This morning we awoke bright and early at 6:15 and breakfast started 6:45. We then loaded into the bus and drove about 3 hours to a small church in a rural town. We were expecting to be tiling floors, but the floors were not ready to be tiled, so we painted the walls. We were also expecting a run down church, but arose to a brand new beautiful building. Although it was small, it accomplished its mission. Some of us also dug a hole for an electric post. We also met the very hospitable people of the town, including the church's deacon, Mrs. Mavis. She cooked us a great meal that was completely unplanned and was just an extremely nice lady, along with the rest of the people we met. The best part of the day was seeing the happiness in Mrs. Mavis's face when we gave her a new cross and hand woven collection basket. It's amazing that little things like a cross and collection basket can mean so much to a small church like the one we visited. Mrs. Mavis showed us how much you could do with so little, and how important a church can be to a community.
Thomas, 17
Some of my favorite highlights throughout the day are a little bit random. We stopped about an hour outside of the town where San Pedro is located for a bathroom break and to pick up a bag of ice. Along the way, past the rainforest, we saw several street vendors. Many of them were selling these little pink fruits with green urchin looking tendrils protruding from them. Tammy was raving about how fabulous these fruits were and that we had to stop and buy some. So when we got to the convenience store, Foy and Tammy bought several for everyone to try. They were so strange. You crack them open and slide the skin off revealing an opaque looking jelly fruit with a pit in the center. I tasted one and thought it was a little too strange for my taste. Not bad, but not something I would go out of my way to buy. Many of the girls were popping them like candy. Once we gorged ourselves on the fruits, we got back on the road to find San Pedro where we were serving for the day. Like Thomas said, we were expecting to paint AND tile, but found out that the building wasn't quite ready for that so we all took turns painting with the 8 or 10 paintbrushes and rollers we had. We were able to put about two or three coats of paint on before we left and the whole room was so much brighter. It was just a grey plaster when we started and was a bright white worship space when we left. During our time we also picked up trash along the front of the church by the railway and played a casual game of soccer with two little boys from across the street. It was a pretty fun day. On our way home we stopped for dinner at a little shopping area just outside of San Jose. We are all gearing up for our rest and relaxation days beginning tomorrow afternoon on the Pacific coast in an area called Manuel Antonio. Before we go there though we will have a service with the Bishop and see both of the schools the diocese sponsors in Barrio Cuba, a neighborhood in San Jose and in Heredia, the province to the North West. Thank you for all your prayers. Keep them coming!
Holly Bauer
(pictures are taking too long to load and I'm exhausted... I will load some tomorrow or when we return depending on our wifi situation in Manuel Antonio).
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