Wow! It has been a crazy summer. Crazy good that is. :)
It has just been over a week since the last summer team left. Yet, it feels like it was just a day or two ago. I miss so many of you. PS, I finally broke down and got facebook. Some of you asked for it early in the summer, now I have it.
What a great year and summer it has been in Carrillos. I pray that you are as excited as I am for the work that God has laid upon our hearts to continue during here. We ask for your continuing support and prayers as we move forward in this journey. Know also that you are in our prayers.
I hope this was an amazing experience for all of you. If there is anything we can do for you and your teams to make this experience even better, let us know ASAP. Contact either Charlie or myself. We are always looking for ways to grow in our service to the teams. We are here to serve & bless the people of Costa Rica, and also offer the same to you.
We have 2 groups confirmed for the fall. How exciting! If you would still like to bring a team, please let us know "yesterday"....haha, no seriously ASAP. Remember flight prices are down for the fall from locations like Chicago, Miami, etc.
Peace,
Rebecca
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Friday, August 13, 2010
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
GRACIAS A TODOS
I don't know how many times I can say this, but THANK YOU to EVERYONE for being a blessing to the people of Costa Rica, Strong Missions, and myself.
I can't believe 2 months have gone by so quickly. It was exciting to see old faces as well as getting to know new ones. I pray that your experience was as fulfilling as mine has been.
I have experienced God in new ways with you and through you. Know that you are in my prayers and I hope we can serve together again in the near future.
The work continues here; not just on the actual buildings, but also on building relationships with the people of Carrillos, Costa Rica. I pray that your experience here will foster future relationships with people of your community in the U.S. and the people of Carrillos.
Updates on sites to follow soon!
Blessings,
Rebecca Rusnak (freiburgerose@hotmail.com)
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Building Up!
Hola everybody:) Here are some updates on everything that has been going on at Strong Missions.
+The Work Sites+
The Carrillos community park construction project-
The retaining wall that surrounds the park area and built in front of a high hillside is just about complete. All the cinder blocks have been laid and all that is left to do is fill the wooden forms with concrete that will be used make the the support columns and headers. A smaller and shorter wall is being built around the boundaries of the park that face the street which will be key in maintaining the safety of children from oncoming traffic. Recent groups have had more than their share of trench digging and concrete work. Through the strong spirit of service that each missions team brings, it is all coming along nice and smoothly despite the occasional refreshing downpour of rain that floods the trench with water!
The San Luis Elementary school office building project-
The construction of the school office building is really coming along quickly as well. What was only trenches a maze of trenches with some re-bar placed down in them, is now an actual the near completion of a building structure. On every work day that there's a missions group serving with us, the children of the area happily see the work of the groups and are eager to try to communicate and play with the 'gringos'. Needing to be completed in this high volume season of groups (typically lasting into mid-August), greater priority is being placed on finishing up this work project for the community of Carrillos. This construction project will greatly benefit the elementary school since current office and administration space is small, cramped, and needing of a greater space to better manage and administrate the school and its young students of the community.
Palabra Viva Iglesia Metodista de Carrillos-
The construction of an additional building has gone quite a ways in this past month. Despite the problem due to the great rainfall that easily flooded and muddied up the trench area, the mission groups proved to be real workhorses and laid the foundation concrete and re-bar to move on to the great deal of block laying that needed to be done. As a fruit of the servant attitude, the wall is rising quickly section by section.
updated photos of these construction sites can be viewed HERE
+Interaction with the children of the area+
In addition to the various construction sites that Strong Missions is involved in, a majority of the groups that come to work and serve had conducted vacation bible schools (VBS) for the children of the community. They have been held at the local pentecostal church, the methodist church, and at the San Luis elementary school. Typically the VBS's involve art and craft activities along with interactive games for the kids to take part in. It is such a great interaction and time of sharing for both the people visiting from the U.S. and for the children of the small community here in Carrillos where safe open space to play is very limited resulting in the children either forced to stay home or risk playing in the unsafe street traffic.
