Home again!

Saturday 9/17/11:
After leaving Camp Roblealto at 5:15 this morning, we had an uneventful trip to the airport in San Jose Costa Rica and flight to Miami, FL.  After clearing customs and immigrations, we boarded our last flight to Boston, MA.  Upon landing in Boston, we got a very VERY great surprise.  Instead of having only the Spofford van which would have required us to drive back to New Hampshire to get Ed's car, Ed's car was waiting for us at the airport.  Dave's amazing, super, selfless, generous wife Liz drove Ed's car to the airport, along with Dan driving the camp van.  This shaved at least 2 hours off of the Connecticut crews trip home after a long day of travel.  Thank you Liz, Dan & Dave for coordinating that!!
God was very good to us this week.  We grew as a team and hopefully as individuals.  We can definitely see a return trip to Camp Roblealto in our future.  Please continue to pray for our team that we would come back home with a renewed and sustained heart for serving others, as Christ would have us do.
-rob

The last work day

On Friday 9/16/2011 we had our last day in Costa Rica.  Yvonne, Colleen, Tina and Adam took a trip to a very poor part of the country to visit an orphanage/recreation center.  Although they did not get to spend as much time with the kids as they had hoped, they did get to experience a whole different lifestyle and level of poverty that few people actually get to see up close.  Seeing how some people are forced to live and seeing the conviction of the foreign missionaries that are serving these people, really puts things in perspective.  We have so much in the Unites States and God has blessed us with far more than we deserve.  I think it struck everyone that we need to continue to do whatever we can to serve others that are less fortunate.  Whether that be a mission trip to a foreign country or a more local service effort, we need to keep working towards helping others and spreading the Good news of Jesus.

Ed, Dave, Gary and Rob spend the whole day finishing up the last of the three cabins that we painted and repaired for the week.   For the week, we painted the insides of 3 large cabins, each with 4 sets of bunk beds and 3 sets of shelves.  On each of the cabins, we repaired 8 windows that folded down to allow air flow.  One of the cabins also needed 2 areas of the floor to be shored up.  The third cabin needed the most work.  The floor joists were completed rotted out and the whole floor was starting to collapse.  Ed and Rob spend an entire day carefully removing the tongue and groove mahogany flooring so that it could be reused.  The camp had a small supply of new boards available, so we had to salvage as much as possible.  We took another full day to build the floor joists and anchor them to the cinder block foundation.  We saw enough large ants and spiders to last a lifetime ;-)  At the beginning of the week, if you had said that we would only get to three cabins, we would have been disappointed.  At the end of the week, knowing the amount of work that we accomplished, we were thrilled to have rehabilitated ‘only’ three cabins.  Seeing the joy and energy of the kids that came through the camp when we were there, we know that our hard work will pay off significantly by giving many kids a safer and more comfortable experience at camp.

-rob

Quince de Septiembre

Today is the fifteenth of september.  It is a national holiday for most of Central America.  Last night we were invited to join in a celebration at the children's home/school right up the street.  From what I can make out from my limited knowledge of Spanish, hundreds of years ago, a battle was won in Mexico where they won their independance and the messengers went south on horseback from country to country letting everyone know of their independence.  This occured at night and it was dark so all the people went out into the streets with lamps to celebrate.  All of the children of the school had made their own lanterns (with real candles) and the celebration involved everyone, us included, marching in the street with the school drum band leading us in a snail like march in the streets.  It took us an hour to march around the school building.  Everything about life here in Costa Rica is at a slow pace, even their marching.  This slow pace has enabled us to find out so much about our hosts.  People put relationship before a schedule.  They always have time to chat.  Work can wait, it'll be there when I'm done conversing.  We had a fantastic time.  The people were so friendly and welcoming.  They insisted that we eat first after the ceremonies as their special guests.  Hospitality here is phenomenal.  I suppose it helps that we stick out like a sore thumb.  People can tell we are from "The States" just by looking at us.
Yesterday Colleen and I finished painting our cabin, Tina and Ryan have almost finished painting their cabin and the rest of the guys finally finished their task of removing the flooring and reinstalled the framework and hardwood flooring for the third cabin.  What is left for the rest of the week...Paint the third cabin and fix the floor in Tina and Ryan's cabin.  The camp will be mostly empty today due to the holiday and celebrations that will be taking place in the streets all over the country.  Some of our group might walk to town to observe some of the celebrations while the rest of us will keep painting.
As I look out the window of our cabin, I am amazed at what I see.  Everyday seems to bring a different amount of clouds so the views are always changing.  This morning is very clear and I see a large mountain rising up beyond the city down the hill from us.  We didn't know the city was there until the 2nd evening when it was clear enough to be dazzled by all the lights.  We all feel extremely blessed to be here to not only help, but to experience the land and the people.  Muchas Gracias a Dios!
-Yvonne

