Hey ya’ll (I’ve picked up some new vocab from my southern squadmates)
We’re in Costa Rica!!!!
I’ve been here for about two weeks, so life is just beginning in my new home and I already can’t imagine leaving. Living out of a backpack in a room the size of a dorm with eight other girls in a house with 53 other squad mates has been an adventure in itself.
We are so blessed to be spending our first three months on a beautiful base(house), with a huge backyard, and a breathtaking view to wake up to every morning. As the first squad to stay at this base in Costa Rica we’ve found a few little hurtles to jump through; a couple power outages, many cold showers, a few broken sinks, and one bunk bed falling apart. That being said, there never fails to be something new to overcome as a squad.
Life on our base is incredibly peaceful and insanely chaotic all at the same time. Every morning we have 30 minutes of quite time set aside to dive into the word, pray for our ministries and our teams, journal about the crazy things the Lord is doing here, and my favorite, sit and listen to His voice. And every night it’s a crazy fiesta in the house, with kitchen dance parties, late night worship, endless card games, rap battles and much much more.
But let’s not forget about the best part of being here, our MINISTRY!!!
Every day my team of seven and two other teams hop on the bus at 7:30 and head off to our various ministry sites which seem to be spread out across all of Costa Rica (they actually aren’t but when it take us more than 2 hours some days to drop everyone off it seems a lot like it). We’re the last team to be dropped off and with all the crazy traffic and bumpy roads I am wide awake when we arrive.
We are serving in a daycare / feeding program in a poverty ridden area. We are lead by Bella Florr. At first she’s intimidating, but I have grown to recognize her passionate personality as zeal for Christ and an abundance of compassion for her ministry. She has been in this ministry for 20 years and it has taken her 10 of those years to build trust in what can be a very dangerous area. The first day she told us stories of the violence and crime that’s she’s experienced but she reassured us that over the years she gained the respect of the community. We can see it everyday as she bosses around the gang members and sets them straight, yelling at them to be polite and to discard of their trash in the right manner.
And with Bella comes the beautiful children of this community that we are so blessed to love on everyday. Kids from the ages of 8 months to 16 years flood through the doors into one room where you can find them coloring, jumping rope, learning English, eating breakfast and lunch, playing soccer, basketball, and tag, and shouting with joy to be swung around in our arms. At first the kids were a little shy as we are the first group of gringos (white people) to ever be in their community. But only after a couple days they clung to us like glue. The joy of these kids is infectious and every day it gets better and better as were able to build relationships. The language barrier has been daunting and stepping out and using the spanish I do know is usually followed with a lot of giggles from the children. But they have been the most forgiving crowd as we stutter our spanish and try our best to understand them; they never seem to get frustrated. Everyday we come home exhausted from our short 4 hours with them but can’t wait to do it all again tomorrow.
Oh and if you read the title, yeah I got lice 🙂 During our second week there, we started to notice that a lot of the girls had lice, but that wasn’t going to stop us from loving them! Although lice is gross and this is definitely a first for me I wouldn’t have traded it.
Although ministry is my favorite part of my time here in Costa Rica we also have off days to explore this beautiful culture. Spending time in markets and on public transportation has been the extent of it so far as we’re learning how to navigate, but I can’t wait to share with you guys all the excursions we have.
Blogging is very new to me, so bare with me as I find my voice through this process. Over these last two weeks it has been an intimidating obstacle. To express my feelings so publicaly in a structured format from experiences that occur in chaotic bursts has seemed overwhelming to say the least. Life in a different culture surrounded by a new community has been one of the most fruitful and exhausting experiences of my life. I find myself seeking quiet time in the midst of 50 voices and praying to God to protect my hands from the blisters that layer everyday from ministry’s jump rope. I’m stretching myself emotionally to be more extroverted in the most outgoing crowd I have ever encountered. In all of this God has shown me his endless grace and love.
