Many of the photos are now online with more to come!
made us a little crazy (or maybe just Bryan). But we are all excited
to see our loved ones very soon. In a moment we'll be getting our
baggage and the walking up the runway ramp.
We are in Juan Santamarie International Airport in San Jose, Costa Rica. Currently it is 6am local time, we are completely checked in and have made it through security. We will start boarding in 50 minutes. Everyone is doing well, no one will be coming home sick, but many if not all will be coming home quite exhausted. Last night was one of my favorite evenings. My first favorite was the Hot Seat night. I didnt have time to write about how well it went, but it was the best time we have ever done it in my opinion, so God has definitely been working through that. Last night we went to a really nice team dinner. All the girls wore their "pretty dresses" and the boys wore pants and collared shirts. We had a lovely authentic Costa Rican buffet. But the real fun started after the meal. There was an authentic Costa Rican dance with 7 dancers and it was fine and wonderful, and then they started pulling people from the audience. Matt Henderson was the first brave soul to dance and it was so precious. He held the dancers hand, but instead of his other hand holding her waist the free hand just sort of float a foot from her body. Chris Frazer tried to teach one of the dancers the robot, but she did take instructions very well. And then there is Madison. Holland and Roxie I am sad to say that she might have met the love of her life in Costa Rica. Just kidding, but watching them dance was hilarious. I almost died laughing watching her dance and Chris teaching the robot. It was a great note to end the trip on. Everyone is behind me now trying to catch the last half hour of sleep before boarding. Please pray that we have a safe flight and a good layover in Mexico City. Also we will be arriving at LAX at terminal 4 (Tom Bradley Terminal at the end) at 5pm this evening. I believe we will be arriving at Ocean Hills at 7pm. "Hope to see you there!"
We have safely arrived in San jose after our 5 hour bus ride from Puerto Viejo. We had a wonderful day, it was difficult saying goodbye to many of our friends but we managed. As for our current plan, its five thirty and at seven we are heading to dinner. Then we have to wake up at 3 forty five in the morning to head to the airport to make our flight. We are taking Mexicna 386 to Mexico City and Mexicana 902 from Mexico City to LAX. You can use flighttracker.com to track the flights. I have to make this a quick post cause I am using the hotels only computer. I will try to make a quick post at 4am tomorrow, but other than that, I will see you guys at 5pm when we land or roughly 7pm back at church. We will have students call on the drive home to give you most accurate time of when we will get back.
Well today was quite fun. We broke into the 3 teams and did totally different ministry projects. Dillon, Ryan, and Dayne went surfing with the long term missionaries here and some of the locals. Chris, Mike, Michelle, Shelby, Heather, Alex, Kennady, and myself went to Cahuita National Park with 5 of the missionary kids. We were told we would experience lots and lots of monkeys and some sloths. We saw 2 monkeys in the distance. The rest of the time was hiking. But the kids had a blast. The rest of the team went to Ronnie's house for the final time, there was lots of painting to be done. So the majority of the team painted more zinc panels (we did 50 of them yesterday) and they painted over the primer they had previously put on. Billy Morin and Bryan built a staircase, yes that is correct a staircase. Now to access their second floor they dont need to use a ladder on the outside of the house. Pretty amazing. I spoke to Barrett, he said all the piles we burned are completely gone, I was so dumbfounded I asked him to bring some photos of them.
Its not raining right now, but its pretty stormy weather. I wanted to take the last 2 students snorkeling that havent had a chance, but it was way to dangerous to go out so we walked all the way out there, then walked all the way back. But better safe than sorry. Some people went to the beach right outside the hotel, the lifegaurds had opened a 30 stretch of beach to play in the water, but after a short time they closed that too due to conditions and everyone had to come in. Although Chris swears he strong enough to out swim te current. Currently we are just hanging out at the hotel waiting to leave for the skatepark tonight. Its not a normal skate session, we have just been inviting some locals throughout the town to a pizza outreach and some skating. Tonight is our last night in Puerto Viejo, so it will be the last time we will be able to hang out with many of the friends we have made throughout the week.
After the skate park tonight we will venture into town for the last time and buy any final gifts for family and friends. I have been asking everyone if they have bought everything for their family, and most have bought their presents, but those who have not will be doing so tonight. But it is after the shopping that is my favorite. We will be doing what I call the "Hot Seat". We give each student an oppurtunity (if they are comfortable) to share what is going on in their life and how can we pray for them. Then after they share we immedietly pray for them, it can be a very healing night. So pleae keep that in prayer.
