This month in Costa Rica, ministry has been absolutely nothing like my team thought it would be. The Youth Rehab Center we were sent to doesn’t actually open until next month, so instead of working with the youth, we were asked to help host several community Christmas parties through the rehab center’s foundation. For the parties we created an interactive drama, The Best Christmas Gift Ever!, in which our main character Tito forgot all about getting his best friend Estefan a Christmas present and sets off to find the best one ever. After running into a musician and gamer that try to convince Tito they have the best gift ever, Jesus comes in and shows him how He is the best gift ever, since through Him sadness can turn to joy, violence into peace, fear to hope, and hatred to love. At the end Tito brings Estevan to Jesus… and then its opened up for any of the kids and their families to do the same. It was definitely a pretty sweet production!
This entire week of Christmas has been party city! On Sunday, it was literally as if Christmas threw up all over our living area as we helped sort through all the gifts we were to pass out at the parties. From the 20th-23rd (there’s also one more left on the 26th) we traveled all over Northern Costa Rica hosting seven parties for over 1500 children and their families . It has certainly been a chaotic mess, but it was so much fun… and seeing the kids’ faces light up was definitely priceless!
For me, this month was awesome! It was as if my other two mission trips to Peru and Moldova collided here on the World Race (in Peru I helped lead a youth drama team through various villages and in Moldova I was part of team that traveled to several orphanages passing out shoes and socks to the kids at Christmas). I also got to have my drama director and camp counselor past make cameo appearances this month while planning out the drama and games. Ultimately though, it was this chance to spread the hope of Christmas around to several Costa Rican children and their families that truly allowed this month to be one of the best Christmas gifts ever!
