open doors

My squad and I have had the privilege to partner with Teen Challenge while being here in Costa Rica. The ministry is ran by Max and his wife Tanya— missionaries from the states who followed the Lord as He led them and their family here over 5 years ago. 

Our weeks have consisted of: manual labor to help finish building a center for women with children who want to leave their life of drugs and addiction and follow the Lord and the life He gives them (the opening ceremony just so happens to be the last day we are here!); partnering with another ministry called The Nest and helping them with their building project of a foster home that is located within an indigenous community of Costa Rica (only way to get to it is by boat ride to cross a river!!); hanging out with the men at the men’s center of Teen Challenge (this is usually on Sundays and Thursdays after church and before worship nights!); and evangelizing/distributing bibles to those who don’t have one. Our weeks have been full and fruitful to say the least! 

Here’s a fun God story that happened while evangelizing this week:

On Wednesday my squad and I drove an hour through the banana fields (if you’re eating a Dole banana, I’m currently living 10 minutes from one of their farms!!) to evangelize in a small community. I was with a group of 4 and our ministry host, Max, was my group’s leader and translator. On the way to the community, Max fell off of his dirt bike and ended up getting a pretty bad burn. Because of his burn, he wanted to get a cold drink to rinse it off with to help ease the discomfort. There were two different pulperias (just a name for a small store that is usually attached to a house) and Max felt pretty strongly about going to the store that was further away. As we walked there, we passed a school and Max asked us to pray that doors would be open for the gospel to be shared in the school (he mentioned that it’s usually pretty hard to openly go into schools and share). I prayed that the Lord would open doors in the years to come for the gospel to be shared and for the children and teachers to know the Lord. We made it to the store and was able to pray for the store owner and his business. 

On the way back, we noticed 3 ladies sitting right outside of the main part of the school in a porch-like area. We greeted them which sparked a conversation of what we were doing. We shared that we are missionaries and we are telling people about Jesus and handing out bibles to those who need one. One of the ladies in the school told us that she needed a Bible and invited us inside! We ended up going inside of the school and was able to pray with the 3 ladies and give them each bibles. Out of the 3 ladies, there was the school chef, a teacher and then a parent of one of the children. The school chef asked my friend Josie and I after praying if we wanted a tour of the school. We agreed and she ended up taking us to the director of the school’s office where we were able to share what we were doing. Moments later, the director ended up getting all of the children to form an assembly and the invited us to share the gospel and pray over the children!! At the end, they invited us to lunch and invited us to go back on Friday to share the gospel and give bibles to the morning classes! 

We ended up going back this Friday and did just that. We shared the gospel and testimonies of what the Lord has done is our own lives and invited those that wanted to give their life to Christ and follow Him too! Overall, 50 children and teachers were able to hear the name of Jesus and were able to take home a Bible for their families. 

The Lord was so kind to open the doors that He did and allow us to be apart of the gospel being shared and his love poured out in a school that, 15 minutes beforehand, we were praying over. 

Afterwards, the Lord convicted me of my super basic prayer that was prayed while walking to the store— that “in the years to come doors would be open for the gospel to be shared.” It really was the Lords kindness that brought me to repentance because He said “no no, I’m going to open the door right now and you’re going to watch Me move and work right before your eyes AND on top of that, I’m going to use you and your team to answer your own prayer.” Ooof! 

I really am just humbled and amazed at the fact that God can do this all on His own, but He chooses to use broken people like me to let His power be put on display. 

May we pray bold prayers, expectant that the Lord will show up, and have a willingness to be used in the process! 

Love,
MK