July 1-12 - PureWater PureLife teams in the Dominican Republic and Costa Rica
Acts 1:8 Team in the Dominican Republic
Received July 7, 2008
Hey everyone,
We first want to thank you for all of the encouragement you gave us prior to the trip as well as the prayers you are lifting up during this time. We need your continual prayers so we may receive from God renewed strength, discernment, and health. Things are going well around here. Yesterday was our last day at the Dominican school. We invited two volunteers from the YWAM house and they brought a large speaker to play music in the playground area. We did a lot of dancing with the children who love merengue, so we learned a new dance. Some caught on faster than others, but we all had an amazing time!
Other members of the team completed the water purification project. It was a miracle because they finished early in the afternoon and were able to educate some ladies on how to use the system. The young women picked up the process quickly and should have pure drinking water as you are reading this e-mail. The experience at the Dominican school was one that has blessed and transformed each team member.
Yesterday evening we assisted in a street evangelism service. The service was held at the home of Pastor Antonio, a man who received a water system in his home (to be administered to his community) last October. We set up chairs down the dirt road in front of his house and there were many community members in attendance. JC shared his testimony with the crowd, Tony gave a message that the Lord had put on his heart, and Garett closed the evening with prayer and a call to salvation. The diversity of the congregants and the ministry of Pastor Antonio to his community opened our eyes to the diversity of the Lord's work in this world.
This morning we attended a local church. Learning a little merengue at the school paid off because during the worship everyone was singing and dancing. We all loved it and although we understood only a few of the songs we were able to worship and praise the Lord with people of a different language. After church we ate some American food for the first time since we arrived, and then returned home to rest.
We are currently resting and preparing for our first day at the Haitian church. We will go there tomorrow to assess the site, invite community members to the following day's health education, and shop for supplies at the hardware store. Please pray for us as we set up the purifier in this very poor community and minister to people in the community. Please pray that our hearts will be soft and sensitive to the leadership of the Holy Spirit. Please pray that we will be transformed and become more like Jesus Christ as we minister to some of the most beautiful and gracious people. Thank you and know that we love and appreciate you all.
Dios le vendiga, Acts 1:8 Team
received July 4, 2008 from DR
Greetings Family and Friends,
We embarked on a new journey on Tuesday at 7:30 AM as the plane left the ground: destination Atlanta. From Atlanta we traveled to the Dominican Republic, where the heat hit us like a punch in the face. As we walked to the buses (all people intact, one bag short) I heard a local open the window of his van as he was pulling off, and say, "Watch Out! Traffic is much different here, Welcome the the Dominican Republic." Boy, he wasn't kidding! Different is the only word to describe the traffic here. People walk in between vehicles and switch lanes without warning. Julio, one of our translators, said, "Traffic laws are only suggestions!"
However, we made it to YWAM (Youth With A Mission) safely. The first day, we didn't do much of anything. Getting adjusted to the climate was a task in itself. One of our team members had a little bit of pesos (Dominican money) so a few of us went down to the "Colmado" (mini-market) and bought sodas made with pure sugar cane! These aren't like any cokes you'll ever have in the states! Very delicious!
The second day, we went to the school where we are installing a water purifier. We got to play with the children and became very familiar with the phrases, "hola-hello" "como estas- how are you?" "como te llamas- what is your name?" "aqui-here" and "NO ENTIENDO- i don't understand"... Despite the language barrier, it was such a blessing to play with the kids and hear their laughs and see their smiles.
Last night, a few of us got to visit the Haitian church that we will be working next week. It is really eye opening to see the reality of where these people are getting their water. Their water comes from a concrete square in the ground, cockroaches are abundant and dogs and the like. To give these people the blessing of pure water is SO exciting! They are constantly saying thank you and blessing us for coming, but it is all due to our Savior, Jesus Christ.
Today, we went back to the school. A few of our teammates worked on painting "los banos" (the bathrooms) in a very bright blue color. Others on the team worked on the room preparing the area for the installation of the water purifier. Bowin, one of our leaders, says we are about 85% finished with that project. We also held two sessions of health education (one for children and one for adults), and spent time teaching them things like how to wash hands, brush teeth and the importance of drinking purified water! We also had a time where two of our teammates shared their testimonies and the kids were given a chance to pray and receive Christ. Most of them prayed, but it is very hard to follow up and really disciple them considering time and the language barrier.
