Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Costa Rica Vacation: Traveling Home

After the long, terrible trip to Costa Rica we were all dreading the bus ride home.  I'm sure everyone was silently praying that there would be no bus issues, and we could make it home in regular time.  Praise the Lord, for the most part we had an uneventful trip through Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and most of Honduras.  But...

...Once we were two hours away from home we were supposed to switch buses.  The driver dropped us off at 6:30pm and said the other bus would arrive in 20 minutes to pick us up.  Once the bus left the maid who worked in the 'waiting room' said the bus would arrive at around 11pm!  WHAT?!?  So once again we were stranded in the middle of no where (at least it seemed that way).

We played games to pass the time, watched a movie on someone's computer, and finally curled up on the floor and fell asleep.  Eventually the bus arrived ahead of schedule...10:30.  We were just four hours behind the time we should have gotten home but that was much better than the trip out.



And boy was it GREAT TO BE HOME!!! :-)

Costa Rica Vacation: Playa Langosta

We made it to the beach after several hours squished in the van.  After living at the beach for a few years in Coastal Carolina, Tim and I love beach time.  This was a little different.  There were tons of rocks and more times than not a wave would come and cause injury.   Needless to say, Tim and I didn't spend much time at the beach.  We spent most of the time in our pool. :-)

Yep, this is our beach.  Some areas had more sand but you never knew what you would run into while swimming. 



This is the condo we stayed at with the pool.  That was wonderful!

The only problem is that the bathroom door led out to an 'outside' bathroom.  I couldn't believe it either.  Very strange!



We finally found a part of the beach that didn't have as many rocks but we had to cross this 'river' to get to it.  When the tide started to come up it became much deeper.  At this point it was knee deep. On our way home it was waist deep.

Beautiful sunset view from the roof.



Costa Rica Vacation: Leaving Arenal

As we were leaving Arenal to head to the beach, we decided to take a group photo with the beautiful lake behind us.  With all the fancy cameras we set one up with a timer to take three photos.  The group decided that the first one would be a good picture, then for the next two we could do what we wanted.  It doesn't always happen as you plan but these are the best photos we got the whole trip!! :-)

Christa (the one laying in the fountain) set the timer and ran to join us.  She decided to step into the 'empty' fountain to stand by me but slipped and grabbed the bottom layer so she wouldn't hit her head.  My favorite part is everyone but the two guys realize what's happening or felt strongly about having a good first picture. 

The words at this point from Joe (the one in the brown shirt)... "Hey, we got this on camera!"

Finally more help is arriving, we got the fountain put back in place. Christa and I changed our wet clothes, and everyone ran to the van to get away before anyone found out what happened.

We have laughed so much after looking at these pictures.  It truly would not have been as funny without seeing everyone's expressions.

Costa Rica Vacation: Arenal Hanging Bridges & Zip-lining

We were able to do a couple fun activities while visiting at the volcano.  The hanging bridges hike was beautiful.  There were about 12 bridges with gorgeous views as we went.   Afterward, we went straight to the zip-lining area.  There was a Tarzan swing in the middle of the zip-lines we got to try out.  We had a great time!


So after we had crossed a couple bridges as a group we found this sign. hahaha



View from one of the bridges. 
Picture taken as I'm Zip-Lining.



This is the Tarzan jump and when they wanted us to stop swinging they would grab our legs.  That was painful because we were flying!

Friday, April 13, 2012

Vacation Reading #2

The 2nd book I read while over vacation was one that my pastor urged me to read (I picked from his library We Become What We Worship).  It was not on my list, and I had no intention of adding a book on hermeneutics and ethics to my list (by the way, the book I am talking about says nothing about hermeneutics and ethics in the title... that was a surprise... a pleasant one too).  I will say this for Stephen Jenks; he has good taste. 

The book that was chosen for me was Four Views on Moving Beyond the Bible to Theology (part of Zondervan's counterpoint series).  Let me preface that the theme of "moving beyond the Bible" has grown a great deal in evangelicalism.  But many (including myself prior) have no idea what that means.  At first glance, it seems that it is a movement away from Sola Scriptura and the foundation of the Bible for all faith and practice.  But actually, it really deals with 2 things: doctrines or practices not explicit but implied in the Bible (Trinity or churches gathering on Sunday's) & ethics or moral theology (slavery was a hot issue in this book).  The Bible has things to say on these subjects, but we Christians have moved beyond the Bible to formulate and systematize them into statements and practices that are only implied or inferred from the text of Scripture (with some philosophical and exegetical gymnastics thrown in the mix). 

