Updating 1.0

Alright so it has been forever since I've written anything meaningful. So this week I'll be updating on my adventures over the past month plus.

Back around the beginning of April, I got to lead a Youth Team from Louisville (pronounced Loo-ul vuhl), Kt. Ryan, the youth minister, and I had a great time leading the youth into new experiences with their Savior. I love youth teams cause that's how I got my start in missions, especially here in Costa Rica. And they've been foundational in God shaping me.

We went to Quepos and worked with a church outside of central Quepos. Q has a lot of problems with drugs, since it's a huge tourist dump. It's the last stop before Manuel Antonio, a national park that is beautiful, so it gets a lot of bleed over from the bums that bum around Central America. But the church was wonderful and I knew it would be a great trip from the first moment that I talked to Pastor Wilbur.

Through the week we worked on the church and did some more outreach ministries to bring more people into the church with the goal of them knowing Jesus. The kids were stretched in this area, as was I. It was the first time that I had to go around a neighborhood/community and invite people to come to church. We put on a youth service, a children's activity and a women's meeting. They put on a despedida "good-bye service" the last night we were there. It was a wonderful time to celebrate the work that God had done in all of us that week.

The challanges of this group? The church has a more liberal background, so getting the evangelism side of the trip across was difficult, but not impossible. They were greatly flexible in anything and everything that was asked of them. There were also some interpersonal issues in the trip. And so I'm not spreading anything that shouldn't be spread or ruining the "reps"
of anyone, I'll just say God worked on a lot of hearts that week and is doing a great work in all of them.

The team was wonderful and I'm blessed to have had the pleasure of leading their time down here.

Ah, a little explanation. The click below. A few of the youth, in the weird way that only youth know how to, wanted to express their love for Ryan, their youth pastor. So they told me they'd pay me 5 clams if I put my rump on Ryan and sang the "bum song," made famous by Tom Green. So I did. Still waiting for my dough though... still waiting... still.