This past week, May 13-19, I had the amazing opportunity to travel to Costa Rica with a group of 10 from Georgia Southern's Christian Campus Fellowship and work with an organization called Strong Missions. Strong Missions was founded by Charlie Strong who is an incredible brother with a powerful vision to reach the people of Costa Rica. To read more about Strong Missions and Charlie's story visit the Strong Missions website.
The first three days of the trip we were working at the local Methodist Church in a town called Carillos near the capitol San Jose. We worked everyday from 8-4 with an hour for lunch at noon. The first two days three artists in the group painted a mural in the park while the rest of us dug out a trench for a side walk to be poured. The final day was primarily mixing and pouring concrete along with finishing up a drainage ditch along the side of the church. We also had the privilege of joining in on a worship service Wednesday night.
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| This is the ten of us who went all dressed up about to go to church. |
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| A mural that Kim, Kayla, and Jessi painted on a wall in the park down the road from where we were staying. The verse is Psalm 121:1-2. |
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| Digging a drainage ditch at the church. |
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| Digging out the trench for the sidewalk to be poured |
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| All of us after finishing up at the church |
The fourth day was a break from manual labor but a bit challenging emotionally. We first visited a teenage mother's home not far from where we were staying. The home was a mission of the Catholic Church that looked after young moms under 18 who were in difficult situations at home. The mission taught several different types of skills including sewing, cosmetology, and pet care. Next we went to a rough are in San Jose where we worked at a church to feed children who typically only get fed once a day. After we all ate, we played with the kids for hours and had a blast! It was an incredible experience for all of us.
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| A "horse" race with the kids in San Jose. |
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| Playing soccer with the kids. |
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| Look at me! I'm a caballito! (little horse) |
The final day we were in Costa Rica was our day off. First we hiked up an active volcano and stood by the crater! After hiking some more we went to a zip-line place in the mountains where we zip-lined down through the canopy. One of the flights was 600 meters long and 100 meters off the ground! After exhausting ourselves we ate at a nice restaurant with fresh natural strawberry juice and then visited the world's largest oxcart.
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| Me and Alex in front of the volcano crater. |
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| At the old crater which is now a lake! |
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| Hiking through the "cloud forest". |
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| Zip-lining! |
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| World's largest oxcart. |
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| The whole gang plus our two translators/guides Scott and Rebecca and Ryan an intern for the summer. |
Thank you all so much for your love and support for this trip! It was an incredible experience for our team and we all grew very close. Eight of the ten will be back at Georgia Southern CCF next year as leaders so I am very excited about what God will do! There has also been talk about coming back to Costa Rica next year and working with the same group, so that is very exciting as well. God bless!
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