Maddie Bratton

Hola Vineyard! 

Day 5 in Costa Rica was one for the books and was a sad reminder we are getting close to our last day. Today was the community block party hosted by La Vina Palmares. It was a huge hit! This was an opportunity to showcase the mural we spent days sketching, painting and perfecting and was also an opportunity to show everyone what La Vina was all about! It was so evident that the community really appreciated us brightening up their park a bit! 

Once we set up the tents and bounce house for the party, each of us was paired with a Spanish-speaking member of the church to venture out into the community going door to door to send invite cards and pray over people. There were some really amazing stories from the prayer walks; our team prayed for healing over the sick and wounded, asked for blessings for an entire family, and invited the Lord to intervene in some tough situations. It’s amazing how many people were eager to accept prayer from strangers.  

The next stop after prayer walks was the block party. There were TONS of families that came out to enjoy snow cones, games, and music. We mingled as best we could with children and parents and it seemed to put a huge smile on everyone’s faces. They were very grateful and expressed it to us. One of the highlights of the block party was playing with the giant, colorful parachute with the kids. This was a bonding point for us all and was so so fun. 

After the block party, we ate lunch and headed on a mini road trip. We stopped at the house of Yvette and Joselyn to see all the work that had been done on their house. We were in awe of how great their new bathroom is, but we were so sad to have to say goodbye to our new friends. 

We also stopped by the La Vina San Ramon, the newly formed church plant of La Vina Palmares. Miracles have happened to make this church plant happen and it was amazing to see and hear what God has done and is doing. 

After our stop in San Ramon, we took an hour-long trip through some mountains to get to la playa! (The beach) Taylor Herndon appropriately compared our car ride to a day at Cedar Point- it was a bumpy ride. Once we got to the Pacific Ocean, everyone was treated to jumbo “Snow Cones”- but these were giant mugs full of some snow cone, some ice cream, fruit, powdered milk, etc. It was nuts!

After a walk along the beautiful beach with the darkest sand we’ve ever seen, we had the best car ride home EVER. Rayner stopped at a stand selling fruit and we drank coconut milk straight out of coconuts and ate some fruit that I honestly couldn’t tell you what its called, because I don’t have a clue! But it was good! Our evening came to an end chatting about our day over pizza. We are feeling really full- from God and from pizza. Ciao!

Share