A NEW BEGINNING!!!

A new year and a new beginning!

We enjoyed hosting our first team of the year at the beginning of January!

Going the Distance Ministries once again came to Costa Rica with a team of young adults from Florida. They worked at the local school in Rio Blanco, repairing and painting the classrooms, the front perimeter wall, cleaning up the school yard, and generally beautifying the place

Below are pictures of the team in action, before and after pictures of the school rooms, wall and school yard. The team worked very hard to complete the tasks, and did an excellent job!!

The school in Rio Blanco before the team arrives!

The outside wall had to be scraped, cleaned, all the holes filled in with puddy, sanded, and then painted! This was no small job!!

This is Alex (aka: Shaggy), here he is stirring things up!!

Stacy and Christina cutting in around the edges, getting ready to roll on the paint.

Keith takes a section of the wall and gets to it!!

WOW!!!!!! LOOKING GOOOOOOD!!!!!!!!!

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Meanwhile!! Inside, Jason is stirring things up in anticipation of transforming this classroom into a thing of beauty!

Erika is cutting in at the floor and other areas, this takes a steady hand and a lot of patience.

Jason, Matt, Kelsey, and Keith are preparing the classrooms. The walls had to be sanded, filled and washed down, fixtures taped off, and everything covered up that we didn't want painted.

Tyler gets rolling!!



Eric was in the first classroom rolling the ceiling! These fellows never seemed to quit smiling!!



Kelsey getting on top of things!!



After a hard morning of work Gayla and Debbie show up with refreshments for everyone. A coffee break was definitely in order!!

Jason, Matt, and Tyler!!! "Cirque du Soleil" has nothing on these three guys! They had to paint the centre strip of the ceiling and there wasn't a scaffold available at the time, so they improvised and got the job done!

Doug Garner has the reach, where others "fell short"!

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Matt painting the school bell brace. Say that three times in a row quickly!

Don putting on the finishing touches!! Don and Debbie, Gayla's sister and brother in law, were visiting from Nova Scotia, they worked along side the team.

WOW!!!!! Now that is nice, what a difference!!

Tyler (above) and Doug (below) cleaning up the school yard.

Here is Laurie showing Doug and Doug how to pressure wash!

The school yard.



!!!THE TEAM!!!

The school was transformed in only a few short days. The team stops for a photo just before loading up and heading back to the Ranch.

The school in Rio Blanco receives minimal government funding, which does not allow for improvements or advancements in the school. The government supplies the basic buildings, and pays to put teachers in place at the school. The ministry here, along with the community, and mission teams that are wanting to participate, have taken on the task of working with the school .

The school does not have a library, or any books for the children. This is something that we in Canada and the United States take for granted as a standard in our schools and community! It is our goal to raise the money to rebuild an existing building on the school property, and turn it into a library with adjoining storage room, and English class. Costa Rica has a flourishing tourist industry, and for those who have the opportunity to learn English, their employment opportunities are exponentially greater!! We want to be a part in making a difference in our local school and the lives of the people in our community. There are many opportunities to help, so if you are interested, drop us a line, we can let you know where you fit in and can make a huge difference in the life of someone else.



This is the building that we want to renovate, turn into a library, storage room, and English classroom.

Oh Yeah!!!! Chow Time!!!

As well as working at the school, the GTD team worked here at the Ranch replacing a culvert at the entrance to the Corral area, and putting up a new fence around the front and sides of the Corral yard. They were hard and dirty jobs!!! The team attacked the tasks at hand with wild abandon, and once again came up victorious, with jobs well done!! What a crew!!!!

"Meanwhile, back at the Ranch" The team has had lunch, a short rest, and they dig into the job of replacing the culvert at the entrance of the Corral.

It is a dirty job, but someone has to do it! The team went to it without a word of complaint!

A tired group after the end of a very hard days work. But look!! They are still smiling!!

The finished product.

Digging fence posts around the front area of the Corral.

Nice job!! Straight as an arrow!

Juan came out one night to play music for us, and some of the locals came out to help teach us how to "Salsa!" It was a great evening, everyone had a very good time!

!!!Everybody Now!!!!

This isn't the "Salsa" but it sure looks like everyone is enjoying themselves!

GTD TEAM! JANUARY 2009

We are excited about this coming year, what it holds in store here at the Ranch, in the lives of those who come to visit and work, and those in our community.

Our desire is to in some way assist in bringing hope and

" A NEW BEGINNING" , to all those we touch this year.