BATON ROUGE — The LSU women’s basketball season came to an end in March, but that has not stopped guard Andrea Kelly on working toward another cause ? helping the lives of others. Kelly recently completed a six-day missionary trip to Costa Rica where she recorded her thoughts in a journal for LSUsports.net.
Kelly, the Lady Tigers’ leading 3-point shooter this past season, said she has always had a passion for getting involved in missionary work and hopes to be involved in medical mission trips in the future. She spoke to various groups, helped plant churches in Costa Rica and took in the sights of the area terrain.
Below are the entries of her final three days in Costa Rica:
Day 3: April 6, 2009
Today was our day to take some time off, shop, and explore Costa Rica. We started off by going to see one of the active and most beautiful volcanoes in Costa Rica. Pastor Onesimo, Mr. Juan, and his daughter Charlene drove all of us up towards Poas Volcano National Park and the drive took about an hour from our hotel. It was amazing to realize how high we actually were above sea level because as we were driving up the mountains my ears began to pop! I believe I heard someone say we were close to 8,000 feet above sea level. I’ve always heard people tell me how beautiful Costa Rica is and they even call it the “Paradise of Central America.” However, I didn’t understand what they meant until I saw for myself. When I saw the active crater in person, with the blue sky and clouds in the background, I was overwhelmed with so much beauty. I never imagined that something so natural and real existed, but God’s work is real. I thought we were finished with the tour but the volcano also had a lake on the other side of the volcano that used to be an active crater as well. When I saw the lake, I was blown away 100 times more than I was for the crater! I never saw water so blue, pure, and sparkly.
Later that evening we attended Pastor Onesimo’s church which is actually connected to the back of his house. This church was very different from Kingdom Takers Church in size, music, and people. During the service our group sang a song to the congregation, gave testimonies, and danced. The most amazing thing occurred when we began to pray for people towards the end of the service. People came up asking for healing, jobs, deliverance, passion for the Harvest, and more. When we were all done praying, you could see faith begin to build up inside the people, brokenness and tears flowing from other people’s eyes and heart. It was a night I will never forget, because of how powerful and impacting it was for all of us.
Day 4: April 7, 2009
We woke up early and got ready to prepare for another church plant. This time we would be working with Pastor Bolivar Avalos and his wife. We pretty much did the same thing we did on our first night here, just inviting people out to the “Big Event,” only this time this was an all day affair. The event took place in a central park in a commercial area. We were actually next to the second oldest church in Central America that was patterned to look like a church in Spain. The event didn’t turn out as expected because it was really cold and windy outside so many people didn’t come or they left early. However, we did have some success with our jump rope before the event started. We bought three single kids’ jump ropes and combined them into one gigantic one! Little girls and boys came from every which direction and started to form a line to jump in our jump rope. After they jumped we would give candy to all of the participants and they would keep coming back for more fun! It was such a success that adults began toline up to start jumping over the big jump rope!
That night we went out to dinner and it was one of the most enjoyable moments in my life I will always cherish. Throughout the whole trip, Tiffany, Demi, and I would laugh and have fun, but this night was different. We laughed so hard my abs were getting a work out and it was all night long, we couldn’t even finish our food! It was so contagious that if one of us would start to laugh, everyone would sooner or later be laughing together. Pastor James and Ms. Louise said we probably scared the group with us away because we were laughing so much. What made that night even more special was the fact that everyone celebrated my birthday with me at the restaurant, even though my birthday wasn’t until next week. The waitresses and staff sang the birthday song to me in Spanish and even brought me a piece of cake with a candle. That was such a blessing because I never imagined I would be celebrating my birthday in another country.
Day 5: April 8, 2009
Our last full day in Costa Rica and I didn’t want it to end. This was our last church plant and on this one we worked with Pastor Guido Luis from Kingdom Takers Church. We had to travel 3 and a half hours away to get to the new church plant, but first we went to go see another volcano. The people that stay around the volcano said that at night you could see red lava flowing down the sides of the volcano. Although we didn’t get to see the red lava at night, we got to see the lava pour out of the crater in a white and gray color during the day. This volcano was the actual site where the movies “Jurassic Park” and “Spy Kids” were filmed at. It is definitely a big tourist area and the scenery is beyond beautiful.
That evening we held our “Big Event” in the new church and it went incredibly well. The Overflow Band performed live music and people kept coming in and filling the audience during the whole night. I believe the best part of the night was when we did our two dramas. One of them was the “Sin Chair” skit in which everyone acts like they’re stuck to the chair because of sin. The other skit we did is performed using the song called, “Everything” by Lifehouse. It is one of the most powerful dramas I have seen because it depicts the challenges that youth face and deal with today in the world, all while trying to reach and maintain a relationship with Jesus Christ. After the night was over we said our goodbyes and left for the hotel. Our trip was over and the experience was so humbling and life-changing. I will never forget this awesome blessing from God!