Imagine a 10+ passenger white van driving through the jungle. That’s what my team and I rode in this past Wednesday from San Jose to Los Chiles. We had heard Los Chiles was remote, but remote took on a whole new meaning when we actually arrived. We passed a few small towns before arriving to our ministry host. Our driver told us if we needed anything we needed to stop now because there was nothing by the farm we were staying at. About 30 minutes after leaving “town” and a 20 minute drive down a dirt road, we arrived at the farm in the jungle. In the Costa Rica tourism book, Los Chiles was described as feeling like the end of the earth & it sure does – not in a scary apocalyptic way but in an awe inspired peaceful way.
The farm is small. The structure is modest, but the people working here are extravagant. Tony & Rosita are our sweet hosts, and Manuel & Steven are the men who work on the farm constantly. It’s kinda impossible to not feel joy when in their presence.
This past week, we have been asked to do many different tasks on the farm. So far no day has looked the same. We have done manual labor – uprooting 25 year old trees and then this weekend we in the town of Los Chiles praying over the land for God’s Kingdom to come in Costa Rica. Sometimes my team and I have no idea what’s really going on, but that’s the fun of it. We just laugh and say yes. We are learning to have a yes in our spirits knowing that whatever we are asked to do or wherever we are is exactly where we need to be.
As you can imagine, when I heard I was spending a month “at the end of the earth” it wasn’t exactly what I wanted. I would have rather been at the beach or in the city with civilization within walking distance. I’m learning this race isn’t about what I want. God doesn’t always give us what we want, but he always gives us what we need. Little did I know, that being in the jungle far removed from things I often take for granted was exactly what I needed.
As I sit in church services in the town of Los Chile with my team, the Lord is showing me that the J O Y of the Lord can be found everywhere – even in places that hardly show up on google maps. 
