Buenos Días from Costa Rica.  It’s another sunny morning with a very strong breeze blowing,  We’ve had another amazing breakfast of French Toast compliments of our team chefs, Joe & Rich. Devotions were held inside this morning due to the strong winds.  Verna, our devotions leader, read and discussed the idea that God may not give us the whole big picture, but he will show us small glimpses at a time, as with a lamp that only lights your way one step at a time.  It was a wonderful discussion that really hit home for a lot of us, with a lot of emotion displayed. The director of the farm operations, Steve Means, stopped by to share with us the projects that are in the works, and the direction that Roblealto is headed. Probably the most intriguing is the potential to expand the chicken operations into countries north of Costa Rica.   Steve always provides a God-centered discussion with a business background.

By 8 am we were off to work on our various projects. We only have one half day remaining after today, so we were working toward completion of our projects.  The wall that Dean’s team is working on is nearly complete, with most of the siding being attached to a brand new wall.  Working in the sun all these days, some members of this team have a bit of sunburn.  The other teams are working primarily indoors, so this has not been a concern for them. 

As for the new furniture construction, this project is also nearing completion.  We had hoped to be able to also stain the new furniture, but this will likely have to be done by the mission trip that comes in after us. The pieces that were built by Terry’s team and Patrick’s team are absolutely beautiful.

Lisa’s team spent the day making puppet theatres for each house.  The children will make the puppets for the shows.  These puppet shows will be used for Bible lessons, and act as a form of therapy for the kids to express their feelings without being seen.  Terry spent several hours printing all of the pictures for each house.  This can be quite a monumental task.

The refurbishing team has also made tremendous progress.  Kathleen and Alicia have been painting away, with 8 desks, 6 bookcases and a large bookshelf, all requiring at least two coats. Other members of the team worked tirelessly to get these pieces sanded and repaired as needed. Warren and Verna became the expert stainers of our project, spending a lot of time on a very large piece with 18 cubby holes.  Diane and Pam moved over to assist our team in refinishing the chair seats and backs, many of which had to be replaced with new pieces cut by Patrick’s team. It was a very successful day with much progress made.

Some of the team wrapped up around 4:00pm to participate in some of the children’s activities.  Dance and baseball were the focus today.  I wish that I could share with you pictures of the children.  However, we must protect their identity, and so have decided not to portray them on the blog.  We can, however, share pictures of the children at our church events, which include a debriefing session when we get home, and on the video we show at our  Crab Feed.  We hope you will join us for these events so that you can see these amazing children.

Today we began the day with a hearty breakfast of egg, ham & cheese on toast, compliments of Rich & Joe.  Unlike yesterday, the weather was gorgeous with loads of sunshine and a cool breeze.  We decided to have devotions outside to enjoy it.  Verna chose for her lesson “putting faith into action”, which is very appropriate for our mission here at Roblealto.  We discussed that when some doors close, other ones open, and that we will miss out on a great opportunity if we don’t walk through the doors that God opens for us.  

After devotions, we split into three groups. The first group, which included people who had not been to  (2266) Roblealto before, was taken on a tour of the farm by Steve Means, the director of the farm operations. They were given an overview of the farm’s operation, which currently provides 16% of the income for the Bible home.  The goal is to improve this number to 25%. Chickens, day old chicks and Broilers, are a big part of this operation, but visitors are not permitted in this area due to the risk of disease to the chicks.  They toured the dairy operation, which will soon include cheese and ice cream, in addition to milk.  They weren’t able to tour the hog operation since inspectors were there today. The final piece of the farm operation includes beef cattle.

