Dear friends,
God has been up to some incredible things here in Costa Rica. We have begun a new skate ministry. We have been working on it for a few months now so we are excited to share what is happening. We would love to hear what you think!
History / Back Story: In August of 2013, my wife Bonnie and I were driving in Orosi, the town just across the river from our camp, El Jardin Sagrado. We noticed many teenagers, young men, and women skateboarding in the street. They had a small metal rail they had made themselves to practice some tricks on. The rail was crude but functional. They were doing some cool tricks, but we really noticed more how people were treating them. Yelling at them to get out of the road, cars revving their engines and actually hitting the metal rail and trying to hit the skaters. It was quite a scene. A little later we saw two skaters fighting in the street; they were throwing punches when I jumped out of the car to break it up. At that moment we became burdened to reach these young people with the gospel and to invest in their lives and to encourage them in the positive aspects of this sport.
Bonnie was researching “Christian State Organizations in Costa Rica” late one night to see if there was anything in country going on to reach skaters. That’s when she had a brilliant idea. Why not create a place for them to skate right here in our town! Bonnie found a group called “Skate Costa Rica”. They are based out of San Jose (about 55 km from us). The group holds “Skate Church” in various areas in the San Jose area – Escazu, La Carpio, Belin, and other locations. One of the leaders of this group is a missionary from the U.S. that has been living in Costa Rica. His name is Lalo. I contacted him and agreed to meet with me.
In November of 2013 we were doing planning, strategy and vision meetings for the future of the camp. I called up Lalo and invited him to come to the camp and meet with us and to introduce him to the staff here. There was a youth event being planned for the end of January as part of the January GOM mission team that comes here each year. The idea was to invite Lalo and some of his skaters to come out to the youth event and do a skate demo and help us launch this skate ministry. The meetings went well and we all agreed to have them be part of the event “Rally in the Valley”.
I spent some time in December 2013 talking with Lalo and another man, Rick. Rick lives in the U.S. and is the director of a Christian skate organization that operates also in Costa Rica. We talked about how to start a skate ministry, and different ways to effectively share the gospel and build into young people through skate ministry.
In January, the GOM Team arrived and I shared the plan with the entire team and asked for their help. The Rally in the Valley was to be held on their last day of team ministry. We had this feeling that God was up to something huge!
valley roads 