Discovering a New Lifestyle in Costa Rica

 

“She told me that her knee was hurting badly and hindering her from her daily work. I asked if we could pray for her. She said yes, and we prayed hard for her healing…”

Praying for healing with some elderly women in Rio Grande.

 

We are finishing up our month serving in Costa Rica, and I wanted to take a second to share some of what God has been up to with y’all. 

As I mentioned at the end of my last blog, we have been serving with a pastor in Rio Grande, Costa Rica, named, Olger. He, his wife, and son have hosted us in their home, which is connected to the backside of the church. 

We did not have much ministry set up for us, so it was up to us to come up with ideas for how to engage the community with the Gospel. While this did add an extra challenge to the month, it ended up being so fruitful and fun! Also, God even used us throughout our adventure days to connect with other travelers and share Jesus with them.

Sharing dinner with a local woman named Jamie. She was so sweet! 

One of those moments came when we visited the small beach town of Montezuma one day. Lindsey and Jose met an Austrian women named Lisa while we were watching a baby sea turtle release. She was traveling with her six-year-old daughter Anna. Jose felt led to invite them to have dinner with us and they obliged. It was evident that they were not your typical tourists. Anna spent most of her time on the beach shirtless, and they both traveled everywhere barefoot. Come to find out, they live in a mud hut in Austria, where they grow organic fruits and vegetables for their vegan diet. In America we might classify them as “granola” people. But, Lisa and Anna are not people that I would try to put in a box or category. While sharing dinner with them we could sense the happiness they carried from living such a free and natural lifestyle. We were able to get to know them and their life story pretty well, interspersing our own stories and faith too. Overall, it was a great experience. They seemed very thankful for our friendship and Jose and Lindsey buying their food. We said goodbye to them after our dinner and did not expect to see them again.

 However, a few days later, Lisa reached out to us, asking if she and Anna could come snorkeling with us. We were excited for another chance to connect with them! We spent a whole day enjoying Isla Tortuga together, then they ended up staying the night with the girls of our team back at their lodging in Rio Grande. Throughout this time, God allowed us to share a lot of Gospel truths with them. Right before they left the next morning, we went down to the river close to the church. They loved music, so we got to share some worship songs and kid’s songs with them. Then, Lisa started asking us about God. She asked about the ten commandments and if the commandment not to kill referred to animals, because that is very important to her. We got to share with her some other Scriptures and God’s heart for his creation. It was amazing to see how a couple days invested in relationship with her opened the door for her to voice her curiosities about God. 

Our team leading worship one night at church.

 

This month was full of powerful ministry moments like this…

One afternoon we set off to do some house-to-house evangelism. We all prayed together, asking God to lead us where he wanted us to go, and he promptly answered. We were supposed to meet up with a local believer named Jamie, but on our way to Jamie’s house, we ran into a lady named Maria*, who sells different types of food. She stopped to talk to us, and asked us to pray for her son Pablo* who was struggling with depression and did not want to live anymore. She said he just stays in the house all day and does not want to do anything. She also told us she was Catholic, but was very open to us praying with her. We prayed with her for her son, and it seemed to have a big impact on her. She was crying and gave us all hugs. Then, she asked if we would stop by her house and talk to Pablo* to try to encourage him. We obliged and headed that direction; however, we stopped by Jamie’s house first. She was not there, so we decided to go on without her. Allie and Hannah started talking to a man at the end of the road, so the rest of us walked up to another house of a nice woman who Lindsey had met before. She invited us to come sit on her porch with her sister, aunt and cousin. We talked with them for a while, but it was a bit awkward. We prayed with them, and I was ready to move on, but Hannah continued to talk with them, so I started conversing with one of the women. She told me that her knee was hurting badly and hindering her from her daily work. She had not mentioned that when we asked how we could pray for them earlier, so I asked if we could pray for her knee too. She said yes, and we prayed hard for her healing. After we prayed, she said it felt much better and started swinging her leg back and forth, smiling because the pain was gone. I told her that God healed her because he wanted her to know how much he loved her, and that it was just a small glimpse of His power and love. Also, I shared that he wants to walk with her everyday if she believes in him. She said that she has a lot of faith and tries to walk with him. 

