| BLOG: Costa Rica Missions |
Costa Rica Time |
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SATURDAY, JUNE 6, 2009 | |
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Day 1... Getting There!! | |
Watch this video to follow our mission trip path as we fly from Tampa to Atlanta and then on to San Jose, Costa Rica where we take a 4 hrs bus ride to Guayabo, CR!
 TRAVEL UPDATES:
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SUNDAY, JUNE 7, 2009 |
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Day 2... Tico Church & Outreach Invitations |
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Hola Skycrest and GTD family and friends! It's been a full day here at the ranch and Doug and I (Laurie) are exited to have arrived this evening to join the Skycrest Mission Team. For many, today was packed of many "firsts" for team members. From hearts being moved by attending a local church service and worshipping God in another language and culture, walking streets to invite locals to our community outreach day on Wednesday, seeing monkeys in the wild, swimming and jumping into a waterfall, learning some Salsa, praying openly with a group of people, to eating homemade Costa Rican food and being entertained by a local musician. Already, each of us are making life time memories as we allow God to work in our hearts and show us what he has for us to learn.
One of the highlights of the day today was walking the property as a team and praying together for the needs, development and God's will for the future of the project. It's an incredible experience to walk the property and see God's hands upon this beautiful creation. It really is a work of art! Tomorrow is a work day for the team that will start at 6 a.m.! It's an early day, but evening sets in around 5:30ish and we want to get as much done as possible.
Thank you everyone for your thoughts and prayers. Tonight, live music was provided for us by our host missionary who is a local musician here. He is behind the keyboard with his wife and daughter (Lily, Juan and Aryselle) Lily and Aryselle along with Juan's mother will be doing much of the cooking for us this week. Also in this picture...Shaggy (with dog, Edta) and Deigo who is the first guy on the left in the front row. They are our translators for the week. |
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MONDAY, JUNE 8, 2009 |
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Day 3... Corral Construction Part 1 |
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Our day started at 6 a.m. with personal devotions as we read and prayed through Phil 4:4-13. The beautiful thing about having a team is being able to share with one another what God is teaching each of us through his word, and by sharing we are able to sharpen one another as God calls us to do.
It's about 1:00 p.m. and Day 3 is underway as we get down and dirty with a variety of projects. Just a quick little update... We are painting a bathroom, preparing for Wednesdays outreach day, constructing a small bridge and new pathway leading from the house to the corral and putting up a tabletop bar area for teams to eat at. it's so exciting to see progress. Spirits are high, attitudes are positive and everyone is working together great! More updates and pictures to come soon! We wrapped up the day about an hour ago with a time of sharing, praise and worship (led by Matt and Shay) and encouragement from Doug as to God's purpose and plan for us in serving. The message was so appropriate as we really are learning to be His hands and feet in this little part of the world. We completed most of the projects we started and got much more done than expected, all the while enjoying the beauty of Costa Rica. We've been taking turns sleeping in the "cocoon" hammocks because they are so comfortable that everyone wants to give them a shot; after a long, tiring yet fulfilling day's work, the idea of gently swaying in the night time breeze is pretty appealing to almost everyone. Well, that's it for now! We need to get some sleep before getting started bright and early with devos at 6am. We have another work day ahead that will end with a well-deserved visit to Thermal Mania (the local hot springs).  Erika shares the "VISION" for the property with the team.
 One of the bathrooms had a wall that needed to be demolished to make a shower wider, here are some of our volunteers. It was a three day process. Way to go!
 Dan worked hard all day. I think he was relieved to have some rain to cool him off.
 Taylor, Stephanie and Canyon helped tackle some painting of the new bathroom.
 Carrie, Mick, Morgan and Kendall prep for the community outreach.
 Paul and Rick were a HUGE blessing to this team. Their skills and hard work ethics were priceless.
 Matt using the saw.
