Christ gives us all new life through His love for us,
I am currently at month 1 debrief in Jaco, Costa Rica reflecting on this month, and everything that I’ve experienced. The list of things that are new here seems never ending, and sometimes it’s overwhelming to reflect on all the change, but it’s all life giving. I’m enjoying my time here, and I am so thankful to every person who has supported me to be able to do this journey.
Here’s a rundown of our ministry schedule!
Monday
ATL – Ask The Lord: We will take some time, pray and ask the Lord what He wants to do that day, and then we hit the streets! Spreading out across different parts of Costa Rica to go and pray for the sick, feed the hungry, and share the Father’s love with anyone and everyone!
Activation – We will spend a few hours in teachings learning more about following Jesus, as well as reflecting on what God did while we were out praying for people.
Tuesday
Skate Ministry – Tuesdays are our dedicated days for skate ministry! Our team of men head out in the mornings to the local skate park in a small province called Tirrases to spend time with our skater friends! This is one of my favorite ministry opportunities for many reasons. It is one of the most organic ministries, and it is just plain fun! I used to skate back at home so it’s a great feeling to get back on the board and challenge myself again!
Wednesday
Project Zion – Project Zion is a discipleship ministry where we do house visits, paint light poles and other things to clean up the community and bring Jesus’ light to some communities that struggle in many ways. I recently had the pleasure of making a house visit where 2 women accepted Christ as their savior. I lead a woman through a prayer, and after we were able to pray for their children who were very sick. The next week I came back, one of the babies we prayed over was completely healed!
Thursday
Project Abraham – On Thursdays we spend half of our day working at Project Abraham. Project Abraham is a beautiful community that has spent years building homes for single mothers, building schools, daycare’s, hospitals, and more for the community. Our ministry changes week to week, but it consists primarily of manual labor. We have spent days sanding walls at new homes being built for single mothers, we have cut down overgrown fields in the bush, burned unused wood in giant bonfires, and more. This is one of our more challenging ministries due to the amount of work it takes physically.
After Project Abraham we spend the rest of our day at skate ministry, so we are at the skate park at least 2 times a week!
(Photo of our incredible mentor Kevin doing an ollie! And a pic of Tirrases.)
Friday
Project Abraham – Fridays are also spent all day at Project Abraham! A full day of sweating, heavy lifting, and hard work!
(Some of the facilities we work around at Project Abraham) One of the most beautiful places I’ve honestly ever seen in my life!
Saturday
Adventure day – Saturdays are our days to spend doing whatever adventure we want! One of our most fun adventure days has been going to the Manuel Antonio National Park! It is such a beautiful jungle, and beach as well! We saw many animals, and God’s beauty right before our eyes!
Sunday
Sabbath – Sunday is our sabbath, our day of rest. We don’t do much of anything on Sunday. And that’s the point. Our lives are so busy, so full of stuff, we are constantly doing and never really being. So Sundays are our day to rest in the Lord’s presence, reflect on the week, and rest up for the next week of adventure!
So that is what our lives typically have been looking like on the World Race. I love it. It is challenging me in more ways than I’ve ever been challenged, but I am fully committed to this thing, and I will see God change my life, my squad mate’s lives, and the lives of those here in Costa Rica, Cambodia, Swaziland, and wherever else I go in this world.
After this month of hard work, and insane life change, we have spent a few days at month 1 debrief to process everything that’s been going on. We are in a small beach town called Jaco.
Thank you to everyone who has supported me to be on this journey. I could never thank you all enough. God is working through all of us to bring light to Costa Rica, and I am humbled to be in the position I am.
Thanks to all the parents of my squad mate’s who read my blogs, your sons and daughters are now my brothers and sisters, and I love them all to death. They are all amazing.
I am still fundraising to continue on this incredible journey. And if you would like to partner with me on this adventure, donations, sharing my posts, and kind words are some of the few things I need to be able to do this. Please consider supporting me, and thank you all so much!
Here’s to month 2.
Love you all, Sincerely Justin.
Justin, thanks for sharing the details of your week! It is amazing all the we can do to give glory to God and to serve him in one short week! I hope that your debrief time in Jaco has been peaceful and restful. I am excited to hear more about what God has in store for you in the weeks to come. Praying for you and Z squad daily! Love and hugs!
