Futsal, Doors, and the Gospel

Our first week in Costa Rica was spent primarily in the schools, getting to know students through games and conversational activities. These last couple of days we’ve begun to move out into public spaces, striving to build connections by playing sports, visiting with shopkeepers, and performing dances and dramas on the street.

‍

Sunday

After a morning spent in fellowship with local believers here at Iglesia Evangelica Espiritu de Vida de Cachi, we had the joy of spending a few hours in the afternoon at the local futsal arena. Royal Servants has been coming to Cachi nearly every summer since 2003, and soccer has always been a core part of our ministry model, at least until this summer. We made the executive decision moving forward to focus less on soccer (because of the higher risk of injury and our consistent inability to be remotely competitive). While this is our first summer without sports as an emphasis, we still know God can use athletics to naturally draw others to Him.

‍

Futsal is a form of soccer, with a five person line-up, on a much smaller pitch and a much faster pace. All of our guys (Luke, Joel, Tobey, Isaac, Jentzen, Quaid, Matthew, and I) got to play in the weekly men’s rec tournament, and while we never stood a chance, I do think our teamwork was pretty decent given our lack of any prior training. We lost our two matches by scores of 11-1 and 8-1, but notice we never got shut out… Tobey and Jentzen each got us a goal!

‍

However, the real eternal value of our time at the arena was in the conversations. A few of our team got to build relationships during the matches. Elena spent most of her time chatting with a gal who has actually been coming to the church's youth group, and got to encourage her. Additionally, after our team had been eliminated from the tourney, Jentzen spent his time getting to know a young man named Jose. He walked Jose through a Join the Story Gospel tract, and Jose chose to give his life to Christ! We made sure to invite him to join us for youth group on Saturday night and church Sunday morning. Obviously we are only here for a short time, so connecting new believers to a local church is of the utmost priority for us.

‍

Monday

‍

We spent our morning in Cartago (about a half hour drive away from Cachi). We first went into an open air market, and I sent out our team in groups of three with a translator to go “shopping” or rather to attempt to strike up conversations with shop owners. This was definitely a more challenging operation for our team as many of the people they encoutered had little interest in talking about faith or God. One of our team members even saw a Costa Rican who had been given a Join the Story booklet by a different group crumple it up and throw it away. But we know that this is often the world’s response to God’s good truth - to throw it away. Yet we will remain faithful messengers! During this time, Matthew was able to chat with a gentleman who professed to follow Jesus, and pray over him and his need to find a fellowship of believers with whom to join.

‍

Later on we walked to a large plaza where we planned to put on a performance and share the Gospel. If I’m being completely honest, I was discouraged to begin. Having been here in Costa Rica several years ago, I remembered visiting this plaza on a busy afternoon when it was absolutely packed with people. This morning the traffic was sparse - but we persevered just the same. Our dance team went out and performed two songs (WaveWalker and Up + Up) and our drama team followed this with a brand new performance that we call Doors. This drama follows a young woman (played by Afton) who is constantly answering those knocking on the doors of her life and offering her hope through academic excellence, vice & pleasure, hollow friendship, and romantic love. Yet Jesus remains faithfully knocking on the door (Revelation 3.20) waiting for our act of obedience and surrender to the hope that only He can provide.

‍

After this performance, our team was able to begin many conversations in spite of the lighter “attendance”. We had several conversations where our team was able to share with and pray over locals. Afton, Joel, and Isaac spent nearly half an hour talking with a man named John Paul, with whom they were able to share the Gospel… and He chose to submit his life to Christ! Our team had him connect further with our translator Darian, and urge him to join us for church Sunday morning. What an important reminder for me (and for us all) that the quantity of those hearing the Good News is not what matters, but that we are faithful to share with those in whose path God has placed us.

‍

Two different people made the decision to follow Christ! I would call that an amazing start to our second week here in Costa Rica. God is so good; all glory to Him!

‍