So I realized I should probably post before I head to Brazil because things will get crazy and I'll forget to blog later about local outreach...
We left for our first outreach location, Chiroles, which is in the province of Limon, on Dec. 28th and it took about 4-5 hours to get there by van. Luckily this time we had no van trouble, yah! For those of you who have lived in northern manitoba, Chiroles is very similar to the reserves we have up there (except think jungle, not boreal forest). One of the staff members at the base here, Luis, grew up there so it was great to have somebody to show us around and introduce us to the people. It's a very small community (most people are related) so everybody was friendly and glad to have us there which was nice.
While we were there we stayed at a bible camp, we got to sleep with scorpions, snakes, and large mosquitoes...just kidding we didn't actually see any scorpions, but we were warned to check our bags and shoes before we put our hands in.
The first day we ended up doing manual labor around the bible camp, it's still relatively new so there's always stuff to do. Being in Chiroles was how I thought Costa Rica was going to be like: jungle, really hot and humid, and sunny. It was definitely a change from the cool temperatures of San Jose. The next few days we did kid and youth camps which were awesome! I felt called towards the 11-14 year old age group, so me and five of my DTS team members got to plan activities for them. We did dramas, games, teachings, small groups, and on the last day we broke into separate guys and girls groups, and we painted the girls' nails. I really enjoyed the time we got to spend with them, it was fun and I was forced to use my Spanish which was good for me.
As a surprise on New Year's Eve, we ended up going to the beach for the day which was super relaxing and fun because we got to spend all day together as a DTS. In the evening we did worship for awhile, and then our DTS collected enough coconuts for each of us and toasted at midnight. I don't think the leaders of the bible camp were too happy but we realized, when else would we be able to welcome in the new year in Costa Rica?
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| Toasting the New Year with coconuts...some of us in our P.J's. |
The last night in Chiroles we ended up having an 'Evangelism Night' which was definitely an experience! We set up in the soccer field and we were supposed to have lights, but somehow it didn't quite work out like that. They had set up instruments on the back of a flat bed truck for us to do worship, and the sound system was working, but they couldn't get lights working. A few guys eventually strung a bunch of lights between two bamboo poles and then we got things going! We did worship, dramas, and the pastor did a short message. We got to talk and pray with a lot of people, and it ended up being a really great night.
We left Chiroles the next morning and made our way over to the small beach town of Puerto Viejo, which was only about 45 minutes away. It's a tourist-y town because it's literally right on the beach, and it was strange seeing that many gringos in one place after going months without seeing any. Basically our plan for Puerto Viejo was going to be similar to that of Chiroles, but it didn't end up that way. For the kids/youth camp, we barely got any kids let alone youth, so we had to change our plans a bit. We ended doing a lot of street evangelism, just talking to people and seeing what they thought about God. Being in Puerto Viejo was actually really spiritually difficult, despite being in the tropical location we were. People go there to relax and party, so hearing about Jesus isn't exactly on their list of top priorities. Puerto Viejo is also a huge drug town, every corner you turn somebody is offering you some, so that also contributes to the heaviness there.
It ended up being a good time though, we had a lot of good conversations, and we did quite a few prayer walks around the town, and different evangelism activities. I'd always known that spiritual warfare existed but I'd never felt it as strongly as I did being in Puerto Viejo. I definitely learned a lot about it during our week there and my views of it have changed a lot.
We left Puerto Viejo on January 10th in the morning and got back in the evening. We had van trouble on the way back...it wouldn't be a YWAM trip without some car trouble. The van was fine until we started to go up the mountain, then it decided it didn't want to continue. Luckily a tow truck came by so we got towed to the highway police station (the highway we were on wasn't the safest in terms of people getting robbed). On top of that, our second van had run out of gas up ahead of us (again luckily they ran out at the police station) so that's where we all met up. They filled up the one van and then we waited for a new van to come get us (we were only 45 minutes away from San Jose, so it wasn't long). It was a long day, but we were really happy to be sleeping in beds, and be eating real food. Outreach is definitely a stretching experience in every way, but it's also really fun. I'm excited to see what Brazil holds!
The Brazil team leaves today, and the team going to upper Central America leaves on Monday. I don't want to think about how many tissue boxes will be used up today when our DTS splits up...
On a happier note, we know that that's where God called us to be so we just keep that in mind. Five weeks goes by really fast, and we'll be back in San Jose in no time. We always appreciate prayer, so feel free! Thanks for reading!
-1 Chronicles 28:20
