Thursday, June 16•
On our home visits today with Pastor Basilio, Hannah and I got to see how he treats members of the community with dignity and respect, and encouraged them in their faith. It was a bit interesting because Hannah and I speak little Spanish, and the pastor speaks little English, but we were able to piece together what we each meant and laugh along the way. Google translate is frustratingly slow, but little by little I’m learning how to listen for key words.
After lunch, we headed into town to find some wifi and some of my new favorite candy 🙂 my social battery is starting to tank again, but this evening we had a sweet time where we wrote encouraging notes to one another and prayed for what the Lord was saying to build each other up. The one written for me came from Isaiah 43, which talks about the Lord doing a new thing. This week, I’m working on giving my questions to Jesus and relinquishing expectations about a whole bunch of things.
Saturday, June 18 •
I’ve missed a couple days writing, mostly because we’ve all started going to sleep before 9pm, no matter when breakfast is the next morning 🙂
Yesterday was our adventure day, which was a BLAST. Adventure days are completely up to us to decide, they’re not coordinated by leadership at all, which was a little nerve wracking, but also empowering. We hired a van driver for the day, booked slots at a Zip-lining park 2.5 hours away, and off we went. The course took us on 11 zip lines, and then we rode an insanely long one where they flip your harness backwards and hook up your feet behind you and level with your core, so you are literally flying like Superman across the mountains and valleys of Costa Rica. Wow.
Today, Saturday, has had far fewer heart stopping moments. It rained all day long, which created a really sweet slow rainy day, which I felt I needed. I’m really having a hard time without any privacy or alone time whatsoever. I love the people I’ve met here who I do life with everyday, it’s just a lot sometimes. Tonight we played a solid hour of Dutch Blitz, and we laughed so hard I nearly cried.
This trip is both what I expected and not at all what I expected. I anticipated getting along with some people really well, and not so much with others. I anticipated the emotional fatigue and the challenge of not speaking Spanish proficiently. On the flip side, I did not expect all the free, unstructured time we would have to fill as we saw fit. I didn’t expect to randomly remember a funny YouTube video and miss being home, or that I simultaneously want to come home to the states and stay in Costa Rica for another 6 months.
I know it’s true that in all experiences, you get out what you put into it. I want to step up and put more of my heart into the ministry and service of this trip, while also really wanting to someway somehow take a nap alone.
Sunday, June 19•
Vuelve, oh alma mía, a tu reposo, porque Jehová te ha hecho bien.
Come back, oh my soul, to your rest, because Jehovah has done you well.
Today I sat in the hospital with my friend Kate all afternoon because she got a thorn stuck in her foot at the beach last week, and it hasn’t been healing. Come to find out, it was still in her foot this entire time. I won’t attach a picture for y’all’s sake, and also because I can’t figure out how hehe. But it was a solid half inch long. But now that it’s removed, she will be able to heal and we celebrated by getting pizza in town 🙂
Monday, June 20•
Two thirds through this trip. Today ministry was postponed because there was a death in the community yesterday, and the church held the funeral this morning. The pastor and a few others sang songs of worship, and shared a message in Spanish. We attended at the request of the pastor to support the family, and it was really challenging for a number of ways. Mainly because none of us knew the woman who had passed, or her family at all. The line feels tricky between mourning with those who mourn, while also not taking on the grief of another in a disrespectful way, because it’s not our grief to carry. We spent some time processing after the funeral, and then the rest of the afternoon was spent doing one on ones with our leaders; just general check ins as we are a couple weeks into the trip.
It was helpful to talk and process with Ellie, then I took a two hour nap, which also helps me with emotional processing sometimes. Ellie helped to ground me in sharing that this trip is not normal. Our flight was canceled for an extra three days, we had two girls fly home in the first week, several of our team got Covid and needed to quarantine, and two girls have had a close friend/family member pass away while we’ve been gone. That’s not even to mention the extra hospital visits and logistical challenges, and it’s all added up.
It’s hard to see how God is using all of it, but I know we’re here for something, and I’m working towards seeking him first with that question.
Saturday, June 25 •
Saturday has rolled around again, and so much has happened through this week. Some highlights: on Tuesday and Wednesday we spent all day with Juanita again, digging and putting in a new fence and building an outdoor kitchen! The magic of Costa Rica is that no matter what you’re doing, you’ll end up finding a vine to swing on like Tarzan, or a gigantic lizard in a tree, watching silently.
Thursday was our adventure day this week, and we headed up north to Libería, a bigger city with touristy shops and a beautiful waterfall. That morning had clear skies and a breeze, and I made a comment on how perfect the weather was- a comment that stuck when my group of four found Tshirts that read “What a perfect day!” We laughed and bought the shirts, even though we were rained out of visiting the waterfall later on that afternoon. Instead, we drove another hour to a local beach, where it was also raining. Classic Costa Rica 🙂 it was unfortunate to be rained out, but one of my good friends Jordan and I struck up a conversation with a woman in the coffee shopped we ducked into to hide from the rain. She was in her fifties and from Oregon, and we talked for the next couple hours about the things in her life that brought her to this point, religion, and travel bucket list items for all of us. I truly felt Gods hand on that conversation and it was an answered prayer in the way I got to share about how Jesus is my source of peace. Maybe it’s ironic we talked to an American, but God knew exactly where we’d be at that time.
Friday was more manual labor, a rest afternoon, and a visit to a nearby church! I think that church visit has brought some answers to questions I’ve been asking about the purpose of this trip.
The lady leading worship shared (in Spanish with a translator) that she wished she could sing in English, but that we can glorify God in all languages, even when we don’t know the words. Following worship, Pastor Basilio shared a message called “The Church with a Purpose,” and talked about how churches must meet spiritual and social needs, and it is our role to plant seeds and labor so that God can make things grow. We each do our part, and “life makes sense when we work for the kingdom.”
To come alongside the Church in Costa Rica, and do some small labor and encouragement, IS to be the body of Christ. I wanted to build a house so I could say I built a house. I wanted to lead a Bible study so I could say I led a Bible study. That was pride. But I got to sit with believers and offer what I had, which isn’t all that much. And the church leaders here have expressed the encouragement it brings when teams come to support their ministries. I wanted to support in the way I thought was best, but truly support is meant to fill whatever this church needed, and we got to do that.
We have a couple more days left to attend church, deep clean, and prepare to return to the states. We fly to Georgia on Wednesday the 29th, and have two days to debrief in GA. It’s been a fight to be fully present here, and it’s been a different type of dependence on Jesus. But every night I read Salmo 116:7
“Vuelve, oh alma mía, a tu reposo, porque Jehová te ha hecho bien.
Come back, oh my soul, to your rest, because Jehovah has done you well. “
