Exploring Costa Rica: Four SM East students are going on a mission trip in Costa Rica this summer

Then-juniors Elizabeth Starr and Zoe McCamy woke up every morning at 7 to the sounds of birds chirping and rain falling on the tin roof of the compound they were staying in with 18 other girls.

After a breakfast of rice, beans, a cheese called queso de freir and plantains, Starr and McCamy spent the day and the following week mixing concrete for a pastor’s home. They also took care of single mothers’ kids at the local San Isidro, Costa Rica day care.

“You subconsciously just feel better about yourself, in a sense,” McCamy said. “And I’m not doing it for myself. I’m doing it for everyone else.”

Starr and McCamy, along with other juniors and seniors from the Church of the Resurrection — a United Methodist Church with locations across the Kansas City area — were on a mission trip in Costa Rica.

This year, now-seniors Starr and McCamy and two other East students, along with 22 other teens and adults, are going on another mission trip to Costa Rica. Their goal, from May 31 to June 7, is to refurbish a dormitory for other mission groups or locals.

“I think for me, it’s more the fact [of] seeing how they get so excited that we’re coming to help them and that we’re taking time for them,” McCamy said. “Like that’s so fulfilling, and it’s so amazing to see.”

Will Bailey, a pastor at the church, and his wife, Yolanda Bailey, run the trip in collaboration with Costa Rica Mission Projects. The group will be staying at CRMJ’s Missions and Ministry Center.

The group includes students from all nine of the Church of Resurrection locations in the Kansas City area to help teens connect with others they may not know, according to Student Ministry Lead Director at COR Steve Schneeberger.

“We’re not just a member of a little sect, like the neighborhood church that we go to in our city, but there’s a bigger connection that we have with people all over the world,” Schneeberger said.

The mission group will be working on the dormitory Monday through Thursday from 8:30 a.m. to around 3 p.m. when it starts raining, taking an hour-long lunch break. Afterwards, they’ll go back to the center to take showers, play cards or just hang out and get to know each other. In the evening, they reflect on the day, have worship and a different student shares a small devotional every night.

Junior John Gagen will be going on the trip for the first time and he’s excited to make an impact on the community in Costa Rica.

“It’s definitely something that I think is important to my faith as well, to spread that and to act my faith, or show my faith through my actions,” Gagen said.

This trip is only available to juniors and seniors, and all of them must be active members of the church, having volunteered there or attended regularly.

“That means the conversations are deeper,” Schneeberger said. “As you can imagine, you’re finishing 10th grade, as you get into 11th grade, you’re going to be looking at the world differently than you probably did when you were in eighth grade.”

The group does a fun “adventure” on the last day of their trip — Friday. Last year, the group went ziplining through the rainforest, which was Starr’s first time ziplining. 

“Just being able to have such a unique experience with these people closer together and then working hard alongside those people, their weaknesses will show,” Starr said. “And so you’re able to see what they really look like and support each other through all that.”

This year, Schneeberger hasn’t decided on what they’ll be doing for the “adventure day,” but several people have suggested they go horseback riding or see a waterfall.

In San Isidro, the locals speak enough English to communicate but are mainly Spanish-speakers. Starr uses this opportunity to test out her Spanish skills.

Starr is taking IB Spanish 5 right now, so this year she hopes her improved skills will help her connect and have real conversations with locals in addition to making matching bracelets with kids at the day care like she did last year.

“That was something we were able to do together, even though we couldn’t really communicate,” Starr said.

Prior to the trip, the church hosts training sessions where Schneeberger teaches teens about Costa Rican culture. For example, Costa Ricans often view working extra than expected of them in a negative way, so the students make sure to take the entire one-hour lunch break without working. They also do getting-to-know-you activities, such as going to Chicken N Pickle last year.

The group’s next session is coming up on May 7, where they’ll continue going over expectations and how to prepare for their trip.

Senior Zoe McCamy went on the mission trip last year and is going this summer as well after a recommendation from someone at the church.

“I feel like a lot of people don’t understand that [by] just taking one week and going to help other people, it can be like such a big thing in their lives, even if it might just be a smaller thing in our life,” McCamy said.