In Costa Rica
First of all I have to learn a new keyboard! The letters are all the same, but not all the symbols!

The trip in was great. No real problems to speak of. The plain got out of the Springs a little late, but we arrived in Dallas early. They let us stow the instruments in the closets, so that worked really well! Everyone was very nice. In Dallas we got out late, and once we left we returned to the gate to check a pedal. No big deal. The pilot was probably the best with telling us what was going on, pointing out stuff, etc. that I´ve ever had. Very cool.

Made it through all the airports, customs, etc. with 53 teenagers with no problems! Maybe one person would forget to turn in their passport to Barb or something like that and each connection, and she´d go get it from them. I mean, very smooth. Jonathan and everyone were waiting for us when we got in and it was great. So cool to know people here! We left the airport at 11:30, once we had everything loaded. Got to our rooms around 1:00 AM! Everyone was tired, but very excited.

We are up at 8:00 today (but I got up at 7:00 and am blogging :-)), breakfast is at 9:00. Pool time after that, hang out, get unpacked, etc. We eat an early dinner / late lunch at 2:30, bus at 3:30 and church at 4:30.

The hotel is terrific! It is SO beautiful here. Jungle vegatation ( flowers, bushes, etc.) but in the mountains with pines, etc. The hotel room is like a room in the states. Nice room, 2 double beds (for the four youth) and a bunk bed for Jonathan and I. Food waiting in our rooms when we got here.

Well... I should go check on people, since they are probably up now. It is awesome here. And I have easy access so I´ll update, time and energy permitting. :-)
posted by James at 7:12 AM

Bye!
Everything is packed - or I'm missing it. Its loaded, and we are off!
posted by James at 7:29 AM

I'm off!
Well... time to get ready to go. I'm off to where its going to be hot and I have to wear clothes. ;-)

People at church are teasing me because we have to wear shoes on the trip (due to ring-worm, etc.). I pretty much wear sandals to work all summer, and always wear sandals to church (or go bare-foot). Even at youth camp in the mountains, I either go bare-foot or wear sandals. AND we can't wear sleevless shirts (a pretty universal youth mission kind of thing). Sigh... the sacrifies I go through. ;-)

Hopefully I'll be blogging tomorrow morning. We are supposed to get in late, and sleep till 9. No way I'll sleep that late, so I'll be up early, wandering around the hotel, praying, checking things out and hopefully finding an internet connection. If I can't get on and don't "see" you till I get back, well keep up the prayers. I'll be praying for all of you!

later...
posted by James at 6:14 AM

Scriptures
My scriptures for the trip.

• Great commision: Matthew 40:3
  
• Strength - this is my "hiking prayer" seemed to fit: Ps 18:32-36
  32 It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect. 33 He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he enables me to stand on the heights. 34 He trains my hands for battle; my arms can bend a bow of bronze. 35 You give me your shield of victory, and your right hand sustains me; you stoop down to make me great. 36 You broaden the path beneath me, so that my ankles do not turn
  
• Healing prayers:
  
  
  • Ps 103:2-3 2 Praise the LORD , O my soul,and forget not all his benefits- 3 who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases,
    
  • Luke 5:20 When Jesus saw their faith, he said, "Friend, your sins are forgiven."
    
  • Luke 8:50 Hearing this, Jesus said to Jairus, "Don't be afraid; just believe, and she will be healed."

posted by James at 5:28 AM

Hotel
I checked out a link to the hotel. One encouraging thing is that it said, "Class: Hotel with Special Internet Rates". Hmm.. now that I think about it, that probably means special rates for reservations via the internet. I'm hoping it means special rates for connecting to the internet! :-)

I'm going to look at putting comments on every entry (like I have on WorshipJunky), might be cool for the trip, just in case people want to comment on individual posts!
posted by James at 5:14 AM

3 hours
3 hours until we leave home. We have to be at the airport at 9:30 (leaders have to be there 30 minutes early). We are leaving at 8:30 to stop at McDonalds and Starbucks. So I'm up early doing a bit of blogging. I'm going to update the homepage with the hotel information.

I can't believe I'm going to be gone for 2 weeks! I haven't been away from Tina for two weeks in 20 years! 20 years ago we left Montana and moved to Michigan. She went out 3 months early to set up residency, get a place, etc. while I stayed behind to wrap up things at the restaraunt, etc. Besides that the loggest we've been apart is a week while I've gone on business trips or she's gone to see her folks. Kind of weird.

