friday/saturday
March 8, 2008
thursday night ended well. we had a great time souvenir shopping and many of the students picked up some cool stuff to bring home. many of the seniors dropped by the bakery to check out their tasty treats. keep in mind that we don’t speak spanish and they don’t speak english in most of the stores here. the bakery was a little difficult to figure out. you had to get a tray and some tongs and put your pastry on your tray and take it up to the counter to pay. there they put it into the bag and gave it to you. mrs. carr was having a hard time deciding how the bakery worked, so we just hung out until some other customers came in and watched what they did. when in costa rica….do as the costa ricans do!
after the souvenir shopping we headed back to the seminary and had an authentic costa rican dinner. it was chicken, rice, chips, and ice cream. it was really good! actually daniel pacheco ate about 5 plates of it…but no worries, he is still feeling good!
we met for devotions and a time to worship and thank God for another great day. the praise team introduced our team to a new song called “God of this city” off the new passion cd. here are the words to the song…
You’re God of this city, you’re the King of these people, you’re the Lord of this nation, you are…
You’re the Light in this darkness, you’re the Hope to the hopeless, you’re the Peace to the restless, you are…For there is no one like our God, there is no one like You, God!Greater things have yet to come, and greater things are still to be done in this city!
Greater things have yet to come, and greater things are still to be done here.
we really enjoyed singing this song together and crying out to God on behalf of the costa rican people that we are getting to know this week. daniel pacheco shared the devotion and talked about how Jesus would respond in different situations. everyone shared some things that they enjoyed about the day and also words of encouragement about their teammates. we went to bed at 10pm ready for an early morning.
friday morning we had to have our luggage lined up outside at 630am for the luggage truck to take on to limon where we would check in to the hotel after rafting. the buses for rafting came at 7am and we were off! it took us about 2 hours to get to the rafting outpost. we had breakfast and changed clothes for the trip. breakfast consisted of fruit, cereal, beans, rice, and omelets. everyone was excited about heading out for the day. mrs. carr woke up not feeling so great and brittany chandler’s back has been bothering her, so they both stayed back at the outpost while we headed out. when we returned, they were both feeling better and enjoyed getting to know each other a little better.
the rafting trip took about 4 hours from the time we left the outpost until we returned. the river was the river reventazon and it was rated class 3+. everyone did a great job and had a lot of fun swimming and rafting. you’ll have to ask your student about their guides..particularly if they had alex or the guy from tasmania. we enjoyed getting to know alexandro in my boat.
after rafting, we returned to the outpost for lunch. it was a feast! we had rice, beans, chicken fajitas, pasta, and all kinds of other stuff. everyone ate a bunch and changed clothes for the ride to limon.
we arrived at the hotel at 4pm and divided up into our rooms. we spent the early evening hanging out and resting. dinner was at 7pm at the restaurant at the hotel. we had rice, beans, chicken, potatoes, and a tortilla and some really good fruit juice. we prayed for the basketball team before we ate and during dinner found out they won the championship…go eagles!
we held devotions at 8pm in the pavilion. mrs. carr did the devotion last night and talked about philippians 2 and the attitude of service and how much obedience plays into that. she also referenced several points from the old testament to encourage our students as we prepared for our last day of serving here in costa rica.
after that i divided our students into their work teams for today and they met with their leaders and the other 10 students in their groups. after that we all came back together for a special treat. erin oshust made a list of all the costa rica team and atlanta team members. then, she came up with good qualities about each person to show the gifts that God has given to all of us. she read us the entire list…it was a huge blessing and everyone was really encouraged. erin’s point was how important each person is to the overall team effort.
after that the praise team came and led us. several people shared verses and many students prayed together. by the time we closed out to go to our rooms…we had been worshipping for 2 1/2 hours! it was a great time together.
saturday morning we woke up and loaded the bus at 7am to head to aby’s church in guacimo just about 10 minutes from the hotel. when we arrived, hendrix and i went with aby to the hardware store to pick up some supplies and then we got ready to work. one group went with mr. hendrix to the special needs school to help do some landscaping. they ended up moving tons of rocks and getting a field cleaned up for the kids to play in. one group went with mrs. pater to another school. the girls helped clean out some space to make into classrooms and the boys learned how to mix cement…the old fashioned way! the third group went with mr. campbell up to the gym here in the community and cleaned up the field outside and the gym inside. it was a project we identified last year when we were here, and it turned out great! the fourth group went with mrs. carr up to the gym to host the weekly children’s ministry program. they had an opportunity to make breakfast, sing, make crafts, play games, and help with the 80 children that showed up. the fifth group stayed with me at aby’s church. we painted the inside and outside of the church and some of the other walls. we also painted the new dining area that the burton family helped build when they were here a few weeks ago. we also painted the kitchen area.
as you can see…everyone worked very hard today! they are still smiling and still helping. most of them are volunteering to help before we even have to ask. after lunch the paint crew finished their work and started cleaning the church. the rest of the groups went up to the gym to do the youth ministry program. they sang songs, shared testimonies, and played soccer with the teenagers from the community.
right now, everyone is back at the church resting before we have dinner at 6pm. we are having pizza tonight and they have invited the kids from the youth ministry to join us. it should be a lot of fun!
after that, we’ll head back to the lomos del torro hotel for hot showers…whatever that means, devotions, and lots of rest!
tomorrow morning we’ll get up and pack all of our luggage to return to san jose. we’ll board the bus at 7am headed back to the church for breakfast and worship. we’ll worship with aby’s congregation and help out with the children’s sunday school. then, we’ll eat lunch and head back to san jose. tomorrow evening we are going to have a goodbye banquet to cap off the week’s activities. we are also going to reveal our secret prayer partners at the banquet. it has been fun to see the creative ways the students have been encouraging their prayer partners without letting on who they are. it should be fun tomorrow night to see who is surprised.
it is time to head back to the church. i can’t leave the pizza unattended…i’m not worried about the 54 kids…there are other adults there. but…you snooze, you lose.
we hope you are enjoying your weekend. many of the students have commented how sad they are that the trip is almost over because of the wonderful experiences that they have been having. several have even said that they didn’t really know if they wanted to come or not, but are so glad that they did. monday will be here before we know it and we will look forward to seeing you all monday evening. we will be the sunburned, tired, and sore ones. i can assure you that we probably won’t be hungry!
special thanks to all of you for the emails of prayers and encouragement. this one came from rod and lisa smith today and i just wanted to share it with you and will share it with our students this evening…
I read this Scripture tonight and immediately thought of ya’ll as you are a little
over halfway through this great adventure. It is from Romans 15:5-6. “May the God
who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” ?The Message puts it this way: ?”May our
dependably steady and warmly personal God develop maturity in you so that you get
along with each other as well as Jesus gets along with us all. Then we’ll be a choir
– not our voices only, but our very lives singing in harmony in a stunning anthem to
the God and Father of our Master Jesus.” ????Isn’t that an amazing and overwhelming
thought – your lives being a stunning anthem to God?