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Costa Rica :: Day Three

07/31/2007 / Blake

I don´t really have any ground breaking revelations to share. But I am sitting in an internet cafe that is full. Some people had to wait to get a seat. I don´t know if most people in CR don´t have computers or what. But there are SIX internet cafes that I know of. And I´d bet that there are at least double that amount. All of those are w/in walking distance. I don´t think such a place would get good business in Clinton. And I´m not sure how they stay afloat here. An hour online is probably around $1 US money.

Today I did a lot of paiting…again. Yesterday was w/ a roller. I can handle that okay. But today was the tedious stuff. But I found a cd that was a Spanish version of the United We Stand cd by Hillsong United. Good stuff. Then we listened to DC*B and RelientK some. It did make the day go a little faster.

It rained a lot of the afternoon, but I was painting under a porch, so that wasn´t a good excuse to quit painting. In the church, there is a lot of progress being made I think. But there is LOTS more to be done with it as well. It is quite amazing what all has been done on it since we were here last year. And also what we´ve been able to do the last 2 days.

When the first trip from our Clinton church happened about 9 years ago, I think our mission team outnumbered the people at the church service. And last Sunday night there was around 200 there. So things have grown a lot. But a lot of those people were outside. With this new place, there will be room for a whole heck of a lot of people. It´s exciting.

Costa Rica Church

07/30/2007 / Blake

This is part of a church service from Sunday Night.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvVWukjD4aM[/youtube]

Costa Rica : Day Two

07/30/2007 / Blake

I just posted Day One, but here I go with Day Two. I wrote most of that last night, but it´s evening now when I´m posting it. So I figured I´d go with some details about Day Two.

I slept well, but never as long as I´d like. Such is life. But the day started with us waiting on some supplies to work in the new church. OR…we could start painting the pastor´s house. I usually don´t like paiting, but I´m okay with a roller. So a few of us went to paint. We painted the whole house with two coats of paint. And tomorrow we´ll start on the trim.

That´s basically the day in a nut shell. But it´s so very good to be able to talk with and connect to both old and new friends here. I was talking with Utah tonight about could he ever see himself living here. We both agreed that on one hand, yes because we think we could fit in fine with the culture. But not so sure on the other hand because… Continue reading

Costa Rica : Day One

07/30/2007 / Blake

So, I intended to get to sleep and grab a few hours of rest before having to get up to meet people at the church. But after a slow, yet methodical packing process and tying up some loose ends before leaving, it was nearly 1a.m. before actually laying down. My alarm was set for 3:15. So at 2a.m. I was still awake. So I decided to go ahead and get up. A small group of students were meeting at IHOP for breakfast. So I decided to go ahead and meet up. So here’s the rest of my schedule. Continue reading

Costa Rica: We got here

07/29/2007 / Blake

After a night of no sleep, IHOP, playing a few video games at Wal-Mart and then loading a plane, we made it. The stop in Atlanta was uneventful, and then a plane ride that I actually got a little sleep on and we´re here. There´s no way we´re anywhere near being through with building the church. We´ll have plenty of work to get done.

But I´ll be able to do some good updating since I brought the computer. Plenty of pictures aready. I´ll get them all organized tonight and ready for an entry tomorrow. So please be praying for us.

Why does Costa Rica Need Missionaries?

07/28/2007 / Blake

Someone asked me this earlier. And to be honest, it’s a good question. I don’t necessarily think that any place doesn’t need missionaries. Some places have higher ratios, of course. But I came across this video this morning. Thought I’d share it.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vPSyXDv63I[/youtube]

Is the Wii worth it?

07/28/2007 / Blake

The Wii!!!

I have to admit that when I first heard of the Wii, I thought it sounded stupid. And even when I looked up some of the first commercials on YouTube, I still thought it looked a little stupid. “It’d never work,” I thought. And if it did, I’d never like it. But the buzz continued to grow.

And then I went to Six Flags and was able to play one. Admittedly it wasn’t the best setup, but I was semi-hooked. But then at Group Dynamix I was able to play one in it’s full glory. And I know that they’re awesome now.

I’ve asked people if they’re rather have a Wii or a XBOX 360. They usually say it depends or “A Wii for sure!” I agree with the “Depends” answer. If I were getting a gaming system for myself that I’d play at home usually solo or with friends occasionally, I’d go w/ the 360. But for playing with friends regularly, I’d go for a Wii for sure. Which brings me to the conclusion that we’ll be getting a Wii for the youth room pretty quickly. A Wii with four controllers and some highly interactive games.

It’s such a great “party game” for people to get involved in, whether you’re actually playing or watching. And there’s always a line of people wanting to get the next shot at

(And we might try to sneak a 360 in there pretty soon as well!)

