Alto
Uren: A Story About Gifts
“If someone forces you to go one mile, go with
him two miles. Give to one who asks you, and do not
turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.”
-- Matthew 5: 41-42
John
Whited relates a story from his first day in the engineering
program at NC State. In his first math class, some
big kid sitting next to him started asking him annoying
questions about what the professor was saying. John
kept telling him to be quiet so he could hear. Finally,
he said, “If you will just shut up so I can
figure out what he is talking about, I would be happy
to explain everything you want to know right after
class. But right now you have to just plain shut up
or neither one of us will have any idea of what’s
going on.” I believe the young man was asking
John to walk a mile with him.
Well, the young man shut up, and after class John
sat down with him to go over his notes and answer
his questions. After a few minutes John was compelled
to say, “I am sorry to say so, but you are about
the dumbest boy in math that I have ever seen in college.
I knew more math in the fifth grade than you know
now. Would you mind just telling me how you managed
to get into this school anyway?”
“Why sure,” his friend replied. “I
cheated. I was an athlete and I cheated on the entrance
exams.”
Well, John remained true to his word. He told that
young man everything he wanted to know about math
through that course and a few others. It was a bigger
bargain than John had originally intended, but he
threw in some more information about living with Jesus
in the here and now, and gaining eternal life. He
gave what was asked, and then some more. That friend
graduated, started a successful business for a few
years, then sold it all, went to the seminary and
now pastors a church. He went a long way from being
a mooch who cheated to get into college.
John hasn’t changed much.
Last November Hernan, one of the Bribri Indians from
Alto Uren, walked into the AguaViva Ministries church
in the town of Bribri, Costa Rica. Alto Uren is a
small village high in the mountains overlooking the
Talamanca Valley in the vast Reserve for Indigenous
Peoples. Five months previously John, two potential
future helicopter pilots from North Carolina, David
Jones the fellow missionary, and Eric Navarro, the
church worker from Bribri who had walked to Alto Uren
for the first time. It was a difficult two day hike
in, and a very long one day hike back out. At the
conclusion of the hike back the three North Americans
went straight to the local medical clinic for IV fluids.
They decided that if they were ever going to be able
to do a mission in such a place, they would need either
a helicopter or a group of porters to carry supplies
up the long, steep, muddy paths to the village. Furthermore,
rumors had spread to John through the Wycliff Bible
translator working on Bribri that the first visit
had not been well received.
Hernan, however, had known nothing of John’s
experiences since John and his team had left the village,
nor had he heard the rumors that about the poorly
received visit. He only knew that John had visited
and offered to be of help, and Hernan had a problem
-- a problem worthy of a three-day trip to discuss.
The village had a school built five years previously
by the Costa Rican government. It had well-constructed
buildings (by local standards) and real desks and
chairs, and the teacher was a native of Alto Uren
who was dedicated to his task. The problem was water.
The village was high enough in the mountains that
there were no streams that flowed from rain and runoff.
All of their water came from springs in the mountainside.
All the farms were located near one of these springs.
The school, however, was built at that location because
there was enough flat land for the three small buildings
and schoolyard. The nearest water source was at least
five hundred meters away. Furthermore, the latrine
smelled bad and had many flies (even for local standards).
I believe the man had now asked John to walk a second
mile, and I believe the man had asked for a gift.
John said that he would be there as soon as he could,
and even though it was unlikely they could install
flush toilets, he thought they may be able to help.
He made plans for improving the latrines, surveying
the water supply, and conducting a medical clinic.
By February 6th of this year John had assembled a
team consisting of myself, Eric Navarro, Mike Slayman
a budding missionary from North Carolina, and Porfilio
Paez the village leader at the Bribri village of Bajo
Coen who could serve as the translator from Bribri
to Spanish. John also obtained from a ministry supporter,
Joe Raines, the guarantee of the price of a helicopter
ride one way to bring supplies and the team from Bribri
to Alto Uren. I assembled some medical supplies from
Jacksonville and some from the stocks at the church
in Bribri, and John and his colleagues in Bribri assembled
some ventilation pipes and shovels for constructing
better latrines. Weather delays kept us from taking
off until around noon on February 7th, but the miracles
of modern helicopter transportation had us in the
village 10 minutes later. By 2 PM the clinic was up
and operating at the local school.
The “school” consisted of three buildings
in a cleared area on a mountaintop. One of the buildings
had a large classroom with a small cooking area. We
used the cooking area for the clinic and pharmacy
and the classroom as the waiting room. For the first
time we had chairs in our waiting room.
The village was spread out across what were probably
several square miles of sparsely populated mountain
jungle. We asked the local residents how many people
lived there and their estimate was about seventy.
