stella bella: latin adventures: part 1

Hola!

Back again, to share more of our trip with you all.

I fear that I have so many pictures, that I will not be able to describe each one fully. So, if you have any questions about a particular picture of part of the trip, then feel free to email me.

In this post, I hope to share a lot of the "what we did" while we were down there. In the next couple of posts, I will talk a little bit more of the things God revealed to me while I was down there. As well as practical little tid-bits of the culture.

Let me start by saying that while we were down there, time was {not} of the essence. Like most Latin American countries, Costa Rica has such an amazing concept of relationships over time commitments. When you're visiting there, you never feel rushed or hurried. I truly feel like the people of Costa Rica live in the joy of the moment. It was a very refreshing way to live. It also probably helped that I was totally unplugged and cut off. Without a cell phone, computer, and thus any form of internet, it goes without saying that life slows down.

Our days there were usually slip into halves. In the morning, we should work doing construction {aka tearing stuff up} and in the afternoons we hosted a vacation bible school with the neighborhood children. In the mix of those things, we were also able to share meals, play soccer, and worship together.

A few shots from our morning labor...

It is a good thing that I was up to date on my tetanus shot - tons of rusted metal.

There were a couple of small injuries along the way...

After one day of busting up cement foundations {by hand} and pushing a million wheelbarrals full of gravel ... we decided to hire a helping hand.

Aside from playing the concrete jungle, a couple other team members dug is gigantic ditch that will be used for a septic tank...

After our hard work in the afternoons, the women of the church that we were serving with, cooked us up some AMAZING meals.

These ladies know how to cook. They literally cooked the entire time that we were there. A lot of their work was behind the scenes, but if you took the time to watch, it was clear that these women were serving in powerful ways.

I cannot even imagine how much work it was. A group of probably five women cooking lunch and dinner for us for six days.

I am exhausted after E and I have a few couples over for one meal. These ladies made me feel like such a wimp!