Hi everyone, I am back writing again! I am always so encouraged by your blog comments, emails, & prayers and wanted to say Thank you!
For the past 11 days, we have been serving, learning, & following Pastor Basilio around a rural town called Nicoya. Last week our whole squad left Jaco & split up to serve around different towns in Costa Rica. Yesterday we all got back together and we are currently at the YWAM base in Puerto Viejo for 2.5 weeks. My team, Eden was together with another girls team called team Rooted. Each day looked very different & ministry was always spontaneous. Sometimes it looked like picking trash up on the ground, raking leaves, and cleaning up the church. Other days it looked like going door to door to evangelize, & to families’ houses to worship together. However, I would have to say the deepest impact left on my heart was our host, Pastor Basilio. Although the 11 days went by fast, I am beyond confident that his deep impact on each of our hearts will never cease. I thought at first it would be so hard to describe Pastor Basilio’s heart in words but as I was reading Galatians 5, the word of the Lord did it for me:
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” Galatians 5:22
Pastor Basilo was the first person I have ever seen consistently walk out each fruit of the spirit at the same time. He loved excessively & without any expectation back. The second day we were there he bought us a cake, hamburgers, french fries, and m&ms (food from the states) & threw us a fiesta to celebrate our arrival. His joy came as consistently as the sun rose through his humor & constant laughter. His peace when the time was flexible, and he was always interruptable was surpassing. His kindness translated across our two completely different languages. His patience was witnessed every morning whether it was through teaching us to make Gallo Pinto, tortillas, $ plantains or reassuring us everything was totally okay when we would mess up. His goodness was highlighted as the community around him confirmed his abundant character and opened their doors to him with blessings, juice, cookies, and hugs. His faithfulness to the Lord & vulnerability to allow his past mess become his message encouraged us daily. His gentleness in scheduling time for us to rest in the Lord daily was comforting, & his self-control to be slow to speak, quick to listen, & slow to anger was inspiring. I genuinely thought this man was an angel, but the reality was he was just like us, a broken human who simply allowed the Lord to mold his heart into a new & beautiful creation.
Pastor Basilio had a very rough past: his parents separated, he grew up in gangs, drugs, darkness, violence, & had no hope. His life was messy & his heart was lost, but through the Lord’s grace, his mess became a message to the whole community of Nicoya, & to us 10 girls who got to see a glimpse into his heart. How beautiful it is to be vulnerable & admit we are in desperate need of a Savior. Once we recognize how broken we are through daily communion the His light begins to reflect off our shattered pieces. When we realize our own light is too dim to shine alone, the Lord’s incomprehensible ability to shed light to the darkness & redeem the broken is illuminated. Let Pastor Basilio’s life & the Lord’s illumination be motivation to invite the Lord to shine through your weaknesses.
I know you will never know this man but I pray as you take a moment to learn & read about his character it inspires you to love others with a similar love. To not make excuses because of your past. To allow the Lord to shine light into areas of darkness you believe no one could ever know. The truth is so many of us are struggling & it only takes one person to step into vulnerability with their own struggles knowing their identity is redeemed to help change generations of sin habits. Let this be your encouragement today to start testifying about the brokenness so that God’s glory can be highlighted. To stop allowing your past to excuse your sacred calling & to love every single person each day without partiality, excessively, & as consistently as the sun rises. I encourage you today to fix your eyes on the Lord’s way of life & to choose to rest in his abundance, then share that abundance with everyone you meet.
Through Pastor Basilio’s example of love, my desire to love others similarly has grown & I pray this small glimpse encourages you to seek opportunities to love as Jesus does today & every day. You were placed where you are for a purpose, ask the Lord what that purpose is, then follow it. Love is simple & abundant when we take ourselves out of the equation & realize all we have to do is follow Jesus’s example.
Fix our eyes on the Lord, listen to His whisper, let His power be made perfect through our weakness, & learn from Him. I promise you He will teach you first hand & place people in your path who are also in desperate need of the Father’s love.
I may never see Pastor Basilio again but I know I will never forget him, & I am expectant, beyond excited, & getting ready to have a million more fiestas with him in heaven.
In Christ’s love, Emily.
