Busy Times

Wow! is all I can say. We have been so busy for the past few weeks that I haven't had time to get online other than to respond to necessary emails. Some big things have happened over the past few weeks and although it will be hard to put it all down here, I'll give it a go. Right after Calvary Jupiter left town, we took 15 of the youth and young adults on a retreat up to the mountains outside of San Jose. Nothing like that has ever been done before and we didn't know what to expect. It turned out better than I had imagined it could. We met up with a combined mission team from two churches in the states (Thomasville Road Baptist Church from Tallahassee, FL and 1027 Church from Atlanta, GA). The retreat was held at a friend's goat farm on the side of a volcano named Barva.

Our focus was Christian living and service to others. It was an incredible opportunity to take the youth out of their normal surroundings so that they could focus on their relationship with God and with each other. Over the course of four days, we taught four separate bible study lessons. On the second day, we took the group on a missions trip to San Jose to a really dangerous section of town called Little Hell (one of the biggest crack distribution centers in CR). A local pastor provides several opportunities for the children that live in this area to hear about God and his love for them. We spent several hours with the group of around 50 children. I was so impressed to see how the group from Puerto Viejo reached out to them, sang songs, played games and just spent time with the children. One of our friends even gave his testimony, which is a huge step for him. Here are a few photos (to be added shortly) from the trip. The end result was that the group became much closer in their relationships with God and with each other. It was great!