haliemcook
Registered: November 2014
City/Town/Province: Ninety Six
Posts: 1
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This summer, I was blessed to have the opportunity to spend a week in Atenas and San Jose, Costa Rica with my church. I am an active member at Siloam Baptist Church going on one year now. I wouldn’t refer to it as “Community Service,’ but I would refer to it as “God’s Service.” I served my twenty-five short hours at Camp Brittney in Atenas, Costa Rica. Siloam Baptist and First Baptist Church of Ninety Six both have connections with the founders of Camp Brittney where camps are held during the summers and many memories are made. Even though people need help here in America, this was one life changing experience. God spoke to me the first day our group went out and evangelized to middle and high school students. We should always appreciate what we have in life because so many other people are lost and may need you to show them who the Lord is.
Almost ten years ago, God put on the heart of Kenneth Bledsoe, President of The Brittney Strom Foundation, that a camp should be created in honor of the Lord. The Bledsoe family were currently living in Costa Rica and attending The Spanish Language Institute. After retrieving back to the States, Kenneth and his wife, Dayna, heard the Lord speak to them. God wanted Kenneth and Dayna to bring people back to Costa Rica to spread His word. Kenneth and Dayna specifically wanted to bring people back to their home church in Costa Rica, El Lugar. In 2004, the Bledsoe’s led their first group of current day disciples. The group was consisted of six people all greatly involved with their local home churches. That summer of 2014, a team of twenty-six set out for Costa Rica! This group contained teenagers from Saluda and Ninety Six, South Carolina. This big group of people went to two very penury cities, Los Guidos and Tejarcillos. Daily, they worked and prayed over the peoples’ lives. Hearts were changing. These teens went out thinking they would only be changing the lost Costa Ricans, when in reality, they changed themselves. Kenneth shared a dubious dream of his with this group. He wanted to build a camp so the children of Costa Rica could have a place to come and sleep, eat, fellowship, love, and learn about God’s word away from their horrendous living conditions. Preparing for the June 2005 trip, the teenagers were asked to write letters about why they wanted to come to Costa Rica. The first letter to be turned in was Brittney Strom’s. At the time, Brittany was fourteen. She said that previous trip in 2004, she was called to be a missionary to the Costa Rican people. She had such a big heart for the people there. On January 7, 2005, Brittney, and the rest of the Strom family, lost their lives due to a plane accident in the McCormick/Bradley, South Carolina area. Having said that, Brittney’s call continues. The Brittney Strom Foundation was established in her memory for His name.
I have mentioned Kenneth and Dayna Bledsoe, the Founders, but I have yet to mention the extraordinary people who are on Camp Brittney every day. Walter “Chino” Acuna was pastor of the church El Lugar that the Bledsoe’s attended in San Jose, Costa Rica. Chino is still the Pastor at El Lugar and dedicates the time that he has to Camp Brittney. His wife, Helen Acuna, cooks, cleans, and helps out in any way possible with El Lugar and Camp Brittney. Their eldest daughter, Daniela Acuna, sings in their worship band for El Lugar. She strives to be more and more like her family every day. Chino asked a friend, Alonso Angulo, to start a new ministry at Camp Brittney. Alonso has been serving as the Strom Bible Institute Director since 2008. Through this he has the opportunity to work with Chino, and other great missionaries. He also serves as Associate Pastor at El Lugar. Alonso’s beautiful wife, Vivan, works alongside her husband and helps translate for everyone. They have two beautiful children, Mari Jose and Abigail who are being taught to to love and serve the Lord. Cristian Rossi also works at the Bible Institute with Alonso and Vivan and has been working there since 2011. In 2012, Lauren Black, who is from Saluda, South Carolina, met with Dayna Bledsoe and talked with her about Camp Brittney. Before being interested in Camp Brittney, Lauren missioned to eleven countries in eleven months called World Race. After talking with Dayna, Lauren is now a full-time short term missionary. Dayna stole Lauren’s heart and finally changed her mind about coming to Costa Rica. As of right now, Lauren goes to Costa Rica one month and returns to Saluda the next.
At Camp Brittney, the women stay in the Mission House and the men stay in the cabins across campus. On Camp Brittney we all do different duties assigned to us. The men will do more of the hard labor, while the women do more of the difficult work. What I mean by that is, while my group painted all of the cabins and inside the Mission House, the men were outside digging trenches for hard rain and scrubbed the bottom of the pool that was covered in dirt and mud. Some of us got together and painted a mural in Spanish in one of the children’s cabins. The women also helped Helen and Vivan prepare all meals while the men sat around, drank the strong Costa Rican coffee and watched. We also went in to downtown San Jose with Camp Brittney and evangelized to the pedestrians shopping. We passed out tracts that were in Spanish and we would say to them, “Dios te amo.” Some would accept the tracts, others would say no and keep walking, or make sly comments in Spanish. We went to an International School almost two hours away from Camp Brittney and played games with them and shared the word. The day the Lord opened my eyes to what I needed to see was that day we went to the school. A very intelligent, loving woman named Kayla Duncan shared her testimony with the Costa Ricans. I was expecting it to mean more to them than it did to me. When Brittney Strom said, “God has called me to be a missionary to the Costa Rican people. My heart was truly broken for the children here”, I knew what she meant. From that moment on, my heart was full of love for Costa Rica.
Spending time with the lost people in Costa Rica who needed love has changed my life forever. I am honored to say that I went to Costa Rica this summer and helped out with Camp Brittney. Knowing that I went there and did what Brittney Strom was called to do on a camp that was named after her makes me feel so amazing. It warms my heart to know that not only did I change someone’s life in Costa Rica, but they changed my life, too. This is one of the most extraordinary experiences I have ever had in my entire life and I wouldn’t change anything about it. Going to Costa Rica this summer has helped me realize what I want to do with my future. I have always dreamed of being a teacher and helping people feel wanted and worth something. I plan to major in English Education and minor in Missions and Church Planting at Charleston Southern University in the fall of 2015. I want to teach English at an International school wherever God sends me, and spread God’s word. This trip has taught me how to be independent but to rely on God through my tough times instead of other people. I do not consider the hours that I served as “Community Service.” The hours that I served were “God’s Service” and I would love to make a career out of it. I want to save this world, one person at a time.
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