What comes to mind when you hear “Costa Rica”? Maybe beautiful beaches and waterfalls, vacation spots and resorts. Why would you go on a mission’s trip to a place like that? This is a question I have heard asked and pondered myself.

Before arriving in Costa Rica, I thought; I am sure there is so much more to Costa Rica than the touristy spots and I was eager to serve the communities we forget exist because only the touristy places are recognized in magazines and advertisements. But when I arrived in the town of Puerto Viejo the place we were to do ministry in for the next three months, I didn’t see a forgotten community in the rural regions of Costa Rica. I was indeed in a tourist town, with all the souvenir shops and restaurants for people all around the world to come and enjoy. Beautiful beaches and advertisements for jungle tours and exotic activities.

Why would we go on a mission’s trip to a place like this? What about the unreached people groups, the villages, and less fortunate people? In the last month of being here in Puerto Viejo I know exactly why God asked us to be here in Puerto Viejo, a beautiful beach town on the coast of Costa Rica. Why? Because the people that come to Puerto Viejo are searching. Searching for something more but in all the wrong places. It is not uncommon to be offered weed as you walk through town or along the beach, there are bars on every corner, people are seeking happiness and fulfillment in the laid back “chill” atmosphere of Puerto Viejo. In the “energies” and “spirits” of nature. God is giving us an opportunity to be a light to the nations by sharing the love and fulfillment found only in Jesus Christ to the individuals who come seeking for more in Puerto Viejo.We are on a mission’s trip to a touristy place like Puerto Viejo because the people are searching, and we have the answer to their searching. A savior who redeems each of us and welcomes us into his family with Love and Grace. Praise the Lord!

Puerto Viejo is an attractive touristy town but behind the cute cafes, shops, and beautiful beaches there is a very heavy presence of lost people. So heavy that you can feel it when you enter the town, the spiritual warfare and need for God’s love is obvious. Thanks God, for bringing us to a place like this, filled with ministry opportunities among people who do not even know they are searching for God.

A disclaimer: we are also doing ministry in the small, rural, less fortunate communities that are easily forgotten and just twenty minutes outside of towns like Puerto Viejo. The need there for the gospel is just as heavy as that of Puerto Viejo. Ministering to these communities looks different, feels different, and the need is different. I am blessed to have the opportunity to minister in a place like Puerto Viejo which we would not at first glance think of as a mission field with such a big need for the gospel as well as minister in smaller communities that fit the stereotype of places people go to do missions.