The second group returned to their various worksites to continue the previous day’s work. (2399) The siding project is making excellent progress, and should wrap up on Friday. All of the old siding was torn off, but only to reveal an exterior wall 12×80 that was crumbling.  Three days were spent replacing the wall studs and today we started attaching the new siding.  The new furniture project is actually being managed by Terry Chrisman and Patrick Oliphant since there are quite a few pieces being made, two of which are quite large. The refinishing of the older furniture is moving along well.  Most of the bookcases and tables have been stripped, sanded and painted.  A large piece with 18 cubbies was sanded and stained and looks beautiful.  Our final stage on this project is to stain the chairs and stain the large pieces being built by the new furniture team.

 The third group was hosting the house mom’s to demonstrate how to make stage curtains and puppets so that the mother’s could have the children play act with them. This can be very therapeutic, especially for those children who might not be able to talk about the traumatic events that have happened to them, or to express their feelings through the puppets. The moms were provided with materials to make the curtains, and socks and others materials for the children to make their own puppets. It will be very exciting for the kids.

Several members of the team enjoyed baseball practice with the kids at 4 pm. It’s always so much fun to play sports with the children. The coach for the children, who is from the Dominican Republic, actually played for a major league team in the United States.

We had dinner with our families at 6 pm.  We took pictures with each of the children and the house parents & their family.  Tonight Terry will print out all the pictures and tomorrow we will give them to each of the children.  For most of these kids, they’ve never had a picture of themselves. It was very windy tonight and the lights went out once.  All the girls screamed, but there’s an emergency light in each house now for just such occasions.  Apparently, the lights go out fairly often.  After we left our house families, we met at the team home for debriefing.

Today was a rainy day.  Not to say we don’t appreciate the rain for the lush green landscape it produces, or the floating particulate it forces to the ground. And, not to say that we don’t all actually enjoy a rainy day (at home in our PJs), but it just makes painting and building a new wall slightly more difficult. 

Thankfully, before we had to brave the wet, we had the pleasure of French Toast made by Joe and soux chef Rich – Delish!

In addition to the rain we had some serious wind, enough to blow sandpaper and face masks across a room, and a kindergarten class taking place in our work building.  They were strictly marched, by their teacher, past the tables and cabinets we were painting with shouts of “NO TOQUES, NO TOQUES!” to which I would add “Cuidado!” (“Don’t touch” and “Be Careful!”).   Oddly enough, it was our own teammates who came over and laid hands and notebooks on our wet paint.  In other parts of the workshop, the team continued to build bookcases and a large wall unit/storage system.  More sawing, sanding, and constructing. 

Back at Bonanza, Lisa, Diane, and Jessica had a craft party with the house moms of Roblealto, teaching them how to make scarves and hats with circular looms and yarn.  The ladies had a wonderful time and each expressed the desire to come back the next day for instructions for another craft – cross stitch.  The women seem to love the camaraderie and the fun of crafting, a project for themselves who give so selflessly to others every day.

In the evening, we played soccer with the children and we had dinner with our families again, strengthening the bonds we formed just yesterday with the help of a translator tonight at each  home.    Even though we are able to communicate so much with just a hug and some charades, it was a joy and a privilege to understand each detail and nuance of what the other is saying.  It was also an opportunity to learn more about each child and they about us.   We received fun questions like – What is your favorite animal/sport?  But, also questions that shot straight to the heart like – “Why did you come here?” and “When did you accept Jesus into your heart?”

Truly the hearts of these children are open and loving though still fragile and  wanting.  They, and even the house parents, are so aware of God’s presence and blessings in their lives.  The spirit of this place is incredible to witness, so much so that some of us are moved to tears by the sheer beauty of it.  To back up and then think of what these children have been through, the pain they’ve suffered, it makes their joy and vulnerability that much more amazing/beautiful/awe-inspiring.  And, we should be inspired, by each day and each breath, to live for Jesus who is the giver of ALL good things – especially hope, and love, which is really what this program is all about. 

To think that our stay here is already half over is distressing, as we’d all gladly work more days in order to see the children and soak in the peace and the faith of this place.  But we also know that the next three days will be filled with so much more faith, hope, and love that we’ll be able to get our fill and have extra to pack in our suitcases to bring home.