Hello Chapel family from Costa Rica! We arrived safely after our 4 a.m. meeting time at the airport. After a long trip in the air with stops in Philadelphia and Miami we arrived in Costa Rica around 7 p.m. The weather was in the 70’s when we got off the plane. After getting to Coronado, the missionary training center where we would be staying, we met up with the rest of the Costa Rican team missionaries. We had a great dinner of chicken and rice, beans, salad, and Costa Rican chips.  We unloaded our luggage, and slept like logs in the bunk beds.

            First lesson, flexibility needed. The cold water from the shower greeted us our first day here. Thankfully the men were able to fix this later in the day and put up drywall for the missionaries’ second apartment complex. The storage building that we saw last year has been transformed into a place of worship. 

Plans changed today for the women instead of some prep time we needed to get on the bus by 8 a.m. to visit National Women’s Hospital. There we ministered to women who just delivered babies and whose babies were still in the hospital due to complications. We had personal time to play a Costa Rican short, but fun game to break the ice. We also gave out gifts for the newborns which the women appreciated. The translators allowed us to connect and communicate well with the women.

             Jocilynn Gibbs shared her testimony of surrendering her life to Christ. Laura Lewis gave an amazing devotional from John 11 on who you go to in times of trouble. Eight women made salvation decisions! 

Later in the afternoon we visited Children’s National Hospital. We prayed and talked to many sick children and their family members.  We were able to offer them stuffed animals, coloring books, etc. Four children prayed to trust in Jesus. It was truly amazing to be able to visit two local hospitals and be able to share the Gospel. Amen!

Shopping for Saturday’s all day women’s conference took some organization not to mention the time and $1500 tab. Eight carts were filled with sandwich makings, thirty cake box mixes, over 100 eggs, and more actually fit by faith into the bus with all of us squeezed in…not one egg was broken! Back at Coronado, Jeff Hackett, gave a wonderful devotional on Ephesians 4:1 about Paul being a prisoner for Christ after dinner. We shared what the day’s events included and how we were all blessed and used by God.  Buenos Nochas.  

            After Linda Penn made scrambled eggs for us this morning, we were a production line of getting ready for tomorrow’s all day Women’s Conference at the International Christian School. 750 sandwiches, thirty-four cakes, bags filled with apples, and snacks all needed to be made by the team. But who’s counting. A few of us went to the school to decorate.

            The men did yard work, ran errands, and fixed the hot water tank after day two of cold showers. 

Crafts for the women and children, and program preparations continued late into the night.  The schedule changed for tomorrow twice, flexibility!

We ended the day in prayer and committed it all to God. A good night’s rest will be needed for tomorrow when we gather at 6:15 a.m.  

            Today started at 5 a.m., cold showers to take (still broken heater), sandwiches to stuff in bags, bus and truck to load, and we had a birth last night. Brownie, the dog had five puppies. She’s a very proud mama.

The day was a beautiful one. God provided all we needed for the women’s conference.  Nearly three hundred women and fifty-four children attended. Worship music was performed by SCORE Missionaries and GAP (Global Adventure Pursuit) students. Linda Penn and Lora Warkentin did main sessions on Saul, Meeting Jesus, and Reflection of Me. They also did a two- part session on Mind Over Matter.

Eight decisions were made to trust in Christ after the morning session, and twenty decisions following the afternoon session. Breakout sessions at the center occurred with Laura Lewis presenting on Disciplining Our Children and Taught to Teach. Missionaries for SCORE: Gaby Prado, spoke on Dating and Friendships, Valerie Perea on Divorce, and Rebeca Arce and Marisol Murillo on True Love. Pam Walck spoke to her session group on Fishing Without Fear.

The children learned about the story of the Good Samaritan and the Fall of Jericho and were taught several verses to support each story. The cheerleaders (from Asbury College in Kentucky) conducted clinics with the kids. They had a clown and also did crafts.

An emotional time occurred when the decision to not return next year to Costa Rica was announced. This is the sixth year THRIVE has come to Costa Rica to come alongside and expand the ministries here. This is not an end; it’s a new beginning for the Costa Rican women to multiply their own ministry in their country.  THRIVE plans instead to go to the Dominican Republic in the future. There will still be opportunities for two or three to travel back to Costa Rica when needed.

After the announcement of our ending the THRIVE trips to Costa Rica, Gaby had the whole team come up to the front of the gymnasium. They prayed for us, giving us hugs and slips of paper letting us know how we had blessed them these past six years. It was bittersweet. The GAP students and cheerleaders went above and beyond serving us and the children.

After cleaning the facility and loading the bus, we returned to Coronado late in the evening and had a wonderful hot meal waiting for us. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

            For our worship service we attended Abundant Life Baptist Church for their service. It was beautiful with GAP students and Maria Barreto and Mileen Colon, two of our team members translating for us. Knowing this is the last year the Chapel would be in Costa Rica—they sent us off with much prayer.

            Lunch was at Fresa’s Restaurant where we all had chicken or fish which was scrumptious. This restaurant has been a favorite for many years.

