Day Three of Work in Costa Rica!

We hit the ground running again this morning and got back to work at the Methodist Children's Home! We had a great day of pouring concrete, moving more dirt, and making forms for the concrete pillars! About mid-afternoon we drove from there to a church in Llano Grande near San Jose. The drive took us literally through the clouds as we drove up, up, and away into some of the beautiful higher elevations surrounding San Jose. We held a short vacation Bible school again at a small Methodist Church there and then returned home for the evening! Tomorrow we have one more day of work at the children's home and then it will almost be time to head home! (Can you believe it?) Check out today's pictures...smiles everywhere!

Day Two of Work in Costa Rica!

We hit the ground running again this morning, spending time with the children of the Methodist Home here in San Jose and continuing work on their newest house! We are looking forward to another great day tomorrow of blessing and being blessed!

First Day at the Methodist Children's Home!

Today was a great day for the FUMC missionaries here in Costa Rica! Our morning started at 7 a.m. at our residence for the week - La Igesia Evangelica Metodista de Costa Rica. The seminary is under the leadership of the Rev. Ray Zirkel and his wife Lydia. We enjoyed a great breakfast provided by the seminary and then made our way across town to get to work!

This week we will be assisting with the construction of the Methodist Children's Home here in the city of San Jose. The children's home is a multi-phase project which was started by the Methodist Church here just a few years ago. The children's home is continually worked on by the numerous mission groups that come here! Even though it is a work in progress,  it is also already home to a small group of loving children! (More on them in a minute.)

Today's work included a lot of digging ditches (or as we like to call it... "moving mountains!"), tying rebar, pouring concrete, and many other odd jobs all over the place!

 Later in the afternoon, we transitioned into a short vacation Bible school for the children. Activities included a little live musical entertainment complete with drums, tambourines, and noisemakers (which were very popular.)  After the music, the children enjoyed a skit acting out the story of Zacchaeus. Our team member Glenn was given the most demanding role of the skit - the tree. After the skit, the children enjoyed arts and crafts and then moved outside for a game of soccer and some fun with a giant colored parachute!

Tomorrow we will return to the Methodist Home for another day of moving mountains!

What a Sunday!!

What a day we've had! I can't even express how powerful the worship experience we had this morning was. It's late. I'm tired and could never put into words in my exhausted state how meaningful it was. I will say that to hear voices joined together singing How Great Thou Art with part of us singing in English and part of us in Spanish was amazing! After worship, we had lunch at a wonderful place with a fabulous view and then visited the ruins of the oldest church in Costa Rica. This evening as we had our devotional time, my socks were once again knocked off by three of our young men as they lead our devotional time. We than shared "where we saw God today" before being joined by Ray Zirkle and seeing a wonderful PowerPoint presentation and hearing all that the Methodist Church has going on in CR. To see pictures of a church that some of our team members worked on in 2008 and then pictures of the children's home that we worked on last year and will be working on tomorrow warmed my heart. I love these people and I love this country. I hope to include pictures tomorrow, but now.....it's time for rest! God bless each of you who may be reading this blog. We feel your prayers and we thank you.

We're Ready to Go!

El Amor De Cristo Para El Mundo   (The Love of Christ for the World)   Those are the words on the back of our team t-shirts. Wow!  Those are important words. When we designed out shirts, all I thought about was they needed to "look cute and have a nice message".  Now that we're about to leave for Costa Rica in less than 24 hours, the message on our shirts is starting to set in with me. (They DO look cute, too!) I feel in my heart that God has put together His team and that we are ready, in our own way, to take the the Love of Christ to Costa Rica. While we work doing construction work during the morning and early afternoon, I think we'll not only be showing the Love of Christ in what we're doing, but maybe more importantly in HOW we're doing it and how we're interacting with each other and with the men on the worksite. We're going to have the opportunity, while we work, to be kind, understanding and patient with each other. While I know that when you're hot and tired and being stretched physically that's not always easy to do......I have confidence in this team that that's what we WILL show to each other. Our actions toward each other will speak loudly to everyone around us. I know we will then show the Love of Christ to the World (or atleast to the children and parents we meet) as we lead Vacation Bible School to the children of the Methodist Children's Home and area churches. I am always amazed each time I visit Costa Rica at the simple life they lead and how excited the children and parents are at the very loving, but simple VBS we lead for them. Such different expectations than the children and parents of most churches in the US. I love the simplicity  of their lives.  So many thoughts going through my mind this morning as I pack, pray and prepare.  If you're reading this blog, I ask that you keep God's team in your prayers. Our names are listed in an earlier post so you can pray for us by name. We hope to be making updates to our blog and FaceBook page each day. Internet service can be a bit "sketchy", but we're hopeful. Pura Vida!!

