The wheels on the bus go round and round…so did the ones in my head.
It had already been a LONG day of travel by the time we reached the San Jose airport and we had to actually get out of the airport. If you didn’t know getting 55 people through customs and immigration is not a quick task. After that there was finding our contact, loading the bus, and getting in the bus! (About half way through this processes I refused to look at my watch anymore)
Needless to say I was totally running on empty by the time we started the 30 minute drive. I barely had enough energy to wonder what the next 3 weeks with 6:8 Ministries might look like. Mostly, I stared out the window.
A stray thought caught me by surprise as I watched the lights of the city go by. “I hope there is a garden”. I immediately chided myself. “Of all the things I could think about! They aren’t going to have a garden! ” I shook my head at own silliness. It was quite obvious from the digression of the houses and buildings that we would be staying in one of the poorer parts of the city, to expect a garden seemed too much to ask.
To my great surprise as I stepped off the bus the first thing I noticed was the smell of lilacs.{My favorite flower} My heart swelled inside me, God had heard me! Excitedly I asked our contact if they had lilacs in Costa Rica. Turns out he was surprised as I was to find a sweet smell, stating that it usually stank in that area. Even so, I stepped out of the Team House in the morning fully expecting to encounter the same sweet smell. I was greeted with the scent of sundried garbage instead. Not a happy switch.
“What do you think of my garden?” the question drifted into my heart on a breeze. I stared at the high concrete walls and busy street littered with trash; if there was a garden I sure couldn’t see it. "This is my garden." and I suddenly understood.
I thought that God had heard me when I smelled the lilac but He was actually making sure He had MY attention! I had assumed that we were talking about a flower garden but God had something much more precious in mind.
In a place where prostitution, drugs, violence, brokenness and poverty seem to reign supreme He is very much at work growing His garden. God has dreams for this city and He is excited, very excited, about it!
Still, it was hard to hold onto this idea God planted in me as we traveled though the city and saw the extreme need (physically and spiritually). Children played in sewage outside tin shacks, a coffee field (where most of the town’s drug /prostitution happens) covered in decades of filth provided a “lesson in futility” as we cleaned. (More on this in my next blog) No matter what I feel in the moment God keeps inviting me to see from His heart.
The truth is even if it is hard to see, God’s dream lives. God’s dream is in action! For this reason I have hope. For this reason I rejoice! Please pray with us as we continue to work in this city. Pray *for the things that need to be done and rejoice with us *for the things God is already doing.
