I am in San José, Costa Rica, following God on an individual missions calling. This is my first time going to the mission field alone, independently, without any organization or friendly English speakers to accompany me. From the very start it’s proven to be much more difficult than I had expected, but at the same time, I love it.

After finding myself stuck overnight in Mexico City and talking all night about Jesus with a French atheist, I eventually made it to San José and now share a tiny, one-room apartment with a cheery fellow named Andrés who works for a refrigeration company. Some guy ripped me off by selling me keys that didn’t work, so for a week we had to leave our apartment door open. This resulted in a sketchy paranoia and lingering unsettledness that contributed to nightmares of being robbed. One night Andrés came home and startled me awake. I jumped out of my bed toward him screaming, which caused him to start screaming, and ended with the both of us trying to figure out what in the world was going on. Now I call him Señor Grito (Mr. Screams).

So what have I been doing? Most days I have been working from 8am-7pm at Vanguardia, a small church with a huge heart. I’ve been doing a lot of painting and remodeling, because they just acquired a run-down building and need a lot of help fixing it up.

After several days of this, however, a major change was made in where I was needed because crisis hit the pastor’s family.  Serious crisis. The business his wife works with distributes products all throughout Latin America. They had been working for nine years for a major company in the US, and have now invested tens of thousands of dollars into purchasing a new building, hiring 15 new people, and closing down another business in order to focus exclusively on this one. Well, without sharing too many details, there was some major miscommunication and the president of the company in the US terminated their contract as distributor after they had invested everything. Many families’ jobs and financial securities are at stake here, and incredibly, God positioned me here just for this moment.

I started out helping smooth over the language translation for a single letter, and things have sort of sky-rocketed from that point. My education in English has been put to the test for sure, as I’ve been trying to translate and edit letters appropriately from Spanish to English in very delicate situations that have required exact ideas to be expressed, whether it be assertiveness, distress, or a firm but reconciliatory tone. I’ve been working not just with letters, but also now in smoothing over verbal communication between the president of the company in the US and the representatives throughout multiple countries in Latin America. Like always, God’s direction has taken a completely different route than I ever expected. I’ve gone from suggesting a single word in English to being promoted in business negotiations as a personal consultant to rapidly becoming intimately involved to the highest degree in this entire affair in which the future of Latin America’s inaugural health awareness programs are at stake. Monday I’m even contacting the First Lady of Belize!

The beautiful thing about all of this is that the people I’m working with, including the pastor’s family, are doing everything possible to maintain both professionalism and Christian integrity throughout it all. We have been on our knees in prayer trying to reconcile everything and trusting whatever decision God gives us. I have been truly blessed by seeing Christian business women stand up for what they believe in, refusing to compromise their ethical values, even when it may cost everything. The other beautiful thing about all of this is that I truly believe in the business that I’m now doing everything I can to support. They work with products and programs to raise awareness about pregnancy, smoking, drugs, and alcohol. One of their newest target groups is the guerilla resistance fighters in Colombia which has an over 90% pregnancy rate amongst teenage girls. But, like I said, all of this was terminated a week ago with a huge loss of investment, both in time and money, and with no way to recover the funds without an operational contract. This week, however, we’ve written multiple letters and made phone calls and been round-the-clock praying for a solution, and God has indeed answered. Yesterday we had a skype conversation to discuss final matters and by the grace of God, the president of the company in the US changed his mind and the direction of the whole company and reinstated our license for distribution in Latin America! Everything is still not entirely settled, but I have really been blessed to be here and utilize my gifts to help out in this crisis. God indeed gives us exactly what we need when we need it. I never before would have felt competent for the work I’ve been doing, but the people involved have shared with me that they feel God has brought me here for this unique season in order to help ensure that their work to positively impact the lives of 14,000 young people in Colombia continues. Wow.