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“Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that is a much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat.”
-Mother Teresa
Last night, I attended my ‘still-new-but-feels-like-home’ church, Gathering Place (Guadalupe, Costa Rica), again and got to listen to a sermon from the book of Acts, worship my Savior in English and in Spanish, take communion, and fellowship with others.
I felt incredibly blessed walking out of the service last night for a couple of reasons.
Don’t think God answers prayers? Think again because He answered mine loud and clearly. I’ve prayed more than a few times that while I’m living in Costa Rica, opportunities would come my way and friends, too. It didn’t take long for God to intervene when I couldn’t make those things happen on my own. Some people would say “oh it’s a coincidence” but I’m firmly believing that this was a total God thing.
This is how it happened… I met a missionary from the United States who’s been living here for three years. His kids happen to go to the school that I’m teaching at and on a Saturday we had a school event where I ended up meeting this guy, Andy, and his family. He handed me a business card for his church not too far from where I live. It’s even in English. CHEERS! I was so excited that the next chance I got, I went to the church and my expectations were exceeded. I felt like I belonged. I made friends with a girl named Hope quickly and connected with many others, too.
Last night after the service I was talking with Andy, the missionary, and we got to discussing different ways that I could serve on the weekends. My weekday’s fly by here because 4th graders suck all of the energy out of me daily, but the weekends are usually relaxing and sometimes boring, so the idea of having something more to do on the weekends caught my attention. He said we could figure out the details and invited me to come check out the “Villas,” where the 30 (from the US) students who are here studying the Bible and Spanish, live. I walked from the church to the Villas and spent time talking to different students, most of them close to my age (17-20 years old). Andy and I also further discussed these two opportunities for me on the weekends.
The first opportunity: Friday night volunteer mentoring at a public orphanage nearby.
Andy knows a couple who go every Friday evening to an orphanage to talk and develop personal relationships with girls at the orphanage who are 16-17 years old, soon to be released at the age of 18 years old. The sad part is that many of these girls will be “freed” and not have any guidance as to how to be an independent adult. Prostitution is the most common path taken. It’s not really “illegal” here in Costa Rica. Even more heartbreaking, people from brothels come and “recruit” these young girls. Sometimes drug-dealers weasel their way into these girls’ lives and they end up in dark, dark places. Upon learning all of this information, I was SHAKEN. I instantly felt a tug on my heart saying Amanda, this is a door I’m opening for you. You aren’t going to know what to say or what to do. Trust me, but you need to go. It was such an intense tug that I can’t ignore it. I am in the process of working out details, but I’m diving into this. I don’t know what to expect really. My mind hasn’t stopped anxiously wondering what these girls are like, if they will even want to talk to me, if they’ll care about what I have to say…oh and the biggest hurdle I’m going to have to get over is speaking to these girls in Spanish. Yes, I’ve had classes and lived abroad, but am I fluent? NOPE. So that in itself is making me a bit nervous about this whole thing. However, my heart is overjoyed with the idea of getting to love on a group of girls who probably haven’t had a good experience with the true meaning of love. I’m sure, like always, I will learn more from helping these girls, than they’ll learn from me.
The second opportunity: Being an English teacher to the public for free on Saturdays.
Our church here in Guadalupe is offering FREE English classes to the public on Saturday mornings. That’s a BIG deal in Costa Rica…I think it’s great way to serve the community and can be used as a tool to bring people into the church! What makes me hesitant and excited at the same time about this opportunity to serve is that I would be teaching English to people who are total beginners. That means I would be forced to communicate in Spanish with them quite a bit. I am confident that I know a lot, but I tend to doubt my ability when it comes to Spanish. [Side note: Spanish has been one of the hardest things I’ve had to work at in my life. Normally everything academically and athletically came to me with ease.] I can understand just about everything I hear in Spanish now, as long as it’s not spoken at 200 mph. I’d be lying if I said this opportunity didn’t make me nervous. I am, truthfully, terrified to speak in front of people of all ages because I know grammatically I won’t be accurate the majority of the time. It’s going to be intimidating, but, I’m certain- well worth it in the end.
I included the Mother Teresa quote because it couldn’t be more fitting and true. It’d would be worse for people to go through this life feeling unloved, unwanted, or like they have no place they “belong” than to go hungry. Whether it’s with the girls at the orphanage or the people of the whole community, they need to be SHOWN they are not forgotten. They have a creator who loves them and longs to guide them through the ups and downs of this life. My goals are to love the girls I end up mentoring and love on the people that come to learn English, but it won’t be through my human willpower that I am successful at loving…that’s going to be through the help of my Savior.
I have no idea what’s going to come of either of these possibilities, but God is opening doors for me, so now it’s my turn to take a step in and give it my all because God has called me to do one thing while I’m here on Earth…LOVE others & share the good news of Him!
Here’s to stepping out of my comfort zone; let the journey begin!
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