In Costa Rica, my team and I worked with a ministry known as Christian Surfers in the tourist/surfing town of Jaco. And yes I did learn how to surf!!! Something that I was not expecting to be able to do while on the race! Dream come true!
Coming into month 7 after a hard month of traveling all over Panama doing unsung heroes, my team was pretty exhausted. And it showed. We were in need of some rest and rejuvenation. But God already knew that!
We were immediately welcomed into a Christian English speaking community. And it was refreshing! I didn’t realize how thirsty my soul actually was until I walked through the doors of the new Radical church building, and the sound of worship being sung in English to songs I knew and understood was like cannon balling into a pool on a hot day!
Jaco has this insanely, awesomely, big English speaking Christian community of people from the states and Canada. The Lord has intentionally called and placed each of these missionaries together to accomplish a specific purpose there. It is like lots of patches sewn together to make a beautiful quilt. For what purpose? Jaco is a tourist city in bondage by prostitution, sex trafficking, drugs, alcohol, and other things, but God is restoring it. It is evident, because that is why He called all His children there.
They were a healthy example of community living in the body of Christ and it was so encouraging to see it done well! It was raw and real and full of so much grace and love, encouraging and uplifting their neighbor in any way they could. Everyone came together with what they had (which sometimes wasn’t much) and used it to benefit the whole. That is how it should be!
I am so discouraged by church community in the states. I believe it can be better. It can be stronger. It can be healthier.
God created us to live in community and to grow, learn, and help one another.
Each person and family poured into us so much that month. So many church members had us over for food and swimming!! What a blessing! So many invited us to dinner!! Or cooked delicious meals for us! So many invited us over to their house and took time out of their busy life to encourage us. What a blessing! They cared and loved and provided for us just the way the body of Christ should. We were all in the same boat. Missionaries. We all knew the drill. But they gave what little they had and it blessed us in an explosive way!
We were pretty weary entering month 7, and even though we did a lot of ministry, it was mostly relational, and we left feeling refreshed, rested, and rejuvenated.
Nothing is more beautiful than when you are connected as a body of Christ worshipping and praising and serving together. I got a little taste of it in their community. But I also feel it within my own team. My team is my community while on the world race. They have seen me for me. No mirrors or illusion. They see all my stripes and spots and still choose to love me. They see me the way Christ does. They know all my dirtiness and grime and yet still see the beauty. Just as Christ does. They dont hold my sin or past against me. They don’t judge me. They encourage me. They love me. Just as Christ does. They are my sisters in Christ!
This is how Christ intended community to be. Nothing is more beautiful than when you are united as a body of Christ genuinely worshipping and praising The Lord together. You need a healthy community. If you don’t have one, create one. Build one. And don’t pretend in it. The worst thing the body of Christ can do is be fake and pretend. That does nothing for the body and nothing for yourself. That produces no growth. No change. So be real. Be honest. Be vulnerable. Make it a community that shares in each other’s struggles and challenges and fights alongside one another in prayer and love and encouragement and acceptance and not judgement and condemnation. We can only heal and help that which has been confessed and acknowledged.
I am forever grateful to each missionary that encouraged and served us while we were there. I hope I will be back one day!
A special blog out to the missionaries of Jaco in no specific order:
Hannah Fletcher! You flipped my world upside down and helped me to see a truth that I had for so long believed to be a lie. And that believing of the lie led me down so many destructive paths, but no more. You have helped me to realize my true identity in Christ! Thank you!
Lisa-you have such an awesome way of loving people the way Christ does. It’s so encouraging and I know that that is The Lord working through you. Your boldness is beautiful! Keep allowing The Lord to use you, because He does in big big ways even though you may not be able to see it.
Rose-you are so precious and I miss seeing you. The work you are doing for The Lord is beautiful. You encourage me to not be complacent in my faith and to keep serving The Lord all my life.
Jeff and Ashley-thank you for leading worship for us that night Jeff. It made such an impact on my life and walk with Jesus. Thank you for your vulnerability and encouraging us to be vulnerable as well. Thank you both for opening up your home to us for the FIFA World Cup game. Still sad they lost.
Holly-thank you for all of your help and your hospitality in showing us around and helping us get where we needed to be. It was so fun to be able to hang out with you! Remain in Christ. He has so much more for you. Run after Him. With everything.
Dave and Eva-thank you thank you thank you for everything. Y’all were incredible examples of how to love like Christ. First with each other, then with your kids and then taking it out to the community. Thank you for always keeping your home open to us! And for encouraging me! It was because of y’all sharing your testimony that I was able to experience a deeper level of freedom in sharing my own personal testimony. You also restored a hope in me that I had forgotten and didn’t even realize that it had died. I have hope in Jesus Christ! Thank you! I miss y’all both and your amazing kids!!! I always thought I wanted six kids and that confirmed it 🙂 I wish I could hug each one of them right now!
Sarah and Daniel-thank you both for opening up your home and church and for feeding us as well as sharing your time with us! Radical church was such a blessing as were y’all!
To everyone else thank you! Thank you! Words cannot express my gratitude. My life was changed and impacted in a powerful way, because of the work that Jesus did through y’all!
Until the next adventure,
Teej