Tomorrow we have a half day at the hotel, then at lunch we will load the bus and head for San Jose. We will stay in San Jose Friday night and fly home super early on Saturday morning. I am still in need of another driver, currently I have the Warjeko's, Henderson's and April driving home. We meed at least 1 more driver, so if you can drive please send me an email.
See you all soon.
Today was fire day. When we cleared Barrett's property earlier in the week, we had made some giant piles of wood, and when I say Giant I mean 20 feet long, 10 feet wide, and 5 feet high of just wood. Today we had to burn all this wood. No one got burnt in case you were wondering. But we had these giant piles and had to start fires in them, its not nearly as easy as it sounds. It would take 5 people on each fire we would start, each pile would have 5 fires going on it in the end. Eventually the fires got large enough that they had white burning coals on the bottom and would burn anything above them. In fact the fire is still burning now, 9 hours after we started them. Barrett gave me the update that the piles are almost gone, by tomorrow morning they should be completely burned to the ground. Barrett said it would take him and someone else 2 weeks of now stop work to do what we did today. When we arrived it actually started raining, and if it rained it would have prevented us from starting any fires. But I asked Alex to pray to have God hold the Heavens back, and during her prayer it was raining, but the moment she said Amen, it completely stopped raining. And I mean not a drop fell until way after lunch and the fires were completely established, in fact the rain was completely welcomed.
Now when I say rain I mean rain. This was a very quick, short lasting tropical storm that was extremely windy and extremely wet. But during this tremendous storm God did something amazing. We always have our lunch on the back of Barrett's truck and today we had a little more akward schedule with lunch. First 15 people ate, then after they were done the last 5 ate. Well 3 of them were sitting on the tailgate and after eating they felt called to move from the tailgate so they did. Not less than 2 minutes later a 40 foot plus tree broke off of a larger tree and smashed the pack of the pickup. The photos are unbelievable. The good news is no one is hurt and everyone was far from the accident, but it took a while to chainsaw that tree into sections, and then drag them downhill to the burning piles. After it happened we immedietly prayed and thanked God for our safety.
Tomorrow looks like a fun day, we wanted to give the long term staff here a little break, so we will be babysitting their children and some of the team will be going to a National park with them to go see some monkeys. Other students will go surfing with the Men, (while 2 of the long term females will be getting spa treatments) and the rest of the team will be going to Ronnie's house to do some construction there. Please pray for a great day.
Our devotions are going wonderfully, we only have 3 people left to share. So thats it for tonight, until next time.
hello everyone! this is carissa and i am the blogger for the day! today has been a good day. we got up and made lunches by 7:00, i had the pleasure of sharing the day's devotion, and then after breakfast, we headed over the Ronnie and Tammy's house to paint and lay concrete. it was probably one of the hottest days we have had here so far and it made work more difficult and, i should not forget, sweaty...lots of sweat. during todays lunch break, we got to go on a sloth hunt. sad to say we did not find any sloths...and billy was quite mad. after we worked for another two hours after lunch, evan and all the girls got to leave early to go to the skate park. tonight is girls only skate park session and we get to talk, skate, play with all the girls who come. as of right now, we have Miley, one of the missionary's daughters, and a few young boys at the skate park. though there are no local girls for us to talk to, we are still being very entertained by Fabian, a little boy that we met last year, and his two friends. later the boys are going to meet with us and we are all going to go to dinner at one of the top 5 restaurants in Costa Rica, Loco Natural. after dinner we will once again be on our own in groups to explore the town. so up to this point, everyone has been healthy, we have not had any serious injuries. just a few cuts and scratches.
please keep praying for safety and health. and also for no more mosquito bites...we have had many. i have so far 54. so yes it is a tremendous number and at this point i am pretty much the leader in the number of mosquito bites. thank you so much for your prayers!
Well today went very well. Today was half a free day and half a work day. The first half we went to Manzanillo, the next major town south of us, and the last town before panama. We took some locals with us and were able to minister to them on the trip. The surfers went out to Monkey Point and surfed what Dillon referred to as the best surfing of his life. The rest of the group went snorkeling on an amazing reef and hung out at the beach. The afternoon was filled with working at the skate park, moving a large piles of rocks and repairing some damage to the ramps. This morning Matt Henderson shared his devotion and did amazing, between you and me, he has been one fo my favorites so far. Dillon and Shelby are on deck for tonight's messages.
Tomorrow is going to be a sweet day. We have had enough free time and tomorrow we work. One team is going to Ronnies house, the girls will paint non stop and the boys will be finishing pouring concrete and moving some stuff from the roof. The other team is going to Barretts house in the jungle and laying a concrete walkway so the family can get to the bathroom without walking through thick mud. The around two o'clock the girls will be traveling back from both spots and going to girl's skate night. Since there are no boys allowed they will be staying at their locations working though the day until dinner. Its going to be a long hard day, so please keep us in your prayers.
