Student Ministry Costa Rica 2019

For the past week I have been missing Costa Rica’s culture, people and even climate. This was my second year going to Costa Rica and it was way harder to leave this time than the previous time. It has been a blessing to be see to see everyone this week almost everyday who I built relationships with on this trip. I have been struggling with not seeing the kids and not getting to talk to them like I was able to for the whole week. I’m missing the welcoming loving spirit of the Ticos and how open they are to hearing about Christ. I have been in prayer to help cope with how I have been feeling. God has worked through me while in Costa Rica and he is still working on me since I’ve been back. It has been wonderful to be able to share the stories and my experience of Costa Rica. I can’t wait to see what God has planned for the future of the team and for myself. -Maggie E.

Today was our second to last day of VBS! Our team is doing absolutely amazing with keeping the energy up and staying engaged even though we are SO TIRED. They always say that the third day of VBS is the hardest, but our team is totally rocking it! Our door to door has also been awesome. Here's  a cool story from Caleb: God has been working in my life. My biggest fear when on the trip is saying something wrong and ruining the idea of Christianity for them. That puts me in a place and often it gets in the way of me trying my best to open up and share the Gospel. I can speak Spanish but choose not to going house to house because fear held me back. Normally I intro house to house in Spanish but stop when it comes to the Gospel. However, when I was talking to a house, my translator Fabio stepped back and said “No man, you are doing great continue.” Fabio pushed me out of my comfort zone and I shared the Good News in Spanish and then today the family I talked to was at the VBS! Not onl

Today we asked our team to share 2-3 sentences about their highlight from the day.  Here are a few of their stories: Captain’s log. Stardate 3310.6 Today’s VBS was better than yesterday’s. The kids seem to be more open now. They are becoming more friendly and less nervous. I was part of the Movement and Music crew, and I spent every ounce of energy to make it fun and interesting. Looking forward to tomorrow to see what God has in store. \ - Thomas ---------- Going house to house fo sho. We went up the mountain to where not a lot of people have evangelized, they were super gracious and open to whatever we had to say and met some pretty amazing people. - Erin ---------- It is so cool to see God working through these kids only 2 days into vbs!! they were so open and seemed to be actually listening to the bible stories as well as interacting with each other and with us, even though it was our of their comfort zone. - Julia ---------- Being a photographer this year has really

Dia uno en Costa Rica!! Today was our first day of VBS and door to door! When the kids first arrived at VBS, we had many stations of games and activities like soccer (sorry, futbol), face paint, bubbles, and a parachute. The kids were then sorted into groups. Most of the kids in my group were 9-10 years old. We learned about Gideon and how he was a superhero in Bible time. In the movement and music rotation, we were all messing around with the instruments, and we all got on to the beat on BOOM BOOM TAT (like in “We Will Rock You” by Queen. It was so funny, and one of our team members had the song downloaded on their phone, so we all played along to it! We then went to crafts and made “lanterns” and we played capture the flag in games. I am so amazed at how easy it is to communicate and play with these kids. I know a little spanish, but it is so crazy how you can have such a connection with kids you’ve never met, people that don’t even speak english! It is truly the power of God and the

It is funny how God moves sometimes. In the peripheral of life we sometimes miss things God has for us to see. Today was our first day of VBS in Costa Rica. John Lowman had a conversation with some Abuelos who had brought their grandkids to the VBS. They had come to know Jesus at a VBS many years ago but were not walking with Jesus. He went out of the way to have this conversation and introduced them to one of the leaders of the church. Please pray for them to come back to an active relationship with Jesus. Pray their grandkids will come to know Jesus at VBS. My role today seemed to be in watching the perimeter. I had many opportunities to speak with mamas who were watching their ninos learn about Jesus.  One moment stood out for me today. It seems in so many places those with disabilities are overlooked, but God used a few items from our music and movement to show one young man with palsy we saw him and God loved him and sees Him. He shook the bells and the rhythm sticks. His mama Bea

So it was my first time on a plane. It was kind of exciting since I’d never done it before, and I got to do it with with lots of friends on the mission team. While waiting to take off I was joking with Jared, and told him I was a better Christian then he is. The flight attendant walked by at that moment and was like “oh really?” Then we talked with her for a minute and then she turned around and loudly told the whole plane that I was the best Christian on bored. It was pretty fun joking with her throughout the flight and after we landed she sung me a special song on the speaker which was “I am a C-H-R-S-T-I-A-N”. I was able to talk to her about her church after the flight and it was just a super cool experience getting to meet a fellow believer not ashamed of her faith. It was encouraging and got me excited to be bold for Christ through the trip! -Luke Byrd The plane trip to Houston was uneventful and fast. I was sitting next to Luke Byrd and Jared Coe. It was Luke’s first time

