The first leg of our journey

When I started my senior year of high school, if you would have told me that in only 5 years I would be spending 2 months doing mission work in three Central American countries,  I would have told you that it sounded cool but that it would never happen.  If you'd have said that it would be my eigth trip to Central America, I'd have said you were crazy.  And if you'd said that I'd be spending a lot of the time with people I didn't know too well and with none of my family with me I would have called you ridiculous.  But here I am and what a great few years it's been.  So far on this trip we've gotten to do a few vbs, a gospel meeting, visit 2 volcanoes, and a lot more.  I know some of you have been asking what I've been doing down here so I figured that a blog would be the easiest way to let everyone know what we are up to.  I didn't start typing anything until after the first week so I'll remember as much as I can.

June 9th-Day 1
    So the first day of the trip was a very long day.  We had a drive to Atlanta, flight to Miami then a flight down to San Jose, Costa Rica.  We arrived in San Jose about 11:30 local time, as of right now they aren't recognizing daylights savings so it's actually 2 hours behind eastern time.  We ate lunch at the mall and then loaded up for a supposedly 4 hr bus ride to Buenos Aires, which is in the southern part of the country not too far from Panama.  So at around 2 we headed out of San Jose to conquer the Cerro de la Muerte or Mountain of death.  One bus lost a cylinder on the way up so going uphill quickly became a slow process.  After all was said and done it took us about 7 hours to reach Buenos Aires.  I pretty much headed to bed as soon as we got to the hotel.  One thing that surprised me though was that there weren't any school  buses at all. They use buses that are more like a church bus or tour buss kind of thing.  I had a great surprise too when we got done eating lunch and came back to the buses and Ernie and Denis Ulmer had just arrived in San Jose.  I didn' know they were part of this group but it was great to see them.

June 10th-Day 2
    The Church in Buenos Aires has a house that they rent about 100 yards from the church where they allow people to stay who are having a rough time and use for other church purposes.  The ladies of the church used this house to cook breakfast, lunch and dinner for us each night.  So they wanted us up between 6 and 6:15 a.m to get ready so we could load the buses by 6:45 and be over at the house for breakfast.  And yes I did stay in the bed until about 6:35 and then got up to go.  So after breakfast we had morning devo at the church then left for the school, Vera Cruz, to have a VBS for the kids.  There were about 90 kids and we had snacks, games, crafts, and the VBS skits.  We had a ton of fun and the kids seemed to have loved it.  After that we went to the park where the local radio station came out so that the group could sing over the radio.  So in the middle of the park the group sang and a few of the preachers that were in town for the gospel meetings talked over the radio for a while.  It was pretty cool to be a part of that.  After that we kind of had a slow afternoon of just preparing other things to get ready for the gospel meeting.  We had dinner and devo and went practiced one of the skits that night back at the hotel.  All in all the first day on the ground went really well
June 11th-Day 3
    We had breakfast at 8 a.m this morning because we were going to a wedding at the church building at
10:30 that morning.  The wedding was pretty cool.  The guy, Charlie, has been living here in Costa Rica for the past 30 years.  He moved down here when his parents did 30 years ago and he hasn't been back to the states since.  They had the wedding outside under a tent.  After the wedding both Charlie and Betsy, his new wife, wanted to be baptized so at 3 that afternoon they were both baptized.  In between the wedding and baptism, we went out in the city to go doorknocking.  This was really my first time doing anything like that and it was nice.  We had a blast going out and goofing off but also inviting people to come to the gospel meeting which started later on that evening.  We also went back out and covered a little more of the area after the baptisms.  We then had dinner right before the gospel meeting got underway.  Rafael, a preacher at a congretation around Freed-Hardemann and native Costa Rican, opened up the gospel meeting with a great sermon.  I love how he is so passionate about what he is saying.  We had one guy, Issac, decide after Rafael spoke that he wanted to be baptized.  So on the first day of the gospel meeting we had 3 baptisms.  It was a pretty awesome day. 

