Every morning starts the same here in Costa Rica. We arrive to the centro start our day with the men in devotions, which we’ve all been sharing the opportunity to lead, and continue our paint project. We are so close to finishing our painting project on one of the buildings. We plan to finish this week with the help of the cadets. We’ve kept true to our weekly scheduled filled with Junior Home League, Prayer Meeting & Bible Study, Praise Team Practice, Dance, and Youth Night with everyone. We did add English/Spanish Club to our daily schedule taught by Shannon.
This past week has been filled with excitement as we celebrated two birthdays here in Costa Rica. On Friday one of the kids from the corps turned eleven. We were so excited to find out that his birthday was coming so we partnered with the officers and his mother to throw a surprise birthday party for him when he got out of school. There was cake, games, a piñata, and even egg throwing as it’s a tradition here. The following Saturday was the Lt. Xiomara of Cuerpo Central’s birthday. We celebrated her birthday with some of the corps members at an amusement park, however shortly after our arrival the power went out and the majority of the park was left at a standstill. This made one of the team member very happy as he was not a fan of amusement parks in any country (Joshua). The lack of power didn’t damper the fun, we celebrated with cake and occupied the children’s area which remained with power.
Sunday the cadets came to worship with us at the corps again. Prior to Sunday School Chris and Joshua went out with the Cadets in the neighborhood to rally kids and bring them back to the church. It was an adventure as the outreach opportunity lead them up a mountainside to a family’s home through the mud in their uniforms, #slippingforJesus. They successfully returned with six young people.
A big portion of our time here is spent in fellowship with the men in Centro Modelo (ARC). This Sunday we left the center sad as three of our companions left the program. From the start of our summer we knew that this was a possibility, however when it came face to face with us it was still a hard reality to say goodbye. They remain in our prayers as we continue our ministry and fellowship here.
Fourth of July was a riot! Knowing that we wouldn’t be at home to celebrate our independence, everyone went out of their way for us. For merienda (break) they made us a cake that said, “Feliz 4th July”, and for lunch they gave us hamburgers and fries, along with rice. Dinner was hot dogs, more fries, and watermelon. Throughout the day they would play the Star Spangled banner to make us feel at home, and showed us videos of fireworks. At night we ended the day Facetiming with our friends from the CAST Team and joined in on their Fourth of July Celebration. It was a nice end to our holiday.
We love it here and our excited for the remainder of our summer in Costa Rica.
Prayers are appreciated for the men that left the program this past week and endurance to continue all that we have planned for the rest of our summer.
