Day 5 - Ziplines and Waterfalls and Sloths, Oh My!

Today we woke up and took our bags out to the van at 6:30 AM then waited for breakfast for….a while. One thing our kids have learned about on this trip is Tico Time. Tico time is similar to island time - it means whatever time they say to show up, it will always be 10-15 minutes later and however long they say the drive will be, double it because of traffic! :) So by the time we got on the road, we were….a little bit late. For all of our Engage trips at VC we like to plan in a fun day for our kids to experience the country/culture and reward them for their hard work on the trip, and normally we would take it at the end of the trip to close it out, but because we were driving back to San Jose from Limon it only made sense to do our Ziplining/Waterfall Repelling adventure on the way.

We started with devos led by Kalei on “Love is not Self-Seeking”. Kalei reminded us that we shouldn’t be focused on self, but we should be focused on others. She encouraged us to pray through it and ask for strength when we feel like we are being self-focused and not focused on others. 

After a long and windy road through the mountains, we arrived at the adventure guide location around 1 PM and ate a lunch of chicken, rice, beans, and salad. We then put on our harnesses, helmets, and gloves, and loaded the bus to head to the start of our journey. 

Going into this adventure we knew that about half of the students (and staff) were scared, but we all committed to doing it. We had a quick session learning all the rules, then we were strapped in and started repelling down our first waterfall. Everyone was so impressive! We then continued on with a series of 3 waterfalls, 4 ziplines, and 1 suspension bridge through the rainforest. This is a pretty special experience to do as a bonding experience as a team, but it’s also an amazing experience to be immersed in God’s creation. Being in the rainforest is something special and the adventure definitely challenged us all in some ways. We made a lot of great memories along the way. 

When we finished the adventure we ended up right back at the adventure guide location, changed, and loaded up the bus for another long drive back to San Jose. We were all relieved to be back at the farm - it’s a great place to stay as a team and our students immediately started playing ping pong together upon our return. 

After a dinner of lasagna, salad, and garlic bread, Riley led devotions on “Love is not easily angered”. She shared Ephesians 4:26 “Don’t sin by letting sin control you. Don’t let the sun go down on your anger.” Riley mentioned that anger in and of itself isn’t the sin - it’s rushing into anger and not taking time to process the situation that’s the problem. She mentioned that there are things that are right to be angry about - things that break God’s heart should break our hearts too. But she said we need to utilize our God given emotions and can’t let them control us. For example, if we’ve had a bad day, we can’t take it out on our teammates at practice. 

Debrief Thoughts:

• Jose - today was pretty fun! He did think it was funny that the lady belaying us at the end didn’t yell loud enough, so pretty much everyone ended up in water up to their waist and had to climb through the waterfall to get out. 
• Korah - Really liked the guides - she thought they were all funny. She gave a special shoutout to Samir who made all the cat noises.
• Alena - Really wanted to see a sloth on this trip and we saw one in the trees today!! She also thought the funniest part of the day was watching BT flail around while repelling down one of the waterfalls. So funny. 
• Kalei - Noticed while we did all of our driving today that there is no flat land anywhere! The only place she’s seen flat land is the soccer fields! 
• Cooper - Said he was REALLY scared at the beginning, but after the first zip line he was fine! (Some pointed out his shrill screams throughout the day!)
• Andre - Thought this was a really cool new experience for most of us. There are a couple of kids on our trip who have been to Costa Rica before, but he didn’t think anyone but the staff had done this adventure, so it was neat to experience it together. 
• Brenden - Just loved how beautiful it was where we were. 
• Dylan - As we were driving home he noticed how beautiful the sunset was - it was bright red and looked like fire! 
• Riley - Was shocked that those zip line platforms held us! They did not look very stable! She also said anyone reading this blog needs to ask about Grant’s full name - Grantula. It has a whole origin story that everyone needs to know. Also, Grant’s one sentence for the day was a good one. 
• Kate - least favorite moment was Brenden chasing her around with a spider. 
• Clausen - I’m terrified of heights, but the second time around, this adventure was much better! I appreciated all of the encouragement from our students to me and to one another. The most memorable moment of the day for me was at the very end of the adventure. I was the last one to go down the last waterfall and asked the guide if he was going to keep me safe and he said, “Of course! You have the best line, best rope, and best guide!!” So I put my trust in him and belayed down the waterfall. All of the sudden I heard a loud whistle and a TON of water dumped on me!! Turned out the guide had layed across the waterfall to dam it and right when I was in the middle of the waterfall he got up and let the flood pour down on my head. I guess it was funny for everyone else! 

Tomorrow we had a slight change of plans. We are actually going to go help out at the YWAM base in San Jose. YWAM is a para-church organization that has discipleship training schools all over the world. They train up and send out missionaries all over! They are in the middle of a Tiny  House project, so we are going to go over and help them out with that. Tomorrow afternoon we will be visiting the souvenir market and will be hopefully hosting about 100 kids for a sports clinic. 

Praises:

• We all made it out of the rainforest alive! No injuries and no one gave up! It was a great day! 
• We were able to get in touch with YWAM about this ministry opportunity at the last minute - we are praying that God uses our time and efforts tomorrow to bless them. 

Prayer Requests:

• Now that we are back in the city the COVID precautions are definitely back in place. A couple schools had parents with hesitations about us coming on campus. We have all of our QR codes to show them and agreed to wear masks, if needed, but we are just praying that God continues to open the doors to the best plans. One of those options is actually to bus a bunch of kids up to the HPS soccer court tomorrow instead of having to work in the gym at the elementary school with masks on! We have a great soccer field and have two grass volleyball nets we can set up, so this could be a great plan! Please pray for all of these details to work out as we continue our trip in the city the next three days!