This month had it’s challenges for sure, but for now I want to highlight a week that my team had, where we were incredibly blessed by other missionaries in Costa Rica. While on the race we learn to expect to be hot constantly, eat less and very differently than we are used to, take cold showers, and live without internet or connections to home. But in one week while we were in Costa Rica, we were blessed several times with the comforts of home. We were shown the love of The Father through other missionaries, who knew what it was like to sacrifice those things and how hard it could be in the first months of living as a missionary. We first met the Duggan’s. A missionary family that just wanted to bless us with a piece of home, so they invited us to dinner on a Monday night. When we got there they greeted us with open arms and almost immediately asked how they could serve us. Brian explained that we were welcome to take a hot shower, use the wifi at the house, use their American phone line to actually call home, take a nap and enjoy a home cooked meal that his wife was preparing in the kitchen. They even asked if we had any laundry that they could do for us. We were blown away. I was able to call home and talk to my parents, which I hadn’t had the opportunity to do since I left in January, as well as use the internet to get some logistical things done for myself and my team. We then had an amazing dinner, with plenty of meat (a very expensive luxury in most other countries and something we don’t get often) and great discussion. The fellowship with them was amazing. The way they had poured into us was so appreciated. On top of everything, Brian ended up driving all of us home because the last bus came early and we missed it. On wednesday of the same week were were invited to another missionaries house for dinner. Gordon and his wife Debby were an older couple that worked with other missionary families coming to Costa Rica to take an intensive Spanish course, before getting sent out to other countries in Latin America. Gordon worked with us in the afternoon and then took us back to his apartment. He even paid for our whole team’s bus fare there and back. His apartment was attached to 3 other apartments housing 3 other missionary families that he worked with. All the families pitched in and had a BBQ ready for us complete with real hotdogs, baked beans, macaroni and cheese, brownies, and even sweet tea! they had set up corn-hole to play and offered all the other things that the Duggan’s offered as well. I played some corn-hole with a missionary from Mississippi, named Jay. I got whomped! Which is embarrassing because I grew up playing that game, but no matter. We then ate and shared stories from home as well as explained how The Lord brought us to the race. They asked us so many questions and were genuinely interested in who we were and how they could be praying for us. I will never forget the blessing that was given to as we were leaving. In the first month of the race I was hiking, when I slipped on a rock and my iPhone fell out of my pocket and landed in a puddle. I put in rice and did everything I could think of to revive it, but it was all for not. It would not turn back on. I lost all the pictures I had taken as well as ALL of my music that I had for the 12-20 hour bus rides from country to country. I told this story to Jay and his wife Courtney earlier in the evening, while trying to show them pictures from home and realizing that most of them were on that phone. Before we left Jay and Courtney came up to me and said “We want to bless you with this. It’s old, cracked and has hot pink duct tap,but it works well and it’s yours now.” It was a 16g iPod touch. All I could say was thank you, thank you, thank you. I couldn’t believe what I had just been blessed with and it meant more to me than I could ever say. I am listening to the music I put on the iPod as I am typing this blog post. The next day were were informed that we were invited back to the Duggan’s for the afternoon/evening on friday. We all were glad to go back and spend more time with them, so we got there around 3 for the evening. They had done laundry for most of us that day, prepared another wonderful meal for us, and continued to pour into us. It was an amazing blessing. It was truly an incredible and very unexpected week of favor, food, and fellowship. That wasn’t the only week we had received blessings like that. There were plenty of other instances where other people blessed us and they are definitely worth mentioning. Our host’s Dave and Angie had cooked for us a couple nights, hosted a movie night at there house and even taught us how to make sushi. Our friend Melissa, who we met through Dave and Angie, spent quite a few nights hanging out with us and blessing us with food and fellowship as well. She even brought her friend Dez, who blessed us as well, with her to spend time hanging out. We have met so many good souls this month and have been overwhelmingly blessed by them. I pray they truly know our gratitude for all they have done and pray that they are blessed in return for the love and generosity they have shown us. The Lord is a good Father and blesses His children with things they never expect and more they can imagine as evidenced by the wonderful people we encountered this month. Thank you all and praise be to The Lord for His favor.