But with each group that comes to serve, they continued to be taken to the methodist church of Los Guidos to experience the impact that this small church is making in the poor area of its community. They help with the children's feeding program by serving the kids food and interacting with them, play games with them, and even partake in a lively worship times of music and dancing! Each group that comes is greatly impacted by Los Guidos and by the service that Pastor Edgar Ponce and his family do there.
For detailed information about giving and the needs of Los Guidos please click HERE to see a previous blog post containing all of this information.
+The Wet Season+
Though it is the summer season in the U.S., here in Costa Rica it is the winter season or better known as the wet season. On a typical day, it is quite sunny and warm during the morning hours, and cools down significantly during the afternoon and evening with cloud cover which more often than not, leads to rain. In regards to the groups, rain boots and rain jackets are very much helpful and highly recommended to get around the work sites. However despite, the continual rainy weather, cold weather is not much of an issue; thus minimizing the need for much cold weather clothing. Simply having a rain jacket and a longsleeve t-shirt is enough to keep warm especially if traveling up to the Poas Volcano and/or the cloud forest of Monteverde.
That's all for now!
May God's grace and peace be with us all.
+The Work Sites+
The Carrillos community park construction project-
The retaining wall that surrounds the park area and built in front of a high hillside is just about complete. All the cinder blocks have been laid and all that is left to do is fill the wooden forms with concrete that will be used make the the support columns and headers. A smaller and shorter wall is being built around the boundaries of the park that face the street which will be key in maintaining the safety of children from oncoming traffic. Recent groups have had more than their share of trench digging and concrete work. Through the strong spirit of service that each missions team brings, it is all coming along nice and smoothly despite the occasional refreshing downpour of rain that floods the trench with water!
The San Luis Elementary school office building project-
The construction of the school office building is really coming along quickly as well. What was only trenches a maze of trenches with some re-bar placed down in them, is now an actual the near completion of a building structure. On every work day that there's a missions group serving with us, the children of the area happily see the work of the groups and are eager to try to communicate and play with the 'gringos'. Needing to be completed in this high volume season of groups (typically lasting into mid-August), greater priority is being placed on finishing up this work project for the community of Carrillos. This construction project will greatly benefit the elementary school since current office and administration space is small, cramped, and needing of a greater space to better manage and administrate the school and its young students of the community.
Palabra Viva Iglesia Metodista de Carrillos-
The construction of an additional building has gone quite a ways in this past month. Despite the problem due to the great rainfall that easily flooded and muddied up the trench area, the mission groups proved to be real workhorses and laid the foundation concrete and re-bar to move on to the great deal of block laying that needed to be done. As a fruit of the servant attitude, the wall is rising quickly section by section.
updated photos of these construction sites can be viewed HERE
+Interaction with the children of the area+
In addition to the various construction sites that Strong Missions is involved in, a majority of the groups that come to work and serve had conducted vacation bible schools (VBS) for the children of the community. They have been held at the local pentecostal church, the methodist church, and at the San Luis elementary school. Typically the VBS's involve art and craft activities along with interactive games for the kids to take part in. It is such a great interaction and time of sharing for both the people visiting from the U.S. and for the children of the small community here in Carrillos where safe open space to play is very limited resulting in the children either forced to stay home or risk playing in the unsafe street traffic.
But with each group that comes to serve, they continued to be taken to the methodist church of Los Guidos to experience the impact that this small church is making in the poor area of its community. They help with the children's feeding program by serving the kids food and interacting with them, play games with them, and even partake in a lively worship times of music and dancing! Each group that comes is greatly impacted by Los Guidos and by the service that Pastor Edgar Ponce and his family do there.
For detailed information about giving and the needs of Los Guidos please click HERE to see a previous blog post containing all of this information.
