Today was another busy day, but definitely one to learn from in terms of where our team members stand as a unit and individually. We began our day with another devo, which focused on reminding ourselves of how we were before accepting Christ as Lord and Saviour. However, Christ's death enabled us to be righteous and right with God.

After devos, we headed to the same ministry building where we offered lunch to women and children in Pavas yesterday, except today we were there to remodel the layout of the room and paint the walls. This building is rented by a local church, which is under the leadership of Pastor Christian. The overall plan for this building is to enlarge the kitchen space, install new lighting, fix the plumbing in the restroom, and add a new coat of paint on the walls. However, we will only be there Tuesday and Thursday this week, so it is difficult to say how much of the remolding and fixing will be done in this building by the time we finish our serving time there.

Tearing down the stage and wall decor, then cleaning it up!

Afterwards, we headed back to La Carpio to work with the interns and teach the local children and teenagers about Christ. Yesterday, I failed to mention the difficulty we had with working with the local children and teenagers there. Many, especially the boys, were very rowdy, impatient, and misbehaved, so it was extremely difficult to settle them down and have them be attentive to the message being shared by the interns.

In contrast, today was quite the opposite. Despite rain and lowered attendance, everyone who attended was very attentive and participated willingly. In fact, everyone in our team participated in conversation with at least three different La Carpio children or teenagers; however, some conversations ended up becoming disruptive to others, especially the interns.

Perhaps the most important note to be taken from this day was the importance of communication and transparency within our team. During our debrief session after we left La Carpio, I realized that honesty and understanding in a team, especially one on a missions trip, are so important. In addition to each team members' response to how the day went, it is also important for any source of miscommunication or differences between team members to be brought up. It was definitely clear that some of the members in our team were struggling emotionally or physically, and these struggles definitely could have prevented a good day. But by the grace of God, we were all able to serve throughout the day obediently and lovingly.

Moreover, one question we asked was, "Are we doing what we are supposed to be doing here in Costa Rica?" As a team, we agreed that although we are not directly seeing the fruit, we are definitely planting seeds within the Costa Rican locals, and helping water the ones already planted; it is our hope that our support to local ministries are a sense of encouragement, so they will continue to do God's work. There is still work to be done!

Prayer Request(s):

Peace for each team member, emotionally and/or physically
Constant honesty and transparency between team members

In Him,

Oscar Tsai

Karina's Blog: afraidyetfilledwithjoy.wordpress.com

Costa Rica STM Day 4 - Plant and Water