“Teach me some melodious sonnet, sung by flaming tongues above
Praise the mount I’m fixed upon it, mount of God’s redeeming love.”
It is our first Sunday in Puerto Viejo and it has been a long week full of new people, sights, sounds and smells. The lights in our little Casa are dim, the sun making lace patterns on the wooden walls as it shines through the lattice work at the top of the wall. We’re getting ready for church, preparing to go worship God in a new country in the middle of a city that is known as the a place where the party never stops.
In the middle of this same city lies a diamond, a church that after several years of being dead is now, like Lazarus, rising up alive again. With a heart to see revival break out in Puerto Viejo, this small, but growing congregation is using their members influence in the city to reach out to the community. One of these amazing people is our host here in Costa Rica. Glenda is a vivacious, wise and warm woman with the gift of creativity. She has taken her passion for the Lord and multiplied it into community infrastructure projects that she has planned, the cultural center she heads up and the renovation of a church owned home that can be used for future missionaries to come stay in. It has been exciting to step into her life and learn from her faithfulness!
We have been helping with the renovation of the home, tutoring children at the cultural center, and I have just gotten to start teaching a music class at the cultural center as well. I have two students, eight and nine years of age, and they are amazing. They speak amazing English and helped me learn a few new Spanish words as well (I’m pretty sure it was entertaining for them, as each time that I said something in Spanish they would giggle behind their hands). The biggest thing that the Lord has been teaching me right now is that projects, labor and the “work” that I am doing have nothing to do with His love for me. Time here runs on a different clock than in the USA and when we end up talking with some of the amazingly wise and Spirit filled people around us for a couple hours instead of “working”, it is okay.
I apologize for taking such a long time to upload this blog! In my next one, I will have some pictures of this beautiful and vibrant place that God has placed us in for January. Thank you so much for reading!
What you can pray for:
1) Revival in Puerto Viejo
2)Opportunities to pour into the local youths in the city as well as for Christ followers with a passion for youth ministry to rise up in this city
3) Physical healing for our team. We have all been feeling a little under the weather recently. all in the tummy:(
Mini Life Updates:
What I’m Reading: “When Helping Hurts”
Most Interesting Thing I’ve Eaten: Chicken Feet…
Favorite Experience so far: The bus ride through the mountains and then along the coast from San Jose to Puerto Viejo. So green!
What made me cry: One of the church member whistling the hymn, “I come to the garden alone”. It reminded me of my childhood and family.
I laughed when: I burned the rice, my teammates burned the beans and dinner was crunchy, but fun:)
I have loved: Community meals! It is so sweet to cook together and gather around the table as a family
