Youth Group and a Chilly Pool

Saturday, February 23

It was nice to have a day with nothing to do but sleep in!  Too bad Jaden didn’t get the memo… he was up at 6:30.  Still, we lazed around all morning, and relaxed at home.  Eddie had a sermon to prepare for tomorrow, and a youth lesson for tonight, and a computer to prep for leading worship.  It is like he is back at work at LPC only this time it is in Spanish!

Jaden woke up this morning saying, “Titi!”  Just breaks your heart, doesn’t it?  He was looking for her in her room again this morning, and I know he misses her already. 

I spent the afternoon cleaning and organizing the bathroom and kitchen.  I thought about doing laundry... but that didn't happen.

Josué came over before youth to prepare the lesson with Eddie.  After dinner, we went to the Mission for youth group.  As always, Eddie started with an interesting game: Crab Soccer.

They also used the gigantic ball to play "Over Under."

After the games, we went into a classroom and Josué lead the discussion.  The topic was:  What is the purpose of this youth group.  It was like pulling teeth to get an responses, but with a bit of patience and some help from Eddie, the kids were very open and honest.  Eddie even challenged them to commit to the group at least for the next 4 weeks (our last month here).  The kids admitted that their reasons for not coming to youth were usually poor excuses and not because of something else important.  Hopefully, we can work together to encourage the teenagers of Tuis to team up and try to win the rest of the town for Christ.

P.S. Check out Jaden in the corner behind the table... He spent the whole 30 minutes standing by a chair "taking notes" with a pen and pencil and peice of paper that he found in the classroom.   He quietly scribbled little doodles all over the paper while sneaking peaks at what we were doing.  If I had tried to get him to do that, it would have never worked!  He is my sweet boy, and I am thankful that we can continue to do ministry with him by our side.

Sunday, February 24

Eddie sang with the youth band at church again today.  Also, a group of women from Texas is here to serve this week at a school for children with special needs in Turrialba.  They sang a song and put on a short puppet show for the church.

Afterwards, Eddie preached about Jesus and the purpose of his death on the cross.  He also talked about the church and what it is and what it is not.  I felt like his strongest point was that the church is not a restaurant.  At a restaurant, you come to be served, to pick what you want off the menu, and you can reject the food if you don’t like it.  Church is not a place you come just to be served and to pick and choose the things you like or don’t like.  Church is much more than that.  Church is the people.  It is an opportunity to show love and to serve both God and others. 

Hector translated and in the end asked the people if they think that they look like the church in Acts 2:42.  Their response was that they are not that church but that they desire to be that church.

Hector also shared about the sad news of the kids who broke into his office this past weekend.  He was reminding us that they need the love of Jesus, too.  I pray that this tradgety in the town of Tuis will bring inspiration to the people of this town to share the love of Christ even with their “enemies.”  I believe that God is doing a powerful work in the hearts of many people of this church and I pray that lives will be changed for the better.

After church, Jaden wanted to ride in Freddy’s car so they took them home with them.  Eddie and I stayed at church to clean up and talked with Hector about the service.  While we ate lunch, we got a phone call inviting us to the pool at Katie (pronounced Kot-e-ay).  We went and picked up Jaden from Freddy and Samia’s house and took the bus to Turrialba.  We also invited Kirsten and Ryan and the kids.  Ryan was out for a run, so Kirsten left him un mil (a whole $2) and a note.  She and the kids hopped on the bus with us and headed to met Karen, Silmer and Sael at the pool.   

Unfortunately, the weather was not cooperating once again.  We hoped for sun, but it stayed cloudy and chilly.  Silmer, Eddie and Jaden went swimming, and Jaden loved the baby pool.  I hope it warms up soon so we can go back and enjoy a dip in the pool.

Silmer invited all of us to their house for dinner and picked up 45 pieces of “Pollos Krispy” and chips and ice cream.  We practiced our Spanish with Karen and Silmer and had a great afternoon.  We ran out the front door to catch the bus and realized it was the wrong one.  Thankfully, our bus was right behind it.  We hopped on and headed home happy, exhausted and stuffed.

 The boys had fun playing with Sael's homemade drum set and sand box.