COSTA RICA
What an amazing country, the two words that came to mind is fruitful and abundance. The team arrived in Limon on the 2nd of June by bus; interesting ride; I never knew a bus could be that cold; I slept in every piece of clothing I could find
The man sitting next to me; like most conversations was about South Africa and Nelson Mandela and the phenomena of meeting a white south African hiehie,it truly is very funny 80% of the people we meet can’t believe there is white South Africans and lions doesn’t roam in the streets. The thing that makes traveling via local transport great is meeting the locals, it is special and real.
We were welcomed by two wonderful missionaries called Sally and Crosby Johnson. With a warm smile and with Costa Rican hospitality they took us to our home for the next two weeks. In true Global style of life lived in simplicity you never expect fancy accommodation, gourmet food, especially because our teams finances is not up to date and here we arrive at a home that looks like it was cut out of a 5star travel magazine.Whoopeee!
We were situated a block from playa Bonita ("beautiful beach"), God really knew the team needed rest. He just came and provided in abundance a beautiful home, food prepared and donated. We stayed for free; God is great and faithful, He just says trust me! We went to Costa to do physical labor, preparing and landscaping a piece of land for one of the Methodist churches and in the evening we ministered in a Baptist church. Being a non denominational organization, only the love for Jesus Christ, we help all and any. Gods body has been separated for long enough.
Did you know there was a country in the world that had all kinds of fruit trees just growing all over for free? Fruit, all kinds, shapes, sizes, colors, smells, everywhere and for anyone. I suppose you can do numerous things in Costa but going hungry is not one of them. Every time you take a break you get your masshety(aka Panga ) and get yourself a good coconut and enjoy Gods goodness.
Every day we saw a Sloth and it just came to me “Do you really know what it is to find your rest in ME? Do we really know what it is to rest in God, to rest in contentment? Contentment with what you have, who you are? With that not saying to be lazy but what it is to wait on Him in obedience.
With that said the team was then lead to leave Costa two days earlier.
We did not have enough money to travel to Gautemala, God allowed no money to come in and well if the other doors didn’t open we had one open door: HITCHIKE to GAUTEMALA. Eish scary stuff. Hitchhiking from Limon to Panajachel Guatemala through Costa rica, Nicaravua, Honduras and El Salvador…umm in some of these countries even the police is afraid. Well this was the only door open and surely God knows His plans so off we went…
We had 7days to hitchhike to Panajachel and believe me I tried my best to get all of God’s blessings in this time on a piece of paper but when I got to page 6 of the story I realized umm I am going to have to choose one day and one event and tell of Gods glory. My favourite day…
Day 5…
So we walk and walk and walk… no-one picks us up. Thoughts: “What am I doing here?”; I could be back in South Africa eating “melkkos” and watching 7de Laan. “God? What is the purpose?”
Then a truck stops,YEAH!! And off we went after walking over two mountains the size of Outeniqua with 25kg backpacks(only a woman can pack that much,ai)on the back of a sement truck. While we are joyfully singing with sement in our eyes,yeah your standards tend to drop a bit hiehie It starts raining, no pouring is a better word.
The truck stops at a small town just a few kilometers from our destination town;Acajutla. We take the bus and we meet two wonderful locals that helped us to find a very cheap place to stay; Hotel Verde. Here we meet Louise, English speaking –YEAH;it is a blessing on its own.Our Spanish is horrible, to say the least
He gives us mangos and the best coffee you have ever tasted. He offers to be our tour guide for the night and show us what his little town is about. As we stroll through the street; vending stalls everywhere. He goes to show us their park; all of us are pretty cautious since one of our other teams was held at mashetty point (if you want to hear their story email me again please).
It starts raining and we take shelter, as we run under the roof someone jumps up, we startled him. We introduced ourselves and immediately you know he knows Jesus. There is just something about him. His name is Carlos and he is a missionary in Acacutla; he ministers to the gangsters in the small town. The very people that we fear. As we share our anxieties of walking about, his only advice to guard against the gangsters…Always walk with your bible. What? Why? He testifies and tells us how many times the power of God saved his life ministering to the gangsters and they could not touch him because God was with him? The gangsters fear the power of God. Not all of them are Christians but all of them acknowledge the power of God! How awesome is that?
He shares that he is actually there every night praying for the town but that evening he was interceding for his family which he lost 7years ago; he doesn’t know where they are. We knew God arranged this divine appointment. We sang “In die hemel is die Heer” and it was as if you could tangibly feel Gods presence. It was still pouring we could not move we did not want to move. We prayed for him and gave word of encouragement. As we said amen the rain stops; as if to say “Yes now you may go”. One of my team mates felt lead to give him money to buy bibles for the gangsters and when he mentions it Carlos started to weep. He was praying for that…We rejoiced and we set up a meeting for the next day at 10am.
10AM: Carlos is in time and he is filled with joy. He sits down overwhelmed by our divine appointment. He tells us he had a dream in the beginning of the year of three people that he would meet sent from God and he realized it when he went home the previous night, it was us. He invites us to his home to meet and pray for his mother. As we walk to his home we realize we are in gangster territory; I swiftly take out my bible hiehie just in case. Everyone is tattooed all over; their faces, neck, stomach, arms, legs every part covered. I can’t help but to walk a bit faster. We get to his home and he turns around and go to the gangsters, which has been following us to his home. As we sit there in anticipation he returns with coffee and biscuits. I see the gangsters sitting in front of the house and I can’t help but to ask. No he Says they wanted to know who we were for we were trespassing he told them we are missionaries and we love Jesus..so they said” O, well then we will stay here fr their protection” What? Hiehie God has a sense of humor. Sending us Gangster bodyguards..Well I felt really save.
We then pray for his mother and we felt lead to wash Carlos ´feet and just give him a vision that one of us had for him and more word. He starts weeping as only when touched by Gods love. As we finish he shares with us that when he was 1year old he was raped and molested by his cousin. He was still mad at his mother and he still hurt sometimes but when we prayed for him the previous night and right there chains was broken and he feels at peace with himself and his mom. WOW!!
How great is our God,I wish I could share all of what happened before and after but you would be reading all day
WHAT I LEARNED
God is love;he loves us so much. How could one keep on sinning;keep on going against God when he just keeps on calling your name. Shouting out to warn us of danger but we ignore Him. We just keep sinning; keep on being to busy to spend time with him. Then we have the arrogance to be mad at him when something in our lives go wrong. We keep blaming him but on the other hand we never spend time with him to allow him either to showus the right path, His path, or to comfort us and show the outcome of our situations which could be to bring glory to His name and maybe save a bunch of people by our testimonies.
We need to spend time with our Father; he longs for you!