Category: Personal

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The Most Expensive Coke I Never Drank Part 3

Get up-to-date by reading Post 1 and Post 2 of this blog series first!

It was a huge blessing to get our passports at the U.S. Embassy in Costa Rica within 20 minutes. As we walked out of the doors, I think both David and I felt like yelling out for joy. One major hurdle had just been crossed much quicker than we had anticipated.

We got to the van where Edwin was waiting and the first thing he tells us is that it looks like we won’t be able to leave the country until the next day. The police station had called him while we were in the embassy and needed us to come back to complete another report as well as to meet with a judge.

I was kind of caught off guard. Everything within me resisted the whole idea of having to stay another day. I had already been away for 9 days and even if we caught a flight that afternoon, this whole day would be over by the time we got home. I asked how long Edwin thought it would take, but he could not say. We quickly started figuring out how long it would take us to drive from the embassy to the police station and then back  to the airport. It looked as if it was going to be tight on timing.

David and I both resisted a little more, explaining that it was simply our desire to go home, but Edwin insisted that our testimony could help get the robbers off the streets which in return could help the local community including the families and children we had been ministering to all week. So, we compromised.

I told Edwin that we would go fill out the extra report and if there was time we would  talk with the judge if that is what they wanted, however, we would be leaving at 10:30 am local time. Edwin started driving to the police station, and of course, traffic was extremely heavy. It seemed like the day was going by so slow, but the time on the clock was ticking by faster and faster. Had I known what had just taken place in the United States with Congressman Frank’s office in assisting us with expediting our passports, I’m not sure we would have even risked going to the police station.

We finally arrived at the police station and it was nothing but confusion. We first had to get through security and then as we proceeded to the first office, the same place we gave the report the night before, we discovered after wasting valuable time that we were in the wrong place. They sent us to another office, once again it was a dead-end. David and I decided during our walk between offices that if it did not appear we were making any progress in the next fifteen minutes, we were just going to leave, even if we had to take a cab. We already considered all of our stuff a total loss anyway. We just wanted to get home. Finally, the third office that we stopped at was the right one. We waited and waited some more. Finally, Edwin got someone’s attention and told them what the situation was and how we were short on time, because we were determined to catch a flight back to the U.S. at 1 pm. The judicial office moved quickly.

We were immediately called back where we gave our testimony and description of the robbers, all of this seemed like a total waste of time since the restaurant provided the police a video of the suspects. We finally signed the paperwork and signed Edwin over as our representative in-case they needed a local contact. As soon as we were finished we checked the time, it was 10:35 a.m. – It appeared we were in the clear to make it to the airport on time.

We were also on a time crunch to get to a WIFI spot so that I could contact Nicki to make sure we had a ride. The only communication we would have was SKYPE. My only set of keys to my Nissan Altima were in my book bag. Nicki was working all throughout the day to get the car towed and a new key programmed. She had to know if we were on our way home in time to get to Atlanta, pick-up the car, and then get to the airport to pick-up David and me. We got to the airport and there was no WIFI. The free WIFI zone was not working, and the only other place that offered it wanted $30 a person to enter and use the internet. We were running out of time, I had to notify Nicki from the airport so she had time to make all of the arrangements.

I finally found a booth selling 20-minute international phone cards for $5. Fortunately our flight was delayed by 45 minutes, so this bought us a little extra time. Finally, we could slow down and breathe. I called Nicki only to get more bad news, it cost $483 to replace my keys. Fun! But, the good news was, we had our tickets home, and thanks to Drew’s mom, she got the change of flight fee of around $300 waved the night before. Nicki would be at the airport to pick us up when we arrived in the states.

I would like to say a special thank you to Billy and Seree Wilson for dropping what they were doing that day to assist Nicki. It’s always a blessing for a pastor to know there are people at home watching after and caring for their family while they are away. Billy took off work early to drive to Atlanta to help Nicki get my car and to make sure we got home safe. By the time I arrived in Atlanta I had been up for around 43 hours, so Billy drove my car home while I rested with Nicki and David in their van as Seree drove us home. We finally arrived home around 12:30 am on Wednesday. I was exhausted but grateful and excited how God worked all things together for the good to get us home.

Like I said in my first post. The robbery was only the beginning of a whirlwind day. Getting home was more stressful than being robbed. There are so many people to thank. It is amazing to see the church and family rise up in times of need to make things happen. It is the greatest network I have ever experienced.  I would like to once again thank Drew’s mom, Kim Writer, for all she did the night of the robbery with phone numbers, flight scheduling and financial savings. I would like to thank, my wife, Nicki Carnes, for all of her support and hard work at home to get the car issue situated with the hotel and Nissan and for being there when I got home. I would like to thank my brother-in-law, Clay Brewer, for having the intuition to contact my brother, Ben. I would like to thank Ben for pulling Congressman Franks out of a meeting to take care of business, as well, I would like to thank Congressman Trent Franks for getting the ball rolling immediately with his staff. I would like to thank, Greg and Michele Hansel for caring for Billy and Seree’s children, so they could drive Nicki to Atlanta, and once again, for Billy and Seree with all they did to help us get home. Finally, I would like to thank everyone who prayed for our missions team and for David and me while we were stranded. I thank God for you and I thank God he heard and answered your prayers.

