I’m just reposting two blogs from our squad, they tell the same beautiful story from two different perspectives. I was so encouraged when I heard this this week….Our God is so faithful to offer hope to the hopeless!
From Needles to a BibleWe were told we were going to be picking up trash.
 Not only were we picking up trash, but we were told that we could clean everyday for the rest of our trip, and it still wouldn’t be clean.  So why did my time in this over-grown coffee plantation have such significance? Well, let me back up. “Cafetal” used to be a functioning coffee plantation. The owner died, and it was left to his 3 children who can’t come to an agreement on anything. It’s no longer open for business, well…that kind of business. This field of over-grown coffee plants is now a home to slavery. It’s full of slaves to addiction. Slaves to homelessness. Slaves to prostitution. Slaves to their broken lives. A place where someone can buy a crack rock or a twelve-year old prostitute for $5.00.  Just walking up to the fence, I could feel the pain of the people who frequent this place. But it was in this place, that a new sense of HOPE was born inside of me. My squadmates, Marielle and Angie, were down at one corner of the plantation. They came back and showed me the things they found under a tree. They picked up seringes, needles, and beer bottles. They picked up empty bottles of lighter-fluid, something to drink when nothing else eases the pain. In the middle of these lay a piece of cardboard where this person would sit.  This wrecked me. A little bit later, I walked down to the spot. I saw that sign that Marielle had left in place of the needles they had picked up. The sign read, “Dios es amor y en el podemos esperar”, which means, “God is love and we can expect Him.” For some reason, I felt led to walk through the fence towards the spot. I took a moment to pray for whoever had used that spot to escape the reality of life. I started to walk away, but then stopped. I didn’t have a reason for stopping. My group was leaving. But I just stopped. I looked down, and through the broken bottles and garbage I saw a virtually unused New Testament Spanish Bible. I ran over to Marielle to show her. She told me that a thought had just come into her head that last thing she needed to leave this person was a bible.  Even though we couldn’t stay, God did. A life might have been saved that night. Even in the darkest of places, God wins. And that is what the World Race is all about… so I’m learning. Hope in CafetalAlajuelita, Costa Rica
I found this spot in one of the areas I was cleaning in Cafetal, the overgrown coffee plantation where we spent the day.  I didn’t think much of it until I took a closer look.  It hit me that this is a spot where somebody comes just to shoot up. I stood there for awhile and cried, realizing right away that those tears were not out of sadness or pity. Those tears were for the person who couldn’t cry for themselves. For the person who never allows themselves feel. I cried because they needed somebody to cry for them and as I stood there I felt the atmosphere change. God was bringing hope into the place in that very moment. I decided to show in the physical what God was doing in the spiritual, so I cleared out the needles and trash bags. After writing a message on the seat, I thought, “I wish I could leave a Bible here for this person.” Let me tell you: We serve an amazing God! One of my squadmates found a small Bible amongst the trash not even 10 minutes after I had that thought!  God is love and in him we are able to hope…. |