June 12th-Day 4
    Sunday morning started out like the other morning had with breakfast at the house and then heading over to the church.  One thing I've always liked is worshipping with a congregation here.  It's cool to be a part of it.  So we had church and then lunch.  The mens and womens classes started at 2 everyday and the vbs team was supposed to have a vbs for the kids that were supposed to be at the church, the only problem was that there was only like 5 kids at the church.  So we did what I think the church should do more of.  Instead of finding something else to do we went out and met the kids in the streets throughout the city and had the vbs there.  We went and bought balloons so that as we walked down the street announcing what we were doing we could give the kids balloons and they would follow us to the end of the road where we would perform our skits.  We did the skits in full costume at few places and had an incredible turnout.  Even with it being pretty stinkin hot we were able to have great success.  While we were out doing the skits we had an older man, probably in his 80's, at the mens class at the church decide he wanted to be baptized.  We then had the gospel meeting that night, dinner and the went back to the hotel.  Up until day 4 we didn't have any rain at all but that was about to change.  The great thing was that the rain really cooled it down for the rest of our time in Buenos Aires and it didn't really hinder us at all.

June 13th-Day 5
    Today after morning devo the vbs team had a little time to prep before we went out to another school, Santa Cruz.  So we could practice a little before heading out later on that morning.  When we got to the school there were no kids in the area but very soon after we arrived the teachers started letting them out of class and bringing them over.  After about 5 minutes I realized that we had more kids that we did at the first school.  After about 10 minutes I realized that we had doubled the number of kids at the first school.  After 15 minutes I wondered if every kid in a 10 mile radius was going to come.  I think we had 252 kids total.  Since on this trip I'm a part of VBS for the first time, 250 kids is a lot to me.  It was a little crazy at times but overall it was great.  The kids all seemed to love the skits, snacks, games, and crafts we had for them.  The skit went really well and we all had a blast doing it.  After the VBS, we went back out doorknocking.  This is when the rain began to make it's presence known.  About 25 minutes in, it started drizzling/sprinkling but it wasn't enough to make us stop.  Right as we were finishing though the bottom fell out of the clouds and it rained just about all day after that.  After that we had dinner and then the meeting for the night.  Rafael spoke again and it was great once again.  We had our devo and then went back to the hotel for the evening.

June 14th/15th-Day 6/7
    Days started running together at this by day 6.  I know that we went out and did some a lot of doorknocking.  It rained/drizzled all day but that just made it more fun.  The gospel meeting continued that night and we prepared for we went to prepare for our last day in Buenos Aires.  On day 7 we had the chance to go to an Indian reservation about 45 minutes from Buenos Aires.  They had a new classroom at their school that they wanted painted and they wanted us to do a VBS for the kids.  After we started painting we realized that it was going to take all day to finish and the kids were let out of school early so we scratched the VBS.  We were literally up in the clouds on the mountain at this place and of all things we had a thunderstorm roll in.  It was pretty awesome being in the clouds during a thunderstorm.  We never really saw lightning but the thunder was pretty intense.  Once we got pretty close to finishing painting the building, one of the men on the reservation's council (I like to think of it as like a Jedi council) wanted to take us into their town so we could visit their museum.  We went and saw their hand crafted masks, they were pretty neat.  This reservation was also the site where the first Jurassic Park was filmed so you can imagine what the scenery was like, awesome.  We then headed back to the church and had the final meeting of the gospel meetings.  Terry spoke and had a great lesson.  We then wrapped up the meetings and began to say goodbye to all the great friends we had met throughout the week.  Daniel Chavez, who is the preacher at the congregation and his family are just incredible people.  I wish we could have spent a lot more time here because the people of Buenos Aires are so amazing and are thirsting for someone to show that they care about them.  The gospel meeting was a such a great thing for the town.  We covered 80%% of the town by doorknocking.  Had radio campaigns and tv campaigns.  A total of 4 baptisms and many more that responded throughout the week.  For me, it was a trip of firsts.  It was my first time doorknocking, my first time experiencing a gospel meeting like this,  my first time involved in VBS and my first time spending time with this group of interns that I'll be with for the next few weeks.  Everybit of it has been incredibly awesome and I've enjoyed every second of it.  The intern team that Terry has put together couldn't be any better.  We've been together for a week and it feels like we've known each other forever.  The first leg of our trip has just been incredible.  We now slow down for a few days before heading to Nicaragua.

June 16th-Day 8
    Thursday we loaded up the buses at the hotel and went to breakfast at the house then to the church for devo.  We had devo and had another quick goodbye with the people of Buenos Aires before loading up the buses to head back to San Jose.  We made it back to San Jose in about 7 hours (again, supposed to be a 4 hour trip but the naptime was GREAT).  We had lunch about halfway there and were able to stop at a few shops in San Jose and then headed to the hotel for the night.

