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Buenos Dias! Today is our third day in Costa Rica and we all began serving at our ministry sites. We also engaged in group fellowship, study, and worship both before and after we served at our sites.
We started our day with devotions at the Students International Office at 7 am. Fortunately, Costa Rica is known for their fanatastic coffee so the early morning wasn’t too bad. Our devotion time focuses on the Church at Philippi, and today we read and discussed Acts 16:11-40. Our discussion primarily revolved around the way that Paul and Silas were “praying and singing hymns to God” while they were chained in a prison in Philippi. Shortly after, a violent earthquake caused the doors of the prison to open and their chains were broken. What stuck out to us was the way that Paul and Silas were praising God before their deliverance. They were still bound in the prison with no guarantee of being set free, and yet they still devoted themselves to praise and worship. This showed us that even in trials, we should show gratitude and praise God. We praise him for who he is, not for what he can do for us. Even if we remain in trials, we should continue praising him because he is Almighty and he is worthy of our praise. This devotion caused a powerful discussion in our group and was a great way for us to begin our day.
After we finished our time of devotion, we spent time in worship and prayer as a group. Then everyone began their journey to various ministry sites. The sites are: Social Services, Sports, Micro-finance/Social Work, Woodshop, and the Tutoring Center. We traveled by car and by bus and were all able to see new parts of San Jose.
I spent the day at the Social Services site in Las Fuentes with Mallorie, Andrew, Denise, and two-year-old Levi. We started the day with two hours of Zumba at a local church. Lisa, another servant with Students International, led us in dance and it was both challenging and highly entertaining. We were all given jingly belly dancing skirts, even Levi! It was really fun to do Zumba in Latin America, especially when most of the class participants were Costa Ricans or “ticos.”
After Zumba, we went back to the Social Services site and began working with a group of kids from the Las Fuentes community. We played board games, card games, foosball, and ping pong. We also made crafts with the students. Trying to teach a difficult craft to children who only speak Spanish definitely stretched our teaching skills. Some of the kids showed their appreciation to me by giving me fist bumps on their way out at the end of the day. It was a great experience.
We all seem to be settling in well with our host families. The language barrier has been difficult, but we are getting by. My host mother talks A LOT, so I am becoming quite fluent in the langauge of smiling and nodding. My roommate, Melissa, and I have been well fed and are being spoiled rotten.
Our exposure trip is off to a great start and we are all excited to see what the rest of our journey has in store for us. We are anxiously waiting for the World Cup game on Sunday to see if Costa Rica can continue their success. The whole town is going crazy about it, and the excitement is contagious. Thank you so much for all of your support and we hope that you will continue following our blog each day.