Costa Rica: Spark Notes Version

Long time no see. It’s been a hot minute since I’ve written anything for here. Costa Rica was just so interesting that I didn’t know how to write about it, then before I knew it, it was over and we were here in Nicaragua. But life in Costa Rica was pretty cool too, I don’t want to skip over it. So here’s a spark notes version of life last month. We split our time in Costa Rica between a small town church and a farm in the middle of nowhere.

Firstly, the farm. The farm was a cool experience. My team was working with a man named Tony whose goal is to make a missionary/agriculture training school. The goal is to teach people how to farm using recycled and easily accessible resources so that they can go into underprivileged areas and teach them the same thing. The big theme there was “Use what we have”. I loved learning how to make a compost pile and fertilizer, planting, propagating, and weeding. But man, was it tiring. We spent our days hoeing and digging trenches for plant beds. It was a lot of work. 

The house was basically just a warehouse with two rooms built in full of bunk beds. We woke up at 6am every day and were working by 7. Most days we finished around 4 or 5pm, sweaty, thirsty, and exhausted. But before showers and food, there was always soccer. Along with Tony was an older man and a man about our age to work with us, Mario and Victor. They live at the farm full time and we became great friends. Mario is an agronomist, so he knows a lot about the land, while Victor, being a young hard worker, was the muscle behind the operation. He did everything. Some days he would even break out the welding equipment to fix things that we thought should have just been thrown away. 

The other half of the week we were at Tony’s house in the real world. We had WiFi and access to a convenience store to buy snacks when we didn’t like the food. It was more like real life. The church also looks like a warehouse and we would put mattresses on the floor to sleep. There were a million bugs and fire ants normally woke us up. Not occasionally, most nights. I was not a fan of sleeping there, but the other girls thought it was better because the farm was so much hotter at night. 

Our ministry in town was pretty cool. On Sundays, one girl from the team would be chosen to share their story at church, while the rest of the girls led children’s church. We learned a lot about leading kids, because we were fully just thrown into it with no instructions or supervision. We loved it. We learned how to play off each other’s strengths. We also had the opportunity to lead a kid’s event at an after school program for foster kids. It was our favorite part of the week for sure. These kids carried so much joy. We would sing, play games, and give a lesson. Plus soccer, there was always soccer. 

We were obsessed with the kids here. They were so welcoming. Whether we were painting nails or teaching the story of David and Goliath by throwing marshmallows, they were all smiles. We wished we had more time at this ministry. The founder, Rosemary, spoke of the cycle that went on in the neighborhoods. She said that most of them had parents that either were on drugs, in prison, or dead. Her goal in inviting us was to show them that their was another path that they could take, that there were other options for their future. They too could choose to spend their days telling strangers about Jesus. 

Our third ministry in town was a youth group type event held every Saturday. The church was primarily older people, so there were not many youths, but the intern we worked alongside, Valeria, decided to start something for them. The first night there weren’t many people, maybe 12ish. But after that, the word of free food and gringas really got around. We would choose a person from our team to share their story, sing, play games, then hangout afterwards playing soccer and eating bbq. It was fun to be around people our own ages, even if they didn’t speak our language, they still related more than Tony. 

One week Makalah spoke on depression, the next Caitlyn spoke on God’s plan, then Brittany spoke on hearing His voice. I even got to translate! The attendees ranged from 15-30 years old. It was a small town so we ran into them all a lot and got to know them pretty well. I felt close with a lot of them, but one 15 year old boy, had my heart. The first night, he was quiet and only spoke to me when his louder friend didn’t know the answer. By the end of the night, I started referring to him as my friend to get him into the conversation. But by the end of our month in Costa Rica, we were actually tight, real friends. 

He told me about his struggle with depression and how it was harder on his mom than on him. He said, “I can handle it, she can’t, she shouldn’t have to”. His mom was young so she came as well, their bond was strong. I got to pray over them a lot as a family unit, as a team. I got to speak truth over them and encourage them a lot. When we left, he cried hugging me and saying goodbye. I worried about how I would be able to continue helping them from afar. I worried about who was going to remind him of his worth and bring him joy. God quickly reminded me that wasn’t my job. I am very thankful of that reminder. 

We had the opportunity to live alongside all of these people and do life with them. We spoke truth and got them plugged into the church. We prayed over them and for them. From there, we had to believe that it was in His hands. I cared for those young people a lot, but I have to trust that He cares for them more. 

On our last night in Costa Rica, we got all of the youths together for a big soccer game at the field. We had been playing on gravel and driveways all month, but decided the last night deserved a field. Everyone came, all of our friends from different ministries. Whether from church, from the youth event, from that one kid’s party we threw, from the farm, or even the woman who cooked for us and her family who we adored. When they showing up, we all screamed, they brought their toddlers we were obsessed with and they brought puppies. We stayed for 5 hours. We stayed until dark, looking up at the stars. Over 20 people on the ground on a field looking up at the stars and saying goodbye. We played a bunch of games and laughed. It was an incredible way to send us off. I could not have possibly planned anything more special. 

Costa Rica was an interesting month. It started off by our host breaking her arm and all of our plans being up in the air. But the Lord used it. That night, staring up at the stars with our people, I felt content. I remembered that first week that we didn’t really do much, just waited to be told what was happening while our host was in surgery. We spent the first week feeling so purposeless, but that night, with those people, telling us how the Lord used us in their lives, we finally understood. We wanted to leave, that first week my team was annoyed and bored and fully ready to jump ship and head to a cooler ministry. In that moment, on that field, we were so glad we didn’t. 

Lord, thank You for your plan. It is so hard to understand in the moment, but afterwards, the beauty of it all unfolding is unmatched. Thank You that You had that night planned out when we were praying to leave. You knew. It wasn’t what we wanted, but what we needed. You knew.

-K