Costa Rica STT

"Sam, today is Monday, you can't trick us into thinking you posted this on Sunday night just by putting Sunday's date on it." Darn, you caught me. Sorry friends, I got overwhelmed yesterday and didn't do anything productive once I got home. Did I tell you that I got a little stuffed turtle when we went to get souvenirs? I did. I love him. His name is Paul. I am gifting him to my niece. Weird start to a post. Ok, yesterday we traveled all day! We left the hotel at 3AM (so I slept like 45 minutes, I'm pretty sure some people didn't at all), said bye to the Lagos', and headed to the airport. We got through security no problem, and I slept through the whole first flight, not gonna lie. I had planned to wake up when they came by with breakfast, but I couldn't stay awake, alas. Our layover in El Salvador was pretty short. They made us go through security again, which was unexpected. They were not super patient and I definitely felt frustrated...

Allison – Allison invested so much on this trip. It was so cool to see her connect to the team and help create a team vibe that oozed with peace and friendship. She is an excellent listener, which makes for powerful ministry to students who almost always feel unseen and unheard (that's life-changing!). This trip was drastically better because God led her to come on it. I am so, so proud of her. Darianne – That’s my homegroup! Darianne made so many big steps for this trip before we even started ministering. She stepped way out of her comfort zone and took big risks in faith. She had the chance to operate in her giftings and be stretched in new ways. This trip was drastically better because God led her to come on it. I am so, so proud of her. Haley – From the jump, Haley helped Katie and I with anything and everything that needed help. She helped pull a group of people from all over the church together into a real team. Anything that needed done, I knew she’d be willing to do, and...

I made a terrible mistake today. I woke up at 6:30 AM to go running with a bunch of people in better shape than me. It was fun to run again, but it definitely hurt. I was proud of the little running crew though; they did a good job of not letting me get lost. Today we had a super chill start; we went to go buy souvenirs. I usually hate this part because it's easy for people to switch into a self-focused mindset. Suddenly, we aren't doing ministry and we're thinking about ourselves and home and it can get pretty rough. But, I didn't get even a hint of that from this team, which felt really good to my heart. I'm super proud of each one of them.  We went to a park to hangout and chill. The park was in a town called Coronada , which is a charming little town with a beautiful gothic cathedral. In Spanish, whenever you add an - ado or - ido to a word, it turns it into an adjective. So, the town name means Corona-ed (crowned), which is kinda funny. While we were...

Today is another no-wifi night, we’ll see if I get to post. Most nights I’ve just been up late enough that enough people get done watching Netflix or listening to Spotify that the internet clears up. We’ve got multiple groups in the hotel now, and the staff plays music in the lobby based on which group has a prominent presence. Today was all Jamaican music because an athletic group (TKD maybe?) is here from Jamaica. It’s awesome, but the hotel isn’t equipped to handle the internet traffic methinks. I thought about giving this post a mature-content warning, but I think I’ll just leave out all the details in the stories I heard today. I’ll at least keep it PG-13, but use caution if you get triggered by hard stuff. This was actually a pretty chill day on the surface. The city side of the team planned and walked to a bakery to get breakfast together, which was delicious and emotionally really nice. And it was nice to get some caffeine for breakfast. Rachel and Sheryl led us to an adorable...

You can definitely tell we’re near the end of the trip! Everyone’s feeling it, friends. But it’s also beyond the normal physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually drained that I’ve come to expect in teams. We’re really getting hit hard on a lot of fronts right now. Everything from old injuries to insecurities to conflict to all the corona virus stuff happening at home – please be praying for us! Ok, so today we got breakfast and then walked to the campus (no, you haven’t accidentally ended up on the campus side blog ). We met Lagos, Ricky, and Jovany there and we all rode a bus to San José together. Because the government is not letting big events happen in public places, we shifted plans and decided to set up in the church building. Jovany and Don Julio then went to invite people they know to come and be a part of what we were doing. “What were you doing?” I’m glad you asked. The church here wants to connect to the street community. They want to love and disciple and grow those t...

Well my loves, we’re back on MS Word while my computer tries to work through its conflict with the wifi here. Anyway, today was really good. If you want to know why it was good for the campus, you’ve come to the wrong place. 404 error. Information not found. But, you can find that information over there . Anyway, we slept all the way in today. Had breakfast at 7 and didn’t have to leave until 8:30. Bless. Being more rested made a world of difference for me today. We walked with Jovany to the city bus stop and rode the bus into San José . If you’ve never used public transportation in another country; I strongly recommend it (as long as its safe like in Costa Rica). It really lets us see into the real, mundane life of the culture. Because if you don’t see something or know someone in their average, day-to-day life, you kinda don’t really know them. We live in the mundane, but the mundane can be beautiful if we invite God into it and see it with fresh eyes. Next time you’re in the uneve...

