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Pura vida! That means the pure life in Costa Rica, and it is a common greeting. We use the phrase often-particularly because none of us are fluent in Spanish. We have been enjoying our time in this beautiful country. Yesterday was a holiday, the annexation of Guanacaste. Due to the holiday, we had slightly less time at our ministry sites, but it was fun to see people out and about sharing in the festivities. We saw lots of little boys with beards, sideburns, and mustaches drawn on in celebration. Perhaps as a result of the day off, the busses were EXTREMELY crowded. This was our first real experience with the busses like this, and it was slightly overwhelming. The phrase “packed liked sardines” was all too realistic. Despite this, we had a great day serving the people of Costa Rica and even went on a tour of downtown San Jose.
In addition to learning about the interesting history of the city, we have discovered that earthquakes are quite common! In the last two days there have been three, and the one last night woke most of us up. Many of the team members had incredible opportunities to share Christ yesterday and we are so excited to share these stories with others. Alex, who works at the sports ministry site, said that she was able to ref a soccer game for some of the younger kids. She discovered that it's a bit hard to ref when you do not speak the language. However, she was able to cheer on two of the boys she met on our first day here. Alex said that seeing their smiles made up for any of the difficulties with communication. It is so wonderful to see that God allows us to love on the people here even with limited knowledge of Spanish.
Jessie works alongside Alex and the other sports staff. She stated that she was feeling timid about speaking Spanish, and has people at home praying for this particular concern. Yesterday Jessie had several conversations in Spanish with various people. She said that while she was talking, she could only think that God had this in his plan for her time in Costa Rica. Jessie was also able to speak with a Christian family on the bus for a length of time, and they said they would pray for each other. She talked to another Costa Rican and his girlfriend about Christ and encouraged them to go to church. Kat was very excited to take pictures with twins…gemelas in Spanish!
A member of the SI staff, Rafael, spoke to everyone on one of the bus rides yesterday. He pointed out the group from SI and told them what we are doing in Costa Rica. He shared his testimony and told those on the bus about the immeasurable joy and peace he found in Christ. He was incredibly persuasive, and even got some paper from the bus driver so that he could hand out information to the bus patrons about God. We are so blessed to see the way God works through all of the staff and interns at Students International, as well as the way He is moving within our team. On a less related note, we are learning more Spanish every day. Our current favorite word is cuidado, which means be careful or look out. We use it far too often! More updates to come soon!
Ciao!
Team Costa Rica