Costa Rica Trip

Hi everyone! Before talking about my mission trip to Costa Rica, I want to talk about how God has moved in my life. On my last blog, August 12th, I told y’all that I was 18% raised and warned that I might not go on the World race if I didn’t reach 30% raised by the end of the week. Of course, that scared me a bit. I wrote this and prayed to God in praise and patience, not even a few days later, I had blasted past that 30% goal, and today, I sit at 58% financed with more donations about to be processed! If that isn’t a God moment, I don’t know what is! Praise the Lord!

The mission trip to Costa Rica was a great teaching moment and an all-around fun time. The ride to the Houston airport at 5 am with Brian, Ryan, and Colin was filled with worship music and excitement for the week ahead. Colin has a heart for God like no one I have ever seen, and he shows it out loud and proud for all to see the gospel moving through him.

The flight was enjoyable. We arrived at the San Jose airport mid-day and were greeted by our gracious host, Beth Tatum, who then took us to the beautiful compound where we stayed for the week. We also met our guide, Jherson, who gave us a tour and a basic rundown of the economics and social side of Costa Rica while giving us a tour of downtown San Jose. After a nice snack at a local bakery and exploring a market inside a warehouse that reminded me of Indiana Jones but indoors, we returned to the compound and ended our first night in circle time.

Circle time on this trip was a great time! First, we would sing a few songs, and seeing everyone uniquely praising God was truly a sight to behold. Afterward, we would go around the circle telling everyone how we saw God that day.

Our first project was to paint a church interior. The church was an old parking lot, different from parking lots in the States. Parking lots in Costa Rica are just small plots of land that people buy in the city with nothing on them, so they can sell parking spots, though they could include a roof to protect from weather like this one. Since the church was the parking lot they only had enough space for 4-6 cars in the front. Painting the church was a great time, and meeting some more people from Conexión was an opportunity to practice my Spanish which many locals enjoyed. The most beautiful thing from that day was letting the preacher and his wife paint the last part of the floor. Everyone was delighted on that first day of the mission.

Many days we worked with kids at the schools. First, Jherson would preach to the group with simple stuff kids understand and fun group games and songs to get them to pay attention. We wrapped this portion up with a puppet show about Peter walking on water played by us. After that, the children were split back into their class groups. We divided ourselves into groups to manage the little games painted on tarps to play. I worked on a bean bag toss game, hopscotch, and a rock-paper-scissors battle when we worked with the children. I will tell you that I was the speed champion hopping down the path in the rock-paper-scissors game.

Some people might know, but Sunday was a scary day for us. In Costa Rica, infrastructure has grown too fast with too little regulation seen very clearly in the skies as the power poles are laden with so many wires you’d assume and be almost entirely correct that they have no underground cables. The wires are also much lower to the ground. All of this came together when our bus took a wrong turn and inevitably knocked down a few of those low-hanging wires. God protected us through many ways which I shall go into more detail in another blog. The people that were affected I feel very sorry for them and they should be kept in our prayers.

The last type of mission work we did was on Tuesday evening we put together meals and toiletry bags and went out to downtown San José to give them to all of the homeless and hurting people. Getting to walk around and see all the people light up when they were given food was a blessing from God but I also think that he opened up our eyes to the help this world needs. There were families on the street, people stuck in drug addiction, and new migrants in need of God and help.

There is so much more to talk about that I could go on writing for at least 15 more paragraphs but I want to post this before I ship out so I shall leave you with this: By far the most visible fruits of our labor would be the giving food to the homeless with blessings I think it seems surface level though many might come to know Jesus along the way because of how he worked through us. Painting the church, we have gotten word that the church is filled with people, and they love the beautiful paint job. I see many more coming to God because of the better platform that was given to that preacher. And finally, though, when we were working the children’s rotation, we might not have seen God’s work right then. Showing these children that Jesus loves them, I think, is the most important and beautiful way to serve God.

The next blog should be my inventory display blog, which I am excited about, and I know y’all are, too! Thank you for reading. God bless and goodbye!