Mission Trip Video

Here is a short video of the trip to Costa Rica. It's only a few of the pictures but people have been giving me lots more i.e. Mandalynn who gave me 400. Anyway, i hope you enjoy.
J. Ray

Costa Rica Day 8

Today was a great day! We started early and headed to San Lazaro from our Motel in Santa Cruz. We arrived around 8:30 in the village. This was our visit to where we would spend the remainder of our time in Costa Rica. It didn’t take long to loop through the village and arrive at the church in the southeast corner of the village. We had planned out a service and our group was ready. We walked through the village inviting people to church and some of the village children joined us. The service was supposed to start at 9:30 but only three children and two adults were there. Aby looked a little discouraged. I asked him what was going on? He said the Catholic church in the village only has a Sunday morning service twice a year. However, they heard we were coming and scheduled a service. To top things off the village soccer team had a soccer game the same morning against a neighboring village. Bummer!!! We waited and started the service later. Some of the church members who play for the soccer team came by and said they would not be able to make the service due to the game. Slowly but surely the church began to fill. First with children then with adults. Before long the church was full and most of our group was standing outside looking in through the windows. Some members of our team sang songs in English, did a drama on sin, and Kaitlin Kijawski shared her testimony. All our students did great.

After the service we fed everyone who attended church that morning. We also passed out bags of food that should feed a family for a full week. The people seemed very happy. After, we all headed to the soccer field in the middle of the village to watch the remainder of the game. The San Lazaro team won and it was fun to watch. If you haven’t figured it out, soccer is KING. After the village team played Aby had challenged some of the villagers with a game against the “gringos” – That’s us. We knew this team was going to be good and we would have to play our best if we didn’t want to be embarrassed. We took an early lead scoring 3 points pretty easy. It seemed the opposing team were all good ball handlers but didn’t play well as a team. It was the middle of the day and over 100 degrees. We played hard and ended up winning the game 6 to 5. It was a huge win for the gringos and devastating for the villagers. Oh I almost forgot to mention we were playing the village children. We whooped up on the six and seven year olds. . . and almost managed to lose. They definitely underestimated us. On the way back from the village we stopped by a neighboring village called Guatille. This village is known for its pottery. They did a demonstration for us and let some of us try our hand at making pottery. We made some purchases and headed back to Santa Cruz for the night.

Costa Rica Day 6 pt 2

Wow, what a day,

I think when I last left you we were at an internet café at a small shop. We were able to do some shopping and then headed out to Santa Cruz where we are staying in a small motel/villa set up. It is out a little from town and seems like a safe place. The family that runs the place is extremely nice. We had an awesome time in Santa Cruz. Some may not call it awesome but I would file it under the category of extremely memorable. During supper, Aby received a call and the indoor soccer team that he is a chiropractor for was playing about 100 yards from where we were eating. This team representing San Jose was playing the league champions from Santa Cruz. Now we didn’t know all this. Aby just asked us if we wanted to check out a soccer game. He is friends with many of the players. We all said sure. When we arrived, he told us which to cheer for and we did. We soon found out we were cheering for the visitors, and besides us there were only about five fans cheering for the San Jose team. The game was great and intense. These guys were extremely talented and the game was very close. Both teams played dirty and there were several red and yellow cards. Towards the end of the game Aby turned to me and said “I have to use the restroom, when the game is over head back to the bus and I’ll meet you there.” No problem, sounds easy enough. About the time Aby left the gym the coach for the San Jose team was thrown out of the game and that’s when the real excitement began. There had already been two San Jose players thrown out of the game so tempers were flaring. The coach went to sit in the stands by his wife. Who just happened to be sitting right behind us. When he did a fan from Santa Cruz threw a bottle at him. I looked back to see his wife jump at and go towards him looking for a fight. At that time players started running up in the stands to try to stop a fight from breaking out. Then, before we knew it we found ourselves right in the middle of what was about to be a sure nuff sports center moment. Here were 30 gringos who had been cheering for the wrong team surrounded by a gymnasium full of Costa Ricans and here we are with five adult males. For a moment there, I was excited because I was thinking, “cool, we’re gonna get to see a fight” then I realized we were about to be a part of it, rather we wanted to be or not. We immediately started getting our folks out as fast as we could. We made it out safe but we were definitely skating on some thin ice. Now that may not seem like a funny story and it certainly wasn’t at the time. The funny part came when we were safely on the bus and our guys started talking trash about how they were ready for a fight. Here are some of the lines I heard, “I was just waiting for somebody to swing at me,” “Man I was gonna bust somebody,” “Oh, I was ready for a fight.” I sat in my seat with a huge grin because the guys talking the most trash were the ones who made it out of the gym before some of the girls did. Now I won’t name any names but that was good entertainment. Best part about it – It was all free.