Our worship times in the morning contain a mix of Spanish and English songs, prayers and verses. It has been a true blessing to worship with the peoples of a different nation! Our food has been AMAZING (a great change from fast food every night in the U.S.)!!! Running water has been sparse and some of us have learned how to take showers out of a bucket, we count it all as blessings. Our experience has been nothing short of amazing, and we are not even half way through.
Tonight, we have another group joining us in the YWAM house. Twenty-one more people will be showering, eating and sleeping with us. Though they are on a different project, this will add a whole different aspect to our experience. Pray for the amount of people in the house, that we would live in harmony. Pray for the school that we are working at, for their water and their health in general. Pray that they would take the things that they have learned about health and apply them to their lives. Pray that their decisions to invite Christ into their hearts were genuine and life-changing. Pray for the Haitian church that we will be working with next week. And also- pray for our health and safety and growth in the Lord.
May God continue to work in your lives as He so evidently is in ours! How great is the God we serve!
Dios Le Bendiga (God Bless You)
-The Acts 1:8 Team
Received July 4, 2008 from New Goshen Presbyterian Church in Costa Rica
Hey gang,
Just a quick note to let you know that we are all well, tired...sore...hot....but really well. We are staying in Nosara at a little place that is really a slice of paradise. We work until we can't stand up any more than take a little dip in the pool, oh...poor us, than dripping wet we start all over. Yesterday (day 1) we dug a 75 foot trench that was 14 inches deep. I know this for a fact because Wendy and I paced it off so we could have bragging rites. While most of us were on the digging chain gang, Kurtis and Justin and Nathanel took off to the hardware store to gather supplies needed such as tanks, piping, etc. We have all decided that Wendy is dangerous flinging a pick in the ditch....I am woman hear me roar was kind of the theme there for a minute. Anyways, those lazy boys :) came back and they didn't even have the supplies they needed, there was only one tank in this little town and the store was delivering the rest. Talking about the one tank, thank goodness the Lindsay girls are little, we lowered them into the tanks with some soap and a scrub brush and they went to town cleaning out the spiderwebs, dirt and junk in these tanks. Day one finished with devotions and prayer around the pool than a quick dip and a deep well deserved sleep for all.
All is well....Paige has decided to become a plumber, Delaney is a hod carrier (that's a wheelbarrow hauler for those of you wondering) the Lindsay girls are tank scubbers, Linda is feeling a little under the weather but came out for dinner tonight so we are hopeful that she is on the road to recovery, I've decided that Justin is a man of many questions and many talents kind of a jack of all trades, Nathanael, being the tallest is coming in handy when we are hauling roofs around (I'll tell you more about that later), Vickie has decided that maybe she is here for other reasons not just because she is watching out for her husband and grandson, Dave is a work horse, out of control and Kurtis is Kurtis with his well designed plans....Oh, and Ruthanna and I, we rock at breaking up cement blocks it's kind of theraputic besides it makes you look tough.
God is good, He is taking care of all His children. We miss you, we love you and we can't wait to see you all
Blessings,
Claudia and the NewGoshenPresbyterianChurch team
St Matthews Baptist Church News from Costa Rica
Posted June 23
St Matthews Baptist Church in Louisville, KY took over 60 people to Costa Rica June 14-21. They did several projects including 3 water treatment installs. EDGE OUTREACH provided leadership to work with the St. Matthews team at each water site. These pics are from those sites.
KBC Baptist Campus Ministry Team in Costa Rica, May 25 - June 12, 2008
Posted June 10
Hey all! Wow, it is amazing what can happen in a week without an internet connection. Hope you all are well and, as I hear, enjoying the hot weather.
Thanks for letting me know about Britt's dad. The family is in our prayers.
We are in La Fortuna right now and have some wi-fi going on. YAAAAAAHHHH! My apologies to those of you who have been trying to call on the cell phone but could not get through. It was not ringing for several days, but I think it is working just fine now.
The team is doing great, although very sad to leave us soon. They have had a great time here and built some awesome relationships.
Some amazing times have been had over the week. Last Tuesday we revisited El Hotel and La Libertad. I have never seen anything like this...Pastor Hugo from the church had recruited a lot of folks from the community to purify the water. Get this...folks argue over who is going to purify it! :) Also, because of the system, the president of the community of El Hotel, a woman who once hated the pastor, has come to know the Lord. Her entire countenance has changed soooo much! Mark, you will love this. The folks who are currently purifing the water are Jehovah's Witnesses! Slowly they are starting to ask questions about Christ and are in love with purifying the water. They walk several miles each week to come and purify the water. When we went to El Hotel to see the system there, we were overwhelmed that the whole community showed up to see us. They showered us with watermelons and coconuts. They are purifying 3 times a week, people come daily for water (we got to see them lined up!), and they proudly showed us their log, filled with every purification since we left. It was one of those moments when you just don't know what to say or even have the words to thank God for what he has done there!
