Thank you for praying for us. Thank you for supporting us, for buying the same food every sunday and for buying the T-shirts. We experienced so much in seven days, and the staff and students are so thankful for what God showed us. This trip has left and indelible mark on all of our lives. We all feel that we’ve been given much. And because we’ve been given much, much will be required from all of us. We hope to honor what God did by being more evangelistic at our schools and by loving the people that God has placed in our lives. We’ve all tasted the joy of working hard for the gospel. Please pray that we can continue that fervor.
The InterHigh 2010 Costa Rica Mission Team.
UPDATE: We added a video on the second day, where Noah Kang delivers a message on faith.
After six days of of hard work and evangelism, we rested on the seventh day. We took a nice trip to Poas Volcano, which is still active. Our goal was to make it there before it erupted and we were successful.
On the way, the brothers van broke down, and we spent the time playing “ninja,” while tourists were looking at us and while the sisters went souvenir shopping. We had a nice lunch at a nice restaurant. At the volcano, we saw the crater, a lake and even some wildlife.
The day ended with team time, where we shared about our favorite moment of the trip. We hope to share them with you at the next missions night.
Our sixth day was packed. After an early breakfast, we headed out to the poorest place in San Jose, and spent time at the Salvation Army, which has a food ministry to the homeless. We served breakfast, and presented several skits as well as messages. Our hearts broke when we heard their stories. All don’t have family or don’t know where they are since they are on the streets as well. Many have fallen into alcohol or drug addiction since they were ten. We had the chance to pray for some of the homeless who asked for prayer. One man even prayed the sinners prayer and repented of his sins.
Then quickly headed out to the center of town and performed our magic show, skits and messages at a park where many gathered. After our presentation, we spent time making balloon animals crafts for the children.
After lunch, we spent our afternoon at another poor part of town, where we ministered to children. Kristen Lee gave a message after illustrating how our sins ruin our hearts.
On our fifth day, we had to say goodbye to our Costa Rica brothers and sisters at Sarchi. We were thankful for the time that we had there. After a nice breakfast with some Maracuja (passion fruit), we headed over to the YWAM base, where we spent the day working.
We worked hard, cleaning up the YWAM base for their 50th anniversary celebration. Chris Ahn and Matthew Park and some other brothers used their big bodies to help take down some big bamboo trees. We praised God when many of the YWAM staff commented that they’ve never seen a group work so hard. They also mentioned that we were the only group to take down the bamboo.
Pura Vida! (That’s a common Costa Rican greeting, which means “Pure Life.”
We began our fourth day at 6am, waking up, washing up and eating breakfast. We attended the 8am worship service and introduced ourselves to the congregation that is hosting us. We performed the Burden Skit (where the protagonist tacks on burden (a backpack) in her life after she sins. She is able to remove those burdens through Jesus, who takes those burdens for her, freeing her to help others.
Pastor Will gave a short message on 1 John 1:9 and invited the congregation trust in God’s promise made in the verse. He also encouraged the church members to love others, for it is impossible to say we love God without loving our brothers (1 John 4). We heard that the churches in Costa Rica are not mission minded. They proclaim that their Christian but do not think about carrying the gospel mission to others. The pastor of the church challenged the entire congregation to do the same as he talked about what belongs in the church and what belongs in hell.
After service, we went to the local park and gathered anyone we could find to watch our presentation. We made balloon animals to draw people’s attention, and invited them to watch the Chair skit, performed by our clowns and the gospel rope presentation presented by Josh Jang. Afterwards, we left all the children with crafts to remind them about the gospel and about our time with them. Before we left, we spent some time cleaning up all the trash in the park. Some of the locals who were watching us commented that we were doing a beautiful thing. We were all encouraged that our God could be glorified through the simple witness of picking up garbage.
Lunch! A traditional Costa Rican meal, which was very delicious.
After lunch, we visited an orphanage an went through our usual repetoire of skits, songs and crafts. Stephen Sun gave a message on forgiveness of sin and repentance. He used a very special object lesson to communicate the power of Jesus to wash away our sins. Our hearts broke as Stephen led the children in prayer. After Vanessa’s translation, the children all recited the prayer. (We weren’t allowed to take pictures of the kids).
After the orphanage we had some time to do some souvenir shopping. We had a chance to visit a factory that makes wood souvenirs. The quality is excellent, and it’s amazing what they can make with wood. Their craftsmanship was excellent, and we were able to buy some souvenirs at a good discount.
Dinner! Hot dogs and fries!
After dinner, we spent some time with the brothers and sisters who have been serving us, providing for us and driving us around. They shared their testimonies with us and we were all brought to tears as we heard about broken pasts and about how God had given them a new life. We had a powerful time of prayer for them and we had a chance to share how we were thankful and how we were challenged by their testimonies and their lives. We were reminded that we have the same God, and if God could work powerfully in their lives then God can work powerfully in ours.
Our time in Sarchi, Costa Rica is coming to an end. Tomorrow we will be driving to San Jose, the capital and will be ministering to a more urban area. Thank you for praying for us!
Hola! We just finished our third day in Costa Rica. The day started at 6:30 with Bible reading DT in Isaiah 1-15 and breakfast. We made our way out to a drug/alcohol rehab center that the church (where we are staying at) owns. It’s out in the country side, and it was quite an adventure getting there. We drove through muddy roads, saw a coffee plant (Costa Rica grows a lot of coffee), and saw the incredible country side.
The rehab center is a fairly new ministry and is led by a director who is a former addict himself. He shared his testimony with us and told us that for 26 years he was addicted, and he’s been clean for the past year and half because of what Jesus did in his life. He said for 26 years, he was useless but for the past one and a half he has been useful. By the grace of God he’s running an entire farm, ministering to five young men who are going through the program.
