One week down in Costa Rica and I have learned so many things. I have learned that the people here value relationship over religion. I have learned that it rains just about everyday in the afternoon. I have learned that there are lots of bugs, especially ants. The fruits we buy at home are casually growing in trees in peoples’ yards. Coffee beans are green until they are roasted. The coffee here is fantastic. There are several active volcanoes in Costa Rica. San Jose is bustling. The list goes on forever.
One of the most important things I have learned about this trip is flexibility. We start our day thinking we have a plan, and then a ministry cancels so we have to find something new to do. We get to a ministry site only to find out there is already a team there, and we are not needed. We are on our way back from a ministry site and our van stops working, only to find out the next day that the van probably could not be fixed. We made reservations to zip line on an off day only to find out the morning of that they canceled on us. We go to ministry sites dressed and expecting to do one thing and end up doing something completely different. Without flexibility, staying positive would be hard.
Something that I have been struggling with is being flexible in our ministry options. In comparison to other mission trips in which I have gotten to show love and compassion on so many people, there are rarely outside people involved in what we are doing. The majority of our ministry sites have been manual labor. We have moved scrap metal, glass, trees, and trash. We have sorted through dumps pulling out what could be recycled. We have landscaped and done yard work. We have painted fences and planted gardens. This is not what I knew to be ministry. I was beginning to question my purpose of being in Costa Rica, because everything I was doing could have been done in the comfort of Knoxville.
I have had to search deep and lose my expectations of what my ministry here could look like. We are called to seek God and glorify Him in all that we do. We are called to seek God even in tasks that seem monotonous and pointless. In tasks as simple as washing dishes or sweeping or even mowing, I have been able to find joy by changing my perspective. I am helping someone and sharing the love of Christ. God is good all the time. We should seek His good all the time.
For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose
Philippians 2:13
