Professional Cleaners!

Today was a rainy day in Ponce. We woke up to the sound of rain banging on the rooftop of our room. This caused us to have to change our plans for the day. We got a late start but eventually ended up at a house is Bellica that was donated to TEAMefftort for storage and a place to make lunch. At te house we blessed the woman that donated the house by cleaning it. Katrina and Taliah scrub the bathroom, Elizabeth swept and mopped the floors and Becky helped fix the cranks on the windows. We then all scrubbed down the window panes and washed the windows. We made the home sparkle. Also at the house, the other half of our team built a banister for a woman that lived around the corner. We helped paint it white after they built it in the garage. We hope to install it tomorrow. We then went back to camp for lunch (that we helped make because we are awesome!) it was nice to be inside for a little to dry off. After lunch we went back to the house and finished up cleaning. After that, the five of us walked over to Luis' house an helped him carry wood out of his basement to a pile of wood at the end of the street. We were professional cleaners today. Tonights chapel was about pride. They discussed attributes that can be considered as pride such as wanting to win, not admitting when you wrong or making up reasons why you're not totally wrong and the need for attention. It was another challenging teaching that lead to great discussions. After chapel we prarticipates in the church's weekly prayer meeting. We prayed for the church, the community, and personal prayer requests. They also called all the missionaries to the front of the church and individually prayed over all of us. This was a first for me. Usually the missionaries pray over the people of the church but they blessed us. It was very moving and really showed us how much they appreciate what we are doing. Overall, we are all doing great, learning a lot about God and what He is revealing to us and meeting cool people from the other churches. We are known as the group the always has cards and spoons with us :-) Please pray for good weather the rest of the week. We are the last group of the summer and there are still lot of project that need to be completed but we can only do that if it's not raining! Thanks again for reading and please comment. We love to hear from you! The Puerto Rican Missionaries!

Professional Painters

Today was out first day at out work site. We worked at a man named Juan's house. He is an older man and his grandson comes to spend time with him often. He had asked for a railing to be built on his second story balcony so his grandson could safely play there. He also needed the rest of his downstairs entrance gate to be painted, so that's what we did! We spent the morning painting white onto the fence. It was a tight spit for some of us. Taliah and Katrina were wedged into an area about an little more than foot wide to paint. Becky and Elizabeth were inside the porch painting and I finished the outside part. We were joined with 4 other members of the group from Virgina, Dave, Jordan, Trip, and Sarah and our TEAMeffort leader Tim. Dave and Jordan built the railing and Sarah an Trip helped with the painting. It was a lot of fun. We then ate lunch in the local park and and prepared baggies of rice and beans to pass out to people in the neighborhood. After lunch Becky, Elizabeth, Sarah, Jordan, Trip, myself, and our translator Harold walked around and talked with some of the people that live where we are working. Many of them were elderly and had lived in the area for many many years. They also had lots of grandchildren they were very proud of. Everyone was friendly and loved the rice and beans. Taliah, Katrina and Dave went back to Juan's houseto finish the painting. Juan's grandson, John Micheal had come to visit and wanted someone to play Wii with him. Becky and Elizabeth both joined him bit he was not all impressed with their Wii skills and kicked them off :-) After our worked day we came back to camp, cleaned up, ate dinner, and went to chapel. Tonight's message was the about the "baggage" we carry through our need for materials. We had a great discussions about pratical ways we can loosen our hold on things by such things as putting your phone away when you spending time with people you love. We are having a great time and can't wait until tomorrow when we paint another fence! Keep us in your prayers!! Love and miss you, The Puerto Rico mission team :-)

We're here!

We made it to the base! All of our flights were on time, the rental car was ready, and the GPS didn't get us lost! Puerto Rico is a beautiful country. We had to drive through the mountains to get Ponce and the views were breathtaking. We pulled over for a quick photo shoot. We hit a little bit of traffic and had an interesting time ordering McDonalds in Spanish but we made it here. We are 1 of 3 groups and definitely the smallest. There are 49 people in total. The base is nice and the staff is great. The part of town we are in is very safe and colorful. Every house is a different color and the park is full of funny looking lion statues. We also stopped and ate some "ice cream" but it's more like a creamy water ice. It was refreshing since it's 91 degrees. Chapel was great as well. The message for the week is dealing with our "baggage." It's a challenging topic to talk about but Jesus is faithful and loving so it's going to be good! Pray for continued safety, open hearts, and God's will to be done! We are starting our project tomorrow so check back to read about it!! Love and miss you all! The Puerto Rico Mission Team :-)

Puerto Rico 2012

In less than 2 weeks, a small group of girls will be heading to Puerto Rico for a short term mission trip. The girls going are Katrina Tavenner, Taliah Kurylak, Becky Meredith, Elizabeth Collins and myself. Katrina has been on a mission to Haiti, Taliah has been to Belize and Costa Rica, Elizabeth has been to Costa Rica and this is Becky's first overseas mission. This is my fifth overseas mission and I'm excited to be going with this amazing group of girls.

