We are home!

We have made it home safely! Big thanks to Hank Legare for picking us up!!!! What an amazing trip this has been! Thank you for your prayers and support!

It's time to go

We are all backed up and ready to go. It is now time to head to the airport. Next stop, the United States. 

Please pray for our safe travels!

Isla Tortuga

Today was excursion day. We went to Isla Tortuga (Turtle Island). Alejandro was one of our tour guides today. We had lots of fun snorkeling and hiking. While snorkeling, we got to see lots of different fish. We held starfish and a sea cucumber. In the island, the group split into two groups. One group went hiking and saw some of God's amazing work (come to our dinner and you can see too). The other group stayed in the beach area, hung out, went shopping, and relaxed. 

Alejandro and his family joined us back at our hotel. We got to spend the evening getting to know his family and playing with his children. 

Our trip has turned from happy to sad in almost a instant as hellos have turned into goodbyes and see you laters. This trip has come to an end but there will be more hellos in the years to come. 

Please pray for continued improvements in health and for safe travels tomorrow! 

We love you all and see you soon!

Here are some pictures from today:

Iglesia (church)

Today, we got the opportunity to join Pastor Minor's church for service. Our friends from the week, Kend and Jasmin, sang the music for service. Pastor Minor gave a sermon on the world needing to 'stay human'. In children's church, the kids of the church made us a thank you sign and thank you cards. After service, we stayed and spoke with the people we have been working with all week. After that, we left for the hotel. The group agreed to stay at the hotel for dinner and devotion. 

Please continue to pray for the health of our team members! Thank you for you continued prayers and support!

Look what happened today:

    Jasmin and Kend singing in church

    Andres being a rockstar at translating

    Our thank you sign from the kids

    Having some fun

Change in Plans

Today's plan didn't go as planned! Haha...does it ever?! The group that we thought was going to help us today with older kids activities in the evening was actually scheduled for next week instead of this week. However, we made do and created another day of children's activities! In the morning, we set out to make sure the kids knew we were going to have activities with them today (as we had already told some earlier in the morning that we were not). Lots of kids showed up for the lesson and we played into the darkness with the children. It was a great day! He always knows the best plan!

With construction, they got the new washroom door up and sturdy. Lee and Wayne put up a new partition in the bathroom to seperate the bathroom from the washroom. Joe, Alejandro, and Minor put the ceiling up in the kitchen. Another hard day's work for these men! 

A few members from our team haven't been feelings well. Please pray for health of our team! And as always, thank you for your continued support and prayers!

Here are some pictures from the day:

    Sturdying the door

    A break with our new tico friends 

    Inviting children (this is Noella, Minor 

    and Flor's daughter)

    Cutting wood

    Marinez leading energizers 

    Playing with the children

    Putting up the frame of the partition

    Putting up the ceiling in the kitchen

Mas trabajo y divertido (more hardworking and fun)

The day started off like any other....with sweating 😅! When we first got to the church this morning, we split into two groups. One group would continue to work with construction and the other group would go out and invite children to the activities in the afternoon. 

The constructions group had a hard day ahead of them but conquered it gracefully! They put in the door that leads to where the new wash area will be in the morning. In the afternoon, construction began on assembling the ceiling inside of Pastor Minor house. To picture what it looked like before this, picture your living room and kitchen without a ceiling. This was a much needed change. 

The other group set out around the community to remind and invite children to the afternoon activities. When we returned to the church, we were put to work cleaning the outside of the church. Surrounding the church was a lot of discarded, used and broken, construction materials and trash. It was during this time that we discovered Costa Rica's cockroach. I promise you I will only tell the truth here on this blog! It was larger than the South Carolina palmetto bugs!  In fact, it puts the palmetto bug to shame! 😱 See below! Once we collected ourselves from unexpected guests and had Andres presearch our cleaning area, we continued on our clean up journey! We finished just in time to take a short rest before the children came! Stacy and Andres, once again, entertained and taught an engaging lesson on Joseph. Unfortunately today, we were unable to go to the plaza to play with the children. We could not go because of all the rain. Naturally, we found ways to have fun around the church. Sarah and Caitlin found mud to play and/or slip in. Lee and Validia (a new little Tica friend) jumped in puddles together. Conversations were ahd and new bonds of friendship were created. 

The night ended with dinner at the hotel and a moving devotion lead by Pastor Minor. 

Gracias para los oraciónes y soporte!