We were very excited about this, and started to say goodbye and leave, but Hannah felt led to ask her sister if there was something else she needed prayer for too. So while she was doing that, I started talking to her aunt. I saw that she had a cane, so I asked if she had pain in her knees too. She said yes, in both. I asked if I could pray for her too and she said yes. I felt like the Holy Spirit was empowering me to pray boldly for her. After I said amen, she said her pain was gone too! She was beaming with joy and a smile. And come to find out, Hannah had prayed with the sister for healing in her knees too and she was healed as well! We left these women filled with joy and laughter, and they hollered after us to come back and see them again. The amazing thing about this too was that they were all Catholics and they knew that we were Evangelicals. But they were still so open to receiving prayer from us. I also loved how much confidence and freedom I moved in to pray for healing for these women. I felt like I was really being led by the Spirit. 

 

Impromptu evangelism with a Costa Rican man we met while swimming at Montezuma waterfall.

 

Next, we went by Pablo’s house. He invited us to come in and sit down, and almost immediately started telling us about all of his problems. He said he had health issues with his stomach and a lot of depression. He had a son with his girlfriend, but has since split up with her. She ended up marrying someone else, and he does not get to see his son very much. Lindsey started encouraging him with some of the things that have helped her through times of depression. I was translating. Jonathan seemed very receptive to the encouragement. He was tearing up a good bit and writing down the verses that Lindsey was sharing. He was listening intently to everything we said. Hannah shared with him that she saw a vision of Jesus washing his feet. Through his tears, he said that it was really powerful and had a big impact on him. He told us that he used to go to an evangelical church, and he was really involved, but it was more because he was interested in a girl that went there. He said he has not been to church for a long time because of his depression and health issues. I asked him if he had faith in Jesus, he said yes, but it needs to grow. I was trying to explain to him the importance of surrendering your life to Jesus. He seemed like he had a relationship with Jesus, so I encouraged him that if his faith and trust is in Jesus, then Satan has no power over him. His words have power over Satan. When the dark thoughts come, he has the authority to speak the word of God to them, and the Bible says that the enemy has to flee. The pastor’s son, Alonso, was with us too, and he also encouraged Jonathan a lot. We prayed with him and invited him to church with us later that evening. He seemed to be really thankful and appreciative for everything we shared. His mom made us some coffee and churreadas (a Costa Rican speciality, that is kind of like a corn pancake). They were delicious. Later, at church, we were so surprised when Jonathan showed up! I invited him to come sit next to Jose and I. He kept coming to church the rest of the month, and we were able to continue to pour into him!

 

A typical Costa Rican feast with the pastor’s family and church member, Eliu, who cooked for us. Ceviche with fresh caught sea bass was amazing!

 

Just like he did with Pablo, God often sent us into people’s brokenness with just the right timing…

One of these moments came on our first day of evangelism. We prayed as team for God to lead us where we need to go, and Hannah felt led to visit a deaf lady she had met previously. We stopped by here house, and she welcomed us inside. It was difficult to communicate with her, but we made it work as best we could. Her husband, Gabriel* walked in and began conversing with us too. He began sharing the story of how their son passed away a couple years prior. He stated that he has not been able to pray since his son died. Every time he closes his eyes to pray, he just sees his son and all the other kids that he saw suffering at the hospital. It was heartbreaking to hear how Satan was using the tragic loss of his son, to keep him from connecting with God. However, Gabriel was open to us praying for him, so we prayed with him and his wife before we left. When we opened our eyes form the prayer, we saw tears rolling down Gabriel’s face. He was far from healed, but God was working on his heart. 

Later in the month, I was praying for Gabriel during a time of team intercession. In the midst of my prayer, God gave me a vision of Gabriel’s son standing with Jesus. God told me that if Gabriel could really see his son, he would see him with Jesus, experiencing complete joy and peace in Him. He also told me that Gabriel’s son would be heartbroken to know that he is the reason his father will not talk to God. If his son could talk to him, he would beckon him to come to Jesus and experience the satisfaction that he has found. I felt like God wanted me to share this vision with Gabriel and encourage him to not let anything separate him from God’s love. God provided the opportunity for me to talk to him again as he was walking by the church one day. 

