CLC Social Ministry and Mission
May 2023
A special giving opportunity and focus for May is to provide support for a ministry that is international, CLC’s upcoming Summer 2023 Mission Trip to Costa Rica - in conjunction with Casa Adobe www.facebook.com/casadobe
Costa Rica Mission Team - Shared Stories for Transformation: At the end of June, Christ Lutheran Church will send its first intergenerational, international, service-learning mission team to Costa Rica. Seven members of the twenty-two on the team are youth ages 12-16. The team will be
split up to stay with two different host families who came to Costa Rica as refugees. There will be host families in an urban setting near San Jose that are part of Casa Adobe; a ministry center that is in partnership with the Christian Reformed World Mission and with the study aboard program of Valparaiso University. The other host families will be living in the intentional refugee farming community
of Monga Mai in a more rural part of Costa Rica.
Knowing that God is already in the places they are going, the team will learn from their hosts and share their skills in partnership with them. The trip goals include learning about refugees, caring for
creation and nurturing faith in God's love. The team will learn about climate change and farming and some will participate in gardening projects. Some of the team, trained here on the Little Calumet River, will be conducting river monitoring for pollutants which is a problem in the areas they are visiting. Some will work with neighborhood children either by taking them to a museum that they normally could not afford or by doing some tutoring their English.
What the team learns about issues that affect people and creation, they will bring back to the
congregation, and especially if those issues are related to our daily lives in the United States. Knowing that this experience will be transformational as stories are shared and relationships built, the team will return and reflect on what they and our congregation might do next in response. The hope of this trip is... Shared stories for Transformation.
Expenses and ways to give support:
$4,750 is going to the host families for opening their homes and preparing meals for the team
$3,000 to Casa Adobe for accompanying the team
$1,000 for service projects
$250 to offset CO2 from flying to Costa Rica (National Fund for Forestry and Finance)
Help achieve our goal of $3000 in May (over and above giving combined with CLC’s budgeted amount of $1200). Use your weekly worship giving envelope mailed with check to CLC and indicate “H.O.” or contribute through
PushPay on the CLC website https://clcvalpo.org via the “Give” button and choose Monthly Social Ministry Emphasis. Thank you to members for supporting monthly social ministry emphases.
