Being in Costa Rica has been super fun and different. I don’t want to compare, but ministry here versus Nicaragua has looked completely different and not how I had imagined. That’s not a bad thing, but my expectations have made it a hard transition.
Month one we were all squad and that brought so much joy and fun to the month. Coming right from training camp we all got to know each other a lot more right away which was awesome. This month my team is with one other team and it has also been a joy. It looks totally different from last month but it is a good different. We have gotten to know each other on a much deeper level which has been so good.
Another transition I have been in has been the transition of ministering to locals and now ministering to the Americans. A lot of this month has been assisting missionaries where they see fit. They recently built a church here in Costa Rica and they have needed help painting a mural for the youth room, cooking for youth group, leading Sunday morning worship, assisting in the prenatal clinic, babysitting, and so much more. Other ministry opportunities have taken place around “The Edge”, Oceans Edge where we are staying, and we have organized closets, helped tidy the place up, we clean, and we have done a lot of other little projects for them. In Nicaragua we did a lot more stuff in the town or helping locals so it has been interesting learning how helping these missionaries is really furthering the Kingdom. But here’s the deal, it has. Our work painting and cleaning and assisting these missionaries has opened so many more doors for them to focus on the people of Jacó.
Jacó has been such an amazing place to live this month, but I will be honest, it has a lot of darkness in it. One of the biggest most shocking things for me has been witnessing prostitution. I know it’s where I live at home, but I don’t see it. I’m blind to it and I think that many people are like me and don’t see it. But this month I get to SEE it with my own eyes. I see the girls sitting waiting for their next client at 4:45AM as I walk to see the sunrise. I see how Jesus is needed here. The women and people are searching for worth, value, freedom, and love. And guess what, the missionaries and my team, we are equipped with each of those because we have Holy Spirit. We have the opportunity to share with them the God who created all, the one who loves us so much he sent his son for us so that we can go to heaven. Y’all this is the World Race. This is Kingdom. The kingdom is now. It’s not when we die. It’s here on earth. We get the opportunity to share Jesus with each person we encounter and that is amazing. If we are so equipped, what’s stopping us from spreading the Gospel and expanding the Kingdom?
Long story short, I have learned that in every ministry opportunity I have an impact in the Kingdom and who knows, maybe the Lord is going to use my work to plant a seed in someone and then they come to know Jesus as their personal savior and then they get to use the gifts God gave them to expand the Kingdom and then the cycle repeats! HOW COOL.
Another cool thing I have learned here in Costa Rica has been that sometimes when you think you have learned everything about a specific characteristic of the Lord, he likes to give you a perspective shift and teach you that same thing from a new lens. For example, the last 4 years I have learned a lot about how the Lord is faithful and to trust him. Nursing school was hard. As I left that season I prayed that I would have something else to write about in future blogs because I felt that all I had talked about was nursing and swimming and how faithful the lord has been. Which is great don’t get me wrong, but I just felt that I had learned that and now it was time to move on (haha, jokes on me cause God said naw Kenzie we are just getting started) (God speaks to me with such humor it’s funny y’all). Anyway, I got to training camp and I received a key I ordered with a prophetic word on it… the word was “Trust” (okay Lord I see you). Then I’m on the field and literally the Lord has said to me SO MANY TIMES, “do you trust me?”. Well dang okay Lord I hear you, calling me out. And of course in so many situations I have had to have him ask me cause my default mode is rely on myself i have to do it on my own. But He just says every time to trust him. Y’all this time around it’s not about nursing and swimming IT’S ABOUT LIFE. God has been teaching me time and time again that in that season I needed to trust in him with nursing and swimming but now it’s about life. That I can’t go through this life with out him. I couldn’t do nursing without him and I couldn’t swim with out him. But now I know that I can’t do life without him. My lens has shifted from minuscule things to my life.
We can’t do this life without him. It’s not just in good and bad times it’s in every part of our life. Literally, I was having such a hard day earlier this week and I could not have gotten through it if it wasn’t for the coffee shop man giving me a free chocolate, or my squad mate buying the ingredients for no-bake-cookies, or having my teammate force me to go on a hike that turned out to lead to the most beautiful sunset. We cannot orchestrate a day like that. It’s only the Lord! He knew what I needed and he gave it to me. And it all comes from the trust I have in him. If he got me through nursing school, what makes me think he can’t get me through the rest of my life? Don’t underestimate the God who created you and knew everything before you where even born.
I know that’s a lot. But goodness gracious God is good!
I have about 10 days left in Costa Rica and then I have a debrief and then it’s off to Panama! I will be posting photos to my facebook if you want to see more pictures!
Thanks for reading,
Kenzie
