Costa Rica so far

Hey! Life has been so exciting recently! I have so much to update you on.

I was living in Jaco, Costa Rica for a month. It was a fun month filled with friendship, art ministry, and a lot of time with the Lord.

It was amazing to live in a beach town, but also, the whole town was very heavy. Behind the scenes, there was a lot of drugs, sex trafficking, homelessness, and so much heartbreak in the town. Our ministry consisted of a lot of art ministry. I got to design and paint so many murals on the light poles, and different places around the city. The intent behind this was to liven up the town, and show Jesus’ love through the art.
We lived in a house that fit all 45 of us, and it was a fun, open house, with very limited alone time. It was definitely a weird adjustment living in hardcore community, full time. In Georgia, we had been living in tents, which meant that we all had our own spaces to escape to if we needed to escape. Now, there wasn’t really an option to escape. The most alone time I had was going to coffee shops and disappearing into the world of wifi, where I could talk to my family and friends back home. Although it was a hard adjustment, it was such an amazing time. I built my friendships with my squadmates so much more than before. We got to sit down and talk about the insanity of the Lord and really dive into who he is.

I also got baptized in Jaco! It was so amazing, and my squad leaders Isabel and Gretchen both baptized me in the ocean. It was so beautiful, and I felt a lot of freedom and peace afterwards. 

In Jaco, I feel like the Lord was really teaching me a lot about myself. An example is, I used to never think that I had the ability of leading people. I think that I could lead people if I wanted to, but I really never felt the need to, and I never really wanted to. One day, I finally get the room all to myself, and I’m about to take the first nap that I had taken on the race. I lay down, in my dark room, and as soon as I fall asleep, I wake up from a lady (in my dream) with big round glasses, poking me on the head saying “read Matthew 5:2, read Matthew 5:2”.
Needless to say, I walk downstairs, half-awake, grab my bible and say “I need to read Matthew 5:2”. I sit down, and all it says is “and he began to teach them.” I felt so confused. I ended up reading all of Matthew 5, and had no idea what the Lord was teaching me about this. I left it, and the next week and a half after, I heard more people telling me to read Matthew 5:2, and a few notes that told me to read Matthew 5:2, as well. I decided to sit down with the Lord, and ask Him what He wanted me to get from this. I ended up writing down a whole page of drawings and different things He was trying to teach me.

One scripture I got was Proverbs 4:8-9 which read “If you prize wisdom, she will make you great. Embrace her and she will honor you. She will place a lovely wreath on your head; she will present you with a beautiful crown”. I also got the words “You are wise my daughter. Stop pretending that you aren’t”. I got a lot of stuff about leadership, and how I can lead people and I can do it well. So, after trying to accept that I had leadership skills, I find out that I am my teams new raised up team leader.

In the span of about 3 weeks, the Lord taught me I had leadership skills and threw me into a position of leadership. That was one of many things that the Lord had taught me in Jaco, which is so exciting and so new to me.

Ending out Jaco, I had to say goodbye to my Team Leader friends who were living with us for 3 months. It was a sad and hard goodbye, but it was so amazing to form those friendships and learn so much about the Lord from them.

My team and I after Jaco, went to a place called “La Montaña Christian Camps”. We spent two full weeks here, which was so much fun. We got to spend time with our hosts, Mana and Ana, and their sweet 8 month old, Eliza. We did a lot of hospitality around the camp, including taking down a ceiling with 5 bats flying around. There were a few small camps that we got to be a part of the staff for, which was so fun and very humbling, in the fact that my Spanish is way worse than I thought it was. We made friends with the other staff there, who mostly spoke Spanish, which was a fun learning curve. We wiped down a lot of mattresses, swept up a lot of bugs, even deep cleaned a kitchen. It was a very fun, and fulfilling 2 weeks. Spending the time with just my team was so amazing. We got to become even closer friends, and got to strive for the Lord together. There was so much opportunity for time alone, which definitely scared my teammate, Maggie. Considering we lived in a cloud, the weather was amazing, and I even got to bust out my warm clothes.

We found out that our next country is not Colombia anymore, it is now Guatemala. I am so excited, and I feel like the ministry is going to be so fun and so fulfilling.

Now, I am sitting in a Coffee shop In Puerto Viejo. We took about a 6 hour bus ride from San Jose, which, if you could imagine, was so fun. We got to reunite with the rest of our squad, and now we’re living in the jungle. Waking up to screaming monkeys was definitely a fun experience. I’m super excited to live here in Puerto Viejo for the next 3 weeks. I don’t know for sure what our ministry looks like yet, but from what it seems, it’ll be a lot of manual labor. I’m excited to see what God will do for the rest of my time in Costa Rica.

Until next time! Sending lots of love.