Hey to those back in the States!!  I’m so sorry I have not been posting nightly, we we have been really busy preparing for VBS and travel to Costa Rica, and it has been really late when we finish at night.   I hope you will find it in your hearts to forgive me because I know you live to read the blog ;) 

Ok, so let’s sum up the past few days.  Wednesday was a very fun day for a lot of the girls in the group.  Most of the girls went with Tricky Pat (Pat Gutherie) to do an all girl build.  Tricky was our fearless leader.  The girls worked really hard to complete the build and made many memories including running from large cockroaches, lol!! 

Another group broke down food and made delivery to Nuevo Oriental to ensure everyone in the community received food.  I’m pretty sure that the last distribution put the number to 750 bags of food that was delivered.  The remainder of the group went to Mololoa to work in the kitchen, the day care, and do some more landscaping.

When everyone was finished we made our way to the Mission House for Devo and dinner.  We also prepared for the next day visit to Didasko and the landfill.

Thursday was an extremely fun day for the group.  We had three buses leave early in the morning to ensure we had plenty of time to spend with the wonderful children.  One bus was the medical team that left first to set up for the medical clinic.  The second bus left to drop off supplies at the special needs orphanage then made our way to the bodega to pick up a slide to add to the play ground.  Once we picked the slide up, we made our way to Didasko.  The last group went to the grocery store to pick up the remainder of supplies for feeding those in the landfill.  Afterward they went to the bodega to prepare the meals.  After they finished at the landfill they loaded the bus and came to Didasko with the remainder of the group. 

At Didasko we had a VBS, daughters of the King, medical clinic, and made repairs to the playground.  The medical team saw 150 patients that day.  There were about 50-70 VBS participants and about 30-40 that were able to participate in the daughters of the King.  We spent about 5-6 hours at Didasko serving those at Didasko. 

On Friday the team left for the States, while a group of 9 of us came to Costa Rica. 

We arrived in Costa Rica around 3pm and loaded our things and went to Walmart to purchase supplies needed while we are here.  Then we went back to the airport to pick up the remainder of our team.  We have a total of 23 people with us from Honduras, MS, KY, TN, AL, and FL.  After we went to eat supper, we loaded the bus to make a 1 ½ hour trip to the camp we stayed at for next two nights.  We arrived really late at the camp and made our way to our cabins.  We woke early the next morning, to make our way to Plural Church of Christ.  There we began our VBS, women’s and men’s seminars, and the gospel meeting.  We had a group go door knocking during the VBS to share the times of the gospel meeting and seminars.

The seminars, VBS, and first night of the gospel meeting went very well.  We left pretty late Saturday night to make the 1 ½ hour trip back to the camp for our last night there. 

On Sunday we re packed our bags to load on the bus to leave the camp.  We went straight to worship at Plural.  We had two classes, an adult class and children’s class.  Terry Reeves preached Sunday morning.  After worship we had fellowship with the members of the congregation.  After lunch we loaded the bus to go check in to the hotel we are staying in for the next few nights.  Once we checked in, many of us watched the final World Cup game, while others napped. 

At around 4:30pm, we loaded the bus to return to the church for dinner and fellowship before worship.  Tonight, Chase Turner led the service in Spanish.  I have no clue what he was saying, but I was thoroughly impressed with his Spanish skills.  After service, we had refreshments and fellowship with the members.  Besides the services we are having, the fellowship is unbelievable.  We are building long lasting relationships with our brethren.  After about 30 minutes of fellowship we made our way back to the hotel for announcements and SLEEP!!  Tomorrow is another day of seminars, VBS and gospel meeting. 

We miss you all very much, but we are loving our time here as well.  I hope to post pictures soon.  They will probably consist of Costa Rica and Honduras.

Much love to you all!!

Brandy B