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It’s hard to believe that our time here is almost over. It seems like only a couple days ago we were getting here and getting settled with our host families. But, we still have a day and a half left and we want to make every moment count.
This morning, like most mornings, we got up and had breakfast and met up at the Students International office at 7am for devotions. We continued our study of Philippians in chapter 4 verses 1-9. We talked about how what we think will eventually dictate what we say and do. Thoughts that aren’t God-honoring will lead to actions that aren’t God-honoring. We need to focus our thoughts on things that are: noble, right, pure, lovely, and admirable. In this passage, Paul gives us a four-part prescription for fear, worry, and stress:
- Rejoice in the Lord always.
- Let your gentleness be evident to all
- Do not be anxious about anything
- By prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
We closed our time in worship by breaking into groups and praying for each other. My prayer request is that we all finish strong and enjoy the time we have left.
After worship time, all the teams headed out to their worksite. My team, the sports team, headed out with the tutoring team to Los Guido. When we got there, we were separated into different groups--one to set up and one to be on a team with kids. The kids were separated into two teams: Rojo and Verde. The games were team building games where we had to work together to win. This was quite hard with the language barriers. My Spanish is getting better but I still can’t really speak it very well. We did a couple games and then we took a break for lunch. Lunch is one of my favorite parts of the day because this is when you get to spend time with your team and get to know them better. After lunch, we played more games with the kids, but these games were more mind games. We did a memory game where the kids would look at a table of random objects for three minutes then we would cover it and they would write down everything they remembered. The other mind game was a pattern game where the kids would have to figure out a pattern to get across a bunch of squares.
When we got back to the office around 4:00 and we had some team time. This evening we talked about our takeaways from this trip. We all shared one word that best describes our experience on this Exposure Trip. Mine was welcoming. The people of Costa Rica are so welcoming. To them, it doesn’t matter what race you are or whether or not you speak their language. A smile and love is the same in every language. Another thing we shared was a picture of our favorite moment. My moment was after Costa Rica won their World Cup game. We were on our way back to the center after celebrating in the streets with the Costa Ricans. We formed a circle and were jumping up and down. I wish I could relive that moment because looking at all the faces around that circle, I feel like it was the first time we really came together and bonded as a team. We talked about what it will be like to go home and how to tell people about our trip.
I would just like to thank everybody who made this trip become a reality for me. I had an amazing time while I’ve been here. I can’t wait to tell everybody about it in person!