By Mariluz Orellana
A Vida220 Student – Buenos Aires Team
Talking about Jesus to others is, at times, something not so easy to do, except when you talk about it with kids. Kids are always so genuine and innocent, and so fun to be around. Our Vida220 team leads a kids club each Sunday afternoon at a “Campo blanco” in Parcelas de Ceibo, near our house here in Costa Rica. The first Sunday we went, the kids were so excited to get to know us.
That day, one of the girls asked Emilee if she knew one of her family members who lives in the States. Emilee couldn’t understand her very well and replied, “Si”. I had to explain to her after what the girl was asking, and we all ended up laughing. Language barriers can be super intimidating but with kids, they just want to get to know you and be your friend. Then before you know it, what you thought was a gigantic problem, doesn’t really matter anymore.
That first day, we talked about Zacchaeus and how this short man wanted to know Jesus so much that he even climbed a tree to do so. We acted out the whole story for them, and they enjoyed it so much. We played a few games, introduced them to some fun songs like “Cristo es mi Superheroe”, “Padre Abraham” and we danced, jumped, and colored pictures that illustrated Zacchaeus’ life. It was a seemingly normal kids club.
However, something that caught our attention is that when we asked the kids about the most common Bible stories, they didn’t know any of them. So, we decided that the next Sunday, we were going to start with Jesus’ life and move on from there. It was then that we knew we were here for a reason. It wasn’t just something to do Sunday afternoons to fill our time but God had us here in the perfect position to share the gospel with these kids. We could share the love of Jesus in a way for them to understand. Now every Sunday, we teach them about Bible stories in a fun way, play with them, and share a snack with them. The kids seem to enjoy everything that we do with them.
We are so incredibly grateful to God for using us to teach the Bible and Jesus’ life. He is using these moments to then teach us how to love like Jesus loved. He is also confirming that we are exactly where He wants us, in a perfect place to give Him the glory.
God is doing amazing things in this community through its children, but we have a special prayer request: since the community of Parcelas de Ceibo is such a small place, there is no sanctuary for the church. This first week of February was supposed to be spent building the sanctuary, but we just found out that the donor was no longer available to give the church the donation for the construction. So please pray with us for the construction of the sanctuary in that community and for someone to take the position of lead pastor at the church. Thank you so much for your prayers and support for our team!