Brandon, Jenn, Lindsey and I returned yesterday from the rainforest, where we spent the last 12 days doing ministry with various indigenous people and pastors.
Our first four days were spent in Bambu, living at a YWAM base and helping with construction projects in the area. Each day was different, but the most remarkable day was the day we helped load bags of cement and supplies into US Army helicopters for the building of a bridge which would bring medical access to a remote village. We worked alongside Costa Ricans, Peace Corps workers, American missionaries, and men (and one woman) of the US Army.
Our next three days were spent in Margarita, where we ministered to Pastor Wilbert and his family by gathering gourds (“The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few…”) and participating in nightly church services. Pastor Wilbert has a huge heart for the people of his village, and though we had no translator and could only communicate through broken Spanish and his broken English, we were blessed to meet him and be a part of his life for a few days.
The last four days of our trip we spent in Manzanillo, a beach town with a high tourist population and Pastor Jose, from Panama. Pastor Jose’s family lives in Panama, where he has lived for most of his life and planted many churches, and has lived the past two years alone in Manzanillo building up the town’s sole church. We lived with Pastor Jose and helped him with the construction of a children’s building, and were blessed by rest on the beach and a hike through the rainforest (virtual video rainforest tour coming soon!).
I am thankful for the time we spent with the people of Costa Rica, and am also thankful to be back in San Jose and to be reunited with Sarah Lapp (please continue to pray for her mother’s cancer treatment and God’s healing while Sarah is here with us).
Also, my teammate, Mark, left last week to go home to his family in Canada. His 17-year-old sister, Leia, was in a bad car accident in April and as a result has little to no vision in both of her eyes. If you’d like to know more about her condition, read Mark’s blogs here. Please be in prayer for Leia’s healing, and also for Mark as he adjusts to life at home and follows what the Lord has called him to there.
And lastly, I am so thankful for the ways I have seen God provide my finances for the World Race over the past nine months. He has blessed me more than I ever expected! We have two months left on the Race, and I am in need of $1,400 to finish. I already bought my plane ticket home (July 25th! Yay!), so I really want to get to finish the race with my squad and use that plane ticket! Please be in prayer with me during this time, that God would provide, through you and through whichever means He chooses. He is faithful!
If life seems jolly rotten
There’s something you’ve forgotten
And that’s to laugh and smile and dance and sing.
When you’re feeling in the dumps
Don’t be silly chumps
Just purse your lips and whistle – that’s the thing.