The rest of our week was spent in the town of Filadelfia. We installed a water purifier in Pastor Fidel's church...a GREAT install! We trained 4 men on Saturday on the system, and yesterday after a church service of blessing, got to see the tanks emptied as the community lined up with their pechingas for water. They have 6 other sites (wow) they want us to look at for the future. It was an awesome community. The team loved on the kids and the adults as well. Jeremy and Ryan became quite the handyman trio too, helping Don Carlos, the pastor's right hand man create a new trench through a concrete wall (!) so that the church would not flood anymore. What a project! Gosh, because of all the rain and storms, we have seen the need for disaster relief here more than ever before. It might be a new frontier for us here in the future as the weather worldwide continues to shift.
Also, I went with Pastor Pablo a few days ago to visit an interesting site in Las Caneles de los Pozos. Small poor community that lives off of 2 wells...that run out of water for three months during the year. Lots of work still to be done! :)
Hope you all are well, blessed, and know that you are in my prayers. I love and miss y'all! Please feel free to forward this message on.
Blessings,
Adrienne
Posted June 6
Yesterday was an incredible day. It was very long but so God filled. We went to Pastor Angel's church in the morning and got to sing several songs for their congregation. It is a very sweet church and we really enjoyed worshipping and praying with them. We went to lunch afterwards and then traveled to Linda Vista in order to start training the Pastor on the purifier and go to their service. This service was incredible as well and we also got to share a time of worship and prayer with them. They made a little video that had a lot of pictures of the work we did and they just thanked us for coming to be with them. Just spending time with the people of the church after service was probably one of the best parts of the day. After the service, most of the team remained upstairs working with some of the children and several people helped to continue training the pastor and the man who lives in the church, max. Please pray for their system because it works extremely slow. Their water is very dirty (it comes from a stream and has to travel through a cow pasture) and there is low water pressure that feeds the purifier. But the good news is that they have clean water now! Praise Him!
Know that everyone back home is missed greatly and prayed for daily.
Grace and Peace,
The Costa Rica team
Courtney
Posted May 31
The last couple days have been awesome! We are still serving in the community of Buena Vista, which is about 25 minutes from the mission house in San Jose. Today, we completed installation of the purification system and were able to train the women of the church how to use it. Although we spent a lot of time troubleshooting yesterday, we were able to find the source of the problem and it was a great feeling to chlorinate our first tank of water. We were also able to talk with a few of the women about health education, including worms, parasites, diseases, diarrhea, and the importance of using the Oral rehydrationh solution. The women at the Church, Palabra de Vida, have been so warm and hospitable. They are always willing to help us and often are able to anticipate whatever we need or could want. They have also made us three wonderful lunches and numerous snacks the last couple of days.
Yesterday, members of the team had the opportunity to speak to many classes at the elementary school in both the morning and the afternoon. We talked about brushing teeth, washing hands, nutrition, and diarrhea. Some classes were shy, while others really interacted with us and the demonstrations. They had many questions and we were able to clear up some common misconceptions. The children were so sweet and appreciative. Some even wanted our signatures in their notebooks and followed us to the door of the classroom. We are also planning to do more health education with the children at the church tomorrow.
Finally, a major project that the team undertook this week was the improvement of the road that leads to the church. Buena Vista is on the edge of a mountainside and as a result, they get terrible flooding and have problems with mud. We successfully widened and deepened the ditch alongside the road to prevent flooding of the street and were able to fill in the muddy patches and giant holes in the road with gravel. The road looks amazing since the beginning of the week. We have had so much rain this week, that many team members who worked with shovels on the road are starting to forget what dry feels like. Also, some of us cleaned out the gutters and eaves of the church so that the outside walkway lights would be seen because there were so many feathers, leaves, and bird feces. That was an interesting job, but it was a definite help to the church.
We had the opportunity to attend a worship service at Pastor Angel�s church and to practice afterward so that we can sing and play on Sunday. It was really wonderful when the members of the church laid hands on the team and prayed for us, as well as when we worshiped in Spanish. Daniel, our translator, has been wonderful this week, and we are so grateful and pleased to have him.
Thank you all for praying for us. Until next time!
