"I Was Hungry and You Gave Me Something to Eat"

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Our final ministry project of the week was to take groceries to hungry families today.


First we stopped at the grocery store where all ten students carried a shopping basket into which we all put the same items - - -


Things like coffee, rice, sugar, noodles, and cookies.

Then we loaded back on our bus and went to meet a pastor and a missionary who took us to visit hungry families, leaving a bag of groceries with each.


This little family came up to our bus, three of our girls hopped out to give them their groceries. I stayed on the bus and took this photo from there.

Next we headed into one of the poorest barrios in San Jose.


We all got off the bus to take groceries up into the barrio. You can see the homes on the hill ahead of us. The pastor is already part way up the hill, and our little Costa Rican "guard" and the missionary are at the base of the steps.


This is the path we traveled between the homes. This is a very even and smooth portion of that path.


As I stumbled along, stepping over muddy places, I thought about all the little grandmas I saw in the doorways. How in the world do they traverse this, especially in the rainy season?


This precious little grandma invited us into her home. I looked at what she didn't have, and remembered what I have and suddenly any "giving" I've ever in my life done seemed tiny and insignificant.

I hope and pray that I guard my mouth from EVER complaining again.


We walked all through that little barrio - - -


Giving away nine bags of groceries to nine very deserving families. Oh, but there were so many more who were hungry. I wish we had done this every day while we were here.


This is the neighborhood store.


And then we headed down the stone "steps" to the bus - - - and back to our lives of opulence. My heart is not satisfied, there is much more to do.


Here is the barrio from a high vantage point. Notice the actual houses on the front row - - -


And behind them rows and rows of corrugated metal lean-tos.

After lunch, we headed out for sightseeing.


One of the first "sights" we saw were these cows crossing the road ahead of us. We've seen cows before, but not out and about town!


Our main destination was this look-out park with a fabulous view.


We could see lakes and a small village nestled in the valley below.


This is the ruin of the first church built in Costa Rica.


We rode down to investigate it more closely.


A pair of parrots have made it their home. We enjoyed watching their antics.
















Tomorrow morning we head to the airport at 6 AM. After a two+ hour flight to Dallas, we have a six hour lay over. We are scheduled to arrive back home in Indiana around 11:00 PM.

Don't forget to check this blog from time to time as I will be adding more posts from home.

A great big thanks to all of you who were so faithful to follow our progress and send us encouraging words.

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