Costa Rica - Sunday

On Sunday we enjoyed over 7 hours of church services. We went to the main church in Los Guido in the morning for a service that went from 9am-1pm. The pastor was away last Sunday for Father's Day, so they had their Father's Day service this weekend. At the end of the service the children and youth performed songs, skits, mimes, etc. to honor their dads. After a quick lunch we headed off to an area called Tejarcillos de Alajuelita. Along the way we were informed that this is a very rough part of town. When we arrived, I instantly recognized it. I affectionately call it "The Fight Church."

Three years ago when I was here with a team, we visited this tiny church in the side of a hill. With chairs it seats maybe 30 people. We packed it out with close to 200 children! We did our dramas, shared testimonies, etc. and all of a sudden, in the middle of my preaching two boys started having a fist fight right in front of me. Preaching with a mic in one hand, I had to reach down with the other hand and pull the one boy off the other. He was flailing all over, and I had to have my friend Giovanni come up and restrain him and remove him so we could try and resume the service. It was no use. The place got chaotic and we had to end the service. It was a sad ending to the night, but certainly a memorable one. On the way home we just prayed and trusted that God's love had gotten through anyways.

Back to this trip. When we arrived the people were in a time of worship and slowly people arrived. A total of about 50 people (including our team) packed inside and we had a good service. The children of the church sang some special songs, did some dances, and mimes for us. One of the songs they did a dance to was The Voice of Truth that we did here 3 years ago. I can't say with absolute certainty, but I'll venture an educated guess that they probably learned it from our team. Neat to see when that happens! We finished the service with a powerful time of prayer ministry about 6:30pm and returned for dinner and to debrief our day. Got to bed about midnight. Got up at 5:45am today.

One more thing I'm really enjoying about this trip is being reunited with our friends from Guatemala. Pastor Walter and his wife Yadira whom we met 8 years ago on our first missions trip with Lendahand. They traveled to Costa Rica to be on our team, and it's so fun hanging out with them!

In a few minutes we're heading north to the rainforest for two days. If you don't hear from me until Wednesday or so, it will be because we didn't have internet. Thanks for your continued prayers for our team!

Pastor Walter and Yadira - friends from Guatemala!