Margaret Deardurff
Costa Rica Team
Posted May 31
Well, we managed to survive Tropical Storm Alma. Since I last wrote, it has barely stopped raining. Apparently a tropical storm rolled in Thursday and lasted through Friday. It pretty much rains here everyday, but the locals said even this was unusual. I�ve never seen so much rain in my entire life...
The past few days we�ve been in a place called Linda Vista, which translates to �beautiful view.� It is aptly named, because you can see the whole city from there. What the name doesn�t tell you is that the village is built on the side of a landfill and fairly impoverished. It�s not such a pretty view within. We have been helping install a water purifier at a church in Linda Vista. We had hoped that while we were doing that we could also play with some kids in the community and teach them health education, but the rain prevented most of that.
The rain however showed the need for another project. The road leading up to the church was entirely mud and flooded badly when it rained. Since we weren�t going to work with the kids, a few of us made it a priority to fix the road and the drainage ditch beside it. After about 4 days of shoveling and a large shipment of gravel, as of this afternoon the ditch and road are fixed. The ditch no longer overflows (even in a tropical storm!) and the road no longer shifts when cars drive over it. It worked out great because the water purifier was completed this morning, and now the community had a reliable road to come and get clean water. We could definitely see God´s timing on that.
I�m not sure when I will get to email next. Tuesday we are headed to �the country,� which kind of makes me wonder after seeing �the city.� We will be going to a town called Filadelphia to install another water system, teach health ed, and share Jesus with the people. I hear there are a lot of scorpions there which should be interesting.
Thank you so much for your prayers. Also, my Spanish is improving greatly, but my first inclination is still to speak Polish. Please be in prayer for our travel next week. Also, if you get this today (Saturday) please pray for me tonight. I will be sharing my testimony with the youth at the church this evening. Please pray that their hearts would be open to what God wants to teach them through that.
Hasta Luego,
Jon
Comic Relief: So our bus driver Telo is pretty awesome. He knows about as much English as I know Spanish. Yesterday he broke one of the shovels and we had about a 15 minute conversation trying to figure out the English and Spanish words for �broken" and �shovel.� It was 15 minutes well spent :). Guess you�d had to be there to get the full effect, but if you�ve done any foreign travel you could probably appreciate that.
First Post May 29
What a trip we've been on! From having a flight cancelled and then delayed, getting us in-country about 2 in the morning on Monday to rain everyday all day, this team has proved their fluidity! We were in La Carpio Monday and Tuesday loving on muddy, grimy, yet beautiful smiling children. We played some intense games of soccer, did puppets til everyone's arms were falling off, and painted faces, hands and arms of a bunch of excited children. It was so amazing to see how the team was connecting with individual children there. So many of the students could not get passed the fact that the kids do not get to eat 3 meals everyday. It was such an impactful time for everyone.
The system is doing great there. They have started a weekly cooking class and the women from La Carpio are getting water then. Steve and the kids are dreaming of starting a band soon! Our favorite one, Nelson, is doing well...thank God! After we left in January, he willingly went into drug rehab in Limon and is doing well there. He is happy and Steve said chubby. Amazing what 3 meals a day and no drugs will do for you. He is also making goals and plans for the future. Everyone has high hopes that this, with the help of the Lord, is just what he needed to turn his life back around.
Wednesday and today, Thursday, we have been in Linda Vista, a slum perched on the edge of the mountains, near the garbage dump for the city of San Jose. We have been installing a 2 tank system in the basement/storage area of the church. The pastor, an incredible welder and builder, made a great metal tables for the system and we are moving along on the install. We will be purifying by tomorrow afternoon and teaching the community as well! There have not been any kids at the church because of the torrential rain and horrid conditions of the road to the church. The team has been working with Pastor Angel and the church's pastor, Randall, to repair the road and dig a ditch to advert the water off of the road. The work they have done is already bearing fruit as we watch the rain pour everyday. Those not working on the install have also been working with the pastor to love on the church and the church members who greet us there everyday with smiling faces, eager to build relationship with us. Tomorrow, part of the team will head to the school up the hill (I mean up the hill...to get to the top you climb about 10 plus flights of stairs!) to teach health education to about 200 kids.
We are looking forward to our next install next week in Filadelfia and what God has in store for us there!
The team is also so musical that we have our own band, complete with singers, guitarists (acoustic and electric), drums, and a tamborine! We'll be playing at two church services on Sunday.
Pray for us as we feel the warmth of the sun shining from the hearts of those we are serving. Much love to you all! We appreciate your prayers.
