"It will prosper everywhere I send it..."

“It is the same with my word. I send it out, and it always produces fruit. It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it."  Isaiah 55: 11

The Lord’s promised me for a couple of years now in regards to ministry here in Costa Rica….  I’ve known deep in my heart it was a promise and true, but this past week I was able to see it and experience it in a way I’ve never see the Lord work in kids lives!!

For three years now, I’ve fought to be in our kids lives and to be in the school to reframe and restart what YL looks like here… It’s not been an easy journey, but it’s been a wonderful one.  There’s been a group of students at one of the schools that I’ve been working to get in with and this year we had a group of them come to Service Project!! 

We had 24 kids go to Service Project- 14 never had been before and 9 kids had never even been to YL before!  Little did they know what they were in for!! 

Our service project this year was back in Talamanca with Vida Net Ministry, where we went last year, working at their community base to build a standalone kitchen for the organization to be able to host large community events and have enough space to cook for everyone.  So what did that entail?  Rocks, rocks, and more rocks!!!  We carried bolder sized to pebble sized rocks up from the river all week long to construct the base of this kitchen.  We had to build it up a meter high in order for it to withstand flooding because it is a pretty wet area.  So we laid the foundation of rocks and concreted half of the floor and left the other half ready for the locals to finish the concrete that week!! This was a large part of our week, but the best part was being with our students. That is the unique thing about our service project is that we as leaders get to work alongside our friends during the day then have fun and talk about life and Jesus in the evening. 

We spent many hours in this river collecting rocks to carry back to the site!
Joining me in photo-Stephanny, a CC girl, and Becka, our speaker's wife! 

Rocks Rocks Rocks!! 

Luke and Erin, two students I've poured into for many years now, work on laying the block wall

  

Collecting more... you guessed it... ROCKS!!! 

Final day on the site finished!!!! 

Another huge part of this week is every evening we have YL Club where we play games and sing silly songs and get to hear the Gospel over the course of the week. This year our volunteer leaders, the Boone bros, were Gnarly Surfer Bronas Bros and hosted the week of YL Clubs!!  We played all kinds of crazy games from chasing a plunger around the room, fitting as many people as possible on a cardboard surf board, to eating sardines covered in condensed milk... Gross!! But we had a blast and our speaker Kevin set us up well in sharing the best part with our kids, the love story of Jesus Christ.

Bronas Bros- aka Bradyn and Jason!  

Broga pose of the day getting ready to shred the gnarl!!

Blindfolded Musical chairs! 

Hanging out before dinner 

One of the many jam sessions of the week

Listening to our talented musicians shine! 

Our rockin' team of leaders!  

My Cabin of girls- Lindsey, Dania, Tamasha,
Ari, Rachel (Leader), Camille and Marianna 

This year’s Service Project I was in a cabin with senior girls and one other girl I’ve disciple throughout the years, and I am pretty close to them all but they aren’t all necessarily that close, so I didn’t know how they’d mesh together.  But night one I was blown away at how open and vulnerable they were in their desires to be there and know God and share what they were struggling with in life….  Also, the first night Marianna, one of my Cross Country girls, shares in our cabin time that she wanted to be closer to God.  Which blew me away! I’ve spent lots of time with her and we’ve had many real life conversations, but she’s never expressed much desire to know Jesus even when I’ve talked about Him with her.  

Well the week continued with many deep conversations and late night discussions about my life and faith with her.  She was struggling with a lot of things that have happened in her life and that she mentally battles.  I was able to share my own life struggles with her and how no matter what’s happened to us the only thing in this life and world that will fulfill us and heal us is Jesus.  And how he’s the only true, lasting love that will satisfy us.  Then at the end of the week I got to celebrate with her as she stood up on the beach at a time YL calls “Say So,” where we allow the kids to stand up at the end of camp and share what God’s done in their lives, and say that she wants a relationship with Jesus and wants to pursue Him again. 

Mari and Me!  

And Mariana wasn’t the only one who stood up our last day!! We had 8 students stand up and say they had made decisions to have a relationship with God that week!!  And several students shared how they’d had many questions answered about God and the Bible throughout the week that’s brought them closer to God.  I am so overjoyed and grateful to see what God’s doing in our kids’ lives and to see how he’s moving in this community!!

Kevin leading Say So on the Beach! 

Playing after a hard week of working! 

God is so good and so faithful!! He produces fruit in his time! I am so thankful for each of you that have traveled through this journey with me and encouraged me when things were tough and celebrated with me in the joys!! And I’m so excited that we get to celebrate 8 kids together now!! And I feel so blessed to be part of what the Lord’s doing here in Costa Rica and that in His grace I was able to see a little peek at the fruit that is going to happen in this community I’ve invested in the past 3 years.  What an incredible way to finish up my last semester seeing kids I love so much find real life and hope in Jesus!!

The journey doesn’t end here either… we are still walking alongside our high school friends as they continue to search and question and learn about Jesus.  Please pray for these 8 kids that have made decisions to follow Jesus, as it is a hard place to really live out your faith- for strength and courage and freedom in seeking a relationship with Jesus.  And I ask for prayers for myself and our other leaders as they walk with our kids in this new journey together.