Hola everyone!

Yet another update from Costa Rica tonight, and its going to look a little different. This update is going to start from last night and then throughout what we did today. Last night at about 8:30 pm we planned to have a little worship set put on by us. Three people from our worship team at home, Isaac, Jake, and Katie, led worship and it soon turned into way more than a little worship set. I guess you could say that the Holy Spirit not only made an appearance, but it affected many in the process. After the worship set was done, we students got the chance to anoint the Vida 220 students that had just returned from their Christmas break and are soon venturing out to their outreach. It was such a blessing doing that for them. It was a great time!

Then, it was time for our New Years Eve celebration, which here in Costa Rica means tapping into a tradition of fireworks. It kind of reminds me of our Fourth of July, only bigger. We traveled about 30 minutes up to a mountain to watch the fireworks over the three provinces. A ton of people were shooting fireworks so the view was beautiful. We rang in the New Year in such an amazing way! We enjoyed it SO much! Oh, and also, since we went home so late, we got to sleep in for an hour, so that was awesome!

The next morning we started with an awesome breakfast, and then Gloria, DeLynn's wife, told us about her crisis pregnancy center called El Nido. El Nido cares for new and young mothers in the process, before, and after pregnancy. They even have a point system for the classes and the mothers can use those points to purchase toys and clothes for their children. She was so passionate about it and it was amazing to hear that God's plan for it was bigger than any of them thought it would be. The amount of clients has grown tremendously over the past year and El Nido wanted to give back. So that's where we came in for the day. La Cuenca is one of the most poor and dangerous areas of Heredia and unfortunately where most of the clients live. So that's where we went, we brought rice and beans and drinks with us and handed them out to El Nido's clients. It was amazing to see the gratefulness on their faces and even more joy when we offered to pray for them.

After all of our bags were given out, we then left for lunch. We went to a chicken restaurant where we ate rotisserie chicken. It wasn't just any rotisserie chicken, but it was roasted over coffee wood. I am not really sure what that means, but the chicken tasted amazing. And then, we went back to La Cuenca where there was going to be a Kids Club starting at three. We headed out to invite more and more parents and kids to the event and during that time also went house to house praying for anyone who would let us. The language barrier becomes less of a hindrance every day we are here because we can just pray no matter the language. The language doesn't confuse God, so it was amazing praying for people in whichever language we spoke. We just about hit every house and got the privilege to pray for so many people, Spanish and English.

The kids club was a HUGE success! So many kids showed up for the fun songs, face painting, and soccer. After the Bible story and a few worship songs, it was basically controlled chaos from that moment on. Every one was running around having fun, and many of our shoulders will hurt tomorrow from children sitting on them and us running around chasing them. It was a blast! Again, the language barrier wasn't a problem because when we are all having fun, God has given us the ability to communicate without words.

After kids club, we headed home and enjoyed yet another Costa Rican dinner. As I write, we are waiting for debrief and after, we will probably just fellowship, sing worship, and then head to bed. Yet another life changing experience here in Costa Rica. I speak for everyone when I say that this whole week is life changing beyond measure and I'm sure we are all dreading to leave, but can't wait to act out these changed lives at home.

Happy first day of 2015!

Lexy Koch and the Costa Rica Missions Team.

La Cuenca