(More on the title later)
Since my last post I was able to find another student that had a bike that he was no longer riding because it was in need of some work. So I did end up buying that bike and getting it back into riding shape. It still has a few quirks but is very ridable.
Along with the bike purchase we had to do some remodeling on our apartment so we turned part of our bedroom into a garage for the bike. It really is handy though because now I don't even need to get out of bed to comb my hair, I can just roll over and use the mirror on the bike so it has worked out great.
Speaking of combing my hair, which is really not an issue anymore any way because........... I had another "first" here in Costa Rica a few weeks ago. Getting my hair cut. That was interesting to say the least. I had practiced saying "take a little off", "just a trim". I had thought of telling him to just call Laura and she would tell him exactly how it is done. But since the haircut only cost $4.00 and the phone call would have cost $10.00.......... Anyway, I told him what I had practiced and he looked at me for a bit and said "si". Well it was about the time that the first pile of greyish red hair hit my lap that I realized the communication had broken down somewhere and he heard me say, "just leave a little on top". Basically shaving it would be a good description of what happened. HA!. Well Marcy was setting there witnessing the whole thing and after a while said "Moms not going to like this at all". The next excitement came when he was ready to shave my neck with a straight razor. Just as my nervousness left me as I had convinced myself that "he had done this hundreds of times before", Marcy decided she wanted to see what he was doing and "sprang" from her seat and ran over to stand right beside him to watch. Well "stand" and "Marcy" don't normally go in the same sentence together, but it all ended uneventful which I was very glad for. I always figure that a bad haircut and a bad lawn mowing job are pretty temporary and both grow back eventually.
Oct 2nd was World Communion Sunday and since Costa Rica falls under the "world" part of that, we also participated in communion here just as our home congregation did at Shore Mennonite in Shipshewana IN. Pastor Marvin here was preaching on his series from Hebrews chapter 6 and the only note I took was "la madurez es un proceso" (Hence the title of this post), I am not sure why I had taken that one note but I must have thought it was a statement worth writing down. Now today, two weeks later, I am listening to the sermon from Pastor Carl form that same Sunday at Shore and he is preaching from his series in Galatians chapter 4 and he mentions "our Christian maturity is a process". Now on the same Sunday , two different pastors preaching from two different countries thousands of miles away, in two different languages and then saying the same sentence in the sermons???? I take that to heart and ask "God, what are you trying to say to Mike Unternahrer through that sentence?" Knowing that my Christian maturity has been a process and will continue to be a process, I can only hope to grow as much over the next 35+ years as I have during the past 35+ years. Relating that to learning a new language, why did I think and expect to learn Spanish without the pain, the effort, the work, the setbacks, the struggles, the tears, and very little patience with myself when it is a process? All processes have these common components in them, Marriages, faith walks, new jobs, raising children, and even language learning. MATURITY IS A PROCESS.
Going back to our first week here, during orientation, it was mentioned that it is very likely for some of us that our language learning is quite possibly only a small part of the reason that God brought us to Costa Rica, and He may in fact have much more to teach us here than just a new language. I have seen that to come true in me and the Spanish Language is such a bonus to all that I am learning. I am forever grateful for God's servants Pastor Marvin and Pastor Carl and how He has used them to continue to grow me spiritually.
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