Our team is safely home

Saturday we left Costa Rica. We had a little adrenaline rush, not due to zip lining or river rafting for which Costa Rica is well known instead, it was due to a passport being left at the hotel. The staff at the hotel sent the passport to the airport in a taxi. The timing was tight, since the hotel was an hour from the airport, but praise God that the team was able to leave Costa Rica together. Our flight home was uneventful and smooth. We arrived in San Diego last night just after 10:30pm. Thank you for following our journey, and especially thank you for all your prayers. It meant so much to our team to know that we had such a large team of people praying for us and supporting our work in Costa Rica. Stay tuned for more stories of our trip, and videos recapping all of our projects. This is only the beginning of what God is going to do through Newbreak Church in Costa Rica at Linda Vista School. We look forward to our trip next year. We hope you will be joining with us on that trip as well. God Bless you, Kendra

Friday in Costa Rica

Friday was our last full day in Costa Rica. We started the day with an assembly put on by the school. The preschoolers sang a song, the kindergartners sang and danced and gave us some gifts. The older kids sang, danced, and prayed. They even had their own folkloric group. They danced even better than the group we saw at the restaurant on Wednesday night. The teachers even sang for us. There was not a dry eye in the place. The school was presented a banner of the successful graduates which was made from the photos which David took earlier in the week. There was a blank square on the banner for the kids pictures in the future. The kids were very excited. After the assembly, the teachers were presented with laptops for every classroom. We were able to purchase them through a generous donation from a Newbreak family. The teachers were so overwhelmed with gratitude. They will now be able to access teaching materials and resources they only could have dreamed of in the past. Katie and David conducted teacher training sessions in the afternoon while the rest of the team finished the makeover of the teachers' lounge. The cooks were the first to peek at the renovation, and they could not stop smiling. They were so thrilled with the difference. Mindy did a great job leading the team and her design was so thoughtful and beautiful. We had a HGTV style reveal to all of the teachers, and they were overwhelmed once again. The day ended with the teachers presenting us with bags they decorated themselves with the national flower of Costa Rica. Inside were gifts they bought for each of us. It was so thoughtful. We lingered a bit longer, but then said our farewells until next time. We will be back next summer. Start planning now if you want to join us.

Delivering the school supplies

Pictures from the school assembly

Wednesday Festivities and Thursday Fun

Last evening was the appreciation dinner for the Linda Vista school staff. We drove up some winding roads to a higher altitude so the view from the restaurant was amazing. The turnout was great as well as the food and entertainment. The Costa Ricans sure know how to have a spirit of celebration! One male teacher in particular got our group going with some song and dance. There were also some dancers that performed with working their skirts and doing a local version of a celebration scream that was quite an unusual sound-sort of how my little poodle mix dog sounds when I accidentally step on his foot. (No offense I hope). There were also the guys that wear the costumes with the big heads and grabbed different people in our group to go out and dance with them. Afterward there was a twizzler/firework display outside where one of the big head guys jumped out and scared the wits out of me. Lots of laughter and fun to say the least. It seemed that the teachers and school staff really enjoyed themselves and some of them said that they never had the chance to come to this restaurant. Today, the fun continued with leaving early to go to the most incredible waterfall park I had ever seen. The idea came from our local “Missionary Mary” because she had experienced it before. The design and landscaping were captivating. The park was full of interesting butterflies, hummingbirds, monkeys and even jaguars as we walked the paths down to the waterfalls. You’ll have to check out the photos to get a glimpse of the beauty of this place. So many pictures were taken that batteries went dead and memory cards got full. Afterward, we did some shopping for authentic Costa Rican gifts for family and friends and went out to dinner. It is now down to the last day of school this week and we got back to the hotel around 8 pm and are busy prepping for tomorrow. There is a lot going on with the photo/frame project, finishing the school lounge, and also a plan to do some coaching with the teachers led by our team educator Katie. More to follow tomorrow. Until then, team member Ellen

Thursday at the Waterfall Gardens

Wednesday night pictures