The Grand Finale

Our time in Costa Rica is over. Six weeks of living in the jungle has come to a close and now we're back in Ensenada, Mexico wrapping up our time in DTS. Here's some of the highlights from the previous weeks:

• Sweeping roofs, painting roofs, raking leaves, building a bridge...we did a lot of manual work for the base in Puerto Viejo.
• Spent a week with the organization Operacion Movilizacion in an indigenous area named Talamanca. We ran church, women's ministry, kids' ministry, did house visits, and learned so much from the incredible people there.
• Street ministry! The last two weeks in Puerto Viejo we spent afternoons and evenings going out into the town offering our help to shop keepers, talking to strangers, doing worship on street corners and giving out free hugs.
• Everybody getting sick. Sammie and Kylee had ear infections multiple times, and Lyndon had to get an IV because he spent days vomiting and feverish. Thankfully everyone is on the mend!
• Bonfires on the beach where we grew as a team, sharing in personal struggles and praying over each other.
• Stephanie and Omar, our school directors, surprised us with a visit! Got to spend three days decompressing and sharing in ministry with these two.
• My guitar string broke :(
• Ministry with kids, lots of songs and storytelling, and got to meet the lovely Ismini and Earl.
• Went to the clinic in town to hand out bowls of rice and beans and to pray over people. Saw a couple of healings, both in the spiritual and physical sense. Michaela and Debbie spoke over this woman about letting go of her burdens and her worth in the eyes of God, and it brought her to tears. Sometimes, validation of the spirit is more important than the physical.
• Squabbles and fights the last weeks, especially over Phase 10 games and trading work duties.
• Boot camp cleaning for our last day in Puerto Viejo, then rewarded with two nights at the hotel Perla Negra. Pools and endless breakfast and the sound of waves crashing and silence and solitude - gorgeous!
• Ziplining, mud-flinging, 500m water slides going 50mph, and all kinds of crazy fun with the group on our trip to Fossiland.
• We got to visit an orphanage the last day - hanging out with the kids, pushing swings, blowing balloons, dancing, and lots of skits! What a blast!
• Last week in San Jose, the capital. Ministry involved serving the base (more cleaning whoo!) and going downtown to hand out suckers and notes. Met Ronald whose testimony of how God was moving in his life left us speechless, especially because of the message Lyndon felt compelled to give him. "Don't lose hope." And his story completely affirmed that! 

This is only skimming the surface! So much has happened these last weeks, so check out my longer post here about what God was doing in me and in the group.