Thursday, June 18th

A year ago the team from Salem in Ladue poured the very first section of our massive gym floor.  This week they poured the last section of our massive gym floor!  We commented several times this week about how appropriate it was for them to be both the beginning and the end of this particular phase of the retreat center project.  There is a bottled buried in that first section with the names of each member of last years team.  Now there's a bottle buried at the other end of the gym with the names of this years team.  Salem is a church that has worked with us from the very beginning and I personally feel like this week represents in a really neat way, their relationship with us...from the beginning to the end.  We look forward to having their help on a lot more projects in the future.  

They also got the drainage field for the new church in Piedras Blancas filled back in and the roof structure on the parsonage is up and ready for tin!  They're off to Manuel Antonio National Park tomorrow for a much deserved day off before heading back to Missouri.  

We're looking forward to seeing familiar faces from Brandon UMC next week, and meeting new members of the CRMP family from New Albany UMC.

Peace on Earth

Sunday, June 14th

It's a beautiful Sunday afternoon (now that it stopped raining) and we've brought the Salem team to Golfito for a sunset dinner.  We had abut 30 yards of river rock delivered just before church this morning so we'll start back filling the last section of the gym floor tomorrow morning.  Everyone is very thankful for the back hoe right about now!  The team spent the sunday school hour with the children at the church in K37 and then we all took communion together, the sacramental expression of what we'll be doing all week.  We're blessed to finish up this day of worship with good friends, good food and good scenery.  Thanks be to God.

Saturday, June 6th

When hurricane Alma formed over Costa Rica a year ago, several of the rivers in and around San Isidro overflowed and caused serious damage.  In one of the neighborhoods where we took food and water in the days after the storm we visited Milagro, a church member.  The flood waters had flowed in one side of her humble wooden house and out the other.  Through a generous donation from Asbury UMC in Birmingham, CRMP was able to purchase materials to build a retaining wall around her house.  If it ever floods again, the water will be diverted to the street rather than her living room.  We worked this morning with Don Hugo and several youth and families from the church in San Isidro.

Update on Monday, June 8, 2009 at 11:38PM by Wil Bailey

We went back to Milagro's house today and with some volunteers who are here helping Fred Curry build a sanctuary, we got the slabs put in the wall.  She was at work while we were there.  I would love to have seen her reaction when she got home.

Friday, June 5th

Hugo, Huguito, Kike and I worked in San Buenas from Wednesday morning until about 1 this afternoon.  All the electricity is done (lights, ceiling fans, outlets and switches).  All the tile and grouting is done too.  We also installed the sinks and toilets in the two bathrooms, so basically we are finished with parsonage!  The only things left to do before the pastor's family can move in are a final coat of paint in the living room and kitchen, hang the bedroom doors (the pastor's son-in-law is taking care of that for us), and hang curtains in the windows.  9 teams, 8 weeks, 32 days on the work site.  Thanks to everyone who helped on this project and all of the churches who supported it with your prayers and resources.  It would be nice to be able to sit back and relax, enjoying another completed project...but we've already started two new ones and and have tons of work to do between now and the end of the year.

I am glad that we could finally help in San Buenaventura and I pray that the new parsonage will be a blessing to Pastor Bernardo and his family, and to the other pastoral families who will at some point develop ministries there as well.

Peace

Sunday, March 31st

What a week!  I don't even know where to start.  After worship last Sunday we headed down to K 37 with the team from Birmingham.  On the way down we stopped in San Buenaventura so they could see the parsonage we are finishing up and so that an eye doctor who came on the team could examine a little boy there who is legally blind.  It turns out his condition isn't one that will improve with any kind of treatment, but they are going to send him some glasses so that maybe he can learn to read.

Out of the three days that they were on the work sites and in the schools, it only rained on Wednesday afternoon...the answer to a lot of prayers.  By Wednesday, we had taken the old roof off of the parsonage at K37 and removed all of the wood (Rafters, door and window frames, trim, etc.), set the next row of columns for the slabs to hold in the next section of gym floor back-fill, and we've set all of the perimeter columns for the new sanctuary in Piedras Blancas!  The drainage field and hole for the septic tank have also been dug.  While all of this was going on, team members were visiting two different local elementary school each day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.  They made crafts and played games with about 300 children during the three days.

The team from Herndon, Virginia was hard at work in San Buenaventura and by Friday had 90% of he floors tiled, 90% of the house painted and the eves framed up, ready for the soffit to be installed.  We knew it was a long shot that the house would get finished this week, but they did a great job and got us close enough that Hugo and I will go for two or three days with our guys this week and get what's left finished.  We cannot wait to see the pastoral family moved in to their new home (and neither can they).  A side note - the fifty yard long trench that we doug with the back hoe to drain water off of the church property in San Buenas works like a charm!