Hey Justin,
(Just FYI this is Jordan’s teammate Ethan from his Race, in case you were wondering. XD )
So cool to hear what your team has been doing on the field. Sounds like you’ve got some amazing ministries and that the Lord is doing amazing things there in and through you and your team.
I’m so glad you’re loving life and being challenged as well. The Lords got big things for you. You’ll be in my prayers. Keep being awesome.
Thank you so much Mrs. Jones! I am feeling well rested from debrief and ready to jump into month 2! Thank you for your kind words. God is going to do even more amazing things this month!
Thanks so much Ethan! I really appreciate your kind words. Month 2 is gonna be even more amazing than month 1 and we’re ready to get going. Jordan says hi by the way. (And that you’re an awesome guy)
So proud of you Justin. I know God is leading you to do great things for Him in your life. Love you, miss you, and praying for you. Grandma
I really appreciate how clear and effectively you communicate. You use these blogs in creative and efficient ways and I know God can use that as a tool to spread kingdom. Keep it up. I love the pictures and being walked through your week. You’re a really cool and intentional guy and thats so appreciated.
thanks for painting a clear picture of what your days have looked like! Also love all the photos! Can’t wait to join you in ministry and walk some of this journey with you!
Justin, me alegro que tu experiencia sea buena. Gracias por tu videos y fotos, me da una vision de todo lo que están haciendo. Como vas con tu español? Hoy comienzan ministerio de nuevo y oro aun mas impacto para la comunidad y que Dios se manifieste aun mas en tu vida. Bendiciones.
Promised I’d make you practice your Spanish 😉 Hope you can read it.
Love you so much grandma! Thank you for all your support and love!
Thank you Laree! We actually got to visit Manuel Antonio a couple weeks ago, it was incredible! It really humbles me to be able to see how amazing God’s creation is! Thank you so much for your prayers, I will be praying for you!!
Joe, thank you so much for taking the time to read my blogs! I truly appreciate you. We’ve heard so many great stories about you, and hear that you are doing amazing things at CGA! Keep up the great work brother!
Heck yeah Jenny! We are so glad to have you leading us, I hope you are having a fun time at the wedding!
This may be hard for you to read, but I’m going for it haha (no google translate)
Gracias Angela! Yo tengo un buen tiempo cuando yo leer su palabras!
Mi espanol es maso meno bien.
Dios tiene mucho trabaje por mi y mi amigos.
El es un buen padre!
Okay I know that was pretty rough, but I hope you understood it! I didn’t cheat at all, but that is probably obvious!
God is doing great things here, Tati is such an inspiration to not only the men on our squad, but everyone else! Her work ethic is amazing, and I am honored to be doing this adventure alongside her, and all of our other brothers and sisters. Thank you for your comment, I’ll keep practicing my spanish!
Justin, what a precious time this is for you and the other racers; to be able to so intensely focus on your relationship with the Lord, and then to minister to others so that you can introduce them to the Way, the Truth, and the Life! No coincidence that God gave you a love for skateboarding when you were younger, and that you are now ministering at a skate park. He has been preparing you for this for many years, and I’m sure this will become more apparent as the months go by. I love that your sabbath day is what it’s meant to be, a day of rest. I enjoyed this update so much; thank you for so many details! Prayers and God’s blessings!
Thank you so much Mrs. Stepp! You are spot on with the skateboarding comment, I am seeing so many old passions come back up, and I am able to use them towards ministry. And yes, I am learning to use my sabbath day in new ways that I find restful. I actually just spend my most recent Sunday morning with Jordan, Nicole, Madison, and Nathan playing basketball in Tirasses! It was such a good time, and however tiring, I found rest in it! God has been preparing all of us for this time for many years, and now is a great time to connect with Him, and learn more about being a brother, or sister in Christ to everyone around us.
Thanks for always reading my blogs! You’re the best, God bless! 🙂
I love reading about all of the things you are doing in Costa Rica!! I am not sure if you know this, but my parents have a home in Arenal Nueva so I have visited Costa Rica twice. I have been to Jaco, it is beautiful but Manual Antonio is my favorite, I have gotten to go there twice. I am so thankful that I have gotten to experience the beauty over there and happy that you are too!! Your ministry is making changes, I will pray that God continues to bless you and your team!