We are at Denny's!

We made it back to San Jose and are checked into the Best Western. Right now we are at the Denny's and looking forward to some good American food!

Tomorrow morning we will leave early for a zip-line tour of the rainforest canopy. Pray for Heidi...she's freaking out!

Day at the Beach

We had a great time today at a beautiful beach. We were able to take about 25 of our Costa Rican friends along with us. Everyone had a blast, although a few of us are very sunburned.

At youth group tonight we sang and had a message, and then spent about an hour playing games. It was fun to see that the kids here are the same as us, and have fun doing the same kinds of things. And they are just as competetive!

Tomorrow we will have church and one final meal with our friends before boarding our bus to San Jose. We probably won´t get a chance to update until we arrive at the hotel, so please pray for us as we travel.

Final Score

Costa Rica Guys-7; American Guys-3. Better than last time, but still a loss.

Tomorrow we will take a bus trip a few hours to spend the day at the beach with other teenagers from Rio Claro.

Final Day of VBS

Last night we attended the Thursday night service. Howie, Erin, Tori, Annie, and Dillon got an opportunity to share their testimonies. They all did great!

This morning we had a great last day of VBS, but it was sad to say goodbye to a lot of the kids. We´ve invited them all back to church for Sunday morning to sing and play one last time! Here you can see a picture of the Abejas (bees) on their last day.

The highlight of the day was definitely the bounce house and the trampoline. These things have the same affect on Costa Rican kids as they do American kids....hyperactivity. But they had a great time.

This afternoon it rained hard, so we took the opportunity to play some volleyball in the rain. Right now we´re resting up for our last night of English classes, and of course the guys´soccer rematch at 8:00...the anticipation has been building all week!

Thursday Update

It's amazing to think that we have only one day of VBS and English classes left. Last night's English went very well. As you can see by the picture, the most advanced ESL class is actually doing some pretty difficult stuff. It's a lot of fun. They loved playing "telephone" in English, but then they had us do it in Spanish, and they were much better than us!

VBS went well again, and after we stayed around at the church to play some more soccer. Tonight we have church service, so no English classes. Pray for me. I'll be teaching tonight and have never preached with a translator before. Could be interesting!

Thank you all so much for your prayers throughout the week. It has been awesome to know we are not here alone. Everyone is doing very well and can't wait to tell you about all of the things that just can't be put into pictures or words.

We Found Dillon's Mini-Me

Wednesday Update

We had another great English class last night. A couple of new students attended. It continues to amaze us how eager to learn these students are. They love to test out what they've learned and impress us. At the end of our time, no one has wanted to stop because we've been having so much fun.
VBS went great again today. Here you can see Doug with some of his boys. He is quite popular with them because of a trick he does pretending to break his nose (Have him show you sometime!) After our skit, which talked about Jesus being our best friend, Pastor Rogelio gave an invitation to the kids to ask Jesus into their hearts and for Him to become their best friend. It was awesome. Kids all over the room raised their hand and prayed out loud as they repeated a prayer after Rogelio. He is very excited to be able to follow up on all the children.
One of the other great parts of the VBS is the singing. Annie and Andrew have been doing a great job teaching and leading songs. All the kids (and us!) have the songs stuck in our heads 24-7, but the kids love it and want to sing over and over!