June 17th-Day 9
    We had breakfast and devo then loaded up the buses to head to the Arenal Volcano to spend the night.  We took a 4 hour bus ride (this one actually was only 4 hrs) to a place at the foot of the volcano that had a lot of hotsprings.  They had water slides, waterfalls, about 15 different pools ranging from 90 to 152 degrees.  The 152 pool would burned my feet in about 3 seconds so only my feet made it in, although we had a few that temporarily lost their minds and dove in only to run out pretty quickly.  We spent most of the day at the hot springs before leaving and going to the hotel for the evening.  The volcano was incredible though.  A perfect cone shaped volcano with smoke constantly rising out of the top.  I didn't get the lava show I was hoping for (probably a good thing) but it was still incredible to see.  We had our final devo with the most of the team, a few left Thursday and 4 more left tonight.  Now that this trip is winding down our time as a 42 man team has ended.

June 18th-Day 10
    We loaded the buses early again to head back to San Jose.  Another "4 hour ride" and we were back in San Jose at the hotel to spend our final hours before we headed out.  We loaded up the bus later on that night and left at midnight to be at the bus station for our ride to Nicaragua.  21 of us are making the trip and the others flew back to the states as their 2011 trip had ended.  The Costa Rica trip was great.  We had an incredibly smooth trip, rains never really altered our plans and we had great success in everything we did.  It is such a beautiful place with all the natural beauty and wildlife.  The country didn't look as bad off as Honduras, it was quite a bit more advanced than Hondo.  There were still some places where they lived in small wooden houses like the TORCH houses but they were larger, had electricity and a lot of the people had vehicles.  I'm sure that there are places in Costa Rica like Mololoa and Nueve Oriental, Los Pinos and other places around Teguc but if you're going to find those areas in San Jose then you're really going to have to look for them.  They aren't as noticeable or as widespread as they are in Teguc.  There is still a great physical need here but even though it may not be as great as the physical need in Honduras, there is still a great spiritual need and that is the reason we come on these trips.  It's great to build houses, give out food and clothes, but if we aren't bringing people to know God, to believe in Christ then what we are doing has no greater purpose than just getting someone by for a few weeks.  The need for Christ to be brought into people's lives is just as great in Costa Rica as it is in Honduras and in every other part of the world.  I hope and believe that TORCH has been able to lay a good foundation to be able to come back and expand their mission efforts in Costa Rica just as they have in Honduras.

June 19th-Day 11
    We had the 9 hour bus ride from San Jose to Masaya, Nicaragua Sunday morning.  We arrived in Masaya about 11 a.m.  The bus doesn't have a normal stopping point in Masaya so the driver just randomly stopped along the major highway and let us out on the sidewalk.  I have to say that with 21 people and 40+ bags of luggage, it was a little interesting just standing on the sidewalk waiting on our bus to come pick us up.  What we didn't know at the time, and didn't realize for about 20 minutes, was that the hotel we were staying at was only about 100 yards up the road.  So we grabbed our bags, crossed the road and we at our hotel that we'd be at for the next few days.  We then went to church at the local congregation who had put off services until 3 so that we could be there.  A really small congregation of about 15 people met at a local school because there building wasn't large enough to hold them and us.  We had church with them and then had a pretty relaxed rest of the day.  Practiced our VBS skits, went to a local artists house and went to bed.  Oh and there was this little restaurante in town that we ate lunch at that had the best chicken I've ever had.  Like 4 grilled chicken fillets, tons of fries and a pepsi for under $5, it was great.
So now I have caught up with everything.  I'm sure I've left something out but now I'll hopefully be able to keep up with the things we are doing and type it up before I forget anything.

