Costa Rica STT

Well, it's the spring semester now.That means Spring Break is getting close (ish)! We're about halfway done with support-raising, which is amazing! Thank you to everyone who has given. If you haven't, but want to, the link is TinyURL.com/CostaRicaFC … We'll have our main team training time on February 23rd (please pray for us!). We'll spend a little time on evangelism (but everyone on our team is confident and competent on that front), we'll spend a little time on culture (though most of that will be learned when we're there)...but most of our time will be spent on how to take care of yourself emotionally while loving people well in tough circumstances. I'm doing research and collecting resources now for that. I definitely feel inadequate to lead this team. I'm in a country I've never been to, working in conditions I don't have much experience with. Our team is amazing, but I so desperately want to make sure they're taken care of as...

Today the Costa Rica team was all together in the same room for the first time to fold, address, stamp and send out support-raising letters! Our non-staff team members are trying their hand at support-raising by asking friends and family to give to cover the cost of their trips (for those of us on staff, we pay for our trip and then are able to reimburse it through Reliant). It was incredibly encouraging to see how servant-hearted our whole team is and see how well we all worked together and how much fun we all have together! We ended by having a time of prayer and worship, which was beautiful. Worshiping with a team is such a powerful bond and such a good thing to build into our team identity. Sad news: we found out that one of our team cannot go :( , but they'll still be part of our team to pray and help us before we go :)

Hello! Wow, it feels like it's been forever since I've done a blog post for a mission trip team. I am oozing and overflowing with excitement about the 2019 trip though. I am deeply saddened to not be going to Mexico, but as the details have started to come together for Costa Rica, my excitement has been growing and growing. We're taking a five-pers on team to San Jose, Costa Rica. We will be working with a GCLA church there that focuses on helping homeless folks, inner-city kids and ladies trying to leave the sex-worker industry. It sounds incredibly intense and I can not wait to see what God will do. Here's an excerpt from an email their pastor, Carlos, sent to me: " This won't be poverty tourism or poor porn , it will be work, be prepared to wash some feets [sic] , clean some wounds, love and hear long life stories. " If I hadn't been excited beforehand, that would do it, shoot. I love hearing Carlos' heart and am so encouraged that t...