Costa Rica 2010

It's great to be home, but there's always a time of transition after you've come off of a week like I just had. Getting back into the swing of things at home is a big reminder of how different things are in other parts of the world.  I find myself longing for the simplicities of life. There just seems to be so many distractions at home. Really makes you think about things...

As I've sifted through all of my pictures, it's so hard to narrow them down and try to put into words what our trip was like. As I mentioned earlier, our team prayed for God to stretch us, but little did we know just how much He was going to do so!

We arrived in Guanacaste, Costa Rica on Saturday afternoon. We made our way to the base and these were some of the views we saw once we arrived.

The most beautiful mountain views right in our front yard. It was absolutely gorgeous! We didn't know what to expect with the base camp. We knew it didn't have AC, but I didn't really know much else about it. It is a three story house with a kitchen, living room, a couple of bunk rooms downstairs and the rest of the bunk rooms upstairs. Oh, and I can't forget about the only two bathrooms that were also downstairs. 2 bathrooms for 22 people - fun times! We were a little concerned when we thought that those were the only two showers as well, but we soon found out that there were 5 more showers that we could use...outside. Mmm hmm. Oh, and by the way, the showers only had cold water.

We gathered around for a team meeting and were told what life would be like around the base. We were told about our curfew/lights out time, our morning chores, and being that we were in Costa Rica we needed to be aware of snakes and scorpions. Oh yes. Y'all, I'm going to be honest and tell you that at that point I was really questioning why I volunteered for this. I was quickly being overtaken by a spirit of fear and I knew that was not from the Lord. We prayed boldly that just as God had brought all the animals to the ark, that He could also keep all the animals out of our base while we were there!

This tire swing on base was foreshadowing =)

This was my little home away from home for the week. There were many laughs, tears and prayers that took place in this room. There were also a couple of times that I feared for my life when my roommate got into her bunk bed above me. Oh my lands, those things were hanging on by a thread it seemed!

But all of that stuff paled in comparison to views like this of God's amazingly beautiful creation. Wow!

This is Diego and Salla and their precious (and beautiful) family. They are the missionaries with YWAM that we partnered with. Their heart for the people of Costa Rica and their passion for them to know Jesus is so encouraging and faith building. They are amazing servants of the Lord!

We spent most of our days in a village called San Antonio helping to fulfill the mission that Salla and Diego have to give every home in Guanacaste a Bible. The way that we did this was by splitting up into small teams and going door to door. We would knock on doors and then when we were invited in we would give them a Bible and present the gospel truth of Jesus with them.

We spent 3 days in this village getting to know the people there. My teams had a couple of good visits where the people that we met with were believers and we were able to encourage them in their walk. But, the majority of visits that I had were pretty tough. We would spend time with them and pour out our hearts to them sharing the love of Jesus and how salvation can be found only in Him, just to have them say "no, I'm not ready to make that decision" or "I don't want to give up the things that I enjoy doing (sin)".

I tell you, situations like that are really heartbreaking. We left our last visit in that town, where we had spent time with these two young girls who rejected the gospel, and we were so burdened and brokenhearted for them. I was pretty discouraged after several days like that and as we had our nightly team devotion and share time I was just on the verge of tears that whole time. I was so grateful to hear all of the amazing stories that the rest of my teammates were sharing, but I was allowing discouragement and lies to creep into my head that "I wasn't good enough" or "I just didn't say the right things to them", etc. I was making it all about me when it has nothing to do with me, my words, or my abilities.

The Lord quickly put me in my place with some words of encouragement and wisdom from fellow team members. The reality is, sometimes we get to see the fruit of our labor and sometimes we are only planting seeds. It is all up to the work of the Holy Spirit. But, the question is, are we going to be obedient even when it's not easy, or not "fun", and when we don't always get to reap what we sow? God is looking for our obedience.

I prayed the next morning as we were preparing to spend the day in a city park. God led me to the verse that says "today is the day of salvation" (2 Cor. 6:2) I asked the Lord to give me the privilege of walking through that with someone, and I felt that the He was giving me that promise. But, I also knew that even if He didn't then I would still be obedient to share.

Well, God did divinely appoint each meeting that we had. He brought this sweet girl, Gina, into our path and she prayed to receive Christ! It was such a special time to see her go from darkness to light, from death to life, and I was SO thankful that the Lord blessed me and allowed me to be a part of that. He is so good!

Our team was so awesome! I am so proud of our group. 22 people and the conditions that we were not used to, plus people way out of their comfort zones can sometimes lead to some drama. But, we did not have any of that to deal with. Everyone got along perfectly and we had SO much fun together.

This group is also incredibly talented and they used those talents for the glory of God throughout the week. They did the "You Are Worthy" dance, the "Lifehouse Everything" skit, and shared their personal testimonies at churches, parks, schools, etc. It was so neat to see God using them and to see Him develop in them a passion for missions.

I'll leave you with some beautiful faces of Costa Rica!

Thank you all from the bottom of my heart for praying for our team and for our trip. I know that we could not have made it without the intercession of others. Like I've said before, the body of Christ is amazing!