This morning, we headed for Pavas at 8:00am again. We were all really happy to see that Fernando (he is a Christian!) was driving us. He was the first driver that picked us up from the airport, and we’ve all grown fond of his friendship. There was one day when we had just finished lunch at Taco Bar, and the rain started pouring hard. Fernando told us to stay in place and ran all the way to get the bus. What a man! I'm really going to miss speaking Tarzan Spanish to him.

When we arrived at Pavas, Pastor C. took us to “suicide hill”. There, he told us stories of gang fights and suicides that happened at that hill. We then prayed for all the lives that were lost and asked God to protect the place from further evil. After that, we went to an elementary school. Everyone went into different classrooms to share their testimony and words of encouragement to the kids. We answered their questions about our lives, and many of them asked me to say something in Chinese. I pray that these kids will stay in school and look ahead towards the finish line. I pray that they will not fall into the bad influences at Pavas.

In the afternoon, we continued to minister to the same people as we did yesterday. The lesson began with two songs: Praise ye the Lord and Every Move I Make. Gabriel (20) helped me lead worship. (Gabe, if you ever read this... just know that I always thought of you as part of OUR TEAM, not just "some translator") All the adults had so much fun dancing and singing the new songs. We then played Hello my Name Is by Matthew West (Spanish Version). This song resonated with a lot of people there (keep in mind the people we are ministering to were previous alcoholics, drug traffickers, and gang members), and many of them had teary eyes just watching the film.

Amy shared her testimony after, and Brandon gave a short lesson on the breastplate of righteousness, sandals of the gospel, and shield of faith. We then worked on two worksheets, a maze and a word search, which everyone worked hard to finish. It was pretty awesome to see how happy they were when they completed the worksheets, because they started showing it off to everyone. We ended the lesson with our Shields of Faith craft. Everyone took so much time to decorating their shields, and I was impressed with how creative they were.

In the evening, we headed for Zumba (again). We all wore our matching "Pura Vida" tanks that we bought from the market. I was a little disappointed when Carlos was not the instructor today, because his workout is super fun. What made up for that was our driver, Fernando, coming to see us dance. He showed up in jeans and said that he would watch us for a bit but would not dance. "I did not come to dance," Fernando said, "I came because I made a promise to you all and I wanted to keep it." That was really sweet what he did for us.. 10000 brownie points for Fernando!! #totallynotcreepy..right?

Prayer Request :)

Pray for our last day of ministry at Pavas today, that we will be able to focus despite all the distractions (and that I won't be too nervous about leading worship again)
Pray for everyone that we have met during our time here in Costa Rica. Even if we do not ever see them again, I pray that we were able to show them a glimpse of God's goodness
Pray that the team will take what they have learned and seen in Costa Rica back to the states. Pray that we will never forget the people we have met here

Spanish Phrase of the Day: Tu Eres Muy Bonita (which means you are very pretty... I said this to a girl at the elementary school when she asked me to say something in Spanish)

In his Love,

Lisa Mai

Day 11 - Fernando the Man