Senior Mission Trip - Costa Rica 2016

Senior Chapel

For the past six years, Shannon Forest has sent students from the senior class to Costa Rica on a mission trip.  Over 100 students have participated in this incredible experience, and 2016 was our biggest trip yet!  The students visited two different communities - the mountain village of Cot where our students built relationships with local families and high schoolers, and the slum community of La Cuenca.  At La Cuenca our students served alongside Hugo, a local missionary who ministers to the people of La Cuenca through an organization called Sonrisas con Esperanza (Smiles with Hope).  The experiences in both places, as well as the welcoming hospitality of their host families and the joy found in even the most impoverished homes, left our students forever changed.

On Wednesday, April 27, 2016, the seniors will be sharing their stories in our annual Senior Chapel.  You are invited to come hear how the Lord worked in their hearts and lives on this trip.  The Class of 2016 has been particularly impacted by these experiences and have expressed their desire to continue supporting Hugo and his ministry.

Over the next few years, your student(s) will be able to participate in this same trip!  The Senior Chapel is a great way to begin thinking and praying about future Costa Rica trips.  Come see and hear what the Lord is doing in and through our students.

Becky Heiser

A Message from Hugo

Before leaving Costa Rica, the seniors and chaperones collected clothes from their own suitcases to give to the people who live in La Cuenca.  Seniors left behind shirts, pants, and shoes to distribute among the families in Guarari.  One senior donated every piece of clothing that he had brought with him on the trip!

Because many of the clothes had been worn, the chaperones put their heads together and decided to ask the students to give of their extra colones (Costa Rican currency) so that some of the unemployed women in Guarari could be paid to wash the clothes before they were given to the families.  They collected an entire Ziploc bag of miscellaneous change and bills and gave it and the clothes to Carlos, explaining their desire to serve the people in Guarari in this way.

Lyndsay Collins (one of the chaperones) received this email from Hugo thanking the students and chaperones from Shannon Forest for "leaving a piece of their hearts in Costa Rica."  I wanted to pass it on to you.

Hey Lyndsay,

A hug with lots of love, I checked the social media pages of Smiles with Hope but in the last few days we've had problems being able to open our page, it's for that reason that I am answering you from my personal page.  First thank you for leaving a piece of your heart in Costa Rica, especially in the community of Guarari.  Carlos made the delivery of all the clothes that you all left with so much love, they've been washed and delivered to a few people in the community, as well as the tennis shoes.  The money was given to the women that you mentioned.  The days that you all accompanied us we felt loved, thank you for thinking of us and for a possible way to support our families, it's a beautiful gesture at the same time seriously an answer to our prayers.  In my case more than a year and a half ago a woman here in Costa Rica stole all the offerings for our family and left us without any support, these have been very difficult times but God has sustained us miraculously.

Hugo

Seniors, your service in Costa Rica was and is important.  God is using this experience to shape you and to build His Kingdom.  I am so proud of your generosity and your desire to continue helping Carlos and Hugo.  Let this trip change you and cause you to realize that the world is much bigger than you and that our God is at work in ways that none of us could ever image.

Becky Heiser