Hello subscribers!! To begin I would like to apologize for the large gap in between my blog posts. As some of you may know, my phone was stolen while we were in Jaco. Because of this, writing blogs is difficult. In this post I would like to give a summary of the back half of my trip. To start, I would like to say that my time in Jaco was fantastic. I was able to make many friends in the community through the church there, primarily through the weekly youth group with kids around my age. We were also blessed to get to partake in a biweekly surf club where we taught little kids how to surf which was so much fun. But my favorite part of Jaco was being able to play basketball with a group of guys from the community every Monday night. This is where I truly had the most fun just because I was able to use one of the gifts God has blessed me with to be a light. And even though I didn’t speak the same language as the 20 or so guys, I was able to build meaningful relationships. One of the guys, Johan, even tracked my wallet down for me when it had been stolen. The hardest part about leaving Jaco was leaving those guys. Jaco was my favorite location so far because of the fast paced environment, as well as the beautiful beaches and people that live there. As far as spiritually, Jaco was the place I truly felt I grew the most which was just another reason I enjoyed it so much.
Moving on, we were unable to go to Panama for the last month because of covid restrictions. So thanks to our great leadership team at AIM we we’re able to go to another town in Costa Rica called Turrialba. Here in Turrialba we’ve had such a great time and I truly believe this is exactly where we’re supposed to be. We are working alongside a church for ministry which consists of painting the church, building accessibility ramps and even rebuilding houses in the community. I’m so happy that our last month is here because of the free time that we get with each other and ourselves.
As a squad we’ve grown so close to each other here. Also the ministry hosts here have been so amazing and it’s been a blessing to grow relationships with them. And most definitely a good opportunity for my Spanish to improve. Because of the slow nature of Turrialba it has given me the time to reflect back on how this trip has gone. With a day left I’m looking forward to heading home to see my friends and family, however I know it’ll be difficult to leave my squad and friends here. But I know God has a plan for not just me but everyone on the squad and I’m excited to see it.
