More pictures!

Field behind the Parish House

"American Cook out" at Guacimo with local youth

Hard work removing rocks!

Pictures from Sunday July 24, 2011-Day of Departure

Day 2

Today we started out with a great breakfast - rice and beans. We left Earth University to go start work at the parish hall in Guacimo. We all got there and our eyes widened. We had to completely start from scratch pulling out all weeds and digging/ picking out 1000+ pound rocks. Our bus driver even helped us out a little. The down side of starting from scratch was all the millions of ants and bugs. We had a little hive problem that broke out on Jack halfway through but a little corazon cream calmed it down. After a couple hours of work we went inside to go have more rice, beans, and chicken. We split up and most of the girls went to go shopping to buy food for our cookout at San Lucas while the others stayed and worked in the ants. We worked for a little longer then went back to Earth to quickly shower and head out to Germania ( San Lucas ) We met Marie Jose and Daniel there who are Pedro's kids which love to play outside. We went to go walk the streets to gather people to come to the church at 5:00 for yummy hamburgers and hotdogs. We made a few friends who came to eat and then play soccer - which they were very good at. After it got dark we loaded the bus to head back to Earth share our wows and pows, take another cold shower and head to bed.
- Kaelyn

Day 2!

After waking up at 7:00 this morning, we began the day with the tough job of digging up rocks out of Pedro's backyard, which was soon to become a garden. When we first started, we thought there were only a few small rocks, but as we dug and dug we realized that there were actually many large rocks. One was about 1000+ pounds (literally!) and took about 45 minutes to dig out of its hole. However, even though the rocks were huge and there were a ton of ants, we all had a lot of fun clearing out the yard.
After eating an amazing lunch at Pedro's house, we dug until about 2 o'clock and then got ready for a cook-out in Germania. We were going to meet the kids in the area and share a meal of hamburgers and hot dogs. It was a little hard at first to interact with the kids because we had to walk down the street and recruit them, all the while not really able to speak their language. But we quickly got the hang of introducing ourselves to them and ended up with about 20 kids at our dinner. They were all really nice and we played soccer and volleyball with them. At the end of the day, it felt like we had made a lot of new friends, and we're all really excited to hang out with them again tomorrow evening! Hopefully, though, we won't get as many bug bites and it won't be so hot outside!

- Maggie Fahey

Dia Uno

Yay! We have arrived! After a long wait at the airport, and an even longer wait on the plane, we arrived in San Jose around 3:00 local time. We met up with Clarence, loaded the bus up and headed out. We drove through the Costa Rica National Rainforest on our way to dinner. For dinner, we stopped at a local restaurant and ordered. Thanks to Clarence we tried some amazing bean dip. Once everyone was finished eating and paying, we got back on the road. We arrived at Earth University around 8:30 and got our assigned cabins. After having a Pow/Wow session, everyone settled down and fell into a much needed sleep.

And then there was lunch

Today most of the youth going on the trip had lunch together.  If anybody is ever curious why one would want to do youth ministry they should have been in that room.  I enjoyed the questions, the conversations, and the excitement about the trip.  From our day-to-day activities, to a discussion about journaling, youth energize me and fill my cup.  This is going to be a great trip!  I cant wait to see what is in store for us.  We will eat, sleep, work, sweat, and grow together in healthy ways.  These kind of things can only happen in once place.  This place is the church.

Here We Go!

This is where we start...Its Monday before we leave and Im getting very excited about the trip.  I hope and pray this trip will be something that we, the youth of St. Mark's never forget.  I ask for any prayers or thoughts.  Please stay tuned for pictures and thoughts from our youth and our leaders as we begin this adventure together!