Today was a pretty red-letter day for the Campus side of our team! But, like I said, we don't do that here. They do that there . 5 AM start today seemed rougher than yesterday, the bus ride to the women's shelter was very quiet. Also it felt like our conversations with them were a little more subdued than usual. However, they shared with us that they have felt loved by us and by the GCLA church in ways that they haven't felt before. It's difficult to understand how we can have conversations that aren't particularly profound, when we aren't particularly awake, and we don't exactly fully understand each other, and yet they feel deeply loved. Well, it's not difficult to understand, I guess, as long as I believe that the Bible is true and God is who he says he is. Maybe it just reveals places where my heart doesn't trust God. After breakfast and clean-up, we began preparing the shelter for transitioning back to being a men's shelter. The iglesia...

Well, I’m starting out writing this in a MSWord document, because the internet in our hotel is overwhelmed by how many of us are using it right now. Which, it’s, like 2 AM here, so I reckon they oughta be asleep (but I guess, to be fair, I’m not either). Today was our first day operating independently as the campus side and the city side. From here on out, my updates will all be about the city side, so if you want campus info, you’ll need to be on Katie’s Blog instead of mine. I figure it’s a good idea to introduce you to the city side of our team: Sam – Sam is our team leader and he is me. So you can know everything there is to know about me: INTJ, EG Type 9, Beaver, Conflict Turtle, Quality Time, Cause Hat, Water Bender, Huffandpuff, Team Mystic, Team Plasma, Faramir, Puddleglum, Armadillos. James – James is reppin’ from our church’s 10:01 (a.k.a. city) service. He is one of the people I’ve known the longest in Fellowship Church (he was on my first trip to México in 2009 and made...

* Ok, not all around. Matthew has SPF 2,000 sunscreen and Rachel somehow didn't get burned. Today started pretty chill. I rolled out of bed at 7:11 (because it's divisible by 9) and walked up a floor to get breakfast (we had beans and rice and eggs and toast and ham and juice, was good!). I went back down and found a balcony for a quiet time, which was dope. We chilled and waited for Lagos to come get us. When he arrived and we got organized, we walked over to a futbol stadium to watch a game. The match was between the Liga Heredia and some orange team we didn't like. The game was epic, lots of people had horns they were blowing, two guys brought drums and beat them essentially the entire game, there was much yelling and fanfare....oh, the players were like 10 years old, by the way. We went because Justin , the son of Abel y Eli 1 , was playing. Abel y Eli are a couple connected to the church who live in a rough neighborhood. We'll be going to their house on ...

Everything will change, and that's not bad. The only thing that will say the same is that everything will change. We trust in God, and not in a Plan. ¡ Pura Vida! That is our team's "flexibility affirmation." I made it as kind of a joke, but then decided to make our team say it together after every training because I knew a lot of our plans would be fluid throughout the week and I thought that the preparation might help them cope. Poor them. Not like me. I am so very flexible and fluid. I knew I wouldn't have trouble as long as I knew the plan was to flexible. Anyway, last night as I was driving back from a wedding rehearsal (congrats Rachel and Rob!), I got to meet up with my parents, who gifted our team surgical-quality breathing masks and high-powered hand sanitizer and wipes for us to take on our trip. Their gift and the thoughtfulness to pack everything individually and in travel sizes blew me away :)  Today (Saturday), I got up early and got all...

Wow! It's really happening; we're really going! A lot has happened in the last few months, but here's the long and short of it: We're taking a team of 20 people to Costa Rica this year. The team has 2 sides, campus and city (as opposed to last year where the 4 of us did both sides). I am co-leading the team with Katie Estridge, who was on the trip last year (Hector is coming too!). She is leading the campus side and I am leading the city side. The Campus side of the team has 13 members and the City side of the team has 7 (math!). Our city crew is mostly made of leaders in our ministry and folks who have a heart for and a little more experience in ministry to non-students. The campus homies are a little younger and we have a lot of first-time mission trippers, which is super exciting! Carlos Lagos will be responsible for all of us, but he'll be working more closely with Katie and the Campus Crew. Carlos Gomez is the head pastor and will be in charge of Sam and ...