Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Home!

We have landed at the Charleston airport and are headed home! Special thanks to the man, Mr. Bowers, and Mrs. Mayberry for picking us up in the bus to take us home! 

We are in Miami!

We have just landed in Miami! The Internet at our hotel was down last night and this morning! We will land in South Carolina around 10:30pm! All is well!

Monday, June 29, 2015

ATVing

Today, we went ATVing (I think is what you would call it...). The group had a blast! Unfortunately, this means our trip is wrapping up! We have experienced God's love in so many ways while being here in Costa Rica! We will begin our journey back tomorrow morning around 9:00am (Costa Rica time) and return home around 10:30 pm (USA time). Again, we ask for your continued prayers as we travel home! 

Sunday, June 28, 2015

Church

Today we attended Pastor Minor's church! The church sends their appreciation to our church family as a whole! 

Look at the difference turning the lights on makes!


Also, I forgot to say that yesterday the doctor saw 45 people. Our Costa Rican friend, Marta, bought food for a family and milk for their baby that did not have those necessities. Also, the waiter we had at dinner last night knew of the church we were working with and Pastor Minor! 

Saturday, June 27, 2015

Final day of kids and construction

Today, our CCI family joined us as well as friends' of theirs from a local radio station. It was also our last day of playing with the kids and working on the construction in the church! The construction group has put up 5 new lights and separate switches for sets of lights, both for the church and Minor's house (which is attached to the church)! It was a beautiful moment for everyone when the lights came on! We had our CCI doctor, David, to help the people who came to see him. Along with the doctor, we had Alex, a hair stylist.  We had lots of children come back again today to play and learn with us! We began with a lesson and made necklaces with the children. We played soccer, baseball, frisbee, and made up games in the plaza for a few hours. We returned to the church for lunch (rice with vegetables and chicken in a red sauce). Construction continued after lunch and so did playing with the children. 





Friday, June 26, 2015

Hace mucho calor! It's very hot!

There was a lot of things happening today! Our group split into two again, construction and kids. The construction group was very productive in getting the electricity almost completed today. Mr. Franks was in the electrical box with a screwdriver (fingers crossed the electricity was off....just kidding Mrs. Franks, it was). They put in four circuit breakers so that lights can be turned off in one place and on in another. For tomorrow, they are set to put in a second meter, so they can be charged less as a church for the electricity. The kids group stared the day off with walking around the local area to evangelize and invite people to join us in our activities today and tomorrow. Everyone in the group made an attempt in Spanish to invite families. Most families were accepting of our invitation and asked clarifying questions. We returned to the church around 12 to eat lunch and get ready for our afternoon activities, which consisted braclets and sweating...I mean playing! As always the kids were fun to play with and we can't wait to play with them again tomorrow! Andres and Marta have come to join us today! We are excited for them to be able to join us again this year!



Thursday, June 25, 2015

Kids and Construction

Today was hot! We worked with the children of a neighboring church. When we split into our groups again, one group went to evangelize to the children of this new church. The other group planned and went to the hardware stores, four of them. We had about 40 children to play with and to share the love of Christ! Today was a good day! 

Tonight, we had pizza for dinner. One of the pizza that we ordered was called American pizza. It had pepperoni, bacon, and mushrooms on it! The team devoured it! I guess Costa Rica knows their American friends!

Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Kids and Supplies

Today was a great day! We began the day with a delicious breakfast at the hotel and then headed to the church! We split into two groups with a plan to divide and conquer. One group headed to the other church to make a plan then shop. The other group stayed at the first church to evangelize and gather children to come to our lesson. Today's lesson was on Daniel and we made bracelets with the children. The bracelet was made of 5 colors: black for sin, red for the blood of Christ, white for purity, green for growing with Christ, and yellow for the streets of gold. The children seemed to really enjoy the lesson and couldn't wait to get their bracelet. We had dinner at a local restaurant and walked around the area! Also, for those of you who remember, we saw the exact ferry we took several years ago (Debbie Lee...has anyone seen Debbie Lee?)



We made it!

We have landed in Costa Rica, visited the church we will be working with, and have finally checked into our hotel room! Everyone is safe and sound! 

A view from my hotel room:



Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Monday, June 22, 2015

One More Day!

The day before...all the packing is done and squeezing in as much family time as you can get (unless you're like me and flying around the house trying to make sure you have everything and hoping it all fits in your bag AND is under 50 pounds). Whoops! I will get my family time in though, for sure! I know I can speak for the group and say how excited we are that it is finally time to head to Costa Rica and spread the Word! We take off very early tomorrow morning, some from the church around 5:00 am and the other will meet us at the airport! We ask for your prayers of safe travel! 

I would like to take a moment to mention, I realize most of you reading this blog attend our church, Summerville Presbyterian Church in South Carolina but that some reading this blog are friends of friends or just stopping by. So, with that being said I invite you to our church. Here is the website: http://www.summerville-presbyterian.org
Please check it out and feel free to join us sometime! 


Sunday, June 14, 2015

It's that time again!!!

We have a week and a couple days left until we set out for our next journey in Costa Rica! We leave very early June 23rd and return sometime on June 30th. This year we head to a small town that is closer to the coast line! Thank you so much to the people who have helped this trip happen for SPC once again! There are 12 team members traveling with us this year! They are: Sandy Lee, Kaitlyn Lee, Lee Samuelson, Sherry Roberts, Sarah Christmas, Wayne Mayberry, John Franks, Josh Christopher, Stacy Finley, Zion Finley, Joe Friday, and Tanja Friday.  This year we will be working with the children, doing some construction (roofing, electricity, etc), have a clothing distribution, evangelizing, and so much more! I can't wait! 

Side note: we are seeking more boys and men's clothing to take with us for our clothing distribution! So if you have any boys or men's (sizes 28-32 preferred) clothing you are willing to part with or in your good will pile, please if you can bring them to the church office at SPC. 

For our trip, I will update this site as much as the Internet connection in Costa Rica allows. So, please follow and feel free to comment on our journey. I would love to have positive comments from home to share with the team at our nightly devotionals! 

Last year's mission team: