I’ve done a pretty terrible job keeping you guys up to date with what ministry I’m actually doing in the field. At this point, I have a little more than a week left in Central America, so it only seems appropriate to give a brief summary of each ministry I’ve been in thus far. Feel free to add some questions in the comments below!
Panama. Lived with a local family constructing housing for indigenous coffee farm workers.
This month was an important first step in my race. Our team was isolated, we were able to lean in, hear each other’s testimonies and lay the foundations for a high level of trust and communication. Ministry was difficult, mixing concrete by hand, retrieving sand, milling lumber. Our weeks topped 40 hours of physical labor, but the hours of mixing, painting, shoveling were full of personal stories, jokes, games. Our host family, the Caballeros, were giving and welcomed us wholeheartedly into their home.
Sleeping Situation: Bunk Beds
Most Common Meal: Plantains, Rice, Chicken, some local-brand citrus soda or homemade herbal tea (lemongrass/sugarcane typically)
Free Time: Played Kemps (card game), shared testimonies, making PBJs
Area of encouragement: Built tight-knit community, trust
Area of difficulty: Manual labor could feel like free labor
Highlight: Visiting local hot springs with host family, going back and forth between the chilling river and the almost-too-hot springs was exhilarating.
Costa Rica. All-squad month in the “Las Vegas of Costa Rica” ministering through prayer, economic empowerment.
All 34 people from K-Squad living under one roof. Some 10-minutes from the main strip in Jaco, I was selected to help organize and populate jacobeachinfo.com, a storytelling business directory highlighting those family-friendly and usually locally-owned businesses in the city. Jaco has been a long-time hotbed for drugs and prostitution, and continues to fight this image. The hosts were quite deliberate with giving us daily devotionals and structure for our month.
Sleeping Situation: Combo of hammock or tent/sleeping pad (mosquitoes!!)
Most Common Meal: Home-cooking looked a lot like college cooking. Pasta, burgers, chicken parmesan, french toast, tacos. Meals were as a team.
Free Time: treks down to a local hotel for wifi (lots of logistics planning, expense reports this month), exploring the city, walks along the beach.
Area of encouragement: Getting to know squadmates and their hearts better.
Area of difficulty: Some days of bitter temperament, difficulty understanding evangelism and common vision.
Highlight: Seat-of-the-pants trip to the mountains to visit a waterfall. We stayed overnight at the Red Cross after searching out accommodations for 3 hours, made many local friends and enjoyed local food at a festival for their patron St. Therese of Lisieux. The waterfall was freezing, part of the hike was through a cow pasture, but it was an incredible experience.
Nicaragua. Another All-squad month (unusual). Lots of evangelism, prayers in the hospital, I helped lead a men’s Bible study, serve food at the city dump, and played with kids at the local community center.
Night one in Nicaragua after a stressful travel day (remember I run these days as Logistics) I rolled my ankle. So a bit of a bummer out of the gate, but ultimately a very inspiring month. REAP Granada (our ministry) is super ingrained in the local culture, and has become a place of gathering for sports competitions on weekends, and a huge supported of local churches. They were in transition, partly because of the amount of civil unrest in the country, but we were able to make our mark one way or the other. Lots of devotional time, plenty of great conversation, though the squad as a whole was a bit cagey by the end of the month.
Sleeping Situation: Bunk Beds
Most Common Meal: Gallo Pinto (that’s rice and beans), some plantains, chicken.
Free Time: Lots of podcasts (both theological and political), Black 7 (card game), laying on our tile floor trying to cool down.
Area of encouragement: Great kinship with many of the men on the squad, also our host Nathan.
Area of difficulty: Seeing division in evangelism. Whether this was a church trying to pump their own numbers and donations in competition with fellow churches, a highly condemning evangelistic style, or castigation of the Catholic church as offering “religion not relationship” when the evangelistic recipient was Catholic. ALSO the poorest conditions I have seen all race, caused both by recent instability and chronic issues with government and lack of individual empowerment. Lots of health issues.
Highlight: Beautiful ministry location. Having the adventure days planned out for me, as logistics I handle a lot of planning so it was a nice change to have other people handling details.
Honduras. Back to team ministry up in the mountains of Honduras with a foster-care ministry. Some manual labor some work with children.
Our ministry here is incredible in many ways. We are helping put a new foster care crisis center over the finish line with building furnishings, painting, various other finishing work topping the list. Our team has enjoyed being back together in a small environment, and being able to sock away lots of hours into ministry. We have found a rhythm, been able to learn a lot about foster care generally, and about Trauma Competent Caregiving specifically (I was able to share this with other squads a few days ago at The Awakening, post coming on that). The ministry is headed up by the Spangler power-couple Matt and Marianne, and supported by several other couples. The community here is giving, authentic, and dedicated to the cause. Inspiring to say the least.
Sleeping Situation: Bunk Beds
Most Common Meal: After work each day Marianne cooks amazing food for herself, Matt, 9 kids, 6 World Racers, everyday without a single repeat meal yet.
Free Time: We’ve enjoyed taking some time off, some more Black 7, lots of wifi means calls home, a movie night or two as a team. Plus town is a quick 5-minute walk away and home to a LOT of second-hand clothing stores that buy stuff from GoodWill by the pound, for silly cheap. You could dress yourself completely for less than a dollar.
Area of encouragement: Gaining a better understanding of Trauma Competent Caregiving, as that will inform my interactions with kids for the rest of their race. This family is also so lifegiving, as mentioned and now reiterated.
Area of difficulty: This is our last month together as a team so it’s a bit bittersweet in some ways, trying my best to soak it up.
Highlight: Being back together as a team has been a huge blessing to push each other and lean in. I love our squad, but you guys are loud sometimes. PLUS I don’t want this category to have too many adventure days because the ministry is the true joy, but going zip-lining at Canopy Extremo (highest in Central America), then scooting over to the hot-springs in Gracias (think 100 degree swimming pool) was a great day. We’re off to some Mayan ruins this coming weekend so this might be disrupted, I love me some history.
I’ll try to get another post or two up before Africa because who knows what the wifi situation will be there. I travel on December 6th to a new continent, language, culture, and ministry experiences. It’s going to be a huge shift, I’ll have a new team to boot. There’s also a 3-day travel day in there so pray for me. Thank you all for your ongoing support.
Prayer request for myself: To be present with my team as we conclude our time together. To be open to learning, to have grace in the stressful situations that undoubtedly lie ahead. To continue to grow and I strive towards the standard I set for myself, not to be discouraged by my own stumbles. To be lifegiving in my words, to “build, bless, and beautify” as my mom always says.
Prayers also for: The civil unrest in Nicaragua, those with medical issues in the midst of uncertainty, F-Squad (we just met them) who are finishing their race this coming Saturday, those on the race in spiritual warfare, the hearts of the people we are ministering to.
