Some pics of RSHS CR 2013

The playground set that the guys had to dissemble at one location and reassemble again at the base.

Digging the post holes  for the playground.

Raking up the base grounds.

The kids in the dining hall.

The playground is finished!!!

More cleanup on the YWAM base.

Free time!!

Overlooking the neighborhood we have been handing out Bibles in.

This is in front of the church in the barrio we visited and spoke to the women's group.

Sleeping time for the babies while our girls prayed over them and the Girls' Home.

Amazing paint team with their green walls.

Not In the right order, but this is when we arrived in Costa Rica.

May 16, 2013: Thursday!!!!!!!

Hola las familas en Los estados unidos! Mi nombre es Marissa, y estoy muy feliz, pero cansada. = Hello families in the United States! My name is marissa, and I am very happy, but tired.

Today we went to La Pasada de Belen, which was a teen mom home and daycare.  The boys in the group painted the dining hall (pink and green!) and half of the girls cleaned a library, while the other half helped watch and feed babies and toddlers.  After spending about four hours doing those activities, we went to the restaurant on site, which was a training restaurant for the moms to work at.  There we ate AMAZING pizza and calzones.  It was some of the yummiest food I have ever eaten in my entire life.  Afterwards we all swapped tasks, and continued on for a couple more hours.  Then it was back to the base, where we have spent the last couple hours walking to convenient stores and observing our various sunburns.

God has been doing amazing things for me throughout the course of this week, and I am so excited to see what he has for the rest of the week.  The biggest God moment for me today was laying on the grass with a sleeping baby on my chest, just having a time in prayer and asking what God wants me to be doing for the rest of the trip.  Big things are happening, and even more are to come!

Continued prayer for unity within the team and with our translators would be very appreciated!

Love you guys!
~Marissa


And for those of you wanting to SEE us, please be patient, we are still trying to get them from the cameras to the ipad to the blog.

5-15-13

Hey guys!


We had another great day here! The day started out with intercession. This was a time of prayer and worship for the whole base. Very powerful time. We learned that millions of deaf/mute people had never heard the gospel message. Just a few weeks from now two people from this base are opening a DTS (discipleship training school) for these people in D.C! Hopefully this is just one of many more to come!
Afterward we did more bible distribution until lunch. The groups met a lot of neat people and had some impactful God moments.
After lunch we all loaded up and traveled to a "barrio." This is the name for a poor neighborhood-basically a ghetto. The girls led a bible study with women from the church there, and the guys did cleanup and played soccer with the kids. At the bible study we read from the story of the women at the well and Jesus washing the feet of the disciples. Then us girls actually washed the feet of the women.
We had a deep devotional/debrief led by Mr. Palen after dinner. It ended with all of us praying aloud at the same time. Another great day at YWAM!

We want to thank you for your prayers, and highlight a few new concerns:
Shannon has been feeling a bit sick, so pray for fast healing.
And for the DTS in D.C.
Praise for all that's happened so far!

Adios y Dios te bendiga!


-written by chantel

Tuesday.

Dear friends and family,

It's Amanda Page here! 

So, it was our second day of official ministry here in San Jose and it was great! 

Most of the girls (excluding me) went to Freedom Streets ministries to help the women there make key chains to sell. The rest of the team stayed on base and cleaned up a bit. 

After lunch, half of us helped with Metro Ministries. We went into a ghetto of San Jose and led an art project. We also played with the children in the street. Their ages ranged from 2 to 13. 

The other half did more Bible distribution and were able to share more about Jesus while also meeting more Christians who were encouraged and interested in helping the distribution ministry. 

We had fish for lunch, it was delicious. 

All of us feel slightly worn out right now. Pray that God will energize and encourage us for the rest of the week. 

God bless!! 

-Amanda. :) 

Hello friends and family,
        It's our first official day in Costa Rica and things are going great! We started the day with worship led by some of the people staying at the YWAM base, including a narrow fellow, who spoke both English and Spanish. They took popular worship songs and sang them in both languages, which was a really cool experience. After that, the class was split into two groups and half of us went to pick up a donated play set and reassemble it on the base, while the other half went to an orphanage for abandoned children with severe mental disabilities. Their ages ranged from only a couple months to around thirty years old and the majority of them were abandoned at a young age due to their disabilities. Although some could communicate in Spanish, most could not speak at all. Some of us went in the morning and some of us went after lunch,  both of which were very cool experiences. Those that stayed behind raked cleaned the base grounds and took pictures.
Our only plan for the rest of the night is to debrief and have a group devotional, then eat a scrumptious dinner.
We've had many opprotunities to use
Praise that we got to Costa Rica safely and there were no complications with immigration! Please continue to pray for safety and energy as we continue to serve Jesus and the people of San Jose.

God bless!
- Amanda Page and Abby Elloitt.

PS: Hi mom!!! -Marissa

Sunday, May 12

We can't believe that it's only Sunday!!

Things got off to a great start.  Well there was that part about one of the chaperones not getting off the train in time and had an extra little loop. But everyone got on the plane and off the plane uneventfully.

We were picked up at the airport and were transported in a really nice bus, through very tame traffic to our tropical   "Home."   I have heard many times that our kids feel so welcome here.  There is quite a diversity of students and staff at the base here.  Our kids are getting a chance to meet really amazing young people from all over the world.  Columbia, Holland, London, to mention a few.

We had a short orientation and then breakfast, pancakes and fresh papaya and pineapple. Then we had from 8:30 to 12:30 to sleep.  The girls fell asleep fast and hard!  Then we were up and hit the streets for bible distribution.  Amazingly that little nap was enough to get us going.  

The guy who was our leader for the afternoon, Rasta, is super enthusiastic about this project.  We split up into 4 groups, each with a translator.  Most houses had people home.  Every house except maybe one was very glad to have a Bible.  We would tell them we had a gift for them, then ask if we could pray for them.  Most of the time they would then invite us in their house.  They would ask us to pray for a mom's health or someone in their family who needed a job.  We all met amazing people.  They all would offer us food, tea, and one lady wanted to fry up some chicken for the kids visiting her.  

At one house the team was invited in to pray for the husband in the family who had a brain tumor and was paralyzed.  He was in a wheelchair.  When the leader was praying for him, he stood up!  WOW!   That was a pretty cool thing for us to see...

It is now 5pm.  We have only been here 12 hours and already we are seeing God at work.  

Please pray for the YWAM leader here, Steve Gilroy and his family.  His wife, Elizabeth, had to go to Alaska, their home, for serious medical care.  His oldest daughter is also with her.  

Hola!

Well here is our blog!!!  I hope you all are able to log in easily.  I will be posting daily, and also uploading pictures of your students.  Hopefully this will give you a daily glimpse into our mission activities in Costa Rica.

This blog is closed except to the people I have invited, and that is the same list I have been using for email communication.  Please do not share this link with other friends or families, as we would like to honor the privacy of all the members of our team.  I am also starting a Facebook page, and we will put some things on that which will be available to the public.  I intend to have pictures but no names or other specifics there.  If you have any requests about the not having your students listed there, please let me know.

Please pray tonight for our team members, for peace and rest and clear thoughts about preparations.

Four more days to departure!!!