Adobe is a building material made of mud, straw and manure. It is also a great metaphor for the kind of community Ruth and James Padilla DeBorst set out to create when they moved into Casa Adobe in San José, Costa Rica, with their blended family of eight back in 2010 – a place where the wounded and well, the destitute and the richly resourced, would share life. They were soon joined by a single father with his daughter, some foster kidsand a family of refugees from Nicaragua, and over the years many others have called this place home.
As time went on, the community set out to be good neighbours, and identified three areas of focus: ecology, radical hospitality and education. They registered as a non-profit and together welcomed both local people and others from far away for meals, long and short-term visits, internships and volunteering opportunities. They tutored children, founded a house church and soon identified the river running through the area – Río Virilla – as a neighbour in its own right.
James says, ‘The grandparents of our neighbourhood remember swimming here, and now it is one of the most polluted rivers in Latin America. As we work to restore it, we don’t just see ourselves as its saviour, but as those needing to be mentored and discipled by creation, both by its damage and by its beauty.’
In 2025 Casa Adobe became the heart and home of A Rocha Costa Rica, and the vision has grown from concern with one section of one river to encompass an entire watershed, from its source to the salt marshes at its mouth.
‘There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High.’
Psalm 46:4
Find out more at costarica.arocha.org
