New Life Blog

“This is the team that never ends, they just go on and on, my friend!”  Seriously, after working for an entire week, morning until night, our last day in Anonos was full of extra projects and last minute efforts!! Due to some extra financial gifts to our team from New Lifers, we...

After a LONG week, 6 am wake up calls & back-to-back projects every day, we took a half-day to spend in the beauty of Costa Rica! We brought 6 of our VBS helpers, the next generation of leaders at LaViña, and headed out of the city & up up up the mountains to a waterfall garden...

It seems like we just arrived and also that we have been here for months! We have formed or deepened relationships with people from 6-86!! Our teammates have been the hardest workers, open & welcoming, caring, giving 110% in every task from making lunch to moving chairs to washing dishes...

After a few days of figuring out the language & the people & all the tasks, today we REALLY found our sweet spot! The worker bees up at the Kinder (old “kindergarten” building now a community center) have finished scraping & repairing the outside wall & repainting the...

Tuesday arrived & both teams got straight to work- half grabbed their ladders & drills & tools & headed down the hill and the other half grabbed referee shirts, stacks of nametags, plastic beads & fruit snacks for our first day of VBS!  The community center wall is...

After a fairly light entrance into our trip, Monday came with a vengeance as we began our preparations for a 3-day VBS as well as a gargantuan concrete project in a former school now used as a community center. After a yummy breakfast in our hotel and Ed’s devotional from Matthew about our...

Mama Cindy again- hugs from Anonos! We woke up to a cloudy morning followed by rain then bright sun all during breakfast The weather has been very weird, but without snow or ice or freezing temps, we’ll take it! After passing out in our beds, exhausted from an 18-hour-travel-day, we woke...

With a 4 am arrival time, 9 people, and 37 bags, our team left cold snowy Ohio for sunny Costa Rica! Despite a few grouchy airport workers we had 2 quick easy flights, followed by looooong lines in Immigration & baggage claim! We quickly got to work meeting with David & Angie to be...

Hello Friends! Our trip is winding down but we still have plenty going on! The men-folk are holding soccer (futbol) camps with the older boys then the younger ones. Others are still working on the church and visiting with sponsored children. We had an impromptu reading time with some kids who...

Oliotye- that's HELLO in Luganda, the tribal language spoken in Uganda. Teammate Laura Sheppard has made it her mission to speak Luganda as much as she can - she gets lots of laughs & applause for her efforts! Most people speak English but we often translate into Luganda for activities! Our...