Day at Villas Orphanage

This post is a day late....but better late than not at all.  Sunday morning we left the hotel for the Villas orphanage in Limon.  Within 10 minutes of our arrival we took five of the chilren with us to a local church whose ministry focus is children in the area.  We walked in the church to find at least 60 children.  The pastor asked us to explain to the church why we have taken the time to travel to Costa Rica.  I shared with them that we are here because God's Word tell us that as Christians we are to care for orhpans...so we are here to love the children and share with them that Jesus loves them as well.  After the service we spent about 45 minutes talking with the pastor explaining that we are looking for a local church to make a commitment to help the children once we leave.  The pastor made a commitment to send 2-3 youth to the oprhanage once a week to spend time with the children.....that is a hugh blessing.

After church we went back to the orphanage and spent a few hours helping feed the children lunch, doing a craft project and simply playing with the children.  A couple of the boys went to one of the 3 men on our team with ease.  They most likely have very little interaction with men....so ALL you men at home you need to pray about going a mission trip because these boys need you.  The end of our time at the orphanage was difficult.  The children walked down the hill with us to board the bus and one little boy named Aston was crying and did not want us to leave.  We will have 2 more days with those children so I can't imagine how difficult it will be to leave them on our last day.

Sunday night we attended a church service and potluck dinner...the church is lead by an American and the people in the service were from many different countries.  The service started with a couple of praise and worhsip songs and would you believe we heard an Andy Stanley message?  The message talked about how important the church is to the world.  As Christians we know where to find the answers to the 3 aspects of life that everyone must deal with.....sadness, sorrow & death.  In God's Word we can find comfort to each of these situations in life.  So that is why the church is so important to the rest of the world and why as Christians we need to be more intentional in spreading the goodnews of the gospel.  It was a great day that included two church services and a few hours playing with the children.

Meredith is having a great time and is doing so well.  I am so proud of her.  I know God has big plans for her in the future.  This is an experience that she and I have to look back on for the rest of our lives and I am enjoying EVERY second of it.  I look foward to the day when our entire family can have an experience like this all together.

If I have time tonight I will tell about time today at the Cocos orphanage.  It was a great day....so check back later.

Matthew