Submitted  by   Dan Remmes

Today was our first day actually "working". I hate to call it work because of how much fun we all had. The day began with breakfast with our host families, Jon Sperring and I had fresh fruit, rice and a whole bunch of coffee. The coffe in Costa Rica is amazing! Around 8AM we piled in to the van and drove to La Carpio with our fearless "El Capitano" Miguel, dashing in and out of traffic yet getting us there quickly and safely. When we arrived in La Carpio at the refuge, John Grosser led a devotion for us and about 20 girls around the ages of 14-18. John shared how God has been working in his life and compared how when the sea is at it's roughest is when a lighthouse is most important to even when are lives seem to be going difficult, it is always important to be a light for Jesus to the people around us.

After the devotion, we broke out into our assignments. Karen, Kathy and suzie worked on crafts with the ladies, Jon Sperring, Lindsey, Naomi and I played Soccer with about 15 girls in the morning and about 12 boys in the afternoon, (We had John's sister Susi and a young man named Ricardo helping translate) Dana and Duncan did man stuff as they helped with the maintainence crew and John Grosser did work in the computer lab, I think he was setting up wireless internet. During both soccer matches, we took a break so Jon Sperring could talk with the children about salvation, he used the "Evangicube", a great visual aid to share the Gospel. I think the best part of the day was when Duncan joined our soccer game as a goalie, not more than one minute in he had let up a goal and one of the little boys kicked him out of the goal. Not more than one minute later, duncan kicked Ricardo in the shin with his steel toe boots, needless to say, Duncan didn't last long in the match. We arrived back in Pavas, dirty, exhausted and sweaty, around 5PM to clean up and eat dinner with our host families.

The host family Jon and I are staying with don't speak any english, which makes our conversations interesting and fun. We are all frantically searching through the dictionary to find the right words to say to prevent some communication errors. For example, Sunday night, I was explaining to our host family how the coffee they made was really good because Sunday morning the coffee was too weak, they thought I was saying that I don't like to drink coffee in the morning because it makes me weak, Susi helped clarify what I was trying to say.

I wish everyone back at OCF could see it down here, words won't do it justice. I could spend all night typing, but I want to hang out with my host family, they are so amazing. Domingo works from 2pm-10pm, I think, if I understood correctly, he makes cookies for a company called Pozuelo and his wife Rosa is a caretaker for some children during the day. They have two kids, Maria Fernanda who is 8 years old and Armando, who is 4 years old. We have only known them for 24 hours and I feel as if I have been a part of their family my whole life. Relationships and family are so important in this culture, it really makes me think about how much of our time in the United States is wasted completing tasks instead of just having a conversation with someone, sitting down for some coffee and just chatting. God is doing something big down here and I feel so blessed to be a part of it. Tomorrow I will be sharing my testimony with the girls and boys who we are playing soccer with, I pray it reaches their hearts or at least makes them think. I think Aaron Weiss said it best, "God is love, and love is real".