I arrived to Costa Rica on January 13 at 1am and let me tell you, I have enjoyed being here so much. Here are some things that have been going on:
-learning more about my squad mates and leaders.
-we are staying with a couple, Tony and Rosita who are the sweetest people. They are so welcoming, joyful and have a servants heart to teach us and do life with us while we are here in Costa Rica.
-ministry opportunities. We help at Tony and Rosita’s house but mostly at their farm. To be able to accommodate people like us that come to stay with them, they have to keep things up to date. For instance, painting, sanding wood, making furniture, bending metal to reuse for other projects, sewing, reusing old clothes for projects, etc.
Then we do our normal chores, like laundry, cook, clean showers and bathrooms and sweep etc. One thing that I’ve learned being here is that they use things for multiple purposes. For example, old scrap wood they use to make new furniture, to take the old screws out of wood and use for future projects. Other things like using old clothes to cut up and use to make torches, bending metal to make it straight again to use for other projects like furniture, use the empty plastic or glass bottles to store food or drinks in.
Other ministry opportunities are when we go to schools to spend time with kids. We sing songs in Spanish and English, play games, and just have fun. We pray all together and learn Bible verses and it has been so rewarding for the team and the kids we interact with. We do have to wear masks when we are with the kids and yeah, it does make things a little more difficult but the Lord is still at work!
Story Time:
I asked God for me to be bold. I wasn’t good at singing the songs in Spanish but I jumped right into singing when I saw a boy not paying attention and wanting his friends bracelet to play with. So I went over and gave him my hair tie to play with. I had two, so he had one and I had one and I sat next to him. He would look at me and smile as we both played with the hair ties. He tried to talk to me and I struggled to understand. He was probably 4 or 5 years old. We broke the kids into groups and I got the chalk out for the kids to use. We drew pictures, hopscotch on the concrete and I thought I was already being bold by not being shy and trying to make connections with the kids, but then there was this girl about 12 years old sitting down on the bench at the chalk area. She used translate on her phone and asked me a span of questions. She would type “are you from the United States”, “I’ve been trying to learn English”, “it’s really hard to pronounce words.” She didn’t ask if I would help her but she what she typed, I felt God say, “teach her”. I froze. My profession is to teach and I froze in where to begin and with a language barrier, how to do it. I took a few minutes to think about what to start with. So I wrote the alphabet with chalk and I helped her read it. She read through it many times and was really proud. Eventually when her mom came over, she said it to her mom. It was so precious and her mom celebrated with her. The girl and I got a picture together and she asked for my phone number. The boy that I gave my hair tie to gave it back to me and we gave each other a high five.
This time with the kids was so precious and can’t wait to continue to build friendships with these kids and their guardians. God is working in their lives and the lives of this team and excited to go back each week.
Prayers: that we continue to stay safe and healthy. That God continues to work in the teams hearts and the people we interact with. That God continues to provide financial support for me to be fully funded.
Update: I don’t have WiFi, but I have a phone plan where I can text. Feel free to text me on comments and or questions.
Thank you for your support and prayers.
Love your willingness to practice boldness, and even being obedient even when language is a barrier!
You can do it!!