All the glory goes to Him...

Kylie did an amazing job putting a "video testimony" of our experience that the Lord had for us while in Costa Rica...please enjoy and join me in giving testimony to Jesus! For He is worthy!

THIS Wednesday Night!

Join the Costa Rica team on Wednesday, August 27th for an evening of sharing what the Lord did in our lives on this mission trip! Dinner starts at 5:45pm-please make reservations with the church office by Tuesday at noon. Program will start at 6:30pm.

Also, for an update from the missionaries we worked with, please look at their blog:
http://brookeybrett.blogspot.com/

Thank you for your continued love and support!

Estamos a casa...

Estamos a casa (We are home). Just wanted to let everyone know that we safely made it home last night. Our flight was delayed from Atlanta to Savannah (I have many sarcastic remarks that come to mind when I type that...but we had a no sarcasim rule enforced on our trip..so I will ask Jesus to bless Delta)...and we pulled into the church parking lot at 1:00am exactly. We are grateful to all that Jesus did in our lives on this trip and we are grateful for all of you that diligently prayed for us. We will post more updates and pictures later...but for now, know we are home safely. Below is our final team picture we took--which includes our blessing of our translator Jenny from Ireland who made a return visit over the pond just for us :-) as she translated for our team 3 years ago. This picture is taken right after we ziplined down a volcano...an active one we must let you know!

An Evening In A Rainforest

We spent a relaxing evening Sunday in the rainforest. We are now on our way to go ziplining down a volcano. The team has worked hard and deserve a great day of fun and fellowship. Please cont to pray for us on this final leg of our trip! We love you!

Back in the city

After a great day of ziplining down a volcano and everyone surviving and a 3 hour very windy drive, we have made it back to the city & staying 5 mins from the airport. Pray as we travel! Our flight # from san jose is 416L. See you soon!

Saturday night update!

Today we finished up one major project in santa rosa. In the morning we are making up our one work day by working half day in the am before going to church in the barrio that we have been teaching bible school in. Then it's an evening of rest!

Tonight-please pray!

Tonight we are helping to lead the first ever youth service in a nearby barrio. We will be leading worship, a time of fellowship and games and some youth will be sharing their testimonies. Please pray that the glory of the Lord comes down!

Update!

End of work day #2 and the team is doing well. All are healthy, tired and sleeping well! We are painting a building on camp and building the inside of an education building in a nearby barrio. Please cont to pray for good health!

Update

We're made it to costa rica. We haven't made it to ciudad quesada yet, but we stopped on the way to take this first team picture in front of a cathedral with topiary trees!

This was sent yesterday afternoon. The team made it to Cuidad Quesada safely. Keep praying...

Touchdown!!!

The Costa Rica Team officially landed in San Jose, Costa Rica... The breath-taking view of the airport from the descending airplane is quite spectacular. The airport sits in a valley surrounded by mountains. It's an amazing sight. And the team was able to witness this sight at about 3:00 pm (our time). The team landed safely and without any problems. They are making their way through customs as I am writing this blog. Once through customs they will meet up with Mary & Marion (the missionaries - Marion is about to celebrate his 90th birthday), and Jenny Garland (a red-headed, spirit-filled, Irish gal). Jenny will be the translator for the team for the remainder of the trip. Once meeting up with Mary, Marion, and Jenny the team will take a 3-4 hour bus ride to Cuidad Quesada, where they will be staying and working until Monday.

Continue praying for the team as they travel,
Thanks,
Robert

Rough Start

Yesterday was rocky. The storms from Sunday caused delays in Savannah, Brunswick, Jacksonville, and other surrounding airports. The delays would have kept the team from getting on their connecting flight in Atlanta (driving to Atlanta would have done the same). The team decided to stay behind one more night and give it another try in the morning.

The Costa Rica Mission Team arrived at the Savannah airport about 4:30 this morning. They had no problems getting checked in and getting through the security. They flew out at about 6:00am and arrived in Atlanta around 7:00am. It has been smooth sailing so far.

They have their boarding passes in hand for the San Jose flight. The flight takes off at 10:01 am and the flight number is DL411. Thank you for praying.

- Robert

In Atlanta!

We've made it to atlanta and we have boarding passes in hand for our San Jose flight! Our flight takes off at 1001am and our flight number is DL411. Thank you for praying for us!

Take Two!

