I have finally begun to settle in here in Costa Rica. The wall of my bunk bed is getting more taped on it every day and I’m working on my status as a “regular” at the Saturday produce market.
We have officially finished our first full week of ministry here. I spend my days working with a lot of kiddos that come from a variety of different backgrounds and teaching English to adults and teenagers. I start my mornings at 6:00 am. Roll out of bed, grab some coffee and sit down to read my bible and talk with the Lord alongside the rest of my squad. The panic of preparing breakfast breaks out about 30 minutes later. There’s a weird peace that comes with the morning chaos in the base. Everyone is running around going a thousand miles per hour, getting ready, showering, making breakfast, packing lunches, but yet everything feels so normal. it reminds me of the movie Cheaper by the Dozen, squad Z is turning into one big dysfunctional family, and I love it.
We got to spend Monday morning deep cleaning our new home together. We scrubbed the floors and organized all our food, folded all the hung dried laundry and wiped out the kitchen down from the ceiling to floor. Something in the home switches after you take responsibility and clean it yourself. It begins to feel like it’s your place. In our freshly cleaned home, we got to learn about listening prayer from our incredible elder’s here in Costa Rica. Monday’s used to be dreary, but now I get to dive into new areas of my faith, and share breakthroughs with my team down here, I’m sure ill have a blog soon focusing on the change of heart that my first Monday down here brought me, but I want to update everyone on what my life here will look like for the next few months.
Every week we will have pretty much the same routine, we get to clean Mondays, and do ministry Tuesday-Friday. Tuesdays are filled with teaching English to Spanish speakers at a local community center. practice conversational English and teach basic English vocabulary to adults and teenagers. Every other day of the week we spend with kids. Wednesday and Thursday mornings we spend in the slums, we work with kiddos and teach them bible stories, play games and love on them for a few hours. For the rest of our ministry time Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, we work in different areas of the city with an organization that focuses on after school programs for kids, they come in and get to create some art pieces, play outside and learn about Jesus for a few hours after school.
Children’s ministry has never been something I’ve particularly been called to, but I am so happy to have been blessed enough to work with these kiddos. They bring some much excitement in with them every day, and getting to run around and play tag, draw in coloring books and give piggyback rides is such an easy way for me to get to love on them.
I was once told that God delights in blowing our pint-size expectations of him out of the water, and this is so unbelievably true. I have always had a calling to student ministry, and that’s something comfortable for me that I know I’m good at. but he placed me in almost a full schedule of children’s ministry, knowing that it would push me, it would push me to work harder to break language barriers, and to push farther out of the small expectations I have set for myself.
We got to plan for the next month of lesson plans for these kids, we laid out a bible story lesson, an activity and a game for every day we get to spend with them. We will be able to walk these kids through the entire old testament and new testament over the next three months here, and I will get to love on them the best that I can.
So that’s what my life down here is like, its filled with long games of sharks and minnows, and screaming country music as we handwash our dinner dishes. It’s beautiful sunsets and even more beautiful breakthroughs and I can’t wait to continue sharing this journey with you guys.
much love as always
