MONTH 3//COSTA RICA
I know I am already into month 4, but our team was so busy last month that I never had the opportunity to share what we were doing for ministry in Costa Rica!
WHO: Resplandecer. This is the name of the Ministry. We stayed with Pastor Rosita and her husband Tony. They were the sweetest little couple full of joy and passion for serving us and their community.
**From left to right: Mauricio, Tony, Rosita, Yoleny, and Carlos. These are the awesome Costa Ricans who served with us.
WHAT: This month looked completely different day to day and week to week. Our first week we spent Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday preparing the land behind the pastor’s house to put up a “mariposaria”, or butterfly house for the church to be able to grow and sell butterflies to people who use butterflies to release at celebrations. We shoveled and pick axed until our arms were going to fall off, I am sure. But seeing the end result when we actually put the house up in week 3 was extremely rewarding. Plus, who doesn’t love a little extra arm muscle?!
**This is the butterfly house!
Thursday and Friday were Adventure Day and Rest Day before doing Kid’s Camps Saturday and Sunday. We did around 1-2 kid’s camps per day each of which were 2-3 hours. Sundays we also had church service from 10-1 where one of my teammates would share a testimony with the congregation. This was also the case for Tuesday night church services.
**Adventure days to a city because we were in the middle of nowhere.
Week 2 was both my favorite week of Costa Rica and the hardest week. We were on a farm about 45 minutes away from the pastor’s home at the site of a new sanctuary that they are building. This week we constructed concrete steps up to the sanctuary using wheelbarrows and water from the river nearby. I didn’t even have to worry about working out this month because every day seemed to be a workout of it’s own! Similarly, we did kid’s camps on the weekend. And the last week and a half before traveling to Panama, we were back at the Pastor’s home finishing the butterfly garden and doing other kid’s camps in the area!
WHERE: A small town called Platanar, outside of Los Chiles! We were only an hour or so from the Nicaraguan border.
WHEN: March 5th – April 2nd.
Sidenote–Rosita and Tony asked if I would come back when they got their school running and be in charge of the bilingual program at the school! Teaching English abroad has been something I have been praying about for about two years, but it really caught me off guard because I haven’t been praying for my future plans while I have been on the Race! Since then, I have had the opportunity to teach an English class here in Panama and absolutely loved it!!! So, I am excited to see what the Lord does over the next 7 months on the Race and see how He cultivates my post-Race plans!