I am glad to say we are all healthy and doing well. This has actually been the healtiest I can ever remember being on one of these trips, so that is a huge answer to prayer. Half the team has some minor scrapes, but they wear them proudly. To be honest, my back has been sore and hurting so please pray for me (I see a back specialist the week we get back) Well thats is all i have time to post now, we are currently exploring town after dinner and i gots to catch the bus!!!
Until tomorrow my friends
Day 4 (Day 5)
I am having quite a few internet troubles, and it is because of this we had no update last night, I am so sorry about that. So let me see if I can update about two days. Yesterday we went to Barrett property and moved lots of things. And when i say lots of things Im talking giant trees. We had to arm ourselves with Machettes and cut branches and them haul these 20 foot trees up a hill to a giant pile that we will later burn. We saw so many amazing creatures that day, beautiful frogs (the non-poisonous one), locusts, and the elusive bullet ant. No one got hurt and we had so much fun. Barrett's property looks so different. The main reason we had to clear everything is a back hoe is coming to clear the large brush so they can build their house, but the company will not bring the equipment unless all brush is first cleared.
The 5 boys i mentioned last post did the surf camp with some locals and had a great time doing it. Afterwards they went to the skate park and did some hard work there. They had to clean the rain gutters that had never been emptied. The gutters were completely filled to the top with leaves and muck. They also tried to move some ramps that had slipt backwards, but that didnt go so well.
Today as I wirte this was our river rafting day. It was crazy we went down the Pacaure river. It is a 18 mile stretch of rapids that takes about 4 hours to tame. The guides were hilarious the entire time, kepping us laughing throughout the trip. No one fell out of the boat on any of the rapids, but everyone except two people (me being one of the two) fell out during the safe calm parts. It was during this time we had the "practice rescues" or just times to swim around. The tour company took some amazing photos and those will be online as soon as I can get an internet connection that can handle the bandwidth.
The evening back at the hotel was a wonderful chicken dinner that the hotel staff smoked all day long, then we had a sweet bonfire at the beach. Last year I was in charge of the fire, and to be honest, it was pathetic. I even had a tank of gasoline, and I couldnt light any of the brush, the gas would burn and then the fire would die quickly. This year I placed the fire making in much more capable hands: Bryan, Billy Holder, Dayne, and Ryan. To light the fire they used 1 match and no gasoline, and it was magnificient. The blaszing fire was 7 feet tall, every jumped over it (just kidding, hahaha). We just played at the beach and it was wonderful.
Now I do not think I have mentioned it yet, silly me, but I required of the students this year to write a devotional and share it. So we have 1 in the morning and 2 in the evening. So far everyone has done a wonderful job. To date the following people have shared their devotional: Chris, Matt, Mike, Bryan, Alex, Michelle, Kennady, and Alyssa. The devotionals have ranged from testimonies to exegitical sermons on a favorite verse. It has been so awesome. I had really wanted the students to share for two reasons, first they hear a lot of me, but secondly and most importantly, often times students feel alone, even if they have many friends. They think they are the only one struggling with something, only one to have experienced something, or only one to have gone through a tragedy. But then they can releate to a story someone shares and see firsthand that there are others that struggle through the same things. It has been really amazing so far.
Well it is very late now, and there is so much more to write, but I wont even be able to post this until tomorrow, so until then...
Update: i added some more rafting pics to the photo section
Day 2
Wow, we did so much work today. We actually did more work than the missionary thought we would be able to. Ronnie is one of the full time missionaries with Alternative Missions (who we partner with) and he, his wife, and their two children moved into their unfinished house last week. The house will eventually be two stories, but currently it is only 1 story with a flat concrete roof that will one day be the bottom of the second floor. The girls focused on painnting, the entire front room ad to get a white primer on the walls to eventually be painted. The boys had the tough work, they arrived and had to move a giant pile of dirt. Then then had to move a pile of rocks and spread them out over a large distance to create a driveway like experience. During this time Ronnie also wanted to fix his well. How the well works is a 20 foot hole in the ground that fills with ground water. Well lots of mud and small rocks got into the filter and the well was not filling up very well. Dillon volunteered to be lowered in and move all the dirt, it was pretty funny with him down that well. The boys finished moving all the rocks and topped the day off with pouring a giant concrete step to get to the front door. When April and I can just 3 months ago the house was so far away from where it is now. It was uninhabitable and a construction mess, but now it is quite impressive. Oh and we found a giant toad size of two fists probably. I took plenty of photos, but the internet isnt uploading them very well.