+The Wet Season+
Though it is the summer season in the U.S., here in Costa Rica it is the winter season or better known as the wet season. On a typical day, it is quite sunny and warm during the morning hours, and cools down significantly during the afternoon and evening with cloud cover which more often than not, leads to rain. In regards to the groups, rain boots and rain jackets are very much helpful and highly recommended to get around the work sites. However despite, the continual rainy weather, cold weather is not much of an issue; thus minimizing the need for much cold weather clothing. Simply having a rain jacket and a longsleeve t-shirt is enough to keep warm especially if traveling up to the Poas Volcano and/or the cloud forest of Monteverde.
That's all for now!
May God's grace and peace be with us all.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
NOW!!! Cheap tickets to San Jose! & fall discount
If you are looking for an amazing mission experience in which you can bless others and be blessed and experience God's work in a different part of the world, come work with us. Between our fall discount rate and tickets are now on sale from Chicago to San Jose for $239 round trip from August-Nov. blackout date of Labor Day weekend, you can get a great deal.
Also from Orlando to San Jose (Sept. 7th- Nov. 10th) $99 each way!
check out travelzoo for rates.....also possibly orbitz
The fall discount rate that is now being offered to groups of 10 people or more that come anytime from September 1st or after and departing no later than November 15th is $100 off the cost for each person in the group.
This discount is made possible by the fact that the annual budget made for Strong Missions only takes into account having groups from January and into the middle of August. Any other groups that come are bonus.
Please let us know ASAP if you are interested in joining us for this amazing life changing experience. Whether you are new to Strong Missions or have joined us multiple times, we would love for you to be with us to experience Carrillos and the people of Costa Rica!
Also from Orlando to San Jose (Sept. 7th- Nov. 10th) $99 each way!
check out travelzoo for rates.....also possibly orbitz
The fall discount rate that is now being offered to groups of 10 people or more that come anytime from September 1st or after and departing no later than November 15th is $100 off the cost for each person in the group.
This discount is made possible by the fact that the annual budget made for Strong Missions only takes into account having groups from January and into the middle of August. Any other groups that come are bonus.
Please let us know ASAP if you are interested in joining us for this amazing life changing experience. Whether you are new to Strong Missions or have joined us multiple times, we would love for you to be with us to experience Carrillos and the people of Costa Rica!
Saturday, June 12, 2010
some new pictures on the Flickr photostream:)
hey all! please click on the pictures on the right to see recent photos taken of the 3 work sites, Los Guidos, and of people of the recent mission groups: West University from Houston, Texas and Impact Mentoring Academy from Bermuda!
God's grace and peace be with you all...
God's grace and peace be with you all...
Friday, June 4, 2010
Getting Into Full Gear
As the opening week of the summer 2010 season comes to a close, every worksite has already seen major progress and visible change thanks to all the hard work put in by the 39 member crew from Houston-based West U. United Methodist Church. We broke ground at the elementary school and have provided countless hours of entertainment for the students. Apparently there is something very intriguing about a bunch of gringos armed with pick-axes and shovels, but although the sight of over three dozen hot, sweaty, and energetic young workers has become a daily occurrence for the local people of Carrillos, the Strong Missions crew has also positively impacted the community, especially the local children, in a variety of ways. Over the last two days, West U has held an exciting VBS program for the local kids, which included arts and crafts, games, and of course, plenty of soccer. The kids' excitement about the program led many of them to follow the group to the local indoor soccer field afterwards for an evening of 6 on 6 competition. However, as the folks from Texas have surely learned, one of life's greatest joys is found through the act of service. Today we took them to visit the Methodist Church of Los Guidos, which is situated in one of the most impoverished neighborhoods in the country, where they literally gave up their own food in order to provide lunch for the children there. As always, the very presence of volunteers lit up the kids' eyes and put smiles on all their faces, giving them plenty of energy to participate in the scheduled activities that the group from Houston had prepared for them. As the first group of the summer season, the people from West U. have definitely set the bar high, and we at Strong Missions are stoked to see what else God has in store for the local community as we look forward to welcoming the hundreds of volunteers still to come this summer.
PAZ,
Johnny
PAZ,
Johnny
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