This is our 6th mission team to go to Costa Rica in just under 2 years. On many of our trips we’ve had large teams and significant work projects planned at both Hogar de Vida Children’s Home and Iglesia Biblica in Atenas. On this trip there are just 2 of us, but we felt that God had work for us to do and we should go whether the team was large or not. As I prepared for this trip a passage of scripture kept coming back to me over and over again.
” One of the things I always pray for is the opportunity, God willing, to come at last to see you. For I long to visit you……I’m eager to encourage you in your faith, but I also want to be encouraged by yours. In this way, each of us will be a blessing to the other.” ~ Romans 1: 10-12
Between the two of us, the amount of work we accomplish will probably seem small: cleaning the offices, raking leaves, and being an extra set of hands in the homes with the children. As we entertained 7 toddlers yesterday, Rebecca hung out the laundry and worked around the house and I imagined what a relief that must be to someone who cares for 10 children day after day and gets up every three hours at night with two newborns in the house. What a privilege it is to be able to lend a hand, a smile and words of encouragement to the women here who sacrifice so much.
At the same time I realize how much I look forward to my trips here, because I know my spirit will be renewed in a way that doesn’t happen easily at home. Several things happen:
1. The slower pace and the quiet provide an environment for thinking and prayer like no other.
2. Being on a mission trip is always wake up call and gives fresh fire to my commitment and responsibility to serving others. Getting out of my routine and the comforts of home is a great reminder of how abundantly I’ve been blessed and the responsibility that goes with that.
So while we have been sent to help others, I always go home feeling that I have been the one who was blessed the most.
Cate
