For as long as I can remember I have loved car rides. It doesn’t matter where I’m going or who’s with me, so long as I have an open window and the outside world to see. It doesn’t matter if I have music or no music, conversation or silence, clear skies or thunderstorms. I’m always down for a good road trip.
As of right now I have lived about three months in Latin American countries- five weeks in Nicaragua and six weeks in Costa Rica. While both countries speak Spanish and eat rice and beans at every meal, they are actually completely different in every way.
Granada, Nicaragua is a tourist city of colorful buildings and vendors walking up and down the streets. The people are still recovering from the political crisis that arose last year, they live off of next to nothing, and any second crap could hit the fan again. Still, the people will always welcome you into their home and thank God for all His provision, even when His provision is nothing more than meeting basic needs. Most things are fairly cheap and easily available if you know where to look.
While Costa Rica isn’t polar-opposite to Nicaragua, it has a different vibe and lifestyle. San José, Costa Rica looks a lot like your average city in the States- except that everyone there speaks Spanish. There’s a McDonalds, Starbucks, and Walmart just a short walk away from me, and in those areas everyone seems really well off. However, everything in Costa Rica is hecka expensive- many things cost more here than they do in the States.
In my humble experience of Latin American countries, I have found three things to remain consistent- there’s always fresh fruit, there are bars on every window and door, and there are always slums. Most of the organizations my squad has worked with in Costa Rica are about keeping kids off the streets and out of the slums. Down here kids are drinking and doing digs and joining gangs at an unfathomable rate. Right now my main ministry is Tronos de Dios, a church that started a daycare to give kids ages 6 months to 12 years old a place to go during the day. Most of these kids are so young, and their parents can’t afford to send them to school so they go to daycare instead.
Look, my heart aches for these people. I see so many young kids looking for love and acceptance in all the wrong places. While there are a lot of churches in Nicaragua and Costa Rica, they usually operate less out of love and more out of laws. In Nicaragua I watched a church parade a statue of Jesus carrying the cross while playing solemn music on a Friday night. Another time I went out prayer walking with a women who kept trying to tell people that the end times were coming and you need to repent or die. Yea, she and I didn’t hang out much.
So here’s how this all ties together: I have a dream. Whether or not it will come true is yet to be seen, but right now where I am I have a dream. In the next few years I want to become fluent in Spanish- as much as I am in English right now. Then, I want to do an all-American road trip. Now, when I say all American, I don’t mean touring the States. We may call the USA “America”, and it is, but we also have North America, South America, and Central America (which is an extension of North America). See, whether people from the States acknowledge it or not, we’re all Americans. Costa Ricans, Nicaraguans, Mexicans, even Canadians are American. We are the Western Hemisphere, the international people of the Americas.
So I have a dream to do an all-American Roadtrip- from Alaska down to the bottom of Chile. I want to see all of the Americas and travel the world, but more than that I want to go and bring people hope. I want to tell them about Jesus and speak some gospel poetry and sing praises to God across all the Americas, and I want to bring us all together. So many people need to encounter and see the raw love of God, they need freedom and acceptance and mercy and love. If it means letting go of my secure future then my hands are in the air. If it means leaving home again then I’ll pack my bag. I can’t see my brothers and sisters in pain and do nothing.
If I don’t go, who will?
I can see myself there reaching out to these people. I caught a vision of myself in black t-shirt and black jeans with a pair of boots. My hair was long, much longer that it is now. I had on makeup, but I wore simplicity. My eyes were on fire, they held a steady determination that I have yet to understand. I saw a picture of a woman I wish to become, and she didn’t stop proclaiming Jesus until her lungs gave out and her heart stopped beating.
So yea, please be praying for my dream and for whatever the future holds. I have a feeling that I’ll be back in Latin America real soon.
~CLS