There were 4 views presented, with replies from each of the writers, and ended with 3 other perspectives of the theme.  My big problem with this book is that there seemed to be more interaction going on and less explanation of the 4 views presented in the book.  The "reflections" part of the book was an excursus I could have done without.  Not that the added thoughts were bad, but they turned the book into 7 views instead of 4.

Without going into too much detail of all 4 views, let me briefly say that Kaiser's principlizing view is the most widely practiced today.  Even the other 3 contributors principlize.  In other words, we look at a passage like "You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain," and we see that Paul used this text as a principle to argue that missionaries and elders had a right to be paid for their ministry.  Kaiser was Kaiser every time: short, succinct, and to the point.  Doriani's approach is a popular one amongst the reformed camp (redemptive-historical).  I thought his article was pretty good, but his responses seemed he had an axe to grind towards Webb.

Vanhoozer was amazing, of course.  What I liked most about Vanhoozer is that in his responses, he often made mention of how he'd hoped the discussion would dive into the realm of theology rather than just ethics.  However, when he ventured into theology and ethics, his own theodrama view was hardly applied.  But his approach is probably the most applicable since we, the followers of Jesus, are players and not the audience in the drama of God's kingdom.  This is where Vanhoozer and Doriani are diferent.  Both focus on the redemptive story, but Vanhoozer has us as part of that story (Acts 29ish).  Doriani's approach is one of observation, albeit watching a good, Christocentric story.

Webb was refreshing in that he was tackling issues that many of us shy away from.  His approach is giving him a lot of heat, but he answers honestly and cogently (and a good writer to boot).  I enjoyed his approach.  It caused me to really seek out its validity since it answers many of the hard questions.  To briefly explain (but hardly to justice to his approach), it portrays Scripture as on a trajectory or moving toward a "redemptive spirit".  For instance, the OT and NT never does away with slavery, but the trajectory of slavery as set forth in Scripture (the principle first in the OT then in the NT) is that slavery should be done away with.  He moved beyond the Bible by coming up with an ethic that the Bible never denounced; an ethic that says slavery should be abolished.  I see some major problems with it, but by and large I think he may be on to something (whatever that "something" is). 

I was disappointed that most of this book wrestled with issues like egalitarianism, slavery, and other hot-button issues of moral theology (or slight ecclesiology).  The title of the book was moving beyond the Bible to theology.  This rarely happened, with exception to Vanhoozer for the most part.  It was also mostly a treatment of how we contextualize the Bible to our modern day.  In short, it was a hermeneutical issue.  Things like war ethics ("taking the hot woman" as spoil) or slavery as presented in the OT and NT were mostly discussed.  How can we, as clearly more civilized than the ANEers, use the ethics presented in the pages of Scripture and apply them to our modern world?  Take spanking.  Even those who principlize or see a static ethic presented in the OT (rod of discipline as it is put) still soften the meaning of the text and thus use a trajectory (Webb's view) toward a redemptive spirit of the Bible.

All in all, this put an important issue to the forefront of my mind and forced me to wrestle with my own approach.  This is a good thing!  I am indebted to my pastor for urging me to read it.  In fact, we would all do well to read this book, though it is more for those who are able to critically think about the Bible, theology, hermeneutics, and ethics.  I would recommend this book for any to read, but with reservations for some who are not able to think beyond objectivity and fundamentalism (my axe I grind).  This issue is big, on an apologetics level too.  Since Christians clearly do not stone their rebellious children but rather practice "grace", we have moved beyond the Bible and acquired our own parenting ethic when the NT never explicitly said so.  What is the guide that we follow to move beyond the Bible biblically?  This book enters that debate.  Go forth and do likewise!

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Vacation Reading

While on vacation, I had the opportunity to read 2 books.  So I thought I'd write a quick review of them.  Oh happy day!  But first, let me express thanks to my pastor Stephen Jenks who offered these books from his own library.  Thank you, my brother!

The first book I read was We Become What We Worship: A Biblical Theology of Idolatry by G. K. Beale (fast becoming one of my favorite biblical theologians).  First, the pro's.  Beale is probably one of the most creative and best readers of the Bible in modern scholarship.  His eye for intertextual and intratextual linking is superb.  He builds a very strong case that throughout the Bible, a repeated theme is that what people revere, they resemble either for ruin or restoration.  This theme was traced from Isaiah 6 of all places, argued convincingly to use idolatry language which reached back to the Exodus of Israel and the nation's first major sin - worshiping a cow idol!  He brings to light a clear and consistent theme throughout Scripture.

