The Costa Rica Mission: Typical Costa Rica

Day 15: July 26, 2012

Christine and I and some people from the team went and did an extra activity with the kids from Cinco Esquinas today. They made crowns and taught a lesson. I went with Anna to pick up a family of five kids that lives a little further away. We waited for them to be ready and then helped their mother get the kids to where we were meeting. On the way back, the oldest girl, Delanny, rambled on to me about how people describe her name in so many different ways and something about learning English. We had a good time with the kids and I could tell they really enjoyed themselves.

 




We went back and ate lunch and then started preparing to go to Heredia city center to do some evangelism. But of course things are never so simple here in Costa Rica. The translators and I piled into the church van with the sound equipment needed for the dance team in the back. We were getting pretty close when all of a sudden we hear a loud thud. It sounded like we had hit something, although we weren’t sure what it was. Well one of the drivers got out and checked it out and apparently part of the motor had fallen off. Even though it was technically still drivable, the engine would have overheated. So we piled out and had to catch a bus into Heredia. The problem is that the sound equipment we needed was on the van and the team needed that to do their dance ministry. So we had to work on trying to get the sound equipment to the park. Then when we were almost ready and had the sound equipment, we realized no one had thought to bring a laptop or something to play the cd on. I’m not sure how that problem ended up being fixed. I just grabbed four or five other girls and we started praying. Satan was trying really hard to make us give up.

But we didn’t give up! And eventually everything was ready. The team from California from our sister Zoe church did a really awesome job dancing. We had a huge crowd! On several different occasions they would bring people from the audience in to dance with them. And one time they got a big group doing the Cupid Shuffle (to the right, to the right, to the left, to the left, now kick, now kick…). I joined in, it’s pretty much the only line dance I know how to do. And I was participating, I just kept thinking about my current situation. Here I am in another country doing the Cupid Shuffle in the middle of a park. I couldn’t help but smile. Afterwards, and few gave their testimonies or just talked a bit. And one of the missionaries with Leaders for Christ shared his testimony with them. The team danced a few more songs. And it was really funny when two drunk men and a dog joined in the dancing as well. I thought, “Only in Costa Rica does a random dog join a dance party.” Afterwards, the other team from Concord tried to go and evangelize with people. It worked out really nicely and we had one girl that we had talked to at the park come to our church service tonight, so that was really cool.

Overall, it was a busy but very rewarding and good day. It’s already been two weeks since I’ve been here! The time is going so fast! I can’t believe I’m already about halfway through the trip!