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!

Tuesday VBS

Day two went great! We had a ton of kids once again, and many new faces. Austin spent the morning playing Goliath and having all the little ¨David´s¨throw tennis balls at him. Kim made friends with little Steven, who is just 1 year old and wanted to be held constantly. The highlight of the day for me was the kids singing ¨Feliz Cumpleanos¨ to me. Even though I didn´t want it at first, it´s actually very cool to have close to 100 Costa Rican kids sing to you at the top of their lungs.
It´s been another great morning. Please continue praying for us. The team is doing very well and working well together and having a lot of fun. Pray that we´ll be able to keep it up, stay healthy and see some of our new friendships really blossom.

First Night of English Classes

It rained hard this afternoon, but cleared up just before our English classes. The sky was awesome after the rain.

We had 25 students in our classes, which made for perfect group sizes. About 6 or 7 of the students had either never come to church or had not been in a long time. All of our team members did a great job and were very creative when some students were more advanced than we thought. The students were all very eager to learn. It was a great start.

VBS Day One

Last night we attended the evening service. Adam, Austin, Verity, Kim and I got a chance to share our testimonies. Once again, everyone did a great job.

This morning was day one of VBS. About 80 kids under 12 showed up, and there were a number of older students around to help. Everything went great. Kim, Josh, Adam, Heidi and Tori did a great job with the opening bug skit (our theme is Bug Safari). All the kids were wonderful and really seemed to enjoy the activities and stories. I'm sure we'll have even more kids tomorrow!

After lunch, we played volleyball with some of the youth. (This is one game we can all beat them at!) It got very hot, so us wimpy Americans came back to the hotel while the Costa Ricans kept playing.

Tonight at 6 we have our first English class. Pray for a good turnout and for relationships to be formed between some of the church members and non-church members.

Thank you for all your prayers and encouragement. It helps a lot!

ps-Be sure to check out the Mexico team blog and keep them in your prayers, too! The link is on the right-->

Sunday-Church and Invitations

This morning we had another great breakfast. A typical Costa Rican breakfast is pinto (rice and beans), huevos (eggs) and sometime jamon (ham) and tortillas. It's good stuff. During breakfast we got a surprise: Annie and Erin's suitcases had arrived. We really weren't sure we would ever see them again. After breakfast we headed to church, where we sang and listened to Rogelio's sermon on Psalm 73. Fortunately, he gave a quick summary in English. Then Heidi, Andrew, Kylie, Danae, Josh, and Doug shared their testimony with the church. They all did a great job and it was very encouraging. (The rest of them don't know it yet, but their turn is coming!)

After lunch at Chicken Bros., we went back to church and broke up into groups to pass out invitations to our VBS and English classes. We begin tomorrow morning at 10. Pray for a great turnout and good communication. We're doing the whole thing in Spanish.

Luggage is Here!

Annie and Erin's suitcases arrived just before church this morning!

Football (soccer) with New Friends

After an awesome dinner prepared by Pastor Rogelio's wife, Johana, we headed to a soccer field to play against some of the youth from the church. The score (American guys-1; Costa Rican guys 6; American girls-5; Costa Rican girls-0) Afterward we headed to the ice cream shop with our new friends.

Luggage Update

13 of our missing 15 bags were just delivered....Doug Bentley's was the very last one off the van. Everyone is ectastic...except for Annie and Erin.(But they're having a great attitude!)

Mr. and Mrs. Dull, you must be so proud!

Don't worry, he was just ordering a water.

Saturday Morning

We spent the morning walking through Rio Claro and stopping a few times to pray for different issues going on around town. In the second pic, we are stopped in one neighborhood where drugs and nightclubs have been on the rise the past few years and have had a negative impact on the community.

Luggage Update

Just got word that 13 of our 15 bags have landed in San Jose, Costa Rica. No word on which ones or where the other 2 are. Pray that one of the 13 is Doug Bentley's. He has diabetes supplies he will need in the next few days.

Better Picture of our Hotel

We Made It!

After a super long drive we finally made it to the Cabinas Perez which will be our home for the next 9 nights. We got to drive along an incredible stretch of beach and even took some time to get out and play in the water. And if you´ve ever been on the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland, you know what some of the bridges we drove across looked like. We had Chinese food for dinner ordered off of a Spanish menu!

17 People, 7 Suitcases

We just left the airport with seventeen people and only 7 suitcases. That's right...15 suitcases are still in LAX. We've been told we should get them tomorrow. Let's pray!!!

We've Arrived

We just got off the plane. Time for a bathroom break. We only had 5 minutes in Panama. Now we're on to customs, luggage, and a long bus ride to Rio Claro. Everyone is doing great!

Waiting at the Airport

We are here at LAX waiting to fly out to Panama at 2:12am. We are about the only ones here!

Surprise Trip to Medieval Times

We took a surprise trip to Medieval Times! I feel a little guilty about lying to the team so many times about why we had to leave so early for a 2:12 am flight, but I think they forgive me because we had a great time!

Jeff's a Dork

So we got this nifty new camera to be able to take great pics and videos while we are gone. We even got this nifty extra battery so we would never miss a moment of action. I even charged it up last night. The only problem is that I left it in my office when we left.

So, after a state wide search for a spare charger (Thank you Barb and Travis!), we finally found what we needed after a wildgoose chase in Visalia.
Now we're good to go!