As I am writing this we are on our daily three hour bus ride its raining and our bus driver is on facebook. It has officially been one week since arriving in Costa Rica! I love it here, The people are kind, loud and forgiving of my very broken Spanish.
A dream of mine is to work with refugees.. When I thought about the refugees I wanted to serve I always thought it would have been in Asia somewhere working with Muslims. But when I prayed for the The Lord to open doors to work refugees I was never specific. We arrived to our ministry in a slum outside of San Jose, only to learn most people that live there have fled from Nicaragua to keep themselves and their kids alive. If you don’t know what is happening in Nicaragua I encourage you to do more research. Below is a video explaining more about the crisis. Basically The Lord has answered my prayers. I am One of the three girls working with the Women from Nicaragua. Our job/goal is to give them at least 4 hours of peace and a safe space while they are with us Tuesday through Friday. That is another answered prayer because I have always had a passion for women’s ministry. We plan on having classes for them in English to help with getting jobs, they also want to learn to bake, sew and work out. The 10 women that come already hold a very special place in my heart, and I am already sad thinking about leaving in 3 months.
The first day the women came Hallie, Mack and I wrote down some get to know you questions for the first two hours. We went over all the names and family details, they giggled as we struggles to say, “Me nombre es Tierney, y Yo tango 18 anos” I just laughed along with them. As we got ready to ask them some of the questions we had, The Lord stopped me and said, “No”,
Me:“but Lord”,
God: “Ask about their stories”
Me:“But Lord..”
Him: “Ask them about their stories”
I asked our ministry host if that was ok, and she said, “Lets do it”. Once She asked they all started to tell stories of why they left their homes in Nicaragua, and how gracious The Lord has been to them even in the midst of the horror they have seen. One lady told us about how one night her and her three sons were hiding under their beds as people were shooting machine guns through their home. Another one talked about how tired, thirsty and dirty her kids were as they crossed the Boarder into Costa Rica and not being about to do anything, but tell them to keep walking. Some talked about how their towns were being gassed and the Doctors aren’t aloud to help the people otherwise they might be killed as well. Soon they all were crying and talking backing and forth with each other about where to look for jobs and how they were all struggling. In that moment I saw the Lord create a space where these women had each other and realized they all understood what the other was going through, it was beautiful.
They leave their homes with only the clothes on their backs and whatever money they have in their pocket, if they look like they’re fleeing they can be taken back, tortured, or even killed. So they come with nothing, they have no where to live unless they have family already here, most sleep on the floors, we’ve heard about 19 people living in one room about the size of a walk in closet. Even still they praise God for what they have!!
The Lord is moving here in Costa Rica. Right now I am asking you to pray for our brothers and sisters in Nicaragua and for the 10 women, and their family we get to privilege to serve for the next months. I miss taco cabana more than I thought possible so pray for that as well.. lol
Thank you always for your love and support!
Peace to all.
Love, T!!
