Tuesday

God is at work in Costa Rica, and our group has seen Him in our encounters. I have asked a couple of team members to blog tonight. It touched our hearts today to hear one of the patients in our medical clinic to come back to one of our nurses and say, "I see Jesus in your faces. You left your homes, and you didn't have to come here. I want you to know how grateful we are." Our greatest desire is that people we encounter this week will truly see Jesus in each one of us, and what we say and what we do will lead many to Christ.

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Michelle Lourcey

God was at work today as we served Him in the Aserri area of San Jose and as the construction team continued work on the missionary home here at the compound. In Aserri, God provided us with the honor of seeing 170 patients; our doctors and nurses were able to care for their physical needs but our prayer is that we were able to plant seeds for their spiritual need of Jesus Christ. Two Catholic patients were being seen by one of our doctors when they told him that as soon as they walked into our clinic, they felt something different -- something they had not felt before. Another patient told one of our nurses that he saw Jesus in her face. This is what it is all about....

I was able to lead our devotion tonight and we talked about the WHY of why we are here. It is not about us but about GOD. It is about what God is doing through me and in me, and more importantly, it is about what we will do once we return home. Will we compartmentalize our service and not make it a part of our daily lives, our daily walk? This work this week is not about DOING the mission trip -- if it is, then we are missing the true purpose, the long term purpose, of why we are here. It is like this -- why did Jesus need to go to the cross if we just needed to be good? He didn't, and we don't need to just go on mission trips or just do ministry. We must develop that intimate, personal relationship with the Father -- that sold out, total commitment - because we are called to serve - this is not an optional calling. As Christians, we don't have the option of whether or not we will do ministry. We are called to serve, including our service at home.....as one pastor told us here, the true mission trip begins when we are return home.

In Matthew 25:35-40, the Father says, "For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat..." Then the "righteous" answer him with "'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you.....?'" In verse 40, the Father repiles, "I tell you the truth, whatever you did for the least of these brothers, you did for me." So why do we minister? Why do we travel to a foreign land or do ministry in our own backyard for the "least of these?" It's a simple answer -- because HE is worthy.

The Father is worthy of our love, our service, our devotion, or worship and our ministry. He is worthy of all we are, all we have, all we have to give. As one writer writes, "When He willingly stretched out His arms on an old Judean beam and bore the anger, sin, rebellion, pride, and idolatry of us all, HE was worthy."

In the hot sun today, sat with my arm around a precious child and looked her in the eyes today; she was nine years old, her mother a drug addict, her father's whereabouts unknown. Her grandmother had stepped in to rear her, a grandmother whose childrearing years were well behind her. Shannon and I watched her as she read to us a book we had with us about Jesus and how he loved all children. I looked at her and said in my feeble Spanish, "Do you know Jesus?" Her eyes brightened, her voice filled with joy and she said in her beautiful language with a hand tapping her chest, "Yes! Jesus in my heart!" How often do we show those around us that joyful response that Jesus is in our hearts? HE is worthy of every ounce of our beings and our breath of we who are. We serve him because He is worthy of all we do.

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John Blakely

As the second oldest person on the mission trip, I had no concerns about the trip but did wonder what I could do in construction. Fortunately, the 10 men on the trip who are not doctors have worked together extremely well. Cory Yost, from Mocksville, has been on other mission construction trips and in Keith Miller’s absence, has become the “go-to” guy to lead our work. Our work is building an apartment that will be used by a SCORE missionary who is a Costa Rican citizen. Our Costa Rican foreman does not speak English. However he is very good at demonstrating to us “Gringos” what should be done. John Wright and I are primarily mixing the concrete and today I spent much of my time “sifting” sand for doing the finish coat of stucco. Our people have been laying blocks, applying concrete for the first coat of stucco, building forms for pouring beams, etc. Our bodies are extremely tired at the end of the day. The sun is much warmer here that I was expecting. We were told today that sunscreen with SPF rating of 30 will protect you for 30 minutes only. I am not the only one who will be red when we get back.

The construction team has not been off-campus since Sunday. And unless something bad happens, we won’t be off-campus until maybe Thursday night. We have not had the opportunity to see anyone other than SCORE personnel on site. It is very interesting to hear Walter, the Costa Rican foreman, singing a familiar hymn but in Spanish. All the people we have met here have been most welcoming. Bismark, a Costa Rican who primarily works with the rebar to put into forms for putting concrete around, called me amigo immediately. Our mission field is just doing work that allows someone else to share Christ with people in need.