Walk to Two Churches in Santa Elena, Costa Rica

I spent the first two weeks of 2012 in Costa Rica (and have written about it here and here).   Bottom line–I had no kids to tend to and all the time in the world to wander around strange cities and take pictures. Thus, a second Ride to Church from Costa Rica . . .

This one comes from Santa Elena, a small mountain town in the Monteverde Cloud Forest. The Ride to Church starts out at our eco-lodge in La Fortuna and takes you through a ferry ride we took across Lake Arenal and into Santa Elena.   While we were there, I zip lined–an activity I dreaded and only sort of enjoyed, mostly just because I got it over with.

By far my favorite part of our time in Santa Elena was spent attending a Catholic mass on a Sunday afternoon. We got to the little town in the early afternoon and I wandered into the church and noticed that there was a mass scheduled for 5:00.   I tried to get a few of the undergraduate students I was with to come with me, but they weren’t interested.   My Costa Rican buddy (and graduate student) Becky came along with me.   We got there a few minutes before 5:00 and it was already almost full.   People continued to trickle in as the people in charge made last minute preparations and as they tussled with the sound system.

And then the service began.   It was lovely.   A man was there with his guitar and he played beautiful folk-style music.   Sometimes the congregation joined in for a rousing congregational hymn. Other times, he played alone.   There were all kinds of people there.   Kids wandered from pew to pew, going back and forth between extended family members.   Even a dog wandered around the sanctuary and no one batted an eye.

That experience was totally a thin place for me.   I felt like I was part (although just a tiny, tourist-y part) of something larger than myself.

The next night, I decided to wander up the hill from our hotel, following a sign that said “Iglesia de Dios,” which means “God’s church.”   I figured, what better place for a Ride to Church than a Walk to God’s Church?   It was beginning to get dark as I walked up the hill and I started to doubt my choice to wander around alone in a remote mountain town in a foreign country. But I kept wandering.   At one point, I asked some women whether there was a church anywhere around. They smiled and pointed ahead of us around a corner and said they were heading that way.   Once we got around the corner, one of them asked whether I’d like to go in.

I said I would love to, so she pulled keys out of her pocket and unlocked the door to the ramshackle building. She was very proud to show me their sanctuary and to explain how much their congregation was growing.   She pointed outside and said that they are praying and raising funds to build a big new beautiful sanctuary on the vacant lot beside the current building.   She asked whether I was Christian and I said yes and told her I would love to bring my family back to visit their town one day.   She promised me that if I came back, I would be sure to find a beautiful new building in place of the massive heap of garbage on the vacant lot.

I told her I would love to come back and see that.   And I would.