Church, Latino style.

A Youth service we were involved with in Guanacaste...they get a little crazy during worship.

Our past 8 days were spent in the Guanacaste province of Costa Rica, near Nicoya. We had a great week, once again! Nicoya is mostly farmland, VERY hot, and about one hour from the Pacific. The week was full with ministry opportunities, including a project to hand out a bible to every home in the province. The Nicoya YWAM base took on this commitment not long ago, to distribute bibles, and every team that comes to help is involved in this project. It’s not just simply dropping a bible at the doorstep- most families invite you inside (typical for Latin culture). You explain why you’re there, gift them the bible, and ask if you can pray for them. Spending 20-30 minutes per house is easy. I was reminded of how hospitable the culture here is- so many families offered us cold drinks, picked bagfuls of fruit from their mango or starfruit trees for us to take home, some groups even got lunch and ice cream! Even though we were strangers, we were treated like family. I was definitely taking some notes about hospitality from this community. It was such a blessing to get to know people and to give them a gift as powerful as the bible. Most were very open about their needs and asking for prayer.

A favorite visit: one elderly woman asked where we were all from and as we each said our places (California, Virginia, Alaska, Columbia, England) she would gasp and cover her mouth with her hands and express how excited she was that we’d come so far. She kept telling us how thankful she was that we were there and what a blessing it was to have us. When we asked for a picture before we left, her husband went into his room and combed his hair first…maybe the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. They were probably in their 80’s. (After leaving her house, she stood at her window and waved at us each time we passed, so adorable!)

Several houses said that we were an answer to prayer, that they had heard of someone in the community who received a bible and they prayed for us to come visit them. As we drove off the last day, we saw several people sitting on their porches reading their new bibles. Our team gave out 410 bibles in the 4 days we did it. It was such an honor to be part of this ministry.

After bible distribution each day we played soccer, and at night a lot of teenagers would come and hang out at the base until bedtime. This meant for a really full day, each day. To top it off, it was an average temp of 100-105 F plus humidity, and we were walking house to house during the hottest parts of the day. As difficult as it is to fall asleep when you’re sweating, I think we all slept soundly due to how tired we were! But by the end of the week, we were all a bit more adjusted to the heat and mosquitos and packed schedule, and I know everyone had an awesome time. (Except 2 scorpion bites!)

And on Sunday, we had such a treat: we went to an English speaking church service near the Pacific, Beach Community Church. The pastor is originally from California (San Clemente), and it was so fun to fully understand the message and to meet a bunch of Americans. (Made me miss home a little bit though)

Worship!

After service the pastor invited our whole group over to his house- which is right on the beach! We made lunch and spent the next couple hours relaxing either in the ocean 50 feet away from his sliding door, or on the grass in front of the sand. So nice.

Now we are back in San Jose until early Saturday morning. We will be doing some ministry here this week, but mostly preparation for the month of May. Our DTS is splitting into the 3 teams and our Central American team is the first to take off. We’ll arrive in Nicaragua on Saturday afternoon, May 1^st. From there we’ll go to El Salvador, and finally to Guatemala. Our flight back to San Jose is May 30^th, so this is our last chance to be at the base and pack all that we need for a month. As exciting as it is to be leaving for Nicaragua soon, it’s bittersweet because that means our time to do ministry all together as one DTS is over. But I know God has so much in store for this next month!

Recap

So much to catch up on….where do I begin? I’ll start with NIKO. Ha. Even just saying the word makes me chuckle in a “glad it’s over, but loved it” sort of way. One of the main parts of NIKO is going into it without knowing what’s to come, so I can’t really describe what it is. But here are the basics: It’s a 5 day camp in the jungle in Talamanca, Costa Rica. You are giving a packing list that includes things like hiking boots, a knife, bug spray, and waterproof bags for your belongings…and that DOESN’T include things like soap, deodorant, toothpaste, etc. :) It’s a tough week. I did it in my DTS, and had the chance to staff it for this DTS. Our students did great, amidst many difficult challenges.

Drinking some refreshing water from a tree branch we cut:

Max caught and killed this boa in the middle of the night when he heard it attacking his chickens...then leashed it and dragged it to our house in the morning to show us. (You can see a chicken not digested yet if you look closely)

Moving on…

After NIKO we went to Puerto Viejo for a week. This is a very small, touristy town right on the Caribbean. Beautiful place, beautiful people. We slept at a local church- here is a picture of all of our stuff strewn about:

Besides being involved in a few church services where we did dramas and gave testimonies, we did some other awesome and different ministries.

Twice, we headed to a basketball court to play soccer/basketball on the beach with the locals. We got to know several of them and continued hanging out with them through the week. We brought ice tea to give out and also paused the games a couple times to do dramas and give testimonies. The students really took charge and were so open in sharing and listening to the people they met.

One of the basketball players watching a drama:

Also, there is a coffee/chocolate/ice cream shop called Caribeans, owned by a couple from the states. They run the shop and build relationships with the locals and tourists, providing a friendly and community focused environment. It was cool to hear their story and to be involved in their ministry. On the last day of our time there, we set up a free bike wash/ free prayer/ free hugs booth in front of the coffee shop. So much fun! Afterwards we had an acoustic concert right on the beach, where many of the people we had met during the week came to enjoy.

At Caribeans:

Free Hugs!

Free bike wash!

One day we created little gifts with some snacks and an encouraging bible verse and went around to about 25 shops to distribute them. It’s so funny to see the reaction on people’s faces when you tell them, “Hey we have a gift for you”. They’re like “Huh?” Totally confused. And we just told them we wanted to thank them for having a place for the tourists and locals, for working hard for the community, etc. That we wanted to just give them a small token of thanks and bless them with prayer. Each business owner was so surprised and thankful.

Another ministry we did was at a bar one night. The whole town is a huge, drunken party basically, each night after 10 pm. So about 8 of us girls went to “Ladies Night” at one of the bars. Not to throw bibles at the girls, just to talk and encourage them. We were able to have conversations with several girls and hear some of their stories. I know God was working in even those simple conversations. I chatted with the bartender for a bit, which was interesting. He laughed in confusion when I turned down his offer for free tequila shots. I told him “No thanks, we’re just here to dance.” And it was interesting: as I sat at the bar and observed the guys working, I saw something cool. A few of our girls were salsa dancing with each other and having fun…and the guys watching had such funny looks on their faces. They weren’t looking the girls up and down, they were just watching with intent curiosity. Like they had never seen such innocence and genuine fun in a girl dancing. I think all they’ve ever seen is drunken girls dancing super seductively, “dropping it like it’s hot” and such. I truly believe God was speaking something to their hearts in those few minutes. Seeing how we were still having fun without being wasted and feeding off the attention of guys.

There is also a place in Puerto Viejo called the Concrete Jungle. It’s a skate park run by a couple missionaries from the states. It’s a beautiful skate park literally surrounded by the jungle. Some of us girls went to a women’s bible study/gathering one night. We hung out with the women and their kids and tie dyed shirts. Very fun. It’s so encouraging to see committed ministries already taking place and get to know the stories of how they came to be.

The water turned off a few days during our stay at the church- so here is our handy dandy "Tippy Tap." It's a hand washing station, soap and all (Pull the strings to tilt the jug, water comes out the carved holes):

And here's me, safely inside my Bug Bivy (thanks to Mistylena). LOTS of mosquitos here, I was very thankful to at least escape them while sleeping:

Overall, a very successful week. I’m loving outreach so far! We are in San Jose til Monday morning when we head North to Nicoya, Costa Rica. We’ll be there til the end of the month. Thanks for your prayers!!