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