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Hi! I just wanted to share my missions experience with Operation Christmas Child. I would like to start a thread for people who have done a missions trip with Samaritan's Purse, or is intersted, or wants to chat about the programs or is a young person who went on a mission trip of some kind and wants to share about it! Pretty much anything missions related!
Costa Rica
December 2004
On December 7, I left for a trip I never thought possible. Before I went, I was really trying to get a picture in my mind, or some idea of what I will see, or be experiencing, but really I had no idea! With Youth Beyond Borders, and Samaritan's Purse Operation Christmas Child, I flew off to Costa Rica for a two week missions trip to serve and distribute gifts made by people across the world to the children of Costa Rica. I was one of seventy students from across Canada and the United States, one of fifty from Canada, and one of the four from Saskatchewan. Everything about the trip was new, besides being pretty much the youngest! I had never met the others going on the trip, I had never flown so far away from my family and friends , I didn't know Spanish, but most of all, I had never seen true poverty! One of the most surprising things about children living in poverty, is that they are the happiest kids I have ever seen! They have so much joy, despite what they live through and face every day! After a day and a half training in Houston Texas, we flew off to San Jose Costa Rica, arriving on December 9. Because there was seventy students, we were divided into smaller groups of around twenty every day to go to various locations across Costa Rica. The first distribution I was involved in was in Alajuelita on December 10th. We did two distributions that day at that location. On December 11, we went through the rainforest, to Limon on the Caribbean Coast. In the morning we went to "Escuela Libre de Barrio Limoncito" which is a school. At lunch we ate sandwiches standing in the Caribbean Sea, in which I later found out I received a jelly fish bite! In the afternoon, we went to another school near Limon. Although my Spanish was very minimal, my favourite phrase being "Hablo Poco Espaniol" (I speak little Spanish) I learned that language itself is a very small barrier in the power of communication. Yes, we did have some translators, but even when they were not translating for us, it was totally easy to play with the kids, get to know them, help them with open there box, be excited with them, and just smile! The next day, Sunday December 12th, we headed to LaCarpio to attend "Principe De Paz" church in LaCarpio. In LaCarpio, there is thirty five thousand people living in one kilometer square, mostly illegal immigrants from Nicaragua who had nothing and moved to this particular area of Costa Rica into a bunch of abandoned buildings. The government of Costa Rica pays no attention to LaCarpio, and doesn't even recognize it as a part of Costa Rica. There is open sewers, wild dogs and chickens, and the children by age five are more street smart then we ever hopefully will ever have to be. The church we went to there couldn't even afford a light bulb, but that didn't really matter! The physical church building was not what mattered, all that was important there was God. The worship in that church was so real! They owned nothing, but there love of God, and faith in Him is what gets them through. One thing I concluded while in Costa Rica was that in North America, even as Christians, we have so much material we can rely on, but in third world situations, all they have is God. They rely on God for everything, from rain for there food to grow, to just surviving the day. Because they rely on God so much, and develop such a deep relationship with Him, He provides for them! That church I went to was the morning that changed my life. That night we did a concert for the locals of LaCarpio. That was so fun! The next day my group was back in LaCarpio do to a medical clinic. Two girls from my group became dental assistants for a day, I filled prescriptions in the pharmacy for a bit, and played with the kids as they were waiting. For about two hours, we took turns blowing bubbles for a boy around age three who was so excited! He jumped, and dove, and just had so much fun playing in the bubbles. He was the happiest kid I have ever seen! That day there was a boy around 19 years old who came into the clinic to have a gunshot wound checked up on that he had surgery on a month earlier. After he saw the doctor, he kept hanging around and eying our pharmacy. Just outside the clinic, his gang mobbed a local. He kept coming in, then leaving. The police came to take him away, and what was going on, was