shorts and it made a “clank” sound as it landed open on the ground by my feet. The cards in my wallet didn’t make it a quiet exchange! This was a miracle….The wallet landed open with the inside (where the money and cards go) facing the ground, but it also landed in the exact same direction of my foot. Something told me, “Nick, step on it!” So, I did.

The next thing I know, my phone is being snatched from my hand and as I look to my right, one of the robbers was going through my bag. He only had two cables pulled out, the charger to my iPad and the cable for my iPod, both of which were in my bag. My initial thought was, “Great! If this is all he grabs, I am doing good, my iPad is hidden!” Meanwhile, David is explaining to the leader that we, “No hablan español. No comprendemos!” He then slides his cash towards the robber and says, “Here!” The third robber went towards the back of the counter and the leader yelled something which stopped him, he grabbed my twenty dollar bill from the counter and the other two robbers grabbed our entire bags and briskly walked out of the restaurant.

I was immediately angry, and told David my passport was in my bag, for which he replied that his was too. Before you lecture me on not carrying that around, there is a long story why we had it at that time. I went to go leave to see where the men went, to get their license plate number if they were in a car, and to go after my bag; but before I could get out the door the owners of the restaurant slammed the metal security door closed. I told them I needed out to go get my bag and to get our passports. I told them to call the police quickly that the robbers had stolen our passports. The Chinese workers at the restaurant were not moving quickly, they were extremely shaken and seemed as if they were in shock.

When the police arrived they were ready for war. Their vehicles came speeding up to the scene and they quickly jumped out of their vehicles decked out in bullet-proof vests and automatic weapons. After hearing the direction where the assailants ran off to, several police jumped back in and sped off to hunt them down.

David and I looked down the street and saw some of the girls from our group coming our way, so we told them to hurry, so they could go get a translator for us. The police did not act like they understood us at all. We needed Edwin to translate to the police that we lost our passports. At first they didn’t believe us, but then quickly ran back to get Edwin and the rest of the guys. As soon as they arrived and I knew David would not be left alone, I left to go in the direction they ran off towards, desperately hoping they may have grabbed our computers and ditched the bags, five houses up the street Shane told me to come back that there was probably no chance of finding anything.

Neither David or I were worried about the “stuff” we lost. We were mainly concerned about our passports. It was sad to lose all of the videos and the pictures I had taken all week of our ministry with La Roca, but losing the actual items did not phase us. David lost around $2,000 in personal belongings and I lost around $1,700. A nosy man kept asking us what was in the bags and how much money we lost, etc. I finally snapped back at him that I did not care about the stuff that was in my bag, I only wanted to get home to see my family and that I couldn’t do that without my passport.

David mentioned going into the store to get our drinks that we purchased, but I didn’t want to go back into the store. As I mentioned earlier, the Chinese people seemed in total shock. One lady was sitting in the floor crying. They were a mess. This ended up being the most expensive coke I never drank. In that moment I was not concerned about the drink, I wanted to go after the morons who took away my ticket to get home.

Edwin, Jeremy, David and I went to the police station to fill out the report of the events that took place and to give a list of the stolen items. This proved to only be the beginning of a whirlwind last day in Costa Rica as we tried to get home.

The Most Expensive Coke I Never Drank Part 2…

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Costa Rica Update Day Six

July 18, 2011 By nick Leave a Comment

First of all, I found out I can share my public mobile uploads folder from Facebook so you can see a few of the photos I have uploaded via my phone, I still cannot upload via my ipad (lame).

Yesterday, Sunday, was our “Celebrate Day” here in Costa Rica. All throughout the week there was a lot of discussion about what we should do on our free day. We originally talked about going white water rafting and zip lining, but the prices increased significantly since the first time the group did that two years ago.
We then talked about going to the beach, which would have been a lot cheaper, but later in the week, it started calling for rain most of the day (P.S. It rains a lot in Costa Rica, especially during this time of the year), so we decided to tour San Jose, Heredia and go to the mall and the souvenir shop.

It looked like it was going to be a beautiful day, but as we were preparing to leave the museum, it started getting cloudy and dark like it was going to downpour on us; and it did, for the rest of the night up until around 10 p.m.

