This month, my team has been living with June Gallman, a jovial and tender-hearted missionary woman in San Jose, Costa Rica (we call her our “Junebug”). She has welcomed my team with open arms and more generosity than anyone I’ve ever known (and we love her to death!!). Her journey with the Lord and faithfulness to Him these past twenty years have taught my team so much. This week, I got to sit down with her and ask her more about her life here and the things God has brought her here to do.
June, can you tell me a little bit about your work in Costa Rica? Like an overview of what your involvement is like here?
I’m involved as an educator at a women’s prison in San Jose, Costa Rica. I’ve been there for twenty years, and I began only doing studies on Wednesday nights, and as the Lord led, the coordinator for the education department was led to ask me if I would stay to teach English. The volunteer before me passed away, so it was definitely God’s calling. And I didn’t know that, when Claudio (the Coordinator of Education) asked me about taking the position, in October 1996. And so I have been working there ever since. However, I was teaching English, and there was a need for me to become credentialed as a Costa Rican public school teacher, so I began studying in 2000 at the University of Latin America of Science and Technology. I began in 2000, graduated in 2010, because I had to learn Spanish on a college level. I graduated from that University with a degree in Teaching English and Translation. So that was what prepared me to teach English. Now, since 2001, 2002, I’ve been working as a MEP instructor (Ministerio de Educacion Publica). And so I teach 7th, 8th, and 9th Grade English, but I’m qualified to teach primary, secondary, and high school students. Sometimes, God wants His workers to be credentialed in a certain area, for Him, so that we can minister better. Now, I’m able to teach at the prison as a school teacher, but I also have this other side of me that wants to help these women. Once they are released from prison, the work continues on, because sometimes I go trying to find churches for them to go to, go visit them; when I’m on the street, I visit ex-inmates and encourage them. It’s not only teaching English, but it’s teaching good values, Godly values and attitude.
So what does ministry look like for you outside of the prison?
Well, teaching at the prison is my primary job, but outside of that I’m affiliated with the Presbyterian Church of America. I also build things for people… I guess, it’s a day to day thing. That’s my first ministry. And as I need to raise money, I go and apply for other work. Like with the conversational English classes I teach on Saturday (at a local school). Where I’m a missionary is what I do outside of the English teaching. We’ve been able to donate things to the prison: lawn mowers, weed eaters, cut grass, plant flowers, paint… glasses for the women in school. They get their eyes checked, screened, and are given glasses for an affordable price. We’ve been doing that for about a year and a half. God provides the money for that, that’s just what God’s been doing. It’s important to not only try to meet their spiritual needs, but their physical needs – because how can someone spiritually see when they can’t even physically see? And of course, I worked with a church team to build a swing set and playground in the Gulf of Nicoya (on Isla Venado), and several other things: I helped work in churches, and build churches, worked for the International Red Cross in Costa Rica, just a lot of things – played in the National Band of Costa Rica, because why? God has given me all of these gifts, and I need to go and use them for Him. Which, my life is not boring.
Especially now that we’re here.
No, my life is – I now have become blessed by seven “youngsters”. Seven young adults. Who’s keeping track?
Can you tell me about how you felt led specifically to Costa Rica? Specifically to this neighborhood?
I was led to Costa Rica because – Originally I was going to go to Chile, and work in those prisons, in a rehabilitation home like I’d like to have here. But when we came to Costa Rica because of the death of that volunteer, God just changed my path, and I guess I knew that I needed to go and ask my supporters to consider changing because God had just laid this all on my heart. There were no programs in the prison when I came – no English, no university classes, I helped the coordinators start those classes, and be able to register those students. I had been working at Perry Correctional in the United States for 8 years with Chuck Colson’s Prison Fellowship, and then I decided I’d like to know what it’s like to work with women in a foreign country. And that was a – God will help you with whatever you wish for, sometimes in ways you never ever imagined. But I always knew I wanted to go to Chile and work in a halfway house for women who have been released from prison, and help them adjust, and so I’m doing this here. I said “God, well if I’m not going to Chile, maybe I can reproduce this here:”. And here we are, spending the nights in this house that will, in the future, help some woman raise her family, and then be able to her get on her feet. Because basically in Costa Rica, if you’ve been in the prison, your family is not going to be able to support you, and your family is a part of the derelict culture – you need to get away from that. We always tell the students “you need to make some new friends”, and get out from your family, and so there’s a real need for this for women and their children, infants up to 3 years old. So I came here, and it was just the Lord leading me.
My life verse is Hebrews 13:3: “Treat those in prison as if you were in prison yourself.” How is that? Unless you go and spend time in one or work in one or serve in one, it’s really hard to know what it’s like, and it’s really hard to appreciate what God has given us, and we don’t really realize that – good food, good lodging, things we all take for granted. Because in the prison the women don’t really get that.
