We sat on a patio in Costa Rica, listening to the bugs make noise and the dogs run around. One of the girls started to sing Beautiful by Phil Wickham, and I couldn’t help but sit in awe of this moment. My team and I sat with the Seeds of Hope team, with a guitar, a couple of ukuleles, a kahone and our voices. This was the sweetest moment of my trip.
Prostitution is legal in Costa Rica; because sex tourism is so prevalent there, many young girls are exploited to help families pay for basic necessities. There is a vicious cycle of exploitation in families; grandmothers are forced into it when they were younger, followed by the mothers, and in turn the daughters.
Seeds of Hope is a non-profit in Costa Rica that aims to help stop that cycle. The program that Seeds uses runs through clubhouses that are similar to our YMCA’s. The clubhouses are open for the kids to attend classes in subjects such as Bible, English, ukulele, tourism, sewing, cooking, and the list goes on and on.
The goal of these classes is to help the girls and boys reconnect with God and give them more opportunities to be successful in life. Another part of Seeds of Hope is the bracelet program. When Seeds was first getting started, they asked the parents what it would take to stop the cycle of exploitation and they said they needed to be able to pay for electricity and groceries. So the bracelet program was born. In exchange for 25 handmade bracelets, the girls get a week’s worth of groceries and electricity.
While in Costa Rica, our main mission was to be a blessing to the missionaries that live there full time and volunteer their gifts and time to work with these kids. The volunteers, teachers and staff have a better long-term effect in the communities and with the kids, so we wanted to refuel them, give them a taste of home, and pray for them.
One of my favorite things to do is to cook, and my team and I had the opportunity to cook several meals for the missionaries. We made calzones, mac and cheese, fish tacos, pasta salad, potato salad and we had a BBQ and pool party at our house with the team. The missionary team was able to take a break from life in Costa Rica and that was so fun to see.
Fast forward through the two weeks that we were there, we sat in on a few classes, we went to a hospital for a prayer meeting, saw gorgeous sunsets, explored Costa Rica, but the most precious moment for me was our last night with the missionaries at their house during a worship night.
To see and hear my brothers and sisters in Christ worshipping together, no language barriers, no fear of being judged, but in complete abandon was beautiful (it was fitting that we were singing Beautiful in that moment). I was on a team of nine girls, all from different backgrounds, stories, and whatnot, but we became a family on this trip. And our little family became family with the missionary team there, making this moment priceless. It’s amazing the bond that is formed with Jesus as our glue.
“And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”
~Colossians 3:14~
