During this Christmas season, I’m writing a few short little stories of some of the gifts that I have received that have meant so very much to me. The other day I included two pictures - one of the gift resting in my office, and the other of the gift giver handing it to me. That blog post can be found below. Today, I can’t provide a picture because one doesn’t exist; you see I never thought to take a picture of it, and it sat on my desk for decades before a small child played with it, while I was meeting with his parents, and sadly it didn’t survive the encounter. This was probably my first gift ever received as a missionary, and it came so unexpectedly. Even though I no longer have it, I will never forget it nor its’ giver.
I received it from a man named Pablo, who was a guard at a camp in rural Costa Rica - just west of San Jose, where we were hosting a pastoral retreat. The retreat was awesome! West Hartselle Baptist Church, from North Alabama paid for the event, and they provided much help during it. They cared for the entire pastoral family. They taught classes and played lots of football (soccer). In fact, from this pastoral retreat many great changes among the Costa Rican evangelical leadership began taking place. But let me get to the story of the Big Bug.
Picture of the Bug I call one of my treasures.
Early every morning as the sun was rising it was my habit to walk the gated compound and pray; as I finished I would stop and talk with Pablo, who was the camp’s security among other duties. Every day we chatted about football, and we would end by praying together. The pleasant little encounter took maybe 15 minutes or so. The 4 day weekend retreat quickly passed and on the day when everyone was to exit for home, Pablo gifted me with a Big Bug glued and shellacked to a rock. Every day during his rounds he would collect the bug parts that the birds had deposited when they finished with them, and then he would reassemble the individual parts by gluing them to a small carved little wooden piece in the place of the bugs body that had been digested. He would then place the bug on a rock and shellack the whole thing leaving a little fragile statue of one of Costa Rica’s most beautiful and strange insects. When he gave it to me, I asked him why would he give me something that took him so long to make. He said, “It is because you know my name.”
The Lord through Pablo and his little gift taught me the most important lesson a missionary could ever know, and I learned this lesson the easy way.
My friends, be blessed and be a blessing,
Steve D.