I spent eight days in Costa Rica with my church’s youth ministry mission team and came back with around 2,500 images that I edited down to 541 that I was happy with and then another edit to get a slide show put together with sound from our trip. It is on the World’s video site.

I also wrote a story about one afternoon we spent in a slum area of Los Guido, southeast of San José. Here are a couple of photographs from that afternoon.

It was an exciting trip for me, my first mission experience outside the United States. I came back drained from lack of sleep and the physical activity but also the emotional toll of being around such poverty and bonding with the people who live there, day after day, after I return to the comfort of my surroundings.

It will take some time to know what it all means to me personally but I have faith that God will lead me in the direction I should go. I’m fortunate to also have a family who is patient and understanding, having served on mission trips in the past.