Skip to main content

Saying Goodbye Too Soon







He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.
Ecclesiastes 3:11

 Hello Family and Friends,

I imagine that anyone reading this is also in the midst of a crazy season, but I wanted to update you on what life looks like right now.

As of Monday we made the decision to go home. We were hoping to wait it out, but on Monday the news came that Costa Rica was declaring a state of emergency and closing their borders to all incoming travelers. This has effected us in two ways: 1. We were no longer able to do our border run to Nicaragua or Panama since we would not be able to re-enter the country. 2. There is no way to know if airlines will continue to fly flights out of Costa Rica if no flights are coming in. So with that information the decision was made to send both students and staff home rather than risk being stuck in Costa Rica. Though Costa Rica is doing well so far implementing social distancing quickly they do have 70 confirmed cases.

Our hope was that we could quarantine to the Villa and keep students healthy. The thought was that they would have better odds of staying healthy if we could avoid traveling. Unfortunately, with the borders closing, both here and flights being grounded in the states the decision was made to go home. Most of the students had flights yesterday and today. We have only a few of us left and I fly back to NY on Monday.

This makes goodbye that much harder. It feels unfair and unreal. It feels like we are stuck in a bad movie. I know that this is hitting people hard all over the world, but this just doesn't feel right to send our students home when we had so much planned for the next six weeks.
So we are saying goodbye much too soon. Goodbye to our ministry partners. Goodbye to our ministry students. Goodbye to each other, our family, our friends, to Costa Rica, and to GAP way before we expected to. So that is the update: We're coming home, coming home- tell the world we're coming home.

This is also a challenge for me as I will not be returning to Costa Rica next year and the program is also coming to an end here in Costa Rica for now. I know God has been kind to let me come back to visit every year since I was a student and now has given me two more years of living and serving here in Costa Rica and for this I am grateful. Faithful He has been and faithful He will be. I hope I will have opportunities to come back in the future. I am trusting God with that.

Please be praying for us and our students. Most of us were not able to say the goodbyes we wanted to and there is a lot of disappointment in that. So here are some specific prayer requests:
1. all of us make it home safe and healthy
2. we would be able to adjust to the United States especially in the midst of all the craziness
3. we would all remember the things we have learned this year and would be ready to live it out
4. we the church would be the church- generous, compassionate, gracious, peaceful, joyful, and would demonstrate the love of Christ in all things

Thanks everyone for following along. Stay safe, stay healthy and know that I am bringing home at least one role of toilet paper just in case.

Love has no borders,

Rachel Martha

Here are some photos from the last few weeks/ days:
Saying bye to Sammi and LeAnn


Saying Goodbye to our Los Guido Students


Last adventure together to a coffee plantation cafe



After girls night we went to the beach!


Girls Night Bake-Off between rooms

The girls with their creations































Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I never would have guessed...

Dear Friends and Family, Many of you may know and some   may not so here it is... drum roll please... I am headed back to Costa Rica, and this time it is for two years! This past February, I visited Costa Rica to recruit GAP students for Lancaster Bible College. While I was there I heard about their need for a new Female Student Life Coordinator. I never anticipated this position being available at a time when I would be in a position to take it. While I was in Costa Rica with LBC I was able to speak with the directors of the program who offered me the position. After I returned home I had a lot of praying to do. I took about two weeks to pray and seek good counsel. After considering my options and seeking Godly wisdom I called the director in Costa Rica and officially accepted the position. In this position my primary responsibility will be to build relationships with and disciple the GAP students in the program. We hope to have 20-25 college age st...
Post a Comment
Read more

Counting Every Blessing

  Group Photo at Laodicea Hey Hey Hey! It has been a while since I have written an update like this. Life has changed a lot over the past several months. I have sat down to write an update several times, but I have not been fully sure of what I wanted to write. The last time I wrote an update was about a year ago when the decision had been made to leave Costa Rica early at the beginning of the pandemic. It seems unreal that it has been a year. Though there are many difficulties I could list from my own experiences this year, there are also many blessings. So this update is coming at you in the form of a list of blessings:  1. After returning home from Costa Rica I found a job that I was able to work from April to August. I know that many people lost jobs through that time and I was grateful I was able to at least work part-time. 2. Over the summer I was able to travel and visit friends I had not been able to see in a very long time. 3. In August I started my job as a resident ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Looking Back and Thinking Forward

Hello Friends and Family! It is that time of year again to make decisions and figure out what next year will look like except... those decisions have already been made for this year... praise God. In August I will be returning to Costa Rica to serve as the Female Student Life Director once again. This year has brought me great joy to serve and disciple students. This year, we have seen 5 of our students commit their lives to Christ and more than that make decisions to re-dedicate themselves to the Lord. In November, nine of our students were baptized. Every day I watch my students discover what it means to die to themselves and choose to live for Jesus instead and to choose to put the needs and desires of others before their own. It meant they needed to choose to serve in their ministries even when they were tired. It meant they they had to choose to work hard in Bible and Spanish classes to the glory of God. It meant that when they were uncomfortable they had to choose an atti...
2 comments
Read more