Hasta Luego Hogar Methodista

Thursday morning started with devotions by Kate and Mary P. focused on Matthew 25:40, "The King will reply, 'Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.'" Kate commissioned us to reflect upon the person who influenced our service to others during our quiet times today.

Ann reminded us this morning that while last week's work at Mansiones may have seemed more rewarding because the results were immediate, the work this week at the Children's Home is just as important as we begin building the foundation for the second home. Isn't this the same way that God works in our lives? Sometimes the results are immediate, but other times we must be patient as the foundation and structures are put in place.

With bittersweet emotions, we pulled through the gates to Hogar Metodista for one last time this year...sad to be leaving the people and place we have come to love, but excited to be heading home to our loved ones and our own beds tomorrow. The weather today brought us a bright, sunny blue sky this morning, but a dense cloud and light mist covered the mountain late this morning, sending us running for long sleeves and rain gear.




Work today included more rebar work, painting the administration building white to match the Children's Home, and hauling wheelbarrows full of rock and dirt to refill the trench that we painstakingly dug earlier this week.

















Our special treat this morning was a delicious homemade banana cake made by our friend Mike! Mike has been such a blessing to our team and we are so grateful for his introduction last year. Mike is experienced in the Tico building methods and works tirelessly beside us every day!




Will's parting words as we left the home this afternoon were that we have been a blessing to "this place" by our sweat (most definitely!), our tears (yes, both tears of joy and tears of pain), and our blood (just a little, promise!) But really, we have been blessed in so many ways! Blessed by the hospitality of Will and Ella, blessed by the friendship and fellowship of our team members, blessed by the support of the staff at the Children's Home and the Juan Wesley Center (especially our cooks!), blessed to have the best bus driver who gets us everywhere we want safely and without complaint, and blessed by the little children who now have a safe and loving place to call home!












After giving gifts of FUMC "Friday Night Lights" t-shirts and hugs to our local friends, we left Hogar Methodista for the last time this year.

Hasta Luego Costa Rica! See you later! Until next year ....

Over the Mountains to VBS

After our shopping stop, Javier drove us over a range of mountains surrounding San Jose to a Methodist church in Llano Grande where our group conducted VBS with about 38 children and parents. Gathering 38 children to get their photos taken was a challenge for Ann L. but she persevered.


The activities began with Will Faircloth reading a story to the children (at least those who would sit still); the children then proceeded to four stations where they worked on crafts --


butterflies from Costa Rica, churches from the USA,


panda masks from China,


and a really popular parachute game representing South Africa. Great fun was had by all and after a cup of coffee and sweet pancakes prepared by the pastor's wife we returned home through the misty mountains.

Misty Morning at Hogar Metodista

Phoebe and Roger Vance inspired us this morning with The Recklessness of Faith - the leap that gives us wings



And with wings we took off for Hogar Metodista swirling with precipitating mist. We had a group painting the administration building covering the red we painted 4 years ago - it is now white.



The cement group, Judy, Ann, and Duane continued shoveling rocks and sand into the mixer while Karen P and Karen M pushed wheelbarrows UP HILL!



Jim Danforth led the rebar crew with beautiful creations.
For our reward we were given a trip to Mas por Menos to buy stuff.

Tuesday - Children, rebar and cement!

Another beautiful day in Costa Rica. The sky is blue and the surrounding mountains are all visible. A good night's sleep cured the pains from the previous day's work in the trench.

The Karens led a devotion based on James 2 verse 14 which tells us to use "God talk along with God action." We all received a small bird to remind us to use our wings and soar.

Front Gate

Our workday begins when we arrive at Hogar Metodista. We will watch the children, mix cement and rebar. Karen M. and Connie start the day with the little children in the home, and Ann W. and Nancy take over after the morning break.

A big group work on mixing cement. A strong few push the wheel barrels to the site of the home and cover the rebar with cement.

A part of mixing cement is filling pails with stone and dirt.

The house is taking shape, and after seeing the finished house we can picture what is to come.

Meal time is always a highlight, and the food has been excellent! We are all hungry and need the nourishment to keep us working in the afternoon.

Phoebe, Roger and Kate work on forming the rebar.

Back at our home for the week, showers and time in the Internet Cafe are the favorite activities. A delicious dinner of fish and mashed potatoes and then practice for VBS tomorrow. Bedtime will be here soon!

Monday - Work Day 1 at the Methodist Children's Home

Duane and Marilyn led us in Devotions centered on the growth of inner strength and character to be derived from personal times of adversity ... especially the element of patience. We finished with "Be Still My Soul" sung by all.