Well... off to update the homepage with the hotel info.
posted by James at 4:56 AM

Email
I just sent email out to everyone I think is interested in this trip, giving them my yahoo address, which I'll be using while I'm down there, along with a pointer to this blog. If you read this blog and are interested in getting email and don't recieve it, let me know and I'll add you to the list. If you are going on the trip (Jaime, Michael, Erika), I didn't mail to you, cuz hey... you'll be there and don't need to be told what is going on. :-)

This blog will be my main form of communication, assuming everything goes well, internet connection wise. The email is really just to say "Hey, I'm here and blogging", etc. But like I said, if you didn't get email and want it, just let me know. You can add a comment to my guest book or send me email at "james dot wagner at mci dot com". (Not actual email address of course, but this avoids email sniffers from picking it up - hopefully).
posted by James at 4:33 AM

Getting down to the wire
Packed up the worship team stuff that we aren't carrying yesterday. 3 boom mic stands, the keys and keyboard stand, a few extension cords and power strips (just in case), and 3 direct boxes. Oh, and duct tape of course. :-)

We did a "small team" practice on Saturday, just to check out the logistics. We have two self contained sounds systems (that run on batteries that recharge when you plug in the boxes). They are pretty good and can handle two mics or a guitar and mic. I also had Bobby pick up a small guitar amp. So, we are able to have 2 or 3 vocals, 2 guitars, bass and I'm bring a small drum. I forget the name (I just bought it Saturday). It has a djembe sound, but is somewhat different in style. It is pretty cool though, because unlike the djembes I've played that are man made material, this is actually carved from a tree! Kind of cool. :-) Anyway, the sound all worked good!

Every night we are in San Jose, we'll be doing a debrief session. What went good with the day, what do we need to improve, things people felt God was saying to them, etc. We'll start that off with worship. So, the small team will be doing that for sure. We may also do worship in the morning. Given the system and the hotel, we'll have no issues. We may also do some worship on the street, when we set up for drama, etc. I'm not sure how that will play out yet, since everyone besides me on this small team is also in the drama. But we figure with the sound systems, extension cords and power strips, we should be able to handle whatever pops up!

Now all that is left (worship team wise) is the full team setting. Like Jaime keeps telling me, "Dad, quit worrying about it. God isn't going to have us lug all this equipment to Costa Rica and then NOT PLAY. It will be fine." So I'll just trust God for that, and we'll see what happens when we get down there. The cool thing is that we'll be playing 3 nights in a row, in two locations. So once we are setup, we'll be good to go.

We'll just play it by ear!

So... all I have left to do is my final packing, make sure I have everything, etc. Getting pretty exciting!
posted by James at 4:00 AM

Blogging from Costa Rica
I've been thinking about taking my laptop, but it just isn't a good idea. However, the hotel does have a "business center"... So, assuming that means I can get on the internet, it isn't too expensive, and I'm not totally exhausted every day, I still plan on blogging while I'm down there. I've got another adult in my room, so worse case I could maybe do it while everyone is supposed to be sleeping. :-) Assuming the center is open. Plus we do have some off time, swim time, etc. Ideally I'll be posting every day... while we are in San Jose. I don't think I'm going to have the ability while we are on the villiage trip. But once we get back I'll blog all about that.
So... if you are following this, just check back. Hopefully I'll get something blogged by the 29th. I'm not sure I'll have time the first night down there. But should be able to on Sunday.
Only two weeks away!
posted by James at 6:18 AM

Its God's trip
I've really been stressing lately. Partly because of the "we need to learn songs in Spanish", but also because I've got SO much going on at work. We've got a major release going out of the software that I architect. This release is mainly made up of two teams, and in addition to being over the entire thing, I'm also pretty much leading one of the teams. That team is in real trouble of making its dates, and it has been quite a bit of work to keep things on track, etc. Then last week I was put in charge of a totally different project. Something that is related, but something I've never worked on before. It is a great oppurtunity and something I've wanted to do for a long time. And it has VP visibility, so it is a chance for our stuff to really shine. Its a great thing. But I'm architecting that as well. So I spent the end of the week in design meetings all week, and will be doing that next week as well.
Basically I've got two projects, one nearing the end, which is in trouble of making its dates, and one that is just ramping up, that needs to be a "get it done quick"... and I'm leaving for two weeks! How is this all going to work out?? When am I going to have time to do the stuff I need to do for Costa Rica. I'm working about 60 hours a week (which I usually don't mind).
Well, as I already noted, the whole "learn songs in Spanish" came together. I was talking to Pastor Rick about it afterwards, and he said he had been worried about that part of the trip as well. But on his vacation last week, during some quite time, God told him not to stress. To chill out. It would work out. And it did... in an awesome way.
I think God really spoke to me through that. What I'm going through right now is how I function. Its the same as when I go on vacation. I'm excited. I want to go... but I don't focus a ton on it. I get done what I need to get done to go, but I'm focused on what I need to get done at work too. Then when I go, I leave work behind and totally jump into the vacation.
So... I need to be prayed up. I need to make sure what needs to get done is done. (Equipment is set and ready to go, we've got all our stuff. I've got my stuff packed for Costa Rica, etc.). But God will take care of the rest. This is HIS trip. It isn't MY trip. It is HIS. He called us... We need to get prepared and get our HEARTS right, but he'll take care of the rest. That doesn't mean we can slack off and just say "God will take care of it." But it is HIS trip. To paraphrase Jesus sending out the 12. "Don't worry about what to say. Your Father in Heaven will give you the words when you need them." Cool. Get our hearts right, get prepared, and he'll take care of the rest. Flow in the Holy Ghost while we are down there.
And last night we had a leaders meeting. Pastor Rick and the team have this set up so well. We are taking care of everything we can take care of on this end. God will take care of everything else on His end. :-)
Its going to be an awesome time.
posted by James at 6:06 AM

