It has been one week since my squad and I arrived in Costa Rica. Our teams have split up to partner with different ministries all throughout the country. My team is in the town of Los Guido working with an organization called Christian Light Foundation. This organization is working to tell children and their families about Jesus in this town that is being taken over by gangs and violence.
We have been extremely blessed this month to be able to live at “the finca,” somewhat the headquarters of Christian Light Foundation. “The finca” includes a church and a large building called the feeding center. It sits on two acres of land perfect for playing soccer and hosting bonfires for the community.
My team and I get to live in the feeding center, a large room which has a bathroom (with toilets and showers) and a kitchen. We are very blessed (and spoiled) to have these “luxuries” as we begin our race.
When school is in session, the organization provides children with a meal at the feeding center. However, since school is not in session right now, our ministry with this organization looks a little bit different.
But God is using that to teach me something:
Ministry doesn’t always look like you think it should, like feeding kids or walking around telling people about Jesus.
Ministry looks like serving the people that God sends your way, no matter what they ask you to do. It looks like painting a church and scrubbing floors. It looks like wheelbarrows full of sand, gravel, and cement. It looks like shoveling, mixing, and laying a new driveway. It looks like sunburn and blisters.
Ministry looks like playing soccer with the local teenage boys and letting them laugh at you when you’re really bad. It looks like walking the streets of this town, gathering kids. It looks like playing and dancing in the streets. It looks like face paint and balloons. It looks like sharing the gospel through a beaded bracelet and inviting them to church.
Ministry looks like love, His love, in so many different ways.
This week God also taught me something else – to laugh in the chaos and through the troubles.
Like when you arrive in a country and your bank cards won’t work.
When the bus driver pulls up, sees five American girls, and keeps driving.
When your lost in the middle of the streets because (after you finally got a bus) the driver makes everyone get off before you’re stop.
When you’re walking “home” and you drop your water bottle in the sewer.
When you find a cockroach in your tent and bird-poop on your backpack.
God is teaching me to look around, to realize where I am and what I am doing. To understand that I am on the Race, in Costa Rica. As I write this I am sitting outside, enjoying the sunshine. Hearing sounds of dogs barking, horns honking, birds chirping, and music playing a couple of blocks down the road. Looking around at the beautiful green mountains and dozens of colorful houses that line the streets.
This is my life now and I need to live it out to its fullest potential. I have 11 months to serve Him completely and wholeheartedly, enthusiastic and without reservations.
He has given me a gift – the gift of time. Time to serve and to love. Time to laugh and to learn. Time to grow and become the person He created me to be.
My prayer is that in these next 11 months (and even beyond that) I will use to time that He graciously gives me to serve Him to the fullest. Wherever He asks me to go and whatever He asks me to do.
“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.” – Colossians 3:23
As for the question, how many girls does it take to kill a cockroach…the answer is 3, and lots of screaming.
