The Costa Rica Mission: Evangelism

Day 16: July 27, 2012

The started off with the Spiritual Scavenger Hunt. We broke up into teams and we had a list of different things to do. Get a picture of a kid making a funny face, take an awkward family picture, etc. But then we also had some serious things to do, like ask God to reveal someone to you and go talk to them or pray for healing over somebody. The team I was on was doing pretty well. We had found a guy with a cane and prayed for healing for him and we were getting a lot of the goofy things too. We stopped part way through and prayed that God would reveal someone to us that needed to hear from him. When we were done praying, I looked up and noticed two girls sitting on a bench together. But I wasn’t sure if it was the spirits leading or just me noticing two girls on a bench. We moved on and did a couple other things and at one point we even had a lady we had asked for help from come up to us and ask us about the church. We gave her some information and prayed over her, but it seemed as though she was already a Christian and she was just looking for a church. We prayed because her husband had just been in an accident and the other driver had run off so now they have to pay for it themselves. But once we had prayed we departed.

Our group was getting a little frozen treat from a street vendor and I looked back and those girls were still there. Once I had eaten a little bit more I said, “I think we need to go talk to those girls.” The youth pastor of the group, who was on my team, told me to go for it. So I took two translators with me and approached them. I told them I was with a church and asked if I could talk with them for a little bit. They both agreed. Then I knew that God wanted me to talk to them, because as soon as the conversation started the once quiet park was interrupted by three drummers doing a little show. It became hard to hear each other. But I just smiled to myself, because to me it was just confirmation that God wanted me to speak to them because otherwise Satan wouldn’t have put the distraction there.

Their names were Catalina and Cristina. I asked if they went to a church. Cristina goes to an evangelical church and Catalina is Catholic. So I asked them, “If you were to die today, not that I want that to happen, do you know where you’d go? Do you know that you’d go to heaven?” Cristina nodded her head and said that she knew she’d go to heaven. Catalina eventually said yes but she had been very hesitant. I asked her how she knew for sure and she gave the standard answer saying that she did good things. I went on to explain to them that good works aren’t enough. I explained that we have all sinned and that heaven is a perfect place and no sin can be there. Because if you have a perfectly clean room without one speck of dirt, you wouldn’t let someone that was all muddy in. It just doesn’t make sense! But I told them how God loved them and didn’t want to be separated from them for forever so that’s why Jesus died on the cross. Jesus died so our sins could be forgiven and we could go to Heaven anyway. But in order to have that, we have to take the gift from him. That’s about as far as I got before Catalina received a phone call and had to go. Cristina said she had already accepted that gift. I asked her if she thought Catalina had and Cristina didn’t think she had. So before I left, I prayed with Cristina to have the courage and wisdom to be able to witness to her friend. I told her that I believed God had put her in Catalina’s life to be able to tell her about him. I am not disappointed about Catalina having to leave so soon. Because I still was able to tell her about salvation and now she knows. God used me to plant a seed or maybe even water one that had already been planted. I have faith that God will bring someone else along to keep watering and planting seeds in Catalina’s life, maybe that someone is Cristina. But just because I didn’t get to lead Catalina to Christ does not mean I wasn’t used by God.

The second half of the day was similar to yesterday. We went to a park and the dance team from California did some more dance evangelism and we witnessed to people in the park. It was very cool to watch. There was one boy that was sitting near me while they were dancing. He was there for the whole presentation and he didn’t seem angry or bored, he just wasn’t wearing a smile. After the official show was over I noticed some of our team talking to him for a while. I don’t know if they prayed a prayer for salvation with him. But afterwards, when the dance team was just playing around with each other and doing some freestyle dancing games, I looked over at the same boy and noticed he was smiling at them now. I couldn’t help but smile too because it seemed like he had changed, even just a little bit, from before.

