Costa Rica Surf & Serve

Costa Rica Surf & Serve Recap

Hi, my name is Abby, and I am 27 years old. I’ve been a part of CS St Augustine for about a year now, and just went on my very first mission trip to Costa Rica. Leading up to the trip, I didn’t quite know what to expect. I was excited, yet nervous. I prayed for God to show me new friendships and opportunities to grow in my faith. I had the typical worries, what if I don’t make any friends, what if I don’t fit in, or what if I’m not a good enough Christian etc. However, that fearful mindset quickly faded when we were driving 7 hours from San Jose to Pavones, belly laughing the whole way there, even when our van’s clutch went out. We basically puttered the last 30 minutes to our destination. From then on, I knew it was going to be an epic trip, and one that God intentionally put me on. After we reached the villas (and pushed our van into the parking spot), I got connected with the girls I was sharing a villa with. Introductions were made, and before I knew it, we said “alright, what time are you getting up tomorrow and what board are you surfing?”. Sure enough, we were up at 5am the next day to surf and we were shredder buddies for the rest of the trip. As the week went on, we served the town of Pavones by painting the local school. Even though it was hard at times painting for long hours in the humid rainforest climate, it was well worth it to transform the appearance of the school for the whole town to recognize. Seeing the appreciation and joy from the locals was amazing and we pointed all the glory to God, since He was the one who made it happen. In addition, we did a prayer walk around the town and attended the local church service where they welcomed us by singing worship songs in English as well as Spanish. One of my favorite parts about the trip was spending time with the entire group and basically becoming one big family. We worked as a team, ate almost every meal together, surfed together, played lots of Uno, shared our testimonies, and prayed with each other. I really felt that God put me on this trip to be reminded about how important community is and how valuable it is to have Christian friends to not only have fun with, but to form deep, intentional connections with. This mission trip to Costa Rica left an everlasting impact on me. I grew so much in my faith and solidified my relationship with Jesus. There were things I did on this trip that were out of my comfort zone, but I knew that God was presenting these challenges to me for a reason. I’m so grateful to have had this experience and I certainly look forward to the next mission trip!