Maeg, Gill and Chloe´s Wednesday and Thursday in CR! :)

So this is Gill, Chlo, and Maegs writing to you about our adventures so far in Costa Rica! Today was pretty gnar we got up at the crack of dawn with the roosters crowing (the interns). Then, for breakfast, had some pretty delicioso French toast with some eggs fresh from the chickens roamin around the streets, so sanitary :) and watermelon---nonseedless bummerr. After that we had a devo sesh that was intense if you wanna read up its 1 Corinthians 12:1 through 20.we all loaded up in the soccer mom/creeper mini vans and rode away to the beach...which was a nice three hour drive...maybe it was two. But since we didn´t write yesterday just so you know, we had the childrens carnivaal which consisted of nail painting by Maeg and Gill, face painting by Savannah and Chlo, coloring, bracelet making, sports and bubbles. We had a David and Goliath skit with Jessica Polglaze playing David and Jim as Goliath! This all ended in a mega water balloon fight and some random kid riding into the sunset bareback on his horse no joke. But today, we went to a beach named Tamarindo on the Pacific. We spent a lot of time shopping for machetties JORDAN TOTTLE, getting sushi, pizza and Subway, and just playing in the waves. We had a little incident where little fish kept swimming around our feet and supposedly biting them so all the girls were screaming and freaking out for like...a really long time. An unnecessarily long amount of time actually. Then the best part of the day, was the car ride back was hands down the best part of the day. It was Gill, Chlo, Maeg, Kat, Maddi, Jessica Polglaze, Mitch, Doug and Yickson in our van. And we decided to have a jam sesh with Kats ipod because she had a dock. So there we were blasting and screaming I am woman songs and man hater songs---Before he Cheats by Carrie Underwood, a whole lotta Taylor Swift, If I were a Boy by Beyonce among others. We got really into it like dancing in our seats closing our eyes singing to people out the windows. It was pretty intense and Mitch and Doug absolutely LOVED it!!! By far the highlight of their day. Another highlight was the chalupas for dinner, the best meal we have had so far! Everyone stuffed themselves with this delicious Costa Rican meal made by our amazing cook Lila! However, Jessica Polglaze had a little accident in the bathroom that ended up all over the floor, she will explain that story when she gets back! Lets hope she gets better because we will still have another amazing day in Pura Vida country tomorrow! By the way this post is better than Tristan and Jimmy´s. Comment if you agree! Adios!!!

Skycrest Work Day

Skycrest worked hard today on 2 different projects. The first group picked up where last week's mission team left off on the concrete floor in the cafeteria.... and they finished leveling the rest of the floor!!!! Yeah!! The second group painted the outside of the church classrooms. It looks great!!!! In addition, we started the day with an excellent devotional time in Romans 8 and personal prayer time surrounded by the beautiful Costa Rican landscape. We had a very basic breakfast, but an amazing Tico lunch & dinner made by our Costa Rican cooks. At 4pm we went to the government subsidized housing community about 2 miles from the church and passed out flyers inviting the kids to our carnaval tomorrow. The carnaval will start at 4pm tomorrow (Wed) afternoon and will consist of face painting, water balloon fights, arts & crafts, games, sports, and culminate with a David & Goliath skit including a gospel presentation. Please pray for great things tomorrow!! After passing out the flyers we headed to the Banyan Resources property to tour the land, explore the vision, and pray for God's provisions. After our awesome dinner Mitch preached a challenging message from Judges 1 about embracing God's call on our lives and faithfully obeying God to follow His call. Mitch received his call into fulltime ministry when he was in 10th grade while on a mission trip... the same age as several of his students who are on this mission trip. It's exciting to think of how many people we've seen God call into fulltime ministry while on our Costa Rica mission trips over the past 6 years... God seems to get our undivided attention when we leave our comforts & distractions to go on a short term mission trip. We can't help but be excited about our next 5 days with this wonderful group of young people. OK people... it's almost time to leave the internet cafe & head back to the church... don't forget to leave a comment & words of encouragement below for the students & interns... we read them to the crew every few nights... hasta mañaña =)

 



Zipline Pics & Video (Skycrest Baptist Yth Group)

Hey friends & family!! Here are our pics & video from the ziplines thru the rain forest in Costa Rica with Skycrest Baptist Church... hope you enjoy seeing them almost as much as we enjoyed making them =)

(Click pick above to watch short zipline video of Yth Pastor Mitch Kuhn)