Last Thursday, our team had our pack and sort. The pack and sort is a time where we took all of the supplies that we were going to take to Costa Rica and split them among each missionary. It was a great time and we each got the opportunity to learn more about each other and get to meet up one last time as a group before going out into Costa Rica. We also got the chance to practice our motions and songs for movement and music, the worship for the ticos out there. If those songs and dances have taught me one thing, it’s that learning Spanish is much more difficult than I would like it to be. But still, even with that language barrier, God moves in incredible ways and will always make a way to carry His plan out. And that’s one of the infinite ways that God is a beautiful, mighty God. Costa Rica is so close, we can barely contain our excitement for it. Thank you all so much for your continued prayer and support, and please keep us in your prayers for a safe journey and an amazing ti

Packing time! We had about 15 boxes the we needed to divide among each other to get everything in Costa Rica effectively. So far so good! We're all ready for the trip to start and so excited to meet everyone. T minus 3 days! I'm so excited to be going back this year, last year I was super nervous about everything so now I get to really let the Lord push me even more. -Erin

Our student team recently went into the Sunday school classrooms of FBC Kids to talk about the Costa Rica mission trip and hand out prayer cards. It was also meant to get the families of Frisco Bible to pray for the trip with their kids. It was very successful and the kids learned a lot about our trip and how it is important!  I personally went into the 2nd grade classrooms and spent some time talking with the kids about what their VBS was like and if they had fun, which lead to a lot of interesting conversations. It was really cool to talk to kids about our VBS we are doing for kids in a different country since these kids had already done their VBS the week before. A lot of the kids seemed excited that we would be able to have fun with other kids too. The most important thing we have done preparing for this trip is getting to have  awesome conversations like these with people from the church to get more support in prayer for our trip. - Abby

This past week many of our team members served in Vacation Bible School at our church. They played games, made crafts, and learned about Jesus along with many of the children of Frisco Bible Church. In VBS, there is also a fundraiser portion for a mission of choice. This past week, the kids brought money they earned from doing chores and helping around the house to support our Costa Rica team!  There was a competition between boys and girls to see who could bring the most money. Each team had a representative, Nate Gosvenor and Luke Byrd for the boys, plus Erin Chappelle and Rylie Huckelberry for the girls. At the end of the week, the team with the most money got to dump “gorilla snot” (applesauce, oatmeal, and chocolate pudding) on the losing teams representatives. Throughout the week, we had groups of 2 or 3 people from our team go onto the stage in front of all the kids and talk about what we will be doing there, and what we’re excited about. We also talked about how they c

Evangelism Training Continues! This week the team split into groups of two and practiced sharing the gospel with one another.  We can never have enough practice!  Sharing the gospel in our meetings helps us become more familiar with different aspects of the good news, ingrains the message in our lives, and assists us in becoming more familiar with one another as we hear the gospel from different perspectives.  Everyone engaged well and shared at least four times with different partners.   It is encouraging to see our team coming together and engage in the training so well!  Please pray for our team as we continue to prepare for VBS and the different aspects of our trip.

 Team Building The Spider Web This challenge made us work together to move from one side of the web to the other side. Only one person could go through each space and you could not touch the web. We had to think creatively and rely on one another to accomplish this task. Brooke said, "We need to learn to open our minds to others ideas so we move better as a team, rather than acting on impulse and causing problems individually." The Beam On the beam, we had to arranger ourselves by height and then birthdate. This one was the most challenging for us. There were many challenges to navigate  - communication, physical movement, and mistakes, to name a few. We were very limited and that can make us freeze. Caleb's take-away, "Everyone needs help, not in every situation, but no one can do anything alone. Don’t be afraid to ask for help knowing that by the time we are in Costa Rica we all will be equipped to help". We are continuing to grow as team and worki

All Team Training March 3rd We met the adult team that will be going with us to Costa Rica. They are great and we are excited to see how God is going to bond us together as we go serve the Ticos. We heard a few testimonies from the team and had some fun team building activities. They required us to work together, communicate and think outside of the box. We also had to get close as we jumped onto  2 6'x8' tarp.  For our weekly trainings, we have been walking through being unified in Christ as one church on our team, in our church body and as the big C church around the world. We also walked through what conflict should look like when we honor God. Because let's just say it - conflict is going to happen. It always does. How do we continue to be unified, show love and resolve conflict. It can be hard, especially when we are hurt; but we need to be able to forgive like Christ, determine how we need to be transformed and love others well, helping them to grow and be

Our very first team pic together! We are missing Jared and Nate. I can't wait to see what the Lord is going to do in and through these young men and women!