First full day in Costa Rica

Well I've been trying to keep these guys from worrying too much about you parents. I tell them "Your parents are responsible adults, and were ok before you were born, and they will be ok for 10 days while you are away." :-) But the whole group have been champions so far. Yesterday was packed with preparations for ministry; in the practical, learning dramas, dances and puppet shows, and in the spiritual, examining our hearts and motives, getting before God and asking for His will to rule and reign in our lives and through our lives!

A highlight for me has been the food. I think everyone in our group has already gained a new respect for rice and beans, which no one knows how to prepare, season and serve like a Costa Rican cook.

One thing I am really excited to see in the next day or so is each of our group prepare and share testimonies in front of the group. We had some teaching on how to do this, and I've already been talking to some of our guys, who are thinking "I don't have a crazy, radical salvation testimony, so what do I say?" I think it has really challenged them to think about where they have seen God at work in their lives.

The day starts early here at the PVM base. I'm about to head to quiet time which is observed by the whole staff / student body, so I think I need to end this post. If you are related to anyone on the group, know that you are missed by your Costa Rican missionary, but they are doing well and will come back safe, sound and full of stories of God's light shining bright through their time here,
Blessings all,
Andrew

Costa Rica 2010: We're here and we're exhausted

Most of us haven't slept in over 36 hours, but we arrived safely and it's been amazing so far! We left the barn at 3:00 am this morning, took a plane to Atlanta, then flew to Costa Rica. Our team leaders were waiting for us outside the airport, so we piled into a bus and drove through San Jose to the PVM base. The city itself is very westernized. On our way we saw a McDonald's, Taco Bell, Burger King and even a Papa Johns. It's a beautiful country. We are in the Central Mesa which is about 5000 feet above sea level and we're surrounded by mountains. The weather is also amazing. We all put on sweatshirts tonight..so yea, be jealous :)

We arrived at the PVM base and they had a delicious fruit cabob snack waiting for us. Some of us ate star fruit, guava, a really spiky koosh ball looking lychee nut thing and the pineapple was heaven! The base itself is small, but nice. It's mainly one building with six really big, long rooms; a cafeteria, chapel, girl's dorm, boy's dorm, common area, and storage. There's also a big field in the back equipped with a volleyball net! The dorms have 18 columns of triple bunk beds. That's 54 + a double which is 56 beds...all in one room and pretty much filled! I'm assuming the guys dorm is about the same :)

There's 9 or 10 Vineyard churches here, 98 guests and the PVM staff. Our team leaders are Meghan, Josh, Ryan, Donika, and Tricia. We are joining with Manchester Vineyard for the outreach part of the trip. We will be doing our outreach in the city of del Esta and Vina del Este church. Manchester has 9 total people; 3 leaders, and 6 female youth..oh and an 8 month old baby boy!

It's been a pretty chill day of settling in, team building games, and orientation. The food is also amazing. For dinner we had rice, beans, pork chops, fried plantains with cinnamon and sugar, Costa Rican salad which is cabbage, beans, tomatoes and cilantra. To drink we had guava juice!

After dinner we had worship in both English and Spanish and DeLynn, the leader of PVM, gave a teaching on why we are here. We are here to glorify God and that's why we were created. It's all about love and building and continuing to work on relationships. Love must be sincere to glorify God.

Now it's about 9pm here and everyone is settling down for bed. Tomorrow we have a day full of training for the outreach. Our group will be learning two skits and a puppet show for the kid's ministry.

Everyone is doing great! And parents, we have a certified nurse on our team. She's a leader from Manchester Vineyard. Continue to pray for boldness, unity, and the willingness to step out of our comfort zones to glorify God!

Thanks! We miss and love you all!
The Costa Rican Team :)

Costa Rica 2010: Here we go!

Costa Rica 2010 is only days away! An amazing group of 14 youth and 2 leaders are leaving on Wednesday for a 10 day mission to Costa Rica. Our team consists of Taliah Kurlak, Sarah Lenard, Morgan Edwards, Melissa Greenplate, Rachel Kane, Rachel Walker, Alli Thurman, Elizabeth Collins, Isaac Walker, Stephen Crecsenzo, Joey Hilferty, Eric Tavenner, Zach Tavenner, AJ Duzan, Andrew Greenplate, and myself.

Costa Rica is one of the safest and most beautiful countries in Central America. We will be serving in the community of Heredia, which is north of the capital San Jose. It's filled with coffee covered hills, tropical rain forests, volcanoes and beautiful fauna. Our team will doing some sort of construction project, kids ministry and building relationships with the Costa Ricans.

Please pray for us! Some things to pray about is safety, health, boldness, divine appointments, and obedience to the Holy Spirit.

I'm really excited for this adventure! We have an amazing team of youth that are ready to serve and grow. They aren't doing this for themselves, they are doing this to glorify our Lord Jesus Christ.

Haiti 2010: A day of work and a day of rest

It is still hot here, but God is good! Yesterday, was a great day in the community of Trousable. We arrived at the church expecting to be moving a mountain of dirt to the main road. However, the pastor decided that he wanted us to continue to help with the foundation of the church. So we formed more assembly lines to move buckets of cement and rocks to the workers. We worked non-stop and took few breaks and never became tired.

