Costa Rica 2002

Welcome to the Costa Rica Report for the year 2002. This report is on the work that we are currently supporting in Costa Rica with the family of Moises and Maritsa. This is the home page for that report. From here you can go to any of the specific days in our report. Below is the handy dandy navigation bar that will take you to each day. You will find one of these at the top and bottom of each page for your convenience.

Some Background Information

Costa Rica is a third world country that is heavily industrialized. There is a lot of poverty, but the people are of a magnanimous spirit. We were delighted to hear that many were interested in studying the Bible and learning more about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is truly a field white for the harvest.

The primary economic focus in Costa Rica is tourism. The government of Costa Rica takes pride in its rainforests and protected national parks. Several million tourists visit Costa Rica each year. Costa Rica is located in Central American and as such has two major bodies of water on each side of the country. In fact it is one of the few places on the earth where you can drive from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean within one day. Because of its location between the larger land masses of North and South America, there is major tectonic activity beneath the earth's crust in this area. There are several volcanoes in Costa Rica. Some are dormant, but some are very active. We were able to see a couple of these volcanoes during our visit. Costa Rica's tourist motto is "Pura Vida" loosely translated into English as "The Good Life!" or "The Pure Life" more literally translated.

San Jose is the capital city of Costa Rica and the most populous city. There are only about 5 million total people in Costa Rica. Many of them live in the area known as the Central Valley. This is the valley in which the capital city is located and several suburban type cities are also in this area including Alajuela (where the airport is) and Cartago which is on the other side of San Jose. There are seven provinces in Costa Rica. The geopolitical breakdown then is by cities, districts within the city, and then barrios. Each of these different groups has a name. The building is located in the city of San Diego in the district of Tres Rios and in the Barrio of Tres Rios (I think. If I am wrong about this let me know and I will fix it).

Our basic itinerary for the week was as follows. Kevin was to preach Sunday morning and both Kevin and Rusty were to meet with the men to discuss some church business. Monday we were to visit in the homes of members and have an evening Bible study in two different homes. Tuesday through Thursday we were to visit in homes and conduct the gospel meeting. Friday was to be a "sight seeing" day, but we ended up doing as much visiting with brethren outside of San Jose as we did sight seeing.

Below you will find links to the various days of our report. We have worked to provide a detailed record of all of the activities in which we participated while we were there. We hope that you find this site edifying and that you will be better informed regarding our work in Costa Rica.