However, this is also the major con of the book (and perhaps Beale).  He is nothing if not thorough.  He could have cut the book in half.  That is not to say that he wrote superfluous data.  He just dispensed a lot of information that most "lay readers" that I know would not have been able to grasp.  Which brings me to another point.  Some of his connections, especially in the NT, seemed to strain a bit.  I felt that the core of his argument was based from the OT study.  Maybe because Beale is a NT scholar (perhaps a biblical theologian is better), he felt it necessary to engage this issue through the rest of the canon.  At least the difficulty of seeing the theme of idolatry in the NT (it is there, don't get me wrong) was displayed to have morphed into a self-idolizement (minus a few places in Acts where pagan idolatry was dealt with head-on).

All in all, this book is a fantastic display of what Biblical theology should be.  I would have liked to see Beale address the practical implications more.  But that was not his intention.  The little practical application he included was, I felt, pretty weak.  He spent so much time building a case that we emulate what we worship and then only applied it to a contextualized version of modern idolatry without really bearing out the full implication of what a lifestyle like that would do.  If worshiping self leads to ruin, then explain the ruin!  But alas.  I give this book a hearty 1 1/2 thumbs up for its exegesis and biblical theology.  I give it 1 thumb down for its lack of practical application which takes it out of the hands of the non-academic, Bible student Christian.

The 2nd book, Four Views on Moving Beyond the Bible to Theology, will be discussed in a separate post.

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Costa Rica Vacation: Arenal Volcano

As a group we rented a van so we could have easy transportation from one area to the other.  Our first stop was at the Arenal Volcano.  The electricity in the houses we were supposed to rent was being worked on so the realtor set us up at another location.  We were all shocked and amazed at our new spot!  Here are few pictures.


This is the community pool.  Under the roof is the large hot tub!

This is the view behind the hot tub and community pool.  :-)

There were so many beautiful plants.

Things just kept getting better.  This was the 'main' house we had with our own personal pool, kitchen, and living room.

Beautiful sunset from our personal pool area.


Tim and I got this large bedroom in the second house.

Everything was so beautiful...this is the sink area of the bathroom.
This is the front of the house Tim and I stayed.

Here is the community pool again with the lake view in the background.

Costa Rica Vacation: San Jose

We finally arrived in San Jose!  This was going to be our first stop so we could rest in a real bed over night.


We went out to dinner then did a little site seeing. 



Friday, April 6, 2012

Costa Rica Vacation - Boarders

March 12 - April 1, 2012
We were informed before the trip began that the stops at the boarders could take up to an hour and we would have to pay a boarder tax. 

First boarder leaving Honduras and heading into Nicaragua took about an hour and cost about $14 per person.  This met our expectations.


On the Nicaragua side we saw a few friends from school stuck there with a broken down bus.  Been there!



Second boarder leaving Nicaragua and heading into Costa Rica was a totally different story.  We arrived around midnight so most of us were drifting in and out of sleep.  The boarder tax was $4 so that was a good surprise.  BUT when we got through Nicaragua and had to go through the line on the Costa Rica side we found out the boarder closed at 12:00am.  We were just a few minutes too late.

So guess what that meant??  We had to spend the night on the bus until 5 AM so we could get back in line when the boarder opened at 6 AM. 
Here we are still smiling even after the first break down and the over night in the bus.

So we were very excited to have made it through the line and ready to head down the road by 7 AM. 



Problem number 2: The computer system broke down and we couldn't get the paper work for the bus to travel through Costa Rica.  It was estimated that it would take 4 to 6 hours to fix but Praise the Lord we got our paper around 9 AM and finally headed down the road.  We were hungry and tired by this point.

Our trip had a rough start.  We were all a little worried at this point if we would get to enjoy ourselves.

Update coming soon...

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Costa Rica Vacation...This is just the beginning.

March 31, 2012
The beginning of our trip was exciting when we realized we were sitting on the top of the Double Decker bus. :-)




But an hour later things changed...


We were broken down on the side of the road for four hours! 

 

Then finally another bus came to pick us up. 

More to come...stay tuned! :-)