Thoughts on Poverty...

This week, poignant thoughts from Martin Stagles and the reality of life for the families Ed Plus work alongside..

Despite the unfavourable circumstances it if surprising how well and clean people look, and how content they are.

These are people who have to make what they can of the circumstances, and they are often stuck in a vicious circle of poverty with no possibility of doing things in a better way. Over half of the people living in these shanty-towns are refugees from the war in Nicaragua.

The wise man build his house upon a rock,
The foolish man build his house upon the sand,
But the poor man had to fend for himself,
To build where he could with what he could find,
It wasn’t weather-proof, nor correctly plumbed-in,
And electrics came from a tree.
And the rain came down……etc..

A feature of the shanty-towns around San Jose is that they are often round the edges of more formal housing areas, where the ground is too steep/unstable/liable to flooding to be build on economically or more securely.

The sting of poverty is not just the bad circumstances, but that there is no possibility of getting out of them.

If you play football with the youngsters, then you can later talk to them about Jesus. It doesn’t work the other way around…..

Martin Stagles

Team Leaders reflections...

 All back safe and well - and just in the nick of time!

Think it's fair to say that our time in Costa Rica was all that we hoped for, expected and prayed for. Yes it was hard work, and good fun and it did make an impact on team members as well as us being able to make a specific contribution to the work of Ed Plus. Although we were a team of 10 working alongside the Ed Plus staff team of 5, I was very conscious that in fact we were part of a much bigger team including friends, family and Church. It was great to know and to feel your support throughout our time away.

I'm sure over time all team members will share and show something of the impact which the experience has had upon us. Please be patient with us; it's hard sometimes finding the right words to answer simply and honestly straight-forward questions like "so how was it?" (it is for me anyway).

In terms of my own personal reflections three words have kept coming up - spot the preacher! (no, those aren't the three words), I mean respect, privilege and attitude. It was really good being with the Ed Plus staff in their work in the shanty towns and I think all of us came away with a very real respect for them, the people they work amongst and the people of Costa Rica in general. We may have been wearing the shirts, but Ed Plus staff showed the reality of living "faith in action - ready to serve" - they were an inspiration and a true example of the effectiveness of building relationship over many years. My respect for team members grew significantly too over the time away as we saw people responding to the challenges of the experience in all sorts of way; they did really well. It was, and is, a privilege to be involved in mission and to share in just a small way for a short time the work of Ed Plus. As individuals, family and Church we need to recognise the privilege it is to share this work; I've been involved in Child Sponsorship now for over twenty years without ever before actually appreciating what a privilege (as well as opportunity and responsibility) it is. Please try to respond positively to the suggestions the team members will be making over the next few weeks about how we strengthen still further our links with Mission. Attitude really is all; I was challenged personally before we left of the importance of adopting an attitude of submission, service and willingness to learn. In all areas of our time away the consequences of adopting the right, or wrong, attitude were very apparent. We are all works in progress but let's hold before us the challenge of Philippians 2,.... "our attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus..."

Pete Ferguson