As usual on the World Race, I’ve found myself in a place that’s wildly different than the last place I lived. We’re working with Christian Surfers Costa Rica, in beautiful Jacó, Costa Rica. Don’t be fooled by the name – we’re not just spending the month surfing! We are ministering to a surfing community though, which means we’re living about 5 minutes from the beach. This month we have a ton of different opportunities to jump into the community here, which has been awesome. I’m going to be learning more about teaching English from a local expert here and will have a chance to do some tutoring, so I’m pretty excited about that.
Our focus in Jacó is definitely the youth in the community, and I have been enjoying that a lot. Christian Surfers is a wonderful program that partners with local churches to keep the youth hooked into healthy activities instead of getting sucked into the darker aspects of this area. We spend a lot of time with these young people; mentoring, giving classes on leadership development, and hanging out at the skate ramp conveniently located in our front yard. What is so great about this ministry is that we aren’t coming in and running things. Everything we do with the youth is designed to teach and empower them to become leaders to their communities. Every Saturday we participate in a kids club, and a huge part of that is guiding the teenagers we’re working with as they step up into more responsibilities with the younger kids.
It’s great to see them growing in these roles, and we have been having a lot of fun with them as well. I am learning to skateboard and surf – sort of – so apparently the youth aren’t the only ones growing into new roles!
Like last month, we have been abundantly blessed with the community we’ve been placed in. We live on the Christian Surfer’s ministry property with several other people, which has been fun, and we’ve gotten a great reception from the local church community. I can’t really give a good description of what our days look like, because every day looks like something a little different. So far we’ve led kids clubs (crafts, Bible stories, games, etc.), led worship for Sunday school classes, cleaned up the ministry property, participated in prayer meetings and prayer walks around the city, skateboarded with the kids, held worship on the beach, and facilitated leadership training for about a dozen teenagers. This last one was really fun, because we were able to re-use some of our favorite team building exercises from our World Race training camp. This coming week we will be helping with a surf camp for kids, and spending a ton of time with the local kids as they’re out of school for Holy Week. The week before Easter is a huge occasion here, and we’re looking forward to all the opportunities it will give us to form stronger bonds with the kids. It’s also a week to be really intentional about praying for the more dangerous aspects of the city, as this is a huge tourism destination that is bursting with visitors this week.
Jacó is a beautiful place with a lot of dark influences, but there’s a lot of light and joy here as well, and some great people and ministries working to bridge the gap. It’s been a blessing to be a part of it!
“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” – 1 Peter 2:9
