Reflecting on Costa Rica…from AundreaHola!
God is so good and I am always amazed at how He chooses to speak to us and with the means in which He does so. Brian and I have been home a week now from Costa Rica where we did missions for a week with our Bible Fellowship class. This is Brian’s second year and my first year to go to the same area of Costa Rica (Orotina and Tarcoles) to minister to the same pastor (Pastor Jamie and his wife Carla).
We left Saturday, August 1st and returned on Saturday, August 8th. We are so thankful to our parents who watched the boys for two weeks. The boys had a blast and weren’t really sure they were ready to come home. : ) They missed us terribly as we did them but they loved getting to spend time with their grandparents.
(families baptized after service on Sunday)I wasn’t sure what to expect God to do on our trip but I know that God always has a bigger plan that what we always see. We arrived in Costa Rica late Saturday night, around 10:30pm (1:30am our time). Curtis Cannon (missionary in C.R.) met us at the airport and took us to our hotel in San Jose for that evening. We got up early the next morning and drove to Orotina for Sunday service. The women from our team helped in Sunday School with the children. Pastor Jamie’s wife, Carla, did a fantastic job telling the story of Abraham and Abraham’s struggle with God asking him to sacrifice his son, to the children . Even though the lesson was told in Spanish I could follow along with the pictures she had. : ) After the lesson we gave the kids prayer journals and talked with them about praying for their family and friends. One little boy did not want to listen to the story or participate in the songs but he came over and sat with us as we drew in the color journals. Carla was very good at encouraging all the kids to participate and I could immediately see her passion for sharing the gospel with them. During the service we witnessed a small wedding; which was very touching. This couple had been together for 10 years and has 5 children. They both just received Christ and knew that they needed to get married to show their faithfulness to one another and be a good witness to others.
Pastor Jamie has been called to the Orotina and Tarcoles area to share the gospel. We stayed in Tarcoles and realized Pastor Jamie’s need of reaching the people of Tarcoles and telling them about the church that he is pastoring in Tarcoles (on Thursday nights) and Orotina (on Sunday mornings). Monday morning we set out to go “door to door”. We split up in to groups and were dropped off to walk certain areas of the neighborhoods. Our main mission was to tell the people of the new church being started and to ask them what they know about God. What a wake-up call! Costa Rica is mostly Catholic. Most every person we talked to that morning said they thought they were going to heaven but that was up to God. Another popular answer we received was, “Probably not, I have done to many bad things.” The two men on my team were very passionate about making sure the right message was received. I listened to them as they shared the gospel using “The Cube” and I sometimes followed up with sharing the gospel bracelet with them. I began to have a passion for sharing the truth with them. God’s grace is all you need! He has sent His son to die so that we do not have to suffer. We also stressed having a personal relationship with God is very important as well as worshiping and fellowship with fellow believers. My eyes were open to what were up against the next couple of days.
(Pastor Jamie and his wife Carla)Monday afternoon we put on a soccer and basketball clinic. The men played soccer and basketball while the women did some activities with the younger kids. Putting gospel bracelets together, painting, drawing with chalk and telling them about God’s love for them.
Tuesday morning was another day of “door to door”. I was very moved by the homes that many of these people live in. Tarcoles is a very poor area of Costa Rica. The homes are all different as well. You would go in one home and they had a very clean, updated home and then the next home (right next to the last home) would have dirt floors, animals walking in and out of their home and just blinds to close up at night with open windows and walls. The graciousness of these people were amazing. Here in the states I don’t open up my door for anyone if I don’t know who it is and definitely would not think about inviting a stranger into my home. More than once we were invited into homes and asked to have a seat as we shared with them about the new church and God’s love for them. A breaking point for me that day --- we were invited into an older lady’s home. Her house was open to the outside, animals free to come and go (dogs and chickens mainly). We talked with her about God’s love for her and wanted to make sure that she knew she was going to heaven. One of her comments that drew tears to my eyes --- “I have heard this before. Jesus rose from the dead on the third day and went to heaven. Jesus left us all here to fend for ourselves like animals.” Seeing her home, how she lived and then knowing that is how she felt really set me back. You could see the pain in her eyes. We continued to share with her God’s love and talked with her more. Who knows what seed we may have planted but I think about her often and pray she finds her way to Pastor Jamie’s church to hear more of the truth about how God loves her.
Tuesday afternoon, Carla wanted the women to go with her to 3 or 4 homes to pray with women of her church that were going through some hard times. We left after lunch just as it started to pour down rain. I can tell you that here in the States I will wait to go anywhere before I have to get out in the rain. That was not an option in Costa Rica. I was truly blessed by Carla’s love for the women in her church. It did not matter what the weather was. Carla was excited for us to be with her and pray for her friends. The bus stopped by a street that was too washed out for it to travel on. We (the gringos) weren’t sure where we were going but the doors opened on the bus and Carla said follow me. We all looked at each other and put our hoods or umbrellas up and started walking. Yes—we started walking down a muddy washed out road. Why? – To pray for a lady whose husband is an alcoholic and to give her food. When we got to her home---she was not there. Yes – you can laugh. We did! God was having such a fun time watching us as it poured down rain and we tried to keep our shoes from getting completely covered in mud. As we walked back to the bus I thought what an amazing witness Carla is to her church family and to us. Nothing will stop her from going to a friend’s house just to pray with them for 10 minutes. Nothing should stop me from doing the same here at home. But yet my life gets so busy that I sometimes I don’t have time for what God would really have me doing. At that moment I realized, once again, that I needed to schedule time on my calendar to be open for others. I say that I realized this once again because God has brought this to my attention before and I quickly fall back into my pattern of filling up my calendar with meetings, ball practices, bible studies, class events, more meetings, etc.
