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!