Costa Rica STM 2017- We're alive!

Hello!! For those who are wondering, we are alive and have safely made it to Costa Rica! Thank you for your prayers! Praise God for:

1. Safe travels! 

2. Time with our host family (Norma, Melvin, and Luna)- they have been so gracious in opening their homes and cooking delicious meals for us. Even though I was nervous about my Spanish which I haven't used since high school, praise God that it's enough to communicate with our host family and be a translator of sorts for Christal and Lily. 

3. Local worship service- thankful that we had a chance to start our week by worshipping at a local church in Spanish. The worship was amazing, and the pastor spoke about our true identity which is found in Christ, and encouraged us to focus on things above (Christ), so that we would remember to fight not with worldly weapons but with spiritual weapons (prayer, God's word). Such a beautiful reminder as we are about to begin a full week of ministry that He is always able to do the impossible, including rescuing and changing sinners like us into His children!

Yesterday and today have been filled with orientation, rest, eating/hanging out with our host families, and getting used to new environments. Tomorrow we start ministry work, and really desire your prayers! Please pray for:

1. Flexibility- in Costa Rican (Tico) culture, it's important to be flexible in all things. Even though we have prepared lots of materials, pray that we would be open to how the Holy Spirit leads us to use our gifts to bless the Ticos, and ready to share the good news we have already received about Jesus whenever we are called.

2. Physical Health- many of the team members have felt tired or sick throughout these two days, so please pray for enough energy as we will be serving in various capacities starting tomorrow morning. 

Ministry work: 

We will be at various ministry sites this week and participating in various activities, including:

- ESL camp for high schoolers

- Finishing up a bathroom building project for local school

- Women's/children's ministry- Bible study and sharing devos/testimonies

- Children's VBS camp- sharing messages about Jesus, crafts, and games

Our purpose in all these activities is not to check them off a list of things to do, but to actively build relationships with those involved, to share about God's extraordinary message of forgiveness and salvation in both words and actions. Please pray we would not forget that in all the busyness of short term missions. 

Gracias y buenos noches!

Picture of 6/8 of our team, sorry, loading pictures is really slow here!! More pictures to come later.