We saw a sunny day coming, and greeted it with a breakfast of waffles; but the whole thing was dimmed by the need to say goodbye to team members who were with us for only the first week: Joe and Julie, Lee and Tony, and Tove, Sam, and Jenae. We will miss enormously their company and contributions to fun ... and their huge amounts of work.

We were off on the 25 minute bus trip to the Children's Home by 7:50am, cheered to have an extra helper with us for the day, Mike Keyse. Mike, a missionary in Costa Rica, became known to the team last year and has participated with us both years.



The two big jobs before us on the sunny and somewhat windy day were (1) digging and enlarging foundation ditches for the second main dwelling structure, and (2) building re-rod frames for the soon-to-be-poured (gulp) concrete foundations. There was some first-day-getting-organized business, but soon we were all hard at it, adjusting to how our Tico leaders wanted things done, as well as our own job leaders, Will and Jim. A couple of team members spent the morning helping out at the Children's Home, playing with and entertaining the 11-month old twins and three preschool girls.












It was a treat to greet our friend Carmen, who was again cooking for us and taking great care of us. We had our mid-morning "fruit break" of course, and at noon, a splendid lunch of chicken, rice, and salad, followed by some rest.
The ditch business was very heavy work. Indeed we continued in the afternoon to just 3 pm, when the ditch was declared complete, and the team exhausted. We headed back to the dorm a little early for much need showers and rest. Our friend Julie Chamberlain, Director of the Spanish Language Institute, joined us for dinner and conversation this evening and the team went to bed early, dreaming of the concrete to be mixed and poured tomorrow.

Weekend to Manuel Antonio

 We left at nine after devotions by Connie and Mike for our weekend adventure in Manuel Antonio on the Pacific Coast.  Our first stop along the way was at the ‘Crocodile Bridge’ where we saw 21 crocs.   

 Sam got a little too close to one of them.

 The closer we got to the Pacific the HOTTER it got on the bus since there wasn’t any AC worth mentioning.   The Pacific Ocean itself was lovely – Karen and Karen bravely swam in the Pacific.

We finally arrived near our hotel.  However, the bus could not make it up the hill and we had to be shuttled – 10 people at a time – while others patiently waited for the shuttle to return.

   

Some retreated to their air-conditioned rooms while others headed for the pool.

 Our next adventure was to have dinner at El Avion.  If you want to know more about the restaurant, check out the web site.  Many thanks to Jim Miller for feeding us – the only time all 26 of us were together.

 Our final adventure was guided tour through Manuel Antonio National Park where we saw many interesting birds and other animals, including a hummingbird on its nest.

Green snake

Hummingbird on nest

Land crab

Three toed sloth

Toucan

Iguana

At lunch we celebrated the birthdays of team member Jim Danforth and our bus driver’s daughter Priscilla – both born on March 25^th.

Friday March 23

The morning started with a personal devotion from the Tove, Janae and Sam telling us what a wonderful experience this first mission trip has been for them.  After thinking about it for some time, they took the plunge and they are now "hooked".

We arrived at the Mansiones church and sang "In this Very Room" which was very emotional for all on the last day here.  

We finished painting the exterior of the church........

and the drainage team managed to haul a truckload and a half of fill to start leveling the lower level of the parsonage while our masonry team finished the drainage pit.

Gerardo, the pastor, gave a wonderful speech thanking the team for all the work we had done and announced that the church is starting a new month long initiative every year to promote service by asking church members to go into the community to perform service in the Methodist tradition.

The initiative will be called the Ann Littleton Community Service Initiative in honor of all the work Ann has done at Mansiones and the impact it has had on so many people.  A well deserved honor for Ann!

It was then time to say good-bye to our wonderful local supervisors, Juan and Jose, take the team picture and depart for the Children's Home.

After lunch and a brief shopping tour of Moravia, we arrived at the Methodist Children's Home in Coronado to see the finished and occupied first house.

The home is occupied by 11 children ranging in age from 1 to 9, representing 5 family units.  The children were happy and exuberant and enjoyed the crafts we had prepared for the VBS lesson (once we corralled them!)  It was so gratifying to see these children, who have come from very difficult circumstances, so genuinely happy and very proud to show us their rooms and to talk or play with us. (For privacy reasons, we can't show you pictures of the children.) Thank you to all the teams and individuals who have worked on this project over the last several years.

On Monday the team returns to Coronado to begin working on the foundations for house #2 which is now under construction.

After saying good bye to the kids and staff, it was back to the seminary for dinner as we get ready to depart tomorrow for the west coast for some R&R on Saturday and Sunday.