Until next time… 🙂

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The Most Expensive Coke I Never Drank Part 2

…Continued from Part 1

As soon as we were finished with giving our report at the police station, Edwin asked if we wanted him to go by McDonald’s to get a coke or to get something to drink. We all told him that we were okay, we were just ready to get back to the hotel as we had a lot of things to figure out before morning came. Besides, I told Edwin that, “It was coke that got me into this mess to begin with.” So I boycotted it for almost an entire day. Edwin dropped Jeremy, David and me off at the hotel around 12:30 0r 1 am; he had to be back at 4 am to pick the group up for the airport, so it was evident that no one was going to get any sleep that night.

Edwin’s plan was to drop the group off at the airport and then come back later in the morning to pick David and me up to take us to the airport and to talk to the police some more. He had plans to take his kids to school, but I expressed that I would like to get to the U.S. Embassy as soon as possible, so Edwin decided to send his kids to school via a Taxi so he could help us out. At this point we were okay with not talking to the police again; we had a copy of the report for the Embassy and we pretty much knew our stuff was going to be a total loss.

When we got into the hotel, Drew met us at the door with Kadie’s phone; he had his mom, Kim, on SKYPE and she was already working all of the details out for David and me to get home as quickly as possible with as little problems as possible. She had already researched all of the numbers for the U.S. Embassy and started working on getting our flights changed to either another flight on Tuesday or to the earliest flight possible on Wednesday. She also helped connect with my wife, Nicki, to arrange details on picking me up. I found out that my only key to my Nissan Altima was in my book bag, which had been stolen, so I would have no way of getting home, even if we could get a flight out of Costa Rica on Tuesday.

We called the emergency number with the U.S. Embassy and was told that they opened at 8 am and expedited passports would cost us $100 each. They told us there was a possibility that we could get the passports on the same day, so our hopes were strong that even though we may be delayed, we would have a chance to make it home on Tuesday.

Kim called us back with even more great news. She was able to get us a flight at 1 pm on Tuesday if we could make it or at 7 am on Wednesday if we were delayed by the U.S. Embassy. The best news was, she was able to get the fees for changing the flight waved, which saved us over $300!

But then I talked to my wife again, she had bad news. It was going to cost almost $300 to get my car key situation fixed. I told her to do whatever she had to do, because we had no other way to get the car home.

Monday night/Early Tuesday morning David and I may have gotten a 20 minute cat-nap. By the time all of the SKYPE conversations and the emails went out, it was after 3 am and Edwin would be back at 4 to pick everyone up. We were determined to ride with Edwin and the rest of our team as he dropped them off at the airport and then go straight to the U.S. Embassy to be the first people in line. I am not sure Edwin knew he would have to be out there from 5:30 am until whenever for this whole ordeal, he kind of made a painful sound at 6 am when we told him they did not open until 8 am.

Fortunately the Embassy let us in at 6:30 am to start taking our passport photo and to start filling out paperwork. This would prove to be a huge help at 8:15 am when we finally got to talk to someone. Time went by so slow. We were very anxious about how long everything would take and whether or not we would be out in time to catch the flight. Traffic would start getting heavy and we would still have to pay taxes at the airport and go through customs. At 8:15ish, we were called up to make our request. We handed in all of the paperwork, our photos, the police report and a copy of our stolen passports. I asked the lady after she made fun of my last name meaning ‘beef’ or ‘meat’ how long it would take, she replied, “Around 2-hours, maybe a little less since you are first in line.” I asked, “Is there anyone we can sweet talk to insure they hurry up?” “We have a 1 pm flight we can catch if we get out of here in time?” She just smiled. I think she thought I was joking.

Little did I know, some sweet talking was taking place on our behalf! We did not know this, but my brother-in-law Clay heard what was taking place through my sister and my mom. Fortunately, word got out to my mom, and she likes to ask people to pray and give news updates to the family. I am so glad she called my sister when she did, because it opened the door for my brother-in-law to get involved. He told them to get off the phone and call my brother, Ben, who works for Congressman Trent Franks out of Arizona. Ben pulled Congressman Frnaks  out of a meeting and notified him of the situation. He agreed to call if they needed him to, but suggested his immigration representative make the first call since they’ve dealt with immigration issues for years.

The immigration representative for Congressman Franks called while we were seated waiting to talk to the U.S. Consulate. The consulate told Congressman Frank’s representative that he could see us waiting in the waiting area and that we had already initiated the process. As I said, I didn’t know this was taking place, so it all makes sense now that the Consulate was with us very quickly and asked us what time our flight was. When we said 1 pm, he assured us, we’d have no problem making the flight. Before sending us back to our seats, he told us, we’d have our passports in about 20 minutes! We were amazed. The only surprise and problem we had at the Embassy was the actual cost  of the passports ended up being $135 each instead of the $100 the emergency operator told us, but then again….In less than 20 minutes, we were walking out with our temporary passports in hand!

One of the coolest things that makes me so proud to be an American, was having an lady who is a U.S. citizen come up to the cashier and check to see if we had all of the money that we needed. She overheard our story of being robbed at gun-point and was willing to help us if we needed it. Two complete strangers and she was going to make sure we got home. That was very cool!

The Most Expensive Coke I Never Drank Part 3 tomorrow…

 

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The Most Expensive Coke I Never Drank

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

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 Four Days In

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.