I am officially in Costa Rica, and it is breathtakingly beautiful. The people, the culture, the colors, the language; I'm in awe. Thank you Jesus that I have the privilege to do this.

As nervous and excited as I was to fly to Costa Rica, and start the World Race, the second the plane touched down here in Jaco, my heart felt at peace. Like I am right where I need to be. We arrived in Jaco at the host families home around 3:45 am. Yes you read that right. My eyes could barely stay open the entire bus ride, but they also were eager to see the world around me. I stayed awake until we arrived, and we were so smelly (I'm going to be brutually honest on here sorry! lol) so we each took turns showering. The place is BEAUTIFUL! We are about a 10 minute walk from the beach, and live in a two story house that's filled with bright and gorgeous colors. It's been such a blessing to take in the beauty around me; to just sit in the silence and hear His voice. I'm so thankful for that. 

Our ministry doesn't start until Tuesday, so the past two days we have been working on things needing to be done on the property for our host family. Some people gardened, did construction, cleaned up storage sheds and painted. I was able to paint, and I had a blast! Throughout Jaco, there are gorgeous murals and paintings that bring out the life in Costa Rica. Our ministry host loves to tell people about Jesus through art, and my heart lept at the thought of helping. Myself, and two other friends took on a project right by the property that is known as a park. Lately, it has been a spot for people who are homeless to take refuge, and we were told to "spark some hope" in this area. So that's what we did. 

When the three of us sat down to figure out what we were going to paint, one of the friends showed us a drawing that he had done previous to training camp. It's God's hand reaching down through the water, pulling up another hand. Essentially, God rescues us and saves us when we feel like we are drowning. Around that same time we were figuring out if this was the right decision to paint, our host named Hannah, came up and told us her vision for the wall. She said " I was visioning God's hand reaching down in the water pulling someone up." We all stopped and freaked out, and knew that this was it. We knew it had to matter, it had to mean something and it had to be big enough for this giant wall mural. We all agreed that it was a beautiful sentiment to paint in the park, and with eager hearts we started. 

For the past two days the three of us have been out in the (insanely hot) sun painting this HUGE wall. It's a work in progress, and I will continue to update you all when it's complete. But today, my main goal was painting a bible verse in Spanish for the community. My back is hurting, I'm sore and the wall was so high up I was terrified. But I kept saying " No fear! No fear!" And onward I continued, until it was complete. 

I look at this picture and I'm thankful I overcame an obstacle, because that verse matters to someone who will read it. 

He reached down from on high and took hold of me; He drew me out of deep waters.

- Psalm 18:16