This month in Costa Rica God has been teaching me something that has taken me a very long time to learn.
He hasn’t been teaching me to go, which we know is the great commission (Matthew 28:19) and the very reason I’m living in a small village in Costa Rica, but in fact he has been teaching me to stay. To be Present, and to listen for the still small voice. In the indigenous village called Terraba I’m Learning Just that, and so far it’s one of the hardest things for me to understand. Here no one can speak to me in my first language which is far greater a challenge than I anticipated. So how then can I listen? There have been many days of frustration, not understanding exactly what they want from us, and even frustration between our team just in the fact that we feel very weak and helpless in some situations. But let me tell you, in the moments my failures seem to win, the Holy Spirit has full reign. In my weaknesses, he truly is made strong. 2 Corinthians 12: 9-11 says “But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” The Lord’s power is made perfect in our weakness simply because there’s no more of our pride to get in his way. He loves broken and weak instruments because when a marvelous work is done through us, he gets all the glory!
I have seen Christ work through so many avenues this month and he has filled me with abundant joy through the small things. Some of my biggest highlights have been eating dinner with the locals multiple nights, and although we can’t speak to each other, we’ve shared hours worth of laughter, communicated through our broken Spanish, sang songs in English, and rejoiced over scripture. We have read scripture to many locals in Spanish trusting that his word will not return void, and the Holy Spirit can preach a far greater message than we ever could. He’s a roaring lion, he doesn’t need our help being heard. As long as we put down the tools we are so used to using, and trust that he is the only one who can bring forth fruit in someone’s life. All we must do is spread the word, and water it.
The village we are in (Terraba) is an indigenous village of about 2000 people. Life here is simple, and nothing like what you think Costa Rica is like . This place is so simple that yesterday after our bible study we got asked if we could teach some of the older women how to make pancakes. We literally taught native women how to make a pancake and honestly, it was one of the neatest things I’ve gotten to do. It sounds crazy, but if you saw the joy these women had on their faces after they took a bite of a pancake they made, it would make your heart overflow. Something so simple as a pancake, that I’ve had thousands of, changed the lives of these native women and it caused me to realize how numb I am to the blessings I was showered with back home and even showered with here on the field. It tore me up. How good the Father has been to me my whole life, blessing me with so many things that I take for granted and these women praised our heavenly Father for pancakes. Lord soften my heart, tear down my pride, let me praise you in everything knowing it all comes from you. This may sound funny, but it’s real, it’s true, and I hope your perspective can shift to the mentality of Gods goodness in the little things like mine has been shifting.
Costa Rica has been so challenging. I’ve had a sinus infection from day one. We’ve slept on the floor in a church in the jungle with exposed windows causing us every day to wake up wet from the mountain due and humidity. Our clothes cant ever dry cause we’re so shaded from the sun at the church, and mold has grown on so many of our bags and clothes. My sleeping pad has a small hole in it that I can’t for the life of me find meaning every hour or so I have to inflate it again. My armpits hurt cause my lymph nodes are swollen. No one speaks English and our hosts get just as frustrated with us when trying to communicate. There are many other things. But all small things. My perspective towards life is now changing to learn how to treat his blessings, all of them, as gifts, and the trials and tribulations as the little things. I’ve had that mentality mixed up for far too long.
Psalms 107:1 “Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love enduresforever.”
