Day Three-Sabbath Sunday

Today we woke up, ate breakfast, and headed down to the city center in Coronado, the province of San Jose where we are staying. We started out at the farmer's market, where most of our students walked straight through without stopping at any booths because they were scared to ask questions, didn't know what kinds of fruits and vegetables they were looking at, and didn't know how to read the prices. We saw this and pulled them all back into the market and walked through the booths with Ronald, our guide, to help us determine which fruits we were trying and how much they cost. We tried guaba, pejibaye, coconut water from a fresh coconut, sapote, granola, and the definite favorites--rambutan and water apples.

After the farmer's market we walked through the city center and found an outdoor workout area, where most of our students joined in on the fun and worked up a little bit of a sweat. As we were working out we heard some music, we turned the corner and saw one of the Coronado bands practicing. We watched for a while and enjoyed the music, but also enjoyed their choreographed dance moves. Some of our girls even got up the guts to go out and join them! The boys just thought the main dancer looked like Selena Gomez and wanted to get a picture with her. 

After the dance party we walked up to the Coronado Catholic Church, which was beautiful! Ronald tried to get us up to the top of the tower, but they were about to start mass, so we decided to just walk through the inside. I didn't realize how many of our students had never been in a catholic church before!

Following the church visit we walked over to Pops, the favorite ice cream shop of Costa Rica, and we all enjoyed some delicious treats. We then drove back to our house for some more soccer "practice" and lunch.

Once our bellies were full we decided to take a "walk" around the property. Little did we know, the nice afternoon walk ended up being a two hour hike up and down the steepest roads in the area. It didn't feel like quite like a nice afternoon walk around the property, but more like a 5 mile hike where we all got sunburned. Many of us were struggling, but we really enjoyed the views along the way. We were surprised by how many stray dogs we saw and how beautiful some of the farm properties in the area were.

Finally, following the hike we showered up and got ready for church. We ended up at a traditional Costa Rican service in which the message and worship were in Spanish. Many of us were proud of ourselves for picking up the main gist of the sermon, which was about the end times, Christ's second coming, and the hope we have in His return. On the bus ride home I overheard students talking about the passion the singers had while worshipping, especially one lady who really rocked it on a solo song. Gage Galloway said, "It actually gave me the chills because I could feel God's presence." Today was definitely about engaging with the local culture, which we did through food, music, church, and hiking!

Tomorrow we are leading a three hour sports clinic with over 90 kids in attendance, followed by our first basketball game! Please pray for us to have clear communication, joy, and lots of fun with the kids!