March 9th, Day 2 Costa Rica

We had our group devotion before breakfast this morning. Matt and I shared a little bit of what had been happening in our spirtual life after attending a conference with our church the weekend prior to leaving for Costa Rica. The breakfast was wonderful- Pancakes, fesh pineapple, cantaloupe, tangerines, bread and huevos rancheros (that had homemade salsa!). After breakfast we headed to Juan Pablo to help with a childrens church service which had just been started by the youth group from the church in Aurora. In Costa Rica, you are in youth group until you are 30 or married which kind of blows me away, but at the same time I think is a great idea! On the way there we passed by the very large, above ground graveyard. When they run out of room for more people, they discard the ones who have been there the longest. Very interesting way of dealing with the dead. I think people here hold onto the physical bodies of loved ones too much anyways, so this was actually comforting to me to know that people could let go of the physical body of their loved one. If they are going to be with Christ anyway, what does the body they left behind have to offer?


Once we arrived in the barrio, we began to call the children out of the homes to come to the church service. We walked up and down different rows of houses calling out, "Vengan niños! Vengan!" which is "come, children, come." (Carolina, Jen, Joel if you are reading this and I misspelled that will you let me know?)


During the chirch service there were definately some bonds being made.

Kimberly, Krista, Carolina, Me and Wuainer after the service.

I think that Kimberly and Krista look like they could be sisters, and Wuainer looks like Noah's older brother!
Some children of Juan Pablo


When we made it back to the team house, we had lasagna, salad, bread, rice &beans, and some delicious chocolate chip cookies. After we devoured our lunch, we broke up into groups to do some lesson planning for classes for the week. I was on the 6th grade team and Matt was on the first grade team. The lessons that we came up with were very similar, and Matt and I both came up with the visual, which was virtually the same thing!

This was the view off of the balcony at the team house!

After we finished planning we headed to church at Mount Sinai. We worshipped with them and the preacher's wife translated the sermon for us. They had an interpretive dance group that even included 3 guys...The men seemed to have such freedom in the way that they expressed themselves in worship there. It was amazing to see the joy and genuine love of the Lord that the people of this church had.
Some of the beautiful girls who go to Mount Sinai

After Church, we headed to MegaSuper and Matt and I bought some Lizano, Costa Rican Cheetoh type things, and chocolate-dipped mint ice cream on a stick. It was delicious.

When we made it back to the team house dinner was ready. We ate chicken and yellow rice, black beans, salad, bread and cake that had an orange gelatin-like frosting. It was interesting to say the least. Matt really enjoyed it.