Our first attempt at leaving early on Monday, July 7th was unsuccessful...oh, the team was great and we even made it to the airport early....to find that because of the storms on the East Coast Sunday night...our flight was going to be delayed by two hours (due to FAA regulations for the Flight Crew that brought in the plane Sunday night). Two hours doesn't seem like a big deal...unitl it makes you miss your connecting flight...which is the one and only flight to Costa Rica for the day (so they say)...So after much debate and once again encountering those Delta counters...that are way too tall for me...we will try again tomorrow morning, since it was the earliest they could get us out. Of course with a team of 21 the only flight they could get all of us on was the very early one...at 6am. So yes, that means at the airport at 4:30am...which means meeting at the church at 3:45am. And we thought this morning was early!

My husband and our worship leader are here at my home...and already asleep, so I'm thinking I will head that way as well. I know God's plan is perfect and I know we wear our flexibility bracelets (rubberbands) around our wrists the entire time we are gone for this exact reason.

We are excited Jesus for the incredible plans you have laid out before us!!!

And we're off!

We meet at 4:30am in the morning, Monday, July 7th!

Our schedule looks like this:
Monday, July 7: Travel Day
Tuesday, July 8-Saturday, July 12: work days-construction in the morning, teaching VBS in the afternoons
Sunday, July 13: Day of worship and evening to rest
Monday, July 14: Our fun day--ziplining down a volcano!
Tuesday, July 15: Travel Home-fly into the SAV airport at 11:45pm

Please pray for our entire team by name!!!
Brian Adams, Chris Adams, Jenny Adams, Brett Berry, James Berry, Katie Berry, Kylie Berry, Charles Boles, Miranda Cooper, Stephen Hundley, David Lyle, Dylan Lyle, Eric Lyle, Kristin McLendon, Christina Melton, Sheri Neidlinger, Timothy Sheehan, Allison Snider, Robin Snider, Gail Speegle, and Brian Wood.

Thank you for loving us!! We look forward to sharing all that the Lord does in our lives on this trip upon our return!

The Final Homestretch...

During the Day!

And our day continues...

In the Beginning...

Our early morning start of cooking the butts and ribs for our major fundraiser!

Grill Cleaning Pictures

Half Day of Intimacy with God-First Portion

Read:
Psalm 84 and Psalm 145. Personalize them in praise to God.
Question:
Have I told my Father that I love Him just for Himself, not for what He does for me?
Meditate:
Be still and know that He is God. Reflect on His goodness to you. Tell Him you love Him because of who He is. Tell Him that you want to love Him more and know Him
better.
Worship Him.

People of Mobility

Good morning my Beloved Prayer Warriors. I pray each of you have been desperately seeking Jesus. To know Him better. To hear His voice. I pray you are sitting at His feet. I am excited as we set out on this next adventure that the Lord has for us. Here are a few of my notes from last nights meeting:


"To be people of mobility" (most of this is from a sermon given by Kelley Greene)

To be people of mobility we first must move towards Jesus.

John 15:15, "I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his masters' business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything I learned from my Father I have made known to you."

We are not Jesus' people doing His to do list. We are His friends. Jesus invites us into a friendship with Him.

When you love someone...you just want to be close to that person...The invitation is for us to fall in love with Jesus.

We need to move towards Jesus. Being people of mobility is falling more in love with Jesus first. We have to be at His feet first.

Once we are at His feet, our hearts are in tune with Jesus. We begin to see things the way Jesus does. When we have the heart of the Lord, we will move towards the poor. We will move towards the oppressed.

Our hearts shift from doing things because we have to--we no longer go on mission trips because we feel like we have to "to be the better Christian." We do them because we love Jesus. Because Jesus is our friend.

So where are you running to? Stop. Move towards Jesus. Move towards His feet. Fall in love with Him....then go.

Last night you were given information about the mission trips....you were presented with all the information that you could possibly want. Stop. Pray. Listen. Sit at His feet. Then respond.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to pray for you by name this week. If you did not sign up on the prayer sheet, please let me know you are praying, so that I may pray for you by name. We will corporately respond in a prayer meeting on Sunday, March 9th at 7:30pm. I look forward to hearing what the Lord as shown you as you sat at His feet!

New Blog Address

Due to technical difficulties...we had to delete our original Costa Rica Blog address....so here's a new one and I am reposting what was on that blog....so obviously the dates differ from when they were originally posted! Please continue to pray for our team as we draw near to the time the Lord has for us to minister in Costa Rica!