Mission Trip: Costa Rica

This past week was Global Impact Celebration (GIC) week at UUMC. This is a showcase and promotion of all UUMC-sponsored missionaries from all over the globe. They have invited many guest speakers for several occasions throughout the week. Ray Zierkel and his family are the official representatives from Costa Rica, but our mission team felt called on our own to bring El Centro Evangelical Methodist Church’s own Pastor Edgar and his wife Norma to San Antonio to be a part of the celebration.

We set up several opportunities for members of the team to introduce Pastor Edgar to other communities at UUMC. The first (that I know of) was a dinner at the church where 4 missionaries talked about their call to mission work and the plan that God has laid out in front of them. We organized ourselves to sit at, or around a table with Pastor Edgar and his wife so that we could re-introduce ourselves to him.

I was actually kind of nervous to meet him… almost like meeting a celebrity or pubic figure. I just couldn’t believe he was here in the States and actually here at UUMC! That experience in my life felt so far removed from my actual life that it now feels like a story… a great story. And I had never thought of it like that until one of the main characters of that story was making an appearance in my reality. The story was coming full circle.

On Sunday, Kandy and Carrie setup their Sunday school classes for Pastor Edgar to come and visit. (I would love for those that were there for either of these to comment below to let us know how those went.) For the entire team, along with Pastor Edgar and Norma, we arranged lunch on Sunday as an informal reunion and a chance to share our pictures and stories (and try to remember our Spanish). I was excited to introduce them to my wife and our first-born on the way. We got some group pictures and had a good time.

I was very impressed with the members of our team and the support of the church to coordinate Pastor Edgar and his wife to come visit. It solidified our connection to Pastor Edgar and the community of Los Guidos, and I do not doubt that we will be back to Costa Rica in some capacity as missionaries, but no longer as a bunch of first-timers.

-RB

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