Kevin Arnold once said, “A memory is a way of holding on to the things you love, the things you are, and the things you never want to lose.”

The memory of Costa Rica will forever be something I never want to lose, something that I will always love and it will always be a part of who I am now. As I was boarding the plane to go to Costa Rica I had a profound sense of fear, the fear that hits the pit of your stomach with a thud and makes you reconsider your decisions. The fear was the fear of the unknown; I was stepping out of my comfort zone, entering a world filled with poverty, an alternate language and different people. I had already made conclusions about this mission trip before I had even landed. I was sure I wouldn’t be clean, get enough to eat or communicate with anyone. It wasn’t until I stepped onto the bridge entering the slum of la Cuenca that I realized my life was going to change forever.

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Recently, at one of our devotionals with the AIDS victims, the Lord has placed on my heart to sing a song call, “The Teacher of Galilee.” It is a song that recounts when the “Teacher of Galilee” passes by and touches us things change! As I was singing the song, I watched one of the AIDS victims who had been suffering so much and had been so tired and weak, straighten himself in his wheel chair and say “I want to do a few steps for my Lord.”

He asked his friends to help him stand up and he began to move his feet by himself painstakingly. I was moved to tears and felt a knot in my throat (making it very difficult to sing). I was watching a man who had been through horrible suffering in a wheel chair, get up just because he wanted to please the Lord by acknowledging His presence in our praises and to give Him the only thing he could to praise Him- -a few steps!

I was so challenged by his humility and his desire to please the Lord in spite of his suffering. I reflected on the Christmas season and thought about a song that my mom had taught me as a child. It is called “In the Bleak Midwinter.” The last verse is always my favorite and it says,

What can I give him, poor as I am,
If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb.
If I were a wise man, I would do my part,
Yet what can I give Him, (give Him) my heart.

In this Christmas season and for the coming year, let us give the Lord our whole heart in everything we do and be willing to as Victor said, “give a few steps for our Lord.”

Sears Family Ministry in Costa Rica from Perception Funding on Vimeo.

Take an inside look a Seth and Andrea’s life as missionaries in Costa Rica. If you would like to support Seth and Andrea or other CFCI missionaries, click here or leave a note of encouragement!

Hugo, CFCI Missionary
San Jose, Costa Rica

My dad was 70 years old and my mother was 13 when they were married. I was raised by my grandmother- my mom’s mother. When I was four years old, a young relative introduced me to my dad because I had never met him. I was surprised to see that he was a older man living on the streets,  mistreated with multiple welts on his face and drowning in alcohol. Days later, the relative took me to meet other siblings that were from past marriages of my father. Then, my relative decided it was time for me to know who my mother was. I was almost five years old and had never met her. He took me to see a woman who was continually entering the brothel with different men. Wow…. this woman was my home. My eyes filled with tears and I felt pain in my heart. I wanted to run to her, take her in my arms and kiss her; but she didn’t have time for me.

You can imagine how my heart was broken into a thousand pieces. I felt alone, ignored and rejected. After a few months, I learned that my mom took her life. Two years later my father died. These situations marked my life. Fear, frustration, abandonment and loneliness filled my life in such a way that I lost the ability to speak for almost 15 years. I could not express a complete word and when I tried, I stuttered so badly that I couldn’t even pronounce my name. I was made fun of by others. At a young age, I decided to live on the streets, eat from waste cans and sleep on sidewalks where I only had a box as my blanket. My friends were abandonment and loneliness. I did not want to live.

During my youth, I had a friend who used drugs and sometimes slept in the streets. A year went by when I didn’t see him at all. When he returned he was a new person because he had accepted Jesus in his life and heart. He invited me to go with him to church. At first I did not want to go, but he kept insisting… telling me that I needed the Lord and that He could do a miracle in my life. I didn’t have any other options so I went with him one day to get him off my back. I didn’t know that God had a special plan for me, that He loved me. I had never felt love before. I opened my heart and gave my life to Christ and at that moment everything changed. I was no longer stuttering. I fell on my knees and cried like a child in gratefulness to God. I felt loved; something important for someone life me and I decided to be an instrument for Him.

During the next three years, the Lord began to heal the profound hurts in my heart so that He could teach me to work with children and people living on the streets. Later he gave me the marvelous gift of dressing as a clown in order to carry comfort and love to people who are drowning in suffering and pain. I live in abundant life in Jesus Christ thanks to his love and mercy. The Lord has brought me to Christ For the City International, a ministry that is dedicated to serving people in need. Through CFCI, I have been able to harvest spiritual and personal blessings serving as a full-time missionary. I work in a prevention program with children from dysfunctional homes who are at high-risk due to their extreme poverty. The vision is to rescue them from the streets through special programs and bring them to know Christ and be reintergrated into their families, society and schools. I also hand out food in a street feeding program. I teach reading and writing to illiterate adults. And, of course, I continue to dress as “Tikcles the Clown” visiting tribal communities, hospitals, elderly homes, orphanages, prisons and abandoned children that are found as I was, drowning in sadness and loneliness.

After the morning kids club, Transformation hands out lunch to the kids of Guarari. The team helped to keep order in the line.

The team doing the “everything skit” in the middle of the soccer field.

The Midland Team

Guaymi ladies

The team hard at work.

The team in one of the schools.

The team mixing cement for the sidewalk

Having fun with a parachute during Sunday School.

The team working the fence line, digging up old posts and making new ones.

The Carver Team

Bristol UMC group photo after distributing food in various communities in San José.

The Bristol UMC team worked alongside the Transformation Ministry with CFCI in Costa Rica leading activities for their weekly kids club that services as many as 500 children each week.

At Renacer, a drug rehab center for minor girls, we spent a day with the girls doing teaching, crafts and games.

The Bristol BUMC team came to Costa Rica to serve with CFCI in April of 2009. God raised up incredible people to give whole-heartedly to the ministries in which they served. We saw children, youth and adults’ lives touched at Renacer, Transformations and in their host family’s homes. And, God did amazing things in the lives of the team members, who now have a bigger heart for what God is doing in Costa Rica! Praise the Lord!