“The Costa Rica mission was a cool trip and it was my first foreign mission trip. It was kind of how I expected it would be work-wise, but there was more fun tourism stuff than I thought we would have time for. That was nice, but honestly even the work was fun. 

Mostly what I did was dig holes. That sounds boring but weirdly I enjoy digging holes. It wasn’t too hard or messy, and it was important. This was prepatory work for construction of a hamburger stand, which may be a way for the Palabra Viva church to make money in the future. 

There were challenges on the trip. The airline lost my luggage! That made me a little bit anxious, though fortunately I read the packing instructions that the mission leaders gave us so I had a full set of clothes in my backpack! And my bag came the next day. I wasn’t too worried—so maybe that was a sign of a spiritual gift?

My favorite thing to do in Costa Rica was driving in the bus and seeing cool sites like mountains and hills and jungle and the beauty of Costa Rica. It is a very pretty place. The volcano and surrounding valleys gave me a sense of awe. It’s the beauty of creation.

I guess the thing that I learned that I didn’t appreciate before is that Galilee has been going to Costa Rica for a long time. Our first mission there was in 2006, so some of our team members and some of the church members there have develped genuine, deep relationships. That is wonderful and it shows that the impact of our mission is way more than the physical labor we are doing.”

• Galilee missioner Winston Smith

Read more about: Costa Rica 2023