We had four of our brothers fellowship with the residents at the center. They shared their testimony and a message, and they had a chance to hear the testimonies of some of the brothers. These young men, who have all surrendered their lives to Christ and are learning to rebuild their lives, became addicted to substances at the age of ten.
The rest of us helped out by working on the farm. The brothers used machetes to weed an entire hillside and the sisters dug ditches. (The brothers volunteered to dig ditches but the director didn’t want the sisters using machetes).
On the way back, one of our vans got stuck and it was quite an adventure getting it out of the mud. After a nice cold shower and a nice hot lunch we went to one of the poorest areas in Costa Rica. At a village, we went door to door to invite children out to the center of the village to watch our program. It felt like the parable of the banquet where we were invited the children to come and experience the word of God. Many kids came (about 45) but many rejected our offer or their parents did not allow them to come.
We performed our usual program: magic show, praise songs clown skit and a message. The clowns performed the chair skit while Thanh Le gave a message on God’s creation. He said that God’s favorite part of creation was creating you (the children). Throughout the message, the children followed along by drawing a picture of creation, where they are at the center.
After a nice hot dinner (Costa Rican Soup, consisting of many different types of squash and short-ribs), which was tasty, we led a youth revival program. Many of the church youth students (junior high school to mid 20s) came to hear Will Bae’s testimony, the cross-shaped void skit and a message from Pastor Will on Isaiah 55. Pastor Will urged the christians to live a pure life (Pura Vida, which means pure life, is a popular greeting in Costa Rica), free from idols, so that their souls can experience the richest of fare: a love relationship with God and joyful mission work. The pastors have been telling us that the young Christians in Costa Rica need a vision for themselves to reach out to others.
We ended the outreach night with fellowship, and with the balloon tied to your ankle popping game. It was a big hit. We gave the winner (Marcos) a nice candy bar from one of our care packages (Thank you for the care packages).
The day ended as usual with team time. One of the students felt like complaining a lot throughout the day, but felt ashamed when he saw the faces of the students and realized that they live in poverty 24/7. He shared, “how can I complain possibly complain?” Seeing the children’s faces gave him proper perspective, he shared.
That’s it for the third day. Thank you for praying for us!
We started the second day at Costa Rica by waking up from the hard floors of the church building at 6:00am. We had PB&J sandwiches and cereal for breakfast. Then we did our DT by reviewing our memory verses from the past week and by reading Isaiah 1-15.
Our first stop was at an Elementary school (Escuela Eulogio Salazar). We started our program with a magic show from Philip Sun. Then we performed our praise songs (Amazing Love and Your Love is Deep). Our clowns performed a smiles skit, followed by a message from Noah Kang on faith. The skit and the message show that God is real, even though we can’t see him. After the message, we played “Dragon Paper Rock Scissors” where the winner forms a long line behind him by beating others. It was crazy with all of those students.
After the program, we helped the school by picking up trash and by spending time with sixth graders, where we had a chance to converse with the students in English. In Costa Rica, english is taught in the first grade. Primary school is mandatory for Costa Rica, but many do not continue on to secondary school, preferring to work instead. Few go to university.
We had brunch at the school and ate gallo-pinto, which is the Costa Rican staple food, and consists of beans, rice and some meat.. It’s common for almost every meal.
In the afternoon, we visited an elderly home. Sara Lee performed a magic show, which was followed by a gospel presentation (using rope) from Josh Jang. We sang “The Lord bless you and keep you,” and spent the remainder of the afternoon by making a cross necklace (made from beads) and by serving the residents dinner.
We had an American dinner (hamburger and fries), which the church staff gladly prepared. Due to the heavy rain, we had to cancel our evening plans, which was to go feed the homeless. So we had team time, where we had a talent show, sang hymns and shared about what we experienced. One student shared about how he felt his heart growing for one of the elderly. Even though he couldn’t communicate in spanish, he felt more love and compassion for them. Another student shared how the mission work that we did could be done at home and that we don’t need something special like a mission trip to do God’s work. We can do it daily because there are so many people in need close to our homes. Other students commented how shocked they were to find the children already well versed in the ways of the world. Our hearts broke as we heard this sharing and as we realized that their future is filled with heart, pain and destruction if they don’t find a personal relationship with Jesus. Another student told us that one of the elderly residents said, “I’m glad I met you before I died.” It’s very sad at the these homes in Costa Rica because no one visits them. Their families do not care, and we were the most exciting thing that happened to them in a long time.
We arrived! We received a warm welcome from YWAM, had our first meal and attended a revival service. The pastor of the church gave a powerful sermon on Mark 6 – the feeding of the 5000. All of us were challenged to not make excuses like the disciples when Jesus calls us to feed his people. Afterwards, we met a lot of the church members and practiced our Spanish.
As we speak, we’re preparing for our first day of outreach tomorrow. We’re going to do a program for 500 elementary school children! Please pray for our youth students as several of them will be preaching God’s word, performing in skits and singing songs.
Our day starts at 6:30am! So we’ll be going to sleep soon.
Thank you for your prayers!
Imenso Amor (Amazing Love) Practice!
At a Revival Service
Our first Costa Rican meal!
The church where we're sleeping. It only has 1 shower for all 26 of us!
We made it safely to Houston. The computer system was down at Continental so check-in took longer than usual. But we made it to our plane and sat together near the back of the plane.
We found out that it was Thanh Le’s first time on a plane. We gave him the window seat so that he could look outside. He said it felt like a roller-coaster as we were taking off.
It was a short flight. (3.5 hours). We didn’t get much sleep and, for those of us who did, we still feel groggy. But were trying to make the most out of time in Houston by eating overpriced food at the airport.
