As many of you know, I have spent the last month in Costa Rica. However, what you didn’t know is where I actually was and what I was actually doing because of the complete lack of Wifi and ability to blog. So here goes it.
We arrived at a farm in the secluded Costa Rican rainforest. It is so beautiful here and every day you can see a new master piece that God has created. We, and by “we” I mean the nine girls and three boys, live in a large pavilion with a bunch of smaller buildings inside of it. This includes a 400 square foot box house that has 6 bunkbeds and paper thin walls. It’s nothing close to luxury, but it was still home. I soon came to the realization that sleeping in the same room as seven or eight other girls was just not for me, and moved out of the room and into my own hammock. I did endure more bug bights because of this, but the stars at night and the sunrises in the mornings were beyoned amazing and were totally worth the 60 or so bug bights.
While the farm was pretty big, you always found yourself never quite alone. Actually right now there is about nine other people around me. Just a prime example of how not alone we actually are. You can have a full on conversation between the people in the “living room” and the people in the showers. Again, you are never alone. There is also never a dull moment because even while you’re sleeping you can still be suddenly awoken by monkeys flying through the forest. It’s pretty great.
From Monday’s to Wednesday’s, we do construction work. This includes building a sanctuary with palm leaves, which is pretty awesome seeing it all come together. All of the palm leaves were cut down and placed at the bottom of a hill. Then, we had to lug the 50 pound leaves up the 70 or so stairs to the sanctuary. After this, they would be split in half and then pulled up onto the roof. We are literally building the sanctuary inch by inch. God is so prevalent at the sanctuary that it’s pretty hard not to notice Him.
Our ministry host has this amazing long term dream of making his home and the surrounding area into a rehabilitation center for people all over the world who struggle with drug abuse. This plan is about 10 years in the making. His faith for this project just flabbergasts me. He does not stumble at the plans God has placed before him and he goes about it knowing that God will provide everything that he will possibly need.
On Saturdays we are usually in town and go to kid’s ministry. This includes doing bible skits and playing games with all the kids in the VBS/day care center. After kids club, we walk down to the local soccer field and play soccer with about 25 kids from the surrounding community for about 2 hours. These kids maybe small but they can usually beat us by 10 or so points. On Sunday we do a mixture of things such as going to Church, which is in Spanish and they spare no expense at translating for us, teaching the kids Sunday school lessons and elementary English songs, such as Jesus Loves Me and other ones. Sundays usually end with us going back to the farm.
I will say that time here goes by very fast and it feels like it’s deceiving you constantly. We are so unconnected with the outside world that most of us don’t know half the things that have happened. Occasionally we get a Facebook message or a stranger realizes were from the States and has to explain what has happened. It feels like we just got here yesterday and today I packed up for Nicaragua. I now only have 8 more months until I am back in the states.
Well I hope that gives you some insight on what we do every day. Again I apologize for not updating sooner but foreign wifi is really just unpredictable. Until next time.
Also here are things that you say when you live in the Rainforest and things you never expected to here.
- Wow we are literally in the middle of nowhere.
- Is that a bug or a leaf
- When building a 30 foot tall Sanctuary and the first thing your ministry host asks you is “Did any of you bring your harnesses”…… Nope
- Is this water safe to drink.
- Be careful of the monkeys
- Did you bring your machete
- Machetes are useful for “teaching rebuking and training in righteousness”.
- My back is really sweaty.
- Hey don’t freak out there is a spider in your hair.
- When your ministry host has been living in Costa Rica for 60+ years and you show them a very interesting looking bug and their first response is “Wow I’ve never seen one of those”. You drop the bug and run.
