Costa Rica is beautiful but cold! My team and I have been placed in a more mountainous area in San Jose. It’s rainy season and I’ve probably seen more rain the past two weeks here than the 13 years I’ve lived in Wyoming.
A quick ministry update:
We are working with an organization called Transforma. This organization is directed toward women in poverty/prostitution situations. The goal is to teach them entrepreneurship/life skills!
Transforma offers beginner to advanced classes in a variety of things such as sewing, soap making, massage, leadership training, manicures and pedicures, and hair styling.
They hope to impact these women’s lives by offering them a better route as well as impacting them through devotionals and Jesus time.
So far we have done hospitality (cleaning, making coffee, socializing) as well as child care to allow these women the freedom and safety they need at having a better shot in their communities. This past week has been slow as the women are on “winter break” but should pick up this next week.
Along with ministry at Transforma, we have a received a few chances at visiting a small community of immigrants from Nicaragua. We attended a children’s Bible school graduation as well as helped the local pastor start packing up her house.
The community was built 18 years ago by people fleeing Nicaragua, away from the civil war. For 18 years they sought and found refuge in their neighboring country. The government has recently decided to demolish half of the community to start the construction of a highway. They have promised government housing but are very slow at getting those built. The people will have to move to a new section of bare land with the little they have and construct homes the best they can until these promises are fulfilled!
On the outside these houses don’t look like much. They are built out of scrap metal and boards and maybe even a little cardboard. But on the inside many of them are cozy, normal little homes with kitchens, windows and sitting areas.
The more time I spend in this community the more I learn to love it and the people that live there. Please remember them in prayer as they go through this hard transition!
Time is ticking fast and though I am excited to share my year with y’all in person, I am trying to get everything I can out of very moment over the next couple weeks. I have mixed emotions about the Race ending so soon. Please keep me and my squad in your prayers, specifically with keeping apathy at bay and the drive to finish this strong!
