One month down, ten to go! Costa Rica was one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been, and the people were some of the most genuine and hospitable people I’ve gotten the chance to do life with. I learned a lot about missions, who God is to me, and what living in community looks like.
Our first week there we had the opportunity meet the Moya family; a family that would continue to grow closer to our hearts throughout the month. This is a family that June, our ministry host, was very close with and had been ministering to for the past year. We got the opportunity to paint and clean their whole house, as well as just love on them and encourage them. This is a family that was very broken in a lot of ways, and June asked us to show them what it looks like to love each other with the love of Christ. We continued to do this throughout the month and watched as they transformed from a broken family to a family that went to church together, ate meals together, and even went to the beach with us. While this may not seem like a huge deal, this family is very close to June’s heart and she said the love they were showing each other by the time we left was more than she had seen the entire time she had known them.
That experience really showed all of us that witnessing doesn’t have to be through well thought out words or sermons, but it can be through living in a way that allows people to come to know the love of Christ just by simply being around you. This was kind of the theme for the month as we didn’t get to do a lot of verbal witnessing, but we got to serve in such a way that God made his love known to the people around us without words.
We also had the opportunity to work at few different churches doing a variety of things including moving dirt, concrete, sod work, and painting….we did a lot of painting. But let me tell ya, if you think southern hospitality is a thing, Central American hospitality is a whole new level. They never neglected to feed us, give us coffee breaks or pray for us, and they even threw us a party at the end. Sometimes I forgot whether they were serving us or we were serving them. But that’s the way the church should be, and they truly exemplified that. They showed us that when you serve others, often times God rewards you in ways you never expected. Even though the work was physically challenging, they made us feel so at home and so loved throughout the month that it was extremely fulfilling and rejuvenating.
The last form of ministry we did was at an all women’s correctional facility. I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect after the things we had heard from June and just the way I had a Costa Rican prison viewed in my head. However, I never once felt in danger, and for the most part, the inmates were all super thankful and excited we were there. We had to be sensitive to sharing the Gospel and interacting with the inmates as much as we would have liked, but we got the chance to pray for several of them and share about our faith when the opportunity arose. Much like before, June just asked that we work and interact with the inmates and each other in such a way that God’s love would become evident to the people around us. They knew that we were there for missions, and they knew we were there for them, so I think God really used that in some powerful ways throughout the month, even if we didn’t get to see all the changes that were stirring up around us.
While we were touched by numerous people in the community around us, we were also significantly impacted by our ministry host this month. Through our host June, we were able to see God’s loves thrive in one of the most impactful ways. She is an amazing, hilarious, sometimes a little eccentric, but nonetheless an incredible God fearing woman. June moved from South Carolina to do missions and has been in Costa Rica for 20 years now. She works for the government so she can’t openly claim to be a missionary but she does a lot of behind the scenes work in her community. Getting to be her hands and feet by witnessing to people she hadn’t had the opportunity to reach before was such a cool experience. We were also able to encourage her in her walk and love on her, which was half of the joy of the month. I’m starting to realize that we can’t change a city, town, or village within a month as much as we’d like, but helping those who are already there, those who have given their lives to serve Christ in that community, is just as important as anything else we do this year. Feeding into those who have their roots deeply planted and helping bring joy and life back to their walk and their vision for the community has been, and will continue to be an amazing opportunity that I believe will leave the most impact far after we are gone.
My team has been such a blessing so far. I’ve really enjoyed getting to be a team leader, but honestly, 3/4 of the time I feel like I’m being led by them just as much. God very clearly handpicked this team and it feels like family. Which, let me tell ya, after a long day or week of ministry is such a blessing to come home to. They’ve pushed me and made me grow in ways I didn’t want to or ways I didn’t know I needed to, but it’s been such a blessing and encouragement in my life. I’m still truly amazed by all the God given gifts they have and how well and willingly they use them. They are absolutely amazing and I’m super excited to grow and do life with them throughout this year.
Well if you made it this far, that’s just a little bit about last month. I’m going to work on doing a better job with the pictures and blogs. It has been a lot of transitioning and adjusting and sometimes I get caught up in life here and forget about the team at home. I will get better promise hah but I love all of ya and I appreciate you taking the time to keep up with me! If you want to be praying for our trip and team, I ask that you pray for our community and that we continue to push each other and grow each other in our walks. Also please pray for health and safety. It’s been a lot of work which is awesome but exhausting and there has been some small sickness throughout the team and squad. Last, I still need to raise $2,000 to be fully funded. I would love if you would prayerfully consider partnering with me on this journey. If you feel led to donate you can just got to the donate button on my blog page. God Bless and Thanks again for reading!
