Day Eight.

Monday's journey starts out at 5:30, just early enough for the sun to begin rising. As I got up and stood in my sleeping bag, Brennen was still laying on his couch bed, and Sean was just getting off of his kitchen table bed (yes you read that right). We all slowly got ready by 6:10 to leave for breakfast at the same restaurant we had dinner yesterday. We arrived at the restaurant and were welcomed with fruit, eggs, rice and beans, and plantains. After finishing breakfast we headed off to the cloud forest. 

Once we arrived, Brennen, Sean, and I(all the guys) realized that we didn't prepare well for a rainforest; short sleeves shirts and no rain jackets. But thankfully Brennen was able to use Kenda's rain jacket, and I was given Kendra's shawl, but Sean was a trooper and just went in with chacos, jeans, and a t-shirt. We split into 2 groups of 10 (one with the students and one with the interns) and headed into the rainforest. 

My group's tour guide lead us into the rainforest with the understanding that we should try to be quiet and listen for bird noises. We then found and learned about the many birds of Costa Rica and headed off farther inwards where we found these animals that looked like a raccoon mixed with a fox with a white nose. All the names of these animals that I'm talking about are not in my vocabulary yet so please ask our children more if you want to know. Anyways, we went to a big red bridge, in which some of the people in my group began to jump and make it wobble (aka Kristen). After the bridge, the group solely focused on finding sloths. Which lead us to walking to another trail, to the back of a restaurant but finally our journey lead us to not finding one. 

After the rainforest we headed back to the cabin and had lunch (sandwiches) and packed up our bags and left back for Franco's in San Jose. During our ride back to Franco's, we all looked at all the beauty God had created, and also marveled at the heat he'd brought. We arrived 4 hours later, needing to pack for the next day, and eat the final dinner of the trip. We had pork and gravy, with tres leches as dessert, which is the best by the way. Bruce came along with all the interns, and even his kids, so that we could say our goodbyes. Tears were shed, but also laughs and smiles as we said our goodbyes to everyone, and finally realized this was our last full night as a team together. I'm not sure what the girls did after the meeting, but the guys were very efficient in packing, and definitely not slacking off and staying up all night...

By Noah Quay

Day Seven Pictures.

We are ready for our FUN DAY - you work HARD - you PLAY hard!

Loaded up and Ready to GOOOOO! 4 hour bus ride here we go! #dramamine

No trip in Costa Rica is complete without a Picture taking Pit-Stop!

MONTEVERDE! Home for the next two days!

A little chicken shop for lunch and touring of the cute town of Monteverde were up first.

Zip lining and facing our fears was on the agenda for the afternoon!

The complete album of our Ziplining pictures can be found by clicking HERE 

After our ziplinging // Superman Experience we headed to our beautiful guest home that had been opened up for us...and enjoyed the amazing countryside as we drove.

Our guest home :)

A walk to dinner

Dinner:

A walk through the farm:

Pressing Sugar Cane

Dinner

A walk to dinner for local cuisine, a walk through a farm which included pressing sugar cane, and then drinking the fresh juice. It was an experience of a lifetime.

Jesus is so good to us and gives good gifts to His children. We closed our evening out with a sweet worship time together and teaching by Ms. Brooke. Days like today are special gifts from our Father.

Thank you for praying for our team. He is a good, good Father.

Day Seven.

Sunday was our first fun day. We got to sleep in a little more then normal, and I started off the day with a quiet time and listened to some music. Then we had breakfast and got on the bus to go to Monteverde. It was a 3 and a half hour drive. We stopped once to take pictures, which ended up being adventurous and a little muddy for some. The bus ride was pretty nice and was an easy drive, until the road turned to gravel, which made it very bumpy. Before we continued to the zip lines, we went to eat at a chicken place and went to some stores afterward. The most purchased item throughout this trip was most definitely coffee.

After that we headed over to the zip lines, which were the biggest zip lines I've ever seen. There were a lot of guides who went ahead to help us at each check point. There were a lot of different feelings toward the zip line. A lot of us were excited, some afraid, some terrified, but no one backed out and we all completed the entire tour. Some of the zip lines were super long and it was incredible seeing all the beautiful land that God made. It really took all of our breath away, because of how cool it was, also because we were hundreds of feet off the ground.

After we all finished there were these two really colorful birds that came up to us and one of the guides was feeding it and while we all got pictures. Then there was a tv that we got to look at all the pictures and reactions from everyone while they were riding. There was many good and funny pictures and videos that were taken.

Afterwards we went to the place we were staying, which was a nice guest house. After we put our stuff down, we took a nice walk to go eat dinner at a local restaurant. While they were cooking it we went and put some sugar cane into an old machine and pushed it and made some sugar water that tasted ok but very sugary. After dinner we relaxed for a little bit and had our first team meeting with all the interns and missionary's. It was really cool to have them join with us.  We had worship and even the house owner was worshiping with us and I thought that was super cool. The meeting was awesome hearing how the Lord had moved that day and seeing Him throughout the meeting. It was really an incredible day.

By Brennen Croyle

Day Six Pictures.

Day Six! We eagerly anticipated this day as we were heading over to play with the Children's home kiddos! 

Sean started the day off with an avocado he picked up at a local shop! Love how everyone settled in so well!

For our day at the Abraham Project / Children's homes we planned different games and different stations that the kids could choose what they participated in. Some were group games and some were individual. From the frozen shirt game, Oreo face, spoon race and parachute. Face painting, make up, nails, wrap bracelets, playing on the playground and PIZZA! After pizza we loaded everyone up and treated the kids to an afternoon at the movies. Each of our team members had a kid assigned to them at the movies and it was such a sweet treat and a great time!

After the movies we headed to Walmart and did our coffee shopping 🙌🏼☕️

After that we headed back to Franco's to quickly get ready to head back to the Abraham Project and get ready for church! They recently started a new Saturday night service in their new multipurpose building. It is amazing to worship in this place that we prayed and believed with them for so long! 

Following worship we headed over to youth group and we saw some familiar faces from years past!

After worship we headed to The Taco Bar for a special night out with our missionaries. The night was made complete with a beautiful and amazing cheesecake by Bruce. Thank you Bruce for taking such good care of us. 

Sarah and sweet baby Reid! We love our missionary families so much! So thankful for the time we get to love on them! Super thankful they allow us into their lives and let us serve along side them!