Costa Rica 2010: Outeach Complete

Hey guys! Sorry we haven't updated in a few days. The last three days we have been at our outreach location with no internet access. However, it was a powerful three days.

On day 1, we woke up and drove to Vina del Este. We got started on our work projects right away. We sanded a handrail and concrete. It was great to finally start working. It was only our two teams and Mario, the church grounds keeper guy. The youth worked hard because they were ready to get their hands dirty. We then went to the resort, yes resort, that we were staying at for the next two nights. It was a glorious place. It had hot showers and we had about 7 people to a room which was a change fromt the 56 people to a room. It was on the top of a mountain and the veiw was beautiful. It also had 3 pools, however, we didn't get to enjoy them.

In the afternoon we did a kid's ministry. We had about 25 Tico children come and we did the Velveteen Rabbit puppet show, did lots of songs and dances and a craft with the kids. We also had a cookout afterwards. It reminded me a lot of the Freedom Outreach Party in the Parks expect we couldn't speak Spanish. We gave out hotdogs, however, hotdogs are individually wrapped in plastic here and we didn't know that. So the first round of hotdogs were cooked with plastic around them...Oops! We then performed the dramas for the families and AJ and Liz, a girl from Manchester, shared their testimonies.

The next two days were similar. We worked on our projects, sanding and painting the youth room and doing kid's ministry. The kids are absolutely adorable and so much fun to be around. They are easy to communicate with too! We also walked around the neighborhoods a few times handing out invitations to a Tapon concert. It was awesome to see the youth walk up to complete strangers, attempt Spanish and invite them to church. Stephen is a natural.

Today we headed back to the base. On our way home, we stopped at a park and did an open air minsitry. The drama team did The Family, Sarah shared her testimony and the other drama team did The Champion. Afterwards, a man came over to us and asked us to pray for him. He had an alcohol problem and had left his family because the problem was that bad. He decided that he was going to stop drinking and give his life to Jesus! YAY!!!

Overall, I have been very impressed with our youth stepping out of their comfort zones, taking risks, and sharing their testimonies. They are real and have been touched my God so much on this trip! They are going to come home different.

Tomorrow we are going white water rafting in the morning and zip-lining through the jungle in the afternoon! Pray I see a wild monkey :)

We miss you, but will see you in a few days!
Crystal