Hola Costa Rica!

Sunday we started out by going to a local Church in Panama City.  We had a Bible class followed by Worship.  It was nice to be able to go to another Hispanic Church service.  A lot of them follow the same kind of pattern as ours do at home but they are just a bit more lively.  Sunday also started the beginning of our retreat.  We loaded up the bus after Church and went to Playa Blanca Resort, which is to the west of Panama City.  It was about an hour and a half drive, which wasn’t too bad at all.  This place was the best place I’ve ever stayed.  It was on the Pacific.  It had the second largest man made pool in the world.  The rooms were magnificent.  There were awesome pools, ping pong tables, volley ball nets and of course, the ocean.  All of that stuff was nice but all of those things can be found at other places.  The best part of all was that EVERYTHING was free.  Breakfast started at 7 and went to 10, so you could go eat at 7 and then go back at 9:30.  Lunch started at 12:30 and went until 3:30, so you could eat at 12:30 and go back for more at 3.  Dinner was 7-10, so we ate at 7 and went back at 9:30 and all of it was a buffet.  All drinks were free anywhere on the premises.  There was a bar that served unlimited pizza, fries and chicken nuggets until 2 am.  So after second dinner we went out for pizza at midnight.  I’ve never eaten so much food in a day and a half in my life.  It was the first time I’ve seen the Pacific, which was cool.  It feels and tastes just like the Atlantic.  We stayed at the hotel until 5pm on Monday, which is when we all went back to Panama City.  6 of us were dropped off at the mall where we had to say goodbye to the rest of the group.  We had to catch a bus to Costa Rica.  So we said our goodbyes and headed to the bus station.  The rest of the group stayed the night in Panama City and flew back to the States Tuesday morning.

So this supposed 10 hour bus trip to Costa Rica began at 11pm Monday night.  We rode the bus to the border and that’s where the fun started.  I’m not a morning person.  I’m definitely not a morning person when I’ve been on a bus all night.  So when this young guy tells me I have to take off my backpack and let him take it while everyone else has their belongings with them and aren’t being asked for them, I got a little agitated.  It didn’t help that this kid didn’t work for customs agency or border control at all, he was just a random kid that wanted to help with the bags.  But since my camera, computer and wallet were in my backpack I was ready to fight over it.  So he asks at me to put it down and I say no.  Then he yells at me to put it down so to appease him I put it where he wants and I stand over it.  When he walks away I pick it back up and walk back into the customs line.  So then he comes back and tries to take it from me to put it back where he wants it but remember, no one else on the bus has been asked for their backpacks.  This was when things almost got ugly until a customs agent came in about that time and told everyone to take off their backpacks so they can be checked.  I felt bad for a second but not really, because this kid didn’t work for them and didn’t give me any reason to trust him.  It all turned out well though.  So we get back on the bus and reach the next bus station and then have to wait an hour for the next bus.  We finally made it to Buenos Aires, Costa Rica about 2:30 Tuesday afternoon.  The 10 hour bus ride turned into a 13 ½ hour adventure which we all kind of knew it would.  The good thing is that we are here in Costa Rica and I thankfully didn’t punch this punk kid at the border. 

So we got here at 2:30 Tuesday and got a few things ready for the 22 people that arrived about 9 Tuesday night.  Today, Wednesday, we got started doing what we are going to be doing here.  We are having a 7 day evangelism campaign that features a 5 night gospel meeting.  Today we were able to do a lot of prep work for things like VBS, the men’s and women’s Bible classes and also were able to go door knocking to invite people to the gospel meeting.  It was a good day and I’ll tell a little more of what we did today in my next post, hopefully tomorrow.  Tonight I am still pretty tired from the bus ride and lack of sleep we got last night so I’m going to go ahead to bed.