Costa Rica Update!

I have been in Costa Rica for a little while now with Gap Z. Sometimes I find it hard to come up with words for a blog when this just feels like such normal life. To be in a foreign country with a ton of people around me at all times. The other day I was talking with one of my girls and she said “it’s weird that you treat coming to Costa Rica or Africa or Asia  like you’re just driving a few hours to Alabama.” 

It’s true. 

My normal isn’t normal for a lot of people. 

My normal is knowing airports like the back of my hand. It’s waking up at 6am to do devotions with a squad of 30 people. It’s having to figure out a new currency for the 6th time in a year. It’s being in a house that is always loud and always full of life. It’s sitting with people who are learning what it is to follow Jesus on their own, not because it’s what their family has done. It’s sitting with people while they learn that God is really personal and wants relationship with us and that He wants out of the Sunday morning church box that we’ve put Him in. My normal is searching for wifi strong enough to post an update for all of you to see. It’s beautiful mountains all around me and monsoon season. It’s not knowing the language. It’s worshipping together and teaching the squad what it looks like to go against the grain of the culture we have all grown up in. Its learning that it’s okay to be willing to have our minds changed. It’s learning to be honoring even in the midst of hot topic debates. It’s learning to love the Word of God because it’s living and active. Normal is knowing the Word not to throw it in people’s faces and prove them wrong but to bring us closer to Jesus. 

My normal is no better than yours. My normal is just what God has called me to. He called us to different things and we all have different gifts but the purpose is the same: to know Him and be known by Him. It’s to love Him and our neighbor. 

You don’t have to go around the world to do that. 

You get to do it right where you are. Just like I get to do it in my home in Gainesville, GA. I get to do it when I go to the grocery store in America or when I’m getting gas or when I’m working out. 

I listened to a podcast the other day and it was talking about how we don’t have to make more space for God. We don’t need more churches or organizations. We just need to make more time for Him. 

Sanctuaries of time. 

We need to step into moments with Him. 

I remember when I was younger I dreamed of getting to travel to far away places. I remember when I was trying to figure out what to study in college it was all about what could get me a job where I could end up in other parts of the world. I thought International Business. I thought Nutrition. I ended up with Social Work knowing that I loved the thought of working with international adoptions. I dreamed of making orphanages in other countries actually safe places for kids instead of what they currently are. 

I think one day I still will but for now it’s all about spiritual orphans. It’s all about 18 year olds coming to know that they have a really, really good Father. That He has adopted them into His family.  That He has called them to life and life abundantly. 

This is the moment God has let me enter into. He’s let me partner with Him. 

As mentors we always wonder what we will do once the Lord calls us out of this job. We always say “what do you do when you’re 30 and have had your dream job? People wait years for this.” 

I didn’t know this is what I dreamed of when I dreamed of traveling the world. I didn’t know that it was to spread the Gospel and disciple 18 year olds. I thought it was just to travel the world and see cool places. But the Lord is funny like that and I realize I’m living my biggest God dream. I’m also realizing that with Him it’s from glory to glory. That this season of life is the best one I’ve ever had but that it won’t be the best one I will ever have. That after this, it could be a year or it could be years, it will only get better. 

What dreams do you have that He is wanting to reawaken in you? What dream are you living right now? 

What moment of time are you in with the Lord? Where do you need to step into a moment with the Lord? He doesn’t need more space, He needs more time. He doesn’t need another church or service. He is right where you are. Whether it’s in “ministry” or whether it’s in corporate America. It’s in changing diapers and feeding kids. It’s in bedtime stories and washing clothes. It’s in grocery shopping and working out. It’s in morning coffee and afternoon tea. 

I feel God as much in the grocery store in America as I do in a village in Africa. 

You can too.

I am in my last few days with the squad before we head to the beach for Debrief. I will go on Monday and the squad will arrive on Wednesday! We will have a whole lot of fun probably swimming and surfing and worshipping together. I will have one on ones to check in with everyone and I will teach a little bit. I will have team debriefs to ask how the community aspect is going. Basically, we will just process and talk about what the Lord has already done and then look forward to all that He is going to do! I will head back home on the 15th. It’s been a full month with the squad and I will be sad when I’m home and it’s quiet but I know the Lord is going to do so much in and through them over the next few months before I see them in Cambodia in January! 

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