First day of ministry

Today was our first day of ministry. We left the house after breakfast at 9am and headed to the church (Iglesia Ebenezer). We were not sure what to expect so we brought a few games, our craft bag and practiced a song on the bus. When we arrived there was two sets of kids (about 50 total) waiting for us to run an entire 2 hour VBS. Our kids did a great job of going with the flow and jumping in and serving. One team worked with the older kids playing games outside. Jerry did a great job translating while Eli, Conner, Cheyenne and Mrs. Sullivan played games with a parachute and Hulu hoops! The kids had fun connecting to our students! The rest of the team was inside the church with the younger kids. We began with a song and then had help from the church's children's director Rubi  who had the kids teach us a song. The crafts team worked hard to put together Jonah coloring books while the rest of the team played with the kids. Robin explained the craft and CJ helped translate. Our students did a great job of jumping in and loving the kids! During our debrief time students shared how great it was to love on the kids and to see how grateful they were. We were sad to leave the children as we had fallen in love with them. Towards the end we gave Rubi the left over crafts. She was so excited and praised God for bringing out team to bless her and her ministry. Our team walked away admiring the love the church had for each other and being reminded of how much we have at home. We were so blessed to love on these kids! Praise God!

CJ holding the tube as the children crawl through 

 Cheyenne, Christian, and Eli play a relay game with the older kids

The kids at the church stop to pose for a picture 

Parachute game outside 

Adara and her new friend 

Irene and the Children's Ministry Director, Rubi 

Rubi is helping us run the VBS

Breakfast time!

We are settling into our new home. Jerry, CJ and Christian (J. C. C.) had the first KP duty and they made us amazing pancakes! Mrs. Sullivan led the way by mixing the batter. Eli made a great suggestion to have peanut butter. We enjoyed breakfast and we are excited to head to church this morning.

We had mango juice to bring in the Costa Rica culture!

Mrs. Sullivan led the way by making TW batter!

Irene took a few photos of the Mickey pancakes.

Early Birds Get the . . . Eels?

It began Saturday night with Lindsey and Christian asking Mrs.C if they could go for a run at 5:00 in the morning. She agreed to go with them, as long as they woke up on their own. At 5:08, she figured that they had flaked, but a few minutes later a small group was ready to go. Mr.C decided that a swim was a better idea than a run - better for the knees, you know. ; ) When some of the boys saw Mr.C with mask and snorkel, they ran back in to get their equipment, too. By 5:30 a.m. Dylan, Conner, Jake, Jerry, and Hayden had joined Mr.C snorkeling. We saw a variety of undersea wildlife, including eels, puffer fish, sea urchins, angel fish, trigger fish, and a pipe-fish, along with so many other fish. Jake told me he saw a fish "this big" (arms spread open wide), but I looked ans saw nothing. ; )  Mrs.C stayed on the beach with Lindsey, Eli, and Christian, who later joined the group in the water. We are back at the house now, ready for a Sunday morning pancake breakfast.

Just so that we are clear, we did not actually take a camera with us underwater. We wanted you, however, to get a feel for what we experienced. Thanks, Google.

Mr.C