The Costa Rica Mission: Connecting

Day 13: July 24, 2012

My day was supposed to start off with another spiritual scavenger hunt in Heredia. I got to the church at 9am because we were supposed to leave then. But the team wasn’t at the church yet. We waited, and waited, and waited. The school dog Negra was happy to have the company. She kept coming up to me and wanting me to pet her and she kept putting her paws up on my  stomach. She was making me laugh and made me miss my own pets.

 and finally around 10:30 they showed up but it had already been decided that they wouldn’t do the scavenger hunt and instead they were going to do a service project at the school. Whoops! It happens though, everyone is so busy with the team that sometimes we forget to tell everyone what’s going on. I hung out at the church until lunch time and after that I walked home.

It was, of course, raining for the walk home. Thankfully I had my umbrella to use. I was really confused when I saw a sea of umbrellas up ahead coming down the road. There must have been like fifty to one hundred people just walking down the road with umbrellas. When I got closer and saw them following a mini-van that had flowers on top of it, I realized that it was a funeral procession. I tried to stay off to the other side of the road and stay out of their way and not stare. I don’t know what the common courtesy is when you see a funeral procession here. So I open I wasn’t being offensive by just walking past. Hopefully if anyone was offended they could just tell I was a gringa (white girl) and understood I just didn’t know.

I had several hours at home before I had to go back to eat dinner. I spent it working on a new social media ministry I am going to launch soon. I have had many good conversations online with people over the course of the past year or so. I’ve even been able to lead someone to Christ through Facebook. Social media and internet has made the world very small. God has really laid it on my heart over the past couple of weeks to start a more official form of social media ministry. So I spent my free time yesterday planning. I have decided to call it “Open Connection Media Ministries.” My theme is to encourage people to connect openly with each other and also with God. I’m really excited about it and I am excited to see where God takes it! My dream is to be able to instant message and even skype with people in order to evangelize with them. You can help support me by liking the Facebook page when it opens or following it on other social media sites. And pray that God would use it for great good.

After dinner, our church and another church that’s in San Jose had a worship night together. It was a good time. My prayer was that God would set my heart on fire for him. I couldn’t help feeling during my worship that there was something I was missing and I wanted more. But God revealed to me that I was seeking out an emotional high and not the truly deep joy and peace that he offers. My prayer is that I will be more passionate for God and that I will have pure joy in my worship because I am so overwhelmed with him. The harsh truth is that I really like God right now, but I’m still working on loving him wholeheartedly. My prayer is that God would work through me and fill me and overwhelm me with him. I prayed again that God would rid me of myself and replace me with Jesus so that I could see the world through his eyes and have his heart for people. I also prayed that God would do such big things through me that I would be unable to be proud about it because I knew it had nothing to do with myself. I can tell God is going to show me something really big and life changing in the next few weeks. Pray for me as he reveals it to me.

There was a BEAUTIFUL sunset lastnight.

The Costa Rica Mission: Interruptions

Day 12: July 23, 2012

I got to sleep in this morning! What a blessing! I was able to sleep in until 11am which was so nice! I have rarely been able to sleep in at all since I’ve been here. I went about getting ready for the day. I smiled to myself when I thanked God for a lukewarm shower. Hot water doesn’t run out of the showers or faucets in normal places in Costa Rica. There is only cold water. But Christine has something called a ducha which is a shower head that heats up the water for you. The trick is that you have to take very low pressure showers. And the last time I showered I couldn’t get it to work. So I was so glad this morning when it worked and I had a warm shower instead of a cold one!

After serving lunch, Anna and I got dropped off at a bank in Barva so that I could withdraw some more colones. To get back to San Pedro, we rode the bus. I think that was the first time I’d really ever ridden a public bus anywhere before. It’s funny that my first time would be in Costa Rica and not Pittsburgh (my mom is either rolling her eyes or shaking her head right now as she reads this because she’s always made fun of me for not wanting to ride the pat bus). Once I got back home I had a few hours to relax.

I was laughing at myself today because in my free time, I began working on a research project just for my own personal use. I want to do research on speaking in tongues and the Holy Spirit because I have not been taught much about those things growing up. But instead of taking one person’s word for it, I’d rather look at what the Bible says. I could get a thousand different opinions from a thousand different people, but the truth is in the Bible. Pray for me as I seek truth.