he and his gang were planning to mug our pharmacy once all the patients left at the end of the afternoon. Thankfully the police came and took them away in time! On Tuesday December 14, we did another gift distribution at "Iglesia Enlace," another church in LaCarpio. We had a lot of fun there! In the afternoon, we went to "San Jeronimo" (a school) near San Jose. There we met a boy who received a box from Saskatchewan! He excitedly wore his hat that said Saskatchewan on it! Two sisters were comparing toothbrushes they received as part of their gift! Wednesday December 15, we headed up to Canas, located in Northern Costa Rica, where we would be staying near for four nights. That day in the afternoon we did a distribution to some of the local children from Canas. The next day, Thursday December 16, we did a distribution in a town near Canas. It was so fun! One boy, named Cristian Porras Solorzano got a Canada Lanyard, and two colouring books, and he looked through every page so excited! He wa talking to me in Spanish, so I told him, "Hablo Poco Espaniol" and he looked at me really surprised, then just kept on talking! There was also some music playing in the background and so he started bobbing his head to the beat. He looked at me, so I started bobbing my head to the beat too! He smiled, so we sat there for a few minutes bobbing our heads to the beat of the music! The lady who owns the children's clothes store "Please Mum" in BC donated over a thousand outfits to be given out in Costa Rica, so on Friday December 17, the day we did four distributions, the first two were clothing distributions! The first clothes distribution took place in Nicoya/Bhonda. Then we headed to the mountains, and did one more clothing distribution at Nicoya/Gama. Then we head up the mountain, four of us riding in the back of a truck, on top of big boxes filled with shoebox gifts holding on so tightly up the mountain because there wasn't enough room for us in the vehicles! It was neat! There was like monkeys growling at us! We did two shoebox gift distributions in the mountains, the first at Nicoya/Miramar and the second at Nicoya/Ce.Negro. The people who live in the mountains get around on horses! A pastor walks four hours one way twice a week, a total of sixteen hours a week, just to pastor to these people! The people who live in these villages feel like they are the rejects of society and don't matter, so it was important that we went to them to show them that there are people who truly do care, we care, and God always will love, care for them, and accept them, as He does for all people, no matter where you live and who you are! The next day we went souvenir shopping briefly in the morning, then went to the beach. Two of the people with us made the decision that they wanted to get baptized, so the youth pastor who was with us, baptized them in the Pacific Ocean! We had lots of fun just relaxing at the beach and getting sunburned and collecting shells! The next day, Sunday December 19, the mayor of Canas, who was extremely wealthy, invited us over for lunch, after church. It was fun! He got some crazy dancers in masks, then some children to do Traditional Costa Rican dancing! He had aloe vera plants, a river, monkeys, star fruit, a scorpion, and so much more all in his back yard! That night we drove back to San Jose, because the next day we were leaving. Got back to Calgary on December 20th, spent the night at the Samaritan's Purse Headquarters with about ten other people, then flew home, arriving in Regina at 2:45 pm. It was so nice to be home! I missed my family and my friends so much! I was promptly greeted by Regina weather, much colder than Costa Rica! In Costa Rica, even when we drove through the wealthier parts, Christmas is so much less materialistic and commercial! It is much more focused on the true meaning, the birth of Jesus Christ. It was definitely a life changing and incredibly fabulous and amazing trip, but being back home was nice. Made some unforgetable friendships and grew so much. It was a bit of a culture shock both ways though, both going to Costa Rica, then coming back home! Two very different cultures, one small world! The trip answered a lot of questions I had, that can't really be asked, just discovered. For the past few years of my life, I have felt that God has been calling me into the missions field, and He put me on this trip to give me an introduction to what's to come for me. A few times in the trip I wondered, am I really supposed to be a missionary? But by the end, I was convinced, yes, totally! I have never felt closer to God than when I was serving the people of Costa Rica, so I will for sure be a missionary! Gracias!
Que Dios le Bendiga,
Ashley Dizy
Que Dios le Bendiga,
Ashley Dizy