The evening was filled by a BBQ at the skate park. It was open skate night so many of the students skated with the locals, watched a surf video, made girly bracelets, and played checkers. It was a lot of fun and some quality realtional ministry.
Tomorrow looks like a lot of fun, we will be spliting into two teams, the surfers and the non surfers. Five people Billy Morin, Dillon, Ryan, Dayne, and Matt will be hanging out with locals and surfing. Im not going to say teaching them beacuse the locals will probably school them in the water. The rest of the team will be going to Barrett's new property. Barret (who is also married with two daughters) have just moved into temporary houseinig on their new property. They just finished clearing the area of trees and most brush, but there are twigs and branches everywhere. Our job is to move most of this brush to give access for a back hoe to come in and do some heavy work.
Awards:
I try every night to give out at least 2 awards, a spiritual character award and a funny award. So here they are:
Spiritual: The work of moving the dirt was extremely difficult and hard, literaly the boys shirts came home soaking wet. But Ryan Green worked the entire time, never giving up. By the mid day almost all the boys gave up, but not Ryan
Funny: I didnt award this for being funny, but more of being proud. At the Skate park, Michelle Sharp was brave enough to try skating and "dropping in" for the first time. She did a great job, she did scrape her knee a little, but went home happy.
Prayer
Please continue to keep us in your prayers. Everyone is healthy and resting well right now. I;m up with two leaders, but all students are tucked in their beds, while dreams of sugar plum faires dancing in their heads. Pray for safety tommorow, we are going in the thick of the jungle, you know where all the characters of the Jungle Book live. But it will be fine, Barrett says he has found no dangerous creatures at all.
Here we are at the end of day one. It was a wonderful day, we had a great time orientating ourselves with the city. 16 of us came last year and we have 4 new comers (this is my 7th time). So what we did was had the 4 newcomers do what is known as the Puerto Viejo challenge. They had to explore the city and speak to locals to learn the culture and history of the city. My favorite part was when Alex comes back to the group (all of them late because they had such wonderful conversations) saying, "I love Costa Rica, I love Puerto Viejo". The rest of the team split in half and walked the city, seeing the changes and remembering the good times from last year. Dinner was at Elena Brown's where the majority of us had rice and chicken.
Tomorrow will be our first day of ministry. We are all traveling to one of the local missionaries new house which is under construction. We will be working on the property doing whatever they need. April and I visited the house last April and it was under heavy construction, they moved in last week and to my knowledge it is still under heavy construction. Then in the evening, we will be working at the skate park. It is the youth skate night, so we will have a large outreach with free park BBQ, music, and of course skating. Good things will happen, I know it (cause i've been praying about it.
Please keep us in prayer for our sleep tonight. We traveled for 30 hours or so and many of us our beat. As I write this, everyone is in bed except for 1 room, who just informed me they are getting ice cream. So pray for a good night sleep, continued health. No one is feeling sick, which i am so excited about, but I want to keep it that way. Also pray for our two main activities tomorrow.
PS i only had the chance to put up a dozen photos or so. At the top of this page is a link for photos, click that and select Costa Rica 2008. I will keep adding more photos each day.
We have arrived safely in Puerto Viejo!!!! We just got into our rooms and getting ready to sit down for lunch. After lunch we have an orientation, then a scavenger hunt like game in the town to learn the area, and then close the night with some dinner and worship.
We have landed safely in Costa Rica. We are all doing wonderfully, thank you for your prayers.
flight Mexicana 901.
Here we come to another Frequency Milestone, 200 posts to the website. Wow were a pretty rocking youth ministry that gets things done!
We leave in such a short time, I am so excited. I hear there are birds in costa rica, I wonder if they look like these birds.
In exactly 1 week, we will be at the airport, getting in line, getting baggage x-rayed, and walking through metal detectors. Remind all your family and friends that I will be once again blogging every day of the trip, keeping everyone updated on how the trip is going, what we've been up to, etc. I've been in contact with Barrett and Amy this week, t
painless, so that was sweet. Thank you for all your prayers, I will
have a follow up appointment for my back.
Since Wavelength came so soon after Youth Sunday, I never had a proper chance to do a write up on it. The service went so well, everything was amazing. I posted the Drama we did to YouTube, so fell free to share it with anyone. If you want to watch the entire service, click here.
Thank you to everyone that participated, it was great taking over the main service. Also our SendOne fundraiser did amazing!! We raised more per person than ever in the past. Costa Rica here we come.
I have gotten so many complements about the service, everything from the drama made me cry, to who was that girl that played drums she was amazing? Everyone who participated, thank you so much, job well done!
PS my head is good