Medical And Contruction Mission to Costa Rica
April 25 to May 3

First Day- April 25

Raleigh Durham Airport
American Airlines Flight#939 & 937

RDU to Miami 7:15A to 9:15A
Miami to San Jose 12:05P to 12:50P

Missionaries: Stacey Abernathy, Michael Alston, Louise Anderson, Ken Barringer, Paul Bondy, Ryan Bullard, Jeffrey Douglas, Diane Frazier, Anne Elise Kent, Rusty Kent, Rick Kroncke, Maureen Kroncke, Charles Sawyer, Ronnie Speight, Valerie Strickland, Joan Sugg, Bill Thorne, Alice Throp, Jim Thorp, Scott White

53. For Travelers
O God, our heavenly Father, whose glory fills the whole creation, and whose presence we find wherever we go: Preserve us in our travel, surround us with your loving care; protect them from every danger; and bring us in safety to our journey's end; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

11:11A - We have made it to Miami.  We arrived at RDU at 5:00A without much energy.  Our flight from RDU was delayed one hour but our next flight to San Jose seems to be on time.  Slim pickins in the way of food here at the Miami Airport.  Oh how familiar.  Everyone seems to want to get some sleep on the next leg of the flight.  Hopefull we can check in later today.  We will arrive in San Jose and then get on our bus to Limon.  We still have many hours ahead of us.  Everyone well but Ryan's computer is broke.  That's a bummer. 

Day Two - April 26
6:00A - We finally arrived in Limon after a four hour bus ride from San Jose.  It was a slow going, bummpy trip.  We stopped for a dinner of rice and beans of course, and also stopped for some supplies--water!  Along the way we saw a few sloths sleeping in the trees.  When we got to the hotel some took a dip in the pool, others went right to bed and others settled down for some refreshments.  Today we will all go to San Marcos Episcopal Church for a celebration of the Paternal Feast of the Parish--St. Mark's Day.  It is going to be a large celebration and indeed the bishop of Costa Rica, Hector Montoroso will be present to celebrate.  After lunch we will travel to Limon 2000, the neighborhood just south of Limon where we will set up our medical clinic and help repair the local school.  There is a two hour time difference so even though it's only 5:00 in the morning everyone is awake and ready to go!!

Day Three - April 27

6:00A - Yesterday we went to Saint Mark's Episcopal Church.  It happened to be the same day they were celebrating the Feast of St. Mark so it was a grand day.  The service was a great way to begin our mission.  Bishop Hector Monteroso was the celebrant and it was filled with spirit and life.  It was great to see the Bishop who many of us remember from his visit to Good Shepherd almost two years ago.  And the Rev. Gloide Gibson (Banjo) is now the Rector of San Marcos.  Banjo spent two weeks at Good Shepherd last year. 

After the service we returned to our hotel for a quick lunch and then went to Limon Dos Mil, the neighborhood where we are setting up our medical clinic and in which we will be working on the local school.  It took just about all afternoon to set up the Doctors' rooms and the pharmacy including the task of separating out some 20,000 vitamins into packs of 30.  All is now set up at the clinic though this morning we will need to do more work in setting up the equipment for the dentists.  We concluded the day with a group meeting and the reading of Compline.  More pictures are now posted to the gallery below.

Day Four - April 28

6:00A - Yesterday was our first day with the clinic open and making arrangements for construction.  After breakfast we all got onto the bus and went to downtown Limon to stop at San Marcos to pick up the members of the church who are working as our interpreters.  We then got to the neighborhood where the clinic is set up at about 8:30.  After a few arrangments and organization the doors were open and in came our clients.  Today, the first day of the clinic, we saw (or registered) 194 patients!  51 were for the dentists and the rest were for the doctors.  The construction crew spent most of the day organizing at the school they are helping to clean up, paint and arrange to house a new computer room.  The crew will be painting the roof of the school to help preserve the roof and then cleaning, painting and repairing a room to house new computers.  Tickles the clown is spending time with the children as they and  mom, dad and the rest of the family wait to see the doctors.

A group from San Marcos Episcopal Church are preparing and delivering our lunches to us.  More photos are posted on the gallery.  Gracias a Dios!

Day Five - April 29

6:00A - Yesterday, our second day of hands on mission, was a great success.  It rained most of the day today so it we were a bit thrown off but much was accomplished.  We left our hotel at about 7:30A and stopped at San Marcos to pick up our interpreters.  We then when out to the neighborhoods of Limon dos Mil (Limon 2000) and Liverpool.  On the way we dropped off the construction crew at Liverpool Elementery (the rain was hard and drenching).  The bus continued on to Limon dos Mil to the clinic.  The construction crew got things under way in the computer room that is being renovated.  The room was completely painted today with a first coat of oil based paint.  The rain kept the crew from beginning the job of painting the roof.  It is on the docket for tomorrow but so is the rain.  We'll have to see how it goes and play it by ear. 

The medical clinic opened up at 9:00A.  When we arrived at 8:30A there was a line out the door and down the street.  Some of the folks had been waiting in the drenching rain since 5:00A.  We did our best to get the doors open but many pieces need to be put into place for the group to be properly prepared to receive clients.  Today the clinic registered 210 clients.  Some 45 were for the dentists and the rest were for the doctors.  That makes almost 400 clients in two days.  There were so many children present today. 

Our amazing lunch was again provided by the wonderful people of San Marcos. 

After a long day we gathered everyone up and stopped at the supermarket for snacks and drinks.  We also stopped at the the pharmacy for more medicine that we need. 

We ended the day (as we do each day) with a group meeting and the reading of Compline. 