A VERY GNAR ADVENTURE WITH TRISTAN AND JIM JAM

Once upon a time...... .
     There was a mission team from Skycrest Baptist Church in Clearwater, FL, consisting of 2 very handsome men named Jim Jam and Tristan. They had just landed in San Jose International Airport. They were a little jet lagged, from the excrutiating 2 hour time difference. However, this group of young missionaries were determined to get to the town of Fortuna to begin their journey. The first night, the group stayed at a little, quaint hotel named  Charlie's Place. They met up with the rest of the team at the hotel. They all slept like infants in their cozy yet intricate beds. The next morning, the team was preparing to begin their quest to the deep, mountainous, jungles of Fortuna. However, Maegan (a.k.a. Squirtle) could not seem to find her cellular device. They took approximately 15 minutes looking for her phone, to find that it was in her bag all along. After what seemed like hours of frustration they finally took off on their expedition. It was a long, tiring, excrutiating, 3 and a half hour drive from Charlie's Place to the volcanic town of Fortuna. When they arrived, a very ironic twist came about in which they were greeted by a nice plate of tuna in Fortuna. At approximately at 3:10:36.7 PM they took a short drive to the Canopy Tours and Ziplining. They suited up to begin their adventure through the trecherous mountains and rainforest where they encountered monkeys, toucans, Specimens, Critters, and...........Bigfoot. Once they reached the top, they began to soar as if they were on the wings of eagles on the ziplines. There were approximately 10 to 12  different ziplines for their zipping pleasures. They ziplined for about an hour and a half before returning back to base camp at La Iglesia. Dinner delivered the team with a home cooked, hearty meal, which brought smiles to the whole team. After dinner the team mingled with the locals, until about 11:30 when it was time for Beddy Bye. The bedrooms had bunk beds so there were more room for activities. In the Guys bedroom, PAUL WILLIAMSON waited until the men were nestled into their cozy cots as they were ready for a relaxing slumber through the night, when all of a sudden Paul told them horrific, traumatizing stories about poisonous snakes and other critters which made their homes in the men's bunks. However, at the end of the story he began to tell them that it was in the corral, which hadn't been used for years. The men were thrilled and overjoyed to find that out and continued to nestle in their cots where they slept like babies. The whole team woke up to a nice breakfast of cereal and juice and toast and stuff of that nature. The rest of the day was spent either painting or laying cement for the church. In their spare time the team could be found hunting the local iguana's, in which they failed miserably.

FIN.

 

written by Tristan Chandra and Jim Jam McCallum 

All's Good :)

We arrived at the church bunkhouses in Fortuna around 2.30pm, ate a late lunch, and took off for the canopy ziplines... the group had a GREAT time... we had a good time of orientation & God time... we are about to shut down for the night... pics & details coming tmw!! Nite, nite :)

Skycrest Baptist Yth Group Arrives!!!

The Skycrest Baptist Church youth group arrived safely in San Jose, Costa Rica. Their plane landed at 12.18am and after going thru customs we met them in the parking lot. We are now at the hotel and heading to bed. The time is 1.45am... good night... or should I say good morning!

Airport Runs

Sadly we had to say goodbye to Heather Turner as we completed our 3rd mission trip of the month. We left the church at 5:45am & drove 3 hrs to the SJO airport in San Jose.
Along the way a motorcyclist wrecked in the oncoming lane as his cycle slid from under him. Thankfully his cycle didn't continue to slide or else it would have have nailed us head-on. I had to get on the brakes, which instantly woke everyone up in the van... nothing like a quick surge of adrenaline at 7am!! On the groovy side Kysha was loving the mission trip so much that when her dad offered for her to stay for 1 more week she jumped on it... so Kysha is get 7 more days of "extended play"!! And we're glad to have her for another week. God has been working in so many people's lives... it's unreal... the local youth continue to hang out with us every moment they can... in fact, Yikson (our hard working 17 year old construction leader) keeps tapping his heart with his fist and saying in broken English, "You are my family." It's touching to say the least. While half of the GTD team is staying in San Jose as we wait for our last group of the month (Skycrest Baptist Church youth grp) the other half is at the church / bunkhouses getting everything ready for them. Right now we are having lunch in a really cool pizza place called Ragu... oops, pizza just arrived... later gators!!

Our Translator Deserves His Own Post

Love this picture of our translator Toly... he is a funny, great, faithful, sincere, loving, hilarious, ingenious, cleavor, sometimes grumpy, bust-your-gut entertaining, comical, man of God... and we absolutely love him!!!



Saturday!!!

After a full day of painting at a nearby school on Friday followed by providing a movie night w/ ice cream & brownies at the church for the local youth to watch Blindside (in Spanish)... the team was ready for one last day of adventure together... that means eggs & bacon, ziplines through the rain forest & swimming at the base of a beautiful waterfall!!! Enjoy the pics... fresh off the SD card =)


waterfall, painting & work pics to be uploaded soon!!!!

Pics from Lila's & The Corral Concert

Thursday night after the beach we were invited to Lila's house (our cook) for a fantastic chalupa dinner. It's a great honor to be invited to a Costa Rican's home for dinner. We were touched & blessed to receive this special attention.... and, WOW, Lila makes THE BEST chalupas ever!! While we were there she showed us the new tile floor that she had put down with the extra money she had earned as our cook from last summer... we were so happy to see that we have been as big a blessing to her as she has been to us =).

After our dinner at Lila's we joined up with the young adult mission team from Christ Fellowship Church of Ft Lauderdale, FL. We met up at Rancho Arbol de Vida (Tree of Life Ranch - Banyan Resources) for a night of praise & worship, a sermon from an eldery, yet fiery young-at-heart Costa Rican Pastor, and a concert by Juan Rafael Alvarez Sibaja... with a little Tico spiced dancing!!!