June 2010: The Latest Mission

For those of you who have been following this for a year now…We’re Back! Yesterday (Saturday), ten Emmanuel parishioners (Geoffrey Brower, Jonathan Brower, Ray Browne, Nancy Collins, Coleen Kaiser, Michelle Kaiser, Jim Pfeiffer, John Tampa, Bill Towne, Katharine Vess) gathered at church at 7am to leave for Emmanuel’s third mission trip to Costa Rica. We were sent off with a prayer by Meaghan and were off (picking up two more parishioners on the way). We were met at the airport by Clarence Fox (the liaison for groups like us and our guide for the week). We stopped by the Diocesan House to visit with the Bishop before heading over the mountain to Earth University, our home for the week.

We awoke this morning to a clean sunny day and beautiful views of the surrounding mountains out our windows. After a delicious breakfast Father John led us in prayer and then we piled into the van and drove to Estrada for church. We were greeted by Father Roddy and several parishioners (most of the people in Estrada had headed out of town to watch the World Cup soccer matches). Most of the service was in Spanish but Father Roddy delivered a moving sermon in English about what it means to take up God’s cross and follow the Lord that moved us all.

Our friends at church!

After enjoying tea and cookies at the church, Father Roddy joined us for lunch in the nearby town of Bataan. We ate at the Pizza King while watching the local kids play soccer. The pizza was amazing and it so much fun to get to sit and eat while watching the kids play, cheering right along with families and friends of the players when a goal was scored.

Father Roddy

Pizza King!

Watching the game!

After lunch we returned to Earth for a tour. Jaimie, a fourth year student from Guatemala, showed us around the University’s organic and dairy farms. We saw a variety of beautiful flowers and plants as well as chickens, cows, pigs, sheep, and a particularly large cricket that Jonathan felt it would be fun to play with. Jaimie was wonderful, answering all of our questions and explaining everything they were doing to develop organic and sustainable farming techniques.

Clarence (the Diocesan liaison) and Jaimie

We had rice and beans for dinner after the tour and then met for reflections and our personal high’s and low’s of the past two days. Father John led us in Compline – it was great to be worshiping together here in this glorious place.

We are all thrilled to be here and are looking forward to getting to work tomorrow, both on the construction of the building and on developing personal relationships with the people of Estrada.

Jonathan and his new Costa Rican friend.