Day 1

We loaded a video of last night's worship service at Vida Abundante Church...the video took the whole night to load. Here is the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bILTZRHY0WA

The sun rises at 5:30AM in Costa Rica and we woke up around 6:30AM. We had breakfast at 7:45AM and morning devotionals with Tom Marcus (our host) at 8AM. Tom gave us a history on Portantorchas. Each morning, Tom will be taking us through the parables of Jesus. Today, however, we reflected on the rain yesterday...Tom challenged us to get wet and not put up our umbrellas. He was comparing the rain to how God showers us with his blessings each and everyday and we often times put up umbrellas/barriers (e.g. our attitudes) which prevents us from receiving God's blessings. Tom encouraged us to put down our umbrellas and let God bless us today. We arrived at the orphanage/children's home, Excelencia Familiar, around 9AM and the Executive Director gave us a history and tour of the children's home. Excelencia Familiar was started by a church from Texas and it houses 11 girls and 8 boys. There are two homes on the property and a family lives and runs each home. The home which houses the 11 girls is run by a woman we came to know as Tia. This week we will be painting the inside, outside, and roof of the house. We finished painting for the day around 4PM and played with the kids for about an hour before returning to Portantorchas where Drew led us in a P90-X exercise. Here are some pictures from Day 1.


Waking up at Portantorchas.


Arriving at the kid's home, Excelencia Familiar


We started by painting the bathrooms


Here is how the sink looked like before the new paint job


Before we can paint, we needed to tape down the edges


We also needed to wash down the walls and ceilings...they were covered with dead bugs, spider webs, and moss


Now we can start painting


The boy's stalls were painted Blue and the girl's stalls Hot Pink


We had to use a tiny paintbrush to paint the doors


Tia and the girls cooked us lunch...a very typical Costa Rican meal, beans, rice, and an amazing salsa salad. We have also been having lots of fresh tropical fruits at every meal.


Drew led us in a P90-X Kenpo team building exercise when we got back to Portantorchas