I went back to the school for dinner and then from there we left for San Pedro to do some street evangelism. We had a group of guys doing some dancing to draw a crowd and then we dispersed to go talk to people. Me and another lady had two people translating for us that attend a partner church in San Pedro. The girl, Astrid, I had met last week. She is very sweet and I really like her. The guy’s name was Tato. Tato doesn’t look like your average church goer. He has long hair, sleeves of tattoos on both arms, large gauges in his ears, double lip piercing, and a nose ring.  And he was wearing skinny jeans, a graphic t-shirt, and a hat. But when we approached the first girl and started talking to her, he took off and began witnessing to her. I was watching him evangelize to her and I realized that in some ways and in some instances, he could evangelize in ways that I was unable to. He could reach people that thought church was all about religion and looking nice and perfect. He could show people that young people who are into some of the latest styles and things can have a relationship with God too. And even though I couldn’t really understand what he was saying in Spanish as he witnessed, I could tell he had such passion for Jesus but also for the person he was speaking with. He was just a really sweet guy. Just goes to show that Jesus isn’t concerned with your outward appearance, what he cares about is your heart.

After we had talked to two different people, we approached two girls sitting on a bench together. We tried to start a conversation with them but we were interrupted by a middle aged man trying to sell us pens. Astrid began talking to this man instead of the girls. Astrid was talking with this man for sometime and I was beginning to get frustrated because I wanted to get back to evangelizing to these girls. I was really frustrated when the girls left because Astrid had started talking with this man instead and another friend had met up with them. But then the man sat down with us and Astrid explained to me that he was already a Christian but he was very angry with God and with himself because of things that had been happening in his life. I could tell as he spoke with Astrid that he was hurting inside and needed help. I shared with him a little of my testimony, just about how I was angry with myself because I felt very guilty for some things I had done. But God had shown me how much he loved me and showed me that he could fix my brokenness, and I didn’t have to do it by myself. We talked with him for a while and prayed at the end of our talk. He gave us all free pens before we departed.

I didn’t find this out until afterward, but when he had first come up to us, Astrid didn’t miss a beat. She told him, “We can’t offer you money but we can offer you prayer.” He agreed and began talking with Astrid. I immediately thought about Acts 3:6 when the crippled man asks Peter for money and Peter responds, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” I was so concerned about evangelizing to those girls that I would have missed out on encouraging a man who needed to be encouraged. I wouldn’t have realized that God had brought someone who needed to be ministered to right to me instead of me going up to them. I wasn’t willing to be interrupted. But in ministry, you have to be willing to be interrupted because that interruption might be the very person God wants you to minister to. What if Peter hadn’t been willing to be interrupted that day? What if he had just waved his hand at the crippled man and said, “Sorry can’t talk! I have to get to the next place so I can share the gospel!” He would have missed out on ministering to a man who needed healing and Jesus.

Sometimes showing up for a divine appointment means you have to be willing to be interrupted. 

The Costa Rica Mission: Not So Different

Day 11: July 22, 2012

My day started off with church. I’ve decided that one of the biggest differences between church in the USA compared to church in Latin America is that in Latin America, the congregation can actually clap on beat. Pastor Rene has been taking some time off to get healthy and get some rest. So instead we had people from the two different teams share with us. It worked out just fine in the end.

After church I came home and skyped with Karli. She’s a friend of mine from high school that has been such a blessing to me in the past couple of years. She is an inspiration to me because her faith is so strong. Karli is leaving on a plane at 6 am Monday morning for Haiti. She’s going there with her youth group but when they leave to come home, she will be staying. She doesn’t have many of the details yet, but she has told God she would go without all of the details because she knows he has called her to this. I was so glad I got the chance to talk and pray for her before she leaves. As you are keeping me in your prayers, also keep Karli in your prayers. She is living a radical life for Jesus and she needs the prayer as well!

After a nice nap I left for the church again to begin helping out with dinner. I was the only one other than the cooks there to help because everyone else had gone with the team. So I had to try to communicate with these Spanish speaking cooks to see what I could do. It was a little rough but we eventually got the point and got things set up.

