Where's Mary?

My travel companions were wonderful. They made me laugh and we cried together. Mary is fluent in Spanish...the rest of us...not so much. So, we said at least 50 times during the trip, "Where's Mary?" (even in this picture, one of the three of us asked the question as someone was taking the picture). 99% of the time we were asking, she was off ministering to someone...getting their story and sharing her heart. It was wonderful. That's what we went to do. The call was to "visit orphans", but Mary found all kinds of ministry opportunities. The owner of the hotel, the night guard at the hotel, the man in the city who knew her name because she forgot to take off her nametag, the woman at the skate park who was experiencing incredibly difficult relationship problems, the store owner as we were trying to quickly shop for souveneirs...Mary was always there. She was in the midst of the people...in the midst of the hurt, sharing God's love. As a friend, oh I am so proud of her. I know that the Lord is smiling at her obedience. She gave everything she had to give when she went to Costa Rica. She poured out all that she had to offer. That's why we found her this house. We offered to pack up Mike and the kids and send them down, because Mary is at home in this country.


The trip would not have been the same without Mary. She made us laugh all the time just because she was so comfortable there. Every time we said, "Where's Mary?", we would just giggle like little school girls. By the end of the trip, the whole team was saying, "Where's Mary?" and laughing because we knew exactly where she was....she was listening to someone's story. She was being the hands and feet of Christ and doing it well!