Blessings,
Adrienne
Received July 7, 2008
Hey everyone,
We first want to thank you for all of the encouragement you gave us prior to the trip as well as the prayers you are lifting up during this time. We need your continual prayers so we may receive from God renewed strength, discernment, and health. Things are going well around here. Yesterday was our last day at the Dominican school. We invited two volunteers from the YWAM house and they brought a large speaker to play music in the playground area. We did a lot of dancing with the children who love merengue, so we learned a new dance. Some caught on faster than others, but we all had an amazing time!
Other members of the team completed the water purification project. It was a miracle because they finished early in the afternoon and were able to educate some ladies on how to use the system. The young women picked up the process quickly and should have pure drinking water as you are reading this e-mail. The experience at the Dominican school was one that has blessed and transformed each team member.
Yesterday evening we assisted in a street evangelism service. The service was held at the home of Pastor Antonio, a man who received a water system in his home (to be administered to his community) last October. We set up chairs down the dirt road in front of his house and there were many community members in attendance. JC shared his testimony with the crowd, Tony gave a message that the Lord had put on his heart, and Garett closed the evening with prayer and a call to salvation. The diversity of the congregants and the ministry of Pastor Antonio to his community opened our eyes to the diversity of the Lord's work in this world.
This morning we attended a local church. Learning a little merengue at the school paid off because during the worship everyone was singing and dancing. We all loved it and although we understood only a few of the songs we were able to worship and praise the Lord with people of a different language. After church we ate some American food for the first time since we arrived, and then returned home to rest.
We are currently resting and preparing for our first day at the Haitian church. We will go there tomorrow to assess the site, invite community members to the following day's health education, and shop for supplies at the hardware store. Please pray for us as we set up the purifier in this very poor community and minister to people in the community. Please pray that our hearts will be soft and sensitive to the leadership of the Holy Spirit. Please pray that we will be transformed and become more like Jesus Christ as we minister to some of the most beautiful and gracious people. Thank you and know that we love and appreciate you all.
Dios le vendiga, Acts 1:8 Team
received July 4, 2008 from DR
Greetings Family and Friends,
We embarked on a new journey on Tuesday at 7:30 AM as the plane left the ground: destination Atlanta. From Atlanta we traveled to the Dominican Republic, where the heat hit us like a punch in the face. As we walked to the buses (all people intact, one bag short) I heard a local open the window of his van as he was pulling off, and say, "Watch Out! Traffic is much different here, Welcome the the Dominican Republic." Boy, he wasn't kidding! Different is the only word to describe the traffic here. People walk in between vehicles and switch lanes without warning. Julio, one of our translators, said, "Traffic laws are only suggestions!"
However, we made it to YWAM (Youth With A Mission) safely. The first day, we didn't do much of anything. Getting adjusted to the climate was a task in itself. One of our team members had a little bit of pesos (Dominican money) so a few of us went down to the "Colmado" (mini-market) and bought sodas made with pure sugar cane! These aren't like any cokes you'll ever have in the states! Very delicious!
The second day, we went to the school where we are installing a water purifier. We got to play with the children and became very familiar with the phrases, "hola-hello" "como estas- how are you?" "como te llamas- what is your name?" "aqui-here" and "NO ENTIENDO- i don't understand"... Despite the language barrier, it was such a blessing to play with the kids and hear their laughs and see their smiles.
Last night, a few of us got to visit the Haitian church that we will be working next week. It is really eye opening to see the reality of where these people are getting their water. Their water comes from a concrete square in the ground, cockroaches are abundant and dogs and the like. To give these people the blessing of pure water is SO exciting! They are constantly saying thank you and blessing us for coming, but it is all due to our Savior, Jesus Christ.
Today, we went back to the school. A few of our teammates worked on painting "los banos" (the bathrooms) in a very bright blue color. Others on the team worked on the room preparing the area for the installation of the water purifier. Bowin, one of our leaders, says we are about 85% finished with that project. We also held two sessions of health education (one for children and one for adults), and spent time teaching them things like how to wash hands, brush teeth and the importance of drinking purified water! We also had a time where two of our teammates shared their testimonies and the kids were given a chance to pray and receive Christ. Most of them prayed, but it is very hard to follow up and really disciple them considering time and the language barrier.
Our worship times in the morning contain a mix of Spanish and English songs, prayers and verses. It has been a true blessing to worship with the peoples of a different nation! Our food has been AMAZING (a great change from fast food every night in the U.S.)!!! Running water has been sparse and some of us have learned how to take showers out of a bucket, we count it all as blessings. Our experience has been nothing short of amazing, and we are not even half way through.