We traveled to Coronado Park where we did face painting and balloon making for the kids. JoAnn DeMarco was our clown. The rest of us spoke with people in the park about a relationship with Jesus with our SCORE missionary translators.  We invited them to the new Coronado Church plant started on the missionaries’ grounds. Eight decisions were made by people to trust in Jesus. The angels in Heaven are rejoicing!

When we returned to the missionary training center in Coronado, we had no electricity. Thankfully we had ordered Costa Rican Chinese food so we had a great dinner by candlelight.  Most of us headed to the SCORE Villa where the GAP students live to hear John Lovell, student life director preach on 1 Corinthians 9 and 10 about our identity in Christ and placing God above everything. The rest of the team worked on preparations for the Rahab House tomorrow—women coming out of prostitution.

            After breakfast and prayer, the team headed to the Rahab House—where men and women are brought out of sex trafficking. They also assist transvestites to regain their identity in Christ.  Jennifer Kavanagh gave her testimony.  Laura Lewis spoke to the women on Jesus meeting the Samaritan woman, and bringing Living Water to her life.

The women made crafts of greeting cards and bookmarkers and had fun at a few games. We had six salvation decisions during our time there! God has allowed us to plant many seeds, we pray for those who will water them, and we pray for God to bring the increase. God has also allowed us to reap a harvest this week. 

The director of Rahab House took us for a tour of the facility and showed us several rooms where women are able to learn a trade in cooking, sewing, and computer skills to help them rebuild self-esteem and confidence in the workplace.

We went to downtown San Jose Park where we did children’s face painting, balloon making, and handed out tracts talking to people about Jesus. 

Grocery shopping resulted our getting our Costa Rican coffee supply. We came back to Coronado to our favorite dinner of chicken and rice and hallelujah to a hot shower! A powerful debriefing meeting of individual experiences in the last few days ended the night. 

Tomorrow will be another adventure – we are headed to the refugee camp.    

This morning started off with blueberry pancakes and eggs--yummy, yummy. God is good! The other guests in the house prepared this for us. We went to Alajuelita Village—a very, poor community with many refugees. Pastor Efraim Campos has such a heart for the over 2,000 people who live there.  In the surrounding area there are over 23,000 people. The houses consisted of random pieces of tin and wood, anything they can find to construct a home. Dirt floors, raw sewage, many children, and malnourished dogs---the poverty we saw is unexplainable to anything we’ve seen.

            We brought some joy to the children living there making balloon animals and face painting. Jocilyn Gibbs and Rebecca Arce told the story of El Buen Samaritano (The Good Samaritan) to the children.

            Pastor Campos’ led us through the village to enable us to pass out family bags of toiletries and miscellaneous provisions. They were very grateful. We prayed for each family with our translators.

            We returned to Pastor Campos church where half of the team painted the inside walls of the church and the other half did street evangelism for several hours.  Getting ready to leave, the bus wouldn’t start. Ten of us pushed the bus down the street until it got going. And we have pictures of this!

            At Coronado we had Costa Rican lasagna and salad for dinner. Half the team went to watch the 2012 NFL Costa Rican football clinic. The football players are working with SCORE doing sports clinics for children and adults, construction, giving testimonies, and sharing Jesus. Five people trusted in Jesus as their Savior last night at the event.

We had a roaring time of laughter on the bus coming back, nearly crying from laughing so hard. We knew getting home late it would challenge us to get up early for tomorrow’s site seeing of Volcano Irazu. 

            The other team members stayed behind last night in preparation for the upcoming pastor’s wives retreat. Some of the members who are leaving to return to Buffalo Thursday will pack soon, while others stay longer in Costa Rica.

Today was site seeing day. We left early this a.m. for Irazu Volcano—a two and a half hour drive from Coronado. There was heavy cloud covering over the crater. The winds picked up and within minutes the view of the volcano was clear. The emerald green sulfur in the center had a rainbow over it.   It was cold and the wind was brisk as we hiked around it, and took pictures. Linda had a bad hair day! Ha Ha.

            After a trip a quick trip to the gift and coffee shop, we drove to a higher observation site to view the two oceans. We were unable to see it due to dense cloud covering though. Lunch was at the Princess Marina.  The plantains were oversized and very good. One of the specialties on the menu is a twelve inch breaded fish that several members ordered (it still has the head attached staring at you). 

            We then spent the rest of the afternoon in some local souvenir shops and returned back to Coronado. There we had a long meeting sharing individual stories and how we grew spiritually on this trip during the week. We said good-bye to the main team because they were leaving at 3 am in the morning.

            Eleven prepare to head back to Buffalo, while four of us remain for another women’s conference on the coast.

And the four remain, as the eleven left this morning at 3 a.m. for the airport. We were sad to see them go. Lora Warkentin, Linda Penn, JoAnn DeMarco, and Pam Walck got on the bus at 7 a.m. plus many others going to the conference. The pickup truck with our luggage overheated and we had to leave it.  The bus we were in has battery issues and again we had to push the bus to jump start it!

            We arrived at the hotel on the coast at 11:00 late for our scheduled meeting, and Linda and Lora immediately went into teaching on King David and Being on Guard, the consequences of sin.

