¡Hola! Yay for finally writing a blog on the actual mission field! I can’t promise this blog post will be beautifully written, but I’ll try my best to give y’all a little insight into what life is like now.
Before leaving Gainesville I laid all my expectations for the next season down at Jesus’ feet. And praise the Lord for that! Life here is nothing like I could have imagined. But it’s all SO good. Our hosts, Rasta and Elsie are the kindest and most intentional people. They serve the Lord and love us so well. We’re staying at a YWAM base so other groups sometimes stay here too. YWAM Germany was here the first week we arrived and it was so fun doing ministry and living life with them. Other young people on fire for the Lord from across the world!! YWAM Norway is supposed to come next week and we can’t wait!
Ministry last week consisted of a lot of manual labor… BUT it’s okay, we made it fun! For the kingdom amiright!! We made concrete the traditional way with sand, rocks, cement, and water. It was hard, but we got to make a path for the base, which will continue to host us and many missionaries to come. Several days we spent clearing out space in the jungle for a soccer field and maybe a soup kitchen!
This week we began evangelism which was a step out of my comfort zone, but it has been so fruitful. Basically, we got into random groups of three and were dropped off in the middle of town with no plans for the day, except be back at 4pm. In my group we prayed about the day and for the people we’d encounter and then started walking. In Costa Rican culture everyone just loves to talk, so it didn’t take long for us to meet someone and strike up a conversation. It’s all about building relationships and we’re always asked why we’re here for three months. That usually leads to awesome conversations about the Lord, praying for people, and inviting them to church. Not everyone is interested or cares at all, but it’s about planting seeds and being kind. Puerto Viejo is the definition of a party town and it’s virtually unheard of for young people to follow the Lord. Andddd that brings me to our church!!
We go to Cañon Creek Church (a bilingual church) every Sunday. Basically it’s our group of 20 that fills up the congregation. Like I said, there are not a lot of young people who love the Lord, so it is our big group of 19-20 year old Americans and like 6 sweet old ladies and two families. Church here is very traditional, but they let us lead the service every other Sunday. It’s cool because a lot of us have tattoos, hair wraps, and dress pretty casual….so the congregation sees that the gospel is for everyone, including the young people of Puerto Viejo. It is so awesome and I can’t wait for more people to come.
Those are the main things happening in Costa right now! Y’all can continue to pray for the people of Puerto Viejo, Cañon Creek church, health over my squad and our hosts, and we’re having a kids vbs weekend on the 29th!