Our group has been preparing for a few months for this trip. We've practiced our construction skills by helping to repaint a barn. We've eaten authentic Puerto Rican food at Las Palmeras. And we've had great meetings to help build unity, pray and prepare for our mission. We will be traveling to Puerto Rico on Sunday July, 29th and returning Saturday August, 4th. We are collaborating with an organization called Team Effort. We will be working on a construction project and building relationships with the people we meet. We are so excited to travel and see what God is going to do in Puerto Rico.

Thank you for reading this blog. I hope to keep it updated while we are away. Please pray for us and comment below to give us encouragement. Some of our prayer requests are:
 1. For safety as we fly and drive in Puerto Rico.
 2. For us to be obedient to the Holy Spirit.
 3. For team unity and support.
 4. For my driving skills. I will be renting and driving a van while in Puerto Rico and I just hope it's similar to driving here :)
 5. For God to teach us about ourselves and his plans for us. I think that is it for now!

Keep checking back for updates and prayer requests!

Crystal :)

Costa Rica 2010: Mission Complete

Well we are winding down our time here in Costa Rica. It's been an absolutely amazing and God filled time! Youth stepped out of their comfort zones, shared real and moving testimonies, and interacted with the Ticos. I am proud of every single person that went on this trip. New friendships were made, old friendships were strengthened, and we will miss everyone that we've met. Let's just say facebook is an amazing tool for keeping those friendships for years to come.

Today was an exciting day. We white water rafted down a pretty strong river. Some of the youth were scared at first, but once we got going it was all fun. Even when some toppled over the side and into the white water, they always came back with a smile. I think my favorite fall was when Joey fell in almost in slow motion. All that went through my head was...Joooooeeeeeyyyyy, beeeeee caaarrreefffuullll!!! It was also great when Andrew, Melissa, Stephen, Zach, and Rachel W's raft got stuck and their guide called Stephen an idiot. I don't think he meant anything mean...but it was hilarious.

After that we had lunch then headed to the zip line! Every single person did it, including Melissa! She was nervous, but with much coaxing from Andrew she did it and had a "little bit" of fun! Zip-lining was amazing! You zoomed over the tree tops looking at beautiful fauna, rivers, and jungleness. I loved it and I think everyone else did too...at least to some extent! We all made it, no one got hurt and everyone had smiles on their faces. I call that a success.

Now we are getting ready for another Tapon concert. This is our third Costa Rican concert since we've been here. Let's just say we haven't been "roughing it" too much.

Thanks for praying for us and we will see you late tomorrow night!
Crystal

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

Costa Rica 2010: The Outreach Begins

Sorry it's been a couple of days since we've posted. We've been going non-stop with training and visiting the community we are going to be serving at. But just so you know, I woke up early (and I'm not a morning person) to share what we've done the past few days.

We continued with training on Friday. The theme here is relationships: Relationships with God, ourselves and others. We've been learning about pride and how to be humble. The cure to all the lies that we tell ourselves is community! We need to love each other to be truly real.

Besides that, the youth have been sharing testimonies. Rachel W. shared hers in front of all 120 people. It was truly amazing and she touched many hearts with her story. Isaac and Elizabeth have also been brave souls to stand in front of our team and share their stories. God is truly challenging the youth to be real with who they are and with who God is.

Yesterday, we visited Vina del Este, which is the church we will be working at. We were given a tour of the church and shown the project we will be doing. We will be sanding, painting and putting windows in their youth center room. Monica, a woman that works at the church told us about the community. One side is a very poor area and the other is a very wealthy area. There are many teen moms and drug addicts and they have a very big burden to help and reach the people. She also shared a prayer request for the church. They gave classes to help the Tikos learn skills they can use to get a job, however, they are not pursuing a job because they have no where to leave the children. The church wants to start a free daycare but they are having difficulty getting approval from the government. Please pray for favor so they can begin this ministry.

We then walked around the neighborhood doing trash pick-up. Costa Rica is not a very dirty country. They have a garbage system and a truck that picks it up, but there is still a small amount of litter. So we walked around with gloves and open hearts to help clean the community. Along the way, we had awesome conversations and prayed for quite a few people. One man in particular shared that he really felt the Holy Spirit as the team was praying for him. Another woman was homeless with 4 children, a widow, and her mother was a drug addict. She needed prayer desperately.

Some of the fun things we've done is go to a Christian Concert. The bands name was Crossover. It was a fun night out and at times it felt like we were at a Spanish Jeremy Riddle concert. It was a great cultural experience. We also had youth group with Vina del Este young adult group. We played an ice breaker game and Marcus, the leader of the group, shared about miracles.

Today we are heading back to Vina del Este to have church, play some futball de cinco, and just spend time with the community. It is the sabbath and we love resting and having fun. Pray we win a game of futball against the Tikos!

Thanks so much for praying for us and supporting us. It's been an amazing and life-changing time so far and it's going to continue to be! We are also becoming more bold to try the different foods they are serving us. So I'll leave you with a little ditty...

Where God leads me I will follow.
What they feed me I will swallow.
By God's grace I'll keep it down.
And I will not frown until they turn around!

Thanks,
Crystal