“It just went so well.”

As I watched my team pack their bags, load into the van, and head for the airport, I was overwhelmed with emotions. I remained in the same spot from which I watched the van pull out of the driveway for a few hours. The half wall I was sitting on overlooked the camp, triggering memories as I looked around. I remembered conversations that occurred beneath the very roof I was sitting under, or on the bench I was looking at, or around the cooktop next to the river where we had our picnic just days before. Tears flowed, yet smiles and laughter broke through as my coleader, Jeff, and I reflected on the week and talked through the emotions. Was I sad that my team was gone and the camp was suddenly empty? Yes. Of course. But that wasn’t fueling my emotions. Would I have hit rewind and done it all again? Time and time again. But I wouldn’t have changed a thing. You see, these tears were tears of pure joy in knowing that I was exactly where God wanted me. 

Let’s take a second to flashback. One year from this time, I had never even been on a mission trip. Seven months ago, I had come to Costa Rica for the first time. Five months ago, the door opened for me to lead a team back to this beautiful place. Two months ago, I met some of my team members for the first time ever. One week before this flood of emotions, our trip had hardly started. 

From beginning to end and even beyond, God so clearly revealed His hand in every piece of this trip. I could probably type out an entire book of the many pieces that were so perfectly adjusted to make this trip everything it was, but for the sake of time I’ll stick to the short story.  

First of all, to speak largely on how well things went, I’ll start by pointing out that every single person made it to the San Jose Airport in Costa Rica on time. In coming from three different locations, that’s an impressive start. Vera, one of our team members, was originally from Costa Rica, so we were warmly welcomed into the country in spending our first night in their home. Needless to say, our bellies were so full I think I could’ve gotten away without feeding my team for the next eight days. From there, we headed to our camp in La Fortuna called Campamento Casi Cielo (Camp Almost Heaven). Our team spent the next two days working on maintenance projects around the camp, such as scrubbing fence posts, painting roofs, cutting down and cleaning up tree branches, and varnishing a ceiling. We also spent time sorting our materials for the next few days and exploring the nearby area, as well as talking through our devotional series. On Sunday evening, we were able to attend a local church called Iglesia Rompiendo Limitus (Breaking Limits Church) and then get dinner with some of the church staff including the pastor and his wife. These few days in preparation for our “main project”, not only served to maintain the camp or get to know the local area, but it also gave our team time to get to know each other. There were some people I had only known from our few meetings before the trip. There were some team members that didn’t know anyone else or only knew one other person on the team. By the time we loaded into the van for the village, we were unified in laughing together, praying together, and sharing in deep conversations of faith and our personal experiences. 

On our way to the village we hit what I call one of our only “road bumps” of the trip. With an early start to the morning, we had to save our devotional time for the van ride. This particular morning’s devotion was on worship and what that looks like to each of us. After many ideas were thrown around in the van and discussed, we concluded that worship can be a part of everything we do; every thought we think, every action we make, and every breath we take. BOOM. Our tire was as flat as my soccer ball post-dogteeth. We all hopped out of the van and before any of our thoughts lingered too far, Debbie, one of our team members said, “Thank God we are safe. That could’ve easily taken us off the road.” A perfect example of worshipping God in every thought. We all turned to look up and see the sign behind us that read, “Servicios Mecanicos”. Two of the workers were already on their way out with a carjack dragging behind them. They greeted us with a smile and a brief chuckle, quickly changed our tire, and sent us back on our way, after we joined in a quick prayer altogether. If this event, that looking back is one of the most memorable pieces of our trip, is what I see as one of our only bumps in the road, how can I not see God’s hand in every detail? But the story goes on.      

Our team spent three of our days working on a variety of projects in this unreached village called Media Queso. Yes, that means Half Cheese. We finished the last portion of the concrete floor in the church, filled the pulpit area with dirt to be concreted in the future, touched up some areas and painted an exterior door, hung some lights, tiled a bathroom, completed crafts and Bible lessons with kids, taught a first-aid course to the villages new “first-aid team”, prepared a meal for the village, and showed a film about Jesus’ life in Spanish for the first time there. Needless to say, we stayed pretty busy and would like to think we made the most of our time in Media Queso. 

