Day 2: July
13, 2012
I woke up to
sun pouring through my window and the sound of a rooster crowing. I smiled.
“I’m in Costa Rica,” I thought. Day 2 had started. Since the rooster had woken
me up a little earlier than I had planned on waking, I used the time to read my
Bible and pray before heading to the church.
During my
devotions, as I was reading in Acts, God reminded me of the big things I could
do even though I have no power on my own. But he challenged me to be bold and
courageous in order to do those big things. Peter and John did a lot of big
things with the help of God. But none of it would have happened if they hadn’t
had courage. Acts 4:18-20 "Then they called hem in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John replied, "Which is right in God's eyes: to listen to you, or to him? You be the judges! As for us, we cannot helping speaking about what we have seen and heard." That took a tremendous amount of courage! For all
they knew they could have been thrown into prison or killed for refusing to
stop speaking of Jesus. But the cost was worth it to them. They were so
overwhelmed and taken with the message of Jesus that they couldn’t help but
speak about him! Having so much courage is part of what allowed them to do big
things.
We packed up and got to the church around 10am…
and then since we were on Tico (what the Costa Ricans call themselves) Time the
meeting that we were there for started around 10:30 or so. We started with some
great worship and then began to talk about what needed to be done that day
before a big mission team comes in tomorrow. We then set to work getting some
things done. Anna, Paige, Molly, and I (the other missionary girls here for the
summer) set to work washing some dishes and setting up the Ranchero (a small
kitchen and eating area off to the side of the church) getting ready for the
Victory mission team that is arriving tomorrow. As I was washing the silverware
I smiled. “I’m washing dishes for Jesus,” I thought. I had never thought about
how much work is put into a short term mission trip from the other side of
things. The staff spends a lot of time preparing things so that everything goes
smoothly when a team arrives. It will be different to work on the other side of
things.
Anna and I walked over to a little shop that
sells smoothies and I ordered mine in Spanish. “Voy comprar el batido de mango,
fresca, y pina y con yogurt, grande.” (I am going to buy a milkshake with
mango, strawberries, and pineapple and with yogurt, large.) Ok… so it was a
small feat but I was very proud of myself! And the smoothie was great! After we
ate Anna and I walked around Heredia and posted some flyers for a movie night
we are having this week. We laughed when people would honk the horn at us.
Sometimes it would be someone we knew, but other times it was just a Tica
honking at Anna because they like her blonde hair. *Honk honk* She waved.
“That’s my host mom’s brother.” *Honk honk* “And that one was because I’m
blonde…”
Now I am back at my house. I’m sitting on the
balcony just watching things and listening. It is very noisy! There are many
Ticos out in the neighborhood talking to each other. It’s very different from
our suburbia neighborhoods where you wave to your neighbor if you both happen
to be out. There are teenagers in the streets riding bicycles and skateboards
and children squealing with their parents at the park across the street. There
are dogs that roam the streets and bark occasionally and often someone on a
motorcycle will buzz by or someone will honk at someone.
I can look across town and in the distance I can
see just part of the many mountains that surround me. The hillside is lit up
with lights from peoples homes and stores and whatnot. It makes me smile
because it doesn’t look very different from Pittsburgh. And I wonder if God has
another missionary in Pittsburgh that is looking at those sparkly hillsides and
thinking about their day and wondering what big things God might have in store
for them. As you keep me in your prayers, pray also for that missionary,
whoever they are. They need courage to be bold so that God can do those big
things in their life, just as much courage as I do.
It doesn’t really matter where you go or where
you are, I think God can do big things with anyone who is willing.
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