[tags]Wii, xbox, 360[/tags]

Group Dynamix

07/27/2007 / Blake

So, years ago I’d helped with a lock-in close to Dallas. And we went to play Whirly Ball for a late night activity. When I was planning a Destination Unknown (DX) for my youth group a few summers ago I thought of Whirly Ball. But Jaybrams recommended Group Dynamix right there in Dallas instead. Having never heard of it I did a little research on it. And it was awesome. So awesome that I went back last weekend for my 3rd DX.

Basically it’s a huge HUGE indoor ropes and challenge course. But they are experts in team building and initiative games. They would make a perfect event for youth groups, sports teams, OR adult corporate groups. But I think the best they have to offer is the lock-in, both for the experience AND for the price..

Our lock-in schedule was as follows.

8pm to 11pm: Orientation and games on the floor. It could be team games, individual games, total group games, etc. All constructed to encourage communication and cooperation. Again, very well run and very fun as well.
11pm to midnight: We had pizza delivered and had a bit of a break. LOTS of fluids were taken in at this point.
Midnight to 2am: Another orientation and then up to the upper ropes course. There were over a dozen “elements” to do. Some were fairly easy and some were very hard. But you were buddied up w/ someone else to make sure you were following the proper safe guards as you traversed around the course.
2am to 4am: The inflatables and general sports (ping pong, soccer, basketball) were set up. Also a movie on the HUGE wall was started up if you wanted to take a break. Also the laser tag course was being set up.
4am until: Laser tag and then the Wii and XBox 360 games started. Most people played LaserTag, but as the games went on, people started dropping out. Most everyone had been up since at least before 5am. And many had been up all night since they went to get the new Harry Potter book at midnight Friday. So even Wii Sports and Guitar Hero II (360 style) lost battles to sleepiness.
5:30ish: Most people finally crashed. Not everyone, but most.
7:30: Everyone up to eat a few donuts, shower off in front of the sink and load up just after 8am to head home.

So…if you have the stamina or extra drivers to be able to drive to Dallas and back w/o a lot of sleep, I’d whole heartedly recommend Group Dynamix for a youth event. And the cost is very, very reasonable…especially when you realize you don not hav eto worry with paying for a hotel stay. (The best part of our trip was that the AC didn’t work in the back of the bus…

Call and ask for Andrea. Tell her Blake from Mississippi sent you. And ask for Caleb as your facilitator. You kids will have a great time and they’ll think you planned an awesome trip.

And don’t think that Whirly Ball isn’t good. Here are links to the Atlanta and Dallas Whirly Ball Courts.

Costa Rica in THREE days!

07/26/2007 / Blake

The reality of things are just now starting to sink in. Tonight is Thursday night, July the 26th. On Sunday the 29th I leave to go back to Costa Rica for ten days. We’ll be working on the final stages of the church there in Liberia. I am so looking forward to the trip. Two years ago I was blown away by everything. The country. The people. The views. The love of the church. The culture. The city. The sense of something SO MUCH bigger than almost all of what I’ve experienced in life.

Last year The Wife was able to make the trip too. Now that was AMAZING. Being able to share so much of it with her without having to explain things with words that didn’t do the experience justice.

So as I prepare to go back, it’s bittersweet. The Wife will not be making the trip this time. But I’ll aim to make very frequent posts here on the blog, and intend to have some video posted (just like all the video I did from BigStuf…how’d you like all of those? heh heh)

But as we travel and work and love, I ask for your prayers. The people there of the Methodist church in Liberia are amazing people. I would love to be able to go for more than a week and a half…maybe for much longer. And maybe one day in my family’s life we might be able to do something like that.

God is so much bigger than the box it seems we try to put Him in so often.

Destination Unknow :: Texas Style

07/24/2007 / Blake

Two years ago the youth ministry took a Destination Unknown trip to Dallas. We repeated the trip this past weekend. We scored some tickets to Six Flags over Texas and then went to have a lock-in at Group Dynamix. All in all it was a great time. Destination Unknown is a youh trip where the kids don’t know where we’re going, they just show up and hop on the bus and we take off to parts unknown…

Six Flags was hot…and I mean HOT! I think most of us got close to dehydration just because of the heat. But when you can buy a $4 bottle of water, no one should get dehydrated, right? The food prices are atrocious at Six Flags. People would get a hamburger, fries, and a drink fr $12. A salad and bottle of water was $14. Papa John’s pizza was about the same. So the key is to sit with people who won’t eat all their food and finish it up for them.

The bus was pretty hot too. The AC worked in the front, but not in the back. So that made riding interesting. And we got hardly no sleep. I bet I got about 45 minutes of intense rest. I’m not going to call is “sleep”, but really good rest.

The guys who ran the show at Group Dynamix really did a good job. Caleb and Taylor knew the games well and how to make it fun and involved all the kids. I’ll give a more lengthly explanation of Group Dynamix soon.