Hello from Costa Rica! It is my privilege to write the first update and inform you that we have arrived safe and sound. We left around 7:30AM on Saturday morning to head to our first flight at Midway. Our connecting flight was in Houston to San Jose. When we got here, La Vina Palmares’ bus was waiting to drive us to our final destination for the day.  Rayner Rojas, our fearless driver and host for the week, was so excited to see us. His church is hosting us for the week. In fact, for the first two nights, we are staying in a house that belongs to one of the church members. They have graciously opened up their house and filled it with mattresses for all of us to sleep. We were also pleasantly surprised to have some snacks.

Due to the logistics of getting where we are serving, our first day in Costa Rica was a church and tour day. This morning (Sunday), we were able to sleep a little longer than expected. Rayner picked us up, and we headed to La Vina Palmares for breakfast. When I arrived, I was so overwhelmed to see how far their church had come in the construction of their building. The last time a group was here from The Vineyard, their church only had a roof and a few small buildings. Now they have an actual church building with offices, bathrooms, a kitchen, a café area, a welcome desk, and a merchandise shop. I even got to see the children’s ministry area; I was a little excited for that one! Those of us that are returning really enjoyed catching up with people from previous mission trips.

Members on the team truly enjoyed La Vina Palmares’ church service on Sunday morning. David Hayes commented that he really enjoyed worshipping with the congregation and being in another Vineyard. There’s something beautiful about worshipping in two languages. During the service, we were asked to come to the front so that the church could know who we were and why we were there. Pastor Elmer shared how he cared very much about Vineyard Mishawaka and the partnership we’ve had along the years. He was especially thankful that our funds helped build bathrooms for the church and the children’s ministry building. (Least of These Funds from our Vineyard REACH campaign were used to help the final construction of the church AND for the awesome La Vina Palmeres bus that picked us up—and that will be used for all kinds of ministry in Costa Rica). Pastor Elmer and his wife, Monica, presented each team member a t-shirt with their logo and a bracelet as a gift. They made us feel so welcome. After church, we had lunch provided by the church.

Later, we made the journey to see a waterfall. Unfortunately, this part of the day was a little rough. We entered the rainforest and noticed it had rained quite a bit and the trail to the waterfalls was a little washed away. We got to a point where some of us made the decision to stop because it was getting too steep and very muddy.  However, some people decided to give it a go. They did get to see the beautiful waterfall, and those of us who stayed behind definitely enjoyed the pictures. We all made it back to the bus safely despite the pouring rain and terrain. This was a highlight for David Sherwood, as he was one of the team members that continued to the waterfall.

We continued our day with souvenir shopping and visiting an ox cart factory. Rayner set up a tour for us and we got to hear the history of ox carts in Costa Rica. We even got to see the world’s biggest ox cart. How cool! Later, we had dinner at a Chinese restaurant and walked downtown to get some ice cream.

When we arrived back at the house, we were unexpectantly surprised to find out that the rain made its way into the house and some of our mattresses got wet. I have to say, it sure made us all laugh and press through a challenge. Thankfully, Rayner brought us new mattresses so that we could sleep well.

Monday is our first day of work, and we have a lot to do for the Vineyard church in Purral. We will also get to mesh two teams together to work on the church because members from La Vina Palmares will be joining us as well. Please be praying that we are able to stay healthy as well as make the best decisions to the renovation of this church building.

Share