This past week or so has been more different than I could have anticipated. After hurting my back I had no choice but to lay down for the majority of the week trying to baby it and nurse it back to health. Those of you that know me know that I like being active and laying down or sitting down for an extended period of time can drive me crazy. However, I knew the Lord had a purpose and that was to draw me closer to Him. I read and I prayed and really enjoyed my fellowship with the Lord. During that time the Lord used the stories in Genesis to show me that He wants to do a new work in this world, in Costa Rica. Just as the norm for Abraham and Sara at their age would have been no chance of having children so the Lord has shown me that He wants to do a huge work here and do something that breaches cultural and sinful norms. The things of the Lord in this country seem to be for the older people and something that the youth leave for when they get all the young crazy things out of their system. The Lord spoke clearly that He wants to break that norm and raise up youth in this country that follow hard after Him. Whether we have the privilege in partaking in that and where to even start I have no idea, but the Lord is faithful, that I am certain of and I'm excited to see it happen.
After the Lord performed a speedy healing on my back I was able to get out of the house and do things around town. Tuesday morning we took on the task of evangelizing in the town plaza. It was truly challenging, the first time I had evangelized in Spanish. The 1st guy I talked to was an American from NY just passing through to hike Chirripo, the tallest mountain in Costa Rica. We often see Americans hanging out in the plaza with their backpacking packs. His new age mindset made it difficult to get any sort of point across but he has Christian friends back home and I pray they don't give up on him. I also talked to a Costa Rican dating couple, very devout Catholics. The girl was going on about the virgin Mary and how great she is. The conversation provoked me to thought and prayer. I invited them to church, unfortunately they did not show up. I hope to see them again and continue to share the freedom we have in Christ and the relationship they are lacking with Him. They did however thank us for coming out and sharing with people in the plaza. They shared that it was very daring and bold. Glory to God!
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| Scrubbing the walls with Gerry |
We continue to work on the church building scrubbing the walls and preparing them to be stuccoed. We're excited to see things come along. We had church in that building on Sunday for the 1st time ever with a gravel floor and unfinished walls. We don't however need those for the Lord to be praised and indeed He was!
I was able to give a Spanish Bible to one of the girls in a restaurant we go to normally, she was very excited to read it. We are slowly but surely building relationships and simply representing our Savior as best we can.
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| Leaf cutter ants |
Saturday we had a very active and beautiful day at the river. It's the same river we went to a few weeks ago except this time we took the whole family and we got to hike to the Nauyauca waterfall. It was a beautiful time of admiring God's creation and learning respect for the power of His features. I came pretty close to drowning as I tried to swim out to the rocks just below the actual falls. As I swam out, Ryan held out his hand to pull me in. That moment was like something out of a movie. I swam parallel to the falls and swam hard as the current pushed me away. After the first falls there was a break until the next set of falls. That's where I cut in and swam for my life to Ryan's hand. The current still strongly pushed me away but I had that hope of reaching something that would surely relieve me from danger. I saw a wall of water then his hand, then water, then his hand, until finally I reached him and was pulled in. I'm not a very strong swimmer so this was especially challenging. I realized I swallowed a lot of water but also realized the Lord had a lesson for me here. No matter what, if I don't think I can possibly go anymore, if I think I will be overtaken, His hand will be there to pull me out precisely when it is needed.
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| The beautiful and muddy hike up |
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| The waterfall where I almost died! |
Dave Shirley and his son have been out here since Saturday and we've had the joy of spending time with them. Talking of different ministry opportunities, the idea of sponsoring a local youth soccer club team came up, or even holding our own tournament, was brought up. A way to get to talk to people about the Lord, to break the reputation of Christians here in San Isidro of asking for money, we want to pour into them and show that we don't want their money but want to simply show them the love of Christ and that money is no idol or motive to us. I'm excited to continue to pray and consider what the Lord will do through things like this.
Thank you so much for your support and prayer! Know that you also are being covered in prayer. I pray to hear from you all and know that the Lord will continue to work in your lives as we stay submitted to Him!
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| Yeah, it was cold |
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| We finally made it to our destination, 1 3/4 hours later |
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| The waterfall we were aiming for |
