The People

“Seek to truly understand the people you meet, really try to see the world through their eyes, and come to know their dreams, their fears, their hopes… and what it is that makes them who they are. If you are able to do this, then you have a real chance to make a difference in their lives”. 

On my last night at home, my dad wrote me this in a goodbye letter. As the race comes to an end and I reflect on the advice I was given, I’m reminded of all the lives I got the chance to touch and stories I got to hear & take part in. The people I met are a very important piece of my race. Here are just a few of them and a little bit of their stories.

Meet Felix. Near the beginning of our race, we were painting the outside of the church we lived at and he came up out of nowhere. He started talking to us and tried to take the paintbrush and paint for money. He always said “PURA VIDA” loudly and quickly to us, and waited until we said it back. Since that day, he came back many times. He sat outside of the gate calling our names, always in a different mood and often under the influence. He always brought paper for us to sign to remember our names. A lot of details about his life that he told us brought a lot of confusion, but we got to pray for him every time he came around. He kept coming back to be heard and prayed for. 

Meet Emily. She lives in Playa Blanca in Costa Rica in a, as she calls it, “very simple home”. She lives next to her mother and family members. She is a single mother with three children, the youngest being a boy around my age. While evangelizing in March, we stumbled upon her home and began a conversation with her asking her about life. She had much to say, including the miraculous story of God healing her family member Carlos who was injured in a drunk motorcycle accident. She later told us that most of her family refuses to talk to her because she is a follower of Christ. She tries to show them the way to Christ, but they refuse. Her son struggles with alcoholism and is encouraged in it by his friends and her brother just to spite her. This woman is a WARRIOR for Christ. While she experiences much sorrow because her family wants nothing to do with her, she presses on for the sake of the gospel. What an incredible testimony of the goodness of God she is. She continues to press on when things get hard. When others would say she’s alone, she believes God is always with her. She asks that we pray for her family often. 

Meet Hector. Hector is a middle school aged boy who lives on Isla Bastimentos in an indigenous village. Hector always came to kids ministry on Mondays and Thursdays at the YWAM base, but was the only one his age. A few months ago, Hector was part of a robbery here at the YWAM base. In the indigenous culture of the island, kids are taught to steal from a young age. At my first kids ministry in May, we went through the message of the gospel with the kids. We made bracelets with beads representing the sin, blood of Jesus, and cleansing. On this day Hector prayed to accept Jesus into his heart. My friend Sam from YWAM brought him a bible the following week, and in just a few days he had read the entire gospel of John. People who have known Hector for longer can recognize a complete change in his heart and being. On one of our last weekends here, he brought two younger friends to a Spanish church service we hosted on base. Hector hung around for a while reading his bible and asking questions. Hector’s home is a place of witchcraft, and he is the only one to be the spiritual leader of his village. 

Please consider joining me in prayer over their lives- that the Lord would continue to work in their hearts to save them or grow their relationships with Him. That he would bless them, protect them, and hold them in the palm of His hand. That they would (wether one day or continue to) be bold witnesses for Christ in their homes.