I shared the vision and word with him, but he told me that he was still holding onto a lot of trauma. He elaborated that he had a lot of hard feelings towards the church too for the way they have treated him in the past. He said thank you for the encouragement, but I could still sense so much bitterness and trauma stored up in his heart. It broke my heart. When he walked off, I just took some time to pray for him. I am praying that God opens his eyes to see the vision that I saw. That he could see his son beckoning him to come to Jesus.  I am praying for complete healing in his heart, and that he would have the courage to surrender his trauma and work through it. I am praying for reconciliation between him and the church. Even though we did not see Gabriel find healing in Jesus before we left, I am thankful that God put us in his path. We were able to plant seeds in his life, and we will be able to continue to pray for spiritual victory.

 

We got to help a church member work on their guyaba farm. Guyaba is a very common fruit in the area. It’s in between an apple and pear.

 

Another ministry we actively engaged in was spending time at the town plaza…

In the center of Rio Grande, there is a soccer field and small grocery store, that they call the plaza. It is a place where the community gathers and hangs out almost every day. Every time we went there we either ran into someone we knew from church, or met a new friend. This was part of the different lifestyle we encountered. It was so refreshing to be in such a communal culture.

We utilized this atmosphere to have Gospel conversations with kids and adults alike. We would often go play soccer with a group of kids, who were at the plaza almost every day. We quickly formed friendships with some of them. Often, we would come with some snacks and invite the kids to sit down and do some worship songs and Bible stories with us. During one of these times, I was able to share the Gospel with a group of the younger kids using the awesome “Bible for Kids” app from YouVersion. After going through the Gospel story with the app, I asked which of them wanted to start a relationship with Jesus. Four of them raised their hands and were excited to pray with me for Jesus to become their Lord and Savior! 

 

Using technology to share the Gospel with kids at the plaza.

 As we got to know these kids, we found out that they lived in a house across the street from the plaza. They invited us to come over and meet their family. We learned that 7 kids live there, and their grandparents raise them because the mom struggles with a drug addiction. We quickly fell in love with these sweet grandparents and their energetic children. God had put them on our hearts to invest in throughout the month, so on our last day, we paid them one last visit. They did not have a Bible, so we brought them one and spent time chatting with the grandparents and playing with the kids. Jose was able to share part of his testimony with them because he has a similar story with his family. They greatly appreciated our presence, and we appreciated their hospitality and friendship as well. The grandpa wanted to bless us, so he ran over to the store and bought us some fresh bread, cheetos, and coke. We sat together in their living room enjoying their company and the hugs and giggles of their 7 kids. It was such a sweet memory and privilege to share life and the hope of Christ with them.

 

Mixing cement by hand to help build a floor for the pastor’s house. They only had a dirt floor and thin aluminum walls.

 

Through so many moments like this throughout the month, we were able to connect with the families of Rio Grande. By the end of the month I felt like we had become a part of their community.  We had a bonfire on the beach on our last night there. We invited all the people that we had the privilege of meeting throughout the month. Sitting there at the fire, I looked around at all their faces. It was such an interesting mix of people, and I was in awe of how much God had accomplished throughout the month. He had used us to bring this misfit group of people together in His name.

 

The beach bonfire on our last night in Rio Grande. Nothing like s’mores and Jesus to bring an eclectic group of people together.

 

God opened my eyes to a new way of life. I saw how simple and easy it is to connect with your neighbors. In just four weeks, we formed such deep connections with our neighbors in Rio Grande by simply walking around and talking to people. I feel convicted that I lived in my hometown for 15 years without connecting with my neighbors on that level. But I am confident that God has used this month to change my perspective, and from here on out, I will walk in a lifestyle of open evangelism to my neighbors wherever I end up living.

 

As I have mentioned before, I am now fully funded for my trip. Thank God for all the awesome people that he sent to support me! However, if you are interested in supporting other missionaries financially, you should check out our Squad Leader Hannah’s blog. She has been serving with us all month and she is one of the most powerful believers and evangelists I have ever met. She is currently trying to raise money for this current trip and a trip to the 10/40 window (unreached people groups) in January. I would love it if you would pray about supporting her! Here is the link to her blog with more info…

https://hannahmitchek.theworldrace.org/

 

Peace and blessings!