Tonight, we have another group joining us in the YWAM house. Twenty-one more people will be showering, eating and sleeping with us. Though they are on a different project, this will add a whole different aspect to our experience. Pray for the amount of people in the house, that we would live in harmony. Pray for the school that we are working at, for their water and their health in general. Pray that they would take the things that they have learned about health and apply them to their lives. Pray that their decisions to invite Christ into their hearts were genuine and life-changing. Pray for the Haitian church that we will be working with next week. And also- pray for our health and safety and growth in the Lord.
May God continue to work in your lives as He so evidently is in ours! How great is the God we serve!
Dios Le Bendiga (God Bless You)
-The Acts 1:8 Team
Received July 4, 2008 from New Goshen Presbyterian Church in Costa Rica
Hey gang,
Just a quick note to let you know that we are all well, tired...sore...hot....but really well. We are staying in Nosara at a little place that is really a slice of paradise. We work until we can't stand up any more than take a little dip in the pool, oh...poor us, than dripping wet we start all over. Yesterday (day 1) we dug a 75 foot trench that was 14 inches deep. I know this for a fact because Wendy and I paced it off so we could have bragging rites. While most of us were on the digging chain gang, Kurtis and Justin and Nathanel took off to the hardware store to gather supplies needed such as tanks, piping, etc. We have all decided that Wendy is dangerous flinging a pick in the ditch....I am woman hear me roar was kind of the theme there for a minute. Anyways, those lazy boys :) came back and they didn't even have the supplies they needed, there was only one tank in this little town and the store was delivering the rest. Talking about the one tank, thank goodness the Lindsay girls are little, we lowered them into the tanks with some soap and a scrub brush and they went to town cleaning out the spiderwebs, dirt and junk in these tanks. Day one finished with devotions and prayer around the pool than a quick dip and a deep well deserved sleep for all.
All is well....Paige has decided to become a plumber, Delaney is a hod carrier (that's a wheelbarrow hauler for those of you wondering) the Lindsay girls are tank scubbers, Linda is feeling a little under the weather but came out for dinner tonight so we are hopeful that she is on the road to recovery, I've decided that Justin is a man of many questions and many talents kind of a jack of all trades, Nathanael, being the tallest is coming in handy when we are hauling roofs around (I'll tell you more about that later), Vickie has decided that maybe she is here for other reasons not just because she is watching out for her husband and grandson, Dave is a work horse, out of control and Kurtis is Kurtis with his well designed plans....Oh, and Ruthanna and I, we rock at breaking up cement blocks it's kind of theraputic besides it makes you look tough.
God is good, He is taking care of all His children. We miss you, we love you and we can't wait to see you all
Blessings,
Claudia and the NewGoshenPresbyterianChurch team
St Matthews Baptist Church News from Costa Rica
Posted June 23
St Matthews Baptist Church in Louisville, KY took over 60 people to Costa Rica June 14-21. They did several projects including 3 water treatment installs. EDGE OUTREACH provided leadership to work with the St. Matthews team at each water site. These pics are from those sites.
KBC Baptist Campus Ministry Team in Costa Rica, May 25 - June 12, 2008
Posted June 10
Hey all! Wow, it is amazing what can happen in a week without an internet connection. Hope you all are well and, as I hear, enjoying the hot weather.
Thanks for letting me know about Britt's dad. The family is in our prayers.
We are in La Fortuna right now and have some wi-fi going on. YAAAAAAHHHH! My apologies to those of you who have been trying to call on the cell phone but could not get through. It was not ringing for several days, but I think it is working just fine now.
The team is doing great, although very sad to leave us soon. They have had a great time here and built some awesome relationships.
Some amazing times have been had over the week. Last Tuesday we revisited El Hotel and La Libertad. I have never seen anything like this...Pastor Hugo from the church had recruited a lot of folks from the community to purify the water. Get this...folks argue over who is going to purify it! :) Also, because of the system, the president of the community of El Hotel, a woman who once hated the pastor, has come to know the Lord. Her entire countenance has changed soooo much! Mark, you will love this. The folks who are currently purifing the water are Jehovah's Witnesses! Slowly they are starting to ask questions about Christ and are in love with purifying the water. They walk several miles each week to come and purify the water. When we went to El Hotel to see the system there, we were overwhelmed that the whole community showed up to see us. They showered us with watermelons and coconuts. They are purifying 3 times a week, people come daily for water (we got to see them lined up!), and they proudly showed us their log, filled with every purification since we left. It was one of those moments when you just don't know what to say or even have the words to thank God for what he has done there!
