Team "A" in Finca 1 School

The first two mission's teams were from St. Andrews Presbyterian Church in Houston, Texas. These two teams while from the same church had very different dynamics which only God knew would be just what was needed to work in the two different schools.

SAPC Team "A".

 

SAPC Team "B"

  The second team, "SAPC Team B" of 9 people was very dynamic in ages and professions and helped us bring moral and value lessons to the elementary school of Finca3 as well as helped us learn valuable lessons in team building, setting boundaries and guidelines for other teams coming to serve. Four of the women on "SAPC Team B"

Who is the local?

put themselves out of their comfort zone to play soccer with the Finca 2 woman's team which was shorthanded for their game. The women had a great time playing (a little sore afterwards) but helped get a win 7-2! Talk about having left their mark in the community. The other day one of the store owners in Finca 2 asked when the women who played soccer were coming back.

Ziner VBS Team minus Larry

The third team of 6 was from Charlotte, North Carolina, known as the Ziner Family Missions. The Ziners+1 were here for their third time and really brought a new dimension to reaching the children of the community by putting on a five day VBS!  We took advantage of a

VBS in Finca 2 School

school break and were able to utilize the school facilities to put on the VBS. Three of the original kids from kids club helped serve as leaders during this VBS; it was awesome for the

Ziners to see these youth step into a leadership role!

Baptism!!

While the Ziner team was with us two of our youth (Angie & Keilor) decided they would like to be baptized. On Saturday July 9^th we all went to the river to study the word of God and baptize Angie & Keilor. We talked about baptism and what it means and asked if there were others who wanted to be baptized as well. Wow, God had it all planned, not

Keilor baptized by Ted, his dad Edwin and Larry

only were Angie & Keilor baptized that day, Keilor's dad, Edwin, and younger brother, Josue, were baptized as well; along with Alejandro, one of the young men with a family of three who we have been mentoring; our youth helper from our church, Karymn, a youth who was visiting from another ministry, Andrea, and our intern, Ashley. When Keilor's Dad, Edwin, came out of the water the clouds separated and the sun came down showering him in light. It was as if God was saying "this is my child with whom I am well pleased"!

With the first three teams we had a couple surprises. Because we wanted to use the school in Finca 2 during non-school hours we had to get clearance from the school committee of Finca 2. The committee gave us the OK to use the school whenever we would like, we just have to ask. Because we were going into new schools we had to get permission from the Rio Frio School superintendent. When we met with the superintendent, she was already familiar with us and our ministry. Long story short, she gave us permission to enter any school in her district to teach morale and value lessons. Woohoo! What huge blessings!

DSBC Team Arrives in Finca2.

The fourth team we lovingly call "The Big Team" came from Desert Springs Bible Church in Phoenix, AZ. This team was made up of 18 people, 15 youth between 15-18 years old 15 year olds made up the majority with three adult leaders. Yes, this was a little bit bigger team than the norm for us, but God put this team together. Since August 2010 when Gracie gave these youth the challenge to step out of their comfort zone, they have been working together to be able to come serve with us in Costa Rica. Last March during our visit to Phoenix the youth director

Movie Night

asked us which 5 youth do you want me to tell cannot come! After seeing all the effort the youth had put into this missions trip and how God had opened all the doors for them to come, who were we to say no? This team also added a new dimension for our ministry by helping us break the barrier with some of the older youth aged 18-21. They put on sports events in the main plaza of Finca 2, had game days in our home and we held 3 movie nights. One night we were able to show the JESUS film. (Thanks Gary O!)

"Big Team" Field Games

One note about having "The Big Team", we had a total of 22 people in a 2 bedroom house with 1 bathroom, yes one bathroom. We had 9 girls in one room (4 bunk beds and an air mattress) and 11 people on air mattresses in the living room and Gracie & Ted in the small room with all the supplies. It was amazing how smoothly everything went logistically, even with just one bathroom. Just another confirmation from God that "The Big Team" was supposed to come! Not to mention all the new relationships thatwere built in Finca 2 because of this team! If you get an opportunity go to DSBC Ignite Costa Rica facebook page and read all about their AMAZING journey with us and see more photo's!!

Alexandria helping us pack & prep

We had 45 people visit from the USA, ages 15 to 67, students to professionals and all were here to serve (not us) but God as they served the people in Rio Frio. We had 3 local youth from Finca 2 helping serve with us and one youth from our church. By serving in Finca's 1,

Guys playing musical chairs, Ted lost!

2 & 3 God allowed us to reach new people and share the Love of Jesus with them, not only by words but by actions...smiles, hugs, handshakes, laughter, spending time over coffee or fresh juice and a genuine interest in their lives. We are so blessed to see the outcome from the time the teams spent with us and continue to hear their names being uttered by the people they met and built relationships with.

We were also blessed to have some new friends the Sanders visit from Life Point Church, in League City, Texas. While we were in the USA we had a meeting with Pastor Tidwell from Life Point Church and were able to talk about our ministry with him and tour the church. He was excited to hear about what we do and had said that their church had been praying about missions in Costa Rica. God is so good! The Sanders who are leaders in the church came to Costa Rica to drop off their oldest son at a Torch Bearers facility, so they extended their stay and came to visit us and see our ministry in Rio Frio. We are so glad they were able to capture the vision for our ministry and are looking forward to what God has in store for us and Life Point Church.

Time to Relax

Sam and Bob Reynolds

Our last visitors this summer were Bob and his grandson Sam. Bob came to Costa Rica for his fourth visit. The first three times all he got to see were the communities we work in. So this visit, since we have had so many teams, he decided we needed a rest and he wanted to see some more of Costa Rica.

We had our first intern!!!! Ashley a senior from Texas A&M (It's ok all you Longhorns, she's cool and she is our favorite intern from A&M) with a double major in, International Studies & Spanish. She came to intern with us from June 6th to August 15th. One of our goals we mentioned during our visits in the USA was to have interns come serve with us and learn about relational ministry. God's timing is always perfect, little did we know that we were really going to need Ashley this year to help us with all the logistics and helping us keep our sanity while hosting short term missions' teams with three teams coming back to back to back. Ashley fit right in from her first day! She helped us stay very organized and kept up with everything needing to be done. She made many friends in the communities of Rio Frio, from the visiting teams and she has become part of our family!

Ashley with neighbor kids in Finca2

Ted really appreciated her sweet tooth and Gracie appreciated her ability to retort Ted's jokes towards her.  Her favorite comment to Ted was "Let's go get gas!" Only those of you that have served with us on short term mission's teams will know what that means! The rest of you will have to serve with us one day! We will miss Ashley and look forward to seeing how God will continue to use her gifts and talents!  We are happy she was able to spend almost three months with us and look forward to having her come serve with us again!  She is a blessing to all who meet her and a joy to those that get to spend time with her!