Costa Rica, one of the most beautiful places on earth, a place of tourism, honeymooners, and surfing. Within this haven, there lies one of the darkest places in all of Latin America- Los Guidos. A community of brokenness, a place where children are abused and hungry. At night you can hear screams and gun shots. A place where grown men that drive taxis all over Costa Rica laughed and made the sign of the cross when we said the words “Los Guidos”.
In the midst of darkness there lies a light so bright it can’t be ignored. God allowed our squad to become a part of this light. In the middle of Los Guidos is a feeding center called Comedor Las Sonrisas, which means “The feeding center of smiles”. My entire squad stayed in the gym of the feeding center for the month.
My particular team played with kids after they ate their lunch. I saw kids run down the hill straight to the feeding center because of their excitement and hunger the first couple of days. Throughout the month this changed, to running to my team with open arms ready for hugs then a high after that they would then walk into the feeding center to eat. Seeing these children run to us before eating made me realize we were actually impacting these children’s lives.
God showed me how much I am blessed back home. How much I have that I don’t need. How greedy and self-centered I can be. I learned all this through one action, from an 11 year old. This 11 year old boy sat down next to me after eating and said “hello” in which I returned a “hello”, he then gestured to me to take some of the food he received that day. This boy was offering me something so precious to him without wanting anything in return. My stomach kinda turned inside, this kid was giving me something he needed so much more than I. This kid was LIVING like Jesus did, something I long for. I wanna live more like this 11 year old and in turn portraying a life similar to Jesus. This is not going to be an overnight change, this is something I am going to practice living out day after day and I am slowly learning to do just that on this journey of a lifetime.