Their primary language was Bribri. Many of the younger
men and older children spoke Spanish, but we frequently
needed Porfilio to translate into Spanish, and Mike
or John to translate to English for me. Essentially
universal needs were for treatment of intestinal parasites,
lice, vitamins, and pain medicines (ibuprofen and
Tylenol). We were also able to give everyone toothbrushes
and toothpaste which were nicely packaged with salvation
bracelets. Over the course of the first afternoon
and the next day we saw twenty-four adults and seventeen
children.
I had the opportunity to ask the schoolteacher how
they usually obtained their medical care. He told
me that a government helicopter would come about once
a year and see if anybody was sick that day. To have
their children vaccinated the parents would walk the
jungle mountain path to the village of Amubri, a 7
hour trek each way. To have the births of their children
registered so that they would be citizens took another
day travel to the town of Bribri.
While Mike and I were seeing patients in the clinic,
John and Eric were traveling around the area visiting
the sites of latrines and water sources. Shovels,
ventilation shafts, and instructions were given for
the latrine construction. The water source springs
were studied for possible future solutions on accessibility.
At sunset on the first day Mike cooked dinner for
us and two children, little Jeanette at about age
10 and her little brother, plus about four adults
that seemed to be hanging around the neighborhood.
The next morning there were a few more, the next afternoon
there were a few more, the next evening there were
a few more, and by the following morning Mike cooked
six dozen eggs plus whatever else we had that was
edible because pretty much the whole village turned
up for breakfast.
At sunset on the second day a few of the men of the
village gathered at the school and Eric gave a short
presentation of the Gospel message. Everybody stayed
for dinner. Little Jeanette came back and brought
two little varnished pod-like gifts for all the mission
team members. I’m not sure what they are good
for, possibly just as noise makers.
The following morning, we started walking home
right after breakfast. Just before we left, little
Jeanette showed up again with gifts. She gave each
of us a gourd with a hole cut in the top -- the kind
of thing that might be used as a drink container.
We walked for nine or ten hours, until I couldn’t
really walk anymore. I hadn’t even walked as
far as a Bribri parent might walk to have his child
vaccinated, and I wasn’t carrying a child. Nearing
sunset and just before we got to Amubri, God sent
a man in a truck that took our packs and us to the
Rio Sixaola. It was well after dark when we caught
a canoe ferry that took us across the river to a place
where a truck from the church could come pick us up.
I laid down between the rocks next to the river, and
told John I wasn’t ever going back, and as a
matter of fact, I wasn’t sure that I would ever
be walking anywhere ever again. By 8:30 PM we arrived
at the church in Bribri, more tired and dirty and
hurting than I can ever remember.
I have had a vision of what I call “The Kingdom
Come.” There are lots of parts to it, and the
whole story is way too long to share here, but one
part of the vision is pertinent. I envision a world
where the economy is entirely gift based. There is
no money. People get up and go to work each day to
do what God has gifted them to do. They take joy in
it because they were created to do it, and it all
fills a need for the Kingdom. Everybody’s personal
needs are met because people fulfill those needs doing
what God calls them to do. We have a house because
people are called to build it, we have a car because
people are called to design it and build it and deliver
it to us, we have food because people enjoy growing
it, sharing it, packaging it and delivering it. And
furthermore, I don’t believe there will be any
cheap stuff, because what God has called us to do
and what we do in joy will be nothing but the best.
So, when I look back on the trip to Alto Uren, I think
of gifts. I think of the ventilation shafts, the shovels,
vitamin pills for children, toothbrushes, and six-dozen
eggs. I think of the Gospel message shared, and the
gifts received -- two little polished seed pods and
a gourd. I think of Joe Raines donating the helicopter
ride in, because we couldn’t have made this
trip without that ride. And I think of the walk out
that made the helicopter ride in seem so precious.
I remember John’s college friend who asked for
help with math and received math tutoring, and eternal
life, and now he spreads the message of salvation.
I like the story because I can see the end of it.
I like the story of Alto Uren because I can see the
beginning of it. I am wondering now what seeds of
life are sowed by the gifts exchanged in Alto Uren.
I know I laid on that riverbank in the dark and told
John I wasn’t going back. But now I look at
two little polished seed pods and a gourd with a hole
in it sitting on a bookshelf in my office. And every
day I think of ways that a helicopter could be made
available to the missionaries and Indians of Central
America. And most days now I do a little running,
a little weight lifting, a little biking, because
I know that in the economy of “the Kingdom Come”
I still owe a second mile walk to Alto Uren.
Dean C. Lohse
Jacksonville, Florida
March 4, 2006
If you would like more information about ministry
in the Talamanca region of Costa Rica, or would like
to contribute to providing medical care, evangelism,
or a helicopter to missionaries in Central America,
here are some contacts:
John Whited
AguaViva Ministries
71 Byrd Road
Mebane, NC 27302
john@aguavivministries.com
www.aguavivaministries.com
Tom Kennedy
costaken@racsa.co.cr
David Jones
River of God
4096 FM 2966
Quitman, TX 75783
dljones@racsa.co.cr