We went to the mall to eat lunch. It was a pleasant surprise to find some places we recognized like Wendy’s, KFC, McDonald’s, and the like. We ate at Wendy’s which above all things served Coke Zero, as did every other place that served Coke products. It is good to see that Costa Rica is at least drinking God’s favorite drink.

Yesterday was challenging as my soreness and exhaustion set in from Saturday’s soccer tournament. I am an old man at 30 years old and I used a lot of muscles that I have not used since my junior year in high school, so needless to say mobility was a slight issue throughout the day :)

Today is our last day in Costa Rica to do ministry. We will go to a place called “Moms,” which to my understanding, helps and cares for young, pregnant teens. We will also go back to La Roca for our last visit to hangout with the students and to say our goodbyes.

Please pray for those who we have had the opportunity to serve and invest in that God would continue to do a work in their life, as well, pray for Edwin and his family as they continue to follow Jesus in their ministry to this community through La Roca. They definitely need your prayers. I cannot wait for New Passion to invest in what God is doing through La Roca.

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Costa Rica Update Day Five

July 17, 2011 By nick 1 Comment

I did not have the opportunity to post an update from yesterday, so here it is:

We went to La Roca Saturday morning after breakfast. We played with the kids, helped them do crafts and hung out with the local kids/teens who skateboard. One of our projects this week was to help build La Roca a skateboard ramp and a grinding box, so they could better connect with this growing population of teenagers.

The skateboarders were phenomenal. You have to consider that they don’t have the nice equipment that is made available to our kids in the U.S., and yet they still work hard to develop their skills. I cannot upload pictures from my ipad, but I posted a few on Facebook of two of the best skaters.

After lunch we rented out an indoor soccer (fútbol) field so the kids and teenagers could play. We had four teams and my team won our first game 6-1 and then faced Shane’s team and lost 3-2, however, I must note, he had the two best players of all the younng boys. Shane and I then partnered up with some of the older Costa Rican guys and our team won that game 12-11. Shane scored his first soccer goal ever, I was just happy that I could somewhat hang with these guys as they are phenomenal (I haven’t played in at least 13 years).

In-between the games we had the opportunity to share the gospel with the students. Paige Smith-Robinson shared her story and did an outstanding job! I know a lot of students, who at twelve years old, would not stand in front of their peers and tell such a difficult story, but she did and she pointed the young people to Jesus. I shared after Paige and gave the students an opportunity to place their faith in Jesus.

I don’t know why I did it, because I don’t even do this at New Passion (a lot – very rarely), but I asked the students if they wanted to pray and place their faith in Jesus for salvation. One guy raised his hand quickly and several others followed (of course I’m not sure if they did this because they were genuine or if they saw someone else do it). Afterward on the walk back to La Roca, Drew Hall and I had the opportunity to talk to this guy and ask him if he received Jesus for salvation. He responded yes. We were able to ask him if he had a Bible and if he went to church. He once again responded to our questions. We were amazed he could understand our broken spanish, but we were able to communicate with him. We later asked a translator to repeat with us just so we could make sure, and he responded the same.

The most difficult part about this whole situation is that this young man was totally tuned in. He has been all week, but you could tell yesterday that he was hungry to be with us. My prayer is that he will continue seeking Jesus and that the leaders at La Roca can connect with him and continue to help him grow. He is a great young man and I know God can do amazing things through him. He is one of the leaders in the community, all of the younger guys look up to him.

Unfortunately, I cannot upload pictures right now from my ipad, but I will when I return home. If we are friends on Facebook, I’ve been able to upload some there from my phone.

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Costa Rica Update Four Days In

July 16, 2011 By nick 1 Comment

The internet has been so intermittent here in Costa Rica it has been hard to post any updates. I found out yesterday that if I get up really early before the rest of the group, I have a little bit of extra time on the internet before it crashes.

I have always loved being with people from Latin America. As I have shared before, I used to love going with my dad on trips to south Georgia to the migrant camps to share the gospel with migrants when I was around 12 years old. I said at that time that I would love to do missions work in Mexico, and so it is awesome being here in Costa Rica this week.

