Casas in Costa Rica
The third stop over on my recent 10-day business trip was in Costa Rica. The Valor Boys and Girls Soccer Teams had a Discovery Trip. Discovery is a program through Valor Christian High School that gives students experiences serving others around the world. This particular trip combined members from the boys and girl’s teams. The students and leaders worked during the day to build two homes. After a short break in the afternoon, the students would then dress and get ready to play small-sided soccer games against local Ticos (Costa Ricans) or to host soccer camps and clinics for children in the different towns and villages.
As the chaplain for the boys soccer team, one of my roles on the trip (besides a lot of lifting and painting) was to help add spiritual insight and guidance to the team. As team members were confronted with issues of poverty, language and cultural barriers, and spiritual issues I was there to help guide conversation and encourage students to see the greater spiritual realities beyond what was plainly visible.
Below is an excerpt of something I shared with team members, one particular evening after a tough couple days of work on the casas (houses),

The truck in the background hauls off our broken concrete mixing machine and Team Fuego smiles and soldiers on!

Our wall building team took some time, but soon learned how to work well together.

Manuel (background with red shirt) was overlooking each team and making sure we got it right.

The Valor Girls rocked the paint crew. They even made up a little song about me! Link to come…:)

Team Fuego pauses for a picture before putting up that last exterior walls of the house.