 This picture was taken in the corral. It's where we ate, slept, worked and played. |
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TUESDAY, JUNE 9, 2009 |
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Day 4... Corral Construction Part 2 ... AND Thermal Mania!!! |
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Hola! This is Mick and Kendal with the daily blog coming live from Costa Rica! For some, today started with an early wake up call (at 4:30 am) from a local friend...a bat! It was found in Kendal's bed (inside the netting) and was flying around. After it was removed, the day went on as planned and began with 6:00 am devotions, which were taken from Genesis chapter 1. The chapter taught us how creative God is and how much he loves us to give us the magnificent surrounding in which we live. After devos, we had a yummy breakfast of pancakes and fresh fruit!!!!! :)
After breakfast, we all worked on painting the outside wall, and finished painting the bathroom. Mick and Rick then set off on the adventure of building (from scratch) the bar. The bar stretches along the inside 'wall' which has an amazing veiw of the surronding nature. During this time, Stepphanie, Shay, and Taylor all helped Paul finish the opening between the bathroom and the girl's room. Paul and Laurie finished the toungue-and-groove which runs along the top of the bedrooms and bathrooms. Nate and Matt were busy knocking down the rest of the wall in the bathroom, while Daniel created a rock-border around the driveway. (In the middle of this, we had a lunch consisting of chicken and rice and purple potato salad!!) At 2:30, we packed up our paint brushes and construction gear, and headed off to Thermal Mania, were we had an AMAZING time! It had a beautiful back drop of the volcano, and of all the flora we could imagine! We all had a fun time jumping off cliffs and sliding down the slide. It was so relaxing and was a major treat after another hard day's work! We also had fun hanging out at the swin-up soda bar where we enjoyed our first Cokes since leaving the US. We also enjoyed our first HOT showers at the springs! Concluding our little outing, we went to the Thermal Mania restaurant where we had amazing food...which included french fries!!! We got back at the corral at about 8:00, where we shared the days highlights, had our evening devos, and had an "encourging session". Doug did the devotions, where he talked about how important it is to encourage those around us. Following devos, he had the encouraging session, where we all turned to the person on the right of us to say some encouraging words, and character traits that we admire and find helpful through out the day. We then headed off to bed!! (Finally!!!) The blog is now up to date, and we are about to go off to bed. Check back in tomorrow to hear about our zip-lining adventure and our outreach carnival. P.S. Sorry there are no updated photos. We are having difficulties with the computer. All the photos will be posted on the GTD website when the team gets home. We will continue to try and fix the problem.   |
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WEDNESDAY, JUNE 10, 2009 |
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Day 5... Canopy Tour ... AND Outreach Night!!! |
 Canopy Tour - Everyone had a blast including Canyon who said she wasn't going to go!!! Canyone we are so proud of you for working through your fear! She road the zip line with one of the guides and the last two alone. Her final comment was, "I wish I would have done them ALL on my own."
 Kim on the zip line.
 The view and the last line down.
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THURSDAY, JUNE 11, 2009 |
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Day 6... Corral Construction Part 3 |
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FRIDAY, JUNE 12, 2009 |
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Day 7... Beach Day! |
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It's been a couple days since our last post due to a problem with the internet at the ranch. It's been down now since Wednesday. Doug and I (Laurie) returned home toight. I spoke with Erika about an hour ago and the team had an amazing day. This morning they drove to Playa Flamingo where they saw the biggest waves some of them have ever seen. Erika said Rick could not stop laughing at just how amazing they were! The team called it an early day at the beach around 1 due to rain moving in the area and hit some local shops. On the way home they stopped off to see a waterfall and hang out. From there it was back to the ranch for a final dinner of fish and french fries! (We ate so well this week thanks to the local missionaries who cooked the most amazing meals for us. If you can imagine, they were in the kitchen from 5 a.m. to almost 9 p.m. each and every day!!!) Tonight the team will be wrapping up their time together with a final time of sharing and debriefing. Then they are closing the night off with a bon-fire and roasted marshmallows. I will be posting pictures tomorrow to share with you. It's been an incredible week for all of us! I know everyone is looking forward to sharing with you their experiences and stories. I am so proud of this team for the way they worked together on all the projects and how willing they were to allow God to use them and work inside their hearts this week. |
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SATURDAY, JUNE 13, 2009 |
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Day 8... Heading Home... |
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The Skycrest Baptist Mission Team departed the GTD Missions Base by bus at 5.30am (CR Time) and successfully made it to the San Jose (SJO) airport at 9.30am. They stopped along the way for breakfast and souvenirs. The team is currently awaiting their flight to the US. [POSTED AT 12.30PM - US TIME]
According to delta.com flight 0416 departed SJO at 12.51pm (CR Time) and is on its way to Atlanta(ATL). The estimated time of arrival at ATL is 7.00pm (US Time)
According to delta.com flight 0416 landed at ATL airport at 6.52pm!! Their next flight to Tampa (#1975) departs at 8.50pm.