After dinner, I went with the team on some house visits. I have seen the outside of many houses, but I had yet to be inside any of them other than Christine’s house. It broke my heart. This family, a young couple and their baby girl, didn’t even have flooring. The walls were made of patched together metal that is typically used on roofing here. They didn’t even own the house, it was a back room of another house. They don’t even have a bathroom or a kitchen. The living room, dining room, and bedroom are all the same room. And there was one other small room where some other things were stored. The only reason there were two rooms is because they had hung curtains up to divide it. Their home was similar to a large shed in the US. And on top of the very little they had in their home, they have to move out in about a week because the person that was renting them their home was subletting. They need a new home and they have no where to go. They don’t know what they’re going to do.

It puts things into perspective, we get upset when our air conditioning or heating isn’t working. We worry about dust bunnies being visible on our hard wood floors. We get upset when sometimes stains the carpet. We may be less likely to buy a house if the bathroom is too small or if there’s only one in the house. And yet there are so many people in other places that don’t have the luxury of worrying about those things. They’re more concerned about keeping a roof over their heads than anything else, they’re not so concerned about the quality. I don’t realize how blessed I truly am.

The wife goes to church and is saved but her husband has fallen away from the church. We talked to him about Jesus and he basically said that he wanted to get other things right in his life before he came to Jesus and committed. But he wants to set a good example for his children, he’s just not sure he’s good enough to come to Jesus. It’s amazing that even in a third world country, someone who basically lives in a shed has many of the same questions, doubts, and misconceptions that people living in mansions in the USA have. It’s just another reminder to me that we’re all not as different as we think we are.

And that connects with my devotions from today. I was reading in Acts 10 today and it’s the chapter where God reveals to Peter that after Jesus’ death, nothing is considered impure anymore. Peter realizes that God doesn’t show favoritism and now even gentiles can come to Christ and be filled with the Holy Spirit because they had been made pure through the death of Jesus.

And that can apply to us today as well, whether it’s someone living in the states or in Costa Rica or anywhere else, God doesn’t choose favorites. We’re all his children and he loves all of us the same. That means that everyone needs to know about Jesus because the gift is offered to all nations. And as Peter also says in Acts 10:42, we have been commanded to share the gospel. It’s not a calling or just something we do if we feel like it, it’s a commandment from God, not an option.

I am enjoying Costa Rica and I am getting a lot of good experience and learning so much here. I am so glad I came. But during the time I have spent here so far, I find that my heart has been aching for the condition of my own country. It’s amazing how God has given me such a heart for ministry in the states when several years ago I was sure I’d be overseas. I’m not sure if this means God has called me to be in the states, but it’s a definite possibility. But no matter where I am, I am commanded to share the gospel with all nations, that means overseas but also the one I was born in.

Isaiah 6:8 “Here am I, Lord send me.”

The Costa Rica Mission: Puzzle Pieces

Day 10: July 21, 2012

Today was a pretty normal day. Our next team from Concord United Methodist Church arrived and all seemed to go well. I enjoyed helping Christine with her weekly trip to Cinco Esquinas. We had a different team help out and it was a lot of fun. It’s so fun to watch Christine with the kids because she is so passionate about it. It’s inspiring. After Cinco Esquinas I went back to the church and Anna and I spent most of the day cleaning an office that had been disassembled so that some construction work could be done while Victory team was still here. After that I helped out with office work and some secretarial stuff like making copies or making corrections, etc. That’s what I spent most of my day doing.

The highlight of my day was my devotions. I’ve been reading through Acts and today I was reading chapter 9. I went into my devotions with the spiritual attack that’s been happening to our church on my heart. I read the story of Paul and the start of his ministry, and the story of Peter healing Aeneas and bringing Dorcas back to life. There were a lot of shorter stories all packed into one chapter of the Bible.

I started thinking about how this might apply to me or to the spiritual warfare we have been undergoing. And I realized that they were all events that God eventually orchestrated together to form one big event. Each of those events were just one piece of the puzzle that came together to make the big picture. And all of those events in that one chapter of the Bible started off in a bad way. Saul was on his way to persecute all of the Christians. Aeneas had been paralyzed for eight years! Dorcas died! These are all really bad things!

But God used all of those bad events and used them for his glory. Saul was converted and became a great missionary for Christ. Aeneas was healed from his paralysis. Dorcas was brought back to life. God had a plan for each of these bad events. They were all puzzle pieces that came together to form the big picture. God does the same with some of the bad events that happen in our lives. When we are undergoing trials and stressful times, it’s important to remember they are all part of the big picture.