The rest of our week was spent in the town of Filadelfia. We installed a water purifier in Pastor Fidel's church...a GREAT install! We trained 4 men on Saturday on the system, and yesterday after a church service of blessing, got to see the tanks emptied as the community lined up with their pechingas for water. They have 6 other sites (wow) they want us to look at for the future. It was an awesome community. The team loved on the kids and the adults as well. Jeremy and Ryan became quite the handyman trio too, helping Don Carlos, the pastor's right hand man create a new trench through a concrete wall (!) so that the church would not flood anymore. What a project! Gosh, because of all the rain and storms, we have seen the need for disaster relief here more than ever before. It might be a new frontier for us here in the future as the weather worldwide continues to shift.
Also, I went with Pastor Pablo a few days ago to visit an interesting site in Las Caneles de los Pozos. Small poor community that lives off of 2 wells...that run out of water for three months during the year. Lots of work still to be done! :)
Hope you all are well, blessed, and know that you are in my prayers. I love and miss y'all! Please feel free to forward this message on.
Blessings,
Adrienne
Posted June 6
Yesterday was an incredible day. It was very long but so God filled. We went to Pastor Angel's church in the morning and got to sing several songs for their congregation. It is a very sweet church and we really enjoyed worshipping and praying with them. We went to lunch afterwards and then traveled to Linda Vista in order to start training the Pastor on the purifier and go to their service. This service was incredible as well and we also got to share a time of worship and prayer with them. They made a little video that had a lot of pictures of the work we did and they just thanked us for coming to be with them. Just spending time with the people of the church after service was probably one of the best parts of the day. After the service, most of the team remained upstairs working with some of the children and several people helped to continue training the pastor and the man who lives in the church, max. Please pray for their system because it works extremely slow. Their water is very dirty (it comes from a stream and has to travel through a cow pasture) and there is low water pressure that feeds the purifier. But the good news is that they have clean water now! Praise Him!
Know that everyone back home is missed greatly and prayed for daily.
Grace and Peace,
The Costa Rica team
Courtney
Posted May 31
The last couple days have been awesome! We are still serving in the community of Buena Vista, which is about 25 minutes from the mission house in San Jose. Today, we completed installation of the purification system and were able to train the women of the church how to use it. Although we spent a lot of time troubleshooting yesterday, we were able to find the source of the problem and it was a great feeling to chlorinate our first tank of water. We were also able to talk with a few of the women about health education, including worms, parasites, diseases, diarrhea, and the importance of using the Oral rehydrationh solution. The women at the Church, Palabra de Vida, have been so warm and hospitable. They are always willing to help us and often are able to anticipate whatever we need or could want. They have also made us three wonderful lunches and numerous snacks the last couple of days.
Yesterday, members of the team had the opportunity to speak to many classes at the elementary school in both the morning and the afternoon. We talked about brushing teeth, washing hands, nutrition, and diarrhea. Some classes were shy, while others really interacted with us and the demonstrations. They had many questions and we were able to clear up some common misconceptions. The children were so sweet and appreciative. Some even wanted our signatures in their notebooks and followed us to the door of the classroom. We are also planning to do more health education with the children at the church tomorrow.
Finally, a major project that the team undertook this week was the improvement of the road that leads to the church. Buena Vista is on the edge of a mountainside and as a result, they get terrible flooding and have problems with mud. We successfully widened and deepened the ditch alongside the road to prevent flooding of the street and were able to fill in the muddy patches and giant holes in the road with gravel. The road looks amazing since the beginning of the week. We have had so much rain this week, that many team members who worked with shovels on the road are starting to forget what dry feels like. Also, some of us cleaned out the gutters and eaves of the church so that the outside walkway lights would be seen because there were so many feathers, leaves, and bird feces. That was an interesting job, but it was a definite help to the church.
We had the opportunity to attend a worship service at Pastor Angel�s church and to practice afterward so that we can sing and play on Sunday. It was really wonderful when the members of the church laid hands on the team and prayed for us, as well as when we worshiped in Spanish. Daniel, our translator, has been wonderful this week, and we are so grateful and pleased to have him.
Thank you all for praying for us. Until next time!
