Tag: La Roca

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Costa Rica Update Day Six

First of all, I found out I can share my public mobile uploads folder from Facebook so you can see a few of the photos I have uploaded via my phone, I still cannot upload via my ipad (lame).

Yesterday, Sunday, was our “Celebrate Day” here in Costa Rica. All throughout the week there was a lot of discussion about what we should do on our free day. We originally talked about going white water rafting and zip lining, but the prices increased significantly since the first time the group did that two years ago.
We then talked about going to the beach, which would have been a lot cheaper, but later in the week, it started calling for rain most of the day (P.S. It rains a lot in Costa Rica, especially during this time of the year), so we decided to tour San Jose, Heredia and go to the mall and the souvenir shop.

It looked like it was going to be a beautiful day, but as we were preparing to leave the museum, it started getting cloudy and dark like it was going to downpour on us; and it did, for the rest of the night up until around 10 p.m.

We went to the mall to eat lunch. It was a pleasant surprise to find some places we recognized like Wendy’s, KFC, McDonald’s, and the like. We ate at Wendy’s which above all things served Coke Zero, as did every other place that served Coke products. It is good to see that Costa Rica is at least drinking God’s favorite drink.

Yesterday was challenging as my soreness and exhaustion set in from Saturday’s soccer tournament. I am an old man at 30 years old and I used a lot of muscles that I have not used since my junior year in high school, so needless to say mobility was a slight issue throughout the day 🙂

Today is our last day in Costa Rica to do ministry. We will go to a place called “Moms,” which to my understanding, helps and cares for young, pregnant teens. We will also go back to La Roca for our last visit to hangout with the students and to say our goodbyes.

Please pray for those who we have had the opportunity to serve and invest in that God would continue to do a work in their life, as well, pray for Edwin and his family as they continue to follow Jesus in their ministry to this community through La Roca. They definitely need your prayers. I cannot wait for New Passion to invest in what God is doing through La Roca.

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Costa Rica Update Day Five

I did not have the opportunity to post an update from yesterday, so here it is:

We went to La Roca Saturday morning after breakfast. We played with the kids, helped them do crafts and hung out with the local kids/teens who skateboard. One of our projects this week was to help build La Roca a skateboard ramp and a grinding box, so they could better connect with this growing population of teenagers.

The skateboarders were phenomenal. You have to consider that they don’t have the nice equipment that is made available to our kids in the U.S., and yet they still work hard to develop their skills. I cannot upload pictures from my ipad, but I posted a few on Facebook of two of the best skaters.

After lunch we rented out an indoor soccer (fútbol) field so the kids and teenagers could play. We had four teams and my team won our first game 6-1 and then faced Shane’s team and lost 3-2, however, I must note, he had the two best players of all the younng boys. Shane and I then partnered up with some of the older Costa Rican guys and our team won that game 12-11. Shane scored his first soccer goal ever, I was just happy that I could somewhat hang with these guys as they are phenomenal (I haven’t played in at least 13 years).

In-between the games we had the opportunity to share the gospel with the students. Paige Smith-Robinson shared her story and did an outstanding job! I know a lot of students, who at twelve years old, would not stand in front of their peers and tell such a difficult story, but she did and she pointed the young people to Jesus. I shared after Paige and gave the students an opportunity to place their faith in Jesus.

I don’t know why I did it, because I don’t even do this at New Passion (a lot – very rarely), but I asked the students if they wanted to pray and place their faith in Jesus for salvation. One guy raised his hand quickly and several others followed (of course I’m not sure if they did this because they were genuine or if they saw someone else do it). Afterward on the walk back to La Roca, Drew Hall and I had the opportunity to talk to this guy and ask him if he received Jesus for salvation. He responded yes. We were able to ask him if he had a Bible and if he went to church. He once again responded to our questions. We were amazed he could understand our broken spanish, but we were able to communicate with him. We later asked a translator to repeat with us just so we could make sure, and he responded the same.

The most difficult part about this whole situation is that this young man was totally tuned in. He has been all week, but you could tell yesterday that he was hungry to be with us. My prayer is that he will continue seeking Jesus and that the leaders at La Roca can connect with him and continue to help him grow. He is a great young man and I know God can do amazing things through him. He is one of the leaders in the community, all of the younger guys look up to him.

Unfortunately, I cannot upload pictures right now from my ipad, but I will when I return home. If we are friends on Facebook, I’ve been able to upload some there from my phone.

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Costa Rica Update Four Days In

The internet has been so intermittent here in Costa Rica it has been hard to post any updates. I found out yesterday that if I get up really early before the rest of the group, I have a little bit of extra time on the internet before it crashes.

I have always loved being with people from Latin America. As I have shared before, I used to love going with my dad on trips to south Georgia to the migrant camps to share the gospel with migrants when I was around 12 years old. I said at that time that I would love to do missions work in Mexico, and so it is awesome being here in Costa Rica this week.

So far we have been at La Roca the entire week. Our schedule has been pretty much shot due to rain, but everyone has been flexible and we have enjoyed spending time with the local children and teens that La Roca serves. One of our projects was to build a ramp (with no blue prints) for the boys, as many of them are starting to gain interest in skateboarding. When we started the project we were given a handsaw, a half working drill, and a tool box full of tools that were not meant for carpentry work. The team bought them the appropriate tools, so our work finally got completed on the ramp. Our next project (yesterday), was to build them a box to jump off onto with their boards and to grind on. We thought it would be easy now that we have the tools. We were wrong again. This time the lumber company delivered their top quality warped wood, so our short project expanded into a days work.

Yesterday, we also cooked a bunch of hotdogs and took plates throughout the community and gave away free hotdogs and chips to families. It was pouring rain, but it was a lot of fun.

We have laughed so much on this trip. I love being with these people. Three different churches are here and we get along as Jesus intended as one church. If laughter is like a medicine, it’s no wonder we are all staying healthy, except a few people whose stomaches are having a hard time 🙂

It’s amazing to see the differences in cultures compared to the U.S.A. Many of our youth (mine included) are spoiled, many of these kids simply enjoy being picked up and “Quantas” (Spun around in circles) for fun. I love seeing their smiles and the joy that it brings them for a group of Americans, who they can barely understand, comes to them to share the love of Jesus.

I’ll update some more later. Continue to pray for us, for the people here in Costa Rica, and for the La Roca Ministry, that God would continue to receive glory from it all.