After reading Acts 9, God also gave me this prayer for Leaders for Christ Costa Rica based off of the chapter. “God, raise up strong leaders among us. If there is anyone who is paralyzed in their faith and feels stuck, mobilize them and pull them closer to you. If there is anyone who feels dead in spirit, restore life to them. And work all of these pieces of puzzle together for your good.”

The Costa Rica Mission: What a Day!

Day 9: July 21, 2012

Wow! What a day it has been! Okay where to start… I guess the beginning is a good place to start.

I started the day off bright and early by waking up around 5:30 AM in order to be to the church by 6. I was meeting Mrs. Duffy and Anna, Paige, and Molly. Today we had decided to go to the beach. I stopped at the bakery to buy something to eat for lunch at the beach. It was a different one than the one I usually go to and it doesn’t have the names of things in the window. I had a hard time trying to tell this guy what I wanted! Thank goodness there was another man standing right next to me that spoke English and he was able to help me out. So I made it to the church and we were on our way to the beach. We got there without any problems although it did take a long time to get there driving over the mountains, although we did get to see some great views of the mountains. Once we got to the beach we swam in the ocean, which was the perfect temperature and had the perfect amount of waves. There was so much wildlife! The monkeys would come right up to you and try to take your food or other things out of your bag. The raccoons were the same way. I also got to see a neat lizard. As I was laying on the beach of a Pacific coast ocean watching the monkeys in the trees right above me, I thought to myself, “I wonder what all the Pittsburghers are doing.”

Eventually we left the beach and what should have been about three or three and half hour drive home turned into about four and half hours. We were so lost! We got off the highway and were unsure of which way to go. But we were pretty sure we were going the right way because we all were recognizing some landmarks and stores. On our way up one of the mountains we saw a fallen down billboard. When we had seen it the first time we had mentioned it and talked about it and we realized that we had gotten turned around and were heading in the same direction we had just come from.  But that wasn’t the worst of it. I don’t know if we made more wrong turns or if we hadn’t understood the directions we’d been given. But we were so lost and had no idea where we were going! I think we asked seven different people for directions. Finally, after all of that, we made it back to the church.

When I was thinking about a Biblical application for the day I thought of how many people in the world are lost the same way we were on the way home. It’s really scary to be lost! And it’s even worse if you don’t realize you’re lost because you end up moving backwards instead of forwards. We asked seven or eight different people for help. And while none of them got us the whole way on their own, each every one of them helped us take the next step in the right direction. Evangelizing to the lost people of the world is the same way. We may not always get to be the person that leads someone to Christ, but that doesn’t mean that sharing the gospel is a waste. Because every time we share the gospel we are planting a seed, helping them to get one step further to where they need to be, giving them direction. Sharing the gospel is never a waste.

We returned to the church and had to get right to work! Victory team was having their farewell dinner which ran late. We had another team coming in around midnight and another coming in tomorrow. There was a lot that had to be done in order to prepare for them. We were finally getting ready to leave the church and we gathered in the lobby getting the last few things done. Pastor Rene was there too and he was complaining of being really cold. He was even shivering! David, somebody else involved with the ministry, had warned us a couple days ago that Pastor had been complaining that his forearm really hurt and his chest felt tight. So when we saw him shivering like that on a night that really wasn’t too cold we all started to get concerned. He made it to the car and that’s when he started shaking, not just shivering. He got out of the car and he was kind of bent over holding his head and chest. We got out of the car and laid our hands on him and immediately began praying for him. I could feel his shaking body under my hand and was really concerned. It got to the point that he could hardly stand with his own strength. He was also holding his chest and moaning a bit. He had said that he knew it was spiritual attack.

We called the medic to come and in the meantime we all prayed together while we waited for them. I just kept remembering my own sickness and how God had healed me then. I sang the lyrics of Healer by Kari Jobe over and over again and prayed for complete healing for Pastor Rene. Eventually the medics showed up in an ambulance and took Pastor Rene into the ambulance on a stretcher to examine him. During this time we kept praying. “Satan, you have no place in this place or in this man’s body, in the name of Jesus Christ the son of God, I command you to leave this place!” I prayed. Eventually the medic came out and talked to Pastora Elena. She came over and told us, “They say that his heart is fine. They said it is stress but we know it’s spiritual.” He had basically had an anxiety attack. They gave Pastor some relaxers and sent him home with Pastora. Pray for Pastor and his family but also for all of the team with Leaders for Christ Costa Rica who are going to have a very busy and stressful week this week. But I just keep reminding myself that Satan is a really sore loser, so if he decided to attack our leader in such a way as he did tonight, he must really want to stop this week from happening. I guess that means God has some really big things planned.