THE FLIGHT TO TAMPA WAS COMPLETED AT 10.11PM!! WELCOME HOME TEAM... JOB WELL DONE =)... CAN'T WAIT TILL NEXT YEAR!!!!!
A FINAL NOTE: Written by Paul Williamson (Group Leader of Skycrest Baptist Church)
Thank you Paul for allowing us to share this. Costa Rica with GTD and Skycrest’s youth group. God put it on my heart to go Costa Rica before I was saved a year ago. This trip with the youth group and “Going The Distance” was well underway before I became aware of it. It took less than 60 seconds on the phone to Ben (youth pastor at Skycrest) one afternoon to say yes. I know now that I was always destined to go on this trip. God has a wondrous path for us to follow and many guides and signs to navigate with if we only open our hearts and learn to hear his word. I have never been more myself and I have never been closer to God and his people as I was this last week. Now I didn’t have a real good appreciation of what a mission trip with GTD would entail. I did assume that we would go somewhere remote, work hard, be productive, serve and teach.
We learnt from the local community that had an unashamed and boastful lust for Christ and faith. We learnt from the folks from GTD who served us with love, devotions, spiritual guidance and focus on the Lord. We learnt from the adjoining missionary family who treated us and made us feel like close family. And boy did they feed us well. We learnt how a simplistic lifestyle away from the corporate and industrialized convenience of the U.S. is filled with far more than a $ could ever purchase when lived through Christ. We learnt so much from each other every second of the day. We worked hard, enjoyed every minute God gave us and played even harder. I could not wait to get up and get the day started and would only go to bed when my eyes would stay open no longer. We lived and slept and worked in a cattle shed. By the weeks end there wasn’t a resort in the country that could have provided such a wonderful experience and adventure. We touched the lives of local children at our out reach festival, but were equally touched by them. We climbed, explored and jumped of waterfalls that were not seen or known by the public. We ‘Zip Lined’ through the tree tops and bathed in hot water pools at the base of a volcano. We body surfed on waves that humbled the craziest in the group. We would start our days with devotions and end them in a round table type meeting, where by sharing our days with each other we saw how good life is when you live with Christ in your heart. The people that were there from this youth group, the folks from GTD and the local missionary family, experienced a week that will be embedded in our memories and soul forever. We will all be praying that we will be able to sustain the feelings, the confidence, the spirituality and faith in our lives every day now that we have returned home. I thought that we were taking 10 teenagers to Costa Rica. We were in fact taking 10 young adults. When we left Costa Rica there were two lines at the airport, one line for “minors” and one for “adults”. Shay being the only 18 year old on the trip got great satisfaction going down the line for adults while the other 9 did not. If only they knew the children they were looking at, they would not consider one of them a “minor”. The best part is this is just the beginning of the Costa Rica mission. At the very least this is a 10 year project that will carry on giving far beyond our lifetimes. When the opportunity arises to go on a trip like this in the future, I encourage every one of you not to be an observer. I can tell you with all of my heart that there is NO reason not to go. So when the opportunity does arise, do not make the mistake of weighing up the pro’s and cons. There are no cons, and you have no idea of the pros until you have experienced a GTD mission, because Gods is ultimately in charge of that. Have faith in him, step out of your comfort zone and experience life and closeness to God in all its glory. To those of you who went this year; thank you for your welcoming hearts and friendship and helping me on my journey with God. |
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EMERGENCY PHONE NUMBERS |
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Costa Rica (Country Code: 011) (*CR now added an "8" to cell phones & a "2" to land lines)
011-506-8357-6151 (GTD CR cell phone 1)
011-506-8358-7899 (GTD CR cell phone 2)
011-506-2673-1334 (House phone - Juan & Aricelly) [if you don't speak Spanish ask for Erika]
Skype: erika6980 | Skype: juan.rafael.alvarez.sibaja | Costa Rica Blogs
United States (Country Code: 001 when dialing to US from outside of US)
1-888-697-2479 (GTD Main Office- Toll Free)
727-394-9483 (GTD Main Office - local call within Tampa Bay area)
727-692-0250 (GTD On Call cell phone)
Skype: gtdthrive1 | Costa Rica Blogs |
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