Friday, July 20, 2012

Logan's Visit


One of my very good friends, Logan, came to visit me in Costa Rica for three months!! This is what she wrote about one of the days here!!


Today became one of my favorite days in Costa Rica.
It wasn't because of a beautiful sunset, beach, zipline, or even a great game of soccer. It was because of God's hand in the day, the quality people people we spent time with, and the clear passion God's placed in peoples hearts. These are all a bit vague, so let me explain what today looked like and reasons why it was awesome.

What today looked like:
We went to a church in San Jose today. One special thing about this church is that it's completely in Sign (Lesco- Costa Rican Sign Language). So, it attracts mostly deaf members. Cornelio, Cailene, and I heard about it through our friends Isaac and Heidi, because THEY have friends that also know sign and go to this church.

There is one boy who is deaf that attends la Iglesia Vida Nueva. We really wanted to share this experience with him. From what I've heard and seen, there is not a lot of deaf exposure...if any at all. So, a church full of signers was a completely new experience.

The church building was small. There were people sitting outside and peeking through windows, yet we were ushered to a few open seats in the front. The leaders commented on all the new faces and asked us to introduce ourselves. I had the honor of introducing my friends in Sign.

The sermon was fantastic! It was also the only one I've been able to understand for the past 3 months! One of our new friends interpreted the sermon so we could all understand it.

We all enjoyed lunch together and shared stories about our passions, visions, and how we got to this point. This is a personal opinion...but the unity and fellowship that people who follow Jesus share is beautiful. It is amazing. Spending the day talking with these people and hearing their passion has left me excited to pursue my own God given goals. That is a prime example of the importance of fellowship, to encourage one another in our walks with God.


After lunch we drove back home. Immediately after closing the car door, Luis started practicing and reciting "the 5 things to remember in prayer."
1.) Tell God how wonderful He is. Adore God. Worship Him first.
2.) Confess your sins. Specifically..not vaguely.
3.) Thank God (for both the blessings and the challenges).
4.) Intercession, pray for other people
5.) Pray for yourself.

Not only did he understand the lesson, but he remembered it. Granted, the pastor repeated it multiple times by chosing volunteers (Including myself!) to come to the front and recite the 5 parts of prayer. After all the repitition, who could forget it?!

Once we arrived at Luis's house, he shared the lesson with his parents. We all chatted over coffee and delicious bread. While backing out of the drive way and waving goodbye, Luis pointed and signed, "You're cool! You're cool! Bye!!" It was in Lesco..but from the context of the sign in past conversations...I'm pretty sure that's what it meant.

I was soaking in the fact that we just conversed in 3 languages in one day.