Dia 2 final de trabajo

Day 2 of work is finished.  We are having fun learning the language of Spanish as we try to communicate with the employees of Campamento Roblealto.  We are learning some of the necessary phrases of getting by like gracias (thank you), buenos dias (good morning), Tengo hambre (I am hungry), mas por favor (more please) when we need more food.  We now know what it feels like to be a 2 year old trying to communicate when you have a limited vocabulary.
Nostros tenerlo muy dificil para hacer algo.  We have our work cut out for us this week as the men have the task of reparing the rotted out hardwood flooring of old cabins and the women have the task of what seems like an unlimited amount of painting.  We have done so much painting that we ran out yesterday and we are hoping to get more paint today.  We learned yesterday that there is no such thing as a quick trip to the hardware store.  The men needed some supplies yesterday and depending on who is translating, a 9" carriage bolt might turn into a box of 2" screws.  But we are learning to make due with what God has provided.  God miraculously provided when after lunch we returned to work and the men found an old rusted 9" metal sawzal blade that enabled them to finish the floor demolition.  Just prior to lunch they broke the last blade they had.  For the women, God made the last roller pan full of paint last four times as long as it had been lasting the day before.  It is fun to see these little miracles and find that God cares about the smallest things. 
While we wait for paint to arrive this morning, the ladies are hoping to take a trip up the street to the Christian school that was founded by the same missionaries that started this camp.  We hope to do some science experiments with them as Colleen is a science teacher.
Its time for breakfast.  Tengo hambre...
Yvonne

Why are we here?

After arriving in this beautiful country and spending the first day and a half resting up and playing tourist, I found myself thinking 'why are we really here'?  Our whole team has been enjoying themselves.  The food has been great, the fellowship amoung the team has been great.  We have had some good devotions together and engaged in some loving discussions over some biblical interpretations and view points.  Yesterday gave me the answer of why we are here.  Our first work day!  Finally doing what we came here for!  After waking up at 5:30 and waiting patiently for breakfast at 8, and then waiting patiently for the camp maintenance guy (Edwin, not to be confused with 'Ed' from our team ;-) to meet us at 9 (which turned to 9:30), we finally gathered up some tools and headed for the boys cabin down in the lower corner of the camp.  Edwin brought us to the first cabin and we all went inside.  It was an interestedly shaped 6-sided 1 room cabin with a tin roof.  Through our interpreter (Adam) we learned that we needed to clean the walls and paint everything.  We then moved down to the very last cabin and went inside.  The shape and layout was the same as the first, but this cabin was in much worse shape.  The floor was sagging and in obvious need of replacement.  We split up into a couple teams and started painting and removing floorboards.  After a long, dirty day of work we packed up our tools and locked up the cabins.  At first I was frustrated by the 'slow' progress we made on the floor.  After all, it took us an entire day to carefully remove the floor boards of only 1 cabin.  We had to be careful because there are not enough new boards to build a new floor.  As we removed each board, Gary painstakingly removed each nail and stacked all the boards in a pile.  Last night, it dawned on me as to why we are here at Camp Roblealto.  God is using the talents of each member of team Spofford, to prepare these cabins so that all the boys that will pass through them will have a clean, safe place to sleep while they play and learn about their Savior, my Savior, our Savior, Jesus Christ.  God knows all about the limited resources of Camp Roblealto.  God knows that the small local maintenance staff has not been able to do the necessary repairs on these cabins for years.  God assembled our team from 2400 miles away and made sure that it contained people with the necessary talents and abilities to meet this very specific need.  So we may not end up working with children or going out and sharing the Gospel with the local people.  But we are doing exactly what God is asking us to do.  To prepare a place for His children to learn about Him.
Why are we here?  Because God wants us here!
Rob