Some of the team is meeting tomorrow morning at 10 AM to pray for this week and we will also be fasting for a period of time. Keep us in your prayers. Pray that Satan would be too scared to set foot anywhere we are going because the power of God is so strong within us. Pray that all of us would be protected from spiritual attack. And pray that things would go smoothly and it would be a stress free week!

The Costa Rica Mission: Forgiveness

Day 8: July 19, 2012

Today was a fairly empty and yet relaxing day. I didn’t have to help with breakfast this morning so instead I got to sleep in a little. But I still got up around 8AM. It was weird to have so much free time in the morning! But it was also nice. I cleaned my room up and got a few others things done. But I also took the time to read my Bible. And it is so interesting to see how God took the theme of my devotions and related it to much of what was spoken on in church tonight.

This morning’s devotions were in Acts 7. It’s the story of Stephen being stoned. What struck me most about the story is Stephen’s willingness to forgive. Often times we as humans encourage grudges or bitterness for a while if it seems reasonable. For examples, someone killed your son, yeah you have a right to hold a grudge! Someone raped your daughter? Of course you have reason to be bitter! Someone broke into your house and robbed all of your valuables? You take your sweet time forgiving them! We have tricked ourselves into believing that holding grudges, if the reason is legitimate enough, is okay! We are also under the impression that it takes a lot of time to forgive someone who has really hurt you. But let’s look at the story of Stephen again.

Acts 7:54-60 “When the members of the Sanhedrin heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him. But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. “Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Then he fell on his knees and cried out, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." When he had said this, he fell asleep."

Stephen forgave the people murdering him WHILE they were murdering him! He didn’t need a few years to hold the grudge and work on forgiving them. He forgave them for their wrong in the midst of them doing it! Would you be able to forgive someone for killing your son while they were stabbing him? Would you be able to forgive someone for raping your daughter while they were doing it? Would you be able to forgive someone for robbing you while they were in your house taking your stuff? Probably not… not by yourself that is.

There is one very important part of the story of Stephen to take note of. In Acts 7:55 it says Stephen was full of the Holy Spirit. He had the spirit of God in him and living through him. It was not by Stephen’s own power that he was able to forgive these people killing him. It was the spirit of God in him, helping him to do this, the same spirit that was in Jesus when he cried out for God to forgive those crucifying him. Forgiveness is really hard and is a process and takes a long time and it’s easier to be bitter… when we are trying to do it by ourselves. Forgiveness is a lot easier when you let Jesus fill you through the Holy Spirit giving you his power and strength to forgive unconditionally.

I struggle with forgiveness. I mean I really struggle with forgiveness! I have been hurt a lot in life, and often by people closest to me which can hurt even more. I have reasons to hold some grudges and be bitter. But I don’t want to hold them anymore! Tonight at worship God really laid it on my heart that in order to love on the people here in Costa Rica and other places in the world, I need to love the people that have hurt me as well. Part of following God’s will for my life, as shared in the sermon tonight, is being able to love. That means even loving the people that have deeply hurt me.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."

Let’s see… love is patient… yeah I’m not so good at that. Love is kind, not only to friends but also enemies… yeah, nope. Love does not envy or boast… not my weakest areas… not my strongest either. Love is not proud, does not dishonor others, is not self-seeking, not easily angered… yeah I’m not too good at those either. Love keeps NO record of wrongs… no grudges, no bitterness, no anger because of the past. The Bible doesn’t say, “When not given a reason to be otherwise, love is patient, kind, doesn’t envy or boast, isn’t proud, dishonoring to others, self-seeking, easily angered, and doesn’t keep records of wrongs.” Love is all of those things IN SPITE OF what other people do. That means loving people, even the ones that have hurt you, with all of those same qualities listed in 1 Corinthians 13.

But I can’t do it on my own, I need God’s help. I need his spirit dwelling in me and working in mighty ways in my heart. I need his spirit to defeat my own sinful desire to hang onto the grudge and to forgive instead. There’s no way I can forgive others on my own, it’s too difficult, too radical. Like Stephen, I need to have Jesus working in my life and through my heart in order to forgive in a radical way.

