M-Squad has been in Costa Rica for almost 2 weeks now. We flew into San Jose late at night and from there our teams split up and headed different directions. My team took a taxi 2 hours to Jaco, on the west coast, to "La Ola" (the Christian Surfers ministry site). We have been sleeping in our tents, but have two bathrooms, lots of sun, a shower, kitchen, and wifi. Potentially the best living conditions we will have for the next 11 months…and we're loving it!
**Except for the dogs next door, that only bark between 11 pm – 4 am, the feral cats that fight outside our tents at night, Lebron (the giant iguana that wanders through camp at odd times throughout the day), Chancho (the loudest bird ever, who thinks it is his life's work to perform the duties of a rooster), the deranged possum that drops in during feedback time and patrols the wall at night, and all the tarantulas and scorpions that think it's a good idea to hide in our stuff.**
After a few nights where it didn't dip much below 80 degrees, some of us decided to move our tents, sleeping mats, and hammocks under the ranchero where we could sleep beneath two heaven-sent ceiling fans. I've been sleeping under my mosquito net, with my sleeping pad sitting on two benches. We have 7 team members but only 6 (functional) tents. Seems tent poles are a hot item on the underground market here in Jaco…or just easily lost.
Our ministry has been mostly manual labor: weeding, watering plants, cleaning, weedwacking, raking, redoing benches, spraying for termites, putting stucco on walls, and bleaching and scraping off mold.
At first we were somewhat discouraged to be spending so much time working at La Ola and so little time doing "ministry." During one of our team feedback times, a few of us confessed that we thought we would be diving right into Kingdom ministry the moment we started the race.
However, it wasn't long before God revealed to us one of our purposes in Jaco this month. We realized that what we're doing is just as much ministry as what we had envisioned prior to arriving in Jaco. April, who runs "La Ola" first moved here as a passion-filled, 23 year old, running after God's Will for her life. After raising support, she moved to Jaco. A month after connecting with Christian Surfers, the director left, followed by the property manager. She has been responsible for the upkeep of "La Ola" as well as being involved in ministry work with Christian Surfers. To say she is worn out would be an understatement. This young woman is tired. She shared with us about how many groups often come to "serve," but have their own agendas: what they want to do and how they want to spend their time. But so often that's not what she needs. She needs someone to do the hard jobs, the dirty jobs where there isn't the reward you would typically get after spending a whole day playing with kids, going door to door evangelizing, praying for people, etc.
We wanted our ministry this month to be the people of Jaco. But we've realized that our chores here at "La Ola" are the greatest gift we can give to the people here. By freeing up April, she is able to give more of herself to her mission here…and as we've completed task after task, we've watched her face lighten up. When she smiles, the corners of her mouth raise a little higher. Her being able to better love on the people who God called her here to minister is reward enough for us.
But we're thankful that yardwork and manual labor hasn't been the extent of our stay here. There is a skate ramp on the property that we open Monday through Friday from 3-5pm.
It's crazy seeing how tough these kids are. They wipe out time and time again, collide with each other, fall and scrape their knees, bang every part of their body yet they bounce right back up and keep skating. They go hard for 2 hours, barely stopping. The children are very independent and capable of taking care of themselves, but they like when we let them skate and score their efforts. They're all about some good competition.
In the mornings, we sometimes have the opportunity of meeting up with the local kids at the park and simply playing with them. Many of the children come from homes where the father is absent and often their mother doesn't pay them much attention at home. We've also just recently learned that prostitution is legal in Jaco and child prostitution is very high, as well as sex trafficking. Your heart extends a little more love to these children when you view your time spent with them as potentially the best part of their day, the only time in their day where they're shown love.
On Saturdays, we have "Kid's Club" where we'll play a couple games with the kids at the park, then have story time where we read/act out a story from the Bible, followed by craft time. It's crazy, chaotic, and unorganized. Children yelling at you in Spanish and you're just trying to throw out the words you know, hoping they'll understand. However, when your vocabulary is that of a three year old's, it's nice spending the day them.
But one of thee most crucial parts of my first month on the race would be the awesome brothers and sisters on my team. We're only beginning to see the ways our team name is playing a role in our journey, but it's exciting. When we sat around a table at Starbucks in October, I don't think any of us knew how crucial our team name selection would be. But last week as our squad leaders prayed over us, we began to hear the ways in which our destiny as a team correlates very closely to the name we've given ourselves.
Team "Intentional Vagabonds"… Wanderers who aren't lost. People moving with a purpose. We have quite the journey ahead of us, and have already experienced some bumps in the road, but at the end of the day, God is good and desires greater things for ourselves than we could ever imagine. We simply must remain intentional in seeking Him every moment, every day, every circumstance.
"And surely I am with you always, even to the ends of the age." Matthew 28:20
