Day 3 and 4

Day 3

Day 3 was Sunday and we had a "day of rest." Actually, it was a cultural day. We went to the Wright's church with them. Here is a short video clip during one of the worship songs.

The pastor was very enthusiastic and Steve thought that the pastor was talking about dead fish, but actually Steve Wright corrected him later. He actually was talking about sin (pecados not pescados).

Later, we went to lunch at a local Costa Rican (tico) restaurant. Here are Ryan and Kendra enjoying their lunch. We all had family style dishes consisting of grilled chicken, pork, beef with corn tortillas, avocados, and fried plantane bananas. Yummy!

After lunch, we stopped by the Britt coffee plantation company store to load up on coffee and candies at great prices except I got 1 less bag of candy that I paid for. Then we stopped by the campus to do some devos (devotions).

At 5pm, we all walked down the hill and hopped on a city bus to go the Wright's for dinner. After an all American meal that Paul was craving, Ivan and Xinia shared with us about their ministry. They are Ticos who are currently missionaries ministering to locals, but their hearts are to serve in Africa and eventually Chile. It's amazing to listen to these missionaries stories and how they are willing to drop everything and go where God is calling them. Ivan told us that if we remember one thing about ticos, we should remember the phrase "pura vida" - pure life. Later around 9:45pm, we hopped on the bus to go back to the campus guided by Sergio who is another missionary living at the campus supported by Equipos Internacionales - Costa Rica branch of ITEAMS. After we got dropped off, we walked back up the hill to the campus to get some rest for another day of work.

Day 4

Steve Wright said that we would be "hitting it hard" today - and we did. Ryan and Kendra finished painting the office room upstairs. Kevin and Brandon continued to work on "stoning" te fireplace. Paul and Steven helped hang 3 doors. Megan, Kirk, and Ki worked on more painting. Also, in the afternoon, Megan, Ki, Paul and Steve tried to finish up grouting the outside wall stone and Ryan and Kendra started helping sand and cut baseboard.

Even though, we are working hard, we always take a break before lunch to work on devos. It's important so that we stay focused on God's work and not our own. Here are some of us in our devotional time.

During lunch, Woody joined us since he was back from a trip. It was cool to hear him pray for lunch in Spanish. After 10 years in Costa Rica and 30 years in Latin America, you learn to do that pretty well. After a long hard day, Steve surprised Kendra with a birthday cake since it was her birthday today. That was a nice surprise.

After dinner, Ernesto Alfaro shared his testimony and a little about his ministry with the youth. His story was intreaging and the work that he has going on to minister to the youth was mind blowing. His main focus right now is growing the youth group called Cultura Vertical, which numbers around 80 kids total with 45-60 kids showing up on a regular basis. He is also working on dicipling individual youths, teaching seminars, and working on all the graphic designs for the youth ministry. He shared about several youth who he and his wife had discipled and now they are discipling others. It was great to see and hear that the building we are working on will enable the local missionary work to reach out further by bringing in and training more local missionaries. They are planning a youth retreat in early April and they are praying that at least 150 local youth show up as well as North American youths. There will be some Lakeside youth attending as well. Please pray for the following:

1. For a good turnout for the youth retreat in April.
2. For Pisaro who Ernesto is currently trying to minister to right now. Pisaro is a 17 year old and does not see what purpose he has and why God would want anything to do with him.

-Ki