Blessings come in many forms, and sometimes you have to go out on a limb, following Jesus to receive certain ones.
And the fact that you're obeying the Lord and trusting in His voice, or His urging should assure you that whatever you are about to experience is going to go as perfectly as He intended it to, as long as you continue to follow Him and His every command. It's for (1st) His glory and (2nd) your good pleasure.
Starting the trip was slightly difficult. The enemy tried to stop us from going a few times, but we persisted. Eventually the bus tickets came into our possession, and the following morning, Bethany, Tatum, Zach and I were off to Costa Rica to bless a friend of Zach's and see what else God had in store for us.
With our team and squad leaders' permission, we followed the peace we had instilled within us and got on the bus. We had no idea how much the Lord was going to bless us in the following days.
The bus ride was easy, but took quite a while to get to our destination. Unfortunately though, we ended up 15 minutes past our stop. We told the driver to stop, got out and attempted to hitch hike.
But Luckily, we caught a city bus and headed to our location.
Once we arrived at the Westin Playa Conchal, where our teammate Zach's friend was, we were soon greeted by him and his family. Then the blessings started coming in…like crazy.
We were invited by the Papuga family to stay for a night and enjoy ourselves. Food and drinks were completely free and inclusive to the stay we were treated to. We met people involved with a some businesses who were extremely welcoming.
This was the first time in 2 and a half months that we had…
-more than one hot shower
– free (Americanized) food that was unlimited
– an extremely nice bed to sleep on
– and people to speak to who were living in America.
To make this part of the story shorter, we had all of our prayers met and even more than we expected for this trip. We spent nothing on food or drinks, had an extended stay at the resort, met people who befriended us fairly quickly and offered to donate! But lastly and most importantly, we got to minister and pray for many people during our stay, including Zach's friend and his family (the Papugas).
Unfortunately, during our second day at the resort, we were asked to leave, seeing as our passes were only for one night, and not for an extended period of time. This was completely fine, God had already blessed us so much, and we were going to leave in the morning. So the four of us got a hostel in Tamarindo and stayed for the night, in one room, with one queen sized bed. Needless to say, it was a lot of fun and great memories were made there.
The next morning we packed up, left the Hostel and waited for a city bus to take us to our Tica bus drop off, so we could head on to Nicaragua. But God intervened and brought us another blessing.
A man approached us and asked us if we needed a ride to another city, he offered us a good price ($6 a person) for an hour long ride to our next location. We agreed and got in a nice Taxi with air conditioning! Soon we found out that the man who was driving us was a Christian man and loved Jesus. We listened to worship music with him in the car and prayed for him and his family.
As we got dropped off, we assumed where our bus would stop and waited for it. It took another 4 hours for the Tica bus to get there, but at least we were on our way.
We met a few friends on the bus, and at the border from Costa Rica- Nicaragua we got to meet a man who created characters and had a sold out book that is soon to be released as a movie (Last man Standing).
But as we got back on the bus, we realized it was going to be 9:00pm when we got off at our stop in Nicaragua, and we needed transportation to get to our city and house. But again, God blessed us with another man who approached us out of random. He asked us if we needed to go to Jinotepe, which we said yes to. And then offered us a cheap cab ride with him to Jinotepe and then Diriamba ($5 a person) which was 45 mins away.
As soon as we got off the bus, the four of us realized that it wouldn't have been safe if we were by ourselves. It wasn't a tourist area, and there were no cabs around for us to catch. But we got in our waiting Taxi cab that we had arranged for us. Soon during this small trip, we found out that the man who helped us was a Christian and offered us to visit his home in Jinotepe, pray for his mother and go to an orphanage he was involved with.
After this, we drove to our ministry home and collapsed out of exhaustion. But we were so very thankful for the blessings and devine appointments God had poured on us.
So, never think that God won't do more than you think He will do, or what you pray He will do. He will deliver His children when they need help and bless them regardless of their past sins. It's definitely His grace.
