Day 1 (monday) roles around, we wake up in the morning, cook and eat breakfast, and then are off to spend 45 minutes with God. That does sound like a lot of time, especially when most of us might not be used to spending that much time every day with the Lord. But it wasn't very difficult to adjust to, I found that desire to want to know God on a deeper level, and that pushed me onward. We were studying the Beatitudes, which turned out to be an amazing series of lessons, the first day we studied "Blessed are the poor in Spirit, for their's is the kingdom of heaven." We read through Luke 7:36-50 and talked about what it meant to be poor in spirit, what it meant to be desperate for God. The story of the woman who had nothing to offer, but was accepted by Christ really connected with me, and pushed me to take a step back and to live with humility. We then went to the worksite! Our project for the trip was building a road for a community that the government had denied support to. The people who lived on the street had raised all there own funds, bought all the supplies needed, and just needed to get it built. We all learned how to set up pearling, lay down the netting and the rebar, mix the concrete (which we did by hand), and finally get it to the finished product. We worked until 1:30 with a short lunch break and then we cleaned up, or rather started to as the daily rain came in from the mountains. It began to start raining, I looked straight up to the sky and said, "God hold off the rain until we finish on the worksite," and He did, because He is always faithful. Then we walked down the street to Iglesia de Deos, the Church of God, to host a VBS for the kids in the neighborhood, the first VBS that has ever been done in this community. We arrived at the church around 2:15ish so that we could check it out and set up before the kids arrived at three. Well, not exactly. We found out about 3:15 that the teacher was sick and that we wouldn't be doing the VBS that day after all. We left the church and walked down to a local park to invite some more kids and then turned to walk home, and the rain that God had been holding off since 1:30, started to fall, we got home a bit wet but started an early dinner, did team time which was our nightly group sessions where we went through the morning devos, evaluated how well we did that day, discussed leadership qualities in our growth journals, and did encouragement at the end. Thus was ended an eventful Day 1.
I won't give you a full blown day by day recap, that would take forever but I will let you know more on what went on. The first week we worked on the road in the morning and did a VBS (with the exception of monday) in the afternoon. Day 2, Isabella, our misionary partner who actually let us stay in her house for two weeks and live with her, prophecied over me in Spanish. I don't speak much Spanish or rather, Yo hable pecito Espanol, but I understood every word she said, the Spirit was clearly at work. Day 5, Friday, I was actually prophecied over again, in English this time, by Isabella's son Diego who was in his mid twenties I'd guesstimate. So within four days time I was prophecied over twice.... WOW. I was a bit surprised to say the very least. (and did I mention that Matt Johnson had his thumb sliced open by our LT intern when we were mixing concrete? Guess I forgot. It was a total accident and we all laughed about it later, but Matt was out of commission for both weeks when it came to hard physical labor. But he still worked his butt off, so I'm proud of him for that.)
We woke up at 4Am on Saturday to drive to Mt. Arenal and a zipline place for the weekend, it was a great change of pace and my worn out body definitely could use the rest. That night was pretty eventful as it finally dawned on me that I can't hold this team together, that I'm actually not in control of anything and that God will do exactly what he wants to do. God broke me of my pride that night, and from then onward I was able to more fully depend on God than anything I had to offer, that was the turning point of the trip.
Day 8 (the second monday) we started our new schedule, work from 9AM to 5PM, all day. It was a particularly hot morning, meaning that the clouds would roll in thicker and the rain would most likely be extremely intense. So we prayed all morning for the rain to stay away. A few of the team left to go to the grocery store less than two miles away after lunch and we kept working. And when the rain was right upon us we prayed again, most of us had been praying individually, but we asked God to keep the skies clear, and He answered. The clouds rolled in and the rain started to pour, everywhere but our street. If you looked up above your head, you could see a ring, clear and blue, of crystal clear skies in a circle right above us. God had created a hole in the sky and kept us dry as we did his work. The food crew got back an hour or so later, and they were wet. They had been rained on. It had actually poured buckets everywhere around us, including the grocery store that was just two miles away, just TWO MILES!
Day 10 the 5 adults that were with us left the worksite, telling us that it was our project, our time to step up and take ownership, our time to make a difference. So we worked our butts off and did all we could and worked quite possibly the hardest we worked the entire trip, only to find out that we had run out of water again, and that it wouldn't be on til 4 or 5PM and it wasn't even 3 yet. We took a break, came back later that evening, and finished our work.
I did mention we ran out of water just as a reminder of what I'm greatful of back home. We had days where we didn't have running water, we had days where both of the bathrooms in the house were out of commission, we had to go as long as a full week without pooping. I don't say that to be gross, but it was a struggle! Anyhow, that was a random tangent, back to the story.
Day 11 (thursday numero dos) We finished the road! And as if that wasn't cool enough, our ministry team through a block party for the entire street. People who hadn't spoken to eachother in TWENTY YEARS came out and were all talking and having a great time, eating some good food and watching the kids play. To see God do that was quite possibly the most powerful event I have ever experienced, a couple of teenage gringos had reunited a commnuity, we had seen the love of God in our lives, and reflected it out into the lives around us. After that day we came home, friday we had our last goodbye's to Isabella and her family, to Freddie and our neighbors, and that was that. I miss all of them. Will we ever cross path's again? I do not know. God willing we do, but if not, they have definitely shown me more about myself and what it means to follow Christ, so I am in their debts, Godbless.
Now that I've had a few days to decompress, to readjust to life as most of us know it: comfy beds, warm showers, a family of less than 15 people to live with on a daily basis, and frozen pizzas. I'm finding it really difficult this time around to come home. It's not that I don't appreciate home, I do, but I miss the life I lived in Costa Rica, I don't want to let that go. I've made a concerted effort to be set apart, to be different from who I once was. I'm in the word for at least an hour every day, and I'm working on living that missional lifestyle that Christ has called us to. There was so much more that happened on this trip, so much more lives changed by the Love of God, but if I would have continued to write we would have both been here all day. I compell you to come and ask me more, I want to tell it - to share my story with everyone. These above mentioned stories are just tidbits, God did so much more than you could ever imagine, than I could have hoped or desired. But I leave you with this, God is faithful always and He delights in his children. Expect God's Glory. Expect it and He will give it to you.
-matt
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