Learning Construction on the World Race: Building a House in Costa Rica!

Over the last four days, our gap C church had the opportunity to show God’s love through our actions by building a home for an old lady and her grandson in a nearby community!

When Rasta (he and his wife Elsie run the YWAM Puerto Viejo base) found out about them, this grandma and her grandson had been living in a tiny shack that flooded repeatedly when it rained. Eventually, she and her grandson were able to move to a tiny room inside of another person’s house, while they waited for the funds to be raised for a new place for them to live. Finally, the YWAM base here was able to raise enough funds to build the house for her, during our time here in Costa Rica.

Our squad was able to help construct a whole house for this little family. We never expected we would be doing this when we came to Costa Rica! It took several days of hard work, but we were able to finish everything yesterday, and then present it to the lady and her grandson! We all stood in a circle and had the opportunity to say a few words as we passed the keys around, ultimately handing them to her. It was so sweet for us to share a little bit of our hearts for her family as we gave her the keys to her new home!

I could share my personal struggles of going through this house building process, but what I actually want to do here in this space today is share an inspiring story of how we were able to tangibly impact someone’s life. I feel like it can be easy to know that we can’t help everyone, and therefore we don’t even try, because we don’t believe we can make a difference.

However, I hope this story helps bring hope and encouragement to your perspective. We might not be able to help everyone, but we *did* help this one family, and it meant the world for them. Even though it was difficult for many reasons, I truly feel that we have made a difference in the world, by making a difference in this family’s life.

I’d like to challenge you with this: are you letting the impossibility of helping everyone stop you from helping anyone? Maybe you could ask God to help grow your heart of compassion for others, and ask Him to show you how nothing you do for the least of these is fruitless. I think that’s something we could all grow in!