Something about God that frustrates my type-A-overly-stressed-deadline-motivated personality is the fact that he’s eternal. He sees time in a way that my brain cannot comprehend. Sometimes He’ll show us a promise, He’ll show us a work He’s started that makes zero sense to us in the moment. Sometimes it never makes sense. Isaiah’s entire generation heard him rave about a coming savior, saying things like 

“By oppression and judgment he was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished” -Isaiah 53:8 

But people in Isaiah’s time lived 700 years before Jesus was even born! Not ever fully understanding the meaning of the prophecies they heard, they never got to see how their very existence would later be a testament to the divinity of Jesus, and that was ok. Similarly, God told Abraham that he would have a kid with his barren ninety year old wife, and then they didn’t get pregnant for another 25 years until God finally brought his promise to completion. But sometimes, just sometimes, God has you wait a meager 4 months to leave the US when you thought you were supposed to leave earlier. I guess when I hold my situation up to Biblical history, it turns out to be pretty trivial. 

Now, as I write this from the ATL airport, it doesn’t seem real that the World Race is actually putting us in COSTA RICA! God said, “I’m going to show you this call,” And in January of 2020, I interpreted that to mean I’m going on the World Race as it has been in the past. I didn’t realize that the full statement was more like, “I’m going to show you this call, and you will be a different person by the time I bring it to completion.” How un-instantly gratifying, Lord. And He was so immeasurably good in the waiting. I saw the Lord work in the US in ways I can’t even begin to explain, and if I could change the year I chose to do the Race, I wouldn’t have had it any other way. Thanks for putting me on the field in the US, God. And thanks that I’m now going on the field in Costa Rica! What a privilege! 

Costa Rica is a country that is relatively developed by American standards. It’s located in Central America, between Panama and Nicaragua. Some ministries that World Race does in Costa Rica include sex-trafficking ministry (we did this in Atlanta as well during the fall! Thanks God!), VBS ministry, and teaching in schools! What is so incredible about Costa Rica is that God has been working there long before we arrived! I’m excited that, while we share the gospel with some individuals for the first time, we will also get to encourage fellow believers and be under the authority of the local Church there! Like Paul, part of our ministry will include encouraging the existing Church, and I have no doubt there is a ton we can learn from each other. Praise God that the gospel is for every tribe and nation and language! Praise God that He’s going to work through us in Costa Rica, after a season of waiting and learning and growing in Him. I can’t wait to share with you all that God is doing there! Pray that God will be working in the lives of those we form relationships with, that He will bring more into His Kingdom, and that we can be a part of what He’s doing! Thank you all for being such an incredible, supportive community! I’m realizing more and more how uncommon the community that I have really is, and I am so thankful for all of you!