The Chance To Connect

Yesterday as I walked to the youth centre, I saw one of our young women walking down the street with her mom. I crossed over to the same side of the street and tried to catch up to them. But, by the time I got close, someone stopped me, and I noticed the youth I had been trying to catch up with had crossed the street and were now walking towards where I had just come from. For a moment, I felt a little regret for missing the opportunity. 


Opportunities are something we seek out regularly here at The Door. We pray that God shows us opportunities to minister and to speak truth to our youth. We create space for opportunities to connect with our youth. And most of all, we seek opportunities to pray for them, to lift up their concerns, and to pray for positive change in their lives. And every single week, God provides us with these opportunities. Of course, whether we take them is up to us. 


The beauty of working with these youth over a long period of time is that often we can catch up on missed opportunities. I was able to connect with this young girl today, and I'll see her tonight. We'll catch up on what is going on in her life, I suspect I'll hear about her recent struggles with depression, how much she loves babysitting her nephew, and the next tattoo she is thinking of getting. And in the middle of all of that, we'll probably talk about God. She asked me recently if she could come to church with Aaron and I, and I'd like to take her soon. She will never know how hard I tried to catch her on the street, but I'm grateful for the opportunity I had to remember to pray for her. I pray that God continues to open our eyes to the small things around us, and that we are faithful in moving towards them. 

Trusting to Take The Next Step

*This is not me.

Lately, I've had the privilege of being able to hike... a lot. Normally, this is something I am ridiculously excited to do, but translates to little time in my schedule. Part of my now weekly (*!!!*) hiking schedule has included hikes straight up Blue Mountain. These aren't my normal take-the-chairlift-ski-down or drive-somewhere-scramble-around-on-top-for-a-while jaunts. No, they are start at the bottom, pick a relatively straight, steep line, and plod my way to the top. It's not pretty, but in the couple of months since I've been doing it I'm wheezing and stopping less, and appreciating the view more (as opposed to being doubled over, which is my usual stance). 


Of course, since there is some unwritten rule about this in life, my desire to get in shape (and complete a 5k race up said mountain, but that's a different story) was beginning around the same time that we started to face lots of challenges in our ministry with YFC. At first, it started small: our youth were apathetic about lots and didn't really want to do anything. Then, we grew worried that we didn't have enough volunteers to meet our programming needs. Then, our financial situation took a dive far worse than we had experienced before. And I began to ask myself the question, "Am I insane?" 


I grew increasingly frustrated with the mounting issues we were facing, generally feeling, well, like I was walking straight uphill. The things that I was used to doing in order to operate the youth centre or raise support weren't working or at the very least were made far worse by hiccups that were met along the way. And then, like I did when I first started hiking up the mountain, I plopped myself down and I whined. 


Thankfully, I work and live with people who have little tolerance for whining, but are graceful enough to not laugh at me or shut me down. They reminded me that I needed to focus on what was important, not on the muck that was gathering at my feet. And when I began to pray, to give the huge burdens up to God, I found I could get up and take a few more steps. I could look ahead and see a way to get around the obstacles that seemed so huge without losing my mind.  Honestly, the financial burdened was the hardest. It seemed for a split second like everything was going to shut down. It was difficult for me to give up, since my whole life and being seemed to balance on our ministry. But it was amazing, once I began to intentionally pray, how God would give me peace when I needed it most, providing small graces to get me through the next few steps. 


Of course, I'd be lying if I said I no longer felt anxious, but as I read yesterday, "perhaps anxiety is an act of grace because it encourages us to face our fears so that we can then choose to freely follow God where He is calling us." (source). That's one side of the coin, and definitely something that I resonate with. But the view and hope that I hold to is this: "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hears and your minds in Christ Jesus." (Ph. 4:4-7)


Things are slowly turning around. Or maybe they're not changing at all and I am able to see how they are moving us forward and not back. We have more people interested in joining our volunteer team. We're blessed with a centre of youth that while they aren't always the most motivated, really value the presence of The Door in their lives. This has led to some incredible ministry opportunities that we would have missed otherwise. And our finances are slowly turning around - but it's been a lot of work. I feel so blessed to be where I am right now, with the people that I am surrounded with. 


So as I hike uphill, things are a little different now. I see what lies ahead. I notice those that are walking along with me. And most of all, I see the beautiful view. 

Stories From The Road: Ole, Ole, Ole, Ole, Monstro! Monstro!

Estadio Ricardo Saprissa Aymá

This is the second installment of our "Stories from the Road" series on Project Serve Costa Rica. 


If you were to ask me the most exciting and most terrifying hour of my life was, I might just say the football game that we took in while we were in San Jose. It wasn't for any real threat to my life or anything, but simply the sheer energy of thousands of people shouting and screaming in a language I didn't understand. But let me back up...


We had a surprise for our Project Serve team late in the week. Even our leaders didn't know what it was until the last minute. Our hosts had arranged for us to go to a professional football game. Aaron and I are not huge soccer fans, especially to the degree of some of our friends back at home, but in our minds it was like watching a Canadian hockey game: something that had to be done in Costa Rica. What was even more ridiculous was that the ticket's were the price of a latte at Starbucks, which is completely unheard of here. 

Miraculously we managed to find 26 seats in the same section. Thankfully, our hosts told us which team to cheer for. We were a few minutes into the game by the time we found seats, but it didn't take long to find out whether or not the ref had made a good or a bad call, based on the reaction of the fans. At one point, the guy in front of me cracked his head off of my knee as he threw his hands and his head back in disbelief at a penalty. Our youth watched wide-eyed at the spectacle of the game and stadium, and then something interesting happened. 

We got into it. As the ball neared the opposing teams goal, all of the fans started to stand up. At first, we stood up because that was the only way we could see what was going on. But then, we started to stand to our feet with a similar excitement as everyone else (keep in mind that we had no idea what the Spanish-speaking announcer was saying). And we cheered. And we groaned when the shot missed. When a player was downed by a hit, we talked about it as if we'd been following the team for a long time. We loved it. 


It wasn't a great game by our host's standards. And to be honest, I didn't know that there could be a scoreless game (didn't there need to be at least ONE goal scored in overtime?). But wow, was it an experience. It was a nice surprise in the middle of our week, and the team buzzed about it all night. And, it may have just turned me into a soccer fan.