Passporter Jordan Harrington is seeing God at work in Jaco, Costa Rica, both in herself and in this city.
Our host ministry in Costa Rica is Ocean’s Edge, which has a dream of reaching out to the surfing community. Before going to Jaco, our team knew we’d be working with children and helping local artisans live missionally, as well as a long list of other ministries. We knew that there was a need that rested in the hearts of the people of Costa Rica.
But we didn’t know that God was already at work in Jacó, Costa Rica. He is drawing its people to Himself.
During my time here, I’ve seen how He is drawing me to Himself as well.
Listening prayer is something I struggle with. I doubt that I can hear God; that what I’m sensing or hearing is more from myself than from Him.
On our second day of ministry, our team sat in a circle, listening in prayer before going out in ministry. In my mind, I saw us praying over an older woman sitting down, with a disability of some sort.
But I didn’t trust myself with what I saw; I didn’t believe it was from God. So I kept quiet about it. My teammate, Kelsee noticed something was up and said to me, that the Lord laid me on her heart and she saw an arrow in her mind’s eye. I didn’t fully understand it, at first.
Then, Carly, our team leader, challenged us to invite someone that was trying to sell us something to church. “Okay, God, I can trust that. I can do that.”
We walked to a coffee shop in town and I saw a woman standing on the corner across the street. Immediately, I heard God say, “That’s her.”
Boy, did I wrestle God on this one. I denied it, a lot. But then Kelsee, who was in my group, looked at me and said, “Look! There’s an arrow. I wonder if that’s it.”
Directly underneath that arrow sat the woman that the Lord had laid on my heart.
We walked down and across the street to talk with a tour guide that my teammate Kyle had talked with before about a tour on one of our free days. His name was Michael Angelo. We invited him to church on Friday and he eagerly agreed to go.
But as we talked with him, I saw the woman looking at me as she sat on a bench down the street. She had her cane next to her and her purse on her lap and looked like she was waiting for something.
I told Kelsee about what I saw and that I thought we should go talk with her, so we walked over and I spoke to her in very broken Spanish.
In that moment, God showed me that He broke those language barriers that seem almost impossible to climb, because we were able to communicate.
The woman’s name was Gladys and she sold accessories for a living, right in front of that bench. That small space was her everything. It was what provided for her and it was her home. However, she knew the Ultimate Provider. She knew God. She loved Him and you could tell by the beauty of her smile when those cheekbones lifted and her eyes fluttered. She knew true joy.
Gladys was waiting on her pastor to come get her, and she allowed us to pray with her as she sat on that bench. Then she prayed for us, squeezing my hand so tightly. Then, she released it and hugged me.
Before she got up to leave, she asked us to come back and see her again.
Through Gladys, God showed me that it’s okay to trust myself and break my walls of doubt that I put in the space between my head and my heart.
The next day, God showed me a big need in Jaco: the brokenness of prostitution.
*photo by Carly Marin
I was in a prenatal center that the pastor’s wife of our new church, Sarah, owned. We were waiting on her next client and she spoke about the victims of prostitution that come into her business. She said that she has had mothers give their young daughters away.
These children end up pregnant and it’s Sarah’s job to ensure that they care for these new babies. Many girls are either prostitutes or their boyfriends leave them once they get them pregnant. They aren’t required to pay child support here, so these girls are left afraid and alone. Abortion may be banned, but that doesn’t stop them from trying.
Sarah has a dream to end this and the Lord is working through her so much. She told us stories of this and how club owners are the dealers of it all. Every night, they give away girls to random men and get a large portion of the money.
You can walk down the street and tell which girls are giving such a large piece of themselves in order to survive. But, friends, God is so much bigger than this. With prayer and people willing to stand up against this, He can do anything.
Just as He can end prostitution, He can end poverty. The other day, we sent a few team members to feed the homeless. The rest of us stayed back and prayed while they served and shared God’s love with those who feel forgotten.
We prayed for hearts to be changed, and that’s what God did: the team came back and shared how several people gave their lives to Christ.
This is what it’s all about. Changing lives for Christ. Seeing shattered pieces restored and anew. This dream is beating in God’s heart for Jacó.
Jacó began as a place that no one advised to go to. With the prostitution, poverty, and addiction, it was pronounced “unsafe”. But Ocean’s Edge’s owner, Hannah, disregarded those negative voices and ventured to Jaco.
Now, people cherish Jaco and a foundation of hope is creeping into place that once deemed hopeless.
The locals immediately gave thanks to the church for this. Even if they didn’t follow God, they knew it was Him. They allow us to go into the community and teach children about Jesus, while providing for their families with food and school supplies. This is because they know and have seen the change that God has made through things as simple as this. The Lord is doing so much here, and I can see the love that He has for this place.
I ask that you pray for us, for Ocean’s Edge, and for the heart strings that will be pulled in the next few months. Pray for new testimonies and new ministries to begin through this. Pray for further connections to be made between us and the locals.
Above all else, I ask that you pray for God’s vision for Jaco to be fulfilled.
I have seen what God can do, both in my relationship with God and in this city, and I believe it will happen.
God is at work in Jaco, Costa Rica. He is turning a city of brokenness into a city of hope.
You can be part of what God is doing there too and join a team of other college students sharing God’s love in Jaco. The deadline to apply is soon, so CLICK HERE to save your spot!
For youth group trips to Jaco, where your students will share God’s love with the local surfing community, CLICK HERE, and CLICK HERE for family mission trips.