Before we left on the trip the whole group was provided with a journal for our time together.  It includes our service for Compline and Eucharist and each day there is a portion of Jesus' Sermon on The Mount for our reading, reflection and prayer.  By the time our trip is over we will have read the whole Sermon--some would say it is the most complete description that Jesus gives God's dream for the Kingdom.  Today's reading was "Concerning Anger."  Jesus said, "if you are angry at a Brother or Sister then leave your gift at the altar and go make peace before you return..."

More photos have been posted to the gallery below..

Day Six - April 30 

6:00A - Yesterday was an amazing day.  It started, as most days do, with rain-heavy rain.  After a great breakfast we picked up our interpreters and headed to our the neighborhood where we are serving just outside of the city center.  Our construction crew did amazing work today.  Finishing work in the computer room and painting one complete side of the school's roof.  It was alot of heavy and fulfilling work. 

At the clinic today we were graced with the presence of an eye doctor.  So six medical doctors, two dentists and one eye doctor saw 350 clients.  350 is a huge number.  In three days we have seen almost the same amount of persons we saw in five days in all of the previous years.  Nobody stopped all day.  Dr. Ken had a particularly tough case as the last one of the day.  Ask Stacey Abernathy it about it some day and she will tell you all about it.  More photos will be posted to the gallery soon. 

Day Seven - May 1

6:00A - Yesterday was another amazing day in so many ways.  First, our construction crew practically finished painting the roof of Liverpool Elementary.  There is only one 6X6 (or so) patch left to do tomorrow.  The greatest challenge was finding enough paint to finish the project.  The challenge is that tomorrow, May 1, is a major holiday in Costa Rica (similar to our Labor Day).  So, almost everything is closed on Friday.  After we left our neighborhoods we drove to the center of Limon and dropped off Scott & Rusty to walk around to a few hardware stores to find the paint that we needed.  There was success and the paint has been bought.  One of the security guards of the school is meeting the team in the morning (the school is closed for the holiday) so they can finish the roof.  The project is so very important as the roof will rot away after a short amount of time if it is not painted. 

The medical clinic had another powerful and packed day.  The moment the doors were opened we handed out enough tickets for the whole day for the dentists and just about enough to cover all the medical slots.  Everyone in the medical clinic worked non-stop.  The pharmacy especially works right up to the end filling prescriptions for all of the clients.  When all was said and done we was something close to 325 people today (including the eye doctor).  It is an amazing amount of impact.  What is so very hard is being comfortable with the fact that no matter how many people we help there are hundreds, thousands more we did not help.  Yet God gives us the gifts and the time that we have to do what we can do and that is still all that God asks.  Tomorrow (Friday) we will work for only half a day.  So everyone will be looking to do all that we can. 

Day Eight - May 2 to 3

Friday - Well, we kind of had a bump in the road that prevented the update for yesterday in the same time frame.  First, we had a very successful day on Friday.  The construction crew was able to finish their roof project and the medical team saw clients from first thing in the morning until 11:00A.  We cleaned up and then had a great lunch.  We then went back into Limon City Center to pay a quick visit to Banjo, the Rector of Saint Mark's in Limon.  He has just returned from prostate surgery in San Jose and was home recovering.  We stopped by quickly and said hi.  It was great to see him.  Many in the group knew him from previous trips and many of the Good Shepherd folks know him from his stay with us last Summer.  We then stopped at a grocery store and began our bus trip back to San Jose.  After about 30 minutes on the road we came across and accident and quickly noticed that it was our host Egle Frigonie was involved.  We stopped the bus and was quickly relieved to see that she was fine.  She alone was involved and she ran off the road after losing control of her car.  She hit some tree trucks that had been lying on the side of the road after having just been cut down.   Her car was in bad shape but she was ok.  We couldn't leave her there alone as she waited for the insurance adjuster and the tow truck so Scott stayed with her as the bus traveled on to San Jose.  The tow truck came and in the end all ended up being ok.  Insurance will cover Egle's damage to her car and the great blessing is that no one was hurt.  Had we not made a stop to see Banjo we might not have run into the accident and she might had to wait all by herself which would not have been good.  We are all thankful for her health and salvation. 

Saturday - We all arose early to head north for a tour of Poas Volcano.  Poas is an active volcano at 8,000 feet above sea level.  The amazing thing was that as we reached the crater we had about five minutes or so to observe the steam coming out and the sound of the steam before the clouds (and steam together) obscured the entire crater.  Our guide told us that the crater would be invisible probably for the rest of the day.  After the volcano tour we went Doka Estate coffee plantation.  We toured the fields and factory and then indulged in the coffee and the coffee shop.  Some of us bought enough coffee to take back home and enjoy for some time to come.  After lunch we went to the butterfly garden and enjoyed the great variety of butterflies Costa Rica offers.  We got back to our hotel for a brief respite before we headed out to dinner to a pizza place in downtown San Jose.  We have a very early wake up for Sunday so we are going to eat, return and sleep.

Sunday -  We all got up at 4:00A this morning.  The bus came at 4:45A and we arrived at the airport to pay our departure tax, get our boarding passes, go through security and get in the airport before many other people got here.  We made it and now we are waiting to board the plane.  Should be home tonight at 6:45P.  It has been an amazing trip and we are all looking forward to sharing more face to face, updating this page and in the next few days to come posting more pictures to the gallery below. 

Follow Up - May 6

Everyone got home safe and sound on Sunday afternoon after a full day of travel.  Our flight to Raleigh from Miami was even fifteen minutes early!  That was a small blessing. 

Last count from the Medical team is that close over 1200 persons were seen in the clinic.  It is the largest group of people we have ever been able to help on one trip.  Look for some more description and testimony at our Sunday services.  More photos have been posted to the gallery below. 

Photo Gallery Here.