Do you have any – one example of a really cool thing God has done here in the last couple of months or so?
There was one (woman) that we had been working with for a while – but this was a while back – she’s now an evangelist, and she has written a book about her time in the prison. But she was helped a lot by, let’s just say, God helped her out of prison to be able to move on and evangelize in the prison, evangelize other inmates, and so she’s now working San Jose some, and traveling all over Central America, evangelizing and prophesying. I just admire her zeal for the Lord because of her time in El Buen Pastor. When she came in, she was a non-committed Christian – she believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, she believed He died for her sins, but to live for Him – she really didn’t know what that was like. And so, as she saw my work and the others work and listened to Claudio talk about what she’s gonna do outside of the prison, little by little she came to more of a greater Spiritual walk with Him. She was able to actually realize that He died for her, and she needed to live for Him, and so she went on to evangelize to women in prison. And she has been able to evangelize so many people in prison, and she has gone on to do this because of her testimony. Not because of me, but because of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that’s what I thank God for.
So a lot of your ministry has been in serving people faithfully and letting the Lord do the work.
Absolutely. That’s the only way.
Can you tell me more about your vision for the halfway house?
It’s called “Casa Eleos” – Eleos is one of the Greek words for mercy. And it sounded Spanish, like that’s the way it will be. It’s been a name in my mind ever since I moved to Costa Rica, that if I were ever able to buy a house, it would be called this as a mercy house. It’ll be a place for women who have been in prison and have nowhere to go – there’s so many of them – and for Claudio and I, that’s been our dream for years. And everybody wants to be a part of that, but nobody wanted to go and buy a house, so now it’s been done. My name is on this house – it’s the Lord’s house. One day it will be paid off.
It would be for just two families – maybe more – but we want quality work done here. We want to help them continue their education – not only them but their children. And that’s so hard to do. The house is not made for 20 people. We want to start with one or two families, to live here for a while, get back on their feet, and then move on. And that’s what we want, because that’s what a missionary wants – multiplication. And maybe one day I can buy another house for me, so I can have a place to live – or maybe another ministry house. This is something a lot of volunteers who worked in the prison wanted to see happen, it’s just that it’s very hard for Costa Rican to just buy a ministry place because it’s so difficult to live here sometimes.
So, in this current season, what is something God has been teaching you?
Just a continuation of “how can you love your neighbor as yourself?” We are called to love our neighbor first, and in Costa Rica, they have something called “Te quiero mucho” (or “I like you a lot”). But that doesn’t mean “I love you”. “Te Amo” – it’s different. And a lot of times, in one of the churches I go to – Vida Abundante – a lot of the people I talk to, I tell them “I love you” and they’ve never heard that before, because they’re still used to “Te quiero mucho”. And that’s one thing I’ve noticed, that people will say “excuse me for this”, “disculpe”, instead of asking for forgiveness. So I made this little brochure that was a five page document on Forgiveness – what it is and how do you do it, and the many steps involved. Because that’s one thing – people don’t forgive, and people don’t tell others that they love them. It’s kind of a superficial walk with the Lord, so with this they’re able to see a much deeper walk in the Lord, and how we’re supposed to love our neighbor first. That’s one of the things I enjoy the most – there’s never a dull moment – whenever God will have me do something to show Jesus’ love to others. It may be washing someone’s feet or just giving something… and of course, as a missionary it’s really easy to do that because nothing is my own, it all came from God – every sheet, every book, every paper, every food item – it all came from the Lord. So if it’s not yours, then pass it on.
One more question – How can my supporters, the people reading this, support you and pray for you?
Pray for the salvation of the inmates. Pray that they would be drawn to Jesus, and His death on the cross, and they would give their lives to Him. I want them to know of a saving grace in Jesus Christ. And I want them to know that we cannot draw ourselves to Him. We don’t have the power to do that. It’s nothing man can do, because we walk by faith and not by sight. We have to be drawn to Him. And Jesus is always drawing people to Him through His death on the cross, but sometimes it’s hard for people to see that who’ve been through a difficult life themselves. Who’ve been smitten and spit on. It happens to a lot of women here. It’s a very “machismo” culture here, and that’s very hard to get out of. It’s almost like living in a prison in yourself. And there’s no freedom in Christ until they realize “Wow, I can do this”. And so I want them to see themselves get out of that cycle so that they can worship God as God wants them to. I just have a big heart for mercy ministry.
“Above all, love each other deeply, for love covers over a multitude of sins.” 1 Peter 4:8
