Second Day at Costa Rica

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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.