Her favorite "job" at UBL... and Holy Week

In a recent letter from Margie, she has shared her joy of all joys while volunteering in Costa Rica.   Margie writes:

 

Working alongside students here at UBL is one of my favorite activities ... here I get to help Beauvais from Haiti as together we go over Chapter 3 of his 47 page thesis, checking and changing Spanish grammar, punctuation, spelling, sentence structure, paragraphs to be sure the words are saying exactly what Beauvais wants his writings to express.  Of course, he has a professor-guide here at UBL who is an expert in Bible and Theology who has been spending many hours with him to be sure his content is up to the highest standards.  His topic, The Assassination of John the Baptist," looks at Bible times and texts and then abundantly applies those  to present-day Latin American culture, economy, politics, including historical perspectives and his own pleas for change and liberation.  Beauvais is reading and researching in his first two languages, French and Creole, along with Spanish, and now is writing in his third language,.. Spanish.  That language connects me with him, as I can help him clarify his written ideas in Spanish.  Fun!!! 
(all those written homework assignments in Spanish that I corrected while a high school and college teacher in northern Indiana during my career there can now help a brilliant young Haitian man achieve his Bachelor's Degree in Bible here in Costa Rica before he returns to his home in Haiti at the end of this year to continue serving his people there). 
  You must surely know that the heart satisfactions for me in the repeated joys of relating with UBL students in this way make each day full to overflowing with blessings!  Margie

Having spent Holy Week in Costa Rica in 2007, I was remembering Margie this Holy Week as this is so much different that our experience here in the US.    Another bit about what she experienced this year.  

 

Dearest Bonnie, you are right...Holy Week here in CR is a big week of pageantry as connected with the Roman Catholic Church...and this week I did something I have wanted to do but never done before...I participated in the Good Friday procession which started at 9:00 a.m. up the hill at the Cedros Catholic Church, going down our street, thru the neighborhoods near by, gathering pilgrims as we walked slowly, stopping along the way it the 14 stations of the cross which were designated at little home altars signifying the stations.  At each station, the whole procession would stop, listen to the reading of scripture pertaining, listen to the priest then help us to apply that scripture to our personal lives and the living out of the gospel HERE in this culture and society, amidst THESE needs, then continuing along the street singing somber songs pertaining to the pleas for forgiveness of God's people.  We all ended up at noon at another church, the large Catholic Church of Lourdes, not at all far from where Lloyd and I and our little girls SL and RL lived back in 1967!!  All in all, it was a very meaningful activity for me on Good Friday morning to PARTICIPATE and not just observe the pageantry of this week here in CR.  Today I'm going soon to the downtown Methodist Church for worship, then out to dinner with a new friend from church.
  God be blessing you, each one, on this Day of Resurrection!  Much love,  Margie