Mission 517

Group is leaving this Sabbath. . .please pray for their safety and God's amazing presence as they reach out with His love. . .
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Join us gang for this August's Trip to Costa Rica. Little school has been asking for a couple of years now to come help. Plus, there will be TWO clinics, home visits, English conversation class in evenings, and the orphanage last week-end in Arenal Volcano region. . . .

Dates: August 12 - 21

oh yea, you will get surfing, swimming, fishing and just relaxing on beach or by pool for R&R each day. The mission is to do what Jesus did: Mingle, connect, look for good, meet needs and win trust. bottom line, love the kids!

Check out Grandpa's first foray into the world of podcasting with the Florida Hospital Church podcast team! A fantastic message delivered on Saturday and the follow up podcast in a way that only he can.

:15 With Andy, Randy, & Jeff - Episode 15: A Place for Prostitutes This week "Rated R for Relevance" continues with the story of Rahab the pr******te and a discussion of labels and redemption. Join Randy, Jeff, and special guest Bill Crofton in the studio for Episode 15. Labels are a seemingly innocent tool used to categorize or assign relevance to a wide array of…

Thank you to our Adventist University of Health Sciences team for an absolutely AMAZING week impacting our favorite Costa Rica community for the past 7 days! You helped us open doors to new opportunities for greater impact for future trips and did it with excellence!

Every trip we take is special in some way and you all were a cohesive, on-task, everyday, team of superstars! We look forward to finishing strong tomorrow at the orphanage but please know that you left your fingerprints on many hearts this week in the Tamarindo community, and ours as well.

T H A N K Y O U ! !

Our work week in Tamarindo came to a close at midday. The majority of the team was back at the school in the morning to wrap up the final day of learning and VBS. The kids knew we were leaving today and came running with hugs, smiles, and laughter as the van's pulled in! This is a reception unlike anyother and immediately melts your heart. We saved the best surprise for last when we assembled kites and adjourned to the soccer field for testing!!

After lunch and the final good-byes we were off for a multi-hour journey and the Arenal Volcano Observatory. Everyone had a brief time to walk around before dinner, worship, and went over plans for tomorrow. This is one of the most unique places many of us have every visited and to say it is breathtaking is an absolute understatement.

Tomorrow we will start the day at a local orphanage where we will sing, tell stories, and give each of the 17 orphans their own backpacks filled with items just for them. The afternoon will be a well deserved break and some R & R.

This week has gone by way to fast and it hardly seems possible that after tomorrow we will begin the journey back to San Jose for one final night and the airport on Monday morning.

Amazing day!
Thanks ADU Team

Today’s focus was a first for Mission 517 in the 16 years they’ve been serving the Tamarindo area of Costa Rica; home health assessments! Norma, a longtime resident and health advocate who has regularly visited the community in cooperation with the local clinic, to coordinate resources and people, guided us to those she felt would benefit most from a visit from Dr. Miller and our team.

The unexpected and unknown was in fact the expected this morning before we left and continued throughout the day. The smiles of appreciation were unbelievably heart warming as we watched the realization that we came to see them. Our stops saw families caring for it’s older members and doing an amazing job. At times the care was in spite of a lack of proper medications, resistance of some to seek medical assistance, and long distances from the clinic without adequate transportation. Our subjects ages covered those in their 70’s, 80’s, 90’s, and yes, even 104 (see the last stop and his ID for proof)! We heard amazing stories from our centurion about an active, work filled life, that has kept him young not only at heart but in health.

Our school kids were excited for another day of VBS and learning English and our 3rd team spent their second day at the clinic with Dr. Lopez. Tomorrow the same rotations will be in place and we hope to bring you an update with the clinic team.

Day 8 saw our Adventist University of Health Sciences team once again in their usual locations and working through the assignment rotations to give everyone as much exposure as possible to each mission target. Today’s photo’s are from the clinic and show the student’s and staff assisting with a wide range of activities.

The day started off with a serious head laceration that was brought to the clinic via the ambulance. Dr. Miller and the nursing students immediately assessed and stitched the wound. EKG’s were a focal point for many today along with health assessments with Dr. Lopez of the clinic. Pediatrics were light and work in the pharmacy packing monthly medications helped get the pharmacy staff caught up and ahead for the day. Eye glasses were given to anyone that could find a prescription that worked for them with the remaining pairs staying for future needs. Triage duties and the making cotton balls to be sterilized rounded out the clinic day.

