Alajuelita, Costa Rica
We just spent the day in a plot of land that is a block away from the center of town. It is called Cafetal, which means coffee plantation. It used to be a thriving coffee field, but as Alajuelita has declined economically and socially over the years, it has become a dark place. The overgrown coffee trees create a shelter for homeless people and also a hiding place for those who don't want to be seen. This is the place to go to get drugs for cheap, or find an underage prostitute. Cafetal is also the place for people to dump their trash or dead animals. And it is also the perfect place for us to spend the day.
Dan, who is on staff here with 6:8 Ministries explained to us that we could spend our entire month here picking up trash and it would hardly make a dent. Not only that, but the place would be trashed again within a week. So what is the point? Even one of the men we ran into asked me the same thing. He told me that it was silly to try because we could spend two years here and not have it all clean. This man, Eric, told me that it didn't make sense. I pray that the truth reached Eric as he watched us clean because the point is in the message we bring. While the action may be futile, the message of hope is powerful. Eric asked me to pray for him as he walked away.
Just the entrance of Cafetal.
These little bottles of cheap lighter fluid are everywhere. There are many who have resorted to drinking this. Dan and the staff here have lost count of the number of people they know who have died from drinking lighter fluid.
There is hope for Cafetal. I spent the entire day singing, "You are welcome in this place."
