a quick update on the past few days

Hello everyone! We are having such a great and fantabulous fun time down here! Sharing the gospel and worshipping God is something that should be rejoiced. We have had to journal our thoughts, and most of us have journaled our days as well. So, here are some quick notes. =)

(something we forgot to mention about on Friday... when we arrived, it was downpouring. (raining buckets) & when we got dropped off at the church our bus got stuck in the mud, we thought we were going to have to push it out, and the window was busted as well. It was definitely some opposition from Satan that didnt go very far. By Gods grace.)

Saturday- We went to the park. The walk there was kind of a tutorial of the place. We got to view many houses, and see beautiful flowers, and all the people were very friendly. When we arrived at the park, many children came and began to play with the things we had brought, such as: soccer balls, footballs, tennis balls, a frisbee... etc. We played there for about 1 1/2 hours, we were just drawing attention to the church... and several children followed us back to the church.

Later that night we played for the church. The rest of us, who werent playing, had to dance. Although we may have looked funny, it was fun and the people here enjoyed it. Its an awesome way to praise God, and many of us want to bring it to our church. Also, Pastor Bob got to preach to the people here as well. He talked about Lewis & Clark, and blazing a trail. They took a step of faith... he related it to being faithful to God, and stepping out and sharing with everyone we come into contact with.

Sunday- To start the day off we all gathered together, to pray. Pastor Bob had us do some devotionals, looking at Pauls first missionary journey and how it relates to us. We decided it was important for us to come together as a group, and stick together as a group. That way, we can become a closer knit family.

Breakfast consisted of: beans, rice, tortillas & papya (YUM!)

We had sunday school in the park. We walked through town. & By the time we hit the park we had about 50 people. The sunday school consisted of only little children. Older ones played soccer and american football... and kickball. All the boys, Brian, Stephen, Bryce, Jeremy, Alex & Paul played with the kids in football and soccer etc. The girls: Jenna, Lindsey, Kalynn, Sonia, Brooklyn, Fish, Abby, they worked at the church, doing bracelets and necklaces. The children loved it and so did the adults. We shared tracks, we call them God Stuff booklets. A couple of specific people are: Jessica, Alex, Valerie & Jenna. There may have been several more, but these are the few that we know specifically. Some started teaching guitar as well: Valerie, Lizzy, Jessica & Alex. One young man specifically: Andrei began teaching the Pastor of the church, after Jessica taught him. Its amazing the chain of events that can be started, no?

Later on this evening, we watched the movie Fireproof (most of you have seen it) in spanish. The gospel message was spoken through it. (and they laughed at all of the funny parts, many ooohs and ahhhs.) Directly after the movie, our drama team (Brian, Lizzy, Jessica & Fish) did Ragman. There was an altar call by Tony (our bus driver and friend)... 7 people were saved!

Thats it for now. Keep praying!

Thanks everyone for praying. We have arrived in Cariari Costa Rica. The flight went well just long. The church greeted us with singing to our Lord and even dancing I know look out some might have a problem with that but it shows their love for Jesus in such a tangable way!! They are so alive as they worship something I hope catches on with us and we can bring home to you.

We fell into bed about 10 last night and it only took a few times of telling Stephanie to be quite to before we were all asleep. Boys were much easier.

Today they are working at the local church we were at last night putiing up a short term shelter for the rain. to reallymake it so more people can come and hear the message. and for the bigger team next week that will be here. A team (steves dream team) is putting up a bobwire fence. Then soccer later with the locals that should be a slaughter. I know Alex, Sonja and I think Abby shared with a boy on the plane and gave his mother a trac so they were sharing before we landed.

Pray for health and safety as we serve this community. Pray for us leaders and for the spiritaul growth of our teens, pray for the local church here that God would bless their efforts of minisrting to us as we came to minister to them a little of Gods humor I think for us to think we are going to minister and yet they are ministering to us.

thats all for now praising God that everyone is safe and that He allowed us this oppurtunity

already there are trials

I don't know how many of you have been in a foreign place, outside of our great country of old. Outside the great walls that our military has built to protect us. Outside the greatness of protection & the ability to walk the streets without having to worry about being blown up in .237 seconds. This is the greatest of all things, freedom. How many people in the world have this freedom? Only the few. We are some of the more fortunate. Makes a big difference when you travel to some place unlike our own. However, there is one thing that can give us all a different kind of freedom. A freedom so unlike what you're capable to receive through good deeds & hard work. This kind of freedom is exactly what we are trying to bring to the people of Cariari, Costa Rica. Jesus Christ.

We really don't know what to expect when we travel down to Cariari, Costa Rica. We know that we will be helping missionaries from our church, in building a church & working with young adults & teens & children younger than us. It's exciting, to know that we will be working with other people in sharing the gospel. It's exciting to know that God gave us this opportunity.

There is a lot of work that we have put into this missions trip. We have read 49 chapters of the Bible, 25 hours of community service [or more.], learned how to use a God Stuff Booklet [I'll explain later], had to write out outlines for 7 lessons & elaborate on 1 of those, read a book called Serving With Eyes Wide Open & write a report. We also have gone to many meetings, & have done fundraisers & have sent out support letters, to gain support for our trip. It sounds like a lot of work, & it is/was. But the outcome, the result? It will be so rewarding in the end. God is going to use us in powerful ways, I'm sure far greater, than what we can see or comprehend.

Although this already sounds great, enlightening, thrilling... etc. We are already facing difficulty. Pastor Dan, our youth pastor, the leader of this trip, that brings us such joy & fun, is recovering from a recent heart attack that he encountered in Adventureland. We are so thankful that God has not called Dan home. However, the details of his heart attack etc are yet to be known for sure. With just hearsay to go on, I will not give any false facts. Updates on Dan will be followed up on, once we learn exactly what has happened, & what will happen. The one thing we all know, is that his recovery does not allow him to drive for 2 weeks. This also means, flying is out of the picture. Which means, he is not allowed to go on the trip.

I do not know what God is going to do through this, how He is going to use Dan's condition to glorify Him. I do know, that there is a reason for this. & it will eventually show in the big picture. But for now, I'm asking all of us to pray for Dan & that he will recovery quickly & with ease. Heart attacks are not something you mess with, & we pray that he will have no more. We love you Dan.

in Christ's loving name.