Looking back we realized that today was a day for relationship building with the Haitians. We began to realize how joyful the Haitians are. The church is located in the middle of a steep hill, and the mountain of debris is blocking most of the steps, so everyone that walks by has to pass the church entrance. I was encouraged by the people walking by and when we would say Bon Jour or Bonswa (good afternoon) people would smile and sometimes start conversations with us. One particular conversation happened when this man stopped me and asked if he could talk to me about the work we are doing. He asked if we were American and if we were Christian. I said yes to both. However, he wanted to know why we were not preaching and praying because all other Americans he has met only preached and prayed. I said we do preach and pray, but we also came here to join with the Haitians to rebuild their country. He said he liked that and wished more would come to work and not just preach and pray. However, I did ask if he was Christian and he was!
In the afternoon, we did our last childrens activity. We told the story of how Jesus loves little children and had the children draw houses and put themselves in the picture to show that they are part of God´s Kingdom. Afterwards, we prayed for each child individually and asked for specific prayer requests. Most of the children asked for a home for their family and others asked for healing from stomach aches and headaches. Others asked for intelligence in school so they can get good jobs. This was a powerful time because when the adults saw that we were praying for the children, they also received prayer.

At the end of the day, Pastor De Jesus gave a thank you speech to us. He said that we have helped them bring hope to their community that was deserted after the earthquake. He asked us to continue to pray for them and blessed us. It was sad to know that it was our last day in the community.

Later that evening , Pastor Gilliome, who is overseeing the STEM teams, came and spoke to us about the country of Haiti. He told us about the nation right after the earthquake happened. After the earthquake, the community of Trousable was empty. The people had moved to 3 tent cities that were at local schools. However, the government made the people leave but did not give them anywhere to go. They just wanted to reopen the schools. The people returned to their community and cleared very small areas, put up a tarp and called it home. The pastor hoped that the government would come and clear the debris, but after 6 months nothing had happened. They decided to start rebuilding the church. Once that began, the people starting smiling and finding hope. If the church can get rebuilt, so can their home. Us being there has been an encouragement to the people. This shows how God can use the smallest things to make change.

Today we went to church. Church in another country is always fun. It is in a different language, but you can still feel the presence of the Holy Spirit. We gave out the hygiene bags to the church members, sang a song for them and they taught us a song that is sang in both English and Creole. It was nice that they included us in their service and made us feel like part of their family.

We then went to the market place and bartered for our gifts to bring home. This is a hard experience because there are always people begging and asking for money and you just have to tell them no. I am not going to tell you what we bought. You will just have to wait and see.

The rest of our day was spent napping and fellowshipping at the guest house. Tomorrow…we go to the beach!
See you in two days!

The Haiti team!

Haiti 2010: It´s 95 degrees and we´re tired!

Praise God it hasn´t rained yet! We´ve been working very hard and we are continuing to help rebuild a church in the community Trousable.

Yesterday, we moved a pile of dirt from one side of an alley way to the other side of the alley way and with the direction of "Michael Jackson" we made a garden wall. The dirt was in front of a woman´s house and she did not want the dirt in front her house anymore. We started pick axing and shoveling buckets of dirt to clear the entrance way to her home. She was not happy at first, but Pastor De Jesus talked to her and she was finally satisfied with our work.

We also built a stone wall, moved extremely heavy stones and formed assembly lines to move cement up lots of steps. Super Mario and the Amazing Jason worked hard doing all the heavy lifting and becoming good friends with the Haitians that are working. Mario is amazing at forming relationships with the Nationals. He has a group of about 6 or 7 men that he is teaching English too and in return they are teaching him Creole. I am encouraged to see how well he has become friends with Reno, Mike, Kiaja, Williamson, and another guy that is going to make fun of Mario for forgetting his name again.

After lunch, we did another small kids program. We brought the guitar and sang Awesome God, Lord I Lift Your Name on High, and Deep and Wide. The kids loved Deep and Wide which Judy taught to them. It has become a favorite within the last two days. We did a puppet show about how to get to heaven and made a q-tip cross craft, it is called God´s eye. Emily and Katrina have been amazing with the kids. They play hand games, Pepsi Cola, and just laugh the whole time with them. The kids have started asking for them by name. Katrina is Kachina, Cecilia is Cece, Emily is Emoly, Jason is Jasone (pronounced on) and I am Christoph. We love it!

Today we returned and tried to set up a rope course to send buckets and buckets of dirt down the hill to the main street for pick up. However, we realized we are short on man power and will wait for tomorrow when more members of the church come to help us. Since that did not work, our main goal of the day was to complete the rock wall. We lifted more rocks, formed more assembly lines to move concrete and drank lots of water.

The highlight of today was the kids program. We told the story of David and Goliath. Goliath was Jason and David was Mario moving around the smallest kid, Tibat. The translator told the story and we acted it out. It was hilarious when this little kid threw an extremely small stone at Goliath and Goliath tumbled down. Pictures will come...I promise!

We also played with the kids using bubbles that we had brought. They had a blast chasing after them as blew them. Cecilia, Emily, and Katrina had the kids laughing and just having a good time.

Overall, we are having a blast helping rebuild the church little by little, but the most important aspect of our trip is the relationship building and conversations that are happening with the Haitian. Many of them know a small amount of English so all of us are having meaningful and powerful conversations.

Thank you for praying for us. We can feel your prayers a lot. Tomorrow is our last day in the community. It is going to be the hardest day of all. We have to move a humungous mound of dirt and debris down many many steps, up a hill and to the main street for pick up. It is going to be hard and tiring. Please pray for supernatural strength and stamina!

Other prayer requests are the bugs, a good idea for the kids program tomorrow, sore muscles, and continue favor from God. Everything has been going really well!

BTW..I am using a Spanish keyboard and have decided to not use contractions anymore. It is too confusing :)

Thanks,
The Haitian Team

Go Argentina!!!!