100 kph winds blow down the one room home we've been building for a man who lost everything from Hurricane Otto =(
Yesterday, during our day off, high gusts of winds came through like the big bad wolf and huffed and puffed and blew our house project down.
Keep our Costa Rican friend in your prayers as our team spends their last full day here trying to salvage the newest set back to this wonderful man's recovery.
Stay tuned for updates as we press on towards the goal.
The last 2 days have been full of great stuff! On Friday Alfredo led the group on an interactive tour of local petroglyphs which became a perfect spot for our morning devotionals. The crew also had a delicious interactive coffee tour and learned how coffee is made from start to finish. Then it was on to Coco Beach at the Pacific Ocean for a half day of fun in the sun. Friday night culminated with a community wide sports night on the soccer field in the middle of the town which was a huge success!! Saturday was back to work as the Trinity Christian College crew continued to crush all their hurricane relief construction projects and community outreaches. They were rewarded with a phenomenal night of fun, rest, and relaxation at the local hot springs and restaurant. It was a well earned and well deserved reward! The entire trip has been terrific or as we like to now say, TROLL-RIFIC! (The Trinity Trolls) =)
I can't even describe the amount of significant work being accomplished by the 43 student athletes and coaches from Trinity Christian College (AKA, The Trinity Trolls) in unison with the fantastic local church (Iglesia Buen Pastor) and GTD's hardworking staff.
Yesterday they continued to pour their blood, sweat, and tears into several meaningful projects (major construction projects, medicine-clothing-food distribution, gospel drama presentations, kids games, serving of coffee & snacks, Christmas gift presentations, community service, public transportation, and a beautiful display of genuine Christian love). This team is making a BIG impact!
They started the day with devotional time in God's Word and finished the night with a passionate praise and worship service at the local church followed by GTD's nightly Biblically based Impact Point.
It was pretty much the perfect day!
We can hardly keep enough projects prepared for these students because they are getting so much accomplished so quickly!
Thanks for following our daily updates and for lifting us up in prayer! More updates coming tomorrow!
It was an amazing day of hard work yesterday as the Trinity crew teamed up with the local church and began tackling 5 significant projects:
1) Building a new home for a family who lost everything from Hurricane Otto.
2) Building a one room "home" for a kind man who is going blind from cataracts and who lost everything from the hurricane, and to add insult to injury had his wife leave him for another man and took their 2 kids with her.
3) The sorting of thousands of pieces of clothing and a lot of food that has been donated by fellow Costa Ricans across the country for distribution to those displaced and adversely affected by the hurricane.
4) The planning of 3 carnival days for the kids impacted by the hurricane.
5) Painting the local soccer field goal posts, fencing, and dugouts as a service project from the church to the community.
Just prior to starting the projects we toured the devastation caused by Hurricane Otto including the location where the pastor lost 4 family members. It's very sad. The amount of damage near the rivers is immense.
We are so impressed with this team! They've hit the ground running highly motivated with hearts full of love and compassion.
Our spiritual theme this week is "Planting Seeds". We are spending quality time with God each morning in our daily devotionals as well as each night with our Impact Point sermon time.
Keep us in your prayers as we strive each day to maximize the impact being made.
More updates to come =)
We are so excited to have 43 student athletes and coaches from Trinity Christian College of Chicago here in Costa Rica on a mission trip for 8 days serving the community impacted by a hurricane one month ago. We can't wait to see what God does!
