While living and serving in Costa Rica, we’ve also gotten the chance to go out and explore other parts of the country that we don’t get to see as much during ministry. Every other Friday or Saturday, depending on our ministry schedule for the week, teams get to go out and do all the touristy things, like sightseeing around the city, hiking to a waterfall, or visiting a national park to name a few. Along the way, I’ve learned a lot about this country, God, and maybe a few fun facts about my squadmates too :))
1. trust God’s plan 😉
I know everyone says that a lot, but this day was all God. In a very random sequence of events, half of my team and half of team Shathal ended up squished in an Uber headed into the mountains to see a waterfall, although we weren’t sure where it was or if it was even open. After getting dropped off in the middle of a remote mountain village, we found a house behind what looked like an abandoned welcome center. The family who lived there gave us directions (in spanish) to the waterfall and after an hour of hiking (read: sliding down the side of the mountain through cow poop and mud), we turned a corner and saw it : La Catarata Muralla !!
I’ll never have enough words to describe what those few hours were like, just being at the foot of that waterfall and basking in the beauty of the Lord’s creation. For a while all we could do was just stand there in complete awe. Then we ate our world race lunch of squished pb&j‘s and headed back to the mountain roads to meet up with our Uber driver, who was another answer to prayer (ask me about Jackson sometime!!) As we walked, we were greeted with amazing view after amazing view of the mountains and the little villages tucked in between them. Then we got in our Uber, picked up some fresh strawberries from a fruit stand on the side of the road, and ended the day with some McFlurries :))
We started off with absolutely no plans, and wow did God come through! All we could say all day was best! day! ever!
2. Emma and Sydney are biiiiigg animal girls !
Another fun thing about our waterfall adventure – we got to see so! many! animals! The family who gave us directions had a cat who had just had her kitten, so Emma was thriving 😉 Then there were a TON of cows on the path and Sydney‘s dream to pet a cow came true ! (yes, that really was a dream of hers). Then we saw horses, hummingbirds, a puppy(!), and many, many more cows as we walked through the mountains and Emma and Syd could not have been happier about it 🙂
3. Everyone should scream worship once in their life
When we were sitting on the rocks by the waterfall, Gretchen brought up the idea of singing worship. I don’t know if you’ve ever stood next to a waterfall, but it’s LOUD. So if we were going to worship, it would have to be more like yelling than singing softly 🙂 D squad’s worship time is usually quiet, an intimate time between each person and the Father, and while I treasure that, this was a whole other thing. Screaming praises to God and knowing that He’s the one who created the waterfall rushing right next to you and He‘s the one who created you and cares for you more than anything – that was WORSHIP and I’ll never forget it.
4. The way to Team Stride’s heart is coffee
Well, maybe only for half of Stride… the other two of us hate it 🙂 But we love going to coffee shops with the rest of our team! (and ordering smoothies). So when our ministry hosts surprised us with a trip to Hacienda Alsacia (the Starbucks coffee plantation right outside of San José), we were pretty happy about it 🙂 Our team spent our morning off with some of the women staff from the Hope Project, driving through the mountains around the city and hanging out at the coffee farm’s outdoor coffee shop that overlooks the plantation.
5. Wet sand doesn’t stop you from getting burnt
The whole squad got to go to Manuel Antonio National Park two weeks ago, and the whole squad got very, very burnt. We put on sunscreen multiple times throughout the day and as you can see in this picture, some people even tried covering themselves in sand, but in the end, the Costa Rican sun gets everyone 😉
6. Brent is really good at surfing ! (and Wes is still working on it 🙂
Our most recent adventure day was to Jaco, one of the more touristy beaches. It’s also a pretty good place to surf, so some of the guys rented surfboards for the day. and while some of them caught a couple waves, most of the shots I got were of wipeouts :))
So that’s what some of our adventure days have been like these past three months !
