A Second Home :)

COSTA RICA MONTH!

This month has flown by like no other. I cannot believe it is already over!! I need to apologize for not blogging and updating ya’ll earlier. It has been such a packed month.

Nicoya, Costa Rica, was unbelievable. It was such a nice change from being on the mountain last month. I thoroughly enjoyed our ministry and we connected with our host family and the community around us so quickly. The people there were so great, they had so much joy and love pouring out of them.

This month we lived at a church and served within the community. We got to do a lot of house visits and got to pray with the families around the church. We met so many amazing people. One woman, named Juanita, we got to visit every week because it was too difficult for her to get to church. She was such a crazy old lady but was filled with such peace and strength from the Lord. I always got so excited when we went to her house, she felt like family already. The joy in her eyes was something I have never seen before. She loved us like no other, even though we could not understand most of her Spanish, in a way it felt like we understood each other perfectly. I will never forget our interactions with one another and look forward to the day we will meet again in heaven. While we were at her house, we also got to do some construction, and I got to use my “huge arms” to help move and chop up wood. (Pictures to come on facebook!) It was so nice to be able to help families with everyday necessities and see how they live. Very humbling experiences indeed.

We also had the opportunity to do some construction at another church for a week which was great. Lots of fun manual labor in the insane heat! We helped with the foundation of the church so that when it rained it would not flood into the church itself. After we did that, we held a little service there and got to pray with one of the men there.

Another amazing interaction we had was with a student in the community who was learning English. She was one of the sweetest people I have met on the race thus far. We got to talk with her and share some of our experiences from the states as well as traveling, while she got to share her experience with college and learning a new language! She graduates in March and is in school to be a teacher and wants to visit the states at some point. My team prayed over her before we left, and I was able to give her my squad t-shirt to remember us by and it was such a beautiful moment. She was filled with so much emotion. Her excitement for life inspires me, I can see that God has such a big plan for her and that she is going to reach so many kids as a teacher.

When we left Nicoya, to head to San Jose for our COVID testing, I was looking outside as we were driving and thought to myself, “wow, Michaela at 8 years old would freak if she knew I was going to be traveling the world for a year and spreading the love of Christ every day.”  Sometimes I forget how much of a blessing it is to be doing what I am doing, especially in the state that the world is in right now.

 There has been so much on my mind this month and I just want to truly be able to be present and see what God has instore for me right now. I want to remember that 8-year-old self and be able to fully live out that dream for her and take in all the interactions I am having with people around the world. God keeps on surprising me with people and their testimonies and stories which inspire me every day. It is a true blessing, and I cannot glorify God enough for it. I hope to be able to be that person for someone one day, to inspire someone to seek the Lord first and follow his plan for them. For we all have our own path that he has made for us, all we have to do is give him our yes and then go.

“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” Psalms 119:105