Perspective That Matters

The best part of living and traveling with 25 other people is that there’s always someone that carries a different perspective than me. One day we could all do the exact same ministry in the exact same location and each leave with something different. 

So I decided that I wanted to use my platform as a chance not only to share what my eyes have seen, but also share few small stories about the way’s my squamates have seen God move here in the little surf town of Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica. 

I asked three people on my squad, “What is one encounter you’ve had here that has had an impact on you?” 

Here’s what they had to say:

Rachel: 

“Last week I was at a coffee shop with Ana and Grace, and we told the people sitting at the other end of the table that we were working on a blog about spirituality and religion in Costa Rica and we wanted to hear their thoughts on what they believed and overall what the people in Puerto Viejo believe in. They started sharing, and specifically the girl shared that Puerto Viejo is where people come to feel free because its what’s seen as paradise. Then the guy shared that he had been living here for 10 years and the reason he came was for the freedom, energies, and the holistic ‘pure vida’ culture. But he explained that the paradise, awe, and wonder of nature wears off and becomes normal. This impacted me because I don’t remember a day that I haven’t know God, our Creator, so that was something I had never thought about chasing. Being here, I realised the creation hasn’t gotten old for me or the squad because we know the Creator. This gave me a new perspective and it opened my eyes to what the beliefs overall are here. And my heart grieves for it, so now I have something specifically to pray for.”

Grace: 

“One day me Abigail, Annie, and Alex Paige were on the beach. We were told to read the Bible out loud as a part of ministry, but we were kind of by ourselves. About five minutes into reading, this guy comes out of the ocean and walks up to us. He was so nice, from Canada, and his name is Anthony. He talked to us abut what he believes and we shared with him what we believed. It was a conversation that really opened my eyes to how lost someone could be, yet at the same time wanting something more so badly. It opened my eyes to the fact that people genuinely do want something more and something bigger than themselves, but are looking for it in the wrong places. He was super spiritual and naturalist, even though he grew up catholic, and now his job is to connect peoples souls to their bodies. A lot of what people call ‘new age’ these days. I also noticed he is super educated and was open to a lot of the things we had to say. I eventually gave him a book I had on me called Mere Christianity, and I really hope he reads it. It’s really cool that we get to bring truth and life and hope to these people who are wanting just that, but are so far from finding it. God is so much better than anything else.”

Liv:

“One day, during evangelism, I was walking around with Alex and Annie. We had started heading further away from the beach and ran into this man named Danny. We had talked to him for about two minutes introducing our names and what we were doing when he asked if we wanted to meet for coffee at 11 the next day. We were kind of iffy about it because the next day was our sabbath, but we said yes and agreed to meet at the same spot. The net day we went to the same spot we met him and hung out on the base of a mountain waiting for him. 15 minutes goes by, then 45 minutes, then an hour, and we were like, ‘this is more than just Costa Rican time late, what should we do?’ This started a conversation between all of us and we just kept talking about things like music. Annie and Alex showed me a song that they asked if I could change into a worship song. So I listened to it and thought, ‘yeah, I can do this.’ Eventually later that night, we rewrote the song and it got me thinking about the ‘why’ behind my call to worship. I realised that the Lord didn’t call me to lead worship just because I am a musician, but because he gave me a passion for making everything I do worship. And if it weren’t for running into Danny the day before I would not have spent two hours at the base of a mountain and come to the recognition about why I love to be a worship leader.”