First Night of Mission

We decided to sleep before we posted anything, because we had nineteen hours of travel and then ministry. But here we are! Our missionaries Roberto and Michelle Perez picked us up at the airport in San Jose, bringing us some food and helping us pack all of our luggage on top of the big vans that would take us to the jungle for a night service in a small village. 

We drove through San Jose and then up into the jungle, tractor trailers whizzing by us and the sporadic rain hitting the windshield.

One of the vans stopped for fresh jungle fruit, called rambutan, but known as momochinos in Costa Rican culture. It's got a spiky outer casing, and that casing pops open to reveal an egg-looking fruit coated in a gelatinous goo. They taste sweet and sour!

After dropping our luggage off at our small motel, and taking a fifteen minute break to slap on some deodorant and wash our faces, we headed out to the jungle for some ministry. The road looks a little different, doesn't it? 

We climbed out of the vans and some men from the local church took us through the village, where we invited people to the church service. We brought glow sticks and soccer balls, and asked them in our little meager Spanish to come to church at six o'clock. 

The houses are simple shacks. 

It was so different, going house to house asking people to attend a church service. It was a little intimidating! 

The Ticos definitely know how to play soccer; the young guys can do tricks, and of course our team guys joined in. 

Our missionary Roberto opened up the service, and then the worship team sang some songs. A few of them, we knew in English. 

We stood up and danced around during the songs. We wanted to get that church up and moving! 

We even got some kids to come up to the front, to sing and clap with us. 

We did the Cupid Shuffle, which the kids loved. 

We made a conga line and got kid after kid to join in. 

Our team shared two skits, one about being caught in sin and set free, and another about trying to fit in and then realizing Jesus gives us our identity. Some of our team shared their stories of how they were saved by Jesus and set free from their sin, and Jeanette shared a message. She explained to the group that we can get caught in sin, but we are saved from that by a God that loves us and made us, and calls us His children. There was an altar call, and the church's pastor asked the people to come forward if they wanted prayer. It was slow at first, but we didn't need to doubt God, because people began to come forward, arms lifted, going after God. Team members moved in to pray over them. 

This lady asked for prayer for her back pain. As the team laid hands and prayed for her, one of the team members felt three cracks along her lower back as if bones were getting shifted. The team member asked her if she had felt anything and the lady said she felt heat in her back and her pain was gone. Praise God, she was healed!

God was there, in that small open church room. 

God was there, in that small open church room. Last night was just the beginning. 

(Written by Kayla Petersen)

We're here!

We only have a short minute but we wanted to let family and friends know that we have made it safely to Costa Rica. We are heading out right now to minister to the people in the jungle village. We will give a more detailed update tonight.

On our way

Our team is currently in Miami awaiting the connecting flight to San Jose, Costa Rica. Last night we presented ourselves for our mission. Before departing, we gathered for a time of prayer and declared ourselves bound by the power of the Holy Spirit's peace, according to Ephesians 4:3. We are believing for God's power to keep us united but we are also committed to do whatever it takes to keep the harmony of our team. We will not hinder the great plans God has for the people of Costa Rica that we will be ministering to. While we may be sleep deprived from overnight travels to get us to this point, we know we can go to our Heavenly Father and He will exchange our tiredness for His perfect rest (Matthew 11:28). 

We will be boarding our flight to Costa Rica shortly. From this point forward, we will be relying on wifi hotspots to update the blog. We will keep you updated on our trip events as much as possible. Please continue praying for God's will to be done during our time ministering--it's not about us! Once we land in San Jose, we will be boarding vans and traveling for 3 hours into a jungle village. Pray that we reach our final destination full of energy and power as we are scheduled to minister at an evening church service tonight!

Packing Party

Tonight, we leave for Costa Rica.  I’m so ready.  It almost doesn’t seem real.

We had our packing party and last meeting last night. I walked into the room and saw open suitcases and containers of bubbles and popsicle sticks for crafts, and everyone around me working so hard to do the final things for this trip.  While we were working, the Dominican Republic team was preparing for their trip.  They left today, and I’m praying for each of those team members.  We’ll be ministering in different countries at the same time, and that’s amazing to me. 

We made our family creed last week – a sort of list of all the things we want to be as a team.  We said we would be respectful, accepting and loyal to each other as a team.  We said that we would serve wholeheartedly.  We said we would be prayerful.  We said that we wouldn’t complain!  We said that we would be flexible when plans change.  We said that we would be sensitive to the Costa Rican culture.  We said that we would have fun! We said that we would recognize that IT IS NOT ABOUT US.  This week, it was all written out.  In small groups, we went out to pray together and sign that creed.  We all realize that we need God’s perfect peace to bind us together, so that nothing can keep us apart.  The Bible says that our God is Jehovah Shalom – God our peace.  He IS our peace.  Pray for that binding peace all around our team so that we can give, give, give.  

I can’t adequately put into words what we’re all feeling, or what’s going on in everyone’s heads today.  I know that many of us are worried about one thing or another, like a work situation or a family situation.  Some of us are having physical problems.  At the end of our meeting, we had a time of prayer.  We went to God about the fears we had for this time in Costa Rica – safety, unity, and the doubts we maybe feel about our ability to actually make a difference.  We prayed over the sprained ankles and the heel spurs and the back pain and the knee pain and family we may be leaving here.  I believe that God is going to heal our team’s pains because He is that kind of God.  We prayed for the people of Costa Rica.  They’ve been abused, taken advantage of, hurt, and forgotten by the people around them.  But not by God.  Pray that they would be opened up to the love we just want to cover them with, and that they would know that they can have that love for themselves.  Pray for them and for us too.

One of the things I want for this trip comes out of a song called “Oceans (Where Feet May Fail)” by Hillsong United.  Here it is:

Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders

Let me walk upon the waters

Wherever You would call me

Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander

And my faith will be made stronger

In the presence of my Savior

It encourages me to trust God, who knows every detail of this trip, and to simply follow His lead. 

So let’s get going here, my CRamily!  

(written by Kayla Petersen)

So Close!

We’re so close to going to Costa Rica now.  I can’t believe that only a few months ago our team was meeting for the first time!  We’ve had weeks of fundraising and passionate prayer since then, and now I think of the people on my team as family.  I’m ready to see what God’s going to do in us on this trip.  

This past Sunday, we had a meeting, and the topic was peace.  Discussing this made me a little nervous, because it made me think about the conflict we’ll experience in Costa Rica.  Annoyance and frustration is inevitable.  We may not know what’s next in the day’s plan, and there may be a person that’s getting on our nerves.  We talked about ways to keep the peace when things like this happen.  I was like smacked in the face by the message we get from Paul in Romans 12:18 – “Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone.”  In our daily life, we’re responsible to live at peace with those around us.  I know that I don’t want to stop God’s work from happening because my feelings got hurt or because I wasn’t paying attention to someone else and hurt them.  I’m praying right now to be both unoffending and unoffendable.  I want to bring positivity and joy, not anger and criticism.  

We had small prayer circles after our meeting, and we went to God about everything.  We prayed for safety for our team.  We prayed for caring hearts toward each other and to the Costa Rican people.  We prayed for unity in our team.  We prayed to be able to laugh when we’re all stressed out.  We prayed that we would be flexible – our main idea for this trip – when we don’t know the plan.  We prayed for the people we get to serve in LESS THAN A WEEK!  Pray for these too.  Pray that we would be a blessing to each other and to the people we’ll be with.  

This is going to be life-changing.  

(Written by Kayla Petersen)