Talamanca, Costa Rica

On Sunday morning at 5 am we left the base in san Jose headed for Talamanca, Costa Rica. One of the families on staff at the base in Panama had recently moved from there. This was where we were to do our NIKO.

We loaded up the bus and headed out.

Because it was early and we were tired, most of us fell fast asleep. We stopped for a restroom break and one of my classmates (Mr. BLT) told me that Cooper told him that he had asked Jesus into his heart. He’s been asking question for a while, and we knew that he had all the head knowledge, but it just needed to be heart knowledge. (We also knew that Cooper does EVERYTHING on Coper time!!) So it was JUST like him to pray for salvation when HE was ready on a bus full of sleeping people with no one’s help at all!!!

Six hours later we arrived in BriBri. We got off the bus and David found a taxi (truck) driver to take us into Tallamanca (so we didn’t have to carry all our luggage on the public transport bus!) Two guys went with the luggage and the rest of us waited for about 1 ½ hours for a bus. It was about 30-45 minutes away on a 1 lane dirt/rock/gravel road. We crossed over a river a couple of times (only about 1 foot or less deep) and we FINALLY arrived at YWAM Tallamanca. It’s beautiful! This base is 1 building (upstairs are bunks and showers and downstairs is where the church meets). It’s set right in the rain forest and less than 1 mile from the river. We all went down to the river and our leader David, and Mr. BLT were able to baptize Cooper right there!!

We returned to the base and started pulling out all the stuff that we had brought for the NIKO, just to be prepared! I wish I could tell you exactly what a NIKO is, but it’s a discipleship tool that has to be discovered by the individual. I CAN tell you that I’ve never been so physically challenged in my life!!! (and that’s AFTER having 2 kids)

The week was intense. I was exhausted and thought that I was going to die most o the trip. God dealt a lot with my pride. I like to be able to prove to people that I CAN handle things that they think I can’t. I want to show that I AM strong, and that I’m NOT what you think!!

But God spoke SOOOOOO strongly to me on that Wednesday. We were hiking and it was getting dark. I was dehydrated and had already gotten really sick, so we were on our way back to the base. Where we were was very muddy and quite slick and I was shaky at best. Our leader, Alex (who is 23 years old and has done 24 NIKO’s) got out in front of the group and started to lead us back. He knew the way. He’d been down that path 1000 times. He knew that I was shaky and scared. Even before I knew that something tough was coming he had already turned around and given me his hand.

Y’all….that’s what God does with us!!! He already knows our path….he’s been UP AND DOWN it. He know before you do that something that might rattle you is coming. His hand is already outstretched. Can you give up your pride enough to take it?