Tico Tuesday, April 26th

Welcome to Guararí (pronounce wah-ra-REE with the r's flipped so they sound a little more like d's), the poorest part of my province Heredia.

My church partners with a local ministry here that provides children with tutoring, Bible clubs, a free meal once a week, women with discipleship classes, sewing classes, and a host of other activities. Today, several players from Heredia's soccer team came to meet some of the kids and serve them lunch. It was quite a to do! While we waited for the players' arrival, the man who directs the ministry and some of his fellow clown friends led the kids in some fun songs. When the players arrived it got pretty chaotic, but what do you expect when a couple hundred kids meet famous people? All the local news stations were there interviewing the players--I wasn't so impressed by that. But they had the press come to the activity instead of their training session today (and they are currently the number one seeded team and heading into semifinals). I understand the press' desire and the desire of the team to look good, but I also understand the children's desire to hang out with some of their favorite players.
I had fun getting to meet and interact with some kids. They were having a blast getting their faces painted and balloon animals and such. I saw one boy swinging at the grass with his balloon sword much like people cut grass with a machete here. Thankfully he didn't seem upset by his balloon popping.
I'm grateful for this opportunity to visit this ministry of my church and see the bridge we are helping them rebuild (which is literally falling into the polluted stream below and therefore quite scary to cross. You can see part of it on the left side of the picture). It was quite an experience! And thankfully, God held off the rain until just after we finished.
May God continue to teach us to see his hand at work and be his hands and feet to those in need,
Carrie