The last event of the night was a farewell dinner for the Concord team that has been here this week. We had a good time of fellowship and enjoyed some good food. At the end we gathered together and each member shared about their experience in Costa Rica. Many of them were saying that Costa Rica is a great place and people are so open here as opposed to how people are in the US, and how the soil is fertile here, and how they could never do some of the bold evangelism that they did here in the states because people would just walk away. While I agree that it’s hard to evangelize in your own country and especially town, I felt defensive for the fertile soil that I know exists in the US. There are so many people there that really need Jesus but just don’t know it. And I wanted to tell them, although I didn’t get the chance, that Costa Rica is not this magic place that when you come here, all of a sudden you can evangelize! I wanted to encourage them that it was not Costa Rica or its people that gave them the ability to be so bold in their evangelism this week, it was the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit goes with us no matter what country we are in. It doesn’t end in Costa Rica, it continues wherever you go. And that’s something I need to be remembering too. I need to be as bold and intentional about evangelizing in the states as I am here.

So pray for me to be more sensitive to the Holy Spirit leading me and no to doubt myself when I feel the Spirit leading me. And pray that I will be as bold at home as I am here in Costa Rica when it comes to talking about God.

This was our awkward family photo for the scavenger hunt.

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! 

The Costa Rica Mission: Relaxing Day

Day 14: July 25, 2012

Today was the most relaxing day I’ve had since I’ve been here. The team had their free day today so that I meant I had the day off! I spent most of it working on getting my social media ministry up and running. I am getting excited about that and looking forward to seeing what God does with it. I got to skype with the family and get a few other things done. I was just starting to wonder what I should do for dinner. And thank goodness I checked my own facebook just in time to see that there was a bonfire at the cabins where the team was staying and if I wanted to go I needed to be to the church at 6… I got the message at 5:40 and it’s a 15 minute walk. So I left the house and quickly walked to the church. I should’ve known  I didn’t need to rush however, as usual we were running on Tico Time (which is anywhere from a half an hour to an hour later than the scheduled time). So even though we were supposed to meet at 6 and leave by 6:15, we met at 6 or 6:15 and left around 6:45.

So we were on our way, five of us travelling in a fifteen passenger van with Derek driving. Keep in mind, to go pretty much anywhere further than fifteen minutes away around here, you have to either go up, down, or around a mountain. In this case we had to go up a mountain. But we were about ten minutes into the drive when Derek realizes he forgot cots for the other team that was doing dance ministry in San Carlos. The dance team was joining the other team tonight and they needed extra beds. So we turned the van around and went down the mountain to get the cots. Two girls got lucky because they had arrived at the church on even later Tico time and would have missed out if we hadn’t had to turn around. So we get the cots and two more people and we’re on our way up the mountain again.

It was a really steep mountain… we were driving a fifteen passenger van with seven people up this really steep hill. Keep in mind, all the cars here are stick shifts… At one point we stalled out because the car was having trouble and I watched a bunch of smoke come up from the hood. Derek pulled over and got out. Also keep in mind, sometimes the roads can be very narrow in Costa Rica, like barely wide enough for two cars. We had to stop on one of those roads. So we were pulled over with our blinkers on waiting for our engine to cool down… in the dark. Thankfully the engine cooled down in like 10 or 15 minutes and we made it the rest of the way safely.  

When we finally got there we had a great meal in the cabins where the group is staying and then we walked down the mountain a little ways for a nice bonfire. One of the workers got the fire started for us but we realized we didn’t have anything to put the marshmallows on to roast them over the fire to make s’mores. There were plenty of sticks around they were just dirty. I asked if anyone had a knife we could  use to just whittle a little off a tip so it would be cleaner. No one had a knife. I was wishing my dad was there, I knew he would have been prepared with a knife for us. But thankfully the worker broke some green twigs off a bush for us to use.  It was a nice night for a fire and it was good to fellowship with others for a while, especially after being home alone all day.

Christine is back too! So it’ll be good to have her company again. Keep praying for me as I seek out what sort of big things God has for me, in Costa Rica but also in the states.

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.”