By Isabel Klaassen, short-term missionary to Costa Rica
I went to Costa Rica recently. We did construction on La Lúz y la Vida Church, put on a Vacation Bible School and youth service, and forged some beautiful and amazing relationships. What was unforgettable, though, was the love that radiated from everyone I met.
Here in the United States kindergarteners are taught about “stranger danger.” Some of that is common sense, but we live in constant fear of what could happen. In Costa Rica, I was overwhelmed by the amount of love that everyone extended to us even though we were complete strangers from a foreign country.
Every morning when my host family drove my house mate and me to the church, they would give us a snack. Every day after construction, there were eight of us that had to shower at the church. The pastor welcomed us into his home and let us use his shower so it would not take an hour and a half for all of us to do it. And during construction, some of the women brought us watermelon and pineapple and made us lunch.
On the first day of construction, I had a huge bug bite on my leg. One of the women came and lathered some kind of ointment on it. The bite was gone a few hours later.
There was one worker in particular - none of us knew his name, but we never saw him without a smile.
These might seem like little things, but I saw the love of Christ every day through these people.
Going to Costa Rica was the most amazing experience of my life and I would do it again in a heartbeat.
"And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love." - 1 Corinthians 13:13
And if you would like to contribute to the amazing experiences people like Isabel have been able to be a part of, please click the link below.
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