The Costa Rica Mission: School and Heredia

Day 23: August 3, 2012

Today was the first day that I got to help out in the school. I helped out with the first and second grade class. There were only four students there but I think two kids were absent. I helped them with some English lessons and with some math. The amount of English these kids can understand at their age is pretty amazing. I could speak to them in English and they understood me. It makes me wonder how many languages kids in the states could know if schools actually taught other languages to them at the right age!

Later on when the kids were playing, I was just sitting by and watching them. The two girls in the class, Victoria and Kate were playing with the large lego like building blocks. They had made some creatures out of them and were playing nicely together. As I was watching them they began to whisper to each other. It almost looked like they were scheming with each other. They got up and went over to their teacher, Ms. Carol, and asked her a question quietly. “Say ‘I want you to have this one’,” Ms. Carol answered. The girls came back over to where I was and continued whispering to each other. I was just smiling because I had a feeling I knew what they were up to. They picked up one of their creatures and Victoria pushed a reluctant Kate towards me. “I want you to have this one,” Kate said very quietly and shyly. I smiled and took it from her. “Thank you!” I said. Victoria whispered in Kate’s ear and instructed her to say, “You’re welcome.” It was really precious. I hope I’ll get to work with them again next week.

After school, Christine and I took a bus into Heredia to do some shopping. We did a lot of walking and I was able to buy a few more souvenirs. We ran a lot of errands for the school and we had many bags in our hands by the time we were done. We went to the carnerceria (butcher shop) and a panaderia (bakery). We got amazing donuts at the bakery. It was fun to go and see a little bit more of the town than I had been able to before. Tomorrow we are getting up early to go to the market. I’m excited for that. I think it’ll be a great cultural experience. 

The Costa Rica Mission: Left Handed Warriors

Day 22: August 2, 2012

I’ve been here three weeks as of today. I can’t believe how fast my time has gone. But it was time well spent and I have learned a lot. I’m anxious to see how God will use what I have learned here in Costa Rica back in the states.

I had little more time before I had to go into the school this morning so I slept in a little longer. Once I got to the school we had a meeting about the next team that will be coming on Tuesday. It is a blessing because they are leaving on the same day on the same flight to Houston as me. So I will have not had to travel in the Costa Rican airport alone at all.

Once I came home I took a nice nap before going back to the church for the Thursday night service. One of the long term missionaries, Micah, gave the message. You could tell he was a little more sentimental and emotional than usual which was completely understandable because his wife just had their first born son, Tyce Benaiah, this morning around 6am. But Micah showed up to preach anyway because he felt like God had really laid something on his heart that we needed to hear.

He spoke on the passage in Judges where it talks about the seven hundred left handed warriors. They weren’t left handed because they were born that way, they were left handed because something else had happened to their right hand in battle. But they were excellent warriors and could use a sling shot and hit a hair from many meters away. He used this analogy to encourage us that when Satan takes our right hand in battle that we should use our left hand and train our left hand up in order to continue defeating him. He also encouraged us that even though the church was under spiritual attack we should stand behind our pastors because if Satan takes them out the flock of the church will scatter. It was a very good and message.

As he was giving the message, I smiled as I thought to myself, “Satan, I’ve been through a brain infection and God has healed me. I could have died but God wasn’t finished with me yet. You have made me feel like a prisoner in my own sin and God has set me free… 

bring        it       on. 

The Costa Rica Mission: Blessed

Day 21: August 1, 2012

Today was the first day that I went into the school without a team being there. I spent most of the day sending out e-mails, making contacts, and doing some prep work for the next team. It wasn’t too bad and I actually kind of enjoyed it. I don’t think I could do it every day though. Just as we were getting ready to leave, what does it start doing? Raining? Yes, that’s right, raining as usual. And what do I have to do? Walk home? Yes, that’s right, walk home in the rain as usual. I tried to wait until the rain let up a little bit. But what does it start doing as soon as I start walking? Raining harder? Yes, that’s right, raining hard as soon as I start walking. I couldn’t help but kind of smile as I trudged through the rain under my umbrella. This is so typical of Costa Rica. Thank God I had my umbrella, otherwise I really would have been soaked. With my umbrella only my jeans and shoes were soaked.

I had lot of down time at home so I just spent some time doing my study on the Holy Spirit. I also took some time to work on making a budget for myself for the next year or so. I was dreading doing so in the beginning, I didn’t wanna see how much money I needed and didn’t have. But I became more encouraged as I went along. And with mom working out some numbers at home I was amazed at how low my school bill for the semester will be because of all the scholarships I have received. I was so encouraged. I was so scared to lose a month and half of work this summer. But in the end, I ended up being in a better financial position than I had been with a full summer of working the year before. God truly blesses those who follow his calling.

I found this verse and I really like it. Malachi 3:10, “"Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.” I looooooove this verse! It’s like God is saying, “Try me, just trust me, you won’t believe how much I’ll bless you.” Step out in faith, God will meet you and walk ahead of you to prepare the way.

The Costa Rica Mission: Bags of Eggs

Day 20: July 31, 2012

Today was another day of rest. I slept in and then spent most of my day working on Open Connections (my social media ministry project). Christine came home around 2:30 and said hello and then said she was going to take a nap. She hasn’t had these past two days to just rest because she teaches at the school. So it was good that she got to rest for a couple extra hours. In the meantime I helped her out by sweeping the house so that it would be ready to mop.