Margaret Deardurff
Costa Rica Team
Posted May 31
Well, we managed to survive Tropical Storm Alma. Since I last wrote, it has barely stopped raining. Apparently a tropical storm rolled in Thursday and lasted through Friday. It pretty much rains here everyday, but the locals said even this was unusual. I�ve never seen so much rain in my entire life...
The past few days we�ve been in a place called Linda Vista, which translates to �beautiful view.� It is aptly named, because you can see the whole city from there. What the name doesn�t tell you is that the village is built on the side of a landfill and fairly impoverished. It�s not such a pretty view within. We have been helping install a water purifier at a church in Linda Vista. We had hoped that while we were doing that we could also play with some kids in the community and teach them health education, but the rain prevented most of that.
The rain however showed the need for another project. The road leading up to the church was entirely mud and flooded badly when it rained. Since we weren�t going to work with the kids, a few of us made it a priority to fix the road and the drainage ditch beside it. After about 4 days of shoveling and a large shipment of gravel, as of this afternoon the ditch and road are fixed. The ditch no longer overflows (even in a tropical storm!) and the road no longer shifts when cars drive over it. It worked out great because the water purifier was completed this morning, and now the community had a reliable road to come and get clean water. We could definitely see God´s timing on that.
I�m not sure when I will get to email next. Tuesday we are headed to �the country,� which kind of makes me wonder after seeing �the city.� We will be going to a town called Filadelphia to install another water system, teach health ed, and share Jesus with the people. I hear there are a lot of scorpions there which should be interesting.
Thank you so much for your prayers. Also, my Spanish is improving greatly, but my first inclination is still to speak Polish. Please be in prayer for our travel next week. Also, if you get this today (Saturday) please pray for me tonight. I will be sharing my testimony with the youth at the church this evening. Please pray that their hearts would be open to what God wants to teach them through that.
Hasta Luego,
Jon
Comic Relief: So our bus driver Telo is pretty awesome. He knows about as much English as I know Spanish. Yesterday he broke one of the shovels and we had about a 15 minute conversation trying to figure out the English and Spanish words for �broken" and �shovel.� It was 15 minutes well spent :). Guess you�d had to be there to get the full effect, but if you�ve done any foreign travel you could probably appreciate that.
First Post May 29
What a trip we've been on! From having a flight cancelled and then delayed, getting us in-country about 2 in the morning on Monday to rain everyday all day, this team has proved their fluidity! We were in La Carpio Monday and Tuesday loving on muddy, grimy, yet beautiful smiling children. We played some intense games of soccer, did puppets til everyone's arms were falling off, and painted faces, hands and arms of a bunch of excited children. It was so amazing to see how the team was connecting with individual children there. So many of the students could not get passed the fact that the kids do not get to eat 3 meals everyday. It was such an impactful time for everyone.
The system is doing great there. They have started a weekly cooking class and the women from La Carpio are getting water then. Steve and the kids are dreaming of starting a band soon! Our favorite one, Nelson, is doing well...thank God! After we left in January, he willingly went into drug rehab in Limon and is doing well there. He is happy and Steve said chubby. Amazing what 3 meals a day and no drugs will do for you. He is also making goals and plans for the future. Everyone has high hopes that this, with the help of the Lord, is just what he needed to turn his life back around.
Wednesday and today, Thursday, we have been in Linda Vista, a slum perched on the edge of the mountains, near the garbage dump for the city of San Jose. We have been installing a 2 tank system in the basement/storage area of the church. The pastor, an incredible welder and builder, made a great metal tables for the system and we are moving along on the install. We will be purifying by tomorrow afternoon and teaching the community as well! There have not been any kids at the church because of the torrential rain and horrid conditions of the road to the church. The team has been working with Pastor Angel and the church's pastor, Randall, to repair the road and dig a ditch to advert the water off of the road. The work they have done is already bearing fruit as we watch the rain pour everyday. Those not working on the install have also been working with the pastor to love on the church and the church members who greet us there everyday with smiling faces, eager to build relationship with us. Tomorrow, part of the team will head to the school up the hill (I mean up the hill...to get to the top you climb about 10 plus flights of stairs!) to teach health education to about 200 kids.
We are looking forward to our next install next week in Filadelfia and what God has in store for us there!
The team is also so musical that we have our own band, complete with singers, guitarists (acoustic and electric), drums, and a tamborine! We'll be playing at two church services on Sunday.
Pray for us as we feel the warmth of the sun shining from the hearts of those we are serving. Much love to you all! We appreciate your prayers.
Blessings,
Adrienne
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