Posted by: Erika
Our time serving with Pura Vida Missions
is now halfway over, unfortunately. This morning we did not go to the first two
ministry sites, Pastoral and Los Jardines, because we attended church
at Linda Vista. The church itself was
a small shack, made of wooden planks that aren’t completely connected, with an
uneven floor and a large termite nest in the visible roof beams. There aren’t
more than fifteen members of the church, so they had to transport the pews
outside to accommodate all of us from Boca Christian. Because of this, we were
in the sun a bit more (the service was about two hours long), but it was worth
it. Linda Vista is very aptly named (Linda
Vista means “beautiful view”). For the entire service, we were looking at
the beautiful Costa Rican mountainside. The church doesn’t have a live praise
team, so they played tracks with help from a couple of audio speakers. The
coordinators of the service were very kind, as they included a few English
worship songs for our benefit. The rest of the service was completely in
Spanish. A few of our better Spanish speakers translated the sermon for the
rest of us.
After church, we returned to the mission
for lunch. We sang “Feliz Cumpleanos” to Karla, a Pura Vida staff member, whose
birthday was today. We ate some lemon and macadamia nut cake and then had some
free time before heading to the afternoon ministry sites, Calle Zamora and Linda Vista.
However, Pastoral and Los Jardines aren’t missing out on a VBS
session because we went to church this morning. Tomorrow will be our last visit
to the afternoon sites, but we will pay our final visit to Pastoral and Los Jardines
Tuesday morning before leaving for the “senior trip” part of the week, which in
this case is time at a resort at the base of a volcano where we will go zip
lining in the rainforest, hike to a waterfall, and enjoy natural hot springs.
Day 3 at PVM concluded with a visit to an
indoor soccer field, where competition was high and everyone was sweating
despite the cool air. The field is technically indoors, but the ventilation
system consists of open windows. The teams were divided into the two mission
teams (Team 1 = Mr. Smith’s Team and Team 2 = Miss Fabara’s Team). Despite a
valiant effort from Team 2, Team 1 prevailed, thanks in part to their MVP
defense: Jami, Bergen, and Rudy.
We take a small bus on the way to and
from the ministry sites. Travel time isn’t long, but we occupy ourselves by
singing (if you can call it that) at the top of our lungs with all the windows
down. San Ramon definitely knows that we are here!
P.S. Ms. Fabara won another game of
Settlers. The boys have yet to beat her ...
The boys playing Four Square in between church and lunch at the Pura Vida Mission house.
Hope and Victoria washing the dishes after breakfast.
The adequately named church at Linda Vista (Beautiful View).
The church pews were moved outside to accommodate BRCS. The church building is behind us.
Arline and Fiorella - two sweet girls at Linda Vista who love the "gringos"!
Cole acting as the Tour Guide for Team 2 with Marjorie to his left translating.
The VBS site at Linda Vista that our team has affectionately labeled Afghanistan due to the extremely dry, windy, and HOT conditions. The boys have been wearing turbans to protect themselves from the sun.
The children love to receive piggy back rides! Caleb and Cole are acting as the caballitos (horses).
Our lovely farmer's tans (or burns?):
RJ's ankle.
Miss Fabara's arm.
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