We did end up praying with the women whose home we walked to. She was riding her bike home from work (IN THE RAIN) and we stopped the bus and asked her to get on the bus so we could pray for her. We headed over to 2 other homes and prayed for the woman who was married on Sunday and then to Gustavo’s home to pray for his mom and Gustavo. Who is Gustavo? Brian met him last year and I had the privilege of meeting him this year. He is has colon cancer and is dying. This young man is so joyful and full of peace. His family are believers of God. We prayed for his comfort and for his mom and the rest of his family to continue to have strength.
God was not through “growing and stretching” the women on Tuesday afternoon . Tuesday night was a ladies Bible study that Carla had invited us to and asking us to share something about being a godly wife and mother. All of us were very overwhelmed and were not sure what to expect. It is hard to share with you the anxiousness we all had. When we returned from our afternoon of rainy prayer meetings, we sat down together and talked about different verses to share that evening at Bible Study. We talked together for a couple of hours and then it was time for us to go. It was in God's hands and were anxious to see how God as going to use us because we just couldn't see it. : ) At the beginning of the Bible study Carla had all the women say something they were thankful for and then ask a prayer request. After each woman asked their request another woman would pray specifically for that requset. I LOVED how Carla implemented this and hope to start this at our own lady’s Bible study. What was amazing to me is that EVERY scripture we discussed before attending the Bible study was applicable to each prayer request mentioned. God was definitely working in all the women’s lives that evening and allowed us to see His hand in it all at the end of the night. What a blessing!
Wednesday morning we got up early and headed to Pastor Jamie’s home to bless his family with new ceilings, insulation, doors to their bedrooms and closet space. Their home has concrete floors and is all of 600 square feet. We took baby items for Carla (as she is expecting their second child in Dec.) and surprised her with lots of fun baby gifts. It was fun to bless them with new blankets, clothes, etc. We were to clean up some of the bigger items, stroller, high chair, bath, etc. and get it ready for her. Because of where they have to store their things rats had eaten through parts of the baby bed and stroller. It was heart breaking to see. The ladies decided to head to Orotina and buy her a new stroller and try to find a baby bed. It was fun to go out with Carla and to see how their shopping compares with ours. I can tell you that we have entirely too MUCH and too many choices here in the States. We took care of some much needed items for Carla and returned back to her home to do some more work. When we returned I found Brian with a bandage on his thumb and I could see where blood had been dripping down his arm. He had successfully smashed his thumb with a hammer as he was hammering up the frame for the ceiling. He was in a lot of pain but it is healing. : ) Brian made sure we had BLOOD, Sweat and Tears invested into our trip.
(outside our hotel room)On Friday we left Tarcoles and went white water rafting and zip lining through the rain forest. What and experience! The water was flowing fast and very refreshing. The rain forest was hard for me to concentrate. I was more concerned with how far I would drop if something happened to my zip line. – HA! I did it though and I am so glad I did. What an awesome experience.
Throughout the week we saw several animals that would we never see in the wild. The very first day we witnessed Macaws flying back and forth over our hotel. They were beautiful and loud. They would eat from the trees in the back of our hotel so we saw them up close and personal each day. We also saw salt-water crocodiles, iguanas, bright blue butterflies, poison dart frog, tarantula, scorpion, toucan and monkeys. These were all in their natural habitat.The entire week we were blessed to have Curtis and Michelle Cannon with us. They are missionaries in C.R. sponsored by their home church in Tyler, TX. They also had their children with them, Coleman (9 yrs) and Caroline (7yrs.). It was a blessing to get to know them and their story of becoming missionaries. They are a fabulous family and we are happy to call them our friends. They are truly living out sharing the gospel and God’s love. What an example they are to us all!
It was challenging sometimes to talk through an interpreter but I learned a lot and started to understand a little of what was being said in Spanish by the end of the week. Our interpreters were wonderful! I hope to learn more Spanish so when we return to Costa Rica I will be able to communicate with our friends. I feel like I have a second family in Costa Rica. So, will we be returning to Costa Rica? Yes! Brian and I are very excited to return next year and look forward to continuing to assist Pastor Jamie in growing his church and telling others about God’s love for them. We look forward to the day that we can take the boys!
(A night of soccer with Pastor Jamie -- Brian was in heaven!)Thank you all for your prayers! We feel we need to do more towards missions and are praying for that direction to be clearer. Their is such a need and everyone needs to know about God's love for them.
Alaba a Dios!
