At Joshua Expeditions, life change is at the heart of each tour we offer. We love hearing stories about life change from students getting to experience it firsthand on their JE tours. Below is a story from high school senior Haley L. who traveled on one of our recent Costa Rica trips. Read about Haley’s unforgettable experience.

“As appealing as the prospect of leisure and relaxation is over spring break, seventeen students decided to instead invest their time and effort into constructing a house for a family in Pavas, an area near San José, Costa Rica. Our chaperone Mr. Penny and his daughter had the chance to go on this exact trip last year with their church. This experience opened a door for them to host the trip this year for our school students.

“We wanted to allow the students the incredible opportunity to give of themselves and invest in the people of Pavas,” Penny said. “We wanted to continue to build relationships with the people in the community.”

A bus brought the students every morning from San José to Pavas. As the large bus carefully navigated the narrow and bumpy roads, one could see stacks of rickety, shoddy shacks—mostly rusty metal sheets put together—that stretched across Pavas, the full view of which was only made possible by the elevation the bus provided.

“When we first entered Pavas, I was stunned by what I saw,” freshman Jun L. said. “I’ve rarely been in an impoverished area like that, and actually being there felt different from the vague ideas I had. Things felt alien and distant from what I was used to.”

The alienation of the environment—or even that which comes from awkwardly entering the narrow alleys of Pavas in a big bus—was soon resolved by the work that had to be done. For three full workdays in Pavas, the students helped with painting, assembling, nailing, and re-painting the wooden boards and trims that provided a structure to the house. Yet the work in Pavas wasn’t just a mechanical and monotonous task to be accomplished. It was also a gradual bridge that came to form a strong relationship between the students, the missionaries, and the local families. These families knew the work well and remained at the work site to assist.

The last day of the house builds culminated with the celebration of a wedding, a union of a couple who helped alongside the team for the past few days. Our students were able to attend this moment of celebration, full of blessings from the community they had been immersed in throughout the construction project. They witnessed a significant moment in the lives of people they had begun to form relationships with through working and learning alongside them.

“The connections I made with the kids on the trip and also the people in Costa Rica are so amazing and from God,” senior Laura C. said. “The main struggle I experienced was leaving the families of Pavas, Costa Rica. The connections I made in three short days with those people have changed my life.”

In the course of three days, strong bonds were formed, broken Spanish and English exchanged with smiles, meals shared, and painting completed together. But most importantly, among the shoddy shacks that stretched across the land, one house was standing strong, built with love, and completed with basic furniture. After the hard construction work, there came one of the most memorable moments from the trip: the key ceremony. The crew stood in a circle and passed around the key to the house, each saying a short blessing to the family.

“[We stood] in that circle, looking at all those students who had worked so hard all week and [knew] that their decision to come on this trip had forever changed the life of the family we built the home for,” Penny said. “They made themselves available, and God used them in a remarkable way. We were so proud of them all!”

Despite the distance that a new country, environment, and people might bring, in three short days, the students were immersed in the local community, working and interacting with the people. Through this experience, God revealed many unexpected things to them.

“My expectations of this trip were thoroughly passed,” Laura C. said. “I learned how much joy someone can have even though they don’t have basics like a bathroom. We are so blessed beyond what we will ever know, and we need to remember to have joy!””

– Haley L.