Hello outside world! I am alive! (just incase you were wondering). Costa Rica gave me and my team a great opportunity to grow in Christ. Wether we were pulling palms up a flight of stairs or performing a skit about Noah and the Ark at a kids club, there was always an opportunity to expand God’s Kingdom.
The Setup:
We were living on a farm in the middle of the rain forest in the small town of Los Chiles with our ministry hosts, Tony and his wife Rosita. Tony and Rosita are in their mid 60s and Love the Lord so much! In the time we were there, there were some other people that would come and stay at the farm to work.
Daily Life:
Mon-Wed: Our ministry there consisted of building a sanctuary in the middle of the jungle. A normal day included waking up at 6, having breakfast, coffee and quiet time, work on the sanctuary until 12 and have lunch, coffee and siesta until 2. Then we go back to work until 5 and dinner and coffee at 7. Yes we drink a lot of coffee. Oh, and by the way it gets dark around 5pm here. Yeah.
This is what the sanctuary looked like the first day we got here.
Our job was to drag the palm leaves up 50 stairs and put them in a pile so we could split them. After we split the palms (or try to) we divide them into two different piles to then be handed up to whoever is nailing them in on the roof.
We made a lot of progress in the last couple weeks and almost finished the roof. Towards the end of our stay at the farm an 11n11 team, Team POWER, came to stay with us. It was so cool to see how they worked as a team because it was their first month as well and in a way we were able to relive our first couple days at the farm through them.
Thurs-Fri: were our rest and adventure days which we made very good use of by going zip lining, soaking in a hot spring heated by the volcano or taking a weekend trip to the capitol.
Sat-Sun: Every Saturday we would go to a kids VBS. These kids clubs were a very unique experience, but the VBS we went to the last week had a special place in all of our hearts. At this club, we played out an improv skit of Noah’s Ark which was our first skit as a group (and the best). After we finished the skit, we taught the children some songs in english and then we got to play games with them. I made an immediate connection with most of the kids while playing tag or pretending I was a giant, well not really pretending, but still. Our ministry hosts, Tony and Rosita, have their own 50 person church in a town called Platanar. Every Sunday we go there, and it’s an amazing experience to be with the locals, worshipping and hearing the sermon in Spanish, but knowing that the language doesn’t matter when it comes to giving glory to our Father.
One of the kids kept taking my hat over and over again, and then he took my glasses. Not cool, but we’re still amigos.
Everyday has been a blessing and an exciting journey. Sometimes, I’ll just be sitting in my hammock, eating a coconut from one of the trees next to our farm house, and it would just hit me like, I’m in Costa Rica…eating a coconut…in the middle of the rain forest building a sanctuary.
PC: Lily Howard
Thank you for all the donations, prayers, and support in helping me build God’s Kingdom. This first month has been a blessing!
Shalom,
Kit
