March 5, 2008
hello everyone back home!
tuesday was a great day! costa rica greeted us with a sunny beautiful morning. we started out with a wonderful breakfast of cereal, toast, pineapple, and watermelon. everyone loaded the bus at 8am headed for the orphanage. we arrived at the orphanage around 9am. right when we walked up a little boy ran up to stephen prather and stephen hugged him…we knew we were in for a great day!
the children in the orphanage were all outside enjoying the sunshine. we started off singing some songs and then crystal nesbitt shared with them the roman road to salvation. daniel pacheco translated and it was great to see them both leading.
after the time of worship and sharing, we divided up to play with the kids. we played volleyball, basketball, soccer, and the ever popular…chase. our students also brought a variety of coloring books, balloons, bubbles, nail polish, candy, and hair stuff. all of these items were quite popular!
as we were sitting around, the helper brought out a little boy in a wheelchair. i walked up to him and could tell he couldn´t see me. i took his hand and held it. then, i put his hand on my face so he could ¨see¨ what i looked like. erin oshust gave him a little stuffed animal. we rubbed it on his face and hand so he could see how soft it was. the helper motioned to us that he was blind, deaf, mute, and paralyzed on half his body. i did notice that you could tickle him, and he would laugh 🙂 mc richmond and emily tutterow came over and joined us. the boy´s name was david. after a little while, mc and emily took him out of the chair to hold him and let him stretch his good arm and leg. he smiled the biggest smile! those girls were great with him.
you should have seen your students…they were amazing with all of these kids. even while the kids were tugging on them, they kept loving them and playing with smiles on their faces. some of them hung with the same kids the whole 2 and a half hours we were there. sydney clifton was a big fan with her huge bag of candy! we got some great pictures of some really sweet moments. God was really working through our students to be a blessing and to be blessed beyond what they ever could have expected.
when we were leaving, there were a ton of tears. don´t be suprised if your kids come home wanting to adopt a costa rican 
we left there and headed to the bookstore to pick up the 500 bibles purchased by our Lower School students contributions to SHINE chapel. those bibles are going to make a huge difference in the churches we are working with!
after that, we headed to a park for lunch (sandwiches, cookies, juice, and water) and to rest. the cheerleaders took on the boys in a ¨bring it on¨moment. if you haven´t seen that movie, check it out, and then you´ll want to see our pictures when we return!
we spent about an hour and a half handing out tracts in downtown san jose. we also finished up in time to grab a quick snack at mcdonald´s…good stuff!
after we left downtown, we headed back to the villa. the kids swam, napped, and hung out. we had devotions at 5pm, another great time of sharing! emily tutterow wrote our devotion for tuesday and talked about jesus and how he viewed little children. i asked everyone to share from the day´s events. more tears of joy as God is working out his great plan in and through us. the worship team led us in the song madly. the words say…i´m madly in love with you…and i´m madly in love with you. let what we do in here fill the streets out there, let us dance for you, let us dance for you. we have had some great times of worship!
we had a great dinner of chicken, rice, beans, and chips. almost everyone had seconds!
we left at 7pm headed to the soccer stadium in san jose to see saprisse play. they are one of the huge teams here. they played brujas. saprisse won 3-1 in a very exciting match. many of us bought jerseys and we all enjoyed the atmosphere. their fans chanted and jumped up and down the whole game!
we returned to the villa at 11pm and hit the sack. i think everyone slept well last night.
this morning we are loading stuff to take to the seminary. we are staying there until friday. we are going to work at one of the schools today..painting and playing sports. we´ll help out with a church service tonight.
thanks for your prayers. they are making a difference! we are having a great trip!