Here are some pictures from the day:

    Finishing the doorframe 

    Putting in the ceiling 

    Almost done with this room

    Making the cut to fit in the ceiling

    The beginning of cleaning

    The cockroach...😱 

   More cleaning 

    Children's Bible Study

    Children's activities

   Jumping in puddles

    Haha...I'm just going to leave this here!

Hard Work and Play

Hats off to our construction group today! They worked incredibly hard! They had to saw and chip through cement walls to make windows for ventilation in the bathrooms and a door for access to a sink for hand washing clothes. Let me tell you, these are some very dedicated men to have completed such tedious work in this smoltering heat! High five guys and prayers! 🙏🏽 I know y'all will be sleeping well tonight! 

While the majority guys were working hard with getting rid of the unwanted cement, the remainder of the group set out to defeat our own challenges. We separated into two group and set out to evangelize and invite children of the community to come play and learn about God with us. With this experience, comes enlightenment for the area in which we are working. You get to know the people you are here to support; be it their personalities, curiousities, living situations, or willingness to listen. You get to learn your own limitations or bet yet you get to exceed what you thought were your limitations. This has become a favored part of the trip for me; when it used to be something I ran from. 

Once we got back to the church, we had lunch and awaited the arrival of the children. It was during this time that power was lost to the whole area, which thankfully gave our construction men a guiltfree lunch break!  

Once the children arrived, Andres lead the group with an exciting energizer! Stacy gave the message for the children about Joseph and how God uses different situations in life to help you, good and bad. The children then got to color a picture to go along with the story! Then came plaza time...time to play with the children! We had to share the plaza with a community soccer team but that didn't stop the fun! We played soccer, frisbee, and parachute. We talked and played and watched!

We finished the day off with a dinner at a local restaurant! 

As always, we appreciate your continued prayers and support! 

Here are a few pictures from the day:

    Construction 

    Evangelism and inviting the children

    Playing with the kids

    #selfie!

Organization and Clothing Distribution Day

Yes, you read that correctly! We did clothing distribution on the first day! Normally, this is done on well into the week, but it went well! We had several church members, from both Pastor Minor and Alejandro's churches, and community members stop by the church.  It was during this time that we also got to meet several children from the areas we are serving in. What a blast, as usual! It is amazing what a simple gesture can turn into! 

Part of our group got to venture out into the Costa Rican material buying world! They are still out buying materials; hopefully, we see them tonight! Haha, I'm kidding...but really the process of but supplies here is much different. From what I understand, you make a list, walk around the store, the person finds the materials for you, you have long conversations, materials are gathered and put together at the register, someone rechecks the list, and then you buy your materials! Woo...that's a lot! Good news, they are back with us! 

I hope all is going well for our loved ones at home! And once again, we thank you for your continued prayers and support!

Here are some pictures from the day:

    Pastor Minor's church

    Clothing distribution

    Playing frisbee with the children

More about Tuesday and a little about this morning

How could I forget?! When we arrived at the airport, our Costa Rican family was there awaiting our arrival. We had probably one of the smoothest arrivals I've experienced. Pastor Minor came. He is our missionary pastor that SPC supports here in Costa Rica. Alejandro, who is a pastor from a neighboring church that we visited last year (and will be bringing kids from this year), came as well. Andres, a dear Costa Rican friend to our church was also there and will be spending the whole week with us. 

I also forgot to mention that all of us including our bags made it...except for Joe's bag 😱. BUT, it has arrived. The airport brought it out to our hotel for us early this morning and all is well! 🎉

We made it!

Our team has made it not only to Costa Rica but also to our hotel! We ate lunch on the way to our hotel and were greeted in the perfect Costa Rican way, rain! Lots of rain! Once we get finished checking in, we plan to gather the materials needed for the week! We appreciate your continued prayers and support!

2016 SPC Costa Rica Mission Trip

Here we go! We appreciate your continued prayers and support! Big thanks to Jeff Bowers for driving some of our team early, EARLY this morning!

It's that time again!!!

It's that time again! The mission team is gearing up for another year of spreading God's love! Our trip begins June 21 and ends June 28. We have 10 members this year. They are Sherry Roberts, Chivonne Blair, Joseph Friday, Matt Wylie, Wayne Mayberry, Sarah Christmas, Caitlin Christmas, Lee Samuelson, Stacey Finley, and Tanja Friday (myself). We thank you for your continued support and prayers!