It's Never Pointless

Day one of ministry here in Costa Rica is officially over and boy am I exhausted! Today we went to a girls shelter for girls ages 12-18 who have been abandoned or abused by their families. After that (while it was raining) we went to a park to perform the drama. So I figured that for the most part the way I will write my blog posts is to give you snapshot introductions to the people that I meet. Hopefully with picures included at some point.Today I did not take pictures mostly because the girls that we met could not have their pictures taken due to security. The girls shelter was actually a beautiful campus with multiple buildings. The girls were so welcoming to us. After the drama we got to spend some time just hanging out with them and as people say here 'loving on them.' I got to spend a particular amount if time with two young ladies so let me tell you a little bit about my interactions with both of them. First I met Luz. I sat down and asked her to tell me something interesting about herself and she starts with 'I don't know my mom or my dad and I never see my sister.' She came to the shelter in May. I asked her what her dreams were. She wants to learn English and French and become a famous actress. I also learned that she is esentially in love with Justin Beiber. She says she only listens to his songs and her favorite song by him is Never Say Never. She also loves to do hair and nails and make-up. Basically anything having to do with beautiful things. Next I met Rosaline. Let me tell you this girl could talk a mile a minute! I swear she didn't stop to breath, which was quite a test of my rusty Spanish. She didn't talk much about her family except that after she accomplishes her dream of moving to Miami and working for NASA (this girl dreams big!) she would bring her sister to the US as well. She likes dance music and I assume based on that that she also enjoys dancing. She was a hoot! After the girls shelter we went to the park in the rain. Thankfully, the park had a gazebo that provided shelter for us as we performed the drama. (I choose to see that as God's provision.) However, there were quite a few (including myself a bit) that were a bit discouraged since there weren't many people hanging around. I noticed about five that stayed for the whole drama and one was particularly interested. Some of our group prayed with him and I talked to his cousin while he played soccer with everyone. Antonio was his name. He was born without a lot of his fingers and from what I could gather he had some other problems as well. His cousin said he had had a lot of surgeries. He had a cast on his hand because he had recently had a surgery to split two of his fingers that were together. He looked so happy and his cousin said that he could do everything on his own like eat and write and everything despite the fact that at least on one of his hands he only had one finger. While it was discouraging that there weren't many people at the park. I choose to believe that it was not pointless. In fact one of our translators said it is never pointless. Who knows what Antonio will grow up to be or how he may be a part of God's plan. Finally, we ended our night with a concert by Holly Starr a Christian singer. She performed one her newer songs that I feel is an encouragement that any of you reading this blog may need! So here is the link! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xD2hl9q3ROM