Costa Rica Day Four

Rescued. What does it mean to be rescued?

The dictionary tells us that rescue is being saved from danger or distress. This implies needs that need met for rescue to occur. The Hope Center mission focuses on meeting the needs of of the families in Pavas so they can ultimately be rescued by their Savior.

To our Frisco Bible Church eyes, we can easily see the kids of Pavas are clearly in distress. We see their homes and think of our own and feel sadness and despair for the families. But the truth is that our mission is not to replace their homes and lives with ones like ours. Our mission is much greater, but the first step in the rescue is to meet needs. That first means to provide an all-encompassing feeling of love through safety. Once they experience this, hearts can be softened to hear the actual saving message providing an everlasting hope.  

Today, we met needs. The beauty of mission trips is to see new needs and stretch to meet the new needs outside of our own comfort. This morning, it was time to clean up and beautify the school cafeteria with paint. As an American, this means to get out the paint sprayer and rollers but in Costa Rica, this means a team of 16 with lots of ladders, metal scraping utensils, and small paintbrushes (and no tape, safety goggles, or drop cloths). We climbed up ladders and scraped and painted ceiling panels, metal gates, and walls. And we did it in record time. When we were done, we ate in the school cafeteria and admired all the work we had done, but also smiled at newly familiar faces, both of children and teachers. Those faces recognized we were there to meet needs. We had met needs.

And next, it was time to prove our commitment to meeting their needs. We took our bus 2 blocks over - taking the bus because it was not safe to walk the 2 blocks - to the Hope Center. There we were tackled, we were raced, we were beat. We jumped, we danced, we sang. All things that stretched our bodies and resulted in needs met.  

But the truth is, we did not see anyone saved today, but we met needs. It's hard sometimes not to see the rescue and only meet the immediate needs. We want to see the end results. We don't want to see all the kids leave and wonder how their evenings will turn out, or if they will even return.

In debriefing time, we thought about how we have been rescued. When we look back on our rescue we can think about all the times that our needs were met and realize how many people met needs that led us to our rescue and our continued transformation. Today, we are so thankful that we got to meet needs that will one day lead to the Savior's rescue.