Costa Rica: Day 5

Today was AMAZING!!! We split up into two groups. One of our groups headed out to play soccer in the local parks and another group (the one that I was in) went to a local daycare center to play with all of the kids. The women who run this daycare are incredible. There are only three women and they usually have to care for up to seventy children. Fifty-two children were there today and we had so much fun loving and playing with them all. Most of the children were three and four year olds. There were about five babies and the rest of the children spent most of the day at school but we did get to interact with them somewhat.

I loved getting to spend so much time with the kids. The best part of the day was snuggling with this little girl who I really bonded with today. She was so sweet and just wanted to be held constantly. I just sat on a bench and she laid her head on my shoulder, wrapped her arms around me and almost started to fall asleep but was awakened by the kids yelling.

One of the things that most made an impression on me was Josh giving all of the kids rides on his shoulders. There was a long line of eager children just waiting for their turn. They were fascinated with Josh and it was amazing to see him continuing to give the kids rides even though I’m sure he was exhausted. He just kept going with a smile on his face and pushed aside his tiredness just so that these children could have a thirty second ride through the building.

Tonight we went to eat at this really, really good Costa Rican restaurant. Emily and I shared this huge platter of food and we were so full by the time we were done. We actually couldn’t finish it all. The food was some of the best food I’ve ever had. It was a great time of fun, food and fellowship. After dinner we all headed outside to wait for our ride to come pick us up. While we waited we had a team meeting and then sang worship song after worship song. It was the greatest thing ever. Here we were, a group of Americans, standing outside this restaurant just singing our hearts out. It was so cool how we all lost our insecurities about our singing ability and forgot about the people staring at us. We just sang and praised the Lord. It was one of the coolest experiences of this whole trip for me personally. I loved it :0) Buenos noches!
~ Kelly

Hey All, What a God-Day. My group today played in a ton of different parks. The first park we went to was called El Bosque (The Forest). We played with a bunch of guys that went to a seminary school just a few blocks away. One boy was from Indiana.

When I took a break from soccer, I played with this little boy named Joshua. He was so cute and had glasses. He would laugh and laugh with delight every time I would give him an “underdog” or try to catch his feet while he was swinging. I just loved him so much. He really made the day for me

Next we went to a Japanese Park in town and played on a tiny soccer field. While we were there we got to play with only one little boy who actually was from Grand Rapids, MI. He was such a sweetheart.

After lunch, we went to a park quite a ways away but didn’t find anyone to play with, so we went to back to a different park and found two boys playing with a tiny soccer ball. By the time we left, about 20 guys had shown up to play or watch. We left one of our soccer balls with them to keep.

For dinner tonight we went to a Costa Rica Restaurant. The food was so good and there was so much of it. After we all stuffed ourselves we went outside and had one of the best team meetings we have had so far. It was just really awesome and special.

While waiting for our ride home, we sang a ton of Praise songs. It was so cool. And it was interesting to see the people walking by just staring at these crazy American kids singing their little hearts out.

So all in all, the day was God-filled and amazing.
~ Mer

Today was a great day. My group went park hopping to play soccer. In the first park we went to, there were seven guys playing who were from a local seminary. It was a lot of fun. One of the guys attends Taylor where I am going next year. It was cool to talk with him. When they left we went to another park. No one was there so we went to a third park. There was a mud bowl with goals in it so we played there with a little kid from Grand Rapids. We then went back to the compound for lunch. After lunch we walked to a park two miles-ish away. All the fields there were under water so we went back to the second park. There were two kids there when we started and by the time we left 1 ½ hours later, there were about twenty kids. It was so much fun just to hang out and play with the guys.

After we left the field, we went to an awesome restaurant and ate tons of food. When dinner was done we went outside to wait for our transportation. We waited for a half hour or so and the whole time we were singing praise songs. It was amazing. God is doing amazing things in and through our group and it is awesome to be a part of that.
~ Kyle

Today was pretty sweet. After playing soccer for at least four hours, we ate at this awesome restaurant named La Casa de Dona Lela. We got these monstrous platters of food. Each person split one with one other person. These things were enough to feed three to four people apiece. Michael and I were the only ones to finish our platter. (See before and after photos above) And we felt like we were going to puke. Oh, we each had some cheesecake afterwards too. It was definitely the best food that I have had in a looong time.
~ Bones (Jacob Hendrick)