It’s official! Gap F and I are in Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica! We arrived last Friday night so we have been here for a whole week now! I wanted to give you all an update of what it’s like here and a little bit of info about the ministry we are doing. First off, I would like to say unless I go to a coffee shop or an ice cream shop in town, I do not have wifi except on the weekends. So I will not be on any social medias during the week and I can only post my blogs on the weekends. So depending on what the Lord shows me and how much I want to type, you all may get more than one blog post per weekend. Lol 😀
To make it simple, here are some bullet point explanations of what life and ministry look like here:
Location – As I said before we are on the outskirts of Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica. The trip to the town itself is about a 2.5 mile walk. We live in the rainforest on an 11 acre YWAM base. They are our hosts and we are partnering with them for ministry. The jungle is a beautiful crazy place. Like I can’t believe I actually live here! Coconuts, plantains, starfruit, peppers, papaya and much more grow wild here. There are also so many amazing creatures. Some I like and some not so much. There are monkeys, beautiful frogs (some poisonous/some not), bright colorful butterflies and birds, snakes and a lot of crazy bugs – my least favorite being the giant bull ants and mosquitos. I easily have over 50 bug bites on my body – it’s not fun! What makes up for it though is the glorious Costa Rican coast, which is the town of Puerto Viejo. Only a short walk to soft black sparkling sand and warm crystal clear water! It’s January, people, and it’s hot!! XD But probably my favorite part about living here is the noise. I love the sound of the ocean during my off days and the sound of the rainforest every day and night. Both are so peaceful and wonderful to fall asleep to. So yea.. what I’m trying to say is our God is so awesome, His creation is the most beautiful crazy wild thing and I am living in His tropical paradise. 😀
Our hosts and staff – Rasta and Elsie are amazing! They began working on getting this base 11 years ago and established it about 6 years ago. They are so sweet and they work very hard to help sustain us and the base. Same goes for the rest of the staff: Kiesha, Sammy, Conner, Steven, Ruth, Susie, and Ethan. Without them we would be lost.
Ministry – We have on-base ministry and off-base ministry and we switch them every week. This past week we had on-base ministry. Most of this is manual labour to build up and sustain the base. We clean the area constantly as the leaves fall and the jungle grows rapidly. We power wash the floors, we are laying down more concrete in areas, replacing tarps over our laundry, painting the bathroom doors, building a compost bin from bamboo and clearing the jungle. That last one is what we do the most. Most of the 11 acres is jungle and Rasta wants to build more on the land. He wants a soccer field, a new kitchen and eventually a swimming pool. He says we are the team behind the scenes paving the way so in the future this base can have 1,000 people come learn about Jesus. So we axe, machete and rake hours a day to clear the way for the future. It sounds exhausting and believe me it is but physical labor is my strong point and I’m thriving. I love it – especially because it builds muscle! ;D
Off-base ministry is basically evangelism. We do beach walks where we clean, evangelize, and have worship sessions. We share our testimonies and help lead bible studies and church services. This upcoming week will be our first experience of off-base ministry so pray for great boldness and compassion over our squad as we go out and share the Good News to the people of Puerto Viejo.
Food – They feed us well here. The main dish is rice, beans and plantains – which is like a banana but… not. We’ve also had lots of vegetables and fruits. Fried plantains and yuccas are everyone’s favorites because they are the closest thing we have to potato chips and french fries. We also get salad and pastas and some days we get breakfast meals like crepes and cereal. Yummmm! For lunch on the weekends we all make 2 sandwiches for ourselves. 🙂
Sabbath/Adventure Days – Sabbath days are Saturday. This is a day set aside for resting with the Lord. You can rest however you want to – read the word, call home, sleep all day, eat ice cream or go to the beach, etc. Yesterday most of us decided to rest at the beach. It was absolutely wonderful to enjoy the sun and waves after a long week of work.
Adventure days are Sunday and they are optional. Apart from church in the morning and a mandatory movie night at 7:15pm, this day is free. Today we are going as a squad to see a waterfall. Other days you could plan your own day and go in smaller groups to do all types of things like water rafting, zip lining, bungie jumping, exploring, etc. Or you could choose to just stay on base or around town and rest. We have freedom on the weekends. 🙂
So that’s launch! I praise God we made it! I wasn’t sure we were going to because of covid, but God is so faithful. I hope this all gave you a little insight into our life on the field. I hope you enjoyed reading it. I will be sure to keep the blogs coming and keep you all updated. If you have any questions, shoot me a text. I don’t know when I’ll answer them but I will. Thanks for reading!
Your sister in Christ,
Alex Paige 😀
P.S. I don’t know how many pics I will be posting on my blogs because the internet is so bad and it takes forever to load but I will try to post them on Facebook/insta on the weekends.