As in many areas of my life, my issue was not a matter of mustering up enough energy to put towards one of these projects, but choosing which project to really focus on. The first two days in the village, I had my hands on a little bit of everything. In fact, in looking back at some photos, I realized that in just one day I had helped mix and pour concrete, shoveled many wheelbarrow loads of dirt, read a Bible story to a group of kids in Spanish, and played many rounds of soccer. Staying busy is not something that I struggle to do in my day to day and it certainly wasn’t any different there. 

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However, day three was different for me. We were greeted one by one with hugs as we stepped out of the van and were welcomed back by the locals that we had gotten to know throughout our previous days of work. Our team immediately split off in different ways to cover each piece of what we wanted to accomplish before we headed back to La Fortuna. Our to-do list included hanging some lights, fixing the latch on a door, putting some final touches on the newly tiled bathroom, completing another Bible lesson with the kids, training a group of ladies in first-aid, and of course filling every moment of “free time” with soccer.  Before long everything was underway and somehow, I found myself sitting outside the church, simply observing the many hands in action. I realized I was not needed even with this extensive to-do list. In that moment, I knew God was showing me that I was right where He wanted me. He was showing me that He had not only brought me to this place at this specific time, but that He had given me the role of team leader. As a confirmation of this, He provided the perfect people for the team in order for me to do just that: lead. The feeling of not being needed was not that God didn’t need me as a piece of His plan there, but that I was so much in line with His plan in other ways that my hands were not physically needed. He needed my heart and He needed my willingness to go wherever He took me. In this case, He needed my leadership. It was okay that I wasn’t running around like a chicken with my head cut off, in an attempt to have my hands in everything, because I was standing right where He had prepared for me to stand. 

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This peace that God provides when you are walking with Him, is a peace that you cannot receive elsewhere. It’s that gut feeling that everything is okay even when you can’t see it. It’s that burst of energy that inexplicably comes after many sleepless nights, just because you are confidently walking in His plan for you. It’s that reassurance that you are right where He wants you, even when everyone else thinks you’re crazy for pushing forward. 

In looking back on the trip, I truly believe that the reason our biggest road bump was also one of our biggest blessings, was because we, as a team, were so diligent in seeking God’s direction from beginning to end. In the weeks leading up to the trip, although our team was not physically in the same location, we were committed to being united in prayer. Each morning an email was sent out with a new topic of prayer for the day and from that different team members would reach out with encouragement or other prayer requests. As a team, we saw God answering prayers long before the trip, and this only multiplied when we were together in Costa Rica. I went into the trip fully expecting that things would go in every direction, but according to the plan. Let me tell you that everything went according to plan, besides that flat tire. Okay, so maybe the second flat tire wasn’t according to the plan either or having to peel the plastic layer off of the hotdogs before we fed the village, but all things accounted for, those were minor details. Our plans didn’t have to change, because we let God do the planning in the first place. 

I would have never pictured me sitting outside the church and watching as everyone else worked on a project. I love to be hands on. I would’ve put myself on a project, or likely more than one. Honestly, I probably wouldn’t have even have put myself in charge of a project, so that I could stay busy hopping between a few tasks, let alone in charge of the whole team. When we give God the steering wheel, He will lead us exactly where He wants us, and more times than not, it will look nothing like we expect. 

The tears that ran down my face as I watched my team load into the van and depart for the airport, were a direct result of knowing that I was right where God wanted me to be. I don’t have kids, but I would think that my emotions in this moment could probably compare to those my mom experienced as she drove away from my college dorm for the first time. The flooding of memories from our time together. Knowing that God’s hand was in every moment leading up to this point. Wishing to have the time back and experience it all over again.  A humble proudness of what we had done together and apart. An excitement for the journey ahead. In the moments when I could hardly get words out in one sentence as Jeff and I sat on that wall, the only thing I could piece together was, “It just went so well.”