Here is a quick update on life in Costa Rica.
Things have been going great.
I am finally at a place surrounded by children!
There are always kids coming to the church we are staying at.
It is great to be around children which are my passion in life.
They always come to us with smiles and giggles ready to play.
I have noticed that with children it is not important that you speak their language.
Yes it can be helpful but all you really need is the ability to give hugs and spend time with them.
Color with them, give them stickers, toss a ball around, just be with them.
They just want love and attention and you do not need words to give this.
This community has taught me a lot about hospitality.
They have welcomed us with open arms.
Everyone seems to want to spend time with us and get to know us.
It has been great to start the process of building relationships.
The people make it so easy to get to know them.
They welcome us into their homes, offer us food and great conversation.
They are so eager to share their stories with us.
For me building relationships is what this whole time in Costa Rica has been about.
I truly want to get to know these people, be a part of their lives, see how I can serve them.
One of our first days here, we did just that.
We met this amazing man named Jose who came to one of the church services.
We got to talking with him and started to build a relationship with him.
The next day we went to his house and got a chance to serve him.
We helped clean out his house and clean up his yard.
It was amazing to see God´s blessings pour down on this situation.
Since then we have seen this wonderful man on many other occasions.
Many of us have made a strong connection with this man.
For more on this story check out my teammate´s blogs and the video on the world race utube site.
You can access the link to the videos by clicking on my article titled World Race Videos.
I am learning that church is beyond the four walls we have built it to be.
It is about the people, getting to know them and finding ways to serve them.
It is about the body of Christ, not a building we go to a few times each week.
Please be in prayer for the relationships we are making.
Pray that God would be in the midst of them working out His plan as He sees fit.
Pray that God would continue to reveal himself to each one of us and that we would grow closer to Him.
Please also pray for team unity, we are now completely by ourselves in Belen as the other teams that make up Team B are in Nicaragua.
Thank you for your prayers and support.
Here are some pictures of the children we have been working with and some pictures from Playa Grande that we visited last week on our days off.
