I’ve made it no secret how excited and proud I am to see my dear friends Jason and Sarah Sheets achieve their dream of becoming foreign missionaries. I’ve waited and prayed with them as they anticipated God’s perfect timing and the perfect mission field for them. Last January, they final set off – first to Costa Rica for language school, and by the time this article is published they will finally be in Arequipa, Peru ready to begin their missions work there. Before that though, I was privileged to get to visit them in Costa Rica for the week of Thanksgiving – a week I will remember for a very long time.
My trip started out as simply a vacation. True, I wanted to see and encourage my friends, but I was not expecting to be so encouraged as well. One of the first people I met was Pastor Elgin Estrada of Comunidad Cristiana Amistad Internacional. I attended church with Jason and Sarah, which naturally was all in Spanish. I did my best to comprehend the message, but mainly I just copied the notes from the PowerPoint slides. A brief morning worship time was followed by Sunday school. I followed obediently as Jason and Sarah led me out of the worship center into the small kitchen area where Pastor Elgin had taken a seat. I was confused at first by the fact that their Sunday school class only had themselves and their pastor, but I quickly learned that Pastor Elgin loves to sit down and share café with all visitors to the church. With Sarah and Jason serving as translators, Pastor Elgin began to share his story.
He was once a successful architect, but then God called him into the pastorate. Since family is everything in Costa Rica, he wanted the affirmation of his wife and children before he answered this call, but God had already prepared their hearts and they all agreed. For a while, Pastor Elgin tried to hold onto both careers, but eventually it was time to make the pastorate a full-time priority. He has been a pastor at Comunidad Cristiana Amistad Internacional for five years now, and during our brief conversation he reminded me that the time is short and believers must be constantly about the work of Christ, because He is returning very soon. He also personally exhorted me that I may have visited Costa Rica for reasons even I do not know, and God may have greater planes there for me than I expect. I truly pray Pastor Elgin was correct, and since I am going back to Costa Rica in March for a mission trip, I am sure I will get to find out.
On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday I got to attend school! Yes, perhaps not the way most people spend their vacations, but I am a teacher after all who loves to learn. Jason and Sarah study Spanish at the Spanish Language Institute, which is associated with Sojourn Academy, a bilingual Pre-K through 12th grade school in San Francisco de Dos Rios, a suburb of San Jose. One of the things Jason and Sarah have come to enjoy is that their children can attend school at the academy while they study Spanish on the same campus. Thus, the family never has to be separated, which I imagine was very comforting this first year abroad. While I was there, I got to attend Spanish speaking and grammar classes. For the most part I was able to grasp the basic concepts of what was going on, and I came away with the certain conviction that by only knowing one language in life I am most certainly missing out.
Aside from spending time with Jason and Sarah, I think the best part of the week was Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving not being a Costa Rican custom, the “gringos” from the school got together for the feast. At this celebration, I had the opportunity to get to know so many missionaries. One had traveled all the way from New Zealand to study Spanish in Costa Rica, and soon she will be off to serve the Lord in Ecuador. Another has been in Costa Rica a bit longer than expected as he and his family wait for a door to open for them into the troubled nation of Venezuela. One missionary named Polly will actually be making Costa Rica her home base as she takes every opportunity available to minister in Cuba. I also got to meet a man named Sean who has taken the position of director of Cru (formerly Campus Crusade for Christ) for all of Latin America. By the end of dinner, I was in awe of the possibilities of what God was going do to through the lives of these people.
After the Thanksgiving celebrations were over, the Sheets family and I made our way home via bus and taxi, which was an incredible adventure in itself. As people crammed in around me and I held on for dear life, I did find a few moments to reflect. Missionaries would be the last people to call themselves heroes. As Sarah put it, “We are just normal everyday Christians who have been called to live for Christ as have all believers. Our calling just happens to be out of the USA in a country called Peru.” Perhaps this is true. Even so, men and women like the Sheets who throw their comfort zones to the wind and step out in faith to serve Christ in foreign lands will always be heroes to me. Ultimately their lives are about bringing other people to the true Life. How could you possibly get more heroic than that?
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Copyright © 2015 David Scott Fields II. All Rights Reserved.
