Costa Rica: First Few Days

Well, the first days have come and gone for our CollegeLIFE mission trip to Costa Rica. We did a lot of work building a retaining wall for a city park. Cutting and bending rebar, clearing ditches, you know...fun stuff. Below will be some pictures but before that I want to leave you with a couple observations from our first few days here.

- This has been some of the hardest work I have ever down...EVER. We are currently building a cinder-block retaining wall for a future park. We are digging, tying rebar, mixing 105 lbs bags of concrete and hauling it over to the ditch. Several students felt this work was the hardest they have ever done, but at the end of the day, it has rejuvenated our souls.

- We have built some incredible relationships with some locals. The guys helping us at the work sight are Wagner, Wilmer, and Wilbur. Wagner doesn't speak a lick of English but he and Alan have seemed to connect in a wonderful way. Wilbur is trying to learn English and I am trying to re-learn Spanish but many times we just know what the other means even if we can't fully understand. But we connect and then we laugh, its been a joy getting to know mi amigo Wilbur.

- These college students are hungry to serve Christ. Charlie Strong, our host, shared with us that many people in Costa Rica believe in Jesus and have a relationship with him. The biggest need here is service to the community doing things that other wise would not be done. With these 2 long and hard work days, no one has complained...not even once.

That is all for now, below are some pics of us working and at a swimming pool/club here in Carillos. This place is beautiful...God is working here, we are excited to be a part of it.

LF

Alan working hard filling the mixer.



Day 1: We cleared the ditch so the wall could be built.


Day 2: The wall is being built and concrete is being poured. We hope to be done with the concrete tomorrow.