June 20th-Day 12
    Today we were up fairly early to eat breakfast at 7 so that we could be at the bus by 7:30 to go see the Masaya Volcano about 30 minutes away.  The volcano wasn't a cone shape like the Arenal Volcano was, this one had collapsed so we could go up to the edge and look down in it.  It was pretty spectacular.  It had 3 major craters and one has been pretty active the last few weeks.  They've only allowed people to start going back to the rim of the volcano in the past week because it's been so active.  It was pretty warm, smelled of sulfur and was just incredible to see.  Every few minutes a massive puff of smoke would come pouring out of it.  We had nothing else planned for the morning so after we left the volcano we had nothing to do until our 1:30 VBS at a local cultural center.  Once we got to the center, I picked my hands up off the top of the seat in front of me, put one hand on the window and felt something like a massive thorn in my index finger.  So I pulled my hand back and shook it quickly and saw something fall to the floor.  I jumped up, pulled back the seat on the bus and a scorpion a little smaller than the size of my hand took off toward the back of the bus.  He got up into a part near the wheel well and disappeared after that.  I had a couple of swollen spots on my finger but so far I haven't died so I think I'll be ok.  It looks like he got me with his pinchers and not his stinger so I feel pretty lucky.  The VBS didn't look like it was going to be a huge success to start off with.  There were about 15 kids in the center so we started with songs for the kids.  Some of us were putting on costumes in another room where they were getting the snacks ready.  They poured 20 cups full of juice and Brandy came in and said we now had 25 kids, so they poured some more juice.  She came back and said there were 37 kids, then 44, then 50+.  We ended up having 98 kids and 22 adults total so it was a huge success.  It seemed like the more songs that they were singing, the more people on the street passed by and decided to come in.  We had games and coloring books and it was great.  After that we went back to the hotel for the and just chilled for the rest of the afternoon.  It seems like every time we have some down time all we want to do is sleep.  We practiced our 3rd skit for VBS tomorrow, which I'm not in so I went on to bed early.

June 21st-Day 13
    So i'ts 3:45 a.m and I'm on the second level of a double decker bus which is pretty cool.  Today we finished up our short stop in Nicaragua.  We had an easy morning with really nothing to do.  The ones in the VBS skit practiced that and I just chilled on my bed with my eyes closed and dead to the world.  Then at 1 we left to go to the local park to have another VBS.  We were able to use a stage in the park which mad it great, since we were outside we actually had room to move around as opposed to the small room we were in yesterday.  We had 95 kids today so it was another big turnout.  The King Agrippa skit was a ton of fun and the games and crafts seemed to be a big hit with the kids.  After the VBS we went back to the hotel for dinner, devo and to start packing to leave for the bus station.  We came to Masaya with the hope of having a great turnout for our VBS and I would say that it was mission accomplished.  The first two stops in our trip have been excellent and couldn't have really gone any better.  But now we are on a bus headed to Teguc.  We are tired now but as Terry said earlier tonight, we haven't experienced tired yet.  We will hit the ground running in Teguc.  A team of 122 arrive in a few days and we have to get everything ready for them so that when they get here they can jump right into working.  Sorting things at the warehouse is the biggest of those tasks which we will start on literally when we get off the bus in about 9 hours or so.  The part of Nicaragua we stayed in was much more like what you'd see in Honduras.  The poverty seemed to be a little worse than Costa Rica but not as bad as places we've been in Hondo.  But we've only seen a very small portion of Nicaragua so I would bet the poverty is worse in other places.  The preacher at the Church in Masaya is great though.  A really awesome guy and I wish him nothing but the best as he continues to establish his congregation just outside of Masaya in Nidiri.
    So I have another scorpion like story for today.  After we had gotten done eating dinner and had devo, I decided to go take a shower.  First off, I just want to say that I've always thought that the shower heads that they use down here (the water heaters with wires going everywhere where the shower head would be in the states would be) are safe and caused no problem.  That all changed in about 2 minutes tonight.  So I'm washing my hair and I smelled smoke.  It wasn't unusual because I had been smelling it since we had been in the hotel so I just went back to washing my hair.  So about 30 seconds later I realized that the smoke was filling up the room so I turned around and looked up and saw one of the wires just glowing orange and smoke pouring off of it.  So my first reaction was to turn off the water, so i grabbed the handle and you know that feeling you get when you wake up at night and you've been laying on your arm wrong and it is all tingling and going numb?  Well when I grabbed that handle that's the feeling I got all the way up to my shoulder.  So I jerked my hand back and still standing in the water, looked up and thought, I've either got to grab that handle again to turn the water off or watch this building burn.  So I looked back at the handle and I won't lie, I had to contemplate for a few seconds whether I wanted to grab that thing again.  But I did and it shocked the mess out of me again but the shower head turned off and the wire stopped glowing and the smoke was slowly starting to stop pouring off the wires.  So for about an hour my hand was tingling.  So yesterday was a scorpion and today was a shower, I can't wait to see what tomorrow holds.  But for now, it is sleep time.