With only 7 days left in Costa Rica, I figured I am well overdue for a blog post. I just wanted to give some details about what our ministry looked like this month.
For those who didn’t already know, I have been teaching in the kindergarten class at ZOE International Christian School. I have 4 precious students and I have loved getting to spend this time with them. They are so smart and always extending kindness to me and each other. I know for a fact I was not learning even close to what they are learning when I was in kindergarten. They learn everything bilingually for starters, addition, subtraction, they can tell time, Bible studies, reading, writing, and they have exceptional social skills. Today one of my students, Amanda, had to tell ME how to do a section in her workbook. Yikes, getting schooled by the 5 year old. But, we seriously have so much fun. I only understand about 25% of what they say because the only time they speak to me in english is when we are doing classwork lol. This has definitely motivated me to brush up on my spanish because it made me realize how much I really thrive on human connection and interaction. I’ve also realized that there is still SOO many ways to communicate and connect with people without ever uttering a word, which is also cool. I teach by myself some days but other days the head teacher, which is also the school principal, is in the class and I assist with like literally so many things. I help teach lessons, prepare the daily Bible devotional, clean, play with the kids, and try to bring to life whatever vision she has for the school. It started out with me decorating her door dinosaur themed; next thing I knew, Victoria and I found ourselves transforming the entire classroom into like some sort of elaborate, time travel, dino world thing. IT. WAS. AWESOME. The principal is a true visionary and I just can’t say no haha. So needless to say, she keeps me busy but we make a good team and it has made me realize just how many things you can make out of dried up paint, duct tape, and crumpled paper. Side note, she has asked our team to create a like 20 ft thanksgiving banner/scene/backdrop and needs it by this week, sooo pray for us… Another side note, if you need a movie set or backdrop for your home play and all you have is paper, tape, and a pair of scissors, I could be your girl.
The school only has around 17 students total (K-12) at the moment. The school recently went through some tough times and is still in the process of building the school back up. ZOE is not only a K-12 school though, it is also a church and even has a bible college class that meets twice a week. The school is about 45-50 minutes outside of San Jose and has become quite the lighthouse in this predominantly catholic community. This ministry devotes its life to making disciples and sending out the next generation of Christ followers. Many of the full time teachers travel at least an hour to teach at this school. The amount of love this full time staff has for the students here is pretty incredible.They love on these kids any chance they get. But even with only 17 students, the teachers here are spread pretty thin. Each teacher teaches almost every student at the school. The school welcomes short term missionaries, like our team, to help teach, clean, minister, and really anything else that would bring some levity to the ministry. But honestly, I have no idea what happens when there isn’t a missionary team here. There is ALWAYS something that needs to be done and it makes me sad to think about what is going to happen once we leave next week. I am confident that God has His hand over His devoted people at this place. I know that He will be faithful to continue to provide for His people but I can’t help but have my heart broken for everyone here as we travel to the next country. I often think about the impact and influence we have in the places we visit. I wonder if it is painful to have these short term missionaries coming and going all the time? I think about how good it feels to finally make a connection with a student as they begin to open their heart to you and then we just leave and never return. Do the students ever feel abandoned? Or are they able to conceptualize loving people for sometimes just a season? I wonder what the tough days look like when you don’t have 6 extra sets of hands to pick up the slack? I think about how exhausted we all are at the end of the week and how this must be what the staff feels like and even more all the time. Do they feel overwhelmed? Who is speaking life into the staff here? This past month has been good for me to think about the way I’m serving and loving others in the future. What kinds of things will continue to bring life to these places long after we have left?
I see the vision of this ministry. I know where their heart is and it’s for the Kingdom of God. Their heart is authentic and hopeful of His promises. They believe so fully in His goodness and power to move and grow in them. I have been inspired by this ministry’s ability to not lose heart even in the tough times that they have gone through. No amount of trials or schemes of the enemy will destroy their perseverance. It’s incredible to see the faith God has placed in each of them. All I want to do is just do something, anything to help. I want to see this place flourish. My hands feel tied though. Really and truly all I can do is love His people, remain obedient to Him, and continue to pray over this place. And I have a feeling that this will not be the last time this year that I feel this way either. I know that God is using us in these places for the good of His Kingdom. This is the truth, I know this. It has to be the truth. He has to have a bigger plan that I am unaware of in these moments. Because, this is bigger than my capabilities. This is bigger than our team. I keep telling myself that this should be a freeing revelation. It’s not all on us to “fix” things. We are able to just merely be vessels for the God to use. I keep reminding myself that God is still at work even in my own mistakes or the words I didn’t speak. He’s still at work whether our team did all the things we set out to do or didn’t. And He has been at work long before we arrived at this place so He will be at work long after we leave as well. It doesn’t diminish what we’ve poured out but it also doesn’t stand on our work alone. This is good news. This is a good place to leave on and begin again next month.
