Alto Coen, Costa Rica Bridge Project

This past week God worked in a mighty way while 13 members of the Illinois team made the long journey up to Alto Coen, a small village in the jungles of Talamanca, Costa Rica. Their mission for the week was to continue work on a bridge that would provide the BriBri people a safe way to cross the Coen River in order to access medical services and schools Facilities. Knowing that the long journey to Alto Coen, which had to be done on foot, would not be easy, the team only brought the bare necessities such as a change of dry clothing, food, and all of the supplies for the bridge project. The team left early Friday morning, excited to see what God had in store for them. The journey consisted of long days of travel up the mountain and it required accommodations that most Americans would not find comfortable such as: having no electricity or clean water, sleeping above cattle and being woken up by roosters that crowed from 2 in the morning until sunrise. As the long journey continued with 40 - 60 lbs. packs up the mountain, only encouragement from the team and faith in God helped us reach the village. Even though it had been a long hike up the mountain, the team members were excited to be there and got down to business. As we arrived, people from each side of the village came down to the river to welcome us and were excited that a team was there to help them in the process of completing the bridge. The most important task while we were there was to help them connect a 1" cable from side to side, which was about 400 ft. across a treacherous Coen River. Since it was in the middle of the rainy season and the Coen River was higher than normal it wasn't an easy task to get the cable from one bank to another. Margarito, the Alto Coen president in charge of the bridge project, was the reason we were able to accomplish this nearly impossible task. Since there was no communication from bank to bank due to the noise of the raging current of the river, Margarito voluntarily swam from one side to another to help communicate and execute the work plan. The river crossing was a difficult task on its own and the team was able to understand the necessity of the completion of this bridge. It rained and poured while we completed this task and the BriBri people were impressed with the abilities the team provided. Due to the continual downpour the river was rising and it would quickly be impossible to cross if we didn't cut the trip short by a day. There were many struggles on the way down such as river crossings and weather related conditions but trusting on God made this trip a success. Not only did the team deliver the much needed bridge supplies but they also learned how to fully rely on God to get them through the hardest of times.

Yonathan Moya
Costa Rica Summer Staff