COSTA RICA CAMP SUMMIT
2005 NORTHWEST REGION MISSIONS REPORT – By Dave Franklin
Dear Missions Supporter:
In July of 2005, my 16 year old son Tyler and I, traveled to Costa Rica to work on a MAPS (Mobilization and Placement Service) construction team from the Northwest Region Royal Rangers. Most of the construction team were Royal Ranger members in the Northwest Region and were also involved with the Frontiersman Camping Fraternity missions arm called Pathfinder Missions Trip.
Our 10 day trip was scheduled to construct a new leader’s cabin and outdoor shelters for the Royal Ranger camp in Central America. One of the unique things for our team was to have 3 pairs of Father/Son teams. The three 16 year olds boys were some of the youngest and hard working team members we have ever taken on a missions trip from the Northwest Region. It was a great blessing to see these young men prepare for the trip and then actually work side by side with our missionaries on foreign soil. Dave and Tyler (far right) These young men are all from Yakima, WA and belong to the same Expedition Royal Ranger outpost at Stone Church Assembly of God, Outpost #50. Together, they have worked, traveled, hunted, hiked, flown, camped and now been involved in an overseas missions trip. On this trip we all learned how to mix and pour concrete, lay block, put steel roof joists in place, build fences, pour and finish concrete, dig holes for footings, electrical work and pour concrete. One of the highlights during the trip was to actually drive Speed-the-Light vehicles and a Royal Ranger tractor. Several missionaries in the area gave up their vehicle for our team to use while in Costa Rica. Even the boys were Tyler Franklin, (left) building fence , able to drive the vehicle on the camp grounds, since they too have just earned their driving privileges. The second day of the trip was Sunday. We were allowed to minister in a local Assembly of God church. The entire team introduced themselves and sang a song in English and Dave preached with a Spanish interpreter. There were many children in the service and the boys had a great time with communicating with the kids. For most of our trip, the boys became our Spanish interpreters because they had all taken Spanish classes in school. During the afternoon, there was usually a hard but brief rainstorm. Dave in yellow, pastor and interpreter on platform Afternoon church was no exception. The church holds their Sunday services during the afternoon rainstorm because there is little else to do when it rains so hard. So, with the rain beating down on the metal roof of the church, we all just sang and preached a little harder and louder. We were all wet with sweat because of the high humidity and temperatures. The host pastor encouraged us all to greet each other with a ‘hug…’and we all found out that even the local people were soaked with the humidity. We had somehow thought that all the locals weren’t affected by the heat! When our team began our work, we quickly realized that the afternoon heat seemed unbearable for a bunch of guys from the much cooler temperatures of the Northwest. We thought that if we started early in the morning, the heat would be more bearable if we shut down the work in the afternoon. So we started our work at 5:00am, hoping to finish around 2 or 3. But as work goes, we typically kept working until supper at 6:00pm. We soon realized there were other projects that we could begin and the camp staff had a long list to work on. We had such a good crew to work with and the missionaries and camp staff was just great!
Thank you for your support, prayer and offerings. With your offerings, you and the MAPS team provided much needed building materials and tools to help Reach, Teach and Keep Central American boys for Jesus Christ.
“READY” in His Service,
Dave Franklin
Northwest Regional RR Coordinator
Tyler Franklin
MAPS Volunteer