Camp Has Started

A Beautiful Costa Rican Sunset

Saturday night was spent with a trip up a volcano.  Now before you are alarmed, understand that Costa Rica has many volcano's and only some of them are active.  The camp is located half-way up a dormant one and as you climb you are rewarded with a wonderful view of Costa Rica's central valley.  Though we didn't go to the very top we were able to go up to a spot where you can see 4 provinces from.  While looking at the lights of San Jose, the capital, and surrounding area, representing over 1 million people, we had a campfire and roasted marshmallows for s'mores.  It was a great ending to our first full day in Costa Rica.

Camp fire Saturday night

Sunday mornings are special, as we know that we are joining millions of brothers and sisters in worshiping the Lord, all around the world.  This Sunday we joined the congregation of Monte de Dios (Mountain of God) in the local town of San Jose de Montana.  It is a lively congregation of over 300 with services at 8am and 10:15am each Sunday.  As we arrived at 10 am the first service was still going and didn't get out for another 10 minutes.

The church was so welcoming to us, with volunteers coming back to sit with us, after an hour long praise set, to translate the sermon.  It was wonderful to worship with people from another culture and recognize that we all praise the same God.  The pastor spoke on Hebrews 13:1-4, and gave practical examples of how to apply the text to our daily lives. The 2+ hour service went by quickly and we returned to camp for lunch.

Meals have gone really well, and not just because the food is excellent.  Meal times are a great opportunity to interact with the other people at camp.  The team is quickly making friends and involving themselves in the 'camp activities' at meals, like cheers, chats and welcome tunnels.

Allan at a camper's table

Sunday afternoon was open for rest.  Some walked to town, and realize how steep the hill is to get out of camp.  Some played soccer with the Roblealto and Pine Cove staffs while others connected with home over the internet (which is good but spotty at times, today it is working well for me).
In the evening the week's camp team come together for orientation.  It felt at little like a camping summit as we had representation from 5 countries and at least five camps.  One of the lessons shared was a principle of service; 'That it is not about you".  We were encourage to serve others and not always our own interests.  When we serve in this capacity we can bring more glory to God, reflect Christ's example and feel greater joy while we serve.

As the night closed we readied ourselves for bed (some more quickly than others) knowing that the kids would arrive in the morning and so would our work projects.  To best serve the camp each week our team will be divided into two groups; one on program and one on work projects.  Everyone will get an opportunity to join the program team for a week and do two weeks of work project (with the evenings free to get involved with games, other camp activities and rest).

The Kids have arrived and are learning their cheers

At Roblealto the kids are picked up by a bus carrying the counsellors, that had to leave the camp at 6 am, in San Jose and driven back to the camp, arriving around 10:30.  Before the bus returned we all had a maintenance orientation, and got started on a project (organizing two maintenance areas).  The program members joined the kids when they arrived and the others continued on their projects (which they did really well, according to the maintenance staff).

Cleaning out the shed: Step 1- Take everything out

Step 2: Clean It

Step 3: Put everything back in its new place

Micha helping Jesse carry a tarp 

Josh Fixing a board

Rebecca and Maya removing nails

Gideon and Nathan after a job well done (sorry no before shoot, but I can tell you it was really, really messy)

Please continue to be praying for us; that we would be safe, be a blessing to the people we meet, and that we will be positively changed by our time here.

On behalf of the interns,

Allan

PS hopefully tomorrow we will have a post from one of the interns.