When Christine was finished with her nap we figured out what kind of food we needed for the week and went into Santa Barbara (a nearby town) to buy it. We spent a while in the store. I was surprised at how busy it was. It was like Walmart in a college town on a Friday night (it’s busy then, in case you didn’t know). It was cool to see how many different fruits and vegetables they offer. There are things that you wouldn’t be able to get in the states. There are some fruits and vegetables for sale that I didn’t even know existed. I laughed when I saw bags of eggs sitting on the shelves. “You’d never see a store selling eggs like that!” I said to Christine.

So we got what we needed for meals this week and then took another bus home. Christine made spaghetti with a really good white sauce with fresh tomatoes blended in and cilantro. And then after that for desert she made chocolate and peanut butter no-bake cookies. They were yummy!

Today was my last day of resting. Tomorrow I’ll be back to work helping out with the team that is supposed to arrive on the seventh. I’m leaving in two weeks from today! It’s gone by so quickly, I can’t believe it! Next summer I will have to do a mission trip or some ministry for the whole summer instead of just a month. But I am glad that I will be returning to Davis very shortly after my arrival and not having to go back to work. Returning to Davis College where pursuing God is the theme will be much easier than returning to Kennywood Park where the theme is, “Funnel cake or fried Oreos?” 

The Costa Rica Mission: Restful Day

Day 19: July 30, 2012

Today was mostly a day for resting. I got to sleep in and get rested up. I spent a lot of the day working on the social media ministry project that I’ve started. I am working on getting more people to come to the Facebook page and I’m trying to draw in a large crowd.

But I was pleased when Megan and Molly stopped by the house around 1:30 and told me that we were going to the orphanage today and I could come if I wanted to. We were meeting at a bus stop around 2:15 so I finished up what I was doing and made it to the bus stop just in time. We rode the bus to a grocery store and then took taxis to the orphanage. It felt so weird because there were only six of us going and we were just going by ourselves, there was no team with us.

There are ten or fifteen children in the Quinta del Angels orphanage. A lot of the children there have parents in Nicaragua that drop them off here and abandon them. We played a game with them first and then Christine taught a lesson and then we did a craft and then helped them to memorize John 3:16 by chanting it and doing it as they jumped rope. While the other kids were doing the craft, I enjoyed playing with a one year old little girl. She was so cute and was full of smiles. Many of the children were full of smiles and laughter. It was baffling to me how children could have such sad circumstances in their life and still be so happy. We were sad to go so soon but I am hopeful that I will be able to go back again some time soon.

Christine and I returned home after the orphanage and began making dinner. Christine went upstairs to do some things online and her computer wasn’t working very well at all. She was frustrated. “Well… my dad’s a computer technician, we could get him on skype and he could talk you through figuring out what’s wrong.” So we got dad on skype and he was able to help Christine. It was cool that technology allows someone from the states to help and bless someone in Costa Rica. He is also looking into getting her a router so she’ll be able to have wifi in the house. Finally we were able to eat dinner and eventually we were even able to get some harmful programs off of her computer and it seems to working just fine again! Hallelujah!  

The Costa Rica Mission: Joy and Fire

Day 18: July 29, 2012

I started the day off with church. During worship, it has been my prayer that God would give me joy in my worship. I have lost so much joy in what Jesus has done for me, maybe that’s because I never really had joy in my salvation in the first place. I know that Jesus has saved me and I’m grateful but I don’t have overwhelming joy in my heart because of it. I started to think about that and I thought about the reality that I was on my way to Hell. I have never really thought about me going to Hell before, because I’ve been a Christian so long. But it’s the truth, I was going to go to Hell because there is nothing good in me. I have sinned and done wrong and because of that I didn’t deserve to nor could I go to Heaven. Without Jesus, I would be going to Hell in eternal separation from God. But Jesus died on the cross for me and saved me, not because I deserved it but because he loves me that much. I take that for granted so often and that’s why I don’t have more joy in my salvation. I have always been saved and known I will go to Heaven, so I wasn’t overjoyed when I found out otherwise because I have never known anything else. But I am praying that God will give me overwhelming joy in him and that I wouldn’t take my salvation for granted any longer.

It was a good sermon from Dr. Daves (one of the missionaries here). He talked about receiving the fire of God. His message was about letting God’s fire refine you and clean you. The fire of God will never destroy but it may hurt a little while it cleans all the dirt out of you. It gave a new meaning to songs that have lyrics about God’s consuming fire. He also talked about God coming through your life like an earthquake and shaking your life and transforming your life. And then he talked about the wind. In a storm the wind will come through and blow the dead limbs off of the trees. In the same way, the wind from God will come through and blow away anything dead or useless in you.  It was a good message and I really enjoyed it.

After church, I spent the day with Christine helping her to clean her classroom. It took us a long time but we finally finished and got it back in order for classes tomorrow! Glory Christian School’s classes start back up tomorrow and thank goodness we get a little break from having teams here. Pastor told us to take the next two days to rest and I am grateful! I’ll probably spend my time doing a research project I started and sleeping in. It will definitely be nice!

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.