I have been back from Costa Rica a little over a week now and though it was not hard to get back on track it was hard to leave such a beautiful country behind.
The mission trip in itself was amazing. Costa Rica is a beautiful country, full of loving people just waiting to hear about the love of Jesus Christ. It was a great experience for me and it was such a blessing to watch the students of HSM serve the lord and grow in their faith as well.
We started off in San Jose were we stayed at a great little hostel in the heart of the city. There my van group went to a local High School, Junior High and orphanage. At the high school we were able to communicate pretty well since half their classes are taught in English, but since it was our first stop it took us a little longer to get in the groove of things and feel comfortable. The Junior High was probably our hardest stop, since we were not aloud to speak about Jesus at all. This confused and frustrated my group at first but after talking it over we realized it is not always about speaking but about showing. We played games with them, did a short lesson on tolerance and morals and just loved on them and at the end we gained more relationships there then anywhere else. The orphanage was small but full of children, aging from 3 months to 12 years old. Just playing with them in their tiny backyard and giving their care takers a break for a couple hours was so rewarding. Our hearts broke for those kids knowing that they were just dropped off, and though the care takers and local church love and take care of them so much, you know all they want is a real family.
After the first couple days we rejoined with the other 2 groups and went to feed the homeless, to an old folks home, another orphanage were all of the children there have some short of mental/physical disability, and Jholy(a local ministry that is part of one of the churches we worked with, that puts on secular plays and shares God's love at the end).
Feeding the homeless touched a lot of our students. I have had the privilege to feed to homeless at Skid Row but for a lot of our students this was their first time. It was a reality check and definitely put life in perspective for everyone! At the old folks home we spent the hour dancing, and seeing the smile on their faces was enough to touch our hearts. The metal/physical disability orphanage was really tough to see. The children there aged from baby to later 20's but even though their age was old they looked like young teens because of the illness they have. To watch the nuns just spend all their time just caring for these children made me so grateful for the life I have. It was hard enough to take care of the kids for the couple hours we were there, but there is no way I could do it everyday, I have so much respect for those nuns! Jholy was a really cool experience for us as well. It is a local theater that is run and put on by all ages and is paid for by their own money or donations by people who come to their shows. It was neat to do some warm up exercises with them and then be able to watch one of their shows at night. The city supports them completely because they dont affiliate themselves with the church but they do spread God's love in their own way. All their shows are very secular and appeal to everyone not just the Christians.
Now we are only at Sunday, I know we did a lot in the first 4 days but dont stop reading just yet. Sunday we went to the local church we were working with (a purpose drive church, pastored by Giovanni) and taught in the youth room and got to know the youth group a little bit. It was cool to see how their youth group does a service compared to Saddleback. After we headed back to the hostel to hang out and then later that night went back to the church to celebrate Mother's Day with them.
Monday we left for Jaco...ahh the beach...hahah I wish, more like ewww the heat and mugginess. In Jaco we went to a turtle hatchery, a teen mom school, the slums and zip lining. The turtle hatchery ended up being a bust but it was fun to spend time on the beach and watch a storm. The teen mom school was really neat. It is the only school in CR that allows teen moms, pregnant or ones with kids already, to go to school and get help from a babysitter while in class. We got a chance to celebrate Mother's day with them with some pastries , prayers and talking. The slums really made us all be thankful for what we had. These families lived in man made built shacks a little ways from the freeway in the woods by a river. It was so fun just hanging out with them and then surrounding them with love and feeding them. The students really loved hanging out with these kids and really formed a heart for the less fortunate, and we walked away wanting to grab things from home and send it to them.
The last day was spent relaxing and zip lining through the trees of Costa Rica. It was a fun way to end the trip and just talk about all that we had learned about the past couple weeks. Coming home was rough and we left a group of people who we built lasting relationships with. After crying and hugging a bunch we walked into the airport and onto the planes back home, as changed people. I learned so much about myself and about others. My relationship with God grew stronger and I came home wanting to do local peace work. I also gained a small group of senior girls who I am so excited to get to know and mentor. This was an amazing missions trip and I can not wait to go on more in the years to come!
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