Week 3 Kick Off

Greetings to family, friends, and followers of our humble blog,

Amanda, Grace and I arrived safely on Friday evening, and were able to jump right into the action with the group. On Saturday, after a week of anticipation, we were able to go up the mountain to Poas Volcano, and do the canopy tour- For those of you who don't know what a canopy tour is, neither did I- but it is zip lining through the trees. This was a major highlight for all who participated, and will definitely stay in my memory bank for years to come.

Getting Geared up

Maya is nervous, but set for the adventure! 

Amanda thought that she was scared of heights, but the excitement conquered the fear

The brave zip lining team after conquering the Canopy Tour

After zip lining, we hoped to travel further up the volcano to the tourist area where we would be able to picnic, and take in the sites. However, the fog was so thick that we decided instead to go to the beach. So we took off from Poas and headed down to the ocean- the trip took nearly 2 hours to drive, but was full of adventure! Costa Rican driving and roads are very different from our North American roads. There are only a few major highways, and so most of the time, you travel on 1 lane roads to get to where you are going. And because Costa Rica is so mountainous, the roads wind in and out, and you feel like you are on a roller coaster at times. This certainly adds to the adventure, and the drive time, because the average speed is about 45 km/h.

Crocodiles soaking up the hot sun

Air Boat tour paying to see what we got to see for free!

Congregating crocodiles- glad that we are above and not in their huddle

On the way to the beach, we made a stop at bridge where tourists stop to watch crocodiles. We saw about 14 crocs and got to watch them fight over food that other tourists were throwing to them from above. While we were there, an air boat tour came along, which says that we got to see something special for free, while others paid. 

Sunset for your enjoyment

All sunset pictures were taken from our cabin- and were taken within 2 minutes- God proves his creativity each day and every second of a sunset.

Beautiful Sunset on Sunday

Quick Family Shot

Monte de Dios Church (Mountain of God)

The beach was a lot of fun too, and we were there for most of the afternoon- experiencing the tide coming in, and by the time we left, sweeping the beach clear. Everyone got tossed by the waves, and most people did some exploring of the coast. Saturday finished off with dinner at a really good pizza place that Arthur and Esteban know. Everyone's favourite was the Hawaiian pizza, which instead of having pineapple chunks from a can, had entire pineapple slices in each piece. Muey Bien.

On Sunday, we had a great day, starting with church at Monte de Dios church. This week, there was no translation for us, so we didn't understand much of what they were saying, but were encouraged to hear the constant mentions of "Senor" (God) and "Jesus" (pronounced HayZeus), which are often omitted in churches today. So it was great to hear that the Word of God is alive and being preached here in Costa Rica and around the world.

Sunday afternoon was filled with free time. Josh, Micha and Jesse took the bus to town and went shopping. Micha was the big spender, buying a vanilla frostee from Wendy's. Danielle spent the afternoon relaxing by the pool, while the Henderson's caught up on some missed sleep, and Nathan caught up with some devotional reading and connections with home. Rebbecca, Harald, Kira, Maya, Gideon and David made the long walk back into town to play soccer with the youth from the church.

We got caught up over dinner, and spent the evening getting prepared for this week with the Roblealto staff.

This morning, Nathan, Josh, Gideon and Micha were up at 5:30 to go with the counselors to San Jose to pick up the campers in town. Kira and Danielle were also up at that time to take care of the pool, and the rest of us were able to sleep until a regular time, and now we are into the day's work- programming, staining, and putting in benches at the fire pit.

For us, the first few days have been great, and we are very excited to see what God is doing here at the camp with the campers and staff, and with our group as well.

Please keep us in your prayers,

God bless,

Dan Henderson