The day after....Christmas!

Our next team arrived! They were here at the camp for a week and a half. They came as a children's ministry team with two "handymen husbands". I think that you will see from the pictures below that we strive not to be your "cookie cutter" ministry; always seeking to do things in ministry that will stretch those who God has sent to serve alongside us as well as our family!

The children's ministry team wanted to do something with the orphan home kids, but we have found that having them at the camp and working with them there is much easier on us as far as transporting the team and supplies to and from the orphan home, and we usually have much better behavior from the kids when they are at the camp because they realize that it is a privilege to be down at the camp.

The theme that the team had decided upon using was two-fold; CEF's Wordless Book and it's colors, and an overall theme that "I'm Special to God"!

My job was to take their "ideas" for programming and help them make it into a program that would work best with these kids. Much like VBS programs are run at home, I decided on a rotation of stations after an opening with songs, and the Bible story message. At this station, the ladies are coloring fingernails in the colors of the Wordless Book to reiterate that message.

With every team before you can even begin working on ironing out the team's ministry while they are here; you have to do sorting of the supplies which they bring with them. In an email I was asked what I felt that this group could focus on bringing down. I asked them to concentrate on getting donations to make hygiene kits for the ongoing homeless shelter ministry that we have, and if they felt that they could, small gifts that could be used in gift bags to minister to the Mom's at the orphanage. Here is one of the completed hygiene kits for the homeless shelter.

One of the ministries that is near and dear to my heart is the homeless shelter ministry and in our initial conversations, I asked the team leader if she thought that her group might be interested in preparing a meal at the camp to take with us to a homeless shelter and feed the men there. She was more than sure that the group would want to do that! Having our partnership with Promundo Fundacion means that we call them when we are setting up the logistics for a team with a date of when we would like to serve a homeless shelter. They then call around in their network of homeless shelters and find out which homeless shelter needs a meal on that date (the homeless shelters survive solely on donations and many shelters frequently go without the ability to feed those being housed there) and they call us back and tell us which one to go to and how many we can expect to cook for. When the team commits to doing this, we do the grocery shopping of all the supplies that they will need to carry this out; drink, plastic cups, plates, silverware, napkins, spaghetti, sauce, bread and butter. Here's two of the ladies beginning to prepare the sauce. In addition to serving the men, someone shares a testimony and other teams have done dramas.


Because this team was smaller in number, we asked a friend of ours who also ministers through Promundo Fundacion to come and help us with this group. Roberto and his wife, Patricia are Costa Rican missionaries in their own right. They live on the support of others and the focus of their ministry is children, but they also work with homeless shelters like us. Ken and I have heard Roberto's testimony and he was as a child an orphan. Who better than to lead the games and music with the orphan home children than Roberto & Patricia? Being given up by my biological mother for adoption at 2-1/2 yrs. old I understand that there is a need to have "trust" restored in the minds and hearts of these children. Here, Roberto's activity is building trust within the orphan home, by having the girls do this activity girl-to-girl as well as the boys doing it boy-to-boy. Some of the other activities that we did with the children divided them off by each individual home and we all were witnesses to God moving them toward restoration. By the end of week of VBS, 66 children from the orphan home made first-time commitments to the Lord!

After church one morning, a Costa Rican friend came to me and said, "do you know why I keep asking you if I can buy one of the bunkbeds at the camp from you"? (Of course, we need all the beds at the camp to house teams and rental groups) My reply was "no". She then told me that she had a neighbor who had five children and that they had mattresses, but not all of the children had beds, in fact, two of them had to sleep on their mattresses on the floor. I told her I could not promise her anything, but I knew with the January team that there would be construction workers coming and maybe we could help out in some way. She was happy enough that I would try to help out her neighbor-friends. At the time of this conversation with her, I didn't know that two of the husbands accompanying their wives were handymen on the team! When they got here, I told them the story, and they were more than thrilled to be asked to make them. Other jobs that they did included replacing roofs on the two cabins and the other missionary house. The family that needed the bunkbeds lives in Palomo where the church that was meeting in the camp has moved too. Below is their picture. We invited Pastor Mario to meet us there at their home to pray for them when we surprised them with the bunkbed delivery.

When the beds were complete I called my friend and found out that the day we were delivering them was the little girl's birthday! It's amazing to us how God opens doors for His work to get done!

My father-in-law & Psalm 73:26

A couple of days ago Heather and I were in the house standing and talking in the kitchen when Heather came to me and nuzzled her head into my shoulder and began to sob. It took a few minutes to be able to understand what she was trying to tell me, but while we had been talking in the kitchen, someone had come to the house (a homeless man, who we have been ministering too for a while now); and he had been at the camp when Grandpa Dundon was here visiting in April. This triggered a memory of her Grandpa, and she became overwhelmed with emotion and missing him. We are now just realizing that when we were back in the States we went through the "motions" of grieving. Ken's plane ticket was for the day of his father's burial and he actually left without attending the graveside service for Costa Rica. The kids and I continued in NY for another whole week to do a week-long VBS, and then return to NC for a speaking engagement, and then returned to Costa Rica. It seems now like one day we were surrounded with our family and a week or so later we were back in Costa Rica by ourselves. On a recent phone call with Ken's Mom when we were checking in with her, I never could regain composure enough to talk to her as I didn't want to upset her anymore than she was already. She was sharing some of the difficulties she was experiencing as she adjusts to her new life as a widow.

