The Costa Rica Mission: Couldn't or Wouldn't?

Day 17: July 28, 2012

It was a Saturday so naturally I went with Christine to Cinco Esquinas with Anna and my friend Nataly (Naty). The four of us prayed beforehand and God laid it on my heart to pray for one little boy. There’s a house very close to where we meet with the kids. The house has three kids living there but they aren’t allowed to join us because they go to some other church that won’t allow the congregation to go to any other activities other than those through their specific church otherwise they may be kicked out. So the past few times we have met, these kids have been standing at the gate of their house just watching us. So I prayed for them. I prayed for freedom from the cage their home had become. I walked some distance to get a different group of kids to join us. I was pleased to see when I returned that the gate to that house was open and one of the three kids ran out to go join the group. I later learned that he is just a cousin of the family that goes to that strange church and they let him come sometimes. But in my heart, I felt that God was telling me that door to the cage was open and that was the first step. So I will continue to pray for Daniel, Tatiana, and Marcos so that they can come every week!

After Cinco Esquinas I helped with lunch and then I set to work helping Christine clean her classroom. We had been using her room as a place to lock up any items the teams wanted to keep at the school while we did other ministry activities. And the Victory team had donated tons of little toys and trinkets to use as prizes and those were all in the classroom. So I set to work organizing so that it would be easy to clean and put stuff away tomorrow. I probably enjoyed sorting all of the different toys by type and then by color a little too much. But what can I say? It satisfied my inner OCD and I actually enjoyed myself quite a bit.

That took most of the day and then I returned home to change out of casual clothes and into nicer clothes and went to the farewell dinner of the dance team that was also here this week. It was a good time and it was cool to see how the trip had impacted the team. Their dance ministry in the past week was very successful and they had over 700 salvations total. So that was really cool. And the food was great!

I had a thought while I was organizing Christine’s room, maybe that’s why I like organizing so much, it’s busy work to keep me from getting distracted but allows my brain to do some serious thinking. I was thinking about evangelism and sharing the gospel, in the states and also overseas. I was thinking about someone who had said, “We could never evangelize in the states like we do here. People wouldn’t listen to you.” And as I thought about that, I thought if it was that they couldn’t or if it was that they wouldn’t, and is that those people wouldn’t listen or is that you wouldn’t tell them? A lot of times we are too scared to share the gospel with people, especially if we’re not on a special event with the specific purpose of doing so. A lot of times the problem is not that we are unable to share the gospel or that it’s not the right time and the person wouldn’t wanna hear it or accept it anyway. A lot of times the problem is that we won’t share it because we let fear or pride or whatever else get in the way. And you never really know if someone would or wouldn’t want to hear what you have to say about God unless you try! If someone is going to leave this earth without committing their life to Christ, let it be because they chose not to believe in him, not because you wouldn’t tell them.