            Lunch was an awesome buffet. JoAnn and Pam had two iguanas sitting next to the table while they ate!

            At sunset on the beach, Lora Warkentin taught on Forgiveness to the 50 or more women in attendance. The setting was beautiful as the waves lapped in the background.

            Breakout sessions occurred later back at the hotel with JoAnn DeMarco speaking on mentoring principles along with two SCORE missionaries and their topics. Que Dios Te Bendiga (God Bless).

The topic this morning at breakfast was “Who felt the three tremors (earthquake) last night? After this discussion, we went to our main discussion led by Linda and Lora on “God’s Grace for the Guilty.” Lora then did part two on “Forgiveness.”

            Morning breakout sessions were led by SCORE Missionaries, Rebeca Arce on “Compassion” and Gaby Prado on “Minister’s Wives.” This was an excellent session and the women plan on getting together on a regular basis for mentoring, praying, and supporting each other in ministry.  Pam Walck spoke on “Nutrition & Exercise--Body and Soul.” The women very much enjoyed this topic and took many notes.

            Lunch was unusual to say the least at the retreat site. We started out with just a couple monkeys swinging from the trees near our table. This turned into mucho monkeys until over ten surrounded our area. Several swooped down and grabbed rolls off the plates. They continued to frolic and play hoping to get more snacks.

            We had a few hours of free time and had the luxury of going to the beach and using the pools. The blue water was gorgeous and the scenery majestic.

Evening breakout sessions consisted of Linda speaking on “Shepherding and Why Have Small Groups.” The women had many questions as to how to incorporate small groups into their own ministry. Carolina Carvajal from Costa Rica spoke on “Taking Care of My Home”—focusing on submission. This Biblical model shows the man submitting to Christ, the woman to her husband, and both to each other.

After dinner we went near the beach for a bonfire and we introduced the Costa Rican women to s’mores. We had worship music, the ladies played games, and everyone had lots of fun. Eight women shared prayer requests and what the weekend had meant to them. We broke up into two’s with a prayer partner and exchanged stories and desires to give to God. We have been encouraged to continue the relationship to pray with this partner that we met, throughout the next year.

We awoke this morning to the sounds of birds and monkeys. After breakfast, we went to our main sessions by 8 a.m. Linda spoke on “New Ideas in Ministry” by using the strategy of “Eternal CPR.” C—cultivating and developing meaningful Christ-like friendships to share God’s love, P—planting, proclaiming, and modeling God’s truth in that friendship, and R—Reaping, challenging our friends to respond to the truth of God’s Word by embracing a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

            JoAnn DeMarco coordinated a beautiful craft of decorated jars. The women in Costa Rica are very artistic and creative.

Following this, Linda and Lora shared on “Restoring Your Cutting Edge,” based on 2 Kings 6:1-6. This was the final message culminating the themes of the weekend: Be on Guard—the Story of David and how he fell out of relationship with Jesus, God’s Grace for the Guilty—regarding David’s sin with Bathsheba, and David’s restoration and reconciliation with God and others. Knowing how forgiveness is necessary. The final message shared by Linda and Lora in “Losing Your Cutting Edge” showed the loss of your effectiveness in ministry.  This effectiveness can only be restored by focusing on your personal relationship with Christ and others.

The women surprised us with a video of the last six years of ministry in Costa Rica and gift bags for each of us. It was a very emotional time, and in JoAnn’s terms a “holy mess” of lots of tears, prayers, and warm hugs and kisses. The spirit and testimonies shared by the Costa Rican women showed their intentionality of how God has used and will continue to use them in many areas of ministry in their churches. We saw an inner passion and drive for what has been poured into them in the past six years.   

We put the suitcases on the top of the bus and headed back to Coronado—several hours away. Due to the hot humidity at the coast along with hot showers, the slightly cooler showers and cooler wind at Coronado will refresh us. 

Upon arrival at the Missionary Training Center in Coronado, we found another team had come in from Indian Rock Christian School from Largo, Florida. They along with three lovely women from Birmingham, Alabama, who joined us prior to the women’s conference on the coast, will stay at the facility. It’s a packed house.

Church this morning was great, held at Coronado and led by Manolo Madrigal. 

After service we had a tea and desert time for women at 3 p.m. in the missionary training center. This consisted of worship music, and two testimonies of their changed lives in Christ by JoAnn DeMarco and Anita Hill. A Costa Rican game ensued after this. Pam Walck did a devotional on Acts 1:8, the power of the Holy Spirit and evangelism. The women also got to prepare a beautiful handbag decoration project while also receiving colorful bags with goodies from the three Alabama ladies staying at the complex.

In the evening, we had a celebration dinner of the ending of our trip with some of the members of SCORE and the ladies from Alabama at a restaurant in San Jose, Kai. The food was terrific.

We returned to Coronado late in the evening and finished our packing. The group prayed for Gaby and Jose Prado offering encouragement for the new outreach in Cuba. We are leaving for Buffalo at 3 a.m. The mission’s trip was very successful and we are sad to leave Costa Rica for the sixth year, but we know that Jesus is in control and the people will continue to prosper their ministries for Him.