Six Nights
The original idea for the "main events" for the worship team was that we'd do some kind of youth event (worship concert) on the village trip. We do a three night event connected with the local church.
Well it turns out that two churches want us to work with them on the village trip, so we are going to do SIX nights. Two three night events! And they are really building it up down there. Pastor Rick did some concert looking posters, and they are going to put those up all over town. Plus they will be doing TV and Radio spots publicizing this.
This is going to be such an awesome opportunity for the team. To be able to do this much ministry, in a foreign land, and walk in their calling. And doing it in Spanish is really coming along. I just know that God is going to touch so many of the local youth through this. It is going to be awesome!
posted by James at 5:55 AM

Songs in Spanish
God is so awesome. We've been thinking all along that it would be really cool to learn some songs in spanish. But to be honest, I had no real idea how to go about it. I mean, I, don't speak spanish... so how do I teach someone else to do it? I pretty much figured the youth would have to do it on their own. Since I'm pretty much a procrastinator, and since the trip was soo far away, I hadn't really done much about it for quite a while. Then about 5 or 6 weeks ago, I started talking to Michael about it quite a bit. Maybe we could get the songs translated on the internet... maybe I could get some translations from Jonathan.
To make a long story short... we hadn't learned anything in Spanish yet as of a month ago, and we had 2 weeks with no youth services. Last Sunday I was talking to Lana (my sister-in-law) and she said, "You should ask Lise to help. She'll do it and she is fluent in Spanish." So I gave her a call and she said she'd come down. I had two songs from Jonathan that his church had already translated. We needed 5. Dance in the River, is only 1 line, so that seemed another good song to learn. :-) Yesterday I told the team we HAD to learn 5 songs in Spanish. If we could learn 3 last night (Dance in the River, Breathe, Happy Song), then maybe Lise could help translate the other two and we could learn them next week. Everyone was kind of skeptical, but we prayed and went to work.
Dance in the River didn't take much because it was one line. Lise helped Michael pronouce it some, and all the background singers just started chiming in. Cool... one song down, maybe this is going to work... but it is only one line.
Next we started Happy Song. Quite a few words. Very fast. Michael was having some problems with some of the. Lize helped him cut a few and then some of the other singers suggested some different phrasing. We kept going over it and over it, and it started coming together. Then Michael made it all the way through a verse without messing up at all. Wow... this is working! We did it quite a bit and people were getting tired of it I think. Good enough for a first try.
The we did Breathe. Michael had the words for about a week and had been practicing them. He started it off and just started singing it. It went almost without a hitch. Nichole came in on her parts and Scott came in on male harmony. Then the background singers all started coming in. Lise said it was very good! We went over that a number of times and the team really started worshipping with it. They weren't just singing words. They new what they were singing in Spanish. IT WAS SO AWESOME.
I had said at the beginning of practice that we'd take the entire practice to work on these 3 songs, and then we'd just have to do the worship set that night w/o any practice. We just didn't have time to run through the stuff we'd be doing in English later that evening. But it was 4:30, we had 30 minutes of practice left, and we had learned everything we needed to in Spanish. We were already planning on doing Dance in the River that evening, and we took out another song and put in Breathe. We ran through the set, doing those two in Spanish! And that is what we did that night. 3 songs in English, two in Spanish. It was so cool. It helped us get used to doing them that way, and it helped the youth would be down there with hearing them that way and worshipping to them.
God just brought it all together. The youth were so great. Many of them have taken spanish, so had some idea of what the words meant, a basic idea of phrasing, etc. And Lize just really helped them bring it all together. She was also able to work on the translations of the other songs so they would flow much better. I have Kindness to Nichole and Water to Michael. We will work those up next week and then go over all 5 of them. Probably doing them for service.
Jonathan wanted us to know 5 songs for service down there. We'll have those down before we get there. Given how easy they came together, I'm hoping we can learn a few more with his help once we get down there.
Thanks to Lize for coming down and helping out, when I was pretty much starting to freak out. To Dez for putting them into the song system in Spanish at the last minute. To all the youth for picking this up so easy. To Michael for working on it ahead of time. And to God for bringing it all together, and putting the calling and ability in these youth. It really got me psyched for the trip. Its going to be awesome!
posted by James at 5:37 AM