Costa Rica Recap

My first World Race month was absolutely incredible, but certainly nothing like I expected it to be. On August 13, we pulled up to La Iglesia de Monte Sion in a tiny village called La Vigia. It’s a Foursquare church with a parent church in California that they work very closely with. During COVID, they naturally saw a large decline in attendees but still had around 20 to 30 people coming every Sunday. We arranged to be picked up at our hostel in San Jose in the morning and after our four-and-a-half-hour bus ride, we were greeted with a beautiful welcome banner, a bunch of smiling faces, and a delicious meal.

Check out the amazing, handmade banner that welcomed us into the church on that first day! 

We were hosted by the Tenorio family who head La Iglesia and actually live in the church. Basilio has been a pastor for ten years and started in the church La Vigia about five years ago. He loves to cook, and his favorite food is rice, beans, and chicken. His wife, Isamar, speaks no English, but has an extremely kind heart and loved to laugh with us and hugged us frequently. Their oldest son, Deglyss, is twenty-two and leads the worship band. He loves lions so much that he named his dog Aslan after the character in The Chronicles of Narnia. Axel, their youngest son, is seventeen and runs a barber service out of the church.

Here I am with Isamar and Basilio on my last day with them. Aren’t they precious?! 

Although the language barrier kept us from having deep conversations and connecting with the family as much as we wanted, we made do and had some amazing times. Every morning, two of us would help Basilio cook breakfast. He would give us little Spanish lessons while we chopped vegetables and explained to us the importance of Consome, a Costa Rican seasoning. Consume goes in everything and if you don’t use enough, you’re wrong. I may have even bought some to take back to the States for when I’m making gallo pinto the right way.

Here is one of Basilio’s famous meals: roasted chicken, plantain chips, a salad, and gallo pinto (with Consome of course).

Our first week in La Vigia started off strong. We visited Nicoya, the closest city, for ice cream and to pick up some necessities and snacks. Then we dove straight into ministry for the first several days. Basilio wanted to focus on evangelism this month, so we would walk along the road stopping at each house. Basilio would announce our presence with an “Upe!” or “Buenas!” and would then speak to whoever comes to greet us, explaining our mission, discussing the Christian faith, and asking for any prayer requests. If the people wanted us to pray for them, he would explain the requests to us and then we would all spend some time silently lifting them up while he prayed out loud. After a couple days of this, we were pretty worn out, but still super happy to be there. Then COVID hit.

Lots and lots of walking on ministry days! But who can really complain when you’re walking around such a beautiful country?

After Anna-Stewart tested positive for COVID, we had to shut down the church and quarantine for 15 days. Although it was a bit of a bummer to not be able to help out, meet people, and explore Costa Rica, quarantine ended up being a blessing in disguise. Our evangelism was extremely tiring – physically, spiritually, mentally, and emotionally. Not only were we doing a lot of walking in the hot, humid afternoons, but we were also constantly pushing ourselves to understand Spanish and intentionally pray for each person. Quarantine allowed us to spend more time in our Bibles and connecting with each other and Basilio’s family. It also gave us the opportunity to keep intentionally praying for the community every day after lunch.

Here’s our sleeping situation! We got to sleep in the church and Basilio even provided us with mattresses, sheets, and pillows.

After our quarantine time was up, we had a week left before we had to leave. We jumped back into evangelizing, spending lots of time with the neighborhood kids, and even got to go to the beach with Basilio, the boys, and their friends. I tried surfing, bought another journal (oops), took Shelby to get her nose pierced, played way too much Spicy Uno Flip with the kiddos, and still managed to spend lot of time reading my Bible. The last week flew by and before we knew it, we were stacking our mattresses, eating an entire fish for our last meal in La Vigia, and getting on the bus with Basilio and Isamar to head to Jaco to meet up with the rest of our squad.

Here’s our last meal in La Vigia! The fish was delicious!

I’m so unbelievably grateful for my month in Costa Rica. I got to meet such amazing people who all now have a special place in my heart. Please join me in prayer lifting up the La Vigia community. Pray for Basilio, Isamar, Deglyss, and Axel who are running a church and caring for the village in beautiful ways. Pray for all the members of their congregation, specifically Tifany and Tracy, two teenage girls we were able to befriend on our first Sunday there. Pray for all the kiddos in the area: Mario, Abram, Andres, Amanda, Luci, and Andera.