Our first trip to Costa Rica was a great experience. We stayed in San Jose at the SCORE Villa, which was very nice. This was our first opportunity to meet the people we work with on the other side of the ministry. You will have a hard time finding people with greater love for the Lord and bigger hearts for the people of Costa Rica. The "Ticos" (I don't know why they refer the Costa Ricans as "Ticos", I asked but did not understand so I just went with it) are very friendly, unless you're an American bringing order into their chaos they call driving. They are very open to the Gospel and hungry to learn.
Speaking of driving...I was given the privilege to drive while we were down in Costa Rica. It was a memory I will soon not forget. Someone told me that they have traffic rules, but I'm not sure that I ever caught on to them. I did pretty well, but unlike the Tico's, I obeyed every stop sign and traffic light I came to. The only trouble I had was towards the end of our journey when I wanted to make a left hand turn. I turned on my blinker while I was still sitting at a red light (so as to give ample warning). After the light turned green I rolled forward about 40 yards to turn and every car on the street started honking their horns at me. Cars behind me, cars to the right passing me, and cars to the left going the other direction! It was crazy and everyone in the van couldn't help but laugh. As I made my left hand turn the Costa Rican drivers gave me some well wishes and advice (at least that what I believe they did...it was in Spanish you know) and we made it safely back to the SCORE Villa where we talked about it for days.
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| The Champions, Perkins, & Cesar zip-lining |
The "we" I keep referring to are my family, Eric and Christy Champion and their three kids. The Champions are also a SCORE missionary family. They are in the process of raising support to be able to go full time to Costa Rica by next summer. MacKenzie and the Champion kids got along great from the beginning. They entertained each other while we got the grand tour of what SCORE is doing, and that is a lot. SCORE isn't even close to scratching the surface of what the Lord could do through them in just the San Jose area...much less the rest of Costa Rica. But we are trying!!
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| SCORE property in Coronado |
For me the two areas that seemed like there is great potential to impact that area are in discipleship and developing the property in Coronado. The Coronado property is about eight acres just outside of San Jose in the foothills of the mountains. There has be some construction done there already. We have a nice building that will sleep about 32 people, living quarters for the grounds keeper, and a building that is used for the church. There are plans for this property to house over 200 people, have a transition home for orphans, a more traditional church building, housing for missionaries, and one of the best basketball and soccer facilities in the country. As soon as the finances come in it will be up and running. The possibilities are endless!
The second day we were there we were involved in teaching volleyball in a local escuela primaria (primary school). We sat in while Irela (SCORE missionary) taught a bible lesson and verses and then we helped run a volleyball clinic with her husband Cesar. That was such a fun experience and so amazing that God has opened the door to a public school so they can hear about His Word!
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| Playing volleyball-Jen was the Coach! |
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| Ken & Cesar teaching soccer |
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| The National Stadium-China gifted to them |
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| MacKenzie zip-lining |
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| Pro-basketball game in Barbos |
Overall it was a great trip and we learned a lot. Please pray for the ministry in Costa Rica. We can see that there is a lot more the Lord wants to do down there.
Ken