So far we have been at La Roca the entire week. Our schedule has been pretty much shot due to rain, but everyone has been flexible and we have enjoyed spending time with the local children and teens that La Roca serves. One of our projects was to build a ramp (with no blue prints) for the boys, as many of them are starting to gain interest in skateboarding. When we started the project we were given a handsaw, a half working drill, and a tool box full of tools that were not meant for carpentry work. The team bought them the appropriate tools, so our work finally got completed on the ramp. Our next project (yesterday), was to build them a box to jump off onto with their boards and to grind on. We thought it would be easy now that we have the tools. We were wrong again. This time the lumber company delivered their top quality warped wood, so our short project expanded into a days work.

Yesterday, we also cooked a bunch of hotdogs and took plates throughout the community and gave away free hotdogs and chips to families. It was pouring rain, but it was a lot of fun.

We have laughed so much on this trip. I love being with these people. Three different churches are here and we get along as Jesus intended as one church. If laughter is like a medicine, it’s no wonder we are all staying healthy, except a few people whose stomaches are having a hard time :)

It’s amazing to see the differences in cultures compared to the U.S.A. Many of our youth (mine included) are spoiled, many of these kids simply enjoy being picked up and “Quantas” (Spun around in circles) for fun. I love seeing their smiles and the joy that it brings them for a group of Americans, who they can barely understand, comes to them to share the love of Jesus.

I’ll update some more later. Continue to pray for us, for the people here in Costa Rica, and for the La Roca Ministry, that God would continue to receive glory from it all.

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Hailey Dances to Toby Mac

June 26, 2011 By nick Leave a Comment

I found out just how much Hailey likes Toby Mac tonight. I feel I need to go ahead and lock her away until she is 30. Tonight, I am thankful for two older sons who will take care of any guys before I have to meet them when she becomes a teenager:

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PHAT Camp 2011 Week 2 Recap

June 20, 2011 By nick 2 Comments

If I die before I wake, my life will be complete.

I finally got to be a part of the world famous PHAT Camp last week. PHAT Camp was founded by Shane Padgett and Joshua Glymph; and I must say, both are tremendous leaders. That is evident both in the execution of their vision and through the leaders who serve beside them.

I have to admit that I was nervous leading up to the camp because Shane was sharing with me the legacy of PHAT and how God has brought so many godly young people and now leaders through the camp. I felt fortunate that I had the entire week before camp to prepare for the 5 messages I would be sharing with the students every night during the worship service. I ended up taking around 7-8 total messages just in case the Holy Spirit led in a different direction.

He did.

I ended up only using one of my pre-prepared messages and that was the one I felt missed the spot, but I didn’t feel at liberty to share anything different, so I trust that the Holy Spirit used what I felt was a fumble for his purposes. The Holy Spirit showed up powerfully on Tuesday night, it is a really long story, but with less than an hour to prepare for that night’s service, I felt he laid around four verses on my heart with no time to prepare any notes or thoughts, just Scripture and the impression that a lot of students are not fully surrendering their hearts and lives to Jesus because they’ve surrendered their hearts to sexual immorality. I’m not sure what the Holy Spirit had me say, I really couldn’t replicate it, but I know around 20 students chose life that night by placing their faith in Jesus and about half the rest of the students sought a leader out to repent and pray for whatever it was they were surrendering their hearts to outside of Jesus. I remember praying with one guy who just buried his head in my chest and wept. What I found just as amazing was to step back into the chapel to find the remaining students heads bowed praying for their fellow students who were seeking Jesus; and they stayed praying for a while.

I’ve seen emotional spiritual highs in youth services/camps/retreats before and from my experience, I don’t think this was emotional for most of the students, I believe the Holy Spirit genuinely spoke to them and drew them to himself. There was nothing I could have said or done that night to work in those students lives, how do you talk about sex and 20ish students get saved? That’s God. Tuesday night once the chapel lights were turned out and everything shifted back down the hill to the camp, I couldn’t help but to feel overwhelmingly unworthy to have even stood on that stage that night. For the rest of the week I truly feared standing in the way of what the Holy Spirit wanted to do in the rest of camp. It is truly a sobering reality to know how powerful the Holy Spirit is and how feeble I (mankind) is, what a huge responsibility it is to stand before God’s people to preach HIS Word with such sinful lips and a wicked heart. Tuesday night brought a whole new perspective to my life when it comes to being accountable to preaching the Gospel.

