Hola from Costa Rica!

It is crazy to think that we have already been here for two weeks. What?? My team Pinky Promise and I spent our first 4 or 5 days at our hosts home doing a variety of things. In fact, our host picked us up from our hostel on Friday morning, drove three hours, and then that afternoon as soon as we arrived, we hit the ground running and began moving things into storage. We cleaned out the church where they will eventually gather and worship. Pretty cool. Here is a picture of what the church started to look like after we were done and me and my teammate Claire moving some tin.

On Tuesday afternoon we loaded up the trailer and headed to the farm. This trailer was full of stuff, that we sorted and separated to see what they could save or repurpose. I think it’s pretty incredible how they repurpose everything here. What you think would be trash is their treasure and I’d ask “Basura?” And most of the time they would say, “oh we can fix that,” or “we can use that.” It is truly amazing and like a treasure hunt. It makes me think of how Jesus does this for us. He cleans us out and repurposes things in our heart. Some things need to go away completely, but for the most part He works with what He has. This is because He can use anything- especially broken people. We often think our lives are trash, but Jesus looks at our lives and delights in them. He has vision for our hurts and a place and space for it to be and be used. Very cool.

Here is what our schedule on the farm looked like our first week. We had breakfast at 6am and started working by 7am. We worked for 4-5 hours before lunch. We had lunch and usually took a lil siesta before we started work back up at 1:30 or 2! We then ended work around 4pm just in time for cafesito. (I am loving afternoon coffee breaks) Sometimes we continued work but other times we had some free time before dinner. Most of our work thus far on the farm has consisted of manual labor. We move lots of things, wood, tin, random items like piping and doors etc. The other day we moved wood, chopped the wood up and then moved it to the wood shed. The wood shed was the duck coup, so we moved the ducks and broke some things inside the coup to make room for the wood. We are working on building a greenhouse for plants and herbs in an area where all that stuff used to be.

The purpose of the farm is incredible. There are multiple facets and I won’t be able to capture it all here, but I will share some. There are two guys here that currently work on the farm. They are super kind. Both don’t know a lot of English, so they help us with our Spanish, and we help them with English. It is a place where those who have drug addiction or struggle with that can come and get back on their feet. It is also a place where people who just have struggles can come and be and our hosts help them through it. They make a commitment while on the farm, the host gives them work, guidance, medicine they need, and they also get to learn about God. Then after more or less 6 months have passed, they leave the farm and start fresh. Eventually, the farm will be turned into a missionary school. Yes, the whole thing. Thus, we are doing a lot of clearing, building, and preparing for that. A lot of sowing. John 4:31-38.

Speaking of our hosts, they are just lovely. Their story of how they got the farm, what they do, how they love people and love us is truly amazing. Their food is also so delicious. Yes, it is a lot of rice and beans but there are also other fun things as well. Here is a picture of my team, our hosts and the two men who work on the farm.

On weekends we have different ministry opportunities. We head to different communities that our hosts are connected with and serve. The weekend before last we went and saw some kids and played with them. It was so fun!! We played soccer, tag, sang songs, and talked. We both tried so hard to communicate with each other and it brought me back to what I studied in college and the effort it sometimes takes to communicate. It takes patience and I am here for it. Nevertheless though, there was so much joy in that environment and it honestly made me sad to leave after just one day. On Sunday we went to church and got to go to another community of kids.

This last weekend, we hosted a women’s retreat on the farm. My first Beauty for Ashes event and it went so well. I learned a lot and saw God all throughout the day. The women were vulnerable and open, tears were shed and many of them did not want it to end. They told us that they felt they had friends now, and a community. Healing is happening. Wow, thanks God. You are incredible.

Overall, I am loving Costa Rica! I already get sad thinking about leaving. Life is just simple here on the farm, full of hard work and so much joy in the little things, like ketchup haha. (There is no Wi-Fi, which keeps you off your phone. How life should be lived if you ask me!) Life feels different here than in the states. It feels more relationship-oriented than task-oriented. The people here get what they can done for the day but are not afraid to leave the task unfinished to continue the next day. They would much rather sit down for coffee in the afternoon than finishing the task. More examples of this include when in the middle of work, we would stop for a cookie break or an arm wrestle or just to rest. They really know how to just soak up the moment. God is teaching me a lot here, and I am doing well. Thanks again for all of your love and support! I would not be here if it was not for you. Please comment or share, I would love to hear from you!

Until next time,

<3 Cass