Wow. That is all. Wow. Words just can’t describe the experience. God worked in so many ways, through so many people. It was overwhelming and wonderful. Who knew that a bunch of people who don’t even speak your language could influence you so strongly?
The first thing we did in the morning was devotions and worship. All of the male chaperones took turns doing the devotions. They did such a good job preparing us for the day and in encouraging us to step out of our comfort zone a little. This was very good because immediately after the devotions we went into the little town called Santa Rita to distribute bibles. When we gave each person their bibles we told them what the bible meant to us and how it helped us. It made us think about what the bible really meant to us, which was nice because we take it for granted too often. A lot of the people also opened up to us a little and told us about what was going on in their lives so we could pray for them. It made me think about how much I have, and how amazing my life is, while the people in Costa Rica have pretty much nothing. And they are all thankful for what they have and never complained to us about wanting more.
Bible distribution was definitely something that Satan did not want to happen. It rained on us, or it was really hot and uncomfortable to walk, or we ran out of water, or we were fed suspicious liquids….But that’s another story altogether. Satan just did not want us out there evangelizing, so he came up with every way to discourage us. Thankfully, tons of people at home were praying along with us and we got God’s word out there. So thank you to everyone who prayed!!
Another amazing thing that we got the opportunity to do was run a VBS for the kids. Once again, Satan did NOT want it to happen. The first day, we barely got bible time in. The kids were running everywhere and wouldn’t pay attention for anything. And, of course, God came to the rescue again and helped us out on the second day. The kids paid total attention and we all got to talk to the kids about Jesus. Aidan also shaved his head and let Steph paint it purple and yellow. That got the kids pretty interested, I think. J
During the week, Ashley and I got to babysit some babies for teenage moms. That was a lot of fun. We sat in the air conditioning for the first time during the week and held babies and ate pineapple all morning. I’m not sure if the morning could have possibly been better. The babies were obsessed with playing with my camera. It was pretty darn cute.
Aside from the aforementioned things, we fixed up the YWAM base a little and the boys built a ceiling for one of the rooms. Every morning we each had different chores to do around the base to help the staff. Mine was to make the lunches. 45 sandwiches almost every day. Somehow, dad got out of chores. I would like to know his secret…maybe I could use it at home… God also did some amazing things in our lives during the first week. For me personally, he changed my heart and my attitude significantly. One of my biggest burdens was taken away and it shouldn’t be returning any time soon. Isn’t God great? I think, yes.
During the second week, we got to work with a team from South Dakota. Together, we fixed up a church. The boys rebuilt the roof while I swept up their mess and helped cook our meals. It was actually quite fun. That’s all we did during the day for the first few days. At night dad taught his seminars on worship and we sang together for the people. We tried to sing a song in Spanish, and it actually worked! It was awesome.
The non-work stuff we did was zip lining (which dad didn’t do for some crazy reason, because it was ABSOLUTELY AMAZING), and we went to the hot springs and the beach. The beach was the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen. The waves were so cool and it was just beautiful. There were little creatures in the sand that didn’t really look like anything. I thought they were rocks until they moved. And the water was warm. It was really, really nice.
So, basically, the past two weeks were the best two weeks of my entire life. God was the center of everything we did and we all learned to rely on Him more instead of trying to work things out ourselves. I’m so glad we got to have this experience. Hopefully, we’ll go there again next year. J
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