2023 - Day 8: Widow’s Ministry, Souvenir Shopping, and our Last (?) Team Meal

Today was our last day (or is it?!?). We started the day by heading to the Widow’s Ministry, the Bethesda House, in Los Guido. While we’ve been surrounded by poverty all week, this neighborhood is an even lower economic status and has lots of issues with drugs, alcohol, and prostitution. The Bethesda House exists to be an oasis for women who have been abandoned or mistreated and offers them assistance with food, prayer, and Bible study. They believe that when you restore a women you also restore the whole family. If she is changed, her kids and her husband (or boyfriend) will be changed too.

We started off this trip to the widow’s ministry by going to the grocery store to purchase a month’s worth of groceries for 16 families. We give the kids a budget (12,400 colones) which is about $20 per family. It is kind of sad to think that we spent more on snacks the day before and that same amount will feed a family for a month. The kids all were sent around the grocery store to pick out beans, rice, milk, salt, sugar, oil, tuna, and bread and because all groups came under budget, we were able to purchase toilet paper for them as well. We then bagged it up and drove over to deliver our bags to the widows.

We were invited into the Bethesda House where we stayed for a time of shared testimonies. Many of the ladies talked about how they are so thankful for the solid Bible teaching they receive and praised God that through the ministry their kids were saved and continue to serve in church. We even learned about Doña Isabel praying for the road that runs out front and the Lord provided (since we’ve come the last five years we were able to see this answer to prayers in person). After testimonies they prayed over our kids and it is always fun to hear these women pray, because unlike at home, they all pray at once! They then served us a delicious lunch, which is always a surprise at their generosity, after we purchased food for them. 

After the widow’s ministry we drove across town to the souvenir market. I (Clausen) stayed in the van to get everyone checked in and bags paid for, but when they came back on the bus I saw lots of sweatshirts, hats, and bracelets.

We came back to the house for devos then the kids had some time to rest or a lot of them played ultimate frisbee down on the field and worked on thank you cards. We then all walked down to the Rodriguez’ house for a final (or so we thought) team dinner. The Rodriguez family (Ricardo, Wendie, Ronald, Santi, and Sebas) have multiple businesses here in Costa Rica and abroad and HPS is just a branch of ministry that they do. I originally met them through a trip in college with Colorado Christian University, so they’ve been hosting teams for years! After us there will be five more college teams coming to stay and serve in the area between now and the summer. They are a super generous family and we are so thankful to know them and we’ve alongside them! We spent our time at dinner catching up, eating a delicious pasta dish, and watching Grant lose to Ronny for the second time in arm wrestling on this trip. This was supposed to be our last night with Ronny as he doesn’t come at 4 AM to the airport with us, so we all gave him put ups and spent some time praying over him and the family and the businesses and ministries. We then took lots of photos and have lots of hugs before walking up the hill for our final set of Devos led by BT. 

During Devos I got a text that our flight had been cancelled the next morning, so I removed myself from the room and spent the next 3 hours on the phone while the kids finished Devos, went around and gave each other put ups, and finished the Great Costa Rican Ping Pong Tournament.

At this point we are all rebooked to come home on Sunday in small groups, but we are still working on rearranging some people so there is a teacher with every group. 

Please be praying for:

1.  All the flight arrangements to work out well and for us to all get home safely tomorrow.
2. Our students and parents hearts as they’ll be away from their loved ones one more day
3. Our team as we have been working hard all week and definitely have a few who are sick and a lot who are exhausted.
4. That God would use this last day for His glory - maybe another conversation needed to be had or maybe He wanted us to practice our patience and trust in Him! 

Thanks everyone! We’ll keep you updated as we hear more!