Tallahassee Family Team Update - Day 2

Hola friends, family and prayer partners! 

Today everyone was up very early.  When it gets daylight around 5am each day I guess it's hard to sleep late.  Around 9:30am we headed to our first puppet performance at a local public school.  We had visited this school last year and they were very excited to see us return.  Our kids did a great job with their performance and we handed out many gift bags to the teachers and goodie bags to a classroom of children.  They were all very excited and thankful to receive their goodies.

After lunch we headed to an orphanage that we visited last year.  They have about 10 kids at this orphanage and many of the kids we remembered from last year were no longer there.  We hope that these kids have found a family.  Our kids did another great job with their puppet performance.  After the puppets we had several stations of games setup for the children to play;  bubbles, bowling game, frisbees, ballon animals, sidwalk chalk and badmiton.  We all stayed busy and had a great deal of fun playing with these kids.  They brought a smile to each of us and believe we brought a smile to them as well. 

Tomorrow will be filled with a lot of different activities from pouring a new sidewalk in front of the church, painting kitchen cabinets, cleaning the pavilion area and tiding up the Messenger of Hope Church worship area.  We so appreciate everyone's prayers and support and know that we couldn't be here or do it without you!  Continue to pray for our safety and that we will allow God to stretch us over the next several days.

In Christ,

Johnson Family

Tallahassee Family Team Update

Dear Family & Friends,

After a 5-hour bus trip to Orlando, a quick night's sleep at Comfort Suites, spending 3 hours at the Orlando airport; flying in an airplane for 3 hours; surviving customs in San Jose, Costa Rica; and a 2-hour crazy bus ride up and down mountain roads to Turrialba....WE ARE HERE!!

We arrived in beautiful, sunny and hot Turrialba, Costa Rica and hit the ground running!  So far, we have unpacked all of our suitcases, sorted items we will be distributing and enjoyed a great dinner of salad, green beans and carrots and macaroni and cheese!  The kids were ecstatic to have mac-n-cheese for dinner!! (This was the first time our cook, Indra, has ever attempted this dish....and she did a fabulous job!)

Our theme for the week is trusting God.  Tonight's devotional was on Matthew 10:1-10.  We are excited to see how God will work through our group this week as we learn to trust Him.  The kids on our team are preparing to share their testimonies about how they have trusted God with the children we will be ministering to.  Please pray that God will speak through their testimonies.  Tomorrow we will be performing our puppet show at a local school and at an orphanage.  We are all excited for the opportunity to love on these children while distributing gifts and sharing the love of Christ.

Many Blessings, 

Louie & Suzie Serna

Remodeling the IIM Compound

A mission team from Celebration Baptist Church worked on some remodeling of the IIM compound in Turrialba, Costa Rica this past summer. Below are pictures of the work in the kitchen that this team performed summer 2011.

 

 

 

Celebration Baptist in Costa Rica

Today was a wonderful and different experience from the rest of our trip. We spent the morning playing with children at one of the orphanages for little ones aged 0-12. And yes, everyone picked out the kid they wanted to bring home. We'll be checking bags before leaving in the morning to ensure no new children have joined our team as "translators".  This evening we went to a feeding station to help serve food and play with the kids of an impoverished neighborhood. They had a ball with our goody bags and balloon animals. And we had a ball watching them play.

Todd and Bobby finished the kitchen cabinets in the house. They look fantastic! Their hard work has certainly paid off.  

Please pray our ride is on time (2:30 am) and we have a safe drive to San Jose. Please also pray for the driver as he returns to Turrialba by himself. And please pray for the flights home.

Celebration Baptist in Costa Rica

Today was a very busy day for all. We ate an early breakfast so we could get back to our projects and put in a full day. Bill and Rodolfo went back to working on the house with Timothy. They made great progress on some of the upstairs flooring. The remaining group went to plant trees and continued to dig the septic tank. At the end of the day, about 200 of the trees were planted and the septic tank hole is now around 4 1/2 feet deep (5x5). Our fingernails may be permanently dyed red from working in the clay. You could say we'll be bringing a bit of Costa Rica back to our everyday life.

Celebration Baptist in Costa Rica

Today was a busy day for us. Rodolfo and Bill helped work on constructing a house. Melinda taught Abby and John their school work so that Timothy and Katie could focus on going to town or getting other things done. The rest of the group began digging a hole for a septic tank. They broke down trees and roots, shoveling away. Sticks and stones didn't break any of our bones! In fact, other than a few minor scratches we are all still healthy. Definitely an answer to prayer. Timothy was very encouraging. He made sure we understood that what we do is a huge help to them. It enables them to get things done and focus on ministry.

Tomorrow we will continue work on the septic tank and the house. We will also begin planting 400 Cypress trees. Please pray for no rain and continued safety for all.

Celebration Baptist in Costa Rica

Today has been a wonderful Sunday. We were able to participate in the services at Mensajeros de Esperanza. Katrina shared a testimony about how the birth of Marshall had brought her back to Christ and Audrey shared about how the experiences with her grandmother's cancer years ago. The Lord used that experience and her mother's testimony to better show her what it means to be a child of God. Our group enjoyed a great time of worship with the congregation. At the end of the service our group gave the church a Proclaimer. A Proclaimer is an audio Bible that can be charged by cranking a handle, plugging it into an electric outlet or by solar power. The Proclaimer allows a group to select the book, chapter and verse so that everyone can study together. This is a resource that will allow the church to have a Bible Study or Church service anywhere.