“God, get rid of the ‘Lindsey’ in me and instead replace me with Jesus.”

Forgiveness, Matthew West

The Costa Rica Mission: Being Thankful

Day 7: July 17, 2012

Our first activity of the day was going to a home for the disabled called Manos Abiertas (Open Hands). We spent some time there with the residents. We made balloon animals and gave them hats and let them draw on some dry erase boards. Mostly we just spent some time playing with them. One of the guys was completely decked out in balloons. He had hats and arms full of animals and swords and necklaces and anything else he could possibly have. He was so fun to watch because he was having a blast. Being there was sobering for me because I just kept thinking that if I had not been healed of my brain infection three years ago I could be in the same position that they are. But working with disabled adults is hard for me, I’m not as skilled with them as I am working with children or teens. But it’s good for me to do anyway because it stretches me! I was heartbroken when one of the residents was just standing there. I asked her about the balloon animals she was holding and she threw them down. I picked them back up for her, but when I looked into her eyes it was like I could see how frustrated she was. At that moment in time she wasn’t just a resident with a disability, she was a real hurting human being. I could see that she was having all of the same thoughts I have, she just can’t communicate them in the same way. It reminded me to be thankful that God healed me from my mental disability and that I am now able to live a normal life.

After Manos Abiertas, we ate lunch and then headed to another community to do some evangelizing and playing with kids. We had a TON of kids! If I had to guess how many there were I would guess around 100 to 150. And we were all playing and teaching in this small cul-de-sac in a neighborhood. We were very close to an area that was run down and similar to the community we had been to before. But some houses further up a hill in that area were a lot nicer, while ones down the hill were in pretty rough condition. This area was called Guacima. We had a hard time controlling all of the kids! Unfortunately we weren’t as prepared as we should have been and I had to keep telling kids that we didn’t have anymore gifts for them and that they needed to share with each other. I was impressed with how grateful these kids were just to have a bracelet or coloring book or bouncy ball. Those little things caused them to form a mob around us! That’s how thankful they were for those things.

During our time there I tried to help one lady on the team understand what a little boy was saying to her and vise versa. We found out that this little boy’s name is Antony. He just kind of stole my heart in a way, I could just tell how sweet he was. He was doing a lot better at sharing with the other kids and he was glad when we gave him a New Testament in Spanish. At one point when we were sitting on the grass talking with him, he pointed at the ankle bracelet that I had made with the Lakeshore youth group during the 30 Hour Famine and said that he liked it. I worked on getting it untied and then took it over to him a little later. “Recuerde siempre que Jesus te ama, y yo tambien. (Always remember that Jesus loves you and so do I.)” I said. He just smiled and nodded at me and said thank you once I had helped him tie the bracelet around his wrist. Later I got a picture with him and he told me he wanted to be a pastor someday. Pray for Antony and children like him that have these desires, pray that he will have the resources to pursue dreams like this. A bracelet, so many kids in the United States would look the bracelet over and go straight for the phone in my hands instead. But Antony was grateful to have the bracelet, he didn’t need anything else. He was thankful with the little I had given him.

From the Guacima neighborhood we headed over to a church for a service. And wow was their service different! First off, they are renting the building they are in. But in the states we wouldn’t have even considered this building worthy of renting to have church. It was just a big empty warehouse type thing. They didn’t have a big wooden cross in the front or fancy pews and other gold decorations. They didn’t even really have walls on one side of the building. They had a portable sound system and they didn’t have a worship team. But for everything that they don’t have they make up for in spirit! I was a little worried about worship when I heard CD’s playing, but my goodness! By the end of the worship time most of the people there were dancing and shouting out together. It was convicting to me, because churches in the United States often base their quality of worship off of how good the team is, not how good their God is! We could all learn a big lesson from the people down here that have so little and yet have so much more joy in the word of God than we ever express in our big comfortable churches in the States. Even though their conditions weren’t the best, they were thankful anyway.

 

It’s been a week since I’ve been in Costa Rica now. I can’t decide if it’s gone fast or slow, I think it’s been a little of both. As I am experiencing other churches and customs I have developed a lot of questions and I am re-evaluating some of my own opinions. But my prayer in the long run is that God would reveal truth to me. Pray for me as I seek this truth in Costa Rica. And pray also that God will continue to give me his heart and eyes for the people here.