Buenos Tardes!
Costa Rica was a long month. We had three different ministry hosts spread in 3 different areas of Costa Rica. It was a hard month for me as we have been gone for eight months now.
Our first ministry was in the beach town Puerto Viejo pretty close to the Costa Rica-Panama border. We were about a 10-minute drive from the beach in the rainforest, and it wasn’t uncommon for us to see monkeys, snakes, bats, and a ton of mosquitos. The majority of our ministry here was at the YWAM base where we did construction and prepared the main house for more teams and also assisted in building a new 2-bedroom, 1-bathroom home. It was exhaustive work. We also did one day of ministry in town with the homeless.
Our second ministry was back in San Jose working with Casa de Transforma (Transformation House.) We only had three days of ministry here, but our host, Vanessa, poured into us a lot, and we were grateful for the time learning from her. Vanessa runs Transforma and helps teach women new skills and disciples them to end the cycle of poverty. We also did one night of red-light district ministry in San Jose.
Our third ministry of the month was up north in Costa Rica, back in the rainforest. We helped serve at a Christian Camp, which included a lot of cleaning dorm rooms, serving food and a lot of dishes. We were there for three nights before heading back to San Jose.
We came back to San Jose to rest and wrap up some things before heading into month 9. I took advantage of being in the city to see an eye specialist as my eyes have still been bothering me. I saw a specialist who worked at Hennepin Medical Center for three months many years ago. He’s pretty confident that an infection irritated my eyes. He prescribed heavy duty eye drops, which have helped tremendously, and my eyes are responding very well.
This month we had our Squad Leader Stella with us all month, which was a blessing because her friendship has grown to mean a lot to me. Her birthday was during our first week in Puerto Viejo, so we splurged on adventure day and went white water rafting- it was by far one of my favorite adventure days of the race.
After a 17-hour overnight bus ride, we’ve made it to Panama City, Panama!! Our focus this month is college ministry with the popular organization CRU! Please be praying for good relationships with students, boldness, and the opportunity to make a difference while we are here.
Thank you for reading the MONTH EIGHT RECAP! I can’t believe I only have 12 weeks left. It’s been an incredible adventure so far, and I can’t wait to see everything else God has awaiting us.
Much love,
Ashley
