Dear church family,

Your 2012 Costa Rica Mission teams will be on the field in Costa Rica the weeks of February 25-March 3 and March 3-10.  On this blog they will write a daily report of their work with pictures.  Please check the site often to experience with them how God is working in and through them in service to the children of Costa Rica.  The team will be helping to build a new home for the children this year, while they engage with the children in play and fellowship. They need your daily prayer for safety, health, patience and flexibility during their stay as they live together in one home with 18 and 20 people on each team.

July 18-21, Monday-Thursday

Teachers and students are now fully engaged. The programs this week are focused on additional pronunciation skills, diaglogue, oral reading and multimedia and fun games to help students speak English with more comfort and ease and build teamwork.

Monday
During the morning session, the students learned about Forgiveness and Honor Thy Father and Mother. Many questions were raised, including what if my parents leave us to go to another province to find work and they only see them once a year, or in one case, once in the last four years.

Festival Night
Face painting, balloon hats, tricky triangles, tantrix, rope games (tug of war), basketball, diablo, etc.

In addition to family and friends, local community was invited to attend this event. The school principal and their English teachers also joined in the fun.

Tuesday
Students learned about Pure Thinking – your inside world put right presented via Pride and Humility.

Afternoon and evening activities involved games, singing songs they learned from assembly including “This Is The Day” and was spent preparing the Concert item to be performed on Thursday evening. Each class work on the theme with a song and banner to be presented within 3 minutes.

Wednesday
Today, students learned about what being a Peacemaker is like – dealing with anger ande disunity.

Several highlights for today:
Steve and Regina met with 5 of Regina’s 2010 students at school to help celebrate one of the students’ birthday. All 5 students are top students in their class and got to repeat in the 2011 English Camp.

Praise the Lord! Ella, one student came up to me and told me she now has God in her heart and she has peace. God’s time is always perfect. On our first China Mission in 2008, Steve and I felt we failed as we did not help any students accept Christ, but we quickly realized that God use us all in different steps of a person’s faith journey. Thank you Lord, that you know our strengths and weaknesses and use them as You will.

This evening, the boys and girls were separated to attend the Boy/Girl Talk to help them with thought and action on Pure Thinking and Action. As before, a very meaningful session with lots of questions as they begin to develop boy-girl friendships. This two-hour session was presented 80% in Mandarin for the benefit of the students and 20% for the benefit of the non-Chinese speaking teachers. The dedication and love of the non-Chinese speakers teachers sitting throuogh this session is truly demonstrated. It reminds me of how the students first felt when we come in and started speaking English to them 100% of the time. Although they have the advantage of already knowing the foundation. They just need to get to the comfort level of speaking it which is why we are there.

Thursday – several more highlights on this final day of Camp.
Back at the hotel during lunch, our liaison, the Religious Head of the region brought the Chairman of the Free Cell Church of the region. She reported that there are 12 church buildings and 20 free churches in the area. Praise the Lord!

Steve and I had lunch with one of Regina’s students from 2008 Camp. This was not pre-planned by us. But God knew. She poured her heart out about her life. On the outside, she is cheerful and friendly but when we started to listen, she practised what was taught to her, Honesty in Emotions, and we heard the pain and hurt inside. We prayed for her renewal and health and encouraged her to go to the local Book Cafe for support. That evening she returned to the school to report that she did and she was comforted by the staff there and somewhere there helped her with her neck and back problem with therapy. Pray that this young lady will continue to seek the Lord.

Teachers and students had a parting party in their respective classrooms with soft drinks, fresh fruit, sweets brought by teachers and students. Departing tears are already flowing with the thought of being the last day of camp.

The school principal gave the teachers a feast of a dinner in the teachers’ lounge to show his appreciation.

Concert
Individual classes perform their skit to demonstrate their English speaking skill. What a testimony to the principal and the school’s English teachers.

Teacher appreciation by the school principal were held at the conclusion of the concert with gifts and certificates as Honorary Teachers of the school. What an honor. He also honored all the teachers age 60 and over for their special energy to come teach the students.

After all the ceremonies, we had half an hour back at the classrooms to hand out the certificate of completion to each student. More tears and huggings filled the room. At 9:00 p.m., all the students walked the teachers to the school gate and was very, very difficult to leave.

Another short term mission completed but we know many seeds have been planted. The Holy Spirit was definitely at work in this region. PRAISE THE LORD!!!

Morning devotions during the two week camp was the Beatitudes from Matt. 5. We witnessed all these in every part of the camp. Devotion, love, kindness, meekness, humility and unity were seen throughout.

Love from Regina

Time flies when you are having fun in serving the Lord. Today is the beginning of the second week of camp.

Due to internet problem in my room, I was unable to get online until now. Here is an excerpt of events that transpired in the last few days.

We conducted regular classes as usual, from revision, new pronunciation, oral reading to Multimedia discussion.

All the students by now are no longer shy to speak English.

During lunch hour and free time, the teachers shopped for colored fabrics, paints, balloons, and other decorative supplies. It is time to start planning for the “class project”, which is a 3-minute “drama” performed by the students on Concert Night. Class rooms were decorated with their respective colors.

Movies: Lena Maria Story and Narnia. Students and some teachers watched these inspiring movies.

I had previous plan to meet up with my 2008 summer camp students (5 in total). The re-union is full of happiness and joy. Three of the students have just completed their 1st year of college (1 wants to be an Electrical Engineer, 1 a nurse, and 1 a MD); 2 students are on the waiting list to attend university somewhere by September. They will be notified which college later in the summer. We shared life’s events. One student thinks the missionary teachers are angels sent by God.!

Saturday: No classes. We went on excursion/visitation. Regina and I went to AnLan village where is a primary school is being built (replace the old school house that has collapsed). Students commutes on foot through very rough terrain of hills and valleys 2 to 4 hours daily. In co-operation with the local government, missionaries will raise funds to build a hostel to house the students. WCPres has donated USD500 toward the cause. Thanks to all those who supported the STCM.

About 100 student were on hand to welcome us. As soon as they see our mini-vans parked on a dirt road above the valley where the school is, they began to chant. A chant that lasted 10 minutes. Offical welcome and ceremony followed. Exchanged handshakes. We gave out candies, cookies and other food items to the kids. That was a glorious day!

Due to a stretch of 15km of the road is all rock, one van had a flat tire on the way there. On van’s transmission was broken on the way back. Delayed!

We also visited an orphanage 80 km away from the school. It was clean and well organized. The kids were active and healthy looking. Praised the Lord that these children have a “home” and an education. They are allowed to be brought up in Christian values.

Sunday cultural service was held in school. This resembles our Sunday worship, but with much more drama/play/songs. Many students understand that Jesus died on the cross so that we can be saved!

The rest of Sunday, we were allowed to go out with the class. Some classes went to lunch, or afternoon tea, or dinner. Some also visited the “Book-Café” or tour the local sights. It was a very exciting day and very tiring at the same time.

All is well with the WCPres team. Please continue your prayers!