Day
32: August 12, 2012
I
have spent exactly one month in Costa Rica as of today. I started my day off by
going to church one last time. I had a great time during worship. I realized as
I was worshipping that God has restored joy into my worship in the time that I
have been here. And it wasn’t hard to do since the worship services here are so
much more lively and upbeat and joyful. I am not really looking forward to
going back to the churches in the USA where we are often too embarrassed to
truly express ourselves in worship. But I plan on worshipping the same there as
I have been here.
The
message was about “saying who Jesus is” from the reference in Luke 9. Jesus can
be many different things. He can be a healer, a resource, a friend, and
especially a king. But the message was about naming him as one of those roles
rather than asking him to do something. “Jesus, be my healer” as opposed to “Jesus,
heal me.” God named himself “I am” for a reason. “God, be my resource.” “I am.”
And in response we can say, “Because you are … God, I will be….” (fill in the
blanks). It was a very cool way to look at things. Then we got into groups and
prayed for God to take these certain roles in our lives together.
After
the time of prayer Pastor called me to the front to honor me. They gave me a
bouquet of flowers and Pastor thanked me for my time spent there. He asked me
to share what I had learned or a little about my experience. I said, “I have
learned a lot in Costa Rica. I’ve learned about the culture, the people, about
God, and I’ve learned a lot about the Holy Spirit. Before I came here I had
lost the joy in my worship, but being here around all of you has helped. God
has given me joy in my worship again. I have been blessed with several church
families. I have the church I grew up in. I have the church I go to when I am
away at school. And now I feel like I have a church family here as well. Thank
you.”
After
church I went with the group to a poor community called La Zamora. I had been
there during my first week there as well but it has changed so much. The people
are literally living in a construction site. They were forced to move their
houses so that the government could make them nicer ones. The government is
making these houses pretty quickly but the problem is that in four months they
have to pay $1200 for the new house so they can move in. If they don’t pay,
their old home gets torn down and they are homeless. They already have next to
nothing, but I bet they are much more thankful for the next to nothing they
have right now as opposed to the nothing they will have when many of these
families are unable to pay for the new home. Pray for the families and children
in Zamora.
After
Zamora we went back to the school for dinner. But then after dinner we loaded
back into the vans and went one some home visits. I went to a home of a woman
in the church that had been sick. She was having chest pain and she was
throwing up. Her tests have come back negative for heart problems but she is in
a lot of pain still. I really liked the way the group I was with went about
praying for healing. They didn’t just say a prayer and ask God to heal her. We
spent an hour there trying to figure out the root cause of her sickness and
trying to help her in any way we could. It was really cool. They were asking
God to reveal how to pray in order to heal her, rather than just asking him to
heal her.
When
I got home, I was on the computer for a little while when I noticed something
on the balcony outside. I realized there was a kitten on the balcony! How she
got up there, I don’t know. But I picked her up and took her downstairs to let
her go… and then ended up playing with her for about an hour and half. She
started purring as I pet her and cuddling up next to me and licking me. She was
so cute! But I had a problem when I had finally accepted that I couldn’t keep
her and I tried to go back inside. She wanted to come with me. She sat outside
mewing and crying for me. I went back out several times. I couldn’t get her to
leave. I even tried walking down the block a little ways. It was nice while it
lasted and hard not to keep her, but at least I get to see my kitty in a few
days… even though she won’t be cuddling with me like this one did.
Tomorrow
is my last full day here… I can’t believe it’s already over. But even though
the time went fast, it was not a waste of time.
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