Exodus 3:11
“But Moses said to God, ‘Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?'”
1 Corinthians 2:1-5
“And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”
These Verses have much to be pulled from them and the context they are in is huge, but one of the lessons to be learned is that God calls us not to be Christians who hesitate when He challenges us. It can be so easy to look at any situation and think,
“Lord, I can’t do that because I don’t fully understand.” or
“God, that’s not how you want your people to be viewed!”
Often times, He’s calling us to step out in faith and insert His grace and light into a situation that will glorify God, and further His Kingdom, in spite of the barriers we see directly in front of us! I’ll give an example of this that our team has had within our first 5 days here!
Now, before I give a brief summary, I need y’all to know that because of the “organization” we are involved with here, there are a number of things that I will have to be vague on for the safety of our team and ministry host. Things such as, location, certain names, and even at times specific activities. But if you want to know some specifics, please e-mail me (My e-mail is in my contacts link) and I’d love to tell you more!
Our host is a wonderful woman named June! She works in a “rehabilitation center” near San Jose. She teaches English! She also has friends in this community who she’s been reaching out to for many years. Our first issue stepping off the plan in San Jose was the language barrier. Thankfully we were able to link up with a friend of June’s to get a ride to her home. Communicating instantly shows itself to be a barrier and Satan wants it to be our excuse to hesitate reaching out to those around us. We refuse to let that stop us. God is good and my team mates Jonathan and Laura remember the Spanish they learned a while back and have been able to help us translate when we have tapped out our ability to communicate the little we know.
Learning to get around in this environment is very new and often confusing for us right now, and that could be an excuse because June is often at her work and is not always able to be with us. Again, we refuse to let that stop us! In spite of myself and my team mate Keaton getting lost the other day while we were on a run, we eventually made our way back. God used that to stretch our ability to be independent and make our ministry here worth while when we are unable to depend on our host to help us through town and the culture!
We have, as a result of God’s grace, been able to bless some new friends of ours by serving them and painting their home both inside and out. Our goal, more-so than the painting, was and is to reach out to them and bring them to church as well as pray over them for their growth and salvation. June has been reaching out to them for years and she has told us that we’ve already done more in a few days than she’s been able to do by herself in weeks! We are in love with them and have been to their home all day, almost every day so far.
When we weren’t there, we went to a bible study and church service to meet some other brothers and sisters in Christ and pray over them. The Holy Spirit is doing so much work in the lives of those around us and to be a part of God’s work in this community is an overwhelming honor!
Here’s some pictures of what we’ve been up to in our first 5 days here. I’ll post more later, and again, thank you so much for your support of this ministry! We have already been able to serve June in her home and serve her friends in some much needed ways, and it’s all because of the ways God has provided for our needs!
The Comeback Kids after we first arrived to June’s home!
Elizabeth, Jordan, Keaton, and Laura painting the outside/inside of our Tican Family’s carport!
Jordan helping Adrian paint the inside of his home!!
Adrian is instantly drawn to Jordan, which is a huge blessing because apparently he doesn’t warm up to strangers easily or quickly! God is so good!
The team all painting the indoors!
Just eating some bread after a full day of painting is done! #carbs
This is one of the delicious meals our new Tican friends made for us! They were so incredibly hospitable and fed us breakfast, lunch, and dinner all three days we were at their house!!
Jordan and Abigail watching Abigail’s son, Adrian, ride his bike in the street!
Myself, Keaton, and Jonathan walking June’s Dog, Lucky, for her!!
One of the streets in our neighborhood/community.
After one of the evening services at church we all went for some local pizza with our friends!
Afterwards we took everyone to the park across the street!
Last night’s “grocery task force” for our food and some supplies for future events.
Please be in prayer for June’s Tican family! (Tican is what you would call “Costa Ricans”)Pray for their salvation and pray for God to grow June’s relationship with them! Pray for their health and for their hearts to be continually softened towards the Gospel. Also keep praying for our team’s health and energy. We’re doing well, so now is not the time to stop praying for that to continue.
With more to come in the days to come, God bless you all!!
~Daniel
