Okay so I’m a little late but about a week ago my team along with two other teams had a really cool opportunity to go to a place called talamanca. Talamanca is found in the south of Costa Rica on the Caribbean side close to panama. So at 4:30 am all 24 of us pilled into a little bus, with all our food for the week and our packs into the truck. We drove for about 5 hours with stops here and there and soon hit the ocean then we drove along the coast for about an hour then the road went off trail we started up into the mountains. For obvious reasons the roads weren’t really bus worthy but continued on for about 45 min. Then we pulled up to a building which turned out to be the local clinic thinking we had arrived we started to pile out and then our host told us the bus couldn’t go any farther so we would go in loads in the truck. I had never been in mountains like this before the road wouldn’t go flat for more than 20 steps. The truck ride in was about 20ish minutes and then we arrived to our humble abode. A house with a church to one side and the pastors house to the other. Our rooms which turned out to be an amazing nights sleep were full of bats but they told us well there are no mosquitoes in the rooms because of them so blessing in disguise! This journey into the jungle was the start of a very beautiful week. At the time we really didn’t know what this time was going to hold but it turned out to hold more than we all could have imagined!
Everyday we would start days by worshipping and giving a message with breakfast following. then we would slip on our rain boots and head out to hike miles to share the gospel and bring the church to people who were to far away from the church to go. We would prepare some Spanish worship songs a message and would pray, along with just spending time and encouraging them! On two of the days we had to prepare church services from start to finish which also included Spanish worship by us…haha if you know anything about me you know I’m not good at Spanish but the lord totally made it capable and we did it. It was honestly so amazing to be the church all different but all the same! There was even one night at church I got to give part of my testimony which was an awesome thing because on the bus ride two talamanca I had asked the lord what he had for me and he told me I was going to learn more about what it means to share my story and I was going to share my story. Then the opportunity arose multiple times the first was in church got to share. And then one night I got to share why testimony with some of my squad mates while we made dinner and then with our ministry host Diego who shared his testimony with me and it was powerful and it encouraged me so much and in that moment the lord reminded me about how testimonies can move mountains for someone and that’s what Diego’s stet did for me it encouraged me that there is always forgiveness and I know that if going to talamanca was just to hear his story it was so worth it!
The rest of this week was an amazing reminder of how Jesus walked the earth. He wouldn’t stop because he was tired or because it was to far or to hard. He always continued and persevered and relied on his Heavenly Father to give him the strength. Some days we would have a really long day and then walk miles deep into the jungle to go bring the church to someone who couldn’t go to church and every time the lord filled us with so much energy and showed us that going the distance to share the gospel is so worth it. Our time in talamanca was filled with worship at all times of the day! Lots of church in actual buildings, in fields, or in homes, and a multitude of hiking through the jungle with poison dart frogs and snakes to do what the Lord has called us all to do and that is bring kingdom!
