Setting Ourselves Up For Rest

Hey everyone! I have not updated you on everything in a while. My squad is currently in an all squad month and we are at Oceans Edge, in Jacó, Costa Rica. Oceans Edge is a ministry with a variety of areas of focus. I will be posting more about Oceans Edge and life in Jacó later, but for now I’d love to share what the last two weeks has looked like for my team. 

Although we are in an all squad month, each team is able to go to San Jose to work at other ministries there. My team on the other hand was able to do ATL : Ask the Lord. Ask Him where to go, what to do, all of the things. ATL can look different for everyone. We sat down as a team and prayed for what the Lord wanted us to do and where to go. Jenna heard and saw ranch, unknown orange fruit, camping, quiet, hear the bugs. Mary Grace saw a lovely woman with beautiful smile welcoming to a place of work warm hearted person of peace, rainy jungly kind of vibe. Karis got south. Raquel saw refill retreat, refresh, regroup, refocus, recenter and flowing water. One of our squad leaders Katie got letter C creation, chocolate farm. This was the brief version but the Lord took us to Quepos which is around an hour SOUTH of Jacó. 

My team lead found a campsite a little outside of Quepos. This campsite was in the rainforest, family owned, and was on a cacao farm. If you don’t know what cacao is, it’s used to make chocolate. I mean come on. Mary Grace met the lady with the beautiful, kind smile in the vision the Lord gave her and had long conversations with her and her friends and family. We ended up camping here for a few days and headed back into Quepos. While we were in Quepos we went to the National Park and zip-lined one day which both were in a jungle. My team was constantly surrounded by water whether it was a river or the ocean. We originally were led to Quepos and were led to a ministry partnering with missionaries there, but the plan fell through due to Covid procedures. But how cool because the Lord still brought us together on the beach for a beautiful Easter service and time in fellowship together with another missions team. We were also able to bring someone we met at our hostel to church. 

During this time in Quepos, we were able to ATL while also enjoying ourselves and coming together. In an all squad month it’s easy to get separated as a team but this time allowed us to be unified. It was a sweet 10 days to regroup, refocus, recenter while doing ministry. It might not have looked like structured ministry we have been doing at Oceans Edge or what other teams are doing in San Jose. But life is ministry and ministry is life, and life with Jesus is not at all what we plan. 

Coming on the race I expected working and going nonstop but the Lord has been positioning me to rest and in that rest doing ministry. I’m thankful for the opportunity my team had to trust in the Lord and see how he provided for us. The rest he provided for my team while camping, the fun we were able to have while adventuring, and being able to unify as a team. I’m stoked to really unpack and show more pictures from our mini trip in Quepos. Subscribe to get updates on when I post that!! For now I will leave you with a few fun pictures from our time!