Most of you know that I’m home once again – back in the middle of March, AIM called all squads on the field back to the U.S.
When I found out in February that I would be going back to Costa Rica, I felt as though the Lord had a lot of things in store for me there and I was excited to see what those things would be. Never would I have thought that what He had was for me to just be with my squad as we headed home 2 and ½ months early.
After hearing that there was a real possibility we could be going home over the next few days, I was confused and struggled with feeling that I had come to Costa Rica for no reason. That it was just a wasted trip. But over the next couple days even as we got the news that we would be going home, I heard from several teammates who told me that my return made them feel like there was a sense of restoration in our team. That there was a sense of completeness. I feel so blessed to have been able to have spent those last couple weeks with my squad and to finish this thing out together.
Originally, my team and I were scheduled to go to a house for women who were/are involved in sex trafficking. We were to go several times a week and then every Friday night go out with some of the people who work there to evangelize the people in the area. We were all very excited about this new ministry opportunity, and were sad when it closed for the week due to effects already taking place because of the coronavirus.
With hopes that it would reopen the following week, my team and I joined our sister team (named Sonrisa) at their ministry for the week.
The name of the ministry we were joining was CRU. CRU (Campus Crusade for Christ) is a Christian organization that meets on college campuses and reaches out to students with the gospel.If you didn’t know, CRU is not only a stateside ministry! CRU is all over the world, including Costa Rica.
For one week we had the opportunity to work alongside several CRU members at the University of Costa Rica. We spent every morning and a few afternoons walking around the beautiful campus, handing out forms for the students to fill out. The forms asked questions about the students’ major, their religious beliefs and background, and if they would be interested in joining CRU. Depending on how they answered and if they spoke English, sometimes we were able to have a conversation about their beliefs. Then if they were interested, we would invite them to come to the CRU meetings on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and to the English Club that team Sonrisa was in charge of that would meet every Friday morning. We found that many of the students were raised Catholic, but in talking to them we sometimes found that many of them really were atheists. A fair number of students were very interested in the English Club and for the chance to practice their English with us Americans. The first Friday at the campus, Sonrisa hosted the English Club while my team walked around the campus talking to students.
That was our last day at the college as we found out that morning that there was a chance we would be going home.
CRU was such a neat ministry to be a part of, even if it was only for a week, and I am sad to see those connections that we made not be able to be pursued.
I love that God takes our expectations, turns them completely around, and gives us something so different than we thought we were gonna get.
I’m forever grateful for this journey, as crazy and off the rails as it has been, and I thank you all for your prayers and support through it all.
<3 Alaina
