We’re in our final location for our final month! It’s been a travel week of wrapping up in San José and settling in here at Jacó Beach, so not a ton to catch up on but here are some bits and pieces.
We made it to Jacó on Thursday afternoon. We’re staying at Ocean’s Edge ministry base. It’s really beachy and a fun place to be, we really get the feeling of living in a surf town.
(a link to the Ocean’s Edge website: http://oceansedge-lifestyle.com/)
The base is under a lot of construction so on Friday we helped work on cleaning and preparing for a group of youth group kids from California to arrive. They’re staying here with us for a week on their spring break. We got to go to a community center with them on Saturday and start a mural, do gardening, games with neighborhood kids, and the youth group taught kids how to skate at the skate park. Today we went to the most beautiful church where, finally, everyone speaks English! I helped teach Sunday school for 4-6 year olds which was fun because we got to hang out with some of the same kids who came to the event at the community center. It was comforting to be in a church that felt sort of like back home.
I’m reading a really great book right now with one of my teammates called Nothing to Prove by Jennie Allen. One of my favorite takeaways from this week of reading it is this…
“Our joy, or our lack of it, is a direct result of where we most spend our time and thoughts and energy … Time with Jesus actually helps our wild souls be still and remember the incredible story we are a part of. Time with Jesus causes us to feel secure in our identities. By listening to His voice, we recognize the lies that promise fulfillment elsewhere.”
I like this a lot. I’m starting to think about what it’s going to look like for me to go home in a few short weeks, and I think this quote just gives some good perspective about priorities and living life with the Lord day in and day out.
That’s where I’m at this week, and with only 4 left! I would just ask for prayers for me and everyone else on the team to really give it our all in the coming days. It’s important that we try to really dig in for this last month. I think it will be easy and tempting to coast along and have the countdown of days ticking loud in the back of our minds, but my prayer is for us to be really present in order to give and gain all that we can because it is such a special privilege to be here.
