Seeing the bigger picture

I am so thankful for my SI Costa Rica family.  Here we are pictured with our summer interns and a group from California that was with us for two weeks this summer.  As a staff, we are all so different from each other; age, gender, nationality, conflict style, leadership style, personality...but at the end of the day, we all are committed to being a part of this multicultural missions organization.  We share the same vision of seeing students (the North Americans who come to work with us) and the poor (community members) transformed into the likeness of Christ and discover their true calling.  

The Centro de Tutoria is undergoing some construction work and we decided that it would be better to close the Center for a few days because of the noise and dirt and disturbance.  That meant that Jose and I needed to find another place to be in the meantime.  As much as I missed my kiddos from Los Guido, it was SO GOOD to spend time with some of my coworkers and see what they do at their different ministry sites.  It is one thing to hear them talk about their kiddos and ladies that they work with, and it is another thing to see it for yourself.  I got to meet a young man in Las Fuentes who is working hard to make different life choices and actually just came home from a spiritual retreat through his church today.  I spent a day with my coworker Norma talking with both victims and perpetrators of bullying in a public school, with the goal being to get to the bottom of the hurt that is causing the mistreatment of their fellow students.  And I was able to help with an English class that we had for a group of teenage mommies, who had to grow up way too early in order to take care of their own babies.  We cannot change their life choices after the fact, but can help  be a part of them making better choices in how they parent and have relationships in the present and the future.

Sometimes I wonder if what we are doing in the communities really matters.  When we see situations of drug use and child abuse and violence and alcoholism happening in the homes of the kids and the women that we work with- does our presence in their lives make a difference?  We can get discouraged when we see hard situation after hard situation.  But I was reminded this week that we are called to plant seeds and to be faithful.  Sometimes we might get to see the fruit of our labor.  God has been so generous to me in showing me a bit of "fruit" when I think about some of my former high school youth group students in California and how they are following Jesus wholeheartedly now that they are college students.  But we are not promised that we will see fruit- Paul even said in 1 Corinthians 3:6 "I planted the seed in your hearts, and Apollos watered it, but it was God who made it grow."  That's the key- it will be up to God when and how and where it will grow.  For now, I want to keep on planting seeds in the children and students that I work with.  And trust him to be faithful in the rest. 


As I said before, I'm encouraged by my staff and the different ministry sites that we have around Desamparados.  I am thankful that I now have a better understanding of what is happening in the Las Fuentes house and La Capri school and the Woodshop and the Microfinance groups.  (I could also talk about Sports and my friends in the Office and Child Sponsorship, but I didn't spend time with them this week.  But they certainly are being faithful to the call that God has given them here in Costa Rica as well.)  I see Jesus in my coworkers and I see why He has each of them in the ministry sites that they are assigned to.  May we each be faithful to plant the seeds where we are placed!