Just a quick run down of this month’s mission trip so far:
We traveled last Sunday from Atlanta to San Jose, spent the night at the airport, and arrived at our ministry location in Jaco (“Ha-ko”, west coast) by Monday afternoon.
During the days on Tuesday through Friday we ran a VBS-type camp called Wilderness Camp at a local church. Our World Race team split up into two groups of three; one group led the games and rec time while the other half of us led missions where we introduced the children to other local and worldwide missionaries.
Our weeks here will run Tuesday through Sunday morning, with Sunday afternoon through Monday being our free days. On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday we came back home for lunch, then began property cleanup around our “home” around 3pm. This consisted of a lot of manual labor including trash pickup, landscaping, and spider killing. (Property rule: All spiders must die.)
Thursday afternoon we celebrated our host (Hannah’s) birthday by going to one of the hidden wonders of Jaco. There we were able to swim, see exotic birds like toucans and macaws, and feed bananas to the wild Capuchin monkeys. Afterwards we had a lovely, AMAZING home-cooked dinner of chicken a la king, broccoli salad, and sweet iced peach tea. Oh my gosh yuuuuum.
Friday evening we were able to attend a Spanish service at the church we had been serving all week. It was really interesting being part of that service and singing the songs we knew in English.
Saturday morning we hosted a kid’s camp at a nearby park to low-income kiddos. We told the story of Zacchaeus, taught them the old familiar song, memorized a Bible verse, and played some games with the kids. We’ll be doing this kid’s camp the next two Saturdays. The rest of today we got ready for teaching the Sunday School lesson tomorrow.
We also ran into some other people our age who are here: Katie, a previous World Racer who is back working in Costa Rica for a few months, and Lisa who has lived in Jaco for the past several years ministering to the youth here. These two people are some of the coolest cats you’ll ever meet, and have helped us adapt to the culture and people here.
Speaking of culture, as you might tell from some of the photos, we aren’t what you call… suffering… yet. The area we’re in is a super popular place for people from the States to come hang out and relax. Our ministry is located very close to the beach, which is where we will be doing ministry next week.
It’s been very easy to get acclimated here, despite living in tents and hammocks. We are still able to get pretty much everything we need and even some things we don’t (example: butter is not a necessity, but it is convenient when cooking at home!). Speaking of convenience, we still have running water for showers and sinks, and still have “normal” toilets. We can drink the tap water and can eat out once a week without worrying about anything for the most part.
So far it just seems like things we would be doing at home: speak English, use US dollars, and readily have access to the necessities, not to mention the amazing ocean views we’re able to enjoy. Of course we’re trying not to take everything for granted. Next month might be a slap in the face of reality, but so far we’ve been very, very blessed with our circumstances.
WAYS TO PRAY:
You can pray for unity among our team. If we counted all the interactions we’ve had, we’ve really only known each other for about three weeks. You can pray for us as we’re acclimating to a community mindset. You can also pray for the people we will reach here in Jaco (many of whom are also tourists) and the children we’re teaching.
