Costa Rica Dia de tres!

We will be heading to Turialba this morning around 10:30am. It is about 2 hours drive, you can see where it is on the map below from San Jose. We will be working with Pastor Charles and International Impact Ministries. He was David´s pastor growing up and married us, so we are excited to serve with him! We´ll be working with a local church there with their kids ministry, doing some maintenance, and a pastors conference. Hopefully we´ll have internet access there so I can keep updating but who knows! The basketball game was pretty exciting, I actually watched it although I was hoping for Memphis to win:-)

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Costa Rica Dia de dos!

Our whole team is now together!  After long delays in Tampa and Miami, the Whites, Bruce, Josh, and Beth made it here to San Jose very early this morning. We put "Amor Ahora" which means Love Now in Spanish into action in San Jose.  Lifepoint is not only spreading the love in Tampa but around the world!  We so appreciate all of you who helped us get here and are praying for our team.  This morning we went back to the church and went around the neighborhood talking to people and sharing God's love with them. The first picture is of Fabio, Melanie, and Mark heading out. We were able to talk to 35 people and 5 of them prayed to accept Christ!  We then dined at a traditional Costa Rican restaurant, KFC (which I haven't even been to in the US in like 10 yrs!). Our next stop was El Hospital Nacional de Los Ninos. We visited kids who were either getting ready for surgery or had just gotten out of surgery.  We were amazed at how open the kids and their parents were to chat with and pray with us.  I wish I could have taken some pics in the hospital, but I couldn't so the 2nd picture is of our whole team outside the hospital and the 3rd picture is of Josh with a card one of the kids gave him because he told her his name was Zach Ephron, he did tell her he was joking but she wrote that his name was George on the card:-) After we got back, Bruce, David, Mark, and I went on a run practically straight up a mountain!  Ali is making us a Costa Rican specialty, chicken, rice and beans and then we will be hanging out tonight and having a sharing time.  Cristian's dad Eddie Vidachea who was the National Director of Word of Life in Costa Rica and has planted many churches.  The boys are going to try and watch the NCAA championship game.  Unfortunately there is a TV here:-)

Costa Rica Dia de uno!

Here's what we've been up to our first day here!  I'll try to post an update every night if I can so check back! We are working with a missionary here named Cristian, his wife Alli, and cute 9 month old Jessica.  We are staying a little outside of San Jose in a place called the Central American Bible Institute.  Cristian and his dad Eddie planted a church here in San Jose called "The Sheepfold". We went to church there this morning, where there are about 30 people who come from the local neighborhood.  They also do a really great youth ministry with sports and hanging out with the kids around the church.  It's a pretty rough area so the ministry is a great influence in the kids lives. Below is a picture of Melanie and Romina from our team with Pato who also works with Cristian and two of the girls that came.  The church is in a house and you can see it in the 2nd picture. David taught this morning and did this for the first time with Cristian translating.  We played games, soccer, and hung out with the kids in the afternoon and the last picture is of Fabio teaching the kids at the end of the day.  Then we came back for a homemade spaghetti dinner, which was great!  Monday we'll be inviting neighborhood kids to their youth events and also going to a children's hospital to visit them.  So more to come!!