Hello everyone!
I apologize that it’s taken me so long to write this first blog post…I feel like we’ve been going non stop ever since we arrived in the beautiful town of Jaco, Costa Rica. Which by the way, has to be one of the cutest little beach towns I’ve ever been to! Our ministry base is called Ocean’s Edge and if the name didn’t give it away, it’s located just a couple blocks away from beach. We have the most amazing ministry host too, Hannah we love you!!
Anyways, aside from the heat adjusting to missionary life has been a breeze. Not only are we spoiled staying at Ocean’s Edge, with bunk beds and indoor bathrooms, but I could not ask for a better group of people to do life with for the next 11 months. They have already taught me so much about myself and I love getting to see each of them grow in their spiritual gifts. Sometimes I’m truly taken back in moments where I can literally see God working through them… it’s so beautiful.
So you may be thinking, “What have you been doing Chelsea?”. Well, every morning I wake up to the sunshine beaming through the window beside my bed and the rooster crowing. It’s so majestic here in the morning. Then I make my way downstairs to enjoy a cup of coffee while I read my Bible and get ready for our daily devotional at 10 with Richard. This time spent with Richard in the morning has been so enlightening… he’s providing SWAT training (Spiritual Warfare and Tactical Training). I can not tell you how grateful our entire team is to be able to learn from this man how to be a spiritual warrior. I’ll keep you posted more about highlights from our training.
After devos, we split into groups to venture off for ministry work. This has looked different depending on the day and depending on your individual talents. I spent most of the first week revamping the park adjacent to Ocean’s Edge. This was hard, manual work and let me tell you…. My body was not quite ready for this. From shoveling rock and concrete to digging out gardens and removing fences, my park ladies and I were exhausted by the end of the work. But, I can not tell you how rewarding it was to look back at everything we had accomplished and know that this playground is going to be used to reach the youth in the area and bring them closer to God.
This past week I was assigned to help clean the main central park here in Jaco, which including cleaning a very large wall that surrounds the park so that we can paint a mural on it, and boy let me just say standing out in the blazing sun scrubbing walls can test you more than you’d imagine. My body was still recovering from the week prior and there were times I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to stand back up after sitting down for a break. But, you know what I learned? I learned how to depend fully on God, for the energy, for the strength, for the resiliency, for the motivation, and the joy to be acting out of service to Him. I learned how to surrender my doubts and inhibitions to Him. And you know what happened? I was able to stand back up every time and when we were finished it was the most amazing feeling to be able to look back and see what all we had accomplished. One of my teammates Amanda made the best analogy. She said that God was coming through and scrubbing parts of our hearts that needs cleaning, and that no matter how dirty we are or continue to make ourselves he never stops scrubbing. What a beautiful analogy and what an amazing God we have. That no matter how dirty or unclean we may be that he looks at us with unconditional love, calls us perfect, and never stops trying to clean our imperfections. Gosh, God is so good to us.
We will be painting that very wall this week, and we’re inviting the entire community to come help us. I can not wait to make relationships with more people here in Jacob and furthermore, be able to spread the Word of God through those connections. One day we did get to take a break from the park to evangelize on the beach and I had a blast. We met a group of young girls and boys and were able to teach them how to play volleyball. Although I ended up with a bloody sandburn, it was so worth it to be able to get to know them and invite them to church.
Oh, and I can’t forget adventure day, this is the one day out of the week we get to explore the town and fulfill our adventure needs! A group of girls and I went zip lining through the jungle! It was my first time zip lining and I had a complete blast! The group we went with was called Chiclets Zip Lining and the men could not have been more courteous and fun to go with! We recommended them to the rest of our squad and we can’t wait for everyone to meet them!
So, where does that leave me? In utter disbelief that I get to spend my days in such an amazing place, serving such an amazing God. My heart is so full and it has only been two weeks. Not a day goes by that I don’t thank God for giving me this opportunity. I also want to thank my parents, my family, and my friends for supporting me. I am one lucky girl to be surrounded by such love. I hope you all know how much you are loved too.
If anyone has any questions please reach out to me! I’m still fundraising so I can continue to stay on the race, if you are interested in supporting please click the donate button. I’m going to make a separate blog post about fundraising, (and a huge shootout to those who supported my day fundraiser, I really appreciate you and God bless you).
Sending all my love from Jaco,
Chelsea
