Day 5 - 5.27.2008 - Tired but joyful

Good morning everyone! Praise the Lord our God for giving us a good night sleep~ ^-^

We didn't have our morning prayer meeting today, instead, we went to the Church morning prayer meeting. There were about 28-30 people joining the prayer meeting, and thanks the Lord for giving these brothers and sisters a passionate heart in prayer. We were in a big group at the beginning, but then separated into group of 3 and pray. When they told me that we have to kneel down and pray, I am surprised and amazed. I never kneel down and pray with others before, but it was a really good experience and I really enjoyed the time praying with them!

*Nelson lead us in an opening prayer in the Morning Prayer Meeting*

*We separated into small group and pray*

After the morning prayer meeting, we had our small breakfast!! (We didn't eat anything in the morning~ No Masmanni today -_-)

*Cheers!* (We definitely did eat too much...>o<'')

After having a small breakfast, Doris and I were in a worship training section. Doris was the teacher and I was one of her student. I was sitting there listening very carefully and I did learn a lot. So do other brothers and sisters. I am sure that they all love music a lot and love to serve God through music. ^o<

*Doris teaching and we are listening very carefully!!*

While Doris and I were in the Church, the rest of our team members left us and went shopping!!! (Meanie >oo<) See how happy they were!!!

After the training section, we re-grouped together and went out for lunch. Today we had buffet in a 5 stars hotel.....which is holiday inn. (I don't think Holiday Inn is 5 stars in the U.S.) Anyway, we had a really good lunch and some quality fellowship time! Thanks God for providing us such a good time.

*Buffet @ Holiday Inn*

At 3pm, we had Sunday (Well, technically it's Tuesday) School, Allen and Alice shared their testimony with us again! It's great even though we have heard it for a few times... It's very touched! Following sunday school, we have our Tuesday Service. Tusday afternoon service is designed for the people who work in a restaurant!

After the service, Allen, Alice, and James went back to Mission House while Doris, James, and I went to the nearby downtown to shop! ^.^v We had a great time and some good sharing. We finally had a chance to try Pollo Camparo. It's tasty!

Later on at night, we had dinner at a Chinese restaurant with a lot of brothers and sisters. We all had a very good fellowship time! The brothers and sisters are very nice and hearing their testimonies also gave us a lot of encouragements!!!

*Didn't capture everyone since we have too many people!!*

That's pretty it. Good night everyone and remember to keep praying for us!!!

Night!

 Day 3 -- 5.25.2008 -- Our 1st Sunday

Good morning everyone! How's everybody?

For us, after a good night sleep, we had our own quiet time and then our morning prayer meeting. Allen shared with us 2 Corinthians 5: 17-21. In verse 20 the bible said, " We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. " As a Christian, we all are Christ's ambassadors because He has committed to us the message of reconciliation. And this is the reason why we are here! ^o<

We then went to our usual breakfast place - Musmanni. The bakery there is pretty good! We all love that place~ Plus, it's like 3 minutes away from the Mission House. Cool~ But before we left, we took some good pictures... (since we going to the Sunday Service to worship our God, we all wore our best outfit!)

"Four Flowers"

"Three......handsome.....men"

As usual, our living MAP Doris brought us on 2 taxis and they took us to the Mandarin Church safely. We arrived there at around 9am. During the sermon, the Pastor talked about 2 Corinthians 9-10, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." As human, we do have times of weaknesses, but Paul said, "For when I am weak, then  I am strong." because all  his power and strength is coming from God.

This is the Mandarin Church in San Jose. It's very pretty and big inside!

During Sunday school, we were separated into different classes for our sharing. We all had a chance to share a little bit, praise the Lord that we can be his ambassadors! When we finished with Sunday school, one of Doris' friend Ah Siu and her 2 sons went to lunch with usa seafood restaruant, but I forgot the name of it already! -_-''

We had very delicious lobsters and seafood!!! Thanks Doris for treating us such a big big lunch~ We were all STUFFED!!!! (We really ate a lot >oo<)

When everyone is done, it started pouring again and we need to hurry to the Cantonese Sunday Service. And this is how helpless we were, waiting for the bus in the rain! (-__-)''  But we don't look helpless at all right? Why? Because as a Chirstian, we are always joyful, even in time like this!! ^-^ SMILE~

Luckily, the bus came and we got the the Cantonese Sunday Service one time and joined their Sunday school!

We then had our dinner at a nearby Chinese restaurant. It's a very good fellowship time~ We actually had 2 tables, but I am too sleepy now and I only upload 1 picture... OOPS!

Youth Fellowship is next on our schedule. Honestly, when I was in the youth group, it really reminded me of my beloved Timothy B&S!! This is a very blessed group with a lot of testimonies. Daniel, one of the youth group member, he has a heart to be a Missionary!! His struggles and his words really encouragedus a lot!

YEAH! We are a family in God. May we grow together in Christ! Hope to see you guys soon!

Alright. This is what happened on our 1st Sunday.

Please continue to pray for us.

Good night everyone, have a good sleep!

  Day 1 (5/23) Are we ready? YES!

Such a perfect day to travel...beautiful weather and blue blue sky!

How could we not give thanks to the Lord our God?!

James (from California) and Jay (from Michigan) arrived at CR airport around 2pm, while the rest of us (Allen, Alice, Doris, and I) arrived at CR airport around 3pm flying from Virginia IAD ariport. Amazingly, we had a extremely stable flights, no turbulence at all! Not only that, we did not experiece any trouble in going through immigration and customs. Everything is smoothe as smoothie! Praise the Lord.

See how many luggages we had!!

Costa Rica was raining when we arrived. Even so, the temperature was still very nice, around 20C. Two brothers from CR picked us up from the airport, and after 1 hour of traffic, we finally arrived at our destination - the Mission House in San Jose.

This is the front gate of the Mission House, see how excited Doris is...(this picture was actually from the next day,since I totally forgot to take any picture when we arrived at the Mission House!!) If you look at the picture carefully, there are wired loops (to protect the house) on top of the gate since the crime rate has a tendency to increase recently!! Please keep our safety in your prayer. But of course, we have faith and trust that God will protect us. ^o^

After settle down and introducing ourself to each other, we decieded to go to a nearby restaurant for DINNER! Yes, it's dinner time~ Yeah! And we have pastor Lam and missionary Miss. Chan with us!

The food there was so good! We all had a combo dinner with salad, beans, mash potato, rice, a choice of meat and fried banana. O, plus a drink too (papaya milk or pineapple juice) ! They were supra! *Don't be jealous, HeeHee* Let me give you a closer look of our dinner!

And guess how much was our big dinner.........give you 3 seconds....3....2....1....

Even though we are super tired, we still can manage a trip to the supermarket! See~

After walking from the supermarket back to the Mission House, we were exhausted. So, it's our sleeping time!

Good night everyone and See you all tomorrow! Pray that we all have good health to continue our 2 weeks journey and have wisdom from God to spread the gospel in CR.