Hey everyone!
I’m back in the USA. It’s great to be back home with my family! Please forgive me the last week of Costa Rica it was hard to write a blog, but I’m happy to share with you all what happened.
While I was stationed at the YWAM base with the team. We helped finish up with some of the construction work on the base. There was a need for a patio. This patio that we helped make is going to be used for the community services that happen every other week as well as used for the praise and worship sessions for the discipleship students. There was a pattern on this trip of the team tearing down the old and rebuilding the new. That was what God was doing on this trip in all of us that were in the field. Spending so much time doing construction pushed me to rely on God more for Him to give me the physical strength to complete the task.
On our third day at the base we had the opportunity to go out into the community and to evangelize. The town where we evangelized is a tourist town with a lot of little shops and eateries. The group I was in decided to walk into the little shops and see if we could spark conversations with the people in there. Our goal was just to love on other people. It was hard at first speaking to some of the people who were not interested in having a conversation. After walking around for 30 minutes and praying for God to open up a door to have conversation with someone it happened. We stopped at a small coffee kiosk and simply asked the lady how her day was going. One of the girls in my group asked her about some of the tattoos that were on her arm she then shared with us that one of her passions is traveling. We then shared with her how we love traveling and doing missions. That was a connection we made with her and she shared with us some of her life. After purchasing coffee (of course!) we then asked if we could pray for her and if she had any prayer requests. She agreed to let us pray for her and to show her gratitude gave us another cup of coffee for free. That whole encounter was spirit led. God gave us the boldness to speak to her. Moments like that were special. We spoke to a couple other individuals later that day that each were purposeful.
The local church that was a couple minutes from the base invited the team to share their testimonies and we also sang a song for them at one of the Sunday services we attended. All the people were so welcoming and it was evident that Holy Spirit leads them in their lives. The team during the week spent time painting the exterior of the church. It was an honor to give back and help them.
This trip overall pushed me out of my comfort zone. There were moments when the work did get hard and points where I felt that I wouldn’t be able to get a task done, but each time God showed up and fulfilled me. A lot of the ministry that was done will be beneficial for the future teams that will stay on the properties we were stationed. The fruit of that labor was not as evident to us in the moment, but I know that many other people will see the fruit of our labor in the future.
Thank you all for your prayers!! It’s sad to no longer be in Costa Rica with all of the girls from my team, but I’m looking forward to what God is going to do next in my life as well as yours! One of the biggest takeaways I have from this trip is the importance of community. When we all come together with a like minded purpose we are stronger. It has been a true honor sharing with you all what God has done the past four weeks!
If you haven’t seen some of my vlogs from the trip yet check them out:
TRAINING CAMP
LIFE IN COSTA RICA
FINAL WEEKS IN COSTA RICA
In a week, I will be preparing to depart on my second mission trip to Trinidad with the college group from my church. Your prayers for that mission are greatly appreciated! Just like I did for Costa Rica I will be sharing on my blog and making vlogs.
Love you all!