It was a huge honor to be with not only the students at the camp but the leaders as well. It is a joyful thing to be around so many gospel-centered leaders. I have always been challenged to be more passionate in my relationship with Jesus and to love him more when I am around guys like Will Clark, Drew Hall, Shane Padgett and Hank Murphy. I really love those guys and appreciate their heart’s for Jesus. It was great to meet so many great new people as well, people I can’t wait to stay connected with and watch Jesus use in tremendous ways. It was also a huge honor to serve Jesus beside Hank Murphy and his band. Truly anointed.

I walked away from camp excited about our future as a global Church. God continues to show me that we have a passionate generation of students who are going to transform this world through the transforming message of the gospel. I’ve seen it in other student ministries recently as well, and week 2 of PHAT Camp has continued to persuade me! The students of Grace and Greenbrier are special and God is going to use those who surrender their heart to living their life for the glory of God  for some amazing things.

Will you join me in praying for these students as they settle back into normal, everyday life that they would continue to remember that transformation is a process and to keep pressing forward despite the circumstances in life they will face in the days, months and years to come?

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Was Osama Bin Laden Evil?

May 5, 2011 By nick 1 Comment

Was Osama Bin Laden Evil? This is the question Joy Behar presented to a priest, an imam and a rabbi. See what they have to say in this short video:

  • He was not born evil?
  • He was not evil, only his actions?
  • He was only evil if his intentions were bad?
  • Really?
  • Were these the greatest “theologians” they could find for the show?

Although I disagree with the Rabbi’s opinion that Osama was not born evil, in the beginning of the video he at least got one thing right in the end of the video when he stood up against moral relativism declaring that intentions do not matter, even if we disagree in our religious ideals and theologies, we all still have the 10 Commandments which give a universal moral code. I don’t believe morality will save you or give you right standing with God, but the commandments do give all mankind a code in which we can apply in our interaction with each other and with God.

What about Isaiah 64:4? We are all infected and impure with sin. When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags. Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall, and our sins sweep us away like the wind.

Or

Romans 3:23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.

So…what’s your thoughts? Was Osama Bin Laden evil?

 

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Dear Lego

April 12, 2011 By nick 2 Comments

Don’t ever tell an 8 year old that he will receive his free Lego magazine in the mail between 6 & 8 weeks and still not have it to him in 9! Now, stop reading this post and get those magazines in the mail! :)

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Launch Week 1 Rewind

April 8, 2011 By nick Leave a Comment

Here’s the Launch Week 1 Video Rewind:

Will You Join Me For New Passion 2.0?
You can watch the full sermon video on Vimeo.

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How You Can Pray for Us

April 5, 2011 By nick 4 Comments

A few months back I posted about a house we were praying for and asked others to pray for/with us. Here’s an update, someone bought it before we could, so we won’t be getting it.

We are still praying for a larger home that will allow us room for the kids to grow. We’ve found another house that we like and once again it is a great deal. It’s not as large and does not have some of the extra features that the other house had, however, it would be great for our family if it should work out. It is newer than the other house we were praying for, but it is still 19 years old, so it’s far from new.

Fortunately, we are a step ahead at this point. I just got off the phone with Bank of America and we have been pre-approved for the asking price, so we are at least a step ahead of where we were on the house we were praying for previously. This is a VA Foreclosure, so the rates and fees are a lot better than a standard home loan or even a FHA loan.

Here’s the Two Biggest Ways You can Pray for Us:

  1. Pray that the seller accepts the reduced offer that we are going to submit (this request will have an impact on request #2)
  2. Pray that we can secure the upfront money that will be required to make the purchase. We have most of it, but are still lacking a portion of the estimated up-front fees.

As with the last house. Our desire is that God’s will be done. Period. We are not interested in forcing our will on God, however, we believe God is a God of provision and miracles. We’ve seen it first hand via New Passion Church.

So, if you know us and love us, we would love to have you pray with and for us!

This is a picture of the house we are praying for.

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