First week of outreach

Here’s some information to catch you up on the last 2 weeks…
Our final week of lecture phase was spent traveling, cleaning, and teaching.
Wednesday -Friday each of us prepared a message or shared a testimony with the team. It was really neat to see how each of my teammates has grown in the last 3 months. I felt lead to speak on “The power of words.“ We looked at several scriptures in Proverbs and a few in the new testament and Psalms. The overall theme verses were Proverbs 12:18 and Proverbs 18:21. The first one says,
“Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.”Proverbs 18:21 says,
“The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.”I shared with my group that I was preaching to myself about this. I struggle with my mouth so much, and even here have said unkind words to people. Whether we are surrounded by Christians or non -Christians, we are all prone to speak harshly with people if we don’t guard our mouth. I used to pray Psalm 141:3 over my mouth on the way to work the last few years, but for some reason, I stopped doing so until a few weeks ago here. It says, Set a guard over my mouth O Lord, and keep watch over the door of my lips.” Another Proverbs says that the man who guards his mouth, keeps himself from calamity. AMEN ! We actually had a huge change of plans for the last week of our lecture phase.
A few weeks ago, our survival camp ( known as NIKO) was cancelled. We were supposed to leave 12/15 for the camp for 5 days. Most of us were super excited about going to the jungle together, but a few are happy that we don’t have to go without showering for 5 days! I was actually excited about NIKO, and was prepared to have a great week even though we would not be able to shower. I was told it was a pretty exhausting experience, so I think God worked everything for my good. We are all really excited about leaving for Germany tomorrow, and we will arrive there late evening on New Year’s Eve.
First week of OutreachOur first week of outreach was amazing and full of great ministry. Most of our group had to renew our visas, so we made a quick trip to Nicaragua. We arrived Monday night, and left Tuesday morning. It was pretty hectic getting across the border both times, but we managed to get in and out, pay our taxes, and get back to Liberia safely. We were staying with some friends of our leaders there in a house that was empty. We were all going to sleep on the floor in our sleeping bags. I spotted a huge scorpion on the wall in the bathroom and thought I was going to have a panic attack! There was no way that we were going to dinner and leave that thing in our home! So, we knocked it off the wall, beat it with the curtain rod, and then I took it outside where we dropped a few rocks on it. Praise God, I got to sleep in the home where the family stayed, and on a bed! I don’t think I would’ve slept that much in the other house, knowing there could be more scorpions! We waited about 2 hours to get back to Costa Rica because of the holidays. I enjoyed myself by dancing and singing with some other teammates to the loud music that playing nearby. We took a bus back to Liberia, and met up with the rest of our group at the church we were going to be working with for the week. The girls stayed at another pastor’s house, while the guys stayed at the church. Two of our leaders are from this town and church, so it was neat to meet their families and friends. We ate dinner and a hour or so later, we were on our way to our first kids ministry in Liberia. We typically do a few fun dramas, games, and maybe a story with the kids. My favorite moment all week was when a little boy ran up to me there, and just gave me a big hug! He took me by surprise, but I wrapped my arms around him quickly, and hugged him back! We also did kids ministry with the pastor who opened her home to the girls one night, passed out cookies with bible verses, and did some evangelism in the park our last night in town. I made some connections with a few little girls and they asked when we were going to return. I told them that I didn’t know when we were going to come back, and you could tell they were bummed. I love how kids just hold your hand and hug you when they first meet you. They don’t have any shame in showing that they just want love.
We also hosted a dinner for the homeless in Liberia on Christmas Eve. What’s neat about this dinner, is that we partnered with the government, and all we had to do was show up. We did a little more than that though to make it a special night. We bought soap and some other toiletries to pass out, and since it was at the local soccer stadium, they had access to showers. We also were able to collect some clothes and shoes, in addition to serving them a tasty meal. Some of our group even washed their feet! The government was going to provide vehicles to go pick up the homeless, but it didn’t work out. Our guys went to pick them up in our van, and brought them back load by load. I think we had about 15 or 20 folks show up. Some of our girls met a lady in the park the day before and invited her to come. She said that her birthday was on the day of the event, so we all pitched in a dollar or so, and bought her a cake. It was so awesome to see her face when they brought the cake out to her, and we all sang happy birthday. Some of the people were drunk, but for the most part, they were very attentive, and we had great conversations with them. We performed a funny drama and a serious drama while they were eating.
We will spent Christmas Eve with one of our leaders family, and it was such a special time for our group. It was so nice to meet Rossela’s family, because in addition to being my leader and one-on-one, she has been an amazing friend to me here. She and her mom cooked an amazing meal for us, and we exchanged gifts with our Secret Friend.
We spent Christmas day on 2 different beaches. We have one day off each week on outreach, and it was optional to go. I was tired, but I knew I could rest there. The beach has always been a place of rest for me, and a place where I feel close to God. The beaches were gorgeous, especially Conchal Beach, where the was no sand, just fragments of shells. The water was clear, and the tides were strong enough to carry you back and forth, so I just let the water take me with it!

More to come... getting on the van!!