I was reading in Psalms the other night and came across Psalm 73:26 which says, "My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever". I highlighted the verse in a neon yellow Sharpie marker and then wrote, "Dad Dundon" in ink next to it. For me, it embodies all that he believed.

One day, I hope that my children can highlight a verse and remember me. I pray that it is a verse as strong as this one; testifying that God is all that I need and that He is everything to me!

Team Hickory Grove: Day 1 of projects

On Sunday, since our church service here does not begin until 2:30 p.m.; Ken & I took the team out after breakfast to see a couple of interesting, nearby sites. We stopped in to the wood carver and then also went on to the Ujarrus church ruins. We were back to the camp in time for lunch and to piddle around the camp before the service started. After the service, I invited our Pastor and his wife to stay and have dinner with our group. Some of the team played cards while others sat around the tables and talked before turning in for the evening.

This morning after breakfast we began our first day of work after having team devotions near the river which borders the camp property.

Here's a couple of snapshots from the last two days!

Kyle took this picture of me scrubbing the pool concrete deck with a metal brush. Helen, Debbie and Bonnie had already been doing this a little while, but I showed up late having to plan another menu for another team arriving this Sunday and staying until March 8. I needed to get that to the cooks, who will make my shopping list for me, and when we take the Hickory Grove team to the airport, on our way back to the camp we will do the grocery shopping for the next team.

Here is Heather with a watered down bleach solution leaning over the edge of the pool scrubbing the tiles with a toothbrush!

I guess Mr. Gene couldn't stand it any longer, borrowed Kyle's bike and rode with Jordan around the Celebration Center, and Mr. Gene did pass him and take the lead, but Helen thought it best only to post the pictures with Jordan in first place!

Here's Ken pulling the benches off their stands next to the fire pit. He wants the men to refinish them for him as they are rather weathered.

When the ladies finished scrubbing all around the deck with metal brushes to break up molds, etc.; it was dry enough to begin rolling on some paint. But, the clouds and rain soon rolled in and we actually didn't get a lot accomplished today as far as the painting project. We plan on trying again right after breakfast tomorrow!

Around the chain link fencing of the pool are small areas where the big frogs that we have down here can slip under and get into the pool. Once in the pool area they make a mess of the deck, jump in the pool and lay eggs. So, Norman and Gary (a GOM missionary visiting from Spain) got some chicken wire and placed it below the chain link fencing now making it impossible for the frogs to take up residence in the pool area.

On Sunday morning this picture was taken in the Ujarrus church ruins. It's the Hickory Grove Family and the Dundon's together. This is the church that for a split second Brad & Danielle has thought about coming down and getting married in. We love it here and wanted to share this with our family.

This is the beginning of Mr. Gene making the camp's corn hole game. After playing at Gene & Helen's beach house last spring, we knew this would be a wonderful asset to have at the camp for short-term teams or rental groups.

Jordan tried to get a game in, but Helen said it HAD to be painted. Here she is putting on the finishing touches AND we just got back from having a tournament in the Celebration Center!

This was takn after church on Sunday. This is our Pastor here in Costa Rica at the church planted on the campground. His name is Mario and his wife's name is Dinia. Here with the help of Heather, Gene is having a conversation with them.

Once Ken got the boards up to the Celebration Center, Freddie pretty much got to work on sanding the boards down with Norman and Debbie's help, making minor repairs and then helping the boards get setup for a new coat of varnish. Freddie & Norman having more experience with wood were helpful in instructing Ken on what type of varnish he should be using outdoors for the tropical weather conditions.

The sun was out this morning when the ladies began working on the pool and it wasn't too long before Bonnie & Helen needed to find a place to rest in the shade. Most people think that we live in very humid conditions, but we don't. In fact, we have very low humidity where we live, but when the sun is out, it can be very intense.

Tomorrow we will be finishing up some projects around the camp. In the late afternoon the ladies will be cooking a spaghetti dinner to take to the homeless shelter. We will go as a team to do the serving of 100 people! On Wednesday, we will have a free-day beginning after breakfast with going to the Britt Coffee Tour, lunch out, souvenir shopping, a butterfly garden and then dinner on the way home. Continue to pray for the team as we work at the camp and minister at the homeless shelter.

This week...How you can pray.

Last night Ken took the three interns plus Amy who was on the last team, but decided to stay a week longer to work alongside us, to the homeless shelter. Heather went along with her Dad, but Kyle and Jordan and I stayed home to work on getting our house back in order. When we have a team here, we basically run into our house, drop things and are on the run a lot, so things needed to be put away! On Thursday, we will return to the orphanage to show the movie, "The Chronicles of Narnia" in Spanish and Ruth (one of our interns) will explain the meaning of the movie from a Christian perspective. I am praying about doing an invitation with the children utilizing chalk art. On Saturday, we have a group rental at the camp for the weekend, but the interns with David & Katherine & Heather will be doing a one-day medical clinic at the homeless shelter. If you think of us on these days, please pray for us.