Just a few more days left in Costa Rica! WHAT? The first month of the World Race is almost over, that’s crazy! I don’t know about all of you reading this, but for me this has been the fastest January yet. It helps that I didn’t have to deal with any snow and the coldest weather I had to deal with was about 60 degrees at night, which is cold to me by the way. However, with all the changes that occurred this month, time flew. I don’t have any profound theological findings or deep metaphors for you this time. So, I am just going to give you a short recap of what we have done in January.
January 8-11th- Launch in Washington, D.C.- During this time, we received teaching by some of the Adventures in Missions staff, spent time with our teams, and prepared to leave for Costa Rica.
January 11th- Travel day. This was our first travel day and it was fairly smooth. We had one layover in Dallas and it was very short. We literally got off the plane, walked to our gate, a few people had time to run to the restroom, and then we were boarding again. When we arrived in Costa Rica, the amazing ministry that we have been working with 6:8 ministries had a bus waiting for us. After about an hour and a half of waiting around for the leaders to get all of their necessary items, money, cell phones, etc. we were able to depart. So we loaded on the bus and they loaded all of our bags on top of the bus. It was quite a sight although I did not get a picture because I was on the bus.
January 12th-13th- Our first weekend was pretty chill. We did get to experience the market first thing the next morning. It was a very calm market where everything was priced and easy to purchase with some amazing fruit! We spent some time in the youth group Saturday night and then went to church on Sunday morning and visited a neighborhood that afternoon.
January 14th-19th- This was our first full week and we did a lot of different things. The first day we cleaned a coffee plantation which I mentioned in a previous blog. Then the remainder of the week, I think we went to about six different neighborhoods and did a lot of playing with children. We also helped with feeding centers in the neighborhoods and at the church. The church feeds the homeless community three days a week while also preaching and having a worship service. My favorite part of this week was that we met the community called Verbena. It was the poorest of all the neighborhoods and I definitely loved the people the moment I entered there. We also went to the beach on our day off and I rode a horse for the first time ever (crazy right?) on a beautiful trail in the mountains overlooking the beach.
January 20th-26th- Our second full week started off with a very different project. We spent our Monday building a horse trail on a mountain. Well, we didn’t build it, but we definitely made it passable for the horses. I enjoyed this day a lot. I got to do manual labor and was able to get some intense sun (actually got burnt). Then, my team and I had a day off in San Jose. We just walked around the city, shopped at the artisan market, and ate at a Costa Rican Soda. The remainder of the week we did a VBS in Verbena. It went really well. Each day we increasingly had more kids. Each team had a different part of the VBS each day: Crafts, Lesson, Games, and Music. We didn’t have crafts since it was a three day VBS we had to miss one. My teammate and I were in charge of games on one day and we did a relay that the kids really liked a lot. I did it four times to show them and realized how bad I am at jumping rope. At the end of the week, one of our team members gave a short presentation of the gospel and many kids said they wanted to be saved. We also had most afternoons off this week and I played a lot of basketball and loved it. I am really praying that I get to play more in other countries. Saturday, we went back to Verbena for one last visit to do a feeding center. The kids definitely would have been up for another day of VBS, they came out greeting us and hung out much longer than previous Saturdays when they would get their food and run home.
January 27- February 1- Sunday we attended Celebration Church and they prayed for all of us as we move on our journey. The rest of the day we helped one of the missionaries here move to her new apartment. It was relatively easy with all of us loading stuff and carrying it. We started off this week with our off day because we have a big project going on the rest of the week. This week we went to the mall and ate at Chili’s and went to a movie. We spent pretty much the whole day there and enjoyed a chill day. Today we organized school supplies, clothing, and various other activities for tomorrow’s big event. The church and 6:8 ministries partner together to do a sponsorship program in which people from the United States sponsor a child to go to school. For only $200, students receive all the necessary school supplies in a backpack, school uniforms, shoes, and socks. Tomorrow we will be having the event at the church where students and their families will come to receive their supplies, get free hair cuts (and the little girls are even getting their nails painted.) Then, the students will write thank you cards for their sponsor, get their pictures taken, be covered in prayer and then be sent off ready to learn! Thursday, we will tie up any loose ends with students who didn’t make the deadline or didn’t make it to the event. Friday, we have a day to prepare for our travel day on Saturday which begins at 8 AM. We are anticipating a 30 minute bus ride to San Jose then an eight hour bus ride to Nicaragua.
So, I hope that wasn’t the most boring blog you have ever read. Let’s be honest, if it was you aren’t still reading probably. I am going to try my hand at video editing so my next blog can be a video synopsis of this month.
Thank you for your continued support. I still have a little under $3,000 to raise before my next deadline of March. So, please consider giving if you haven’t already, giving more if you want to, and sharing with others my blog and what I am doing.
