OneEightyOne Student Ministries

 

            After a breakfast of scrambled eggs and a traditional rice and bean dish called gallo pinto, which I thought was delicious! We finish getting ready for and then traveled to La Vina del Este for church. I found it a real joy experiencing a worship service of our brothers in sisters in Christ. It also helped that I was near a translator during the service, so I was following the sermon fairly well. It centered around our call to show the same mercy that we receive from God to those around us, specifically those who are in need. We were informed that about 20% of families in Costa Rica live in poverty, which means that the average family of five is living off about $183 a month. The church had also created a team to head up their new efforts to be more intentional in reaching out to and helping to meet the needs of those in this community. In addition to praying for this new team and the larger effort that the church is making to reach the poor in the community they acknowledge our team and the work we will be doing this week!             After church we returned to the base for lunch. We then had some time of ice breaker games with the AIM team. They were quite impressed, and possibly a little frightened, over our team’s commitment to and aggressive nature during a game called by many names, but they called it “Chaos”. The gist of the game is that you have one person in the middle and everyone is sitting in chairs in a circle around them. The person in the middle give a statement about themselves that is true (i.e. This is my first trip to Costa Rica), and anyone else for whom the statement is true must switch seats, trying to avoid being in the middle. Our team has played it multiple times before. Our team is also competitive, and they really got into it. Let’s just say there were more than one occasion were our passionate team members showed their tenacity in wanting the last chair. We had a good time. After some time discussing the importance of prayer, and our need to listen to God’s response, particularly through His word, we spent time in prayer for each other and for God to speak to us this week. It was a fantastic afternoon!             Before dinner, we were able to travel to the local Walmart (yup, Walmart) that is about 4 blocks away and we stocked up on some supplies for a potential ministry opportunity later this week. Many also took the opportunity to stock up a little more on the essentials; snacks, drinks, and treats to enjoy this week. Then we came back together for dinner, a time for some worship and discussing the plans for tomorrow’s work groups.             We are all excited for the work starting tomorrow. Please be praying for us as we had out to serve at three different ministries tomorrow. Pray that we’ll continue to work together well as a team and to tackle our work with the same energy and enthusiasm that we have for our games this afternoon. Also be praying for opportunities to connect with the folks we’ll be serving. For many, it is intimidating to try and talk to a stranger back home, but then add the language and cultural differences, and it could seem impossible. However, we have translators with us AND we serve a God who has a track record of accomplishing the impossible. I am excited to share tomorrow all about how God has answered our prayers!   Because of Christ,

The sunrise from the back of the AIM base.

A panoramic shot of our back yard.

All loaded up and heading to church!

Just waiting for church to start. The gentleman standing in the back was our translator.

Our time together before playing the ice breaker games.

A couple of exotic  fruits we were able to try tonight. Most everyone agrees, the little red fruits were the best.

While there has been no shortage of food, and everyone seems to be enjoying it, this is the teams stash of snacks and treats that have been accumulated thus far!