We have been working in several different areas of ministry, which the staff here assigns us to each day. We have worked with feeding centers for homeless men, house visits to pray and check on sponsored children, cleaning trash from a local abandoned coffee plantation which has been turned into an area of high drug use and prostitution, playing with children in neighborhoods to build relationships with the families, teaching sunday school, and hosting a VBS for an extremely poor community.
Day off: Beach and horseback riding!
This little boy lived in one of the poverty stricken neighborhoods that we visited last week. The area where he lives is built up a hill with houses almost on top of eachother. The higher up you live on the hill the better. A few weeks ago there was a large sewage leak at the top of the hill and raw sewage was running throughout all of the houses below. The families were forced to move out of the area by the health department, and many of them have nowhere to go. We walked through parts of the area and prayed over it and the people who have been affected by the damage.
Above is my friend Michelle. She lives in another neighborhood where we went to build relationships with the people. While sitting on the sidewalk coloring and chit-chatting in Spanish with Michelle, she made a few comments about her friends, and then pointed to a group of men sitting off to the side and said (Spanish) 'Those men love to smoke a lot of marijuana…(in the calmest 'no big deal' voice..) and I said 'Ohh.. thats not good." Her reply was "That's not good??' The children here grow up surrounded by so many drugs, alcohol, and sexual misconduct that they do not know any different.
Please pray with me for these children and all of others who live under harsh circumstances around the world. It is such a blessing to be a part of Gods work in their lives.
Also, pray for us this week as we will be leading a Vacation Bible School for the poorest and most dangerous area around here. The government ignores this area because they do not want to recognize it or deal with the many issues. The area is filled with evil things, but when the pastor asked permission to begin a children's program, one of the top dogs gave them the okay. We will be planning all of the activities around the theme 'Hope and Dreams'. Pray that we show these children some ways that they can better life for themselves, their families, and their community.
Facebook 'MK Hill' to see my Costa Rica photo album. {WR Month 1: Costa Rica}