Enjoying God's Creation

"Then God Said, 'Let the land sprout with vegitation-every sort of seedbearing plant, and trees that grow seed-bearing fruit.  These seeds will then produce the kinds of plants and trees from which they came.'  And that is what happened...And God saw that it was good."  Genesis 1:11-12 NLT

For the last 36 hours we have had the opportunity to enjoy God's creation.  I thought of this verse as we traveled through the countryside and saw all of the lush green vegitation.  I didn't know that there were so many shades of green and then the splashes of bright Orange, red, purple and yellow scattered about.  It was absolutely AWEsome.  I thought about God creating the garden of eden and how it may have looked much like the rain forest of Costa Rica and how he must have looked much like a painter putting a splash of color here, throwing in a waterfall over there, stepping back taking a good look and saying, "It is good."  Then last night we experienced God's sense of humor as we tried to sleep with the sounds of yelping coyoties and barking of dogs in the distance having a territorial fight while in the other direction we heard a bird making a shrill whistling sound that almost sounded like a giggle every thirty seconds.  Not to mention the bats going in and out of the eaves of the cabin we are staying in.  Just as were about to fall asleep God would whisper in our ear with the buzzing of a single mosquito.  Ah yes, sleep was restless and yet we woke up appreciating all of His creation looking out on the fantastic view of the city down below us and eager to get started on our building projects for the day.
Yvonne

Greetings from Costa Rica

Our day began at 1:30am EST when 5 of our team members left Camp Spofford, NH and headed to Logan Airport in Boston, MA.  We met up with one more team member at the airport and safely arrived in San Jose, Costa Rica at noon local time where we met up with the last two team members and met our hosts.  After a delicious lunch including an amazing freshly squeezed juice medly that we cannot describe, we are now recovering/resting and observing the beautiful rainforest that is all around us.  I can hear the river flowing near bye.  All of the locals have been very friendly and eager to welcome us and our help.
Tomorrow we will be having a guided tour of the area including a hike up an active volcano.  Another day of rest and we look forward to getting to work on Monday.
Yvonne

We are on the road!

Yvonne,Edwin,Colleen and I got to Camp Spofford at 8pm last night. After a couple hours of sleep we are now on the road to Logan International airport in Boston. We added our leader Dave to the crew. We are being driven to the airport by Dan from camp. It is now 1:43am on Saturday 9/10. We are supposed to meet Gary in Boston and then off to Costa Rica via Miami. God willing we will meet up with the last 2 members of our group at the airport in San Jose Costa Rica. They are Ryan and Tina from Texas! Talk to you soon. -rob

3 days until our trip!!

Hello everyone.  We welcome you and invite you to follow along on our mission trip to Camp Roblealto in Costa Rica.  We ask for your prayers (physically and spiritually) as we prepare for our trip.

On Friday evening 9/9/2011 we start our journey as we gather the folks from the northeast and head to Boston for a 5:30am Saturday flight to Miami and then Costa Rica.  We are leaving a lot of the details in God's hands and trust that he will use our various gifts and talents for His Glory.

-rob & yvonne