Me and my team were walking down the crowded downtown central of San Jose, Costa Rica. We spotted an undeniable group of “Gringos” performing a sketch in the middle of the street. We stopped and watched as they acted out Jesus’s death for our sins. There was a large crowd of locals watching these strange white people dressed in strange clothing and face paint.
Long story short they are missionaries from the States and were here with 250 youths for 2 weeks. They invited us to a worship night they were having and told us about the main contact that they have here in Costa Rica named Manuel.
Manuel is what we call an “uber” contact. He knows 30+ pastors and connects the community in Costa Rica with missionaries from North America.
He told us his story of how he got to where he is today. When he was 8 years old he was watching TV and had a vision of himself on a platform standing beside a tall white man. When the white man would talk, he would understand and say what he had said in Spanish to the crowd. In the vision he saw people coming up the platform and crying.
When he was 16 years old he started taking a summer English class. One day on their lunch break Manuel and his classmates went to the park. A little 5 year old, blonde haired, blue eyed American came up to his table and gave them tracks explaining the gospel and the church itinerary. It wasn’t very “cool” to accept church flyers so he slipped it in his pocket so his friends didn’t see.
That week he decided to go to the church on the flyer and said to God, “Okay God, I’ll give you this chance to reveal yourself to me”. He got to the church and there was a sign on the door saying that the service was cancelled. He was angry at God but said “Okay God, I’ll give you one more chance and try the service on Saturday, but if you don’t reveal yourself to me then, i’m going to go out and do crazy things like drugs, alcohol and partying”. The next day he went to the service and the sign was still up and no one was there. Manuel said he was so angry with God at this point and he told him “God, i’ll give you one last chance, i’ll come back here in half an hour and if no one is here then i’m done with you forever”. So Manuel went home and came back in half an hour, the sign was still up and no one was there. Manuel was just about to turn away to go home and forget about God when the door opened and a friend from school appeared. His friend told him that a few people were praying with him in the church and felt God tell them to go to the front door and open it.
From then on Manuel became a christian and when he was 18 years old his vision came true. His church had a pastor from America come in to preach but they didn’t have a translator. No one from church knew Manuel could speak English and they were dumb founded when he spoke up and said he could translate for the pastor. Once Manuel got up on the platform he realized his vision was coming true 10 years later and he started to weep as people came up to the platform to get saved.
Since then he planted 4 churches in Guatemala and moved to Costa Rica with his wife and children. Now he serves as a contact for missionary teams that come down 5 times a year and continues to serve his community serving God. He said he tries to find the needs of the community and churches and meet those needs.
Manuel is an amazing man who truly loves God and it was a complete joy to spend a day with him. He said he will do everything in his power to connect the world race with ministries in Costa Rica and he has all the resources to do so.
