I have a guy in Costa Rica. That’s kind of a fun thing to say, right? Well, you’re going to get to say it too.
I’ve been talking with Drew Boggs. He is my guy in Costa Rica. He is in Costa Rica because he is helping do mission work in that area. Drew is originally from Nebraska and went to the same undergraduate institution that I did (Concordia University – Nebraska). He graduated and got connected with Mission of Christ Network, an LCMS affiliated mission sending organization. They connected him with a need in Costa Rica.
Drew spends most of his time ministering to people that are connected to a local high school. To hear him talk about it, the biggest challenge that you’ll see in the high school (and maybe throughout Central America) is that people will identify with the Church, but the relationship there is cold and formal. Most people don’t see Jesus actually at work in their lives, forgiving their sins and leading them to new life. Instead, Jesus is just something they identify with, a like a zip code. It’s where I live, not who I am.
University Lutheran is developing a relationship with Drew. We want to show what he is doing in Costa Rica. Why does that matter? Well, because what Drew does actually has application for us here in Tallahassee. The crazy thing about having a guy in Costa Rica is that you learn that his challenges sharing the Gospel may not be that different from ours.
Drew gets to do what he does in Costa Rica, but we get to do what he does right here in Tallahassee. Drew isn’t setting up a soapbox in the middle of town and preaching to people that don’t want to hear him. That wouldn’t work in Costa Rica and it doesn’t work here. Instead, Drew is making relationships with people. He’s showing them that God loves them, and because God loves them, we want to be like God and love them too.
Could you do what Drew did? Go to some far flung country and learn a new language and culture? That might be quite the adventure, and it might be where God is pulling you. But maybe before you think about that, you can think about how you could connect with the people around you in gentle but beautiful ways that show Jesus at work right here in Tallahassee.
You have a guy in Costa Rica. His name is Drew. But Drew has us here in Tallahassee. Let’s show him how we minister to people here as he shows us how he ministers to people there.