Keep us in your prayers, J. Ray

Costa Rica Day 6

Today we have traveled to Puntarenas. It is a small coastal city along the Pacific. I am currently at a small internet cafe. They have graciously allowed us to use the net. We ate lunch at the beach at a small cafe and have had about 30 minutes to shop at their souvenir shop. We have been in a bus traveling slowly through the mountains so it is good to stop. We are about 1/2 way to our destination. Sorry no pics for this blog and not much to report, but all is well.
J. Ray

Costa Rica Day 5 part 2

It's 1:00 a.m. Saturday your time and 11:00 p.m. Friday night our time. Here are just a few random pics I threw in for your enjoyment. Thanks for your comments they have been great. If you have a message you need to tell someone, leave a comment and I will pass it along.
Tonight, Kosmos officially ended. This was a great conference. There were right at 500 people in attendance and almost every one of those did ministry each afternoon. There were over 1200 salvations total and 43 students surrendered to full time missions. We even had 6 from Southside on that list. Praise the Lord! This really has been an awesome trip and I can't say enough how awesome these students have been. Every one of them - I love each of them and am proud of each of them. We have a great team.

This may be the last post. We are headed to Guanacaste tomorrow morning and do not know if we have internet access. If so, I will definitely keep you updated. If not we will see you Wednesday. We do miss you but we are definitely where God wants us. We covet your prayers as always and you are in ours.
Josh

Costa Rica Day 5

Wow, God is good. We had a great little Pow Wow last night as we met for an evening debrief after the evening service. God was there as each person shared what God has taught them thus far on this trip. It was great! We also spoke of many students who were not with us who missed and wished were here. Perhaps should have been here but did not listen to God tugging at their heart. We know and understand following God isn't easy. God never said it would be easy. But what follower of Christ would not want to be a part of what God is doing? Make sure and ask your student or friend when they return what God is teaching them. Each of them had extremely profound statements and I am proud of every member of this team.

Today we had another opportunity to return to the orphanage we visited. Today we were prepared. We painted about a 1000 sq. foot area. The orphanage already had the paint and we had the supplies. Only problem they had some really cheap paint. I'm not kidding when I say we put four coats of paint on these walls. We also painted the bars in the front which were in pretty rough shape. We purchased some oil based for that and the area was well ventilated so it wasn't quite as fun as our last painting experience when we were all high from fumes and everything was funny.

As I told you yesterday, we really hooked the children up with lots of toys and games etc. Today was the day we spoiled the teenage moms. We were able to stop at the two stores on the way to the orphanage and purchase items to make gift bags for them. We filled them with nail polish, lip gloss, body soaps, candy, fluffy little bath sponge thingys, and other things I've been told women like. We gave it to them at the very end before we left and their eyes lit up like a six year old on Christmas morning. It was great to see them smile. We were able to share the Gospel with them and show them Christ through our actions.

We were really overstaffed at the orphanage yesterday. I expressed my concerns to Score yesterday and today they added another group with us. This really crammed us in there. Some of that group passed out tracts up and down the road close to the orphanage. Some hung out with the orphans and some painted. It really did work out well and turned out to be a great day. This last shot is from the bus as we were leaving. Totally different from yesterday. Many of the children and moms at the orphanage were waving as we left and tears were shed as we said goodbye. It was hard to leave, especially when we knew we could do so much more.

Please continue to pray for us as we press on. We are getting tired and still have four full days ahead of ministry. Tomorrow we leave for Guanacaste at 6:00 a.m.

in His Love,
Josh