Left Without Words. . .

It has now been over a week since we have been in San Jose where various things have happened. We no longer have our contact for reasons so all our ministry plans are all up in the air now as he was our go to man for everything. So we are left as a team with six weeks left of outreach to plan.

It seems as though there aren't many options but at the same time it feels as though there is! 

For the first few days we went into the city to worship and evangelise where we soon became friends with drug dealers who gave their hearts to Jesus. Every time we have been back to the same place they have come and hung out with us and want to know next time we will be back so they can see us again. 

We have worked with different ministries within the YWAM here in San Jose which vary from working with ex-prostitutes, playing with young children, holding a special needs child in my arms in an orphanage who has only been able to breathe on his own for a couple months. And i had the opportunity to share my testimony and do a Bible study with single mothers. As we are teaching them new things us as a team are being taught so much from hearing the stories of the locals. Really opens your eyes to so much more and makes you really appreciate where you come from. We have been in different situations and different area's that have been really challenging spiritually and physically but those are the stories we can't share online for safety of the people, so there's some to look forward too when you next see me!

Just the other day we went into a rough ghetto in the area to do a prayer walk, the first street we walked down we came across a eighteen year old boy in his house who came out and spoke to us. He was already a believer, but as we were speaking to him God really began to download things about him to us, his original design, how God really sees him, and plans God has for him. As we spoke these words over him he was struggling to hold back the tears. By that stage i had lost it and was already weeping. Looking into his eyes you could tell he knew he was made for far better than this! He is going to be a man to change the nation of Costa Rica. His words were, I'm left without words.

Then to carry on walking we started talking to his next door neighbour, an elderly woman who was also a believer. She started telling us how she has always dreamt of preaching to crowds and sharing Gods love to people. It had just recently been on her heart to open up her home to do bible studies. (that is one thing we had felt strongly that people were to open up their homes for bible studies before we got there) So us telling her that was confirmation to her. We were able to sit with her and encourage her and pray for her. Her children have fallen away from Christ so we prayed with her for her children and she began to weep. I don't think there is anything more precious than seeing the love from a mother for her children. 

To further walk around this ghetto we saw so many different situations, lets just say you could definitely feel the spiritual darkness in the place but at the same time such a soft presence of God.

Ah so many stories just from the morning walking around there but so little time to share. 

I think this was the moment we fell in love with the place! We decided to commit our last four weeks to this ghetto and really sow into the people there and just help out the locals. Since then our team has been under attack, our leader aches all over and TJ and i have both had migraines and together as a team we all feel really tired. So if that doesn't make it clear to us as a team that this is what we are meant to be doing then i don't know what will. This ghetto needs to see the light, to have a revelation of the cross, and besides Jesus loves them so why shouldn't we..

Where we go in the city to worship and evangelise

What our room looks like after doing washing

 Beautiful girl from one of the houses we visited in the ghetto

 Seeing the smiles on their faces. Priceless.

 This will be a ghetto won for Christ

Team bonding time

And a goodbye from the girls!

God Bless

KEEP STEPPING FORWARD

This Is It

First of all i would like to introduce you to my incredible outreach team, from left Vivianna, Gabriela (leader) Ted, Ruben, Myself and HyunHwa. I will be doing life with these people for the next ten weeks in Costa Rica.

We left March thirty first, arrived on the first of April, to our new home of Costa Rica. Although I don't think it had really hit us that we were on outreach till we arrived a couple days later in a town called Golfito which was an eight hour bus ride from San Jose. Golfito became home for the next twelve days. I don't think we ever got use to the conditions there, waking up, sweating. Falling asleep, sweating. We were in temperatures of about ninety degrees and one hundred percent humidity. It was gross! Besides the heat, our time there was incredible. Our main ministry there was Bible distributions, so everyday going home to home handing out Bibles and praying for people. It was such a special moment seeing how the different culture responds to the gospel and receiving prayer. Everyday we saw salvations, in a total we would have seen about one hundred and forty salvations over the time we were there. One of the moment impacting times for me was having the opportunity to hold a elderly woman hands who had Parkinson's and pray for her as she was weeping. In the moment, the language barrier didn't become and issue.   

Now we're in week three of outreach, back in San Jose we're we are rejoicing in the cooler temperatures! 

Today we went to a special needs orphanage where i was an emotional wreck. I was able to hold a young boy in my arms who had been left on a doorstep with three days to live. He couldn't breath on his own and needed a brace on his back. That was nearly five months ago, he can now breath on his own and no longer needs to be wearing a brace. He was such a happy little man despite the condition he was in and the restrictions he still managed to crack a smile and a giggle. 

In the afternoon we went into the city to evangelise, out team saw two salvations and two re commitments as well as some crazy encounters. 

God is good and He is definitely moving in Costa Rica.

Until next time.

God Bless

KEEP STEPPING FORWARD