A Labor of Love

So... this expression has been playing over in my mind "you win some and you lose some"... its sort of how life works when you work with children at risk globally. It takes a liftetime of investment to individual children to make a long-term impact, but you know what? I am seeing the fruit of even shorter-term investment. This gives me hope.

Since being back in San Jose, Costa Rica, I am excited to be able to support my room mate here who began as my student, then friend, staff for the Children at Risk School(CRS) and finally leader of Metro ministries in Costa Rica. It has been a huge responsibility and undertaking but since I left to go to Mexico, the entire ministry was placed in her lap. Since, she has made this ministry her own and there is visible fruit to see from her labors already. Even more exciting to me, when I go and help her with the kid's ministry, I see her putting into practice what she has learned from the year she took the CRS and training and how God prepared her at this time to be a pioneer. She could never have imagined she would be running such a program on her own or how God worked it all out, but its a perfect fit for her. I enjoy seeing not only the kid's faces light up seeing the "Metro Kids" truck coming to their neighborhood but also Renate's face as she shares with the kids about God. To read more about her ministry, I have included the website on this blog. To me, this is the fruit of our training and school. At times I get discouraged asking myself how am I personally impacting these kids lives but in moments like these, are when God reminds me that the impact the students are having from the training they received is multiplied so many times over than what I can alone do. By disciplining, training and encouraging the students to dream big and to go forward in the vision God has given them utilizing their gifts, impacting, restoring and bringing His light to the broken children all over the world; it brings me joy and allows me to "stay the course," in essence.

Another exciting thing that I get to see is how the Freeman family has been able to pioneer work with children and youth at risk in a town in Costa Rica called Jaco. I have blogged about this area before where we as the 1st Children at Risk School did three months of outreach, researching the need and the resources and work that was already going on there. Jaco is known for "sex tourism" and it also has several migrant communities that live in impoverished conditions in the river areas of this town. Since this school's outreach, there has been another group of students continuing the pioneering work there as well as yet another couple of students from the CRS in Tijuana there right now. I can already see the impact and change that community has had just simply by people investing and networking and unifying the work that is already going on in the town. The Freeman family, with whom we pioneered the CRS, moved there about a year ago and have a heart and vision to see change in that community as they are commiting long term there. Several of the youth we worked with, have grown and changed. Some had considered doing a DTS in San Jose but unfortunately they ended up choosing their own path which seemed not to be the best choice for them. Yet, I trust in God that the seeds that were planted in their hearts from the Freemans and students loving on them, will ultimately bear fruit in their lives long-term. One boy in particular came this weekend to San Jose and seeing how he went from being a youth who had no value, to who he is today, allows me to see simply in his demeanor, the value put back into his life through knowing his value and worth in God. All the labor is well worth the effort. I remember when we used to ask him what he liked to do or was good at, as all the others boys surfed, played soccer, worked, etc. he said nothing and he really meant it. He just went to school to kill time and then would go play video games all day. He would walk around with his head hung low. Now he walks around with a lot of confidence in himself and knowing and recognizing God's presense and his value in God. He is a different teenager than I knew over a year ago and its because a few guys and girls took time to invest in him and help him see his value. This is why we do what we do! He now surfs and the funny thing is; just today he showed me his profile pic on FB of him surfing the waves, which prompted me to write this post. Please keep the Freeman family and team in your prayers as they are going forward working in a local preschool and also continuing to work with the youth in this town through surf and skate competitions and being open to simply forming relationships that are planting seeds in the lives of these often forgotten children and youth of Jaco.