Lakewood UMC sent a mission team of seven members to the beautiful country of Coast Rica for about 9 days in May 2009. The task for the Mission Team was to contribute to the construction of a Methodist Church in the small town of Palmares; the church name is Inglesia Evangelica Metodista de Palmares. The team met most of the people in this small congregation at the two worship services we attended, plus some of the congregation would help in the construction or stop by during the work days. Even though there was a bit of a language barrier, the team easily felt the love and appreciation of the local people through their smiles, hugs, laughter, tears, and hospitality. At times the work would be be hard and laborious, yet all contributed and did what they could. However, all of our team members were very willing and able to contribute to the purpose of the Mission, which was to share the love of our Lord with our Costa Rican brothers and sisters in Christ. The fellowship that was had with the people of Palmares as well as other team members is what always makes mission trips a wonderful experience.
We worked on the church for five days. Our work included re-topping a dirt road going into the work site with more dirt as it had deep ruts and much erosion hampering delivery of building materials by large trucks. Also we painted/coated several joints of metal square tubing that will be used to construct the roof supports of the church. Lastly, we built two sidewalks along two sides of the church. The building of the sidewalks took up most of our work week. We all learned a great deal about mixing cement by hand!!!
After our week of work in Palmares, we traveled by bus to the west coast of Costa Rica to the area called Manual Antonio. This area is right along the Pacific Coast and is beautiful. The whole team went whitewater rafting on the Savangre River and did a little site seeing in the area.
Costa Rica is a beautiful country, and the people that we met and worked with in Palmares have beautiful and loving hearts. Our team again wants to thank all the people of Inglesia Evangelica Metodista de Palmaresfor their hospitality and friendship. Further the team wants to express our gratitude to the Lakewood UMC congregations for making this blessed opportunity available to us through their prayers and support.
Pictures from our mission are shown below.
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Filed under: International | Tagged: 2009 Missions, Costa Rica Mission, Lakewood UMC, lumc, LUMC Missions
