God Leads (I)

A week or two ago, one of my
teammates got an email from a friend telling her about a squatter camp (poorer
area) about 30-45 minutes outside of San Jose where we are currently
staying. I immediately knew that I
wanted to go at some point and maybe stay there for a week as a team. Since our plans as teams have been delayed,
we have decided to go off and choose what interests us and inter-mix between
teams for ministry.

We knew the name of the town
and the name of the church…that was it.
So, Wednesday five of us (Seth, Krystle, Jackie, Caitlin, and I) decided
this was a good opportunity to check out this Jasmine Community squatter
village. We took two different busses,
waiting a bit at one stop. On the first
bus, I decided to make my first attempt at creating a very simple conversation
with the lady sitting next to me. She
seemed a bit surprise that I wanted to talk to her since most people on the bus
didn’t talk to others they didn’t know.
I figured out her name, told her mine, found out she was going to her
house, and that she was very cold. I was
able to tell her I was from the United
States.
As I studied my espanol on the bus I would state small phrases and she
would commend me and smile. Before she
got off at her stop, she wished me luck, said good-bye in Spanish, and waved. I thanked God for that simple friendship made
in a few minutes even with a language barrier.
I prayed that even a little seed of some sort was planted within her. God had already given me a little divine
appointment, but I didn’t know He wanted to show me so much more.

After hopping on the second
bus, we came into the town and saw a sign for the church her friend had
mentioned as well. We got off and
proceeded to speak broken Spanish to the men at the door of that particular
building. We eventually realized that it
was just a house for men that the church sponsored and that the ladies’ house
was right down the road. One older man
walked us down less than a block away where we were introduced to many ladies
of all ages.

When we walked in, they were
all working on a craft together, something they do as a ‘family unit’ once a
week. One lady spoke decent English and
a couple other girls knew a few words.
They insisted we sit and talk for awhile. As we sat with them and attempted to
communicate with them (some better than others, um…Seth!), we found out there
were 16 women living in the house, all recovering from drug addictions and many
with other experiences attached to that.
Several had been in gangs and some abused in different ways.

We were able to share a bit
of what our trip is about and just hear a little bit of their stories. They were amazed that we had just showed up
randomly at a place we didn’t plan to go to, not knowing Spanish. The girl I talked to most of the time, Katia,
kept saying we were so brave for coming. As we shared back and forth over bread and
coffee, they thanked us so much for coming and for what we are doing. Building those relationships in just a couple
hours was amazing! God blessed it in so
many ways and I am thankful for the opportunity. I am grateful God works in His own way, in
His own timing, and in unexpected ways.