Follow ETBU in Costa Rica

Monday's recap of the ETBU Women's Soccer serving in Costa Rica, as a part of the Tiger Athletic Mission Experience (TAME), is from Junior Ashleigh Rondon. 

Today was so cool. First, we started the day off by worship led by the YWAM staff, then we went out into the community for Bible distribution, before returning to the YWAM camp, where we did work around the base, and then finished the day playing a a soccer game against a youth team.

The Bible distribution was probably my favorite part of today. It was just so humbling being able to give Bibles away to many people that did not have one and it was the first one in their home.  We prayed over every house and some of the families even welcomed us into their homes. This experience really hit me and made me realize how many things we actually take for granted back home.  Some of these families did not have access to a bible before today, whereas most of us have multiple Bibles in our houses or can access one with a click of a button.

Also, it was very humbling to see some of these homes and the number of people that lived under one roof, where many of us grew up with our room and bed.  One of the homes we visited had 13 people living there. Also one group of the team visited a house where the father just had open heart surgery and was not able to work and without being able to work, the family was not able to afford food to provide for the family and five children. The girls in the group immediately gathered all the money they had on them, as well as the snacks in their bags to donate to the family.  That money would have probably been used on souvenirs that we really did not need, but to that family it was so much more than that.

After the Bible distribution, the team worked around the YWAM camp, where we raked leaves and painted doors and the bathrooms. To finish off the day, we were given the opportunity to play soccer with a big group of little girls from the community and it was so much fun. They were so cute because after the game they treated us like we were famous, coming up to us asking for pictures. Even though today was a long day, I'm happy to see how God is using us here in Costa Rica and though to us it does not always seem like we are doing a lot, we are affecting the lives of the people we encounter each day.