Being Sent

Jesus called the Twelve to him, and sent them out in pairs. He gave them authority and power to deal with the evil opposition. He sent them off with these instructions: "Don't think you need a lot of extra equipment for this. YOU are the equipment. No special appeals for funds. Keep it simple. And no luxury inns. Get a modest place and be content there until you leave."  Mark 6:7-10 The Message

Somehow as we are less than a month out from our Mission Trip to Costa Rica, this passage speaks to me. Jesus was not only speaking to the original 12 Disciples here. He was also speaking to all of us. Jesus tells us to go in pairs (or a group of 22 as in our team to Costa Rica!) We're not to be lone ranger Christians. We have the Community of Christ surrounding us and we're in this together! Jesus does give us authority to to go out and share the Good News with others! I will admit, I don't expect evil opposition while we're in Costa Rica. They are a warm, welcoming and loving people. But...we have been given the tools and authority we need for the trip! We're not taking much extra equipment.....just some Vacation Bible School Supplies.  :)  When we get to Costa Rica, we'll put our trust in the people of Costa Rica to guide us in helping to build the second children's home at the Methodist Children's Home there. They have their own way of doing things! We will let them guide us and put our trust and faith in them! No power tools for us! We will be keeping it simple and embrasing their lifestyle. I believe it's a life style we could all learn from. We will live and stay in a modest place; living in the seminary while we're there to work. Our diet will be good, but simple. We'll spend time together in the evenings and not glued to the TV or computer. I wonder why our lives can't be more like that everyday?

Thank you for your continued prayers!!

One Body.....with many parts and many gifts!

As we continue to prepare for our 2012 Mission Trip to Costa Rica, I stand in awe at what God is doing and we haven't even left yet! Our team just keeps on "wowing" me.  I am humbled to be one of the team leaders. Our home church, First United Methodist Church of San Angelo, has blessed us with their prayers and financial support. We have two wonderful team members who are members of St. Luke UMC in San Angelo and they have stepped forward and are providing all of the Vacation Bible School supplies, as well as planning the craft projects for us.  One team member made small, hand crosses made from Purple Heart wood from the Costa Rica rainforest for each of the team members. What a special gift to hold in our hands as we pray for each other and the people of Costa Rica that we haven't even met yet! This same team member is going to make small crosses from a wood from Texas to give to each child who attends VBS. Two of our team members are deligently watching over our finances and helping us raise funds so that money is not an obstacle to keep anyone from being able to go on this life changing mission trip. Two of our young men are working together (even though one of them lives out of state) to see that we have music for VBS. One of our young ladies is studying graphic design and worked on our logo for our team t-shirts. One of our greatest supporters has helped organize every fundraiser we've done, although he is not able to go on the trip this year. He went last year and believes in what we're doing there! One of our team members is an amazing story teller and speaks fluent Spanish. She will be telling our VBS story of Zacchaeus. Both she and her daughter are going and both are blind. Regardless of having what some of us might call a "handicap", they area amazing team members and I can't imagine them not being a part of our team. While we are a team of 22 individuals, we are one as the Body of Christ.  I have always loved 1 Corinthians 12 where Paul teaches us about Spiritual Gifts. This team is using the Spiritual gifts God gave them to contribute to the team God has put together. We ARE one body...with many parts and many gifts! Thank you, Lord, for this team. Watch over us as we continue to do your work in Costa Rica.  Amen