Costa Rica Day 2 - 6.21.18

We began our day sleeping in after our long day of travel.  We woke up to a delicious continental breakfast of fresh pineapple and papaya, cereal, and costa rican coffee.  It energized us as we began to take in our new surroundings for the first time in the light.  Due to the higher elevation of our housing site the morning was very mild and pleasant to begin our day.  After breakfast we were introduced to all of the vidanet staff that are helping run our trip.  They have a discipleship program for students in their early twenties and so there is a group of about 10 students from Costa Rica, Honduras, and America that are serving as our translators and coordinators for the week.  We got to learn a little bit about them, the mission of vidanet, and the place we would be serving this week.

After lunch at our housing site we loaded up to go to a local Nicaraguan refugee community called la cuenca where we will be serving all week.  This is a very poor squatter community that is basically a bunch of tin roofed homes built alongside of each other where families of 4-6 people often pack into one room to sleep together.  We partnered with a local ministry that runs Christian day programs for kids and youth in the community to provide support and love to this impoverished place.  Our team took the charge and immediately began to give kids rides on their shoulders, draw in coloring books, play soccer, and generally bring light to a place that has a lot of darkness.  Today was all about getting to know the kids and community and then we will be doing some VBS lessons later in the week.  

Once we finished up our time with the kids of la cuenca our team loaded up to head back to our housing site for dinner and our first porch time.  Dinner was a delicious meal of rice, beans, marinated chicken, and plantains which our team really enjoyed.  Following dinner we circled up in one of the community rooms here for our first porch time.  Porch time is our evening worship gathering where we remember funny and inspiring moments from the day, praise God through music, and listen to a talk that helps us engage with some of the tough questions that Costa Rica has started to stir in us.  For this porch time Luke used the Bible passage from Luke 10 where Jesus sends his seventy two followers out on their own mission trip as a model for our week.  He talked about the importance of leaving behind our normal expectations for how we operate on a daily basis and instead be present and focused here in Costa Rica.  

Finally, our day finished with our small group discussion time where we split up to discuss and process.  We talked about our first impressions of la cuenca and what things were holding us back from fully engaging in the work God has set before us here in Costa Rica.  It was such a great end to a wonderful day as Jesus has already begun to stir new thoughts in our minds and show up in some unexpected ways for out team.