Hello from Costa Rica! We safely made it early last week and I wanted to share about a ministry moment some of the team and I had on the first day!

  Taylor, Libbie, Erin, and I, were walking the beach when we ran into two surf instructors that we had passed earlier on the walk. They approached us and we immediately assumed they were going to try to sell us their private surf lessons. However that wasn’t the case, they came up to us and welcomed us to Costa Rica. They were probably in their early 20s and introduced themselves as David and Angel. Both of them revealed they spoke some English after watching us struggle to communicate with them in Spanish. 

  The conversation began great and we explained to them the reason we were in Costa Rica was to tell people about God. That’s when David pointed to Taylor’s shirt and asked what the verse on her shirt meant. The verse was Isaiah 54:10 which said “For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed, says the Lord, who has compassion on you.?” After she finished reading the verse they politely asked if we could read it in Spanish because they had no clue what that meant. While it was being re-read, I could see David had a big smile on his face. Afterwards he said that he liked it because it meant that God will love us no matter what. 

   The girls began to continue to talk to David while I stepped back and began having a conversation with Angel. Angel didn’t know much English but we were still able to do our best to understand what the other was saying and even learn a bit of the other’s language. As I continued to get to know Angel I could see how kind he was and how God had presented me with the opportunity to make a new friend.

  We started talking about me, how long I was staying in Costa Rica, and how I was enjoying it, but soon I was able to get him to talk more about himself. He told me that he had a passion for surfing and teaching it as well. He continued to go on and tell me about his girlfriend, favorite meals, his family, and so on. 

    I eventually had the opportunity to ask if there was any good churches nearby which opened the door to ask Angel if he attended church himself. He said he didn’t but he did believe in God, he went onto telling me that he didn’t know why he believed but deep down, he knows God is real. Hearing that made me so excited to continue to talk on this subject!

  However Angel had other plans; he went onto talking about how he has seen aliens and what sounded like to be helicopters all over the place. And how all of that somehow related to the government sticking a canal through the middle of Nicaragua. The conversation was heading in the opposite direction of where I wanted it to, but I smiled and went along with it. 

      After that conversation he gave me a hug and told me to come back to see him and then ran off to go talk to another friend, but I was extremely blessed to have the opportunity to make a new friend and potentially someone I can lead towards Christ. 

   Even though I wasn’t able to necessarily share the gospel with Angel I was able to listen about aliens and helicopters and show him that I care for him and that in itself is being a light for Christ.