Free Hugs

This past week we've spent in Monteverde, a tourist hotspot in the cloud forest of Costa Rica. If you've heard about Costa Rica's ziplining tours, this is where they were born. It's also a good spot for tours of coffee plantations and hikes to see some of Costa Rica's amazing biodiversity.

We're not here as tourists though. Being a gringo in a tourist town, but not being there to do the usual tourist things is a bit unusual. In most of our other destinations the local church we worked with had our time booked with church services, youth activities, school presentations, and manual labor projects. Not so much here in Monteverde. We've had our fair share of church services and activities with the youth, but there is also a lot of time to be creative and reach out to the locals and tourists.

The downtown center of Santa Elena (where all the tour booking offices are, as well as more restaurants, bars, bakeries, hostels and internet cafes then I've seen in one place before) is very small, so we decided to make it our center of operations. One day we split up into groups and picked up trash. Another day we brought along a guitar and sang praise and worship songs by a fountain. Several people came over to talk to us and a guy named Chris from California even took a turn with the guitar and played "Better is one day in your Courts" for us. We started giving out free hugs too, which opened doors for more conversation.

While we were singing and hanging out, we noticed all the taxi drivers just watching us and decided it would be fun to do something to bless them. So, Friday night we cooked a big batch of rice and a pot of beans, and Saturday morning I made gallo pinto. All of us went into town, to give out gallo pinto and more free hugs. The free food opened lots of doors for conversation. There was a group of university students there interviewing foreigners for an English exam. I got to chat with one of the girls for quite awhile and shared about what we were doing and why.

The plan for tomorrow is to bake cookies and then pass them out with the gospel message in a bag. We're excited that people have noticed us and are talking about what we're doing. They're curious, and open to know more. At youth group on Saturday evening one of the girls told me that her Mom's friend, who is a taxi driver told her Mom about the group giving out free pinto. Pray that as we go back on Tuesday and Wednesday we'll be able to share the gospel een more clearly, and that people who have seen our practical ways fo loving them will be ready to accept God's eternal love for them.