Hola mis hermanos y hermanas!
It's amazing to see what God can do in just three days. Jesus was raised from the dead in three days. Paul repented in three days. And a bunch of American gringos can turn into Ticos(Costa Rican) in just three days! "Te gustaría acompañarnos a una charla bíblica" (Do you want to come with us to Bibletalk?) has become our go to phrase! Whether it is with one person or Jacob sharing with an entire eating area - hundreds of people are beginning to know that we are on campus and we are all about the bible!
The church has been taking care of us at every turn! This morning, for instance, was the first morning LaToya and I were going to go to campus without someone from the church showing us. We all have to take buses and cabs to get to campus. So a mother in the church named Shamelia left work and surprised us at the house we were staying at to take us to campus just to make sure we got there safely! We have also been inspired because every day there have been several adults from the church on campus with us sharing their faith and getting in bible studies with us. Every morning we have a devo with the group and this morning one of the sisters named Yorbeth, who got baptized at the university 18 years ago, explained with tears how she has been praying for the university for 18 years and how grateful she was that we were there. She stayed with us all day on campus sharing her faith and going to Bible Talk. We are realizing that a good number of people in the church got baptized on campus over a decade ago and they have been praying for it ever since, and now that God is opening up the door they can't wait to help out in every way they can!
As a mission team, we are striving to see the world through God's promises and to make God so big that we can't see our problems. Today God showed Himself! We had several great bible studies, but then we had decided this morning that we would pray for 10 visitors at Bibletalk every day until it happened... And of course - God showed how big He was and 10 visitors came out today! Afterwards I was really impacted because I had one of the deepest first conversations I've ever had. One of the guys shared what he called a "crisis in his heart". Most the country here is catholic, and he disagrees with his priest and the catholic church in general yet he is so ingrained in the tradition that he feels that it would be impossible to stand up against his priest. He was moved by how much we were willing to follow the bible over any man or organization. Now we are going to be praying for even more visitors at Bible Talk!
I am seeing each day how powerful the name of Jesus is regardless of language and culture. I'm grateful for your prayers and support from home! We couldn't be here without them! Love you guys and can't wait to see what else God will do! PURA VIDA!!