Home visits were once again a success with the team witnessing a very rare case (only 2 known in the world) of a type of heredity blindness. This coupled with yesterday’s chat with a healthy 104 year old certainly gave the home assessment team a unique look at some rare cases.

The school was again abuzz with the VBS, P.E., and immunizations (not so much “buzz” about the shots!). Tomorrow is our last day in Tamarindo and will be spent at the school as we close out an amazing couple of days with these young people. We have been blessed by this community in ways you cannot imagine.

Day 8 saw our team once again in their usual locations and working through the assignment rotations to give everyone as much exposure as possible to each mission target. Today’s photo’s are from the clinic and show our student’s and staff assisting with a wide range of activities. The day started off with a serious head laceration that was brought to the clinic via the ambulance. Dr. Miller and the nursing students immediately assessed and stitched the wound. EKG’s were a focal point for many today and health assessments wth Dr. Lopez of the clinic. Pediatrics were light and work in the pharmacy packing monthly medications helped get the pharmacy staff caught up and ahead for the day. Eye glasses were given to anyone that could find a prescription that worked for them with the remaining pairs staying for future needs. Triage duties and the making cotton balls to be sterilized rounded out the clinic day.

Home visits were once again a success with our team witnessing a very rare case (only 2 known in the world) of a type of heredity blindness. This coupled with yesterday’s chat with a healthy 104 year old certainly gave our home assessment team a unique look at some rare cases.

The school was again abuzz with the VBS, P.E., and immunizations (not so much “buzz” about the shots!). Tomorrow is our last day in Tamarindo and will be spent at the school as we close out an amazing couple of days with these young people. We have been blessed by this community in ways you cannot imagine.

Yesterday’s focus was a first for Mission 517 in the 16 years we have been serving the Tamarindo area of Costa Rica; home health assessments! Norma, a longtime resident and health advocate who has regularly visited the community in cooperation with the local clinic to coordinate resources and people guided us to those she felt would benefit most from a visit from Dr. Miller and our Adventist University of Health Sciences team.

The unexpected and unknown was in fact the expected yesterday before we left and continued throughout the day. The smiles of appreciation were unbelievably heart warming as we watched the realization that we came to see them. Our stops saw families caring for it’s older members and doing an amazing job. At times the care was in spite of a lack of proper medications, resistance of some to seek medical assistance, and long distances from the clinic without adequate transportation. Our subjects ages covered those in their 70’s, 80’s, 90’s, and yes, even 104! We heard amazing stories from our centurion about an active, work filled life, that has kept him young not only at heart but in health.

Our school kids were excited for another day of VBS and learning English and our 3rd team spent their second day at the clinic with Dr. Lopez.

(We finally found an internet cafe' that will support uploads regularly so we will be posting about today, the 18th, shortly as well)

Today’s focus was a first for Mission 517 in the 16 years they’ve been serving the Tamarindo area of Costa Rica; home health assessments! Norma, a longtime resident and health advocate who has regularly visited the community in cooperation with the local clinic, to coordinate resources and people, guided us to those she felt would benefit most from a visit from Dr. Miller and our team.

The unexpected and unknown was in fact the expected this morning before we left and continued throughout the day. The smiles of appreciation were unbelievably heart warming as we watched the realization that we came to see them. Our stops saw families caring for it’s older members and doing an amazing job. At times the care was in spite of a lack of proper medications, resistance of some to seek medical assistance, and long distances from the clinic without adequate transportation. Our subjects ages covered those in their 70’s, 80’s, 90’s, and yes, even 104 (see the last stop and his ID for proof)! We heard amazing stories from our centurion about an active, work filled life, that has kept him young not only at heart but in health.

Our school kids were excited for another day of VBS and learning English and our 3rd team spent their second day at the clinic with Dr. Lopez. Tomorrow the same rotations will be in place and we hope to bring you an update with the clinic team.

Beautiful description Ranman! Love these mission minded buddies and buddettes!

After painting and prepping the school yesterday we had the school filled with amazing kids! They were ready to learn and were extremely engaged in the VBS and P.E. activities.

Mother's Day is a very big deal here in Costa Rica so we had each child paint and decorate a picture frame to give their mom as a gift. Everyone had a great time posing for the pictures which were then printed and put in their freshly decorated frames for them to take home.

English language games, songs about Jesus, dressing up as Abraham and Sarah for story time, and even the Macarena made a comeback today. There were plenty of smiles and laughter to go around.

Tomorrow we will be doing home medical visits in the community, work in the local clinic, and more time with the kids. If all goes as planned we will be posting pictures from the medical visits.