Wow this last week changed my life. I’m definitely still processing but I’d love to share with you what I did this week at this amazing camp called La Montaña Christian Camps.
We spent most of our days helping in the kitchen serving food and cleaning dishes, helping with the camp on Tuesday and Thursday as the campers came, cleaning the rooms after the campers departed and building relationships with the campers and the staff/volunteers. We had such a blast! Not to mention the place is absolutely beautiful in the middle of the rainforest in the mountains. I was so happy there.
In one of my first blogs in Costa Rica, I wrote this:
“God revealed to me that love does not need to come through words- and he didn’t just say this, he showed me.”
I feel as if my entire Costa Rica experience has been showing me what this means and how to give this language barrier up to the Lord. How to love his people without words. How to try my very best to understand these wonderful people and allow the Lord to give me the small words, hand gestures or facial expressions. He’s shown me what smiling can do to make a person feel loved and wow it definitely helps that I haven’t stopped smiling since I’ve been in this amazing country. He has refilled me everyday and given me the energy to pursue joy everyday. I have learned what loving Gods people well looks like and how to see the good in every person I meet. I feel like camp this week wrapped up this lesson in a whole new way.
I have often been working with kids and growing my relationships with kids this whole race. Most of the people my age and older have known quite a bit of English and I’ve been able to communicate pretty easily with them. This was not the case at La Montaña…
There were 5 volunteers that spoke little to no English. And we had to run the camp with them! We were all very friendly to each other right off the bat but it was difficult as we sat around the dinner table and had no idea what to say to each other. This is where the Holy Spirit came in and nudged me to love them anyways and truly get to know them. I began having countless google translate conversations with them and trying to be around them as often as I could even though I was awkwardly sitting there most of the time having no idea what they were saying. I learned that it’s ok to say nothing and just enjoy each other’s presence. I got to know them through their body movements and facial expressions. I laughed with them and we laughed at each other when we couldn’t understand each other. We were forming some amazing friendships.
Then, an amazing thing happened. We all got to worship together. Worship is so important to me and I connect with the father so well through music and worshipping Him. Try worshipping in a different country, up in the mountains, with 2 different cultures and 2 different languages. It was truly life changing. Being intimate with the father together as 1 church made these relationships even deeper.
It’s all about relationships. It’s all about giving 100% of yourself to the Lord so that He can use us to love on His people. I’ve learned how valuable relationships are and how the Lord calls us to build them. To establish trust with people, to laugh and play with people and to pour into people. I ended up leaving camp this week with many new friendships through Christ. With a new family up at La Montaña. With many new families in different areas of Costa Rica. Thank you La Montaña for your loving people that see Christ in others. You were so accepting of us even though we didn’t speak the same Language! You made the end of my Costa Rica experience a good one. I’m just feeling so thankful to the